Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate FULL VERSION [DVD] [OLD VERSION]

by Microsoft

Product Features

• Mobility-based operating system meets all computing needs whether you're working from home, working on road, or searching for entertainment options
• Combines all the features of a business-focused operating system,
• All the efficiency features of a mobility-focused operating system,
• And all of the digital entertainment features of a consumer-focused operating system

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B000HCTYTE
• Item model number: 66R-00002
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 15, 2006
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (163 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #720 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #29 in Software > Operating Systems > Microsoft Windows

Product Description

Amazon.com

The most comprehensive edition of Windows Vista, Windows Vista Ultimate (DVD-ROM) is the first operating system that combines all of the advanced infrastructure features of a business-focused operating system, all of the management and efficiency features of a mobility-focused operating system, and all of the digital entertainment features of a consumer-focused operating system.

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 Flip 3D to navigate through open windows using the scroll wheel on your mouse. View larger.

Compare Windows Vista editions.

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

Windows Vista Aero provides spectacular visual effects such as glass-like interface elements that you can see through.

The redesigned Windows Media Center in Windows Vista lets you enjoy your media throughout your home, even on your Xbox 360. View larger.

For the person who wants one operating system that is great for working from home, working on the road, and for entertainment, Windows Vista Ultimate is a no-compromise operating system that lets you have it all.

Easier, Faster Access to Information
Windows Vista Ultimate features Windows Aero, a new interface that delivers higher levels of efficiency for any business user. This easy-to-use interface makes it a snap to navigate through the operating system and from application to application. Most importantly, Windows Aero helps you juggle multiple tasks at once by providing a three-dimensional, real-time, animated view of all your open applications and documents. And for those businesses that do work in other countries, Windows Vista Ultimate supports all worldwide interface languages.

Breakthrough Windows Vista Experience
Designed to help you feel confident in your ability to view, find, and organize information and to control your computing experience, all editions of Windows Vista introduce a breakthrough user experience. The visual sophistication of Windows Vista helps streamline your computing experience by refining common window elements so you can better focus on the content on the screen rather than on how to access it. The desktop experience is more informative, intuitive, and helpful. And new tools bring better clarity to the information on your computer, so you can see what your files contain without opening them, find applications and files instantly, navigate efficiently among open windows, and use wizards and dialog boxes more confidently.

Work From Home
Windows Vista Ultimate includes all of the features that make it easy to remotely connect to business networks. This means that when you're working from home, you'll have advanced networking capabilities, such as the ability to join a domain, support for Group Policy, and access to features such as Remote Desktop. Windows Vista Ultimate also includes Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption that provides improved levels of protection against theft for your important business data whether you are at home, on the road, or in the office.

More Entertainment Options
Windows Vista Ultimate delivers all of the entertainment features available in Windows Vista Home Premium, and includes everything you need to enjoy the latest in digital photography, music, movies, analog TV, or even HDTV. Ultimate also has helpful tools such as Windows Photo Gallery and Windows Movie Maker to ensure that you have everything you need to collect, manage, and edit your digital content. It also includes Windows Media Center for turning your PC into an all-in-one home entertainment center.

Versatile Operation
Windows Vista Ultimate truly lives up to its name by delivering all of the features both business and home users want and need. It is the ideal solution for both a small-business owner who wants a single PC that he or she can use at the office, on the road, and at home, and for someone who wants a home PC that will be used primarily for entertainment purposes but that can also be used for business purposes such as connecting to a corporate network.

Product Description

Windows Vista Ultimate is the flagship edition of Windows Vista across consumer and small business desktop PCs and mobile PCs. The primary user of Windows Vista Ultimate is the individual, such as a small business owner, who has a single PC to use both at home and at work. This edition includes all of the features available in Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Enterprise. Windows Vista Ultimate is the first operating system that combines the advanced infrastructure of a business-focused operating system, the productivity of a mobility-focused operating system, and the digital entertainment features of a consumer-focused operating system. For users who want their PC to be great for working at home, on the go, and at the office, Windows Vista Ultimate is the no-compromise operating system that provides it all.

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

217 of 243 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Second verse, same as the first but twice as loud and a whole lot worse. May 2, 2007

By Pecos Bill TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Meh.

Vista reminds me of Windows XP except:
1) It's prettier. Hey, translucent window frames! Neato.

