The hype surrounding Windows Vista was too much for me so I headed out to the shop and bought a new system capable of running Vista. I did not have much of an idea of what Vista would be like. I had read the occasional article and seen a few screen shots but I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

I took it home and hooked it all up and pressed the power button. The computer came to life and there was no login required to get to the desktop. I was greeted by the Welcome Center which showed me the specs of my new computer. There were a few shortcuts to look after various tasks such as transferring data from my old computer and to add/modify user accounts. I closed this window down and had a look around.

This is a brief article explaining my first few days with Vista. I have had good look around and found many nice features. It is likely that we will all come across Vista sometime in the future and this article will prepare you for your first touch of Vista. So far I love it though it is like a Rolls Royce without a gearbox; in that it looks very nice but you can’t do much with it yet. In general, current games do not work with it and you will probably do best sticking with XP unless you only want to run Microsoft Office apps which it does well. I look forward to seeing what it is capable of as the weeks and months roll on but at this stage, it doesn’t offer a great deal.

(Update - 10 Days in: Vista is running very well and stable. I have tried to get some of my games up and running in Vista and I have had great success. Please read my article “Vista Gaming: Will your games work under Vista?” for a complete rundown of my experience with gaming in Vista.)

A detailed list of what software has been tested and is known to work under Vista is at iexbeta.com.

There are many more new features than what is listed in this article and I am sure I will find many more nice surprises as I continue using Vista. These are a few of the highlights that struck me as I started my appreciation of Vista.

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Voice over internet protocol (VOIP) has been around for a few years now and is used in many call centres and homes as a secondary line. There is no denying that it is incredibly cheap, but is it as good as a Tel-co phone line direct to your house ?

I have had Engin VOIP as the main line in my house for a year now. I got married and moved out of home. The new house already had a cable internet connection so I decided to stick with it. Signing up to the Engin VOIP service meant I would not have to rent a phone line for phone or internet services. This seemed like the ideal solution, embracing new technology to save myself money.

This article will explain my experience with the Engin service in Australia and show you the positives and negatives of using VOIP services.

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One of the most frequent questions I am asked by friends and family which have little computer experience, is what type of computer they should buy. Due to the huge range available, and the multiple uses that may or may not be involved, there can be no simple answer. It is very easy to go to the shop and spend a lot of money on a computer. But this may well be more powerful than you really need and a waste of your hard earned dollars. You can buy complete computer systems for under $1000, and you can also spend well over $10,000; but what will the benefits be? In any case, this is never going to be a small investment, so it’s important to make sure you get what you want.

Back to the basics: Part one of this article will cover some initial questions you should ask yourself when planning the purchase of a new PC. Part two gives you a brief rundown of the individual components that make up a computer system itself.

This article is written for Australian consumers though I expect much of the information would be relevant for people from around the world. The main difference would be what computers are available from the different shops.

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Following on from “How to: Buy a new computer - Part I“, which covered some initial questions you should ask yourself when buying a new PC, you should have an understanding of what you would like to do with your new computer and have an idea of what type of computer you are after. If you have not yet checked out part one, please do so before reading this article.

This section of the article we will break down the components of a computer system and show you what is important for the tasks you want to achieve with your new computer. By the end of this article, you should be armed with enough information to feel comfortable going to the shop and making your purchase.

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