[Golden Djinn13]

Well, Its almost here. I usually don't care to much about this kind of stuff, but Vista has some new features that I like. So, is anyone getting Vista immediately or gonna wait a while on this one.

Discuss. -_-

[Sea of Time]

When I get a laptop, I'm definitely going to get one with Vista. The interface is simply stunning, but I'm not sure on the details of security and what-not. I do know it looks good.

[Toasty]

The security is much better. You can also set windows aside at an angle, so they look 3D'ish. It'll run on a 64 Bit proscessor, instead of the more standard (and also what's probably in your PC) 32 Bit. To be able to use all of the visual features though, you'll need a fairly powerful graphics card, which will probably come standard on systems that come bundled with it. Windows Vista will have both 32, and 64 bit versions, so you don't necisarrily need to buy a new PC to get it.

I was looking at getting a laptop, so I wouldn't get locked out of the PC again (and so I wouldn't tie it up and get everyone else in my house mad), but then I deided to wait, because a windows vista capable system (which is what I'd prtobably get if I got one before Vist was out) isn't capable of allowing all of the features, whereas a system designed for Windows Vista does.

[Sea of Time]

Here in Canada, they just started rolling out computers bundled with Vista this week. The HP laptops are particularly appealing to me, and I'm just about to get a job as well. So I may have a laptop with Vista in a few months! -_-

[Toasty]

Must haves for Vista:

1.8Ghz Proscessor or higher is a good start

1gig of ram or higher (depends on what apps you're going to run. Online gaming needs 2gigs at least to be fairly smooth)

40 gig hard drive, though you may want more depending on what/how many files you're storing.

512MB Graphics card (it's good to be safe, so go with a higher power if possible. It's just to be sure you can use all the visual features. There's even some quad card graphics too. Frikkin' AMAZING power in those)

I can't think of much else at the moment that you might need for it to run smoothly. I'm not quite sure what the requirements are for it, but if you can't find out, start out with this and make it better if possible.

[Golden Djinn13]

The only problem for me with Vista, is of course the price. It starts from about $200 as shown in the wikipedia article. I don't know if I would be willing to throw all that money out for it, when I could keep XP for a little while longer.

For those of you that may not have seen it yet...Windows Vista

[Toasty]

• a 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
  
• 1 gigabyte of system memory
  
• a DirectX 9 compatible graphics processor, with a Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) driver, and a minimum of 128 MB of Video RAM
  
• 40 GB hard drive with 15 GB free space
  
• DVD-ROM Drive
  
• audio output and Internet access

Those are the requirements. I'd still try for better equipment though. Your PC won't become obsolete as fast.

[Lemontime]

Yeah.
Vista is a rip off of Mac OS X.
Mmmmhmmmmm..

[Eugine]

So they say, and I believe. Watch this

Anyway, I don't think I'll be getting Vista anytime soon. I like to wait a while before product adoption (even though Microsoft is urging everyone to upgrade immediately to get its benefits <___<)

[Saturos S.]

What a **** that guy from the vid.
Mac OX wasn't that original. It seems that most of the USA has a grudge against microsoft. But as a biased apple hater myself, I won't go there.

My brother as a microsoft beta tester showed me vista. It looks pretty awesome. I'm not using it now, but will use it soon.

[Sea of Time]

Lemontime, on Jan 30 2007, 01:10 AM, said:

Yeah.
Vista is a rip off of Mac OS X.
Mmmmhmmmmm..

Well if Apple does everything right, why not copy them?

I checked out the Apple site and now I'm torn. Do I wait for Mac OS X Leopard? Or go with Vista right now?

[Toasty]

Well, since Mac OS X is for a Mac, and Mac's cost upward of $1000 whereas a Laptop cost upwards of $600, I'd go for Vista, just because of the price. Besides, Laptops and PC's are upgradeable, Mac's aren't

[Sea of Time]

I'm not concerned with gaming though, I'm concerned with a reliable computer that can get me through high school. With reliability, I give Mac the edge. I'm just not sure who to give the "easy-to-use" edge to.

[Toasty]

Mac's are better quality, infact, they run much smoother than PC's. But the laptops are more expensive, and the OS's they've had have always been confusing to me. PC's aren't always better quality than Mac's, but usually they're cheaper, upgradeable, and I've always been able to get the hang of a new windows OS pretty quickly. But that's just me.

[Sea of Time]

Mac OS has always been great for me, I appreciate how with only one mouse button, it makes the laptop much easier to use. Also, Apple makes flat-out beautiful computers, and they are very small. I won't say that image doesn't have anything to do with me considering a laptop. I wouldn't mind paying $400 more for that.

[Excalibur's Power]

My dad works at MSFT, so therefore I already have a copy installed...

What I can say that cosmetically, this improves so much over XP. I absolutely love Windows Aero.

