www.microsoft.com/windowsvista

“Windows Vista introduces a breakthrough user experience and is designed to help you feel confident in your ability to view, find and organize information and to control your computing experience,” according to the Microsoft Windows Vista Web site, www.microsoft.com/windowsvista.

The user-friendly experience that Vista will provide includes such improved items as a new Internet Explorer 7, Windows SuperFetch (a program to help maximize the use of available RAM) and a Speech Recognition option that will allow users the opportunity to “interact with their computers by voice,” according to the Microsoft Vista Web site.

Microsoft Vista will also facilitate the user’s ability to find and access pictures, music and files through the use of a search bar feature. The search bar feature will be similar to a search engine and will allow all documents on the computer to be searched.

For Shaun Sessions, a computer support representative in the Computer Support Department at BYU-I, his avenue of sight into the world of Vista has already begun due to his involvement in beta testing the new program. Sessions volunteered to be a beta tester last year upon hearing Microsoft was looking for candidates.

He felt it would allow him to see what Vista had to offer BYU-Idaho and the impact it might have.

“Beta testing is when you create something new, you want to test it and figure out all the bugs,” Sessions said.

Beta testing is done by individuals called “betars.” Microsoft has internal and external betars that run through the program over a period of time and report their feedback and any problems that were found. As problems are found and updates are made, the betars will continue to test the software until the new program comes out.

“Ultimately, when they get to a final product and they decide it’s good enough, that’s when it comes out,” Sessions said.

Companies generally set a target date of when they would like to have the product on the market.

Originally Microsoft wanted to have Vista out in time for the Christmas holiday, but due to legal and code issues it is now projected to come out next year.

BYU-Idaho will see the effects of this new operating system in the near future.

“We will [switch over], but we will do it gradually. A lot of [the older computers] aren’t going to support it very well…[but] eventually they’ll all have it,” said Steve Hancock, a computer support representative for the Computer Support Department.

Many older computers won’t support it well because Windows Vista requires more memory, a faster processor and more hardware space than the current Windows programs.

The university usually updates its computers every few years, so computers that aren’t currently Vista-capable will be replaced eventually with computers that are capable Hancock said.

“There’s a gradual progression on this campus because we rotate the computers… [we] won’t go backwards with XP or word unless there’s a specific need,” Sessions said.

For many students the change will be gradual also. The Integrated Core Business (IBC) program sponsored through the Business Management Department now requires laptops for all its students. Students who have bought a laptop for this program, or will soon buy one, will be faced with the decision of whether or not to buy the new program or Vista capable hardware.

“I wouldn’t upgrade my laptop now, but the next laptop I get would definitely have [Vista] on it,” said Melanie Bonnet, a senior from Salt Lake City, Utah.