Knight Bytes James Osborne, II,
CNA, MCP, MCSA
IT Manager | On the horizon from MicrosoftMicrosoft is set to turn the world on its ear – again. With nearly 96% of the market for desktop operating systems and application suites, Microsoft’s Windows and Office are the unofficial standard. Microsoft recently released both Windows Vista and Office 2007 to manufacturers. Systems featuring the new software should be available to the general public by the end of this month, and the boxed versions of the software should hit store shelves by early 2007.
Microsoft Windows Vista is a drastic change from earlier Windows releases, and requires a fairly powerful PC. Certain features of the new 3D desktop require the PC to be equipped with what is essentially a low-end current generation gaming video card. Windows Vista should be the most secure version of the operating system yet, featuring a number of innovations built upon the security framework of Service Pack 2. The new Operating System will be available in a number of ‘flavors,’ depending upon what features are desired; this includes two versions for home users, and three for business users.
Microsoft Office 2007 is also drastically changed from the past. For the first time since 1995, Microsoft has made significant changes to the file structures of Office documents. Gone are the traditional .DOC and .XLS binary files. Office now uses an XML based file structure, at about half the size of the old formats. Office 2007 can still open the older documents, as well as save to the older formats.
Another large change is the new ‘Ribbon Interface’. Microsoft has replaced the traditional menu and toolbars with an area of screen real estate that’s context sensitive. Highlight a table, and the table properties are displayed; highlight a picture and the picture tools are displayed.
With its latest releases, Microsoft once again offers business and home users the promise of doing things more easily, as well as more securely.
Email James at James_Osborne@mnccpa.com.
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