2) It's far more annoying. Have you seen that "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" commercial where the secret service guy is standing behind the PC asking him to approve or disapprove everything? Vista is totally like that. It's extremely annoying. Simply trying to run a built-in program from Windows' own control panel will pop up a box asking me if I want to run it. What's up with that? I just clicked it, so yes, I want to run it. You'll run into a lot of these and they don't really improve security because after the first 100 times, you're not even going to read the box anymore. One day it will say, "A hideous virus wants to delete your hard drive and send nastygrams to the President. Approve?" and I'm going to say yes simply out of habit.

I also say this feature fails the "dad" test. Is my dad going to know when to approve or disapprove things? I can picture him puzzling over the dialogue, wondering why it's asking him that.

3) There's a problem with Vista wireless networking. You can find people talking about it through Google but there's nothing on the Microsoft site about it. Every 60 seconds, Vista polls for new wireless networks whether it needs to or not, which will give you a ping spike. If you're surfing or downloading you won't notice, but if you're gaming, it's extremely aggravating. If you switch to a wire, the problem will go away. If you switch to XP, the problem will go away. It's purely a problem with Vista wireless.

4) What I really care about are my other programs, not my operating system.... We are getting an ever more aggressive, annoying and resource hogging operating system when all we really want it to do is shut up, sit down and enable me to run my other programs without too much interference. Microsoft seems to think that most people log on purely to enjoy the operating system. No, we log on to enjoy our OTHER programs so this big bloated operating system is just getting in the way and hogging the resources that our other programs wish they had.

I would love to see a "Windows Skeleton" operating system that simply stripped out all the annoying, resource hogging junk I didn't want and let me run my applications in peace.

Edit:
I've been using Vista for a while now and I just want to say I still stand behind my initial 2-star rating. My final analysis:

Stick with Windows XP for as long as possible.

I think the bottom line is that Microsoft's efforts to improve security and kowtow to concepts like DRM have created a problem worse than the initial threat. I've gone for years with nary a hit on the various anti-virus programs I've used, and yet here I sit with a crippled operating system which seeks to save me from a problem that I never really had to begin with.

And it's true what they say about gaming: some of my games are experiencing problems which only occur in Vista. I don't know the technical source of those problems, but only Vista users are getting them.

The semi-mandatory "driver signing" is annoying too, and will only get worse with Windows Server 2008. I download brand-name drivers from companies like Nvidia and I have to follow their directions that basically say, "ignore all the Vista warning messages you're going to get".

Vista is just downright unfriendly to the consumer AND to the developer.

I second the motion that you should at least wait until Service Pack 1 is out, but truthfully, I'd suggest just running Windows XP until you're absolutely forced to upgrade for some reason.

Edit 2 (December 07):
The way Vista separates Administrators from Peasants on your home system really doesn't help anything. A lot of the programs out there have an auto-update section which doesn't work unless you run the program as an Administrator, which means quite a lot of stuff has to be run as an administrator, which means the whole act of separating it out is nothing but another poorly thought out "security" measure that adds way more in annoyance than it adds in actual security.

Also, I was going to access Microsoft Support to notify them of a bug I'd found, which is highly annoying and easily reproducible. On their support web site I find this gem:
"90-day no-charge support begins on the following dates:

* From the date you place your first support request.
* For Windows Vista, from the date you activate the product.

Cost:$59.00 US per support request after all no-charge support is used."

So wait...

It's going to cost me $60 to report this bug in your software?

And if I'd bought XP, I could report it for free since it would be my first support call, but since I bought Vista and activated it more than 90 days ago, it's going to cost me?

Chalk that up as yet another reason to not buy Vista. Stick with Windows XP. Read more ›

51 of 67 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars RTM is a surprising improvement over beta builds and RCs. December 22, 2006

By The Greg

I tested various beta builds of Vista throughout its development process, and I must confess I thought I would end up hating the end product. However, Microsoft has cleaned up the final build nicely and the RTM is very much a polished product. The new Aero interface is pretty slick, and the visual effects are delightful (though hardware intensive). In addition, the new Sidebar allows you to customize your desktop with various gadgets such as calendar, weather, news headlines, or notes. User Account Control will take some getting used to, although it does help to bolster Vista's security; anti-virus software is incompatible with Vista due to hardened security, so the onus is now on users not to click anything stupid.

While the new eye candy and tightened security are certainly exciting, there are a few drawbacks that prevent me from giving this product a 5-star rating. Most are "what ifs" but are still worth considering.

First, Windows Vista has been thought to contain significantly restrictive DRM technology. In particular, I have not yet been able to determine whether or not Vista complies with the CGMS-A standard and obeys broadcast flags on analog TV signals. If so, this would allow broadcast and cable channels to specify whether or not content could be recorded. It seems ironic that your 20-year-old VCR might serve you better when it comes to recording television than your brand new Vista PC's Media Center would.

