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If you didn't get suckered into buying Vista Home Basic Edition and your video card packs some oomph, Vista's Aero Glass interface rates as a significant improvement over Windows XP's boxy, now-antiquated look.
The Glass UX
Microsoft's marketeers insist on calling Aero Glass a "UX" (for "User Experience"). Under that pretty face, Aero Glass embodies a completely new way of making windows float and interact on the screen.
 | Aero Glass qualifies as much more than YAMG — Yet Another Microsoft Glittergrade — of which you have endured many over the years. Use it for a few hours, and you'll find the following things: |
- Locating the specific window that you want is faster, easier, and more accurate.
- Organizing windows by stacking them on the desktop works better.
- Switching among windows feels less like a black art than it did in every previous version of Windows.
Improved video effects
Under the hood, Vista intervenes between programs and the screen, adding an extra layer of processing called the Desktop Window Manager. Historically, extra processing layers have really gummed up Windows — DirectX was invented specifically to bypass all the Windows overhead. Now, thanks to powerful processors on video cards, Vista can intercede without bringing your computer to a grinding halt.
You see the effects of the Desktop Window Manager in Vista's omniscient handling of video. You'll also see two new features that make scanning your open windows and finding the one you want much easier:
- Vista shows you thumbnails of running programs when you hover your mouse over a running program on the taskbar.
- The Windows Flip feature, which is activated by holding down the Windows key and repeatedly pressing Tab (or by clicking the Switch between Windows icon, to the right of the Start button), lets you leaf through running programs much like riffling a deck of cards.
Sidebar: A truly active desktop
Microsoft has tried to put "active" items on the Windows desktop for nearly a decade. Finally, with Vista's Sidebar, success seems within grasp. Stability problems that dogged previous versions aren't as readily apparent, and the items it offers actually help.
The items in the Sidebar, termed Gadgets, can interact with you, with Windows, with files and folders, with your network, and with other Gadgets. Vista ships with a handful of moderately interesting Gadgets — a clock (you can put more than one clock on your desktop, each set to a different time zone), an RSS reader, an application launcher, and others.
 | Gadgets start on the Sidebar, but they don't have to stay there. Simply click and drag a Gadget anyplace you like. |
What you get
The old Windows XP Media Center Edition was billed as a separate operating system, almost exclusively available on new PCs. In Vista, if you buy the right version (Home Premium or Ultimate), Media Center comes along for the ride. Remarkably, if Media Center isn't included in your version of Vista, Microsoft allows you to upgrade to Media Center–savvy versions without much fanfare: All you need is a credit card.
Many other features put Vista head and shoulders above XP. The standout features include the following:
- Improved backup (although no backup exists in the Home Basic Edition).
- Photo management (via PhotoGallery, not in Home Basic).
- Second monitor support (also not in Home Basic).
- Easy wireless networking.
- Desktop search gets built into the operating system itself, instead of tagging along like a hungry puppy.
- Vista also helps you burn DVDs, but watch out for the digital rights restrictions.
What stands in the way
Vista's security settings can drive you nuts and make you click and click again. Vista includes built-in defenses against many kinds of malware, spyware, and phishing attempts. The "Standard" user security level settings aren't as powerful as those in WinXP. That means you, or a rogue program trying to pretend it's you, can't clobber the system as easily as if you had the power to change anything and everything on your PC. Conversely, if a Standard user wants to make significant changes to her PC, she should expect some delay, inconvenience, and the occasional utterly inscrutable message.
Perhaps surprisingly, Vista's outbound firewall lacks a decent user interface. If you want to keep track of the data leaving your machine, expect lots of challenges.
Many of Vista's new security features feel like they were bolted onto the old Windows XP framework — and, truth be told, some of them were. The most important security improvements, however, lie deep within Vista itself.
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