But the problem with beta versions is that farking blue screen of death.

[Lemontime]

Sea_of_Time, on Jan 31 2007, 10:08 AM, said:

I checked out the Apple site and now I'm torn. Do I wait for Mac OS X Leopard? Or go with Vista right now?

You get a mac now.
The upgrade won't be too much.
But in all seriousness, if you aren't concerned with gaming, don't bother in the slightest about a PC. Macs are better then PCs in every way, except ofcourse gaming and compatibility. Now don't go saying I'm an Apple fanboy, but I've had much experience with Macs AND PCs and can easily say that a Mac is more convenient, and ofcourse, much easier to use.
And with these new intel chips, you can run everything you can on a PC aswell!

[Toasty]

I prefer PC's because I'm more accustomed. I already know how to navigate deep into the bowels of XP. I can barely scratch the surface on a Mac. But I guess it's different for everyone. Besides that, I prefer a PC's looks over a Mac's. At least if it's an alienware. =D

[λφη]

Mr.T, on Jan 29 2007, 06:52 PM, said:

Must haves for Vista:

1.8Ghz Proscessor or higher is a good start

1gig of ram or higher (depends on what apps you're going to run. Online gaming needs 2gigs at least to be fairly smooth)

40 gig hard drive, though you may want more depending on what/how many files you're storing.

512MB Graphics card (it's good to be safe, so go with a higher power if possible. It's just to be sure you can use all the visual features. There's even some quad card graphics too. Frikkin' AMAZING power in those)

I can't think of much else at the moment that you might need for it to run smoothly. I'm not quite sure what the requirements are for it, but if you can't find out, start out with this and make it better if possible.

Quad SLI is old news. One Geforce 8800GTX beats 4 Quad Sli'd 7900's...

Besides, I expect a reprisal from ATI with a single card beast... At least I hope.

As for Vista: I was given the pirated copy of Vista Ultimate... Oh, mid December. And considering it was supposed to be the best of the 7 Vista versions, I thought it was pitiful, and stuck to meh Arch.

Quote

Besides that, I prefer a PC's looks over a Mac's. At least if it's an alienware. =D

Alienware are known as nothing more than the case and vastly overpriced internal components. The exception is their laptops; which are known to randomly and without warning have serious problems, such as monitor driver mal function, extreme overheating, among other problems. I recommend building your own computer if your into the high end computar market like that.

[My Best Wishes]

Sea_of_Time, on Jan 31 2007, 12:30 PM, said:

Mac OS has always been great for me, I appreciate how with only one mouse button, it makes the laptop much easier to use. Also, Apple makes flat-out beautiful computers, and they are very small. I won't say that image doesn't have anything to do with me considering a laptop. I wouldn't mind paying $400 more for that.

You like the one button mouse........................

I really just think Mac's are ****. I really didn't want to swear but it's just the best suited word.
I'm impartial to both but I hate apple for their Ipods that always have something wrong, not to mention their return and fixing policy, and how Mac has those attacking ad's on Pc's. Mac's are not good.

However Vista, I do not want that good a computer, think cost. Also

" Vista also scanned computers to ensure film or music files there were legally copied, bloggers complained.

"They can search your computer via the internet and delete any illegal files including music downloads," Josh said in a posting. "My privacy has been breached." "

Source-http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0...5E15306,00.html


What is that!

[Toasty]

Well first off, that thing about the kid saying his privacy was breached, he shouldn't be downloading illegal music in the first place! But even then, that's why you copy it onto a flash drive before you install vista. But yes, of course there are going to be patches. And although I'm not sure, I don't think Mac OS X had translucent windows, or the ability to stack windows at an angle. Though I guess that's not a really important feature, but if it has all the features of Mac OS X, and then even this, it makes it that mutch better. Though I should probably try to find someone with a copy of Vista, so I can judge for myself.

[Lemontime]

Uuuuh.. With Macs you can just press a button and all windows line up on the screen. Much easier than what vista has.

[Toasty]

You can do that in XP. I assume that's available in Vista as well.

[Lemontime]

HOW DO YOU DO THAT IN XP?!

[Sea of Time]

watch, on Feb 1 2007, 01:07 AM, said:

You like the one button mouse........................

I really just think Mac's are ****. I really didn't want to swear but it's just the best suited word.
I'm impartial to both but I hate apple for their Ipods that always have something wrong, not to mention their return and fixing policy, and how Mac has those attacking ad's on Pc's. Mac's are not good.

The ads are right, the whole iLife interface is incredibly easy to use and Mac is simply the easiest way to make home movies, or work on digital images. I'll admit, iPods are an issue, but we're not talking about that, we're talking about Macbooks. The Macs are easy to use, and the only way you can deny that, is if you've never tried them.

