Microsoft Vista Home Premium Review

Bottom-Line: Overall Vista Home Premium is about as fast as the OS it replaced, and just as stable.

I recently bought a Dell XPS One PC and it shipped with Windows Vista Home Premium.  Rather than replace it with Vista Business or Ultimate, or better still Windows XP Professional, I decide to test drive it and see where it took me.  My Dell XPS One has the following specifications:

Processor: Intel Core2 Duo E6550 (2.20GHz 4MB L2 Cache);

Memory: 2.5GB DDR2 SDRAM @ 667MHz;

Video Card: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2400;

Fixed Storage: 320GB 7200rpm SATA-II drive;

NIC - Wired: Integrated Intel 82566DC-2 Fast Ethernet NIC;

NIC - Wireless: Broadcom 802.11g/n

Ports: 1x Parallel printer port; 6x USB 2.0 ports; 1x SVGA; 

OS: Windows Vista Home Premium /w SP 1

First Impressions

After I bought computer up for the first time OS it launches into the Welcome Center, which contains details about both the PC, and OS.  In addition, there are eleven icons (applets) that allow you to do various starter tasks, such as Set-Up Devices, Add a Printer, Connect to the Internet, and Personalize Windows.  Access to the familiar Control Panel can also be gained through this screen.  You can also get access to common questions such as how to transfer files from your old OS, transfer user accounts, program files, email setting etc. via the Windows Easy Transfer icon.

Like all of the Vista versions Microsoft has totally redesigned the graphics rendering engine in Vista Home Premium; the OS does not use the CPU to display bitmaps on the screen.  The OS utilizes the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) to render vectors.  To render the display in the GPU however, requires a lot of memory; optimally - 256MB, but the more your graphics card has the better the displayed graphics will be.  Support for Microsoft Direct X 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 will also help. 

Graphics in the form of the Windows Aero interface is one of the standout stars of Vista Home Premium.  I like the polished look and feel of the new larger icons and menu bars.  Each of the icons is colorful and they look more like pictures than your traditional icon.  The same is true for the various dialog boxes throughout the Windows Aero interface.  And there is glass-like look and feel throughout the desktop.  The overall effect is a clean visually appealing desktop.  

The background graphics are high resolution images that are best viewed at display resolutions surpassing 1280x1280.  The effect on a flat screen LCD monitor with an adapter that can handle the resolutions is stunning.  The colors are rich, deep, and sharply defined, but soft on the eyes.  The square 2-D motif of Windows XP has been replaced by the round 3-D smoothness of the Vista desktop that permeates all windows, icons, and menu/task bars. 

Home Premium Features

Vista Home Premium will benefit users have built-in Parental Controls that allow one to filter Web sites as well as limit a user's (child's) Internet access by setting specific hours.  This same level of control is available in both Internet Explorer 6 and 7.0.  The big selling point of Home Premium is the Windows Media Center, which has been redesigned from it Windows XP Media Center days.  The redesign takes advantage of new and emerging digital technology such as online television subscription services and home theater systems festooned with HDTV, digital cable and or satellite.   

For the uninitiated Windows Media Center-first introduced in Windows XP Media Center Edition-is Microsoft's all-in-one entertainment console.  The full screen application allows one to view live and recorded TV, music, photos, videos, and other online entertainment.  Both Vista Home Premium and Ultimate ship with Windows Vista Media Center bundled in.

Vista Media Center takes advantage of various code-level changes within the OS, making it possible to retrieve and view large media files (digitized motion pictures) for instance such as digitized motion pictures within Media Center, or the ability to burn online TV shows direct to DVD.  The ability of Media Center to utilize a wide-screen aspect ratio allows the application to display more information, with sliding menus that are only on-screen when needed. For example, when playing a DVD the play controls slide out of the way after play is pushed, but if you want to fast forward a click of the mouse will make them reappear to be used without interrupting playback.  All-in-all I like the application. 

My Viewpoint

Overall Vista Home Premium is about as fast as the OS it replaced, and just as stable.  My Dell XPS One runs smoothly for the most part though I have started noticing a few quirks now that I have had the PC for a while.  But I install Service Pack 1 recently and I'll see how that affects the PC's performance. 

The only drawback for me to running Vista Home Premium at the moment is the computer's inability to join a Windows Server Active Directory domain like the one I have set up in my home, but I can work around that.  All things considered I think I'll keep the OS around.