Windows Vista upgrade guide, part 1: software
By Ryan Block 
posted Jan 29th 2007 4:21PM
posted Jan 29th 2007 4:21PM
Ok, so here's how this thing works. We'll compare XP and Vista on a feature-by-feature basis; we're not going to judge the merit of these features or whether they'll be more useful to you and your pals, nor are we going to get into the nitty gritty about what they do -- there are just too many -- but we will tell you whether or not we think there's anything better going on in Vista than there was before in XP. So...
- Green indicates something about this has improved
- Red indicates something sucks more than it did in XP.
- White indicates either nothing much has changed, or the features are roughly equivalent.
- Notes help out with a little background, where appropriate, and where available, recommend free software for XP that effectively augments the feature in question.
- Many of the features shown here can be found in our comprehensive Vista gallery.
P.S. -Mac nerds need not apply (today); we'll pit Vista and OS X when Leopard's all wrapped up, and not a moment later.
| XP | Vista | Comments / notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| UI | |||
| Find windows | Alt+tab | Flip and Flip 3D | Alt-Tab Replacement / taskswitch provides window image preview for XP. Flip / Flip 3D not available in Home Basic or without Aero. |
| Icons |
Static icons, image preview tool (limited document support) |
Live Icons and taskbar thumbnails |
Live Icons (scalable, document preview, etc.) not available in Home Basic or without Aero. |
| Search | Search (unindexed) |
Instant Search, Search Folders | Search Folders: virtual folders containing files matching search criteria |
| Shell / window environment | Luna (XP) and Royale (MCE 2005) | Aero ("Glass") | Full Aero glass not available in Home Basic; may require graphics card upgrade. |
| Software | |||
| Backup |
System Restore |
Backup and Restore Center, Previous Versions / ShadowCopy |
Previous Versions / ShadowCopy only available in Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate Edition. |
| Browser |
Internet Explorer 7 |
Internet Explorer 7 |
IE7 must be downloaded separately for XP. |
| Calendar | Nope | Windows Calendar | To date, most calendaring in Windows is done in "full" Outlook. |
| Contacts | Outlook Express (no system contacts) | Windows Contacts | To date, most contact keeping in Windows is done in Outlook and/or on the domain. |
| Email |
Outlook Express |
Windows Mail |
|
| Explorer | The usual | Now with content organization | Not bad, but not incredibly useful, either. |
| Faxing and scanning | XP Scanner and Camera Wizard / fax services | Windows Fax and Scan | Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate only. |
| Speech recognition | Windows Speech Recognition | Windows Speech Recognition | |
| Tablet and touchscreen | Only in Tablet PC edition | Yep | Not available in Home Basic. |
| Transfer | Files and Settings Transfer Wizard | Windows Easy Transfer | Basically the ame thing, but Windows Easy Transfer enables new methods of transfer, including Easy Transfer Cables (i.e. USB to USB). |
| Widgets |
Nope |
Windows Sidebar and Gadgets |
XP has two commonly used, free widgets environments available: Yahoo Widgets (aka Konfabulator), Google Desktop. |
| Networking and connectivity | |||
| Networking | Network Setup Wizard | Network Center (Network Explorer, Map, Setup, Awareness, Projector) | Hooray, lots of new superflous network utilities! |
| Network projector | Nope | Yep | |
| Remote desktop (host) |
Available in XP Pro, MCE 2005, Tablet | Available only in Business and Ultimate | The new targeted equivalent of MCE 2005, Home Premium, loses RDC! Bummer! |
| Wireless | WiFi with WPA 2 support | WiFi with WPA 2 support |
Vista now has improved WiFi ad-hoc / connection sharing. |
| Media | |||
| Media Center interface | Only in Windows Media Center Edition | Only in Home Premium or Ultimate Edition |
|
| Media Center Extender |
Only in MCE | Only in Home Premium or Ultimate Edition | |
| NTSC and ATSC tuners |
Only in MCE | Only in Home Premium or Ultimate Edition | |
| CableCARD / DCT |
Nope | Only in Home Premium or Ultimate Edition | |
| Media software | Windows Media Player 11 | Windows Media Player 11 | |
| DVD authoring | Nope | DVD Maker | |
| Imaging | Windows Picture and Fax Viewer | Windows Photo Gallery | |
| Video | Windows Movie Maker | Windows Movie Maker (with HD support) | Now only in Home Premium and Ultimate. Minus points for taking it out of Home Basic. |
| Security | |||
| Antivirus | Nope | Nope | |
| Email filtering | None in Outlook Express | Junk and phishing filters in Windows Mail | |
| Family settings | Basic user accounts | Windows Family Safety Settings (with ESRB game support) | Not available in Business, Enterprise. |
| Malware | Windows Defender and Malicious Software Removal Tool | Windows Defender and Malicious Software Removal Tool | Defender must be downloaded separately for XP. |
| Network access prevention |
Nope |
Network Access Protection |
|
| Network(ed) security | Windows Security Center |
Windows Security Center |
Provides firewall, automatic updates, and reminds users to install 3rd party antivirus software. |
| Windows Services |
