The Vista Alternative

The best alternative to Windows Vista may be something you already own:
Windows XP

Microsoft will continue to support XP at least through 2008, when it released a major security update for XP, service pack 3.And don’t be surprise if support is stretched till 2009 since the response to Vista has been underwhelming and there’s a tremendous demand for continuance of XP. There’s no reason not to by Vista with a new PC, particularly if you are a gamer or a performance freak. But there’s no reason to rush, either, if you are mostly web browsing, e- mailing, printing photos and writing occasional memos. Your current XP installation just needs a tune up and minor upgrade with ad-ins that mimic vista functions.
Perform a clean install of XP, ideally on a new hard drive. Spyware, viruses, rootkits, bogus registry entries, software you should have thrown out, damaged files, old copies of old copies, even problematic network settings-all conspire to slow down your computer.


Yes, you can correct most of these problems by hand of with various programs, but its often easier to start over. First delete the programs and file you don’t regularly use. Then use XP’s Files and Settings Transfer Wizard (Start/Accessories/System Tools/Files and Settings Transfer Wizard) to backup all your relevant files. Pay particular attention to your address book and favourites. The safest method is to save file across a network to another computer, although the wizard has options for removable discs and even your hard drive.
If you have particularly valuable files, copy them off separately to a CD or DVD.


Since hard drives are cheap it pays to buy a new one for a new install and keep your old one intact as a security blanket until you’ve “migrated”. If you use your old drive to store the transfer files, you can restore from it. With a laptop installing a hard drive is a lot tougher-you might want to get a cheap usb hard drive to store your transfer files.


Now comes the real pain: PCs usually come with a system restore disk that is an image of windows plus whatever free softwares were included. Generally this will wipe your drive and rebuild your pc on its original software. At the point, you need to download various updates (in explorer, see Tools/Windows Update).This is not something to put off as most updates relate to security.

Just getting Windows up to snuff kills most of a day by the time you have sorted out hard drive installation and downloaded all these files.
If you have reinstalled XP recently, you will note that one tremendous advantage of Vista is that it is a complete product (with little updating required).I saved a couple of hours over an XP reinstall, even if it did kill my sound card.
Once you have XP up and running again it is time to Vistafy it. A lot of the technology developed for Vista is available for XP as well.

Security is your first priority, since you want to keep that clean new XP copy healty. Download Windows Defender (Microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx),Microsoft’s anti-spyware solution, along with a decent anti virus-package.


The next worthy Vista component you should add is Windows Live Mail (get.live.com/betas/maildesk top_betas), a long overdue update to Outlook Express. It will ofcourse, import your mail and address books when you install it.
Live Mail’s main new feature, however is an excellent and flexible spam filter that quickly sorts incoming mail into legitimate inbox and junk categories. You can set it to keep all your mail, reject only the most obvious spam, or nail all the spam, most likely along with some real mail. However it is quite easy to go through the list of new junk mail and restore the “oopsies”.

There is a whitelist option-for example, e-mail from people you trust is never thrown out-as well as blacklisting options for people and even countries. Spam filtering also tends to keep out various digital nasties that hitch rides on email.
If Microsoft’s automatic update doesn’t download Internet Explorer7 (Microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/default.mspx), you will want to add it to your collection too. Lots of improved security, as well as useful features like tabs for browsing. But aficionados still give OpenSource Firefox the edge.

Vista Upgrade - Windows 7