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Windows Vista Home Premium with SP1 | 
 enlarge | From: Microsoft Software
Category: Software
List Price: $269.99
Buy New: $219.99
You Save: $50.00 (19%)
New (25) Used (4) from $150.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  64 reviews
Sales Rank: 90
Format: Cd-rom
Platform: Windows Vista
ESRB: Mature
Media: DVD-ROM
Operating System: Windows Vista
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 1.5
nv:Software Type: Operating Systems
MPN: 66I-02387
Model: 66I-02387
UPC: 882224661256
EAN: 0882224661256
ASIN: B0013O54OE
Release Date: March 19, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Features:
| • | User-friendly software combines the features of Windows Vista Home Basic with even more impressive and user-friendly capabilities | | • | Features Windows Aero, an efficient and visually stunning interface that makes it easier to accomplish multiple tasks at once by providing a three-dimensional, real-time, animated view of all of your open applications, and documents | | • | By integrating search throughout the operating system, helps you quickly find and organize large collections of documents, pictures, movies, videos, and music | | • | Includes Windows Tablet and Touch Technology that enables you to interact with your Tablet PC-compatible computer with a digital pen or your fingertip instead of having to use a keyboard | | • | Includes all of the Windows Media Center capabilities for turning your PC into an all-in-one home entertainment center; enjoy music, photos, and DVD movies |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 is the preferred edition for home desktop and mobile PCs. It provides a breakthrough design that brings your world into sharper focus while delivering the productivity, entertainment, and security you need from your PC at home or on the go. | Compare Windows Vista editions. | 
Use Instant Search to quickly find the information you need. View larger. | 
Windows Vista Aero provides spectacular visual effects such as glass-like interface elements that you can see through. | 
The redesigned Windows Media Center in Windows Vista lets you enjoy your media throughout your home, even on your Xbox 360. View larger. | Improved Reliability and Performance
Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 and improvements delivered by hardware and software partners increase the reliability, performance, and compatibility of Windows Vista-based PCs. With Windows Vista with SP1, many of the most common causes of operating system crashes and hangs have been addressed. Windows Vista includes new, innovative technologies that help pinpoint and diagnose issues reported anonymously by Windows Vista-based PCs from millions of users who have elected to have their PC send us system information. Windows Vista with SP1 supports a number of important new technology standards, so it will keep making your PC easier and more enjoyable to use for years to come. Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 delivers more ease of use, security, and entertainment to your PC at home and on the go.
Here it is: the preferred edition of Windows for home desktop and mobile PCs. Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 delivers the productivity and entertainment that you need from your PC at home or on the go. It includes Windows Media Center, which helps you more easily enjoy your digital photos, TV, movies, and music. Plus, you'll have the peace of mind of knowing that your PC has a whole new level of security and reliability. All together, Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 redefines enjoyment in home computing. It starts with a breakthrough design that makes your PC easier to use every day. With Windows Aero, you'll experience dynamic reflections, smooth gliding animations, transparent glass-like menu bars, and the ability to switch between your open windows in a new three-dimensional layout. Instant desktop search capabilities, coupled with powerful new ways to organize and visualize your information, means you can instantly find and use the e-mails, documents, photos, music, and the other information you want, when you need it. Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 also helps keep your personal information, your PC, and your family computing experience safer than in previous versions of Windows. For example, Windows Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista includes automated defenses against malicious software and fraudulent websites so you can use your PC online with greater confidence. Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 also provides automatic backup of your files, such as your valuable digital photos, music, movies, documents, and other files, so you can relax and focus on the things you care about most. And, by using the built-in parental controls, parents can help ensure their children's computer use is appropriate and safer. And what about fun? A major advance in Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 is the dramatically improved digital entertainment experience. Windows Media Center makes organizing and enjoying photos, music, DVDs, recorded TV, and home movies easier and more fun. Enjoy the entertainment on your PC or even on your TV in the living room with an Xbox 360 wirelessly networked to your PC. Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 makes it easier to burn your photo slide shows and home movies to a professional-looking video DVD that your friends and family can watch on a DVD player or PC whenever they like. Combined with unbeatable support for gaming and music, Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 delivers a complete home entertainment experience. If you want a PC that can keep up with you while you're on the go, then you'll appreciate how Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 helps you get the most from your mobile PC. It provides simplified power management, easier wireless networking, and streamlined ways to sync with the devices that keep you connected. Because it's incredibly flexible, you can even draw and write by hand on a Tablet PC, and enjoy all of your entertainment through Windows Media Center when you're on the road, in a coffee shop, or relaxing on the couch. Mobile computing has never been like this before. Finally, Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 makes it easier than ever to set up and maintain your new PC. There are new features that make it easier to transfer all of your data and settings from your old PC to your new one and technology that helps keep your system running quickly and reliably over time. Whether you're balancing your checkbook, studying for school on your mobile PC, watching a downloaded or recorded movie at home, or sharing your favorite photos with friends on a custom DVD, the experience is much better on a PC running Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1. 