Admin / remote authentication |
Windows Service Hardening |
|
| Gaming | |||
| DirectX 10 | Nope | Yep | |
| Xbox Live Anywhere | Nope | Yep | |
| Performance and hardware | |||
| Architecture | 32 and 64-bit support | 32 and 64-bit support | |
| Auto-defrag | Nope | Yep | The new defrag util is dumbed down and doesn't show users what's what with their disk. Bad Microsoft, better defrag > auto defrag. |
| Auxiliary display | Nope | SideShow | Not available in Home Basic. |
| Drive encryption | Windows XP Encrypting File System | EFS and Vista BitLocker | BitLocker only available in Enterprise and Ultimate |
| USB cacheing | Nope | Windows ReadyBoost | Requires 512MB or greater USB drive. |
| Optimization | The usual multitasking | Windows SuperFetch and Windows ReadyDrive | Vista claims to improve efficiency of cached data in memory, as well as startup and spin time of hard drives. |
| Sync | ActiveSync | Windows Sync Center | |
| Usage profiling | Basic battery / power profiles |
Mobility Center (network profiles, sync, battery / power, etc.) |
XP can handle some sync / profiling with Microsoft's SyncToy. |
| Business | |||
| Domain support | XP Pro, MCE 2005 | Vista Business, Enterprise, Ultimate only | MCE 2005 only by way of hack. |
| Integrated IIS | XP Pro, MCE 2005 | Vista Business, Enterprise, Ultimate |
|
| Offline files and folders | XP Pro, MCE 2005 | Vista Business, Enterprise, Ultimate | |
| Presentation mode | Nope | Vista Business, Enterprise, Ultimate | |
| Other | |||
| Upgradeable | Not without reinstall | Windows Upgrade Anytime | Upgrade paths: Basic -> Home Premium or Ultimate; Home Premium and Business -> Ultimate |
So, did we forget anything?
vista looks good, now all i need is a new computer
Meh I'm waiting till service pack 1 comes out, hopefully they will include the rest of the features. XP will be good enough until then.
What are live icons, are they animated? are all icons animated?
ACE, but use my rule of OS, wait for 3 months until they fix the major screw ups
your home's bowels..
what the F...
this website should change its name to microsoft-bashing dot com or apple-lackey dot com.
I'm pretty sure by "bowels", the author meant down in the den, basement, etc. of your house, where the majority of computers probably reside. It was an attempt at more illustrative writing, but alas, anything can be misinterpreted.
There's one thing not listed here, tweaking.
Windows File Protection makes life difficult, but can be turned off. Google isn't telling me how to do this with Windows Resource Protection.
XP has the ability to manage services, and since half of them are beyond useless that's pretty important to me. Does such a thing exist in Vista?
I would think tweaking apps are probably the least likely of XP programs to work with vista. I imagine implementation is real different for a lot of things, and as tweaks modify windows itself often I can't imagine something like TweakUI working on Vista. (Yes, TweakVI is out, and solves the TweakUI problem, but this is hardly the only tweak app I've got.) I've got process and task viewers and killers that may not work.
Basically my point now is am I going to be stuck with a system that resembles a brand new big name manufacturers install, or can I rip the heart out of Vista and turn it into a shinier version of the OS X clone I've turned XP into?
Looks like a lot of plusses to me. I'm still waiting tho. Till my next system.
... what a terrible OS, I'll stick with my beloved open source *nix varieties, with no lock ins, more useless features, more bugs, more virus compatibility, security flaws, etc. thank you.
readyboost works fine on my 256MB USB drive, using 230MB of space.
I installed Ultimate to my lowly laptop (1.73 GHz 512 MB RAM) and it installed smoothly. I just had to install the multi-card reader and touchpad separately. It doesn't have Aero Glass (due to the weak Intel video card) but it looks nice and runs smoothly. I mainly use the laptop for internet, MS Office, and some light photo editing. I haven't had a chance to install any 3rd-party software (other than antivirus), so it's difficult to tell if there's much advantage of Vista over XP at this point.
i actually have vista already, installed it two days ago (shipped early with the whole free online "power together" dealio). luckily i had a free 20 GB partition laying around so im dual-booting xp & vista... seems to be doing well right now. xp for when i actually need to get things done and vista for internet browsing/jacking around lol. limited driver and program support is the main issue now :( resource hogs from programs that usually dont do much damage (itunes w/ the visualizer on takes 100% cpu... with beta graphics drivers installed and an athlon 64)
I will not be paying for a copy of vista for sure, i paid for xp - mistake. Iv been running vista betas all the way through and its sure looks pritty and yeah its a tiny bit more secure. But it is basically a crap mac. OSX (tiger) really changed my technology life and vista is attempting the same. Vista is in line with some of tiger but not all. Im waiting for Leopard which will surly whip tiger out of the water? I dont know, for now im sticking with the mac without windows installed on it.
