'Oh, Lord, Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood'

From the Dec. 2008 Issue

I’ll probably date myself by asking, but do you remember this old Animals
tune? When it comes to Windows Vista, and the anti campaign waged by rival Apple
Computer, there is a LOT of misunderstanding associated with Microsoft’s
current desktop operating system. It’s easy to buy in to all the hype
and just assume that Windows Vista is bad, but that’s not a prudent approach
for a couple of reasons. Reason number one: Don’t believe everything you
hear or read (hey, not even this column). Reason number two: You simply can’t
purchase XP any longer (yes, there are still some copies available, and yes
you can still purchase new computers with XP at least for now, but Microsoft
officially stopped selling XP retail and OEM copies as of June 30 of this year).

Let’s move on to the misunderstood Windows Vista. I’ll refer to
the following points as the five misunderstood features in Windows Vista. They
are in no particular order.

USER ACCOUNT CONTROL
There is no question that UAC (sometimes affectionately referred to as User
Annoyance Catastrophe) has received a bad rap and plenty of misunderstanding.
It must be frustrating for those Microsoft developers to get constant chiding
for the lack of security in their operating systems to which they respond with
a significantly more secure OS, only to be chided more for the added annoyance
associated with better security. Security has always been at odds with usability.
Think of your house: It would be much easier to leave the doors and windows
open all the time and save the money associated with alarm systems and security
monitoring, but you probably wouldn’t feel very safe. Vista, with UAC
enabled, distinguishes between standard user mode and local administrator mode.
Performing any functions that require local administrator mode generates a pop-up
requiring an account with local administrator privileges to acknowledge permission
to perform the requested function. That may seem annoying (and can be), but
consider a piece of malware that automatically starts a process, and that confirmation
pop-up seems pretty valuable.

HARDWARE RESOURCES
I hear all the time that Vista runs slower than XP. I used to hear this about
XP and Windows 2000. Let’s face it, technology changes, and you shouldn’t
expect new technology to perform on old hardware. Prudent firms are moving to
Vista systematically as hardware is replaced. For example, the new Search component
and the anti-spyware utility Windows Defender require a larger amount of physical
memory (RAM). Since these technologies were not part of XP, running Vista on
the same piece of hardware will naturally provide for a slowdown. How much memory
is enough? Vista 32-bit supports up to 4GB, and I’d plan on a minimum
of 2GB. If you can afford it (and memory is relatively inexpensive), 3GB to
4GB would be better.

THIRD-PARTY DRIVERS AND APPLICATIONS
Another misunderstood annoyance with Vista is the fact that some ‘legacy’
(read: old) hardware devices don’t work with Vista. Microsoft was quite
open about the direction of Vista with hardware and application vendors many
years before the operating system was released. Still, natural procrastination
happens, and many of these various vendors delayed their development efforts
for Vista until after its release. It’s simply not fair to blame Microsoft
for this. To be fair, Microsoft does change its direction during development,
and the contention by third-party hardware and application vendors that they
could invest a lot of work into development only to have the direction change
negating much of that work is a real concern.

SEARCH
I’ve written before about the “time is money” concept. I think
most accountants get this and see value in any technology that can make accomplishing
a task more efficient. Search in Vista is a perfect example of such a technology.
In Vista, unlike XP, the search engine is set up as a service rather than an
application. This allows for the indexing of data even when the user is not
logged on to the machine. Performing a search in XP required the user to walk
away or work on another project while waiting for results. The Vista search
engine produces results almost instantaneously. In addition, unlike the XP search
engine, the Vista engine (once the initial index is built) only looks for changes
instead of constantly crawling the disk. Search also applies to application
launching. Clicking the Start button in Vista produces a ‘Start Search’
field, which is selected by default. Typing a few words from the application
or document you want to access produces an instant list of choices. This means
no more drilling down through menus to launch an application or to find a data
file.

64-BIT ARCHITECTURE
Again, I’m probably dating myself here, but I remember 16-bit computing.
It was hard to leave 16-bit computing for 32-bit computing, but I wouldn’t
go back now. And 64-bit computing is definitely the direction of the future.
I’ve heard several Microsoft employees state that Windows Server 2008
will be the last 32-bit server operating system. It would be reasonable to think
this also applies to Vista. The 32-bit version of Vista only supports a maximum
of 4GB of physical memory, for example, while the 64-bit version can access
128GB of memory. In addition, 64-bit processors are standard in almost all machines
shipping today, and they have been shipping previously to the release of Vista.
For example, there was a 64-bit version of XP. The real consideration for practicing
accountants and 64-bit architecture is whether or not applications and peripherals
will operate. It’s important to test your applications and peripherals
in a 64-bit environment or have confirmation from the hardware or application
vendor that it will operate normally. The 64-bit versions of Vista include a
process for running 32-bit applications, but you need to be sure and verify
first. All logoed Vista device drivers are required to have both 32-bit and
64-bit versions, so purchasing a logoed device will provide 64-bit confirmation.

An excellent tool is available to assist in the evaluation of your environment
for Vista. The Microsoft Assessment and Planning tool can be downloaded from
the following URL: www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=67240b76-3148-4e49-943d-4d9ea7f77730&DisplayLang=en.
The tool performs a hardware inventory, compatibility analysis and readiness
report to insure good Vista migrations.

For this author, Vista is a welcome improvement to XP. Like with anything
new, there will be some pain associated with change. But my experience is such
that I don’t miss or want to return to XP.

Technology