Vista Business - OK for personal user?

spookylukey

I'm looking to buy a new PC, the cheapest one I've found which is most suitable for my needs comes with Vista Business - Vista Home is not an option and to upgrade to Vista Ultimate is £50 which I'd rather not spend if possible as it would no longer be a bargain.

Does anyone know if Vista Business has anything 'missing' that I'd need as a home PC user? Have done lots of googling but can't seem to find the answer. I'll be using the PC for the following:

Sending / receiving emails
Writing the odd word document, viewing the odd Excel document
Surfing the internet
Storing and basic editing of photos
Copying CD's
Listening to music occasionally
Viewing the odd video clip

Here's the spec of the machine I want to buy:

Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 (2.0GHz, 800MHz, 2MB cache)
1024MB RAM
250GB hard drive

Thanks in advance for any thoughts

wonka

I believe this is what you need to take a look at:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/choose.mspx

Looks like the Business edition is missing some games, and some multimedia capabilities.

colin79666

It will work fine.
You will be missing the Media Center and the DVD codecs.

If you want to watch DVDs you can always download the free and excellent VideoLAN.

spookylukey

Thanks

I'd found that link when I was googling but it didn't really make it clear what the 'Media Center' thingy was - I didn't know if it was like Windows Media Player which I'll obviously need to rip CD's and listen to any music.

I never watch DVD's so looks like I'm going to get my bargain after all!

chaucer

spookylukey wrote: »

Thanks

I'd found that link when I was googling but it didn't really make it clear what the 'Media Center' thingy was - I didn't know if it was like Windows Media Player which I'll obviously need to rip CD's and listen to any music.

I'd like to know that too

jampton

I have been using Vista Business for the same the stuff you intend to do - it's fine - the only issues I ever had were drivers but that shouldn't be an issue on a new machine

JamesUK_3

I didn't know if it was like Windows Media Player which I'll obviously need to rip CD's and listen to any music.

For things like this you can always use programs like audiograbber for ripping cd's and winamp for listening to music. I do both of those AND watching dvd's and don't think i've actually used WMP since i installed Vista.

computerwoman

windows media center is like sky+ where you can record tv and pause tv on your pc it's got nothing to do with windows media player 9/10/11 it's completely different program...hth's:D

spookylukey

Thanks everyone, much appreciated