windows vista

Windows Vista Basic is the entry-level desktop user experience in Windows Vista and the one you’re going to see on Windows Vista Home Basic or in other editions if you don’t meet certain hardware requirements, which we’ll discuss in just a bit. From a technological perspective, Windows Vista Basic renders the Windows desktop in roughly the same way as does Windows XP, meaning it doesn’t take advantage of Vista’s new graphical prowess.




That said, Vista Basic still provides many unique Vista features such as integrated desktop search—available via a search box in the upper right corner of every Explorer window—and Live Icons, which show live previews of the contents of document files. If you work in the IT department of a business that is considering deploying Windows Vista, you can actually roll out a feature called Classic Mode via Group Policy (GP) that does, in fact, configure Windows Vista to look almost exactly like Windows 2000. Classic Mode essentially combines the Classic user experience with the s mentioned previously. Windows Vista Basic isn’t as attractive as Windows Vista Aero, but there are actually advantages to using it. For starters, it does perform better than Aero, so it’s a good bet for lower-end computers. Notebook and Tablet PC users will notice that Vista Basic actually provides better battery life than Aero, too. So if you’re on the road and not connected to a power source, Vista Basic is a thriftier choice if you’re trying to maximize runtime.



On the flipside, Windows Vista Basic has a few major if non-obvious disadvantages. Because it uses XP-era display rendering techniques, Windows Vista Basic is not as reliable as Aero and could thus lead to system crashes and even Blue Screen crashes because of poorly written display drivers. Aero display drivers are typically far more reliable, and the Aero display itself is inherently superior to that offered by Basic.



Even if you are running Windows Vista Aero, you may still run into the occasional issue that causes the display to flash and suddenly revert back to Windows Vista Basic. For example, some applications (like Apple QuickTime Player 7) aren’t compatible with Windows Vista Aero; when you run such an application, the user experience will revert to Windows Vista Basic. When you close the offending application, Aero returns. In other cases, certain applications that use custom window rendering will actually display in a Windows Vista Basic style, even though all of the other windows in the system are utilizing Aero. These are the issues you have to deal with when Microsoft makes such a dramatic change to the Windows rendering engine, apparently