Im thinking of upgrading my family pc (5 person family) to vista home basic. pentium 4 2.80 ghz, 512 mb ram, 160 gb with 20 gb free, nvidia geforce fx 5200, dvd burner and cd-rw/dvd rom. it should be fine but we have many games, photoshop 5.0, premiere elements 3.0.
Um, OK. Do you want a cookie or something?
I'm thinking of leaving work pretty soon. Then I think I may go the gym. After that I think I'll go home (1 person family) and eat some dinner.
I'm waiting till XP Service Pack 3 comes out... My computer can handle Vista, but I'm horribly scared of the DRM...
I can't believe they dropped RDP in Vista... Its one of the best tools that came from XP... SO FLIPPING GAY!
When does the Longhorn version of Windows Server come out? Thats what I'm waiting for... If Vista is everything Microsoft says it is then the Longhorn version of Windows Server is going to be straight up amazing...
I'm not really sure why you consider dropping features homosexual...it's a really bizarre argument, I think.
My experience is that games don't like new versions of windows :( Moved back to australia and found 5 year 10 year old games. Some of them work fine tho. Ill have the cookie ;)
I will personally smack anyone who says anything along the lines of "My Mac's had that for years."
-aMacUser
My Mac's had Windows Vista Ultimate Limited Signed Edition for years.
Do we 'really really' need an upgrade? This reminds me of the 'robots' movie...
Geez...it looks like I'll need to buy Windows Vista Ultimate JUST so I can squeeze out all the functionality. Bad move on all these versions, Microsoft. Way bad move.
Correction:
Speech comparison is not exacly correct.
Windows XP has only the infrastructure for Speech recognition (SAPI5). It does not have "speech-enabled" user interface or a speech engine.
However, Vista has Microsoft speech engine and almost all the tasks are accessible with Speech. Speech is another input mechanism just like mouse or keyboard.
I don't understand how Vista makes any difference to what I use XP for. It looks better, and... I have an old computer and it works fine, XP is still running; and only had to reinstall once which was my fault. So why change. What's revolutionary, what's really different? I am not interested in the bling, so don't give me any of that, and can use blinds anyway. The thing about OS' is that they are not like cars, breakdown, get smashed up and need replacing...so there has to be a good reason to change. What is it? What is IT?
Save your PC! DON'T BUY THE SHINY BOX!
"Red indicates something sucks more than it did in XP."
Right, because EVERY feature of XP sucked fantastically, so the only way to suck is to "suck more." There are times I look at Engadget and say "Microsoft-bashing sheep", and this is one of them. 90% of the time, I love your reporting, but please explain to me how, as a free utility, Windows Movie Maker sucked? Or the Camera/Scanner wizard? For "power users," the wizards are kind of pointless anyway, but when my mother can scan something without my help due to the implementation of a Wizard, it's called "useful," "functional" and therefore "good."
That said, your choice lf words aside, this is a useful feature comparison and I applaud you for that. Although, unfortunately, it looks like I now need to demand licenses of Ultimate instead of Home Premium. Anybody care to make a donation, as I will soon be living in poverty due to this fact?
"I will personally smack anyone who says anything along the lines of 'My Mac's had that for years.'"
Vista? Nah, my Mac runs OS X and it's had all that stuff for years.
Yes you forgot some features:
* In-your-face security dialogs taking over the screen and keeping you from doing useful work
XP: Nope
Vista: In spades (can be turned off, thankfully)
* Dialog boxes containing several paragraphs of prose that you have to read in order to make a decision
XP: Nope
Vista: Yes
* Attention-whore
XP: Nope.
Vista: Absolutely
I am sure it will be sorted out by SP2 though. And I like the new shiny.
Disagree on the 3D task switcher though, that's one of the most useless pieces of eye-candy I have seen, and it's not even pretty or cool-looking, despite the 3D.
5 years wasn't long enough to sort out the problems? :|
You missed one thing - the 64 bit version of Vista requires all drivers to be signed. This is BAD for software developers, because signing costs lots of money and open source drivers arent able to be developed.
Not only a bizarre argument, but it's fud as well.
RDP is in, use it every day.
Yeah ready boost requires 256mb free. Not 512mb.... I thought Cable Card was Ultimate only? I was scanning that 300 page manual they have on-line about Vista and I thought on their check list that it stated you needed Ultimate for the cable card. Any one know when you can buy that Cable Card tuner from ATI?
