Conclusion

Despite a confusing array of editions that segment the features important to businesses in an arbitrary manner (or to encourage customers to use Enterprise Agreements or Software Assurance contracts to get all the new features), and the significant hardware requirements that will require most users to have a new computer for Vista, the new edition of Windows does offer business users significant advantages.

In particular, organizations will benefit from the new security improvements, including the ability to run with least privileges with User Account Control, and the ability to encrypt important information to secure data from unauthorized use or exposure.

It will also be easier for large organizations to manage Vista computers centrally using Group Policy and to support employees using Vista on laptop or mobile computers. The deployment of Vista (and the Office 2007 system) should be facilitated by the new imaging technology, although using this efficiently will require learning the new techniques and tools.