[My Best Wishes]

Well I have spent time on Mac's, probably ranging from 3-5 hours at school. The sole reason we have them is for Media, Ie, making movies as you stated. I just I really do not like them. The keyboard, mouse and the fact the computer is the moniter (while being very impressive) just fustrates me. And as Mr.T said you can't upgrade Mac's, and they are just not suited to games. And I am not a huge fan on the toolbar at the bottem.

[Sun Saber]

I am tring to get a laptop but it makes no sense because every month there are better laptops.

[Sea of Time]

watch, on Feb 1 2007, 02:27 PM, said:

Well I have spent time on Mac's, probably ranging from 3-5 hours at school. The sole reason we have them is for Media, Ie, making movies as you stated. I just I really do not like them. The keyboard, mouse and the fact the computer is the moniter (while being very impressive) just fustrates me. And as Mr.T said you can't upgrade Mac's, and they are just not suited to games. And I am not a huge fan on the toolbar at the bottem.

Well, to each his own then. I love the toolbar at the bottom and find it much more convenient than the Start menu in Windows. But if you're a PC gamer, there's no reason for us to argue. PC's are obviously the better choice and obvious choice for gamers.

[Neon]

Before you all run out and buy Vista, it might be good to read this
http://au.pc.ign.com...9/759538p1.html

[Lemontime]

watch, on Feb 2 2007, 07:27 AM, said:

And I am not a huge fan on the toolbar at the bottem.

If you're talking about the position of it, then you can just move it.
If you're talking about the look of it, hide it! But if you just don't like it cause it's different, then that's just freaking stupid.
In my opinion, Mac are like Nintendo. They do their own thing. They've come up with so many great products and are still going strong! Complain about iPods all you want, but they're the best portable audio you can get. If you're complaining about their returns and replacement policy, my friends had his replaced 4 times, each time the music has been transfered. I know a few people who have had to have theirs replaced, but the people have dropped them on the ground and smashed them into walls and things. Yet Apple still replaced them free of charge.
You may have had a bad experience, but you can't base a one-off on the entire company.

[Hirosho]

Just to Say My Freind and His Father Tried to see how easy Vista was to hack.. and in half an hour they got in 37 times with different styles and programs

[My Best Wishes]

Lemontime, on Feb 2 2007, 03:54 PM, said:

If you're talking about the position of it, then you can just move it.
If you're talking about the look of it, hide it! But if you just don't like it cause it's different, then that's just freaking stupid.
In my opinion, Mac are like Nintendo. They do their own thing. They've come up with so many great products and are still going strong! Complain about iPods all you want, but they're the best portable audio you can get. If you're complaining about their returns and replacement policy, my friends had his replaced 4 times, each time the music has been transfered. I know a few people who have had to have theirs replaced, but the people have dropped them on the ground and smashed them into walls and things. Yet Apple still replaced them free of charge.
You may have had a bad experience, but you can't base a one-off on the entire company.

Going off-topic. Apple are so bad with returns and fixing.

Your battery dies, "not our problem, buy a new Ipod'
Your Ipod is out of warranty "Not our problem, send it in and we'll fix it. But considering the price to do so you may as well buy a new one"
I could go on and on but I won't. I regret getting an Ipod, I only did because everyone has them so I assumed they were quailty. They're not.

Error 1418

[Toasty]

Wow. But then again, that's what firewalls like Zone Alarm are for.

Lemontime, on Feb 1 2007, 03:27 AM, said:

HOW DO YOU DO THAT IN XP?!

If you have more than one window, and they're all in one button on the toolbar, like if you had 3 IE's open, you right click on it and five options will appear. I'm not sure if you could do that with different programs together, but you can have them cascade, tile horizontally, or vertically.

[Lemontime]

If the battery dies it's obvious you've mis-used it.
Only ever charge your battery when it's actually empty.
When it's finished charging it, take it off ASAP. The longer it's on the charger, the shorter it's like will be.
This isn't just with iPods, but anything rechargable.

[Neon]

Hirosho, on Feb 2 2007, 06:11 AM, said:

Just to Say My Freind and His Father Tried to see how easy Vista was to hack.. and in half an hour they got in 37 times with different styles and programs

How is this any different to windows xp? ;P

[Golden Djinn13]

And Microsoft promised more advanced security... :)

Is there anybody that already has Vista? I want to know if its any different from XP before I decide to update early. The pictures and the specs just aren't enough for me to decide.

[Saturos S.]

My brother has it. But I don't know all the details.

From all that I've heard, Vista was hacked 4 times but Microsoft was able to solve that.

[My Best Wishes]

I'm not sure if I've actually commented on Vista. I am in no hurry it get it. My computer at the moment stuggles as it is, hopefully my dad will stick to his word and we will upgrade the parts, ram, hardrive etc. It will probably end up my uncle burning us a copy though.

[Neon]

Something you're all forgetting is that you don't really have a choice. Within the year all new software will be made for vista rather than xp.

