Windows Vista: Look How Far We've Come

We know that's what some people are saying on the Internet. And in its early days, Windows Vista did experience some compatibility problems. But thanks to our industry partners' efforts during the past 18 months, here's where things stand today.

Now supports nearly 77,000 hardware products—more than double the number supported at launch. In 9 out of 10 cases when you plug in a device, it should just work. No installation disc is required.

Runs 97 of the top 100 consumer software programs, including Apple iTunes, Adobe Photoshop, Intuit QuickBooks and more. In total, more than 2,700 applications are now certified to work on Windows Vista—and more join the list each day.

Runs the leading small business applications. Windows Vista supports software from Adobe, Autodesk, Avanquest, CA, Corel, Intuit, McAfee, Sage, Symantec, Trend Micro, and others.

Received a top-to-bottom tune up thanks to Windows Vista Service Pack 1. Released in February 2008, SP1 boosts file copying speed, shutters security loopholes, and much more. (Read more about Windows Vista SP1.)

See how we're going to keep improving Windows Vista in the years ahead.

Windows XP is a great operating system. Its continuing popularity, just shy of its seventh birthday, makes us proud.

Our goal is always to make each new version of Windows better than the last. With Windows Vista, we're convinced we succeeded.

What does Windows Vista have over its predecessor? Some highlights:

Stronger security. Windows Vista has fewer than half the security vulnerabilities of Windows XP. It's also 60% less likely to be infected by spyware or malware than Windows XP SP2. The most secure Windows release to date.

Faster searching. Find stuff—documents, e-mail, photos, movies—fast with powerful, speedy Instant Search.

TV, music, movies & photos. Watch and record TV with Windows Media Center*. Edit HD video with Windows Movie Maker*. Manage your mushrooming digital snapshot collection with Windows Photo Gallery.

Greater productivity. Work smarter, not harder. Windows Mobility Center, Windows Meeting Space and Sync Center help you efficiently synchronize and stay connected to key information, people and devices.

More peace of mind. Protect your family with powerful new Parental Controls. Safeguard your precious data with the new Windows Backup and Restore Center and Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption**.

Sexier! Sure, Windows Vista gets a lot of compliments on its aesthetics. But its style serves an important purpose: to put everything within a click's reach and make you more productive.

See the complete list of features in Windows Vista.

There's lots of ways to think about operating system performance. Let's consider a few of the most common ones.

Speed

Nobody likes to wait. By installing Windows Vista Service Pack 1, you'll be waiting less than you used to. Microsoft tests on new PCs show that SP1 can slash average startup and shutdown times for Windows Vista by as much as half.

Meanwhile, a series of independent speed tests found that Windows Vista with SP1 performed comparably to Windows XP SP2.

Why doesn't it win? Simple. Behind the scenes, Windows Vista is doing a lot more on your behalf than Windows XP does. It's indexing your files so you can find them fast, keeping your hard drive organized, saving your work so nothing gets lost, and defending your computer against hackers and phishers.

Power consumption

"How much battery life do you get?" It's a question we often hear. With Windows Vista you're likely to get a lot more. Our engineers put a lot of thought into power management. For your sake, and the planet's.

The latest generation of Windows Vista drivers can slash laptop power consumption as much as 10% when your computer is idle. In sleep mode, Windows Vista draws about as much power as a common nightlight. Every 10 PCs that switch to Windows Vista is the equivalent of taking an automobile off the road , in terms of greenhouse gasses.