A blissful start (^ ^)

DELL inspiron 1420
Windows Vista(TM) Home Basic
Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo
CPU T5850 @ 2.16 GHz
3.00 GB RAM
Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family
Computer Name: HUSNAHUDA-PC

Many things has to install all over again because we has switched it from Windows XP to Vista.

Why Vista?

Microsoft has sold over 100million licenses of Vista since the introduction of operating system last February. Besides, this number supposedly well distributed around the world. We wanted to find out why so many people hesitate to buy Vista and hence, we conducted an online survey.

"My current programs won't run since they are incompatible with Vista," dreaded about 22 percent of those surveyed.

They are not completely wrong in their assertion. Even with an installed XP emulator, some programs refused to operate in Vista.

More than a year after Vista's release, frustrated users feel that they have been unknowingly tangled in a beta test of incomplete software. Service Pack 1 (SP1) seems to provide relief to the disgruntled. Microsoft hopes that the release of SP1 will make Vista a full-fledged operating system.

SP1?

Improvements brought are not really a new feature; it's often just a simple bugfix. All the same, one can say with a clear conscience that it's now safe to upgrade. Vista was inheritely safe and stable, but with Service Pack 1, Microsoft has now improved the performance and repaired annoying errors and memory leaks in the system. Vista is also assured of a good future with the support of new technologies like EFI-BIOS and exFAT.

Performance: Vista is much faster with SP1. Microsoft still asserts that an 800MHz PC with 512MB RAM and a DirectX 9 graphics card should be enough to run the system smoothly. In practice however, it turns out that Vista performs best only on the latest CPUs with dual-core technology and a minimum of 1GB RAM. Still there are performance problems even with fast computers: music crackles, power consumption on notebooks is extremely high, and it still takes ages for Vista to launch. recource sparing, stability and faster operations are still the mainstays of the proven success of Windows XP. Microsoft has, however, improved considerably with the service pack.

1. Copying faster: with SP1>> 18% higher while copying locally and 33% higher over the network.
2. Enjoying music without interfere.
3. New appearence: astonishing syle of windows and start bar.
4. Notebooks holdout longer.

Security: Better protection against viruses & heckers. But improvements only benefit corporate customers.
1. Encypting data.
2. Better updates.
3. Reliable info.

Reliability: Windows crashes less with SP1.
1. Lesser data loss.
2. Better drivers.
3. Support for new hardware: also for new exFAT file system and upcoming SD cards with SD ADMA (advanced DMA)

- dipetik dari CHIP MALAYSIA, edisi 15, May 2008.