[Hirosho]

See Microsoft should just change thier logo To "Resistance Is Futile" For 80% of computers to be slod will have Vista installed on them when it is fully published....

[Lemontime]

I'll get Vista when it's cheap as free.
Then and only then!

[Toasty]

Too bad that by that time, they'll have a new OS that you'll have to get instead.

And watch, you might as well buy a new computer. Most of the time, upgrading costs more than buying a new one. Especially when it comes to the proscessor, and since most (if not all) new software will be built around a 64 bit proscessor, you'll have to upgrade that too. And that'll cost more than a new PC in itself.

[Wiflewood]

I'd upgrade my PC with it, but the upgrade is £100, and it will also cost me £90 for a 'genuine Microsoft XP' before I can upgrade :)

[Split Infinity]

Just pointing out that Microsoft gave away millions of trial versions across the globe to allow people to test for bugs, months before Vista was released. Apparently most of them worked without a flaw, and the few problems that cropped up were all fixed.

[Excalibur's Power]

Pish.

I get blue screens all the time with my trial version of Windows Vista.

Also, what watch said about the breach of privacy, I've downloaded music from unreliable sources and downloaded ROMS, and they haven't caught me/ deleted stuff yet.

[Toasty]

Probably because the trial version doesn't have it, or it just sweeps your drive when it's been installed. I'm not an expert, so I wouldn't know.

[Split Infinity]

Then again, you might have been lucky, or had a firewall.

[Toasty]

How would the firewall help? The computer is doing it to itself. A firewall protects from invasions from other computers, and viruses.

[Split Infinity]

I wasn't replying to you.

[Toasty]

I know that, I'm not stupid. I was replying to your reply to EP. But like I said, I firewall wouldn't protect you from that. It would alert you if a program was trying to do something like acess the internet, but it wouldn't protect you from that program deleting files if you installed it yourself. Especially since it's the OS.

[Split Infinity]

Yes. So if the spyware never got into...er...you've confused me now. What was your point again?

[Somia]

I WANT EET.

If I bought my computer a month later, my computer would have Window Vista pre-installed. u_u But, I'm happy about my PC's speed.
I guess I'll just buy it later on.

[Mars Djinni]

I'm getting a new computer soon. Vista, here I come. :(

[Toasty]

Split Infinity, on Feb 8 2007, 05:56 PM, said:

Yes. So if the spyware never got into...er...you've confused me now. What was your point again?

Exactly.

I hope to get a new computer (for myself). I was waiting (and didn't even have the cash) for vista to come out before I decided to buy a laptop. Which I havn't bought yet......But I'm trying to figure out which processors are 64-Bit. Does anyone know if a Core 2 Duo is? Or at least a Pentium Dual Core? The laptop I'm eyeing has the latter.

[Split Infinity]

My dad is paying my neighbours to custom-build a supercomputer of sorts. Tons of everything, super-fastness of everything else. Plus Vista. He's giving me the old computer. Whee.

[Toasty]

Unless your neighbor does it for a living, I wouldn't trust the new PC. It's best to get one from Dell or Gateway or something. Building a PC from scratch can be.....trickey. I havn't tried myself, but I know people who have.

[Golden Djinn13]

Its not hard at all, I've done it times before, and still do. You just have to have the money to do it, other than that it's really easy.

[Formina]

I don't think there's any real need to upgrade to Vista - XP is already a good operating system as it's both stable and fast.

All Vista adds really is some nice visual effects.

[Split Infinity]

Quote

New or changed features
Main article: Features new to Windows Vista

End-user features

The appearance of Windows Explorer has changed significantly from Windows XP.Windows Aero: a new hardware-based graphical user interface, named Windows Aero – an acronym (possibly a backronym) for Authentic, Energetic, Reflective, and Open. The new interface is intended to be cleaner and more aesthetically pleasing than those of previous Windows, including new transparencies, live thumbnails, animations and eye candy.

Windows Shell: The new Windows shell is significantly different from Windows XP, offering a new range of organization, navigation, and search capabilities. Windows Explorer's task pane has been removed, integrating the relevant task options into the toolbar. A "Favorite links" pane has been added, enabling one-click access to common directories. The address bar has been replaced with a breadcrumb navigation system. The Start menu has changed as well; it no longer uses ever-expanding boxes when navigating through Programs. Even the word "Start" itself has been removed in favor of a blue Windows Orb (also called "Pearl").

Windows Search (also known as Instant Search or search as you type): significantly faster and more thorough search capabilities. Search boxes have been added to the Start menu, Windows Explorer, and several of the applications included with Vista. By default, Instant Search indexes only a small number of folders such as the start menu, the names of files opened, the Documents folder, and the user's e-mail. Advanced options allow to choose for a specific file type how it should be indexed, the properties only or the properties and the file contents or exclude it.

