Saturday, May 19, 2007

Own Story 2 - Expert warns users to beware Vista upgrade

Here it is. My second story for Newswriting, this time as a video/TV item. There's nothing amazing or innovative in all this. It's just a standard TV style which is definitely one I'm used to.

Thanks to Harry for putting up with me shooting video of his computer in his bedroom, Ray Shaw for taking time to guide an inexperienced student through the interview when most people aren't even interested to talk if it's not going to be published and mother-in-law Kay for letting me know about the story in the first place.

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Expert warns users to beware Vista upgrade


Computer users have been warned to think twice before upgrading to Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows Vista.

While the computer giant has been working hard to convince users to make the switch, one expert says there’s no major benefit in doing so.


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Transcript

Intro: Computer users have been warned to think twice before upgrading to Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows Vista.

While the computer giant has been working hard to convince users to make the switch, one expert says there’s no major benefit in doing so.

Voice: Harry Vogler was happy when told his recently purchased Media Centre computer was eligible for a free upgrade to the newly released Vista operating system.

However his happiness turned to frustration when what should have been a simple operation caused his computer system to stop working.

The unexpected fault left Mr Vogler with no way to recover his computer’s contents.

Harry Vogler: I didn’t back it up like I should have. It’s half my own fault. I should have backed up but I didn’t expect there to be such a catastrophic failure and in the process I lost pretty much everything.

Voice: Mr Vogler’s experience doesn’t come as a surprise to Brisbane IT expert Ray Shaw who found similar problems during his own Vista upgrade testing. He says XP Media Centre was never designed as a premium product.

Ray Shaw: To get Media Centre in Vista you have to buy the Home Premium version, and it works pretty well. But try and put that on a system that ran XP Media Centre and it won’t work. I don’t know why.

Voice: He agrees with Microsoft’s claims that Vista has better and more relevant Internet security than XP, but says most users shouldn’t upgrade operating systems during the life of their PC.

Ray Shaw: It’s the old story. It it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

Voice: Microsoft wouldn’t comment on Ray Shaw’s findings but said it was genuinely pleased with sales of the operating system which had sold 20 million copies worldwide in its first month.

The company has made several online tools available on its website for those considering an upgrade.

Even with this assistance Harry Vogler has some advice for those considering making the switch.

Harry Vogler: Back up everything and do a clean install. It’s the only way you’ll get everything working properly.

Voice: The first major Vista update, Service Pack 1, is expected to be released at the end of this year.

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Comments, as always, are welcome (but not expected).

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