Gartner Web Development, LLC

We recently received our Microsoft Action Pack Vista “Upgrade”, and I was quite eager for a test drive. Our accountant/marketing person has a pretty beefy system, so she was the perfect candidate for the upgrade… or so it seemed.

Here’s the recommended hardware requirements for Vista Business:

• 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
• 1 GB of system memory
• 40 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space
• Support for DirectX 9 graphics with:
  • WDDM Driver
  • 128 MB of graphics memory (minimum)
  • Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware
  • 32 bits per pixel
• DVD drive
• Sound Card
• Internet

Other than the graphics, these requirements aren’t a powerhouse by most standards, but they are more than adequate resources for most business uses. Note the requirement for a DVD drive, as opposed to a regular CD drive. Windows Vista only comes on DVD. In addition to the hardware considerations, the software and peripherals that your business is using need to be evaluated as well. After some research, it was determined that IE 7 and, consequently, Windows Vista, won’t work with the accounting software that we have been using for several years. In fact, our current accounting software would need to be upgraded before our accountant could continue on with her accounting duties. There are no Vista drivers for the printers on her system either; an HP 1020 and a Minolta 2430. Our printers have been in service for less than a year, but the manufacturer’s web sites for HP and Minolta assure us that Vista supported drivers will be forthcoming. There were other issues as well, but not being able to use the current software to keep the books and losing the ability to print was enough to stop the upgrade. So…what to do?

Since I am in the business of helping small businesses make informed decisions about IT purchasing and utilization, I still needed Vista installed on a machine so it could be evaluated. With the marketing blitz that Microsoft began since before the Launch Events of January 30th, I knew that my customers would be asking about Vista. After attending one of the many simultaneous nation-wide launch events in Milwaukee myself, a three hour round trip, my interest was piqued about some of the truly useful features that were finally being introduced into the base Microsoft operating system. So, in the interest of giving my customers sound advice based on experience, I decided to sacrifice my personal laptop.

The upgrade went off without a hitch, contrary to some of the horror stories that were circulating about 6 hour installations. In fact, the upgrade took just over an hour from start to finish. After the “first boot” configuration wizard finished, I was set to explore this much anticipated Microsoft Vista!

The Vista splash screen and the nifty new operating system looked - and sounded great. Once logged on, it took a few minutes to get my bearings as I customized the Aero interface and other desktop settings. For the most part, applications and configuration settings were where you would expect them to be, but some had been renamed, and had quite a bit more flexibility and control as far as performance, security, and settings adjustments. As I started customization of this installation for my use, the Vista UAC feature reared its ugly head.

The Vista UAC, or User Access Control, is essentially designed to prevent unauthorized execution of programs, and prevent unprivileged users, (i.e. every day non-computer administrator users), from running programs that can potentially break your system. Things like viruses, spyware, and all other forms of malware have taken advantage of the ability to run unabated on previous Windows operating systems. Web browsers have been a particularly open vector in this respect, as of late. Internet Explorer 7 has taken steps to close these holes by running under a “reduced privilege” level, but browser vulnerabilities are not within the scope of this article, so back to the UAC’s initially unwelcome appearance.

Almost every setting I went to change in Vista caused the entire display to fade as the UAC stops current processes and applications so it can ask me, in the form of a pop-up dialog box, if I’m sure that I want to do what I just tried to do. While I appreciate the enhanced security that the UAC offers, I am sure, by virtue of the very fact that I just double-clicked the icon, that I do in fact want to do the very thing that I am being warned about. Office Programs and most other day-to-day software does not initiate the UAC dialog, but it is there to stop unintended system altering changes.

As you can imagine, warning after warning gets old very quickly. Mind you, I was logged on as an administrator, and I was not asked by the UAC for my credentials before being allowed to proceed. If you are logged on to a non-administrative account, you are prompted for administrative credentials before you can execute anything that can alter or break the system. This is a good thing. I get many, many calls from customers to come in and fix a system that has been broken by an employee that was doing things that they shouldn’t be doing; trying to fix this, or improve that, only to find that they’ve rendered their computer useless. Additionally, businesses with poorly instituted or no policies for acceptable network use- often find their employees Instant Messaging, downloading music, or installing “enhanced” smiley’s and cursors, etc. The Vista UAC will greatly reduce service calls due to these types of incidents.

Since I trust that the two people who use my laptop won’t break it, I turned the UAC off - annoyance gone. Well, one annoyance, anyway… there are still no drivers for my printers, and some of my productivity software isn’t supported on Vista either. Thus, I would be relegated to internet use, email, and Microsoft Office- only about two-thirds of what I need to work! My wife and I spent most of our time on Vista using the Remote Access Client to connect to our workstation desktops running XP Professional so we could work. But, because of the potential for saving service dollars, I would not recommend disabling the Vista UAC in a work/production environment.

According to Microsoft’s own statistics, nearly 72% of businesses will not deploy Windows Vista until Service Pack 1 is released, and then only as new equipment phases out the old. For reference, Windows XP Professional was release in October of 2001. Windows XP Professional Service Pack 1 was released in September of 2002. A beta for Vista SP1 is rumored to be available by the end of this year. Hopefully, this time will give third party vendors an opportunity to produce Visa compatible drivers for printers and other legacy equipment. The mass migration in the home market is, however underway now. Most new home PC’s ship with Vista Home Edition. With it’s parental controls, internet monitoring, and other security enhanced features, home users will finally get to see that the internet doesn’t have to be all pop-ups and slow system performance due to spyware infestations. That is unless parents keep letting their well informed and tech savvy kids run the home computer in administrator mode. I guess that the business world will just have to wait for now.