Windows Sidebar: A transparent panel anchored to the side of the screen where a user can place Desktop Gadgets, which are small applets designed for a specialized purpose (such as displaying the weather or sports scores). Gadgets can also be placed on other parts of the Desktop, if desired.

Windows Internet Explorer 7: new user interface, tabbed browsing, RSS, a search box, improved printing, Page Zoom, Quick Tabs (thumbnails of all open tabs), a number of new security protection features, and improved web standards support. IE7 in Windows Vista runs in isolation from other applications in the operating system (protected mode); exploits and malicious software are restricted from writing to any location beyond Temporary Internet Files without explicit user consent.

Windows Media Player 11Windows Media Player 11, a major revamp of Microsoft's program for playing and organizing music and video. New features in this version include word wheeling (or "search as you type"), a completely new and highly graphical interface for the media library, photo display and organization, and the ability to share music libraries over a network with other Vista machines, Xbox 360 integration, and support for other Media Center Extenders.

Backup and Restore Center: Includes a backup and restore application that gives users the ability to schedule periodic backups of files on their computer, as well as recovery from previous backups. Backups are incremental, storing only the changes each time, minimizing the disk usage. It also features CompletePC Backup (available only to Ultimate, Business, and Enterprise versions) which backs up an entire computer as an image onto a hard disk or DVD. CompletePC Backup can automatically recreate a machine setup onto new hardware or hard disk in case of any hardware failures.

Windows Mail: A replacement for Outlook Express that includes a new mail store that improves stability, and enables real-time search. It has the Phishing Filter like IE7 and a Junk mail filtering which is enhanced through regular updates via Windows Update.[9]

Windows Update with Windows Ultimate ExtrasWindows Calendar is a new calendar and task application.

Windows Photo Gallery, a photo and movie library management application. WPG can import from digital cameras, tag and rate individual items, adjust colors and exposure, create and display slideshows (with pan and fade effects), and burn slideshows to DVD.

Windows DVD Maker, a companion program to Windows Movie Maker, which provides the ability to create video DVDs based on a user's content.

Windows Meeting Space is the replacement for NetMeeting. Users can share applications (or their entire Desktop) with other users on the local network, or over the Internet using peer-to-peer technology (higher versions than Starter and Home Basic can take advantage of hosting capabilities, limiting previous to "join" mode only)

Windows Media Center, which was previously exclusively bundled as a separate version of Windows XP, known as Windows XP Media Center Edition, will be incorporated into the Home Premium and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista.

Games: Games included with Windows have been modified to work with Vista's graphics capabilities. New games include Chess Titans, Mahjong Titans and Purble Place. The Games section will also hold links and information to all games on the user's computer. One piece of information that will be shown is the game's ESRB rating.

Previous Versions automatically creates backup copies of files and folders, with daily frequency. Users can also create "shadow copies" by setting a System Protection Point using the System Protection tab in the System control panel. The user can be presented multiple versions of a file throughout a limited history and be allowed to restore, delete, or copy those versions. This feature is available only in the Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista and is inherited from Windows Server 2003.[10]

Windows Mobility Center is a new control panel that centralizes the most relevant information related to mobile computing (e.g. brightness, sound, battery level / power scheme selection, wireless network, screen orientation, presentation settings, etc.).

Windows Update: Software and security updates have been simplified, now operating solely via a control panel instead of as a web application. Mail's spam filter and Defender's definitions will also be automatically updated via Windows Update.

Parental controls: Allows administrators to control which websites, programs, and games each standard user can use and install.

Windows SideShow: Enables the auxiliary displays on newer laptops or on supported Windows Mobile devices. It is meant to be used to display Device gadgets while the computer is on or off.
Speech recognition is fully integrated into Vista. It is an improved version of Microsoft Speech Recognition currently working under Office 2003, with a redesigned interface, a flexible set of commands, and an command-and-control capability to activate the computer by voice. Unlike the Office 2003 version, which works only in Office and WordPad, it works for dictation system-wide. In addition, it currently supports several languages: English US and UK, Spanish, French, German, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), and Japanese.

New fonts, including several designed especially for screen reading, and new high-quality Chinese (Yahei, JhengHei), Japanese (Meiryo) and Korean (Malgun) fonts. See Windows Vista typefaces. ClearType has also been enhanced and enabled by default.

Problem Reports and Solutions, a new control panel which allows users to see previously sent problems and any solutions or additional information that is available.

Improved audio controls allow the system-wide volume or volume of individual audio devices and even individual applications to be controlled separately. Introduced new audio functionalities such as Room Correction, Bass Management and Speaker Fill.

