Compare editions: Windows Vista Home Premium

Windows Vista Home Premium

Easier

Get things done more easily and intuitively

The first thing you'll notice about Windows Vista Home Premium is that your desktop experience has never looked better. But behind the translucent good looks, the Windows Aero experience is all about making it easier to focus on your content and to find and keep track of what you're doing.

You won't have to open a window to see what's in it because live taskbar thumbnails and Live Icons will show you. And when you have a lot of programs open, you can quickly locate and select the one you want using Windows Flip and Windows Flip 3D.

Find what you need in less time

Your life probably moves at warp speed, so you can't afford to spend a lot of time searching on your computer for the things you need.

Now, virtually anything on your PC is never more than a few keystrokes away with Instant Search. To quickly find the holiday letter you're working on, that Halloween photo of your youngest child, or the e-mail invitation to your friend's barbecue, you can simply start typing in the Search box on the Start menu.

It's easier and faster to find anything, no matter where you may have saved it, with the consistent, streamlined menus, toolbars, and preview panes in the improved Explorers in Windows Vista. Explorers include Search boxes too, so you can search within a particular type of information, such as all your documents. You can organize your files any way that you want and immediately sort and filter information based on file type, saved date, or the name of the file creator. Watch this demo to see how Windows Vista helps you find and organize information.

When you're surfing the web, you can end up with a lot of open browser windows. Now you can see all your open windows on one page and use tabbed browsing to easily flip through them. Plus, web search from the toolbar in Windows Internet Explorer 7 makes it easier than ever to find what you're looking for.

Some days you can feel like you're overloaded with information and spending a lot of your time opening browsers and applications to find what you need. It seems like there should be an easier way for you to keep track of airfares, traffic maps, news updates, and other information you care about. Now you can with Windows Sidebar and gadgets.

Enjoy easier setup and hands-off maintenance

Windows Vista Home Premium makes it easier than ever to set up and maintain your new PC. Get up and running fast using Windows Easy Transfer to automatically copy your files, photos, music, e-mail, and settings from your old PC to your new Windows Vista-based PC.

After your computer is set up, you will appreciate how Windows Vista works in the background to take care of itself and reduce the amount of technical maintenance you need to do. New performance technologies can help improve the responsiveness of your most-used applications and decrease the time it takes you to download files.

System disruptions are kept to a minimum with little or no effort required from you. New self-healing technology automatically identifies and fixes problems, and built-in diagnostics alert you to disk failure, defective memory, and other potential issues so they can be resolved before affecting your everyday tasks.

Safer

Benefit from advanced security features

It's likely that safety is one of your top concerns. We worked very hard on this area in the years since we developed Windows XP, and the result of that work is the most secure version of Windows yet.

There are thousands of advertisers and scammers out there, so it's good to know that you can take steps to prevent malicious software from infiltrating your PC. Your first line of defense in Windows Vista is Windows Firewall, which helps provide protection as soon as you turn on your computer. And Windows Defender can help you reduce the number of pop-ups and lessen the security threats posed by spyware and other unwanted software.

Surf more safely

After hearing the news stories about phishing scams, hackers, viruses, and worms, you may have the feeling that your PC is a constant target. But you can help decrease these online security threats by using Internet Explorer 7 and taking advantage of new capabilities in it that provide:

• Anti-phishing technology, which helps protect your personal information from fraudulent websites.
• Dynamic security protection that helps lower the risk of your system being damaged or disrupted.
• Internet Explorer protected mode, which helps reduce the likelihood of hackers taking over your browser and delivering malware to your system.

Help protect your family and your PC

If you share your PC with your family, you probably have concerns that your kids could accidentally install malicious software or change something important, such as deleting all your favorites. With User Account Control, you can set up a user account for each family member, so a child will be prompted for a password when attempting to change system settings, install any additional software, or to use certain websites or games. And each family member can have their own set of favorites and desktop layouts.

Wouldn't you love to be able to supervise what your kids are doing on their computer without feeling like you're the PC police? With Parental Controls, you can manage your children's computer use by setting time limits and rules for accessing the web and PC games. And you can tailor the controls to suit the age level and personal interests of each child.

Lastly, even though you know it's essential to back up all your priceless digital photos, music, movies, and documents, have you actually done it? If you're like many people, you may think it will be a lot of trouble and take a lot of time. But you won't even have to think about it when you set up a scheduled backup.

More entertaining

Enjoy home entertainment in a whole new way

Having fun shouldn't be hard work. Now, you can easily make your PC the center of a complete home entertainment experience with Windows Vista Home Premium.

