It's been five years in the making. Hundreds of thousands of man hours have gone into its development. Millions of words have already been written about it. Some have already written it off, others can't wait to get their hands on a copy. Has it been worth the wait?

Cynics will tell you that Vista is just XP with a brand new wardrobe - underneath it's just the same old operating system. And yes, to a certain extent that's true. But in the case of Vista's rather swish-looking Aero interface, it's more than just a pretty version of XP. This is a makeover that's worthy of the name.

The biggest difference you will notice with Vista is how it looks. It incorporates high–end visuals, which makes it easy to find files, video, images or specific help topics. The visuals also support those who want to run multiple applications at once or open numerous webpages. For example, if you have several webpages open you can simply mouse over the tabs and a mini image of that page will pop up or you can alt–tab through 3D mini images of the open pages to find the one you are looking for.
Vista is the first operating system that can evaluate the hardware components of a computer and run according to its ability. It is designed to do everything and includes complex, dynamic visuals. Therefore, it requires a lot of RAM to run to its fullest ability. For example, if the computer only has 512KB of RAM accessible it will run in its basic mode but if a GB or more is available it can run it its Aero mode. In addition to home use versions, there are Business, Enterprise and Ultimate versions available.

Security, security, security. That's the maxim, if any, that the Microsoft development team, will have had at the top of its features check sheet when Vista was first conceived. As a result Vista is a big improvement over XP here.
Let's start with what's new. First, there's Windows Defender, Vista's new anti-spyware software. It's not as good as the best commercial software out there but at least it's something where before there was nothing and it does include rootkit detection and live updates.

Vista also sees a dramatic upgrade for the backup tool. Though XP did have this facility, it was woefully short on features and very difficult to use. Thankfully, Vista's Backup and Restore Center is much better. Setting up scheduled backups of your documents, pictures, music files and so on is an absolute breeze, and you can now also backup an image of your entire system direct to CD or DVD media, in much the same way as you can with products such as Symantec's Ghost.

The Windows restore features can also be accessed from here, and owners of the Business, Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Windows can also make use of a tool known as file shadow copies. This feature, which originally debuted on Windows Server 2003, runs alongside system restore, tracking changes made to files and folders. When you right-click a file or folder with the feature enabled, you now get the option to restore a previous version without having to restore the entire system.

And now to the question on everybody's lips: should you upgrade or stick with XP?
The question of whether to upgrade or not is tricky. If you're happy with what XP does and don't fancy upgrading an ageing system just yet, there's really not much reason to upgrade. With the move from Windows 98, the choice was more obvious – XP was a world away in terms of stability and for that reason alone it was worth making the move as soon as was humanly possible. Adding extra hardware may push the price to a level that just isn't acceptable to you and, obviously, if Vista won't run software that you absolutely must have, then you're best advised to stick with XP. If you're not confident in installing it without the safety net of technical support then I'd also advise staying with XP.

Ready or not Vista is released. Soon you will have to evolve to a new operating system and will be required to have a more powerful system to run it. If Microsoft's claims regarding Vista's abilities become fully realized, it will be the most multitalented, safe and good looking operating system ever imagined.