The launch of Vista only is for businesses that have purchased multiple Windows licenses. Retail customers will have to wait until Jan. 30.
Vista boats translucent windows to make viewing the desktop easier and other user interface enhancements, improved search capabilities, data protection and recovery, and better security to protect against viruses, phishing attempts and other malware.
“It’s an exciting thing to finally be here,” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said at a presentation in New York. “This is the biggest launch in our company’s history, that’s for sure. Giving people better tools to do their job is a bigger job than ever before. I think we really have the most comprehensive lineup our company has ever put in place.”
Microsoft contends that the updated security features that are proprietary to Vista will make computers more secure, powerful and less vulnerable to malicious attacks.
Analysts are predicting a slower than expected integration for businesses to upgrade to Vista from Windows XP because of the cost and potential complications. Corporate software applications must be tested extensively before any OS switch, likely delaying large-scale deployment.
Gartner Dataquest’s Michael Silver predicts it will be another four years before Vista outnumbers XP on business computers. Silver expects a 12 to 18 month period before businesses begin to upgrade.
Microsoft’s Office suite of software also sees upgraded functionality to many of its components. According to Ballmer, Word, Outlook, Excel and PowerPoint have better built-in functionality for people to collaborate on documents and to manage information from many sources across multiple PCs.
Excel, in particular, is said to sport improved mathematical processes, while Outlook email is faster.