Windows Sidebar gives you quick access to gadgets like picture slide shows, Windows Media Player controls, or news headlines. You pick the gadgets you want to see in Windows Sidebar. View larger. | 
Use Flip 3D to navigate through open windows using the scroll wheel on your mouse. View larger. | Safety
Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 helps protect your family and your personal information from threats from malicious software and phishing scams and helps you keep your PC backed-up and running smoothly. Parental Controls help parents keep children safer while using PCs through convenient tools to manage and monitor children's computer use, access to websites, and ability to play certain games and use certain applications. PCs running Windows Vista are 60% less likely to be infected with viruses, worms and rootkits than PCs running Windows XP SP2. Windows Internet Explorer 7 helps protect your PC and your personal information against malicious software, fraudulent websites, and online phishing scams. New phishing attacks are more than 25 times as common as new viruses, and over 20,000 fraudulent phishing websites are created every month. Internet Explorer 7 is now blocking nearly one million inadvertent attempts to access fake phishing sites per week. Help defend your PC against pop-ups, slow performance, and security threats caused by spyware and other unwanted software with Windows Defender. Windows Defender in Windows Vista automatically scans Internet Explorer 7 downloads to help bring spyware to your attention before it can infect your computer. More easily back-up the content on your PC--including digital photos, music, movies, and documents--with Scheduled and Network Backup. Entertainment
Windows Vista with SP1 is more entertaining. With Windows Media Center, you can enjoy your digital photos and music on your TV as well as on your PC. And it can turn your PC into a digital video recorder, so you can record TV and watch it on your schedule, not theirs. Sit back and enjoy recorded TV, photos, music, home videos, games and DVDs from the comfort of your couch with Windows Media Center. Access and project your TV, music, photos, and movies to any room in your house using an Xbox 360 console connected to your wired or wireless home network. It's like having your Media Center PC wherever you have an Xbox 360! Author and burn movies, photos, and music to DVDs you can play on your PC or a DVD player with Windows DVD Maker. Live the game! It's easier for you to find, play, and manage your games with GAMES EXPLORER. Games Explorer provides detailed information including when you last played, game genre, and rating of your games. With DirectX 10, play vivid and engaging games with unrivalled realism. Also, use the same game controller with both your PC and your Xbox 360 system. Ease
It's easier and faster than ever to find, use, manage and share the information on your PC or on the Web with Windows Vista with SP1. Most Windows Vista-based PCs boot in less than a minute, which can be an improvement over Windows XP boot times. The Windows Vista sleep and resume features can bring your PC to life in a snap. The vast majority of Windows Vista-based PCs resume from sleep in less than six seconds. See everything you're working on more clearly with Windows Aero and quickly switch between windows or tasks using Windows Flip 3D. Find it fast! Simply type something about a file, picture, or song, such as a word contained in a document or e-mail message, the artist of a song, or the date a picture was taken, and Instant Search will bring back any matches instantly. Organize a lifetime of photos and movies with ease using Windows Photo Gallery. Tag your photos by date, keyword, star rating or any identifying label you choose--so you can find them anytime you want them. Display live information, like weather, stocks, and news, directly on your desktop with easy-to-use Gadgets and Windows Sidebar. View multiple web pages simultaneously with Quick Tabs in Windows Internet Explorer 7. Get up and running faster than ever with Windows Easy Transfer that automatically copies your files and settings from your old PC. Mobility
With special features to help you go mobile, Windows Vista with SP1 makes computing and connecting away from home or the office easier than ever. Work the way you want with touch and digital input and handwriting. Tablet and Touch Technology makes your notebook PC experience truly personal. Set up a wireless network at home with Network and Sharing Center--so you can experience the freedom of working virtually anywhere in your home. Then easily find and join a wireless network at your favorite hotspot--so you can stay productive wherever you go. Optimize your power and mobile settings centrally with Windows Mobility Center. Easily sync and manage your music, contacts and pictures across your devices and other PCs with Sync Center. Share your desktop or any program with Windows Meeting Space. Co-edit documents, and pass notes in class, a favorite hotspot, or where no network exists.
Product Description
This is the preferred edition of Windows for home desktop and mobile PCs. Windows Vista Home Premium delivers the productivity and entertainment that you need from your PC at home or on the go. It includes Windows Media Center, which helps you more easily enjoy your digital photos, TV, movies, and music. Plus, you'll have the peace of mind of knowing that your PC has a whole new level of security and reliability. Whether you're balancing your checkbook, studying for school on your mobile PC, watching a downloaded or recorded movie, or sharing your favorite photos with friends on a custom DVD, the experience is much better on a PC running Windows Vista Home Premium.
