Making Headlines

It's no secret that Fort Lauderdale computer repair organizations have been receiving numerous questions, particularly lately, regarding Windows Vista - and that its anti-piracy provisions are a focal point of the user inquiries.

Indeed, Windows Vista comes in many flavors, and is still causing some problems with consumers that need to be resolved for optimum use.

Below, computer repair a company owner and columnist tries to get to the bottom of some of the more common Windows Vista snafus.

In the Windows XP world, things were a more simple: Home users picked XP Home, business users and higher-end home users selected XP Professional. Made sense. But with Vista, things have changed.

Closer to the bottom of the spectrum, Fort Lauderdale computer repair experts find that users elect Vista Home Basic, which is fine if you have an older PC and a built-in graphics card. If you use your PC to browse the Web and read e-mail for the most part, this version will be fine for you.

No matter what a Ft. Lauderdale computer service tells you, dropping more money to get a higher version you won't get any benefit from doesn't make an iota of sense. Go with what you know and what you need.

Then there is Vista Home Premium, which adds the elegant Aero interface if you have the graphics card acumen to pull it off. This is the version for most users of Windows XP Pro.

Most computer services believe this is the minimum choice for laptop users because it adds the Windows Mobility features and support for tablet PCs.

It also has the Windows Media Center options to interface with your TV if you are trying to play Tivo with Window. But make sure you have a decent video card and a gig of RAM before attempting.

Next up is Windows Vista Business, which offers the same basic features as Premium but adds a complete backup-and-restore system, remote desktop capability and Windows Movie Maker. Very cool.

The high-end user will want Windows Vista Ultimate, which has everything built in, including hard-drive encryption and all the bells and whistles one can take to the LAN party.

If you're not sure if your PC can handle Vista, run a pre-qualification on Microsoft's site. Download it, run it, and it will tell you what parts of your existing computer are not good enough to get the most out of Vista.

Pay close attention, because if it says your system is lacking something needed to run Vista, and you install it anyway, the software likely won't install or will run slowly - if at all.

Fort Lauderdale computer repair experts report that Microsoft is ramping up its piracy protection programs for Vista.

If it detects overused, pirated or invalid licenses, the software will enter a "non-genuine state" and you'll have 30 days to buy a real license. If you don't, your desktop will shut down, and you will get a black screen and the use of IE for 60 minutes a day. Not a lot of fun.

Microsoft says users should "avoid reduced functionality" and use only licensed software. The company is getting hammered with piracy and may be including similar technology in upcoming server systems.

The key will be whether said technology makes the grade. If a couple of Broward computer repair firms see a few extra cases because of PCs shutting down, that's one thing. Major corporations having problems is quite another!