System Performance Assessment is a benchmark used by Windows Vista to regulate the system for optimum performance. Games can take advantage of this feature, reading the data produced by this benchmark in order to fine-tune the game details. The benchmark tests CPU, RAM, Graphics acceleration (2D and 3D) and disk access.[11]

Windows Ultimate Extras: The Ultimate Edition of Windows Vista provides access to extra games and tools, available through Windows Update. This replaces the Microsoft Plus! software bundle that was sold alongside prior versions of Windows.

Core technologies
Windows Vista is intended to be a technology-based release, to provide a solid base to include technologies, many of which will be related to how the system functions, and hence not readily visible to the user. An example of this is the restructuring of the architecture of the audio, print, display, and networking subsystems; while the results of this work will be visible to software developers, end-users will only see what appear to be evolutionary changes in the user interface.

Vista includes technologies such as ReadyBoost and ReadyDrive which employ fast flash memory (located on USB drives and hybrid hard disk drives respectively) to improve system performance by caching commonly-used programs and data. This manifests itself in improved battery life on notebook computers as well, since a hybrid drive can be spun down when not in use. Another new technology called SuperFetch utilizes machine learning techniques to analyze usage patterns in order to allow Windows Vista to make decisions about what content should be present in system memory at any given time.

As part of the redesign of the networking architecture, IPv6 has been incorporated into the operating system, and a number of performance improvements have been introduced, such as TCP window scaling. Prior versions of Windows typically needed third-party wireless networking software to work properly; this is no longer the case with Vista, as it includes more comprehensive wireless networking support.

For graphics, Vista introduces a new Windows Display Driver Model, as well as major revisions to Direct3D. The new driver model facilitates the new Desktop Window Manager, which provides the tearing-free desktop and special effects that are the cornerstones of Windows Aero. WDDM's current version 1.0 is able to offload rudimentary tasks to the GPU. The next version is going to require an entirely new generation of GPUs, which nVidia and ATI are working on. Direct3D 10, developed in conjunction with major display driver manufacturers, is a new architecture with more advanced shader support, and allows the graphics processing unit to render more complex scenes without assistance from the CPU. It features improved load balancing between CPU and GPU and also optimizes data transfer between them.[12]

At the core of the operating system, many improvements have been made to the memory manager, process scheduler, heap manager, and I/O scheduler. A Kernel Transaction Manager has been implemented that gives applications the ability to work with the file system and registry using atomic transaction operations.


Security-related technologies

A User Account Control consent dialog.Main article: Security and safety features new to Windows Vista
Improved security was a primary design goal for Vista.[5] Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing initiative, which aims to improve public trust in its products, has had a direct effect on its development. This effort has resulted in a number of new security and safety features.

User Account Control is perhaps the most significant and visible of these changes. User Account Control is a security technology that makes it possible for users to use their computer with fewer privileges by default. This was often difficult in previous versions of Windows, as the previous "limited" user accounts proved too restrictive and incompatible with a large proportion of application software, and even prevented some basic operations such as looking at the calendar from the notification tray. In Windows Vista, when an action requiring administrative rights is requested, the user will be first prompted for an administrator name and password; in cases where the user is already an administrator, the user is still prompted to confirm the pending privileged action. User Account Control asks for credentials in a Secure Desktop mode, where the entire screen is blacked out, temporarily disabled, and only the authorization window is active and highlighted. The intent is to stop a malicious program 'spoofing' the user interface, attempting to capture admin credentials.

Another significant new feature is BitLocker Drive Encryption, a data protection feature included in the Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Vista that provides encryption for the entire operating system volume. Bitlocker can work in conjunction with a Trusted Platform Module chip (version 1.2) that is on a computer's motherboard, or with a USB key.[13]


Windows DefenderMicrosoft's anti-spyware product, Windows Defender, has been incorporated into Windows, providing protection against malware and other threats. Changes to various system configuration settings (such as new auto-starting applications) are blocked unless the user gives consent.

Internet Explorer 7's new security and safety features include a phishing filter, IDN with anti-spoofing capabilities, and integration with system-wide parental controls. For added security, ActiveX controls are disabled by default. Also, Internet Explorer operates in a "protected mode" which operates with lower permissions than the user and it runs in isolation from other applications in the operating system, preventing it from accessing or modifying anything besides the Temporary Internet Files directory.[14] Also, Internet Explorer is no longer integrated with the Explorer shell; local files typed in IE are opened using the Explorer shell and Web sites typed in Explorer are opened using the default web browser.

A variety of other privilege-restriction techniques are also built into Vista. An example is the concept of "integrity levels" in user processes, whereby a process with a lower integrity level cannot interact with processes of a higher integrity level. The security restrictions of Windows service is more fine-grained than formerly, so system services (especially those listening on the network) have no ability to interact with parts of the operating sytem they do not need to. Obfuscation techniques such as address space layout randomization and Kernel Patch Protection are used to increase the amount of effort required of malware before successful infiltration of a system.

