Windows XP Vs. Windows Vista

Recently, I bought myself a new laptop that I customized. For the operating system, I chose Windows Vista Home Premium. I was looking for Windows XP but apparently I couldn't find one. For them to completely take XP off the shelves should mean that Vista is way better than XP. After a while I was truly disappointed. I found Vista to be a real let down. XP was way more user friendly in my opinion and here is a reason.

Xp had the nice decent Luna design. Windows Explorer had all the settings on the top with extra folder options to a sidebar on the left. That's all fine. Now comparing it to Vista's upgraded Windows Explorer. What the heck? On the top, you have the navigation and search bar? Where are the File, Settings, and other options? It just so happens to be under a button called Organize, although this may be changed. Honestly, that is the last place I would search. Where is the nice friendly design? I may be wrong but in XP, the search had that cute dog. Where is he now. It sure is user friendly to the younger audience. How about the people not familiar with keyboard shortcuts? Where is the Cut, Copy, Paste, Undo, Delete, and Properties buttons. They have been taken away from their nice decent location.

Here is a big change to Windows and that is the visual style. Windows Vista uses the new Aero design while Xp uses the Luna design. The Luna design offers a few colors and is a big improvement to the overall design of Windows. Windows Aero takes it to the next level. The Aero design offers a customized color. Aero offers a totally new addition to the UI. Transparency gives it the nice sleek and glassy look to Vista. A huge let down is how much RAM it uses. Sure it looks nice but it puts a lot on the computer not to mention kills batteries on laptops. My laptop runs 40 minutes longer with the sidebar and Aero disabled.

Next is some of the new software offered in Vista. Windows defender is a decent antivirus program but it is also pretty bad. It is probably a good idea to find an antivirus online and disable Defender. Windows Media Player 11 on Vista is significantly different then WMP on Xp. The design is transparent like Aero and changes its color to the assigned on Aero. Plus, the logo is different. Windows Movie Maker is significantly different. It runs better on Vista and freezes/holds less than on Xp. Strangely; the version of Movie Maker on Xp is 2 while the version on Vista is 6 which is a large difference. The Vista move Maker offers new transitions and support for HD devices and video formats. Another new piece of software is the sidebar. The sidebar offers widgets that are able to be taken off the bar and placed all around the desktop. The bar can be set to be on top of all other windows of behind. An alternative for XP is Google Desktop which offers its own widgets. Like Aero, this program also uses a load of RAM. More new programs and upgrades are added to the start menu, Windows Mail (formerly Outlook), Windows Calendar, Photo Gallery, Windows DVD Maker, Windows Media Center, Windows Mobility Center, and Games Explorer.

These are only a few of the major differences found between Vista and XP. Be sure to find out what you are getting before you actually get it.