Looking forward to a new Vista...

System upgrade, that is

By: Matt Lewis

Posted: 5/5/09

Although it seems like a million years away, the return to school in the fall semester always confronts the average student with new changes.

New schedules, new teachers, new buildings to go to, and new classes to study for are the things students are used to changing in the coming year. But for this fall semester, a new kind of change will occur, the operating system for all campus computers will be changing from Windows XP to Windows Vista. Originally introduced in January 2007, the Vista operating system will be replacing the nearly decade-old XP operating system, effective on August 31, 2009.

Initially, the Vista operating system was heavily criticized at the time of its release because of the "bugs" that had not been worked out. The system did not immediately mesh with some computers, which caused freezes, slow-running capacity and little resistance to spyware/malware and viruses.

After two years, Microsoft has had time to counter these problems and there now exists more technical support and aftermarket programs specifically for Vista than XP. In fact, surveys showed that in 2008 more businesses standardized Vista than XP by more than 5 percent, according to Gartner research.

When asked about why the campus will be switching to Windows Vista, Randy Hall of the Instructional & Information Technology Services (IITS) said that the advantages of Vista are hard to ignore. "With Vista, we are looking at improved start-up times, security, wireless synchronization, and applications. The system has had some criticism in the past, but thanks to the release of the service pack 1 upgrade last year, we are confident it is a stable system."

Linda Scott, the Director of Academic Technology for the campus, agreed with the sentiments of the IITS and looks forward to implementing the new system this summer.
Hall also said that faculty and staff would be testing the system before it is installed everywhere, to insure its reliability.

In addition to its regular duties, the students at IITS will offer both online and face-to-face tutorials for anyone who needs help understanding the new system. It is believed, though, that the system is quite user-friendly and should be easy to get used to. So, when preparing for the new school year this fall, get ready for a new look on computers all over campus.