Windows Vista upgrade guide, part 1: software

Although we expect many of you already have a Vista build running somewhere in your home's bowels (or have at least fooled around with it), we don't necessarily expect everyone's going to run out and buy a new box just to run the latest version of Windows. What's more, we recently asked a Windows PM who they thought their biggest competition was, and not surprisingly the answer was "XP." (Aside, from an install-base view that's totally true, although we'd argue not so technologically speaking.) So we figured we'd help you along in your big decision as to whether or not Vista is for you with a disgustingly comprehensive feature comparison. Tomorrow we'll give you the hardware angle if you think Vista's where you want to be; click on for the good stuff!

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?

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 30th 2007 1:09PM]

According to MSDN (http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/library/86026b03-18b0-4c42-9884-5af83226e2bd1033.mspx?mfr=true), IIS will be available for Vista Home Premium as well. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

Thanks!

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 1st 2007 7:28AM]

Ladies and gentlemen, We are almost reaching MacOSX!

[kcchesnut Posted Jan 30th 2007 3:44PM]

i'm surprised that you haven't marked 'speech recognition' as being green. overall accuracy has improved, and it's baked into the shell to let you speech control pretty much everything. dictation still needs some work, but that's still a problem for everybody

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 30th 2007 4:02PM]

Please add links to Part 2 and Part 3. Some of my friends and colleagues aren't smart enough to figure it out any other way.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 31st 2007 2:41PM]

User Access Control, alone, is worth the upgrade to Vista.

I disagree with calling "Windows Sync Center" better than Activesync.

First, without the Windows Mobile Device Center BETA 3 download, you won't sync much of anything, though you will be able to navigate around the folders far faster than in XP via Activesync. RTM is out. Retail is, too. Where is the retail WMDC, and if you're going to use the months old beta anyways, why not include it on the DVD instead of making the user figure out that when the dummy sync center says connected, it means just that, but the PIM data was definitely not sync'ed; which begs the question of why it's called a sync center?

Second, while the whole idea of "Activesync" being native in the OS (as opposed to XP's 3 AS processes and a tray icon that crash part of themselves and/or Outlook when you dare hit the red X close button in Outlook) seems great, at least you don't need to download additional beta software to get it working.

Third, you can't use RNDIS - you have to use the old slower serial protocol to sync, or Vista won't even prompt you to download WMDC, and if you have it, it will get stuck on the create partnership page.

Fourth, Pocket Access is now gone. WTH? There is no option to sync MDBs to CDBs, as there used to be.

The whole Sync idea is nice, but it's a real classic form over function implementation. It is an empty shell to begin with, and even with beta software, leaves out previously implemented functionality.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 1st 2007 9:00AM]

Can you upgrade XP Home to Vista Business?

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 7th 2007 5:50PM]

I think it is time for a major upgrade on our 300 workstations to Windows Vista. Why did Microsoft make the sys requirement so high, darn.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 3rd 2007 9:55AM]

I have some trouble with the new security; I am getting permissions denied when I am running as Administrator. My application basically creates a new folder copy a selected image to that location and may an entry of this in an access database. Even those I have the necessary rights that action can't be performed without a permissions error.