Consultant

As a business, you have a few choices when it comes to Vista. The prices vary from $120 to about $600 for the Ultimate edition.

Now that Vista is available with its really advanced characteristics,each small business starts to wonder which version is more suitable and beneficial and when to change its computer operating system. For small firms, as well as bigger ones, Windows Vista is a new generation computer operating system that offers four versions: Home Basic, HomePremium, Business and Ultimate. There are a few other versions of Vista that are rather more specific. The version Starter, for example, is an affordable basic version that is more appropriate for the markets of very advanced countries. Another system is Enterprise, which unlike theothers requires an IT department in the company.

A firm made up of just a few people that doesn’t have really advanced computer needs can use the Home Basic version. This is the cheapest version of Windows Vista – About $120 for an upgrade to Home Basic from XP/2000 or with the purchase of a new computer (OEM Version). If you would like to purchase it separately, it costs about $180. The version is appropriate for e-mails, internet, and creation of files.

Like all other versions of Windows Vista, Home Basic has just as good levels of security. It has a firewall, which blocks incoming and outgoing computer threats. It is more advanced and secure compared toWindows XP, which only blocks incoming threats and does not control the traffic generated by computer viruses, which have the ability to send virus infected e-mails from your entire address book. Home Basic also features the security devise Windows Defender, which is very advanced anti-virus and spyware program.

A fundamental advantage of Home Basic is its sophisticated search tools. Compared to the slow search engines of XP, Vista utilizes the newest and fastest technology for this purpose. When you type in a word for a specific document or the data of a certain picture, a list of all available files will appear instantaneously. Also, you will have access to these search tools from each window that you open on your desktop. All search attempts will be saved, in case you decide to utilize the searched files sometime in the future.

However, Home Basic has one disadvantage that can convince the small companies to turn to Home Premium. All versions of Vista, excluding Home Basic, utilize the interface Windows Aero. This recent introduction to Vista allows its users to find their way around the computer operating system through animated three-dimensional images on each open program or file. You can even leaf through them quickly intheir 3D form.

Home Premium, whose price on the market ranges from $270 as new and $170 as an upgrade to an old computer operating system has another characteristic that makes it more preferable over Home Basic for companies with certain graphical needs. It features Windows Media Center, which edits pictures and video files and has the ability to quickly organize large numbers of audio and visual files. Also, Home Premium is distinguished from Home Basic with its simple synchronization and sharing of files between laptop and desktop, as well as better management of wireless settings and security parameters.

Home Premium, however, can turn into a disadvantage to the small business with its multiple graphics and media characteristics that canserve as a distraction to employees. After all, which employer would like to see his or her workers utilize the computer operating system for a more convenient mp3 or video download?

The third option of Vista for the small firms is Business. It appearsto be the most obvious choice of Vista for businesses. If the firm consists of more than a few people, it would be a more appropriate decision to reach for a version beyond the home version. Vista Business has all characteristics of Home Premium, except that it doesn’t feature the Windows Media Center, which of course is good news for the boss of the company.

Just like the home version, Vista Business features the sophisticated search tools and anti-virus and spyware programs. It also sends warning messages to the user, whenever there is a threat to the hardware. A few other positive characteristics of Business are “backup” (preservation of information) and more advanced network settings. For larger companies, this specific computer operating system can be downloaded as a system “image”, which is quicker compared to copying each file fromthe CD. This characteristic makes Vista Business more efficient and rather beneficial, especially if you have more than 100 computers in your company that require a Vista Business upgrade. With regards to this, Vista Business features improved security and control over file access, unlike XP, that offers clients ability to prevent their employees from accessing prohibited files.

In addition to all of these characteristics, Vista Business also includes Small Business Resources – helpful tools for computer maintenance that can easily be utilized by the management of the firm,with no need of an IT staff. The price of the full version of Vista Business is approximately $400. For an upgrade of an older computer operating system, it costs about $200.

The fourth option of the small company is Vista Ultimate.This Vista version is an incredible mixture of the other three. It contains all of their applications as well as some characteristics of Windows Vista Enterprise. For example, BitBlocker allows encryption of the hard drive, so that in case of theft, the information in it would not be accessible. Vista Ultimate costs approximately $600 and its update about $300.

Because of its high price, it is rather unlikely that this version of Vista will be utilized much by small companies. An exception to the fact would be when computer presentations need to be executed in the conference room. Vista Ultimate is a useful version for such occasions.

The Windows Vista market also features the versions Home Basic N and Business N that are almost identical to Vista Ultimate. The only difference is that certain components of Vista Ultimate have been removed from these other versions because of monopoly considerations, such as WindowsMedia Player 11 and Windows Movie Maker.

Of course, a fifth option for a small firm is to leave its Windows XPcomputer operating system. If the company performs well with XP, then there is no rush to upgrade to Vista. Each decision regarding technology advances needs to be analyzed as a cost and benefit. If XP works well, for it is designed to work rather adequately and not deteremployees from their daily tasks, then XP is a great option for a small business.

According to a recent IDC study, 400 million people around the world will switch to Vista by the end of 2008. Then, a lot of other people will be forced to switch from XP to Vista because problems with the applications. Many programs and applications will begin to have characteristics only for Vista and would have trouble working with XP.As new and better versions of Vista develop in the next few years, most of their characteristics would be only for Vista use. Also, the developers of security software create products that work best withWindows Vista rather than XP.

In conclusion, a good advice for a small company with only a few computers is to approach the Vista change more conservatively. It is agood idea to wait and observe how the new operating system is adopted in the years to come. Many small firms interviewed by IDC pronounced that they will most likely adopt Windows Vista only when the need comes for replacement of their computers and not any sooner. The reasons for their decision are clear: as of yet, Vista doesn’t have the only one of its kind function without which the small business cannot possibly work. The overall advantage of Vista is that it performs more tasks than XP and is more efficient, but not to the extent to which it becomes the type “it must be bought right away”. The decision to switch to Vista depends also on the hardware. If the computers in the office are three or four years old and already generate problems, then maybe it is time for the company to switch to Vista and upgrade its hardware equipment.