Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate landed on my desk and my initial thoughts were do I install it or nott is this project just hype or does it live up to expectations and deliver a much more user friendly and reliable work environment. Having used Windows XP Pro for the past few years it was with a little trepidation that I opened my copy of Vista Ultimate and slipped it into my Vista Premium ready laptop.

It was then that I discovered that having a label on your computer saying Vista Premium Ready, means very little as the compatibility tests kept saying there were major compatibility problems. The problem appears to have been caused by my laptop being supplied with Windows XP home edition over which I installed the Windows XP Pro upgradee this combination caused the compatibility problems and to continue with the successful installation of Vista I had to first of all turn the computer back to it's factory state. This meant I had to remove all added softwares and reinstall Windows XP home edition and only then could I install Vista Ultimate. As you can image this took quite a few hours to accomplish, although it was a pretty straight forward and easy process once I had worked out what I had to do.

Looking at Vista for the first time, one cannot help notice and be impressed with all of the new aero effectss which are absolutely fantastic and are not distracting in the slightest. We won't mention that Mac users have been seeing this type of windowing effect for years. With the new window viewing options there is a really nice addition, 3D Flipping, so the new Aero theme receives a big thumbs up from me.

One area however that would stop me installing VISTA on another computer is software compatibility. VISTA allows you to run almost every piece of software that Windows XP will run, however, there are some major problems. One piece of software with major problems is Adobe Acrobat Reader because until you do some serious tweaking to the registry you'll encounter problem after problem trying to use this Acrobat and my own experience shows that these problems are normally associated with the new security features found in Vista.

In fact, in Vista, you cannot change anything, copy files to certain locations, etc. without a "do you authorise this" window popping up and annoying you. I do understand the reasoning behind this User Account Control, however, for experienced computer users it is a tad annoying and I believe a little more thought could have gone into this area. Saying that, however, for those less technically minded this coupled with Windows Defender and the included Firewall will most certainly help you to protect your computer.

There are some compatiblity issues with Vista, in fact, a lot of peripherals haven't had their software upgraded to be compatible with Vista as yet. This will happen, over time, so it isn't a major issue but a reason to think twice before you upgrade. Write down a list of the peripherals you can't do without, check out the manufacturer's websites and see if they are Vista ready.

Don't be fooled by Microsoft's "minimum requirements" for PC's either, as it isn't just RAM and disk space that's needed, there are Mother Boards and DVD drives that need to work with Vista. If you're thinking of upgrading your PC anyway make sure you get one that either says "Vista Ready" if you don't want step unto the Breach or you have Vista installed prior to purchase.