Windows DVD Maker - Burn your photo slide shows & home movies to a professional-looking video DVD and watch them on a DVD player or PC Windows Movie Maker - Capture, edit, and publish your digital home movies in standard or high-definition format Instant Search & Windows Internet Explorer 7 - Quickly find what you need Elegant Windows Aero desktop experience with glass-like menu bars, Windows Flip 3D, & Live Thumbnails Automatic backup of your files, such as your valuable digital photos, music, movies, documents Built-in parental controls
System Requirements 800 MHz processor & 512 MB of system memory 20 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space Super VGA graphics support
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| Customer Reviews: Read 59 more reviews...
A decent enough OS, but not a satisfactory replacement for WinXP April 29, 2008
Once you get the box the disks come in open -- which might prove to be a challenge in itself -- Vista can be a challenge for inexperienced users to install over an exiting operating system. I got it to work eventually, but it took some doing. Once it was up and running, the software worked okay, although it has its shares of annoying quirks. (But all OS do.)
Vista has been a controversial OS ever since its release. The long and short of it is: is this an improvement over Windows XP? And in my opinion, it is not. It consumes more resources than XP -- and so will likely slow most users' systems down -- but offers no substantial improvements.
As of right now, I don't see any reason to recommend that users upgrade if they're already running XP.
I'm Vista... I'm From Microsoft and I'm Here to Help You April 28, 2008
The title for this review is taken from that old joke about what are the three greatest lies every told.... one being, "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you." Quite frankly, after a week of working with the nuances and demons, along with some of the neat stuff, of Vista, I find myself less apt to recommend this version of Vista (Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (SP1)) than I was even three days ago. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.
By now, Vista is over a year old, and Microsoft has just issued its last Service Pack (SP3) for XP, and support for Windows XP with Service Pack 3, according to Microsoft's support page, ends 12 months past the 3/30/2008 release date for regular folks like you and me (developers and businesses get 24 months of support).
Of all the Operating Systems (O/S) introduced by Microsoft, Vista has been dissed more than any other, at least to my memory. Vista has really felt a terrible backlash from the business community, namely because it requires at least 1 GB of RAM to run and 15 GB's of disk space to install (versus 128MB of RAM and 1.5 GB of disk space needed for XP Professional to operate). This coupled with most businesses feeling that Vista doesn't have enough improvements to warrant an upgrade has even lead to many businesses balking at even buying computers with Vista installed on them. You may remember how Dell had to go back and start re-offering XP on the computers after they fazed it out after Vista has been on the market about six months because of new computer sales dropping because of Vista.
But, what about Vista, and especially this edition with Service Pack 1 included. I mean, in the computer world, unless you are part of the 7% who have a Mac, you are more likely married to Microsoft's products, O/S's and programs, whether you like them or not. And speaking of the Mac, Windows really shouldn't try to imitate a Mac unless it can actually pull it off, e.g. "Switch Between Windows" is a poor imitation of "Coverflow" because it doesn't keep the file view. Instead you have to activate it each time you use it.
This version of Vista with SP1 fixes over 300 bugs that were in the initial program. Is it better than say a computer with XP or even a computer that was upgraded to Vista from Windows XP? Having upgraded a computer from XP Media to Vista Home Premium, and Having installed Vista Home Premium with XP on a computer that was "Vista Ready" and had its hard drive stripped, I've got to tell you, I had less problems when I stripped everything off the computer, no matter if it was "Vista Ready," or not, and reinstalled my programs.
So, what were the issues I found:
1) When Microsoft says that Vista has more security protections built in it for the computer user, what they are not telling you is that Vista has more security protections built in it for Microsoft than XP did. In the upgrade from XP, there were two instances of Microsoft programs having to be re-registered because of the requirements of Vista, and in one of those instances, "Streets and Trips," I was told my re-registration could not be allowed because the product was already registered on another computer, which actually was the same computer, but with XP (BTW, Microsoft Encarta had to be reinstalled and Microsoft Office 2007 had to be repaired).
This wasn't a problem totally unique to Microsoft programs because when I went to listen to a song that I had purchased on iTunes several months ago, it told me that the song was now registered to play on four computers and I could register it to play on only one more computer (and this was a song that I originally bought on this same computer and had only copied it over to one other computer).
2) "My Documents," that file that Microsoft forced on folks back in the Windows 98, or was it Windows 95, days, was dropped with Vista and "Documents" was now used. For programs that saved to a file in "My Documents," like Quicken, you couldn't open the file when you started Quicken because Quicken was looking for the file under "My Documents," and "My Documents no longer existed Well, one time I could. The rest of the time, I couldn't. I found myself going to the Quicken file under "Documents," and double clicking on it. Then, Quicken would open up to deal with this file from "Documents." At that point, I saved it, and everything was hunky-dory.
