Windows Vista, the new Microsoft PC operating system, was launched recently - two years later than planned.

The average user remains completely bemused by such launches and generally has no idea whether the new software offers any useful benefits or not.

Most of the users who I've asked over the last few weeks think that the only benefit on offer is that it looks better than the previous version of Windows (XP). Interestingly many of these users feel it is worth paying to upgrade for this reason alone.

In reality it probably isn't worth most of us upgrading an existing PC unless it's a very high specification. The new operating system requires at least 1Gb Ram to work efficiently although for those users with more memory than that, the new version of Windows will reportedly deal with memory allocation more efficiently than XP.

Other advances over previous versions include more security and better tracking of system crashes which may help more experienced users sort out problems on their computer more easily.

If you run software or hardware older than two years it would pay to check whether it is supported by Vista before paying to upgrade.

Chris Stanbury - Cravenplan Computers (specialists in web design and web marketing) - www.cravenplan.co.uk Chris also acts as an expert witness on IT cases - www.it-expert-witness.co.uk.