As part of the redesign of the network stack, Windows Firewall has been upgraded, with new support for filtering both incoming and outgoing traffic. Advanced packet filter rules can be created which can grant or deny communications to specific services. Vista also adds new SSL and TLS cryptographic extensions, which enable support for both AES and some of the new ECC cipher suites.


Business technologies
While much of the focus of Vista's new capabilities has been on the new user interface, security technologies, and improvements to the core operating system, Microsoft is also adding new deployment and maintenance features.

The WIM image format (Windows IMage) is the cornerstone of Microsoft's new deployment and packaging system. WIM files, which contain an image of Windows Vista, can be maintained and patched without having to rebuild new images. Windows Images can be delivered via Systems Management Server or Business Desktop Deployment technologies. Images can be customized and configured with applications then deployed to corporate client personal computers using little to no touch by a system administrator. ImageX is the Microsoft tool used to create and customize images.
Windows Deployment Services replaces Remote Installation Services for deploying Vista and prior versions of Windows.
Approximately 700 new Group Policy settings have been added, covering most aspects of the new features in the operating system, as well as significantly expanding the configurability of wireless networks, removable storage devices, and user desktop experience.[15]
Services for UNIX has been renamed "Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications," and is included with the Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Vista. Network File System (NFS) client support is also included.
Multi-lingual User Interface - Unlike previous version of Windows which required language packs to be loaded to provide local language support, Windows Vista Enterprise edition supports the ability to dynamically change languages based on the logged on user's preference.
Wireless Projector support

Developer technologies
Windows Vista includes a large number of new application programming interfaces. Chief among them is the inclusion of version 3.0 of the .NET Framework, which consists of a class library and Common Language Runtime. Version 3.0 includes four new major components:[16]

Windows Presentation Foundation is a user interface subsystem and framework based vector graphics, which will make use of 3D computer graphics hardware and Direct3D technologies. It provides the foundation for building applications and blending together application UI, documents, and media content. It is the successor to Windows Forms.
Windows Communication Foundation is a service-oriented messaging subsystem which will enable applications and systems to interoperate locally or remotely using Web services.
Windows Workflow Foundation provides task automation and integrated transactions using workflows. It is the programming model, engine and tools for building workflow-enabled applications on Windows.
Windows CardSpace is a component which securely stores digital identities of a person, and provides a unified interface for choosing the identity for a particular transaction, such as logging into a website.
These technologies will also be available for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 to facilitate their introduction to and usage by developers and end users.

There are also significant new development APIs in the core of the operating system, notably the completely re-architected audio, networking, print, and video interfaces, major changes to the security infrastructure, improvements to the deployment and installation of applications ("ClickOnce" and Windows Installer 4.0), new device driver development model ("Windows Driver Foundation"), Transactional NTFS, mobile computing API advancements (power management, Tablet PC Ink support, SideShow) and major updates to (or complete replacements of) many core subsystems such as Winlogon and CAPI.

There are some issues for software developers using some of the graphics APIs in Vista. Games or programs which are built on Vista's version of DirectX, 10, will not work on prior versions of Windows, as DirectX 10 is not backwards-compatible with DirectX 9.[17] According to a Microsoft blog, there are three choices for OpenGL implementation on Vista. An application can use the default implementation, which translates OpenGL calls into the Direct3D API and is frozen at OpenGL version 1.4, or an application can use an Installable Client Driver (ICD), which comes in two flavors: legacy and Vista-compatible. A legacy ICD, the kind already provided by independent hardware vendors targeting Windows XP, will disable the Desktop Window Manager, noticeably degrading user experience under Windows Aero. A Vista-compatible ICD takes advantage of a new API, and will be fully compatible with the Desktop Window Manager.[18] At least two primary vendors, ATI and NVIDIA, are expected to provide full Vista-compatible ICDs in the near future.[19] However, hardware overlay is not supported, because it is considered as an obsolete feature in Vista. ATI and NVIDIA strongly recommend using compositing desktop/FBOs for same functionality.[20]


Deprecated features
Some notable Windows XP features and components have been replaced or removed in Windows Vista, including Windows Messenger, the network Messenger Service, HyperTerminal, MSN Explorer, and the replacement of NetMeeting with Windows Meeting Space. Windows Vista also does not include the Windows XP "Luna" visual theme, or most of the classic color schemes which have been part of Windows since the Windows 3.x era. The "Hardware profiles" startup feature has been removed as well, along with support for older motherboard technologies like the EISA bus and APM.

WinHlp32.exe, used to display 32-bit .hlp files, is no longer included in Windows Vista as Microsoft considers it obsolete.[21] Existing programs that can work with Vista are not able to display Help documentation on Vista. Microsoft prohibits software manufacturers from re-introducing the .hlp help system with their products. Microsoft claimed in the above referenced support bulletin that WinHlp32.exe would be available "in time for the consumer release of Windows Vista scheduled for early 2007" from Microsoft's Download Center. As of 7 February 2007, no .hlp download is available.