3) Vista decided to use "Windows XPS Document Writer" as my default printer. After deleting this printer, which did not exist, I set as the default printer a laser printer; however, twice I have had to reset it as the default printer because Vista has reset as my default printer an inkjet printer, that costs more to operate.
4) If you have an HP networked printer, and quite frankly, I think this might be a problem for all printers that are networked, after I installed Vista Home Premium with SP1 I started having printers being removed (uninstalled) on their own. I never had this problem with XP, and in researching the issue at HP, I found that HP has a small (838K) patch that fixes this. Be sure to install this before you install Vista, and if you suddenly have the problem again, reinstall the patch.
I could go on-and-on about what I went through in installing Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1, but I think you get the point already.
I do believe that it is a good O/S, and that it is not just a Band-Aide for another year or two, like Microsoft Me was, so you have better get used to it. I would do the following before installing it:
1) Get an external hard drive and save your pictures, documents, etc., to it.
2) Make sure you have at least 2 GB of RAM. BTW, many computers say that you can have more RAM, say 4 GB to 8 GB, and I've always thought more was better; however, Vista can only use 3.3 GB of RAM in Vistas 32-bit version, so save your money on getting more than 2GB's, unless there is a way for you to install 3 GB's.
Reformat your drive and begin with everything fresh on your computer. While loading Vista is a four-hour job in itself, you will save you a lot of frustration by reloading everything else fresh. Before beginning this, though, go to your printer's web site and download the Vista version of the printer's software.
One other tip I might add is to turn-off the user account control until you get everything running smoothly on your computer. If you don't, it will be asking you every time you do something if this is something you really want to do.
Finally, the age old question is this... Would you install Vista Home Premium with SP 1 now? No... I would wait until they came-out with SP2 or get it pre-installed on a new computer. Because of this, I gave Vista with SP1 only 3 stars because I like the product.... I just do not like the hassle I went through after installing it. (I will try to upload some pictures that show the type of issues I came across).
 WOW...it sucks. April 24, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I used this OS for about 9 months on my HP, until Vista encountered a folder corruption problem. The PC could not boot to the desktop, and it forced me to do a complete reinstall (since Vista does NOT offer a non-destructive recovery option). So after losing tons of data, I re-installed XP Pro instead. This same HP computer is now a blazing-fast computer powerhouse, which I didnt even realize was possible since I had this awful Vista installed.
While Vista 'looks' nice, now that I am using XP Pro again, I am wondering why Microsoft even bothered with this garbage; and I am further wondering how the heck they can legally call it an "upgrade." Vista uses probably 10-15 times the resources of XP, takes up triple the space, and runs considerably SLOWER than XP because at any given time there are at least 60 or 70 processes running. Copying files takes FOREVER, and the boot times are agonizingly slow. It literally took my 3 to 6 minutes to boot up the darn thing (no spyware, I checked). XP Pro takes about 30 seconds on the same machine. It is also a RAM hog...usually just idling, Vista will use about 1 to 1.5 gigs of RAM. Plus factor in the hardware, software, and driver incompatibilities, the stupid folder navigation system (HATE the drop menus) and UAC ("are you sure you want to allow this review?" ARGH!!!) and its just a mess. The only reason Microsoft is pushing this OS is all the stupid DRM they built into it.
Stay away from Vista. Sign the petition to keep XP! And no...Mac is not a better option unless you want to be locked into one type of hardware configuration!
Simply the Worst OP I've Ever Used April 24, 2008
Ignore the fact that Vista has twice decided to format my hard drive for absolutely no reason causing me to lose a solid bit of art work, music, and writing I've put together and hadn't yet had the chance to back up causing me to have to start some rather important projects from square one and leaving me in such a horrid state of "pissed" that words simple escape me, it is slow, bogged down with utterly unnecessary bells and whistles, has no problem failing at random points for no appearent reason. As a life-long p.c. user this has almost made me make the jump to Mac, but for right now, I'll just make a blind search for my scratched and dated burned copy of XP.
 Last of the standalone OS? April 24, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This operating system replaces the popular, robust and successful XP. While not a roaring success itself, this version is pretty much the "do-all" version, including Windows Media Center which I find is an improvement on my XP home version.
The operating systems of the future may be modular with a monthly "rental"--much like your anti-virus that you renew by subscription every year. What with the discontinuance of patches to security holes in XP, Vista seems to be a viable way to go for newer PC's. Older PC's with slower CPU's and little memory may need to stay on XP. This may be the last of the standalone, you-own operating systems. If you are concerned about future security patches, upgrading to Vista may be the right move for you.
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