Is That Vista for Here or to Go?

Yes, is the answer. Microsoft clearly designed Windows Vista with an eye on the mobile market. In some areas, the improvements greatly enhance usability. That said, Windows Vista's hardware requirements will put a burden on IT organizations evaluating notebook versus PC purchases.

The core mobile benefits do improve the user experience over Windows XP, at least on my two testing laptops.

Some of the new features and benefits:

• BitLocker file encryption, which protects data against theft or loss. Be warned: Loss of another kind--the Backup or Recovery Keys--could render an otherwise good notebook's information useless. IT organizations will need to develop plans for managing the keys. Microsoft provides several mechanisms, including Group Policy or Windows Management Instrumentation, for putting keys in escrow with Active Directory. Solution providers should offer some handholding to small businesses, which I expect would be much more likely to lose or never back up keys than larger organizations.
• Better wireless networking detection and security (with network profiles). Windows Vista allows more granular control over wireless connections, such as designation of public versus private networks and automatic and customizable adjustment of user profiles and wireless adapters.
• Network and Sharing Center, for controlling and managing connections. The utility provides plenty of information about devices and networks, including Bluetooth personal area networks.
• Improved power management, with more user-controllable options.
• Windows Mobility Center, which provides quick access to external display, power and network settings, among others. Nice touch: Presentation settings prevent interruption from screen savers, instant messages and other annoyances when making slide presentations.
• Sync Center, which allows synchronization of data among different computers, network servers or with some mobile devices.

• Windows Sideshow, which provides some information on the outside of feature-supporting computers; no boot-up required.

These many benefits are somewhat offset by hardware considerations, which will diminish over time. Right now, there is a gulf between hardware and Windows Vista. New PCs are in good shape, although for systems in use prospects are questionable. A recent Softchoice study concluded that only 6 percent of PCs in North America meet the minimum requirements for Windows Vista Home Premium.

During the October 2003 Microsoft Professional Developers Conference, Chairman Bill Gates laid out Microsoft's expectation for the 2006 PC and, hence, Windows Vista's hardware design profile: 4-6GHz processor, 2GB+ memory, 1TB hard drive, graphics processor 3X performance of the day, 1GB Ethernet and 54M bps wireless networking. I don't see that vision changing much at all, except maybe storage.

IT organizations are really going to have to look carefully at notebook configurations and what realistically will deliver acceptable performance. My test notebook, which the Windows Experience Index rates 4.6 (out of a possible 5.9), has a 2GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 processor (dual core makes for a subjective 4GHz), 2GB of RAM, a 120GB hard drive (with a 250GB external drive) and a 256GB Nvidia GeForce Go 7600 graphics processor. Another notebook, with a 1.86GHz Pentium Mobile, ranks only a 2.0, mainly because of the 64MB of graphics memory (performance is notably slower than the other notebook).

On my higher-rated test notebook, the Windows Vista experience is exceptional. The other laptop is more frustrating to use with Windows Vista. If Gates' 2003 guidelines are a measure, IT organizations should consider a dual-core processor and minimum 128GB graphics memory (much more would be better) for new notebooks running Windows Vista.