Hours before Microsoft Canada is set to officially launch their new edition of their Windows operating system for businesses (home users will have to wait until January 30th, 2007), we have the first look at the final code. Here is my take on Microsoft Windows Vista. As you can see below, Microsoft is offering Vista in a wide variety of configurations and prices. For the purpose of this Canada AM review, my comments focus on Vista as it applies to Home Users and so should be considered more of a preview for my audience than a review for the Enterprise crowd.

Windows VistaVista Ultimate -Upgrade: $299 -Full Retail: $499

Vista Home Premium -Upgrade: $199 -Full Retail: $299

Vista Home Basic -Upgrade: $129 -Full Retail: $259

Vista Business -Upgrade: $249 -Full Retail: $379

Even before the launch of XP in 2001, Microsoft began work on their next version of Windows. It’s now five years later, a very long time in Microsoft years, and we have the fruits of their labour in Vista. (Trivia – The original codeword for Vista was “Longhorn”, named after the pub inside the Whistler ski resort near Vancouver, British Columbia where Microsoft employees often traveled to from their home in Seattle to get away from the office.)The expectation, the hope perhaps, has been that because it has taken Microsoft such a long, obsessive, committed time to produce Vista, it would introduce some major changes, that it would have a significant impact on the way you and I use our computer. That it might change the way we think about personal computers again.It’s simply not the case. In fact Vista feels like Windows after it has been through a home decorating show. Someone has come in, removed the clutter, better organized the elements, spent some cash to upgrade the furniture, and given the place a new, fancy paint job to update it to the latest trends. There’s no drastic changes. The basic structure is still the same, it just feels new with all the fresh interior.

The top features for home users in Vista include:

Windows Aero – A new visual look featuring a frosted glass style. The emphasis here is on making the content the first thing your eye sees over the folders or windows that contain them. The new style also features more transparent effects, reflections, animations, and 3D views such as the Windows Flip feature which lets you look at all of your active windows from the side and cycle through them like index cards.

Instant Search and Better Explorers – In an effort to make the experience of using a computer easier and more intuitive, Vista has given the task of accessing, organizing, and managing the contents of a computer to just one tool alone – Windows Explorer. They have also added a more powerful search function that can get results instantly, no more waiting for an animated doggie to pretend to fetch a bone for ten minutes, you can now find that file you lost right away. You can now also better label all of your files with tag words so they can show up better in your searches.

Where Possible, Make It One-Click Or One-Button – Borrowing a bit from the Apple philosophy, Microsoft has reduced many tasks and especially processes to just one click of the mouse. Shutdown and restart is one example, along with Disk Defragmenter which now works automatically in the background. It’s a task you no longer have to think about or schedule time to do.

Pushing Clutter To The Sidebar With Gadgets – The left-hand side of the desktop now contains an area called the “Sidebar” where you can quickly store small programs, notes, and tasks that might normally take up unnecessary space on your desktop. You can add “Gadgets” that offer up cute displays with weather, RSS feed headlines, hobby updates, etc. Microsoft will be encouraging many company to create their own free gadgets for you to download and add for free. At the click of the button you can either make the sidebar disappear on-screen or reappear as needed.

Updated Media Programs – A better DVD movie maker, a real photo gallery program (instead of just a “My Photos” folder) that makes it easy to visually organize all of your pictures, new games (including Chess Titan, Mahjong Titan, and Purple Place) and the Media Centre menu system to make it easier to access all of your media content (previously you could only get this in a special edition of Windows XP). Vista also includes the new Internet Explorer 7 and Windows Media Player 11, but since both of these programs are available for free outside of Vista, it’s hard to include their value under the Vista price tag.

New Mail and Calendar – Both of these programs have been tweaked with better security, simpler organization, and have been given the benefit of Vista’s new instant search abilities. Speech Recognition – Now added to Windows, you can train your computer to recognize your voice and is verbal commands to start programs and run tasks. I haven’t had final code for Vista long enough to test this feature or offer any judgment.

The Biggest Change is Security, Security, SecurityIn looking for a major improvement in Windows and perhaps the reason why this version has taken so long to be completed, it’s easy to find the answer in the focus Microsoft has placed on security for Vista. Since the launch of XP, Microsoft has been bombarded and subsequently consumed by the problems of first spam and then the waves of viruses, worms, trojan horses, spyware and malware that engulfed the computer market place and under such attacks Windows XP came off as woefully inadequate to combating those issues. Is it me or did is seem like there was a new security hole or breach found in Windows code every day, let alone every week for the past four years?This time around Microsoft has completely rebuilt their Windows Operating System in terms of security. Microsoft has implemented a program that call the Security Development Lifecycle that will continually scrutinize the program code for Vista and uncover and fix any exploits or holes before the outside world has a chance to do so.

Improved Firewall, Access Settings, Security Features – For all of the system features Microsoft has added better safeguards against the misuse of computer resources by invading software, against accounts being overturned for infecting bugs, and have expanded the security settings and controls so that administrators can do a better job of reacting to new threats.

Windows Defender – A new program that continually scans your computer for spyware and other bad software and then removes it. When it comes to testing these security features, the true test is time itself and only time will prove how much better Windows Vista is as repelling these problems.

Not Recommended At This TimeEven at the Home Basic upgrade price of $130, it’s difficult to recommend making the upgrade to Vista at this time, simply because there are few compelling reasons to rush into it. In fact, considering the history of Windows upgrades and the various glitches, difficulties, and bugs that tend to surface, it’s usually a good idea to wait for that stage to pass until you make the change. In this case, what you’re buying is little more than an intense make-over, although the improved security is certainly a comfort, but with the number of readily available, free security programs you can download today, such as Spybot Search and Destroy and Ad-Aware Personal Edition, it’s very easy to wait six months or so before taking the step through the next window.