Windows Vista is less than a month away from consumer launch and a lot of people are wondering why they would want to upgrade to this latest version of Windows. While many windows experts are stating that a single reason for upgrading does not exist, I thought that it might be good to look at some of the things that are going to be new or better in Vista to give you folks an idea as to why upgrading is something to consider.

One of the main reasons to upgrade to Windows Vista is increased security. By default Vista will require verification on tasks that require a high level account, meaning that you will be notified when an installation requires administrative rights. This is important in that if you did not specifically ask something to install you will question a prompt that shows up out of no where due to a malicious site. The downside to this point is that it is simply a dialog and does not require password verification on the administrative account. The reason this is a downside is that people become blind to dialogs and eventually just click them to make the go away giving them very little attention. The requirement to enter a password is something that requires the user to pay attention and possibly read why they need to enter their password causing them to look at what is going on.

Windows Media Center, which at one point was an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) only release is now heavily integrated into Windows Vista. The multimedia features on Vista are far superior to those in Windows XP. It is now easier to setup hardware to make your computer record and playback television shows as well as play music.

Another feature most people are going to really like is the integrated search feature. Especially when it comes to finding Start Menu items. A quick search using the search bar on the Start Menu will bring up the programs that match. This will work wonders for users who install a lot of applications and do not regularly use the Add/Remove Programs control panel application, thus leaving their Start Menu to be a jungle of unused software.

And finally the use of Windows Defender as well as the Windows Firewall will help protect your PC from the ever growing slew of malware and spyware out on the internet. While the security applications are only as effective as the user using them, these two products integrate well into Windows Vista to help the user stay clean when surfing the internet.

One thing to keep in mind is that programmers are far from perfect. Whether they are from Microsoft or the Open Source community, they are likely to make mistakes. Windows Vista will have its share of bugs and hiccups, but its overall stability is the best yet in any version of Windows since NT4. Windows Vista is still a memory hog so having at least 1 gigabyte of RAM is definitely worth the money. Also, if you plan on running a 64 bit version of Vista, you might want to hold off as there are some issues getting several applications to fully work due to the security of the 64 bit version of Windows Vista.

[Technorati Tag: Technology]
[Technorati Tag: Microsoft]
[Technorati Tag: Windows Vista]