Viva La Vista ... (MS Windows Vista Home Premium)

Member Name: Shaaza

Product:	MS Windows Vista Home Premium
Date:	02/10/07 (348 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Tight security new entertaining games, Fast search

Disadvantages: annoying when it always asks you if it should proceed into opening the programme you want it to open

Before you even read further you need to know that Vista is the most amazing software that Microsoft has ever published. It is just amazing and after you finish reading the review you must think the same as well.
I actually learnt about Vista before it was published in the shops because I work in one of the biggest electronic shops (I won’t say which one), so basically they wanted me to know all about Vista in case if the customers came in and asked me.

I got windows Vista with my new Advent Laptop which I bought in September 2007. My Laptop did come with Windows Vista Premium because it has a 2GB which is the best memory on RAM you should mainly have when you want Windows Vista Home Premium on you computer or laptop. You computer or laptop will still come with Windows Vista Home premium when it has 1GB of RAM. I don’t know if you can actually buy a computer without Vista Home Premium or Home basic unless if you buy it as second hand possibly.
I am not actually saying there is something wrong with 1GB of RAM but because Windows Vista Home premium takes up a lot of space on your RAM it basically means you can not upload a lot of software onto your computer in the future.

Windows Vista Home Premium actually has a feature which helps you not to worry about this situation were you have to delete some software because you have used up your entire RAM. It has a feature which they call Ready Boost. The feature basically lets you use you pen drive (USB saver) or you mp3 player as the RAM which is rather amazing. When you insert the pen drive it will ask you either you want to open the pen drive to view files or if you want to use it as Ready Boost.
This helps your computer to work even faster than before. Just make sure that the pen drive or mp3 player has lots of memory on it.
I have only used this feature once though I don’t really have to use it yet as I have not uploaded a lot of software onto my laptop yet


----------WINDOWS MEDIA CENTRE:

This is a peaceful place to be when you want that alone time with you music, recorded TV programmes, pictures or movies. This is basically the place were all the media in your computer is gathered together no matter which folder you saved it in.
The navigation of this feature is very easy, you just launch it from the start menu and boom it comes up and there is an arrow you just click to navigate the main topics which are basically online media, music, TV + Movies, Tasks, Picture and Videos.
Windows Media centre is something you have never seen before if you have not used Windows Vista Premium before. You really just have to try out to really understand how it feels.
For example if you click on the Picture menu the graphics of the pictures looks amazing and if you move the curse on top of the pictures they will zoom in very fast which is amazing. You can watch a slideshow and listen to the music at the same time as well.
Windows movie maker also upload CD cases of all the music you down load or transfer on you computer. If it can not find information about a certain song it will alert you. This feature only works when you are using the internet of course. Don’t worry though because if you transfer song onto your computer it will search for the CD info next time you connect to the internet.

----------3D DESKTOP

The Windows Vista Home premium 3D Desktop is beyond extra ordinary. Basically you have to click “Switch between windows” icon and all the windows that are active in that moment in time will all open in a straight 3D format so that you can view all of them. When you click on one of the windows it will zoom in very fast.


----------SECURITY

Forget about windows XP limited accounts or admin account. Windows Vista Home Premium brings you the real deal (security). If you are a parent with lots of Kids who use the computer then you are going to love the options that windows vista home premium offers you.

--Parental Control

This is the feature that makes the person in charge of the computer feel like they are in charge for real.
First of all you need to know that before you start using parental controls you actually have to create an extra account not including an admin account of course because you can not set parental controls on admin accounts.
Once you have created the extra account that is when you chose the parental control option which basically lets you control that account by setting the time that can be logged onto that account, which works if you don not want those kids or anyone to log onto the computer when you are sleeping or busy, or when no one informs you that they are going to stay on the computer for hours which isn’t healthy for the person and the computer its self.
It has a report check which lets you see the websites and programmes the user has been running. If you do not like some of the websites that the user has been viewing you can add them to block list which basically means they won’t be able to access that web page in the future unless you unblock the web page for them. You can also chose to only allow a certain websites that basically means for example, if you set that only three certain web pages can be viewed it means that the user won’t have access to the rest of the internet websites.
With parental controls you can also chose which games your children can play or any other user who is going to be using your computer.
Another thing is you can also limit their access to any of the programmes that are already installed on the computer e.g. you can block them from using windows media player, Microsoft word, excel, power point documents etc.

