After many years in production and testing (and vast amounts of money), Microsoft released the latest versions of their core Windows operating system and Office productivity suite on January 30th 2007.

All of the products represent a major milestone in design and user interaction with new features, redesigned user interfaces and different ways of doing things.

Microsoft Windows Vista is going to be the operating system platform that many people will become familiar with.  Vista is designed to dramatically improve the computing experience of every kind of PC user - from people at home who use their PCs for simple web browsing, to business people who must organize and act on large volumes of data, to scientists who routinely perform complex mathematical analysis. To make sure that everyone has an offering tailored to meet their specific needs, there will be four primary versions of the software, each focusing on the needs of a specific type of person.

Features	Home Premium	Business	Ultimate
Most secure Windows ever with Windows Defender and Windows Firewall
Quickly find what you need with Instant Search and Windows Internet Explorer 7
Elegant Windows Aero desktop experience with Windows Flip 3D navigation
Best choice for laptops with enhanced Windows Mobility Center and Tablet PC support
Collaborate and share documents with Windows Meeting Space
Experience photos and entertainment in your living room with Windows Media Center
Enjoy Windows Media Center on TVs throughout your home with Xbox 360™ and other devices
Help protect against hardware failure with advanced business backup features
Business networking and Remote Desktop for easier connectivity
Better protect your data against loss or theft with Windows BitLocker™ Drive Encryption

For the first time in computing history, Microsoft have designed their new operating system to automatically adapt itself to the hardware specifications of the computer on which it is installed and have released guidelines as to their minimum hardware requirements (termed by Microsoft as being a Windows Vista Capable PC) which are:

However, in order to get the best experience from Windows Vista, the following specifications are recommended at the very least:

Alongside Vista, the new version of Office is also now available.  Also featuring a redesigned user interface, designed to make the most common commands more easily accessible.  New file formats allow you to store the same information in a smaller sized file and a wide range of new features such as Publish to PDF are also freely available.

We will continue to sell both Windows XP and Vista along with Office 2003 and Office 2007 for the foreseeable future as we understand that customers may prefer new systems to fit into their existing XP/2003 environments without requiring too much change.  There is no difference in cost for choosing either Office 2003 or Office 2007, different charges do apply for Windows XP and Vista and these can be found on our pricelist & PC Builder.