Microsoft Windows Vista Business 64-Bit DVD OEM

Comment:
Vista Business is an excellent step forward from XP which I loved for many years. There are some goofy parts as UAC will interfere with Adobe's FlexNet Licensing and you may have to turn it off. Also, the Aero desktop theme is a RAM hog, but if you don't use it no problem. Besides, I don't want my desktop to look like a mac anyway. Just being able to use 6+ GB of RAM and the nextgen AMD and Intel chips natively and being able to use most 32-bit based software as well as 64-bit makes Vista Biz worth the money. That and not having all of that gimmicky crap you get with Home or Ultimate, priceless.

Comment:
Most of my computer time is spent processing very large image files in Photoshop CS4 (64 bit). Using Vista Home was to slow because of all the media crap they added to it that is never used and somehow keeps renableing itself. After installing Vista Business 64 my computer was suddenly 10+ times faster and I could use all of my installed RAM. If you plan to run PS CS4 or Lightroom 2.x you will need Vista 64 bit because they will only run in 32 bit mode in any version of XP32 or XP64 bit. The Business edition is the only way to go.

Comment:
There are several must-haves in Vista. The Snipping Tool lets you easily take screenshots, the whole-computer backup tool lets you image your entire hard drive for backup purposes (only in Business and Ultimate editions), and the Search feature is awesome. You hit the blue Start button and you literally just type a few characters to instantly find any program, email, or address contact. Windows Vista is a great new product. I look forward to SP1 however as copying files over a network has occasional slowness.

Comment:
I only give 3 stars for features, implemented in Vista, which are available as add-ons for XP anyway from third-party software companies (usually free). The quality, value and the performace of the product deserve no stars at all. Vista is terrible and if you have an XP computer at home that runs fine, DO NOT upgrade.