---Windows firewall and Windows defender
Like any other computer windows vista premium does come with a firewall. This helps to protect you computer from hackers who might try to control you computer etc. it is crucial that you keep it turned on whilst using the internet because you never know whose around the corner.
The windows defender works the same but it always lets you know if something is trying to access a different programme. Whenever you try to open a programme it asks you if it should continue because it might not be you opening that document.


----------WINDOWS MOVIE MAKER

This is a feature which lets you edit or make a movie. It is way different than XP’s movie maker. Windows Vista Home Premium movie maker has new effects, transitions and title animations. The most amazing thing about the movie maker is that you can create your movies in an HD format which is rather amazing if you ask me.


----------DIRECT X:

This is the feature that you need on your computer to let you use all the multi media contents that are on you computer (gives you better sound, make 3D and 2D contents, better game graphics and movement etc). I am sure sometimes when you try to download something off the internet using windows XP it sometimes tells you to download Direct X. Guess what?? With windows Vista Home premium it comes already installed for you, so you do not have to worry about it.
There are different types of Direct X and windows vista Premium comes with Direct X 10 which is the new version out at the moment.


----------GAMES:

If you think Windows XP games are the best then you might change your mind if you see the games that come with Windows Vista Home Premium. The graphics of the games are just amazing and when you play games like Spider Solitaire, Free cell, Hearts and Spider Solitaire you do not have to double click the cards. If you click them once they do the action quicker than ever. Not forgetting Minesweeper because it is still available with Windows Vista Home Premium.
Games like Pinball, Internet hearts, Internet solitaire etc won’t exist anymore except for the popular games which I have already mentioned.
The new games you actually get with Windows Vista Premium or Ultimate are:

Chess Titans-- Oh My days I have never seen chess played on a board that Vista Home Premium Provides. The chess Game is in 3D Format which looks amazing. If you do not know how to play chess then this is you chance to learn how to play. When you click on the piece of chess that you want to move it will basically show you all the possible moves you can make with that piece of chess at that moment in time.
To be honest that is exactly how I learnt to play chess, I used to have a chess game which showed me the moves I could make and I learnt from that, now I don’t need any guidance when I play chess.

Mahjong Titans – I am sure this game has been around for ages but the first time I played it was when I got my new laptop. It is a fascinating game that is pretty much addictive once you start playing it. You basically play it by matching two icons with the same picture or symbol on them and they will disappear. You will keep doing that until all the icons are gone, you do need to be careful about which icons you vanish though or you could get stuck or it could be Game Over for you! If you get stuck don’t worry though because the game has a cheating button which you click and it will show you a move.


Ink ball—this is a childish game to be honest but it is quite entertaining. It is basically a game of two coloured balls and you have to try and get each ball in the right hole by directing it with an ink pen. The grey ball can however enter into any hole which makes it all easy.

Purble Palace – Another childish game that is quite educational for little kids really. I think the game is designed to help children recognise different types of shapes. You basically have to try to make different types of cakes which are different shaped. It also helps the kids to recognise colours as some of the games you have to try and select the matching colours with the shapes provided.

With the game options you can also chose to either turn on or off the game sounds, you can also chose to activate the guide notes which helps you through out the games if you make any mistake it will tell you the mistake you have made etc.
You can also chose to save all of your games to continue them later when you have time.
You can also view game ratings (more like movie ratings) which tell you the content involved in the games. Basically if you don’t want your kids to know a lot off violence you can block all the games that contain violence.




