Windows Vista: Look How Far We've Come

When Windows Vista debuted in January 2007, we declared it the best operating system we had ever made. "Windows Vista is beautiful," The New York Times raved. It's humbling that millions of you agree.

But we know a few of you were disappointed by your early encounter. Printers didn't work. Games felt sluggish. You told us—loudly at times—that the latest Windows wasn't always living up to your high expectations for a Microsoft product.

Well, we've been taking notes and addressing issues.

So as we prepare to stop selling Windows XP on June 30, it felt like the right time to update you on our progress, highlighted by the recent release of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1).

While we're at it, we'd like to clear up some confusion and lingering misunderstandings about Windows Vista—and our plans for its predecessor, Windows XP.

Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor FAQ

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Why do I keep reading that Windows Vista won't work with my hardware or software?

Is Windows Vista really just a prettier version of Windows XP, as some people say?

How well does Windows Vista perform?

There's lots of ways to think about operating system performance. Let's consider a few of the most common ones.

Speed

Nobody likes to wait. Most computers running Windows Vista boot up into activity in under a minute. In fact, the sleep and resume features we introduced in Windows Vista can help your computer wake up in less than three seconds. Plus, by installing Windows Vista Service Pack 1, you'll be waiting less than you used to. Microsoft tests on new PCs show that SP1 can slash average startup and shutdown times for Windows Vista by as much as half.

Meanwhile, a series of independent speed tests found that Windows Vista with SP1 performed comparably to Windows XP SP2.

Why doesn't it win? Simple. Behind the scenes, Windows Vista is doing a lot more on your behalf than Windows XP does. It's indexing your files so you can find them fast, keeping your hard drive organized, saving your work so nothing gets lost, and defending your computer against hackers and phishers.

And with Superfetch, which is new functionality we built into Windows Vista, your computer adjusts to your schedule—which means your applications are ready to go—even before you launch them.

Power consumption

"How much battery life do you get?" It's a question we often hear. With Windows Vista you're likely to get a lot more. Our engineers put a lot of thought into power management. For your sake, and the planet's.

The latest generation of Windows Vista drivers can slash laptop power consumption as much as 10% when your computer is idle. In sleep mode, Windows Vista draws about as much power as a common nightlight.

Online Safety

The most dangerous online threats today are based on phishing- when someone tricks you into trusting a fake website used for stealing identity and other illegal activities. Because phishing attacks are over 25 times more common than new viruses, we built Windows Vista and Internet Explorer 7 (IE7), to help protect you from phishing attacks as well as online threats and viruses. In fact, each week IE7 blocks nearly 1 million attempts to access phishing sites per week.

Did you know?

Windows Vista now supports 77,000 printers, cameras, speakers and other devices and components.
Over 2,700 software programs are now certified to work on Windows Vista, including 98 of the top 100 consumer applications.
62% of small business said Windows Vista saves them time, and 70% said that it makes them more productive, according to an independent survey.
More than 140 million copies of Windows Vista have already sold, making it the fastest selling operating system in Microsoft history.
71% of Windows Vista customers liked it better than their last operating system.
People who are familiar with Windows Vista are two to three times more likely to have a favorable impression.

¹Jeff Jones is a Strategy Director at the Microsoft Security Technology Unit, and is widely recognized as an expert in computer security. View the full report on the Jeff Jones Security Blog.

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.