I have received numerous questions lately about Microsoft Windows Vista, including some about its anti-piracy provisions. Let's see if we can get some common ground once and for all and answer some common questions.

First of all, Vista comes in many flavors. In the Windows XP world, things were a little more simple: home users picked "XP Home," and business users and higher-end home users selected "XP Professional" because most needed to join a domain.

With Vista, things have changed. At the bottom end is "Vista Home Basic," which should be fine if you have an older PC and a built-in graphics card (i.e., not one separate from your motherboard). If you use your PC just to browse the Web and read e-mail, this is your version. There's no sense spending more money to get a higher version because you won't get any benefit from it anyway.

Next up is "Vista Home Premium" which adds the elegant "Aero" interface if you have the graphics card chops to pull it off. This is the version for most users of Windows XP Pro. It should be the minimum choice for laptop users because it adds the Windows Mobility features and support for tablet PCs. It also has the Windows Media Center options to interface with your television if you are trying to play Tivo with Windows (which is a fool's bet at best, but that's another column.) Again, make sure you have a decent video card and a gig of RAM.

Next up is "Windows Vista Business," which offers the same rough features as "Premium" but adds a complete backup-and-restore system, remote desktop capability and Windows Movie Maker software.

The high-end user will want "Windows Vista Ultimate," of course. This has everything built in, including hard-drive encryption abilities. It has all of the toys and whistles and will be the one you want to take to the LAN party.

If you're not sure if your PC can handle Vista at all, run the prequalification tool on Microsoft's Web site. Download it, run it and it will tell you what parts of your existing computer are not good enough to get the most out of the Vista experience. Pay close attention to this because if it says your system is lacking something needed to run Vista and you try to install it anyway, the software likely won't install or will run very slowly if at all.

Microsoft is racheting up the piracy protection in Windows Vista. If the software detects an over-used, pirated or invalid license, the software will go into what Microsoft is calling a "non-genuine state." You will have 30 days to buy a real license; if you don't, your desktop will shut down and all you will get is a black screen and the use of IE for 60 minutes a day.

Microsoft says users should "avoid a reduced functionality experience" and only use licensed software. The company is getting hammered, especially overseas, with piracy and is rumored to be including similar technology in upcoming server systems too. The trick on that will be ironing out the system to be bullet-proof. It's one thing to shut down a grandmother's desktop PC in Kansas; it's quite another to shut down a lawyer's server in New York.

WEEKLY WEB WONDER: Read more about Vista and piracy at windowsvista.com.

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James Derk is co-owner of CyberDads, a computer repair company, and a computer columnist for Scripps Howard News Service. His e-mail address is jim@cyberdads.com

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