Explore the options your entire digital entertainment library can offer with the easy-to-navigate Windows Media Center. For instance, you only need a cable TV connection and a TV tuner card to record TV shows and watch them whenever you like with no monthly fee. You can easily play DVDs, download movies, and even try something different like viewing your photos in a cinematic slide show or browsing your music collection by cover art.

Best of all, you don't have to stay in one room with your PC. You can take Windows Media Center to the next level and stream all of your digital entertainment on TVs throughout your home with support for Xbox 360 and other consumer electronics connected to your home network.

Get creative with your digital images, and then share them

You love your digital camera and you've probably taken hundreds of digital photos representing just as many memories. Maybe you've even downloaded most of them to your PC. But have you looked at them much since you did that? Would it be easy to find the ones from the London trip with your best friend two years ago?

There are many ways to get more enjoyment out of your photos with Windows Photo Gallery. First, you can organize them with tags, dates, and ratings so they are easier to find. You can crop them, correct red-eye effects, and adjust exposure and color with easy-to-use tools. And you can have fun creating slide shows with themes, cool transitions, and video as well as still photos.

You've been remembering scenes from the great vacation you just had with your two sisters who live far away. You took some beautiful pictures and even shot a little video. You can share some of the photos with Cindy through e-mail, but Nancy doesn't want to receive personal e-mail at work and doesn't have e-mail at home. Luckily, they each own a DVD player. So you can easily make a slide show for both of them and burn it to professional-looking video DVDs with Windows DVD Maker. What a great way to stay close.

Your dad is going to turn 80 in a few months and there is going to be a small family party. He is adamant about no gifts, but it doesn't seem right not to somehow mark such a milestone. Over the years you've amassed an awesome collection of photos and videos of him with your kids. You can easily edit and publish a digital home movie in standard or high-definition format with the updated Windows Movie Maker. Can you think of a more delightful way to celebrate?

Play your heart out

You never used to understand people's obsession with computer games. But lately you've been bonding with your son over his favorite game, LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures. And though you won't admit it to many people, you've taken to playing Spider Solitaire on your lunch breaks. Welcome to habitual fun and to improved gaming support in Windows Vista Home Premium.

For one thing, you and your son will be impressed with the hyper-realistic visuals and incredible performance. For another, you'll be able to fully explore next generation gaming options: with a DirectX 10 graphics card and the technology built into the operating system, only Windows Vista can run the latest, most graphically advanced PC games in the market.

A seemingly limitless choice of games compatible with Windows is great, but it could sometimes be challenging to find and launch them. Now, you can conveniently access all of your games, and information about them, in a single location on your PC using the Games Explorer.

Look for Games for Windows branded titles—from the simple to the spectacular—for every age and ability. Plus, have more fun with old favorites on your PC such as Spider Solitaire and Minesweeper, as well as three new premium games: Mahjong Titans, Chess Titans, and InkBall.

Better connected

Stay productive and entertained with your mobile PC

If you want a PC that can keep up with you while you're on the go, then you'll appreciate how Windows Vista Home Premium helps you get the most from your mobile PC.

You'll especially appreciate not worrying about battery life. With Fast Sleep and Resume, you can go for weeks without fully shutting down your laptop. Simply press the power button to pause and then resume your computer session in just seconds while conserving your battery life in sleep mode.

Does wireless networking seem complicated or even unsafe to you? Using the Network and Sharing Center can help make it easier for you to connect more securely to wireless networks when you're away from home and to set up a more secure wireless network at home.

It can often feel like you spend some days—especially weekends—running all over town. For your mobile devices to be useful, they may need to be in sync with your PC at home. You can use Sync Center to keep your supported mobile devices up to date with your calendar. And you can save time by using one location, the Windows Mobility Center, to quickly access and set your key mobile preferences.

You and your best friend are on your city's parks committee and are managing a volunteer rebuilding project. If you both have Windows Vista, you can collaborate face to face using Windows Meeting Space to share plans, schedules, and pictures of the project over a wired network, a wireless local area network, or an ad hoc wireless network.

Perhaps you often handwrite your shopping list on your Tablet PC or make funny sketches for your kids while you're watching their dance lesson or ballgame. You'll find improvements that make the pen feel more natural and help you scroll down webpages more easily. And you won't have to write out URLs and e-mail addresses you've used before because AutoComplete lists possible matches from previous letters or series of letters.

Take your entertainment on the go

If you have a ton of digital music, photos, and video stored on your PC, you'll value new features in Windows Media Player 11 that can help you manage your impressive media collection. And the best part is being able to easily connect to a variety of portable players so you can take it all with you wherever you go.

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Not sure which version is right for you? Remember help is available at 1.570.420.1104 or through Online Chat. You can also find assistance by visiting our shop.

Some product features are only available in certain editions of Windows Vista and may require advanced or additional hardware.