----------SEARCH

This is one of the Best parts of Vista home premium. Like Windows XP, Windows Vista Home premium does come with its own search engine which basically searches around the whole computer for every programme, document or application that matches you word (s). The difference between XP’s search engine and Windows Vista Home Premium’s is that Windows Vista Home Premium Is very fast in giving you back the results rather than XP, as XP takes at least a minute to finish searching. With Windows Vista Home Premium, starts searching automatically once you type out one letter which is rather amazing if I may say because it saves you time.
It’s actually a good feature for people like me who gets annoyed to quickly, because with XP you search sometimes but it gives you back the wrong results after it has spent two minutes searching the whole computer.
Where is this search engine on Windows Vista Premium? Well when you click the Windows Vista “Start” icon which is on the left bottom corner of the whole desktop, it will open and the first thing you will see when looking from the bottom will be the search engine which is a little white box.


----------EXTRA FEATURES

---The speech recognition is again one of the most interesting features that come with windows vista home premium. You can find this feature in the control panel; keep reading the icons till you find the one that says ‘speech recognition’. What does it do? Well instead of using your mouse or keyboard to control your computer, your voice would be used to control everything you do. All you have to do is speak and it will automatically do what you say. Isn’t that just amazing?? I love the feature because it means I can be lazy and lay back and just speak to my laptop.
If you are a disabled person with no hands then this is the feature for you as well because you don’t have to use your hands but your voice.
The feature is just more than amazing, you can also open a word document, instead of typing out your essay you can just shout out the word and the computer will type them out for you.
I have used this feature a lot since I bout my laptop and I find it very helpful. There is also a tutorial programme which teaches you how to use this programme. The programme teaches you the words that the computer already knows; it also helps you to teach the computer new words and actions.
You definitely have to try out this feature because it is an experience of a lifetime.

---Just like the speech recognition it also has a text speech which basically means that if you move the curse on top of any word on your computer, it would be read out to you. I find it quite annoying really so I have disabled this feature on my laptop, but it could be helpful to those people who can’t see properly what the word says possibly because their eyesight is not that good and it also helps your children to learn and to pronounce the word correctly. You can find this option in the control panel menu, you just have to click the icon and then click activate and off you go.

---Windows mail is more like outlook express but is better in many ways. I don’t really use it a lot but it is easy to set up and it organisers you e-mails very neatly.

---Windows address book is now way different; you can now add pictures to all your contacts that you save on your computer.


----------NOTE:

---To upgrade you computer to Windows Vista Home Premium you need at least 1GB of RAM on your computer. The bigger the RAM the better, on that note you should also know that if you computer has 512MB of RAM you can only get Windows Vista Home Basic, which has the most limited features (windows defender, windows firewall, instant search, windows internet explorer 7).
---I recommend that you should just buy a new computer rather than buying Vista Home premium on its own as it is quite expensive on its own. It costs £149 on its own. However if you buy it from online shops you could get it cheaper.
---You can buy Vista Home Premium in PC World, Comet, Argos, Amazon, Currys, and Dixons etc.
---If you can not see the menu bar it is basically because it is turned off. This is for the reason that with Windows Vista Home premium you can chose to view the menu bar (file, edit view, tools etc), to turn it on you just press ATL and off you go.
---You can only have windows live messenger not any other types of msn e.g. msn 7.0, 7.5 etc. (yes you can still use yahoo, AOL, Google messenger etc)
---Windows Vista is way faster than windows XP, ME etc. You only have to click a document once and boom it opens on a blink of an eye. Windows Vista is very straight and has no complications, of course the more you use it the more you are going to get used to it.

I recommend everyone to buy Windows vista Home premium or a new computer which already has vista installed on them. It’s for people who want to try out something new and technological in their life. Believe me, you will not regret it

Summary: New features in the world of technology that you have to try out for real!

Variety of features:
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