Product Description

Windows Vista Home Basic is the edition of Windows for basic home computing needs. If you only want to use your PC for tasks like browsing the Internet, using e-mail, or viewing photos, then Windows Vista Home Basic may be the right edition for you. While it won't provide as many benefits as Windows Vista Home Premium, it will help you use your PC more easily and more safely than you could with Windows XP.Windows Vista SP1 is an update to Windows Vista that addresses feedback from customers. In addition to previously released updates, SP1 will contain changes focused on addressing specific reliability and performance issues, supporting new types of hardware, and adding support for several emerging standards. SP1 also addresses some management, deployment, and support challenges. Product Description Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic w/SP1 - complete package Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic SP1 License Type: Complete package License Qty: 1 PC License Pricing: Standard Language(s): English Localization: North America Media: DVD-ROM Package Type: Retail

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2600 in Software
• Brand: Microsoft
• Model: 66G-02689
• Released on: 2008-03-19
• Platform: Windows Vista
• Format: DVD-ROM
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.50" h x 5.25" w x 7.50" l, .31 pounds

Features

• User-friendly software features search and organize innovations as well as improved networking opportunities
• Designed for users with the most basic computer needs
• Helps people use their PCs securely and reliably, makes it simple to stay better connected, and is compatible with the widest range of software, devices, and services that people use and trust every day
• Rich new interface, innovative ways to organize and find the information stored on your PC, and a multitude of entertainment options with live and recorded TV on your PC
• Provides the essential tools and technologies to help protect you whether you are browsing the Internet, connecting to a wireless network, or just reading e-mail

Amazon.com
Windows Vista Home Basic with Service Pack 1 is ideal for homes with basic computing needs like e-mail, browsing the Internet, and viewing photos. Easy to set up and maintain, it enables you to quickly find what you're looking for on your PC and the Internet, while providing a more secure environment to help protect you from an unpredictable world.

Compare Windows Vista editions.

Windows Photo Gallery gives you a whole new way to manage, find, and view your digital photos. View larger.

Manage your schedule, sync up with other calendars, and make sure you never miss another appointment using Windows Calendar. View larger.

Windows Mail includes features that help you minimize the annoyances and risks associated with using e-mail while enjoying the benefits of staying in touch with others. View larger.

Improved Reliability and Performance
Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 and improvements delivered by hardware and software partners increase the reliability, performance, and compatibility of Windows Vista-based PCs.

With Windows Vista with SP1, many of the most common causes of operating system crashes and hangs have been addressed. Windows Vista includes new, innovative technologies that help pinpoint and diagnose issues reported anonymously by Windows Vista-based PCs from millions of users who have elected to have their PC send us system information.

Windows Vista with SP1 supports a number of important new technology standards, so it will keep making your PC easier and more enjoyable to use for years to come.

Ideal for the basics of home computing
Windows Vista Home Basic with Service Pack 1 is the edition of Windows for basic home computing needs. If you only want to use your PC for tasks like browsing the Internet, using e-mail, or viewing photos, then Windows Vista Home Basic with Service Pack 1 may be the right edition for you. While it won't provide as many benefits as Windows Vista Home Premium, it will help you use your PC more easily and more safely than you could with Windows XP.

Windows Sidebar gives you quick access to gadgets like picture slide shows, Windows Media Player controls, or news headlines. You pick the gadgets you want to see in Windows Sidebar. View larger.

Use Instant Search to quickly find the information you need. View larger.

The first thing you'll notice about Windows Vista Home Basic with Service Pack 1 is how easy it is to find the programs and files you're looking for. The instant desktop search feature looks across all of your documents, e-mails, photos, and other files, organizing the results in the way that you want to view them. When coupled with the built-in web search of Windows Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista, you'll spend less time looking for the things that you need and more time on the activities that you care about.

Simply put, Windows Vista Home Basic with Service Pack 1 provides you with just the essentials you need for home computing.

Safety
Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 helps protect your family and your personal information from threats from malicious software and phishing scams and helps you keep your PC backed-up and running smoothly.

Parental Controls help parents keep children safer while using PCs through convenient tools to manage and monitor children's computer use, access to websites, and ability to play certain games and use certain applications.

PCs running Windows Vista are 60% less likely to be infected with viruses, worms and rootkits than PCs running Windows XP SP2.

Windows Internet Explorer 7 helps protect your PC and your personal information against malicious software, fraudulent websites, and online phishing scams. New phishing attacks are more than 25 times as common as new viruses, and over 20,000 fraudulent phishing websites are created every month. Internet Explorer 7 is now blocking nearly one million inadvertent attempts to access fake phishing sites per week.

Help defend your PC against pop-ups, slow performance, and security threats caused by spyware and other unwanted software with Windows Defender. Windows Defender in Windows Vista automatically scans Internet Explorer 7 downloads to help bring spyware to your attention before it can infect your computer.

More easily back-up the content on your PC--including digital photos, music, movies, and documents--with Scheduled and Network Backup.

Ease
It's easier and faster than ever to find, use, manage and share the information on your PC or on the Web with Windows Vista with SP1.

Most Windows Vista-based PCs boot in less than a minute, which can be an improvement over Windows XP boot times.

The Windows Vista sleep and resume features can bring your PC to life in a snap. The vast majority of Windows Vista-based PCs resume from sleep in less than six seconds.

Find it fast! Simply type something about a file, picture, or song, such as a word contained in a document or e-mail message, the artist of a song, or the date a picture was taken, and Instant Search will bring back any matches instantly.

