If you get TechNet or MSDN, you have access to Beta 2 of Windows Vista now. If you don’t, then I am afraid you will have to wait a little bit longer. To find out when you can download if you do not have access, go to http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/get_it.mspx to pre-register for the Community Tech Preview.

The official Microsoft page at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/features/forbiz/smallbiz.mspx for information as to why it is applicable for small businesses is a little thin today. However, I have been talking to small businesses and small business partners for a while and the 3 hot topics on Vista appear to be:

1. Make me safer
2. Make it easier to do what I want to do
3. Make my PC more reliable

Depending on your point of view, these are either really simple, or really complex, but in terms of Vista, this is how I think it breaks down. There are obviously thousands of Vista features, but these too me start to make it a no-brainer

Make me safer

1. Better security features (admin users and virtualization)
2. Web Browsing – anti-phishing and protected-mode browsing`
3. Windows Defender – anti-spyware
4. Previous document versions – if I overwrite a document, I can now access it on my hard disk and go back to previous documents – look at the bottom of the link for Volume Shadow Copies

Make it easier

• Find stuff – documents, control panel items, urls, programs
• Manage windows
• Finding new features

Make my PC reliable

• Building images for deployments
• Patch management
• Reliability monitor
• More Policy control

This is just a quick overview – I will blog more over the coming weeks, linking to Vista features and how it impacts solutions delivered by Microsoft Partners.

Ttfn

David