Review: Microsoft Windows Vista operating system

Windows Vista, Microsoft's next operating system, has been many years in the making, but after all the hype and promises, it is finally here.

Much of the talk of the latest version of Windows has centred not only around what the new operating system has to offer, but the number of versions there are to choose from.

In this review, we're going to concentrate on the three versions which are going to be of most interest to the home user - Home Basic, Home Premium and Ultimate.

The first most noticeable thing about Windows Vista is how similar it looks to Windows XP. But after a short while, it soon becomes clear that Vista works in a very different way. See our Vista image gallery.

The redesigned Start button all but eliminates traditional pop-out menus - click on the All Programs group and the contents expand in much the same way as a folder in Windows Explorer. While this saves on screen space, helping to keep things neat and tidy, it is something that is going to take some getting used to.

Similarly, navigating folders is also somewhat different to the XP method. Users of Internet Explorer 7 will be aware that the menu bar has disappeared. And this extends to Vista.

Buttons at the top of folder windows provide access to common tasks while others are accessible from a right mouse click. Menus can be re-enabled by pressing the Alt key, though.

The address bar provides an excellent means of navigating around your hard disk, and you're no longer restricted to using the folder tree structure to jump from one location to another.

If the address bar reads C: > Users > Bob > Documents > Work, it is possible to click on the word Bob to jump straight to Bob's other files, or Documents to return to the equivalent of the My Documents folder. Alternat i vely, click on any of the arrows between folder labels to view a menu containing a list of subfolders for selection.

Despite scare stories about massive hardware requirements, Vista will run on any relatively modern computer. 512Mb of memory really is an absolute minimum requirement, but there are few computers that fail to meet this specification.

A reasonable graphics card is needed for the visually impressive Aero to function correctly, but any features which Windows deems will slow down your system too much will be automatically disabled.