Audiovox A-DUO-101-AVW User Manual download pdf (Page 38)

MAY 9, 2006 PC MAGAZINE 59

It won’t be on Wal-Mart’s shelves until next year, but

Microsoft has let loose the next Windows. We went

under the covers to ﬁ nd the secrets in the new OS.

BY JOHN CLYMAN

ICROSOFT WINDOWS

Vista, the long-awaited

and long-delayed suc-

cessor to Windows XP,

is still in the beta- testing

stages. Until recently,

Microsoft held ﬁ rm to a

release date in the sec-

ond half of this year. (And let’s be candid: When

Microsoft uses a vague term like “second half,” that

sure doesn’t mean July). But then, on March 21,

the company announced that though Vista would

be available to businesses in November, consumers

would have to wait until January 2007. So why would

you want Vista now, when the product is likely six to

nine months away from shipping?

Two words: More fun. Like a new car, Vista prac-

tically begs you to play with all its shiny new gad-

gets, see how hard you can drive it, and luxuriate in

the novelty of the experience.

We admit that’s not the most rational justiﬁ ca-

tion. Fair enough. There are plenty of down-to-earth

reasons Vista is appealing. Improved security, for

one. Dramatic improvements in tools that can help

you cope with information overload, for another.

Better support for multimedia and mobile devices,

a better version of Internet Explorer, and a dramati-

cally revamped UI, to name a few more. If Vista de-

livers on all its promises, you’ll spend much less time

performing tedious maintenance and conﬁ guration

tasks and much more time being productive—or

just keeping yourself entertained.

If you’re an übergeek, you’ll want to try Vista

so you can retain your reputation of staying on the

bleeding edge. If you’re a developer, you’ll want to see

how Vista offers the opportunity to write compelling

new applications. If you’re an IT manager, you need

to start thinking about how you’ll eventually intro-

duce Vista into your organization and manage migra-

tion and training. At PC Magazine, we’ve been diving

deeper into Vista with each new CTP (Community

Technology Preview), uncovering useful little secrets

and powerful new capabilities, excitedly sharing our

discoveries with each other—and now with you.

In February, Microsoft released a version of Vista

that it calls “feature complete”—that is, including all

the basic functions that will be in the ﬁ nal product.

That CTP was available only to select beta testers and

members of MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network)

and Microsoft TechNet. Soon after you read this,

we expect Microsoft to release a consumer-oriented

CTP that anyone should be able to get their hands

on. As we go to press, Microsoft hasn’t said how that

public CTP will be distributed, but as soon as that

information is released, we’ll have it at go.pcmag

.com/vista with the rest of our ongoing coverage.

Make no mistake: We’re not advocating that

you urge Uncle Jim—or whoever calls you for help

after his system has ground to a halt because he’s

installed too many adware-laden screensavers—to

start working with Vista today. Nor would we recom-

mend installing Vista on a production system where

incompatibilities, crashes, or data loss would prove

catastrophic. Betas are by deﬁ nition unﬁ nished

products, and our experience with Vista has been far

from seamless—it can be slow, crash unpredictably,

refuse to work with various hardware, cause glitches

in a variety of software, and generally be a hassle.

(And yes, we can hear the more cynical among you

grumbling about how that doesn’t sound any differ-

ent from any other Microsoft OS, but we disagree;

if you’ve kept Windows XP patched and up to date,

your computing should be pretty predictable.) But if

you’ve got a spare machine around and are comfort-

able living on the edge in exchange for a little excite-

ment, then get your hands on Vista now.

Why You Want

Vista

No w!

VISTA PREVIEW

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Audiovox A-DUO-101-AVW User Manual Page 38

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