Second, Microsoft has been pushing its Genuine Software Initiative. The Product Activation scheme devised for Windows XP has been taken a step further, with Vista reverting to a "Reduced Functionality Mode" if it is not activated.... However, one major difference in Vista is the ability to force a machine into Reduced Functionality Mode once it has already been activated. If you have Windows XP and ever tried to download anything from the Microsoft site (including Automatic Updates), you might remember having to validate your copy of Windows. If your license was deemed "genuine" you were able to download your updates or the new version of Windows Media player, and if you were determined to have an illegal copy of Windows you were refused access to the downloads. The consequences of having an illegal copy were minimal: you couldn't get some of the latest and greates utilities, but you could still use your operating system. In Vista, this has all changed. If your computer fails a Genuine Advantage check, Microsoft will flip what techies lovingly refer to as the "kill switch". Once you fail the genuine advantage check you will be constantly prompted to reactivate and your computer will revert to Reduced Functionality Mode if you fail to do so. Most people would say "so what? I paid for my license, so I'll be fine." However, the first round of the Genuine Advantage program under Windows XP caused so many problems that even Microsoft published a workaround for if your machine was erroneously denied access. Unless Microsoft has made some drastic improvements to the Genuine Advantage technology, many people will again find themselves blacklisted by Microsoft for no apparent reason - and this time the stakes are higher because the end result can be that your operating system is forced into Reduced Functionality Mode, effectively rendering it useless.

DRM and licensing restrictions have long been a gripe of technology enthusiasts. Together, they combine to offer the end user less control over his/her machine than ever before. This, coupled with the ever-present privacy concerns over Windows needing to "phone home" all the time just to guarantee a valid license, is no small cause for concern. It remains to be seen how intrusive these new technologies will be, but the potential for disaster is certainly present.

Big brother aside, performance issues also work against Vista. Windows is now more of a CPU, memory, and graphics hog than ever before. While I have not noticed considerably slower performance, I have noticed shortened battery life on my laptop while running Vista. Despite the "advanced" options for enhancing the mobile experience, I am not convinced that Vista will be a viable choice for laptops.

Overall, new features and a revamped GUI provide a nice experience - if your hardware can handle it. Despite the improvements, I still have concerns over DRM and the "kill switch" that prevent a 5 star rating. Hopefully time will prove me wrong. Read more ›

20 of 25 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars VISTA is terrible; stick with XP or go to OSX December 6, 2007

By Tech Guy

I'm the IT administrator for a medium-sized business. I've installed every version of DOS and Windows Microsoft has put out since the early 80s. VISTA is the worst operating system I've ever seen. It is BUGGY, UNINTUITIVE, a RESOURCE HOG, and INTRUSIVE.

The browse boxes are so unintuitive, it is hard to figure out what Microsoft had in mind. They removed the "up one level" button in favor of a button that gives you a list of your most recently viewed folders. It takes lots more clicking around to get to the folder you want. This is total STUPIDITY.

The wireless networking is so buggy as to be nearly useless. You'll need to continuously reboot your machine to get your connection to work.

You'll come to hate the "whirli-gig" and you'll get lots of NOT RESPONDING messages when you try to launch or use applications. If I had a dollar for every time I got a NOT RESPONDING message, our Dell M1330 laptop would be free by now.

So often, I'll launch an application and the whirli-gig will come on the screen and then I wait . . . and wait . . . and wait . . . and wait. What is this Core Two Duo laptop doing??? VISTA has so many intrusive processes, it is frustrating to even launch an application (and my machine is a 2.4 GHZ Core 2 Duo with 4GB of RAM and a 7200 RPM drive). This machine would fly on XP.

If you enjoy spending lots of time trying to figure out why your machine won't do simple things reliably, if you want to spend lots of time talking to technical support people with thick accents who really can't help you because the operating system is basically JUNK, then by all means buy VISTA....

We are abandoning our VISTA experiment and going back to XP because it is reasonably reliable and because we need to get things done on the computer rather than always battling with its VISTA-isms. VISTA is a huge step backwards for Microsoft and I seriously doubt that Service Pack 1 will be enough to fix such major design flaws. Maybe when they come out with VISTA RELEASE 2 their poor sales will force them to listen to consumers.

Buy VISTA at your own risk. Don't say you weren't warned!! Read more ›