Like previous versions of Windows, Windows Vista will be sold in various editions: Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise and Ultimate, along with a special Starter Edition. Only Windows Vista Ultimate Edition will include every feature possible within Vista; all other editions will include only those features that Microsoft has determined different user profiles will actually need.
Some features are included across all the different SKUs, while specific features combine with only one or two other SKUs. For example, Windows Vista Business Edition will include Aero graphics, a feature common among all editions, but Tablet PC support will be available only with the Windows Home Premium and Ultimate Editions. Features specific to the Business Edition of Windows Vista — as opposed to those found in the Home Premium Edition — are Windows Meeting Space, Windows Sharing Wizard, Windows Fax and Scan, offline access to files and folders, Roaming User Profiles, USB and smart-card authentication, wireless network provisioning, control of device drivers and group policy.
Microsoft released the Business Edition well in advance of its January 30, 2007 general release date, and small businesses requiring five or more licenses can now purchase Windows Vista Business Edition. Some of the business features, such as Fax and Scan and Remote Access, work now, but their full feature set implementation will be dependent upon new releases of Exchange Server and Windows Server, the next version of which (code-named Longhorn) is expected at the end of 2007 or early 2008.
Gone from Windows Vista is the traditional file path of folders and files separated by slashes. And instead of remembering the exact folder in which you saved a particular document, image or media file, something called Windows Vista Instant Search will point to the correct document or program. Also, unlike many desktop search applets from Google and others, Windows Vista indexes your hard drive without much of a performance hit.
Windows Meeting Space
Collaborate on office projects like never before
Say you're on an airplane with your colleagues, preparing for an important sales pitch. Before, if you wanted to collaborate on a PowerPoint presentation or a Word document with Windows XP, you'd have to share a flash drive or other media. With Windows Vista, you can create an ad hoc private network and collaborate on your proposal, even if the file uses a non-Microsoft application. This is especially convenient if your seats are far apart on the plane.
With Windows Meeting Space, one person initiates a session, allowing up to 10 designated users to share the same view of an application and to collaborate in real time. Windows Meeting Space connects either through an existing network, such as a wired or wireless LAN, or over an ad hoc wireless network. Windows Meeting Space uses Vista's People Near Me feature to see who's connected on your local network, or in your local area, and extends an invitation to join. You can invite additional remote users to join a Windows Meeting Space session via email.
The online service Windows Live Meeting is designed for collaboration across vast distances on different computer networks and desktop systems. Windows Meeting Space is a more intimate, peer-to-peer connection between computers running. Unlike Windows Live Meeting presentations, where only the presenter can make changes to the document or the file, the Windows Meeting Space initiator can pass control to others. When any change is made and saved, all versions of the open document update with those changes. By opening and sharing Microsoft OneNote, for example, attendees can share access to the whiteboard, allowing ad hoc chalk talks among participants.
File sharing
Share or access your office files with ease.
Windows Vista makes several improvements upon the basic file sharing available within Windows XP. For example, within Windows XP, you can share files on your computer with others via a log-on/log-off capability, but you can't control the rights a remote user has: they have either all rights or no rights at all. With Windows Vista, you can save a file to a private or a public folder. The Windows Vista Sharing Wizard allows you to specify who among the account users on your PC and the users on a local network will have access to the public folders. The Sharing Wizard also composes a short email with a link allowing the remote user access to the specific files to be shared. Within Windows Explorer, you can quickly display all the content that is available to be shared, and at any time, you can change a file's status from public back to private.
If you need to work from home, Windows Vista builds upon the stateless computing currently within Windows XP: Roaming User Profiles (RUP) and Folder Redirection (FR). Currently, RUP can be a long process, as it copies all of your files, while FR is more efficient, since it caches the data locally, but FR limits the amount of data you can take with you. In Vista Business Edition, Group Policy allows IT administrators to combine the two, allowing the deployment of RUP with FR enabled. For example, a user can roam only certain settings but not the bulk of data, such as documents or application data. Also, the Roaming User settings will contain the appropriate FR settings, so when a user logs on for the first time, his or her documents will start to sync with the PC's local cache. All of that synched content will, of course, work with the new search and organisation features in Windows Vista.
Remote access
Organisations can now preconfigure notebooks to directly access applications and data remotely.
If you travel as part of your job and need access to applications and data back in the office, Windows Vista Business Edition provides built-in dependable remote access. When teamed with the forthcoming new version of the Windows Server (code-named Longhorn), Windows Vista Business Edition simplifies remote access without requiring a Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection. Whether you are a mobile user working from the road or a remote user working on a home computer, Windows Vista makes it quick and easy for you to access your corporate network.
The Remote Desktop Connection feature in Vista Business Edition enables easier remote access to any resource or application. For example, a salesperson who requires remote access to a financial or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application might see an icon for that application on his or her Vista desktop. Click the icon, and an automatic Terminal Services Remote Program connection will be established over the Internet and to the Terminal Server in Windows Server Longhorn, with no need for a VPN. Organisations can pre-configure personal computers to provide direct access to applications and data remotely. Home PC users will also benefit from the same Terminal Services gateway in Windows Server Longhorn.
Windows Fax and Scan
Enhancements to this feature make it an experience that's more like using Outlook.
The ability to fax within Windows is nothing new, but under Windows Vista the feature gets a significant upgrade. In Windows XP, you can access the Fax Center via All Programs / Accessories / Communications / Fax, Fax Console. For scan and camera file importation, you can access that via All Programs / Accessories / Scan and Camera. In Windows Vista Business Edition, you simply type Fax or Scan in the Quick Search space. The new Windows Fax and Scan interface vaguely resembles Microsoft Outlook, with a directory tree along the left side, recent faxes in the upper right, and a preview pane in the lower right. It's interesting that Fax and Scan is no longer a feature of Home Premium; only the Windows Vista Business and Ultimate editions include the Windows Fax and Scan feature. That could be because future versions of Exchange Server will include the ability not only to share and store email and contact lists, but also to share and store voice messages and faxes it has received.
Scan works just as easily. Click Scan and Windows Vista lists all the available scanners and multifunction printers on the network. From there, you can set up how each device will scan a document and store the profile for later use. Previous versions of Windows allowed you to scan from a device attached to one PC. Windows Fax and Scan also allows for network integration.
Other enhancements include linking the Outlook Address Book with Windows Fax and Scan. Just click the contact you want to fax, fill in the subject line and attach any documents &mdash: just as you would when sending an email. Further, Windows Fax and Scan integrates email, fax and scanning into one user experience.
Business extras
If one of your saved search folders becomes too large, you can reorganise the results into groups or reorganise by metatags, displaying the content for sub-groups separately.
Another useful small-business feature is Windows Shadow Copy. This feature creates point-in-time copies of files as you work so that you can quickly and easily retrieve versions of a document you may have accidentally deleted. Shadow Copy creates copies on a scheduled basis of all files that have changed. Since only incremental changes are saved, minimal disk space is required. It works on single files as well as whole folders. When restoring a file, all previous versions that are different than the live copy on the disk are shown. When accessing a previous version of a folder, users can browse the folder hierarchy to see how it appeared at a previous point in time.
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