Windows Vista was the successor to Windows XP and predecessor to Windows 7. as opposed to 7, Vista was (widely) badly recieved because of it's horrible performance (with Windows Aero), bugs, and overall confusion surrounding it's versions/editions. however, Windows Vista did bring innovation to new versions of Windows (at the time), this can be seen through the Windows Sidebar + Windows Gadgets, the Windows Media Center (if you got it), and most notably, Windows Aero (alongside others).