Windows Vista - 7 Reasons to Upgrade XP

After years of waiting, Microsoft Windows Vista has finally arrived. Although this article will cover reasons to switch over to Vista, it would be wise to consider waiting till your ready to upgrade your hardware or buy a new PC (please see my other article on Vista, right here on associated content). I say this partly because Microsoft is already planning a Service Pack 1 upgrade for Vista sometime later this year. Now on to the 7 reasons why you will want to upgrade your Windows XP OS.

New Interface.... Vista comes with a brand new interface, that will make this version the best looking Windows yet. From a new start menu, to transparent animated windows, new elegant colors, and a bunch of additional changes, it is sure to be the most beautiful looking one ever. If you have ever seen a Mac, you'll think Bill Gates told his programmers to copy it.

Live Thumbnails.... For those of you who like to multi-task, have a bunch of web pages open at the same time or use multiple programs simultaneously, your life is about to become easier. With Live Thumbnails you can hover the mouse over any window on the taskbar, and a little thumbnail of that window will come up. You'll see the program, the website or document name right above the thumbnail. They call it live, because if your watching a video in that window, it will be playing in the thumbnail too. Pretty Cool!

3D Windows.... Gone are the frustrations of switching between windows on XP. No more of that Alt-Tab, which window will I get syndrome! Instead of that old guessing game, now you'll see all those windows in a 3D stack. With Vista press Alt-Tab and Windows 3D goes into action. You'll see a display of thumbnails with all those open windows stacked up in 3D. With this feature, you'll now be able to flip through them one by one till you find the one you want. That alone might make Vista worth it!

Security, Security and More Security.... One of the biggest problems with all previous versions of Windows. Microsoft has finally beefed up the security in Windows. Vista has better protection in all levels. Starting with a 2-way firewall. You'll now be protected inbound and outbound. Vista will also handle spyware better with Windows Defender. If you prefer Explorer over Firefox for a web browser, it now has an anti-phishing filter to keep you secure from scams. Many of the security flaws in Internet Explorer have been plugged. The upgraded browser now functions in what Microsoft calls a protected mode, which aims to protect all your files from being hacked. Also in the Ultimate and Business versions of Vista, they have included automatic drive encryption along with other security options.

Lightning Fast Search.... No more waiting 5 minutes searching for a file that's never found! Are you one of those persons who stores files all over the place, and then you never remember where you put them? Well if that sounds like you, waiting for the Service Pack 1 Vista upgrade before upgrading may be impossible! Vista has an entirely new search technology built in. You'll find the search feature on the start menu, windows explorer, and almost everywhere you look. It will return results lightning fast, it even starts searching as soon as your fingers start typing. Unlike in the past with XP, Vista offers a much more advanced search feature. You can now search by date, file size, author, tags and even location. Heck, you can even do Boolean searching. Vista will even allow the user to save those searches for future reference.

Improved Wireless Networking.... If you got a wireless system set up at the house, you'll like the way Vista works with it. Not only will you be able to find wireless networks easier, they'll be more secure and be easier to manage. If you connect to a wireless hotspot with a laptop, Vista will automatically kick in security precautions to protect your files.

Desktop Gadgets.... If you like to have those neat little gadgets on your desktop, you are going to love Vista. Your new OS comes complete with some nifty software, that will let you set up that desktop like never before. See the weather forecast, stock quotes, RSS feeds, your e-mail inbox status, your PC performance and a whole bunch more! Many of these items come pre-loaded on Vista. And if that's not enough, you can download a ton more free!

These are just some of the reasons why Vista will be in your future soon. Although Vista appears to be the best Windows OS to come, it might be worth waiting till you replace your current PC, or until you are going to upgrade some hardware on your current machine. Vista will require some upgrades for most people. It will be cheaper to get it pre-installed in a new PC. Oh Yeah, there is that Service Pack 1 update that will be coming later this year to consider. But no matter when you get it, from the looks of things, it will be worth it!