You forgot to mention that they dropped Firewire networking from Vista.
This frustrates the hell out of me as I have everything hooked up on 802.11g. I often used firewire when I had to transfer a large file from my PC to my laptop.
Nothing else comes close to the speed except gigabit ethernet, which my laptop doesn't have. So, I'm pretty much boned until there's a 3rd party hack/workaround developed. Argh.
I really hope that BitLocker isn't hard as hell to use.
I love your reporting, but please explain to me how, as a free utility, Windows Movie Maker sucked? Or the Camera/Scanner wizard? For "power users," the wizards are kind of pointless anyway, but when my mother can scan something without my help due to the implementation of a Wizard, it's called "useful," "functional" and therefore "good."
If you compare movie maker to iMovie, both services are included in the operating system, yet iMovie is 100 times more functional and easier to use, as well as the Camera/Scanning wizard, all you need to do is plug your camera into a mac, and press import, and it imports your pictures. When you compare the features, Movie maker and Camera/scanning wizard cannot be considered good.
@applejakg5
You imply that because iMovie was easier, it was therefore good and WMM was "bad." There are such things as "good" and "better." They're called relative adjectives. Moreover, I don't consider an "import" button the sole feature of the camera/scanner wizard. The wizard allowed you to do more than merely import, you could direct-to-print, manage files on the camera and more. You just clicked which task AND which pictures you wanted. A mass import was as easy as "copy pictures on camera to computer" and sit back and wait. Was iMovie better than WMM? Maybe. Does that make WMM bad? No.
*cough* Address Book *cough*
Windows XP uses Address Book for storing contacts. You don't have to use Outlook.
Anyone know how much upgrading Business to Ultimate would cost?
Not like I would. I have an old laptop that almost certainly won't be able to run Aero.
I'm not even sure I want to install Vista. I probably will later, reformatting my hard drive in the process.
Ya forgot how they botched OpenGL support: http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/29/xp-vs-vista/
Big red rectangle.
nice compiled list really helped me out also it gave more reason to stick with xp since i can live w/o some of these updates
Gee... I look at that list and I can't think of a single reason compelling enough to make me go through the pain of upgrading, and potentially sinking more $$ into a machine that is performing quite well with Windows XP.
All of the upgraded "features" can be done with other apps just as well, if not better. Picasa for photos, Google Desktop if you *really* need to search your PC that badly, DVD Authoring - I use other apps.
I'm sure the Interface looks nice and new, but if Microsoft has been held up this many years for THIS... well, they've made a horrible mistake.
What about network printing?
The Benchmarks at Tom's Hardware tell all. Vista will be slower than XP when running almost any application on your computer after an upgrade. The system they used for thier benchmarks was just about the top end computer you could build right now. Core 2 Extreme X6800, 2 GB ram, X1900XTX and XP performed better. On a single core A64 with 1 GB of ram XP should blow Vista out of the water running these same benchmarks.
Vista can never be on one of my computers due to the lack of OpenGL support. I use Cinema4D, Solidworks, Photoshop, and Illustrator everyday and Vista absolutely cripples those applications. When you are talking about 10 seconds or more per task in Photoshop thats a big deal. Microsoft makes its money off of business, not the home user. They are screwing 3D app users royally.
I just went through the "pain of upgrading", using a full Home Premium disk, I instead chose the Upgrade option to see how it would work on my laptop. (upgraded from XP Media Center)
Everything was fine, it's basically a "leave it alone" upgrade, although the upgrade takes at least 3 times longer than a full install on a blank hard drive. Restarted itself maybe 4 times, didn't require any interaction on my part.
No driver issues at all, only problem was that I needed to find a Vista-ready anti-virus (got one from CA).
I still agree with those that want to stay on XP - why upgrade when everything is working well? I say stay with XP until you're ready. I just happen to like the new stuff.
I have a Compaq Athlon 64 1.6ghz X2 with a gig of ddr2 memory and 256 integrated geforce graphics..any thoughts on whether or not it's worth getting the 64bit version of vista or would i get more performance out of the 32 bit version? i know most software wouldn't even be built on the 64bit platform for a while...but if there isn't much of a drawback to having a 64bit OS on my 64bit processor, then i don't see why not..
I like it.
I laugh at all of you. Vista is still behind Mac OSX.4 in every department I've seen, and upgrading looks like it, well, requires effort. I'll stick to my old macs (1998 imacs running X.4!)
I purchased the Ultimate edition download with Office 2007 last night from www.windowsmarketplace.com. The download and installation went smoothly, and Vista runs great on my machine. I'm in love with my laptop again.
I've one jibe with that: XP is upgradable without an re-install, just bung in the CD in windows and hit the upgrade button on the GUI provided.
Apart from that, awesome, now i just have to bother to migrate everything to Vista..