Verdict: For systems administrators tasked with planning and preparing for an inevitable companywide Vista voyage, RC1 is a stable representative of the coming OS, useful for testing software compatibility and for training that initial round of power users. For users, Vista is a step up from Windows XP, but it's complex enough that you'll want to take it slow. Considering Microsoft has sliced off most of the revolutionary features, what we saw in RC1 didn't give us a reason to rush.