Organize a lifetime of photos and movies with ease using Windows Photo Gallery. Tag your photos by date, keyword, star rating or any identifying label you choose--so you can find them anytime you want them.

Display live information, like weather, stocks, and news, directly on your desktop with easy-to-use Gadgets and Windows Sidebar.

View multiple web pages simultaneously with Quick Tabs in Windows Internet Explorer 7.

Get up and running faster than ever with Windows Easy Transfer that automatically copies your files and settings from your old PC.

Mobility
With special features to help you go mobile, Windows Vista with SP1 makes computing and connecting away from home or the office easier than ever.

Set up a wireless network at home with Network and Sharing Center--so you can experience the freedom of working virtually anywhere in your home. Then easily find and join a wireless network at your favorite hotspot--so you can stay productive wherever you go.

Optimize your power and mobile settings centrally with Windows Mobility Center.

Easily sync and manage your music, contacts and pictures across your devices and other PCs with Sync Center.

Customer Reviews

Basic or Bloated?...
Yes, this is Vista Home Basic, you get what you pay for, a very good operating system without a bunch of eye-candy using up system resources, which makes it a good choice for an older computer upgrade or building your own system. You just have to ask yourself if you really need Media Center, DVD Maker, more Windows games or the RAM devouring Aero Glass desktop look. If you look around there are free DVD makers, free games and probably free substitutes for Media Center. But if you are going from XP to Vista I do recommend a clean install of Vista instead of upgrading XP. So it's your choice if you want Vista Basic or Vista Ultimate Bloatware.

Re-Vista
On the whole I have been happy with my new Vista Home Basic operating system. I chose Home Basic over the other versions because I felt the extra features were nothing more than eye candy and software bloat that taxes your system resources and ram. One thing I did to optimize my experience with Vista was to install it as a new operating system, instead of upgrading Windows XP to Vista Home Basic. This freed me of any bugs or bad registry data that has collected in XP over the last 5 years. I copied only 4GB of data (important photos and documents) to a usb flash drive, then I rebooted, formatted, and installed Vista. After installation, Vista found all my drivers and downloaded them for me. After the first couple of restarts due to driver and antivirus installation, Vista runs very smoothly, in fact it starts up faster than my XP operating system did. I am docking 1 star due to the fact that the Windows disk defragmentation application no longer displays a status screen and thus you will have no idea how long it will take or how bad it is fragmented. I also feel that Microsoft should have bundled Windows Live OneCare with Vista, since they love to bundle in all their other programs.

I'm Pretty Impressed, So There You Go 5 Stars
I've been using Vista with SP1 for a couple weeks now on two different computers, my MacBook Pro and my iMac, both running on Bootcamp partitions and I have to say I'm pretty darned impressed.

I have lots of ram, ram to spare in both my machines, as I'm a Photoshop girl and both my machines are the latest and greatest Apple has to off, so I was good to go as far as hardware was concerned. I had no problems running the Aero eye candy and though it's no Leopard, it's quite nice. I liked the transparent window frames and I liked the minimizing and restoring effects, but again, I'm used to the Mac, so for me they were no great shakes.

I like the search box in the start menu, but I like spotlight better. Still it's very handy. The Widgets are a copy of Mac's Dashboard and Flip 3D is a copy of Expose, but then again Microsoft has been copying Apple for years.

I had to go online and download the printer driver again for my Brother printer, but that was no big deal and a couple of my Photoshop plugins had to be updated, but then I hadn't used them for awhile. I was just checking everything because of the new Vista install.

In conclusion I guess I'd say if you've got the hardware and are not a Mac person, this is a pretty good operating system and it seems stable. I know, I know, you've probably read all the same stuff I have about how Vista crashes and crashes and crashes and I've experienced plenty of crashes myself, but those problems seem to have been solved with the SP1 upgrade.

The Home Premium version I have on my MacBook hasn't crashed yet and Vista Ultimate on my iMac has only brought down my machine one time. Granted, it's early days yet, but as for now I'll say it again, I'm pretty impressed.

However there is one thing I just cannot seem to wrap my mind around. Why oh why are there so many versions of Vista. Well that bothered me with XP as well. Do you really need:

Vista Home Basic with SP1
Vista Home Premium with SP1
Vista Business with SP1
Ultimate with SP1
Vista Home Basic Upgrade with SP1
Vista Home Premium Upgrade with SP1
Vista Business Upgrade with SP1
Ultimate Upgrade with SP1

That's an awful lot of Vistas. Then there's:

Vista Anytime Upgrade Pack with SP1 [Home Basic to Home Premium]
Vista Anytime Upgrade Pack with SP1 [Business to Ultimate]
Vista Anytime Upgrade Pack with SP1 [Home Premium to Ultimate]
Vista Anytime Upgrade Pack with SP1 [Home Basic to Ultimate]

Come on, Microsoft, how about a one size fits all operating system like they do over in the Mac world. And this business about your copy protection, lighten up. Maybe some people do rip off Mr. Jobs' Leopard, you know buy it and put it on more than one machine, but how many computers can they use at a time. Yes, yes, maybe a husband and wife could be on at the same time, or one of the kiddies, but sheesh, give us a break.

I know you have to protect yourself from the hordes who want free software, but Apple's making a pretty penny with Leopard even while they trust their users, you could too.

Still, I guess I have to give all your Vistas with SP1 five stars, grudgingly, because of the way I think you do business, but I've got Vista working fine on two different computers, plus my husband has it on a couple others and we're not having major problems, so there you go, five stars.

Reviewed by Sara Hackett