Telnet.exe is no longer installed by default, but is still included as an installable feature.[22]

[Formina]

End-user features

I use Windows Classic view anyway. (It's faster, and i'm a long time user of Windows 98SE anyway)

Windows Shell

See above - and I also use Windows Classic start menu. (The XP one is horrible)

Windows Search

Yay, faster search. Good, but how often do you need to use the search feature?

Windows Sidebar

Yuck, I don't want a sidebar that takes a side of my screen on when i'm viewing my desktop.

Windows Internet Explorer 7

You can download IE7 for Windows XP. Or you could just use Firefox ;\

Windows Media Player 11

Winamp FTW.

Backup and Restore Center

Symnatec Norton Ghost?

Plus, Windows XP already has a system restore.

Windows Mail

Good for companies, no need to use outlook at home.

Windows Update

o_O? Yay.. a pretty calender?

Windows Photo Gallery

Use one of the excellent Adobe programs for this.

Windows DVD Maker

Never used it, never going to use it.

Windows Meeting Space

A windows p2p network? O_o;

Windows Media Center

See windows DVD maker.

Games

lol no comment

Previous Versions

Good for companies, no need for home use.

Windows Mobility Center

Dunno about this as I use a PC, not a laptop.

Windows Update

Windows XP update works fine.

Parental controls

This is just asking for someone to find a way around.

Core Technologies

Direct X 10 is going to be the only good thing about Windows Vista, but is it really worth upgrading to get?

[Split Infinity]

Someone help me out here?

[λφη]

Somia, on Feb 9 2007, 09:54 PM, said:

I WANT EET.

If I bought my computer a month later, my computer would have Window Vista pre-installed. u_u But, I'm happy about my PC's speed.
I guess I'll just buy it later on.

Using Vista doesn't make your computer faster.

Mr.T, on Feb 10 2007, 06:04 AM, said:

Unless your neighbor does it for a living, I wouldn't trust the new PC. It's best to get one from Dell or Gateway or something. Building a PC from scratch can be.....trickey. I havn't tried myself, but I know people who have.

... You recommended Dell...

I'm running a completely custom built system.

AMD Athlon X2 5000+
2x ATI x1950xtx (crossfire)
2gb DDR2 800 RAM
Soundblaster X-Fi Platnium
35
Clear Blue Acrylic Case
600w PSU
350gb Maxtor HDD
120gb Western Digital HDD
500gb Portable HDD
21" 2ms, 1600:1 monitor
6.1 Surround Sound (4.1 system + an awesome 2 speaker set)

[Neon]

Formina, it might not be lightyears ahead of XP but you forget alot of the stuff in the background that you never think about has been rebuilt from the gorund up to be more stable and/or secure. For someone that never uses the XP interface i can see how you wouldn't be interested in the new visual features etc, but I think this is more an issue of you being unwilling to accept change (which is imo for the better) and instead clinging to the classic format...

Also, like i said earlier in the topic, by the end of the year new software will be made to run on the more powerful Vista and not XP. The best example of this is games. They did a complete overhaul of the sound so it is now software based rather than hardware (ie. working like graphics and every other thing on the computer), this has some backwards compatibility issues with games made for xp, but all future games will be made to support this new format, as well as future hardware.

[Eugine]

λφη, on Feb 12 2007, 12:52 AM, said:

AMD Athlon X2 5000+
2x ATI x1950xtx (crossfire)
2gb DDR2 800 RAM
Soundblaster X-Fi Platnium
35
Clear Blue Acrylic Case
600w PSU
350gb Maxtor HDD
120gb Western Digital HDD
500gb Portable HDD
21" 2ms, 1600:1 monitor
6.1 Surround Sound (4.1 system + an awesome 2 speaker set)

w00t... My PC maybe is 1/2 your speed! Anyway, Microsoft is already working on another OS, codenamed um... Vienna. Slated for release in late 2009. So, that's around 2012 right?

On topic, Vista is worth the upgrade imo, assuming what Microsoft said is all true. It does look impressive visually, and Microsoft is boasting security (Billy challenged hackers to hack Vista!), the more security the better right? But this ad makes it seems annoying... Dan Mac ads, so misleading sometimes.

Anyway, have any of you tried the new Office? I *got* it day before, and I'm really amazed by the ease of performing tasks. Yeah, the learning curve is there, but still once you get accustom to the new layout (the Ribbon), turning back to the original menu system is almost impossible imo. I think Vista will have the same effect... somethings maybe different from before, and may seem uncomfortable/unusual at first, but eventually after getting accustom to it, you'd be like 'Why didn't MS think of that earlier!!"

[Split Infinity]

Wait, let me guess...it's one of those ads with the two 'computer guys' right?

[Toasty]

I've been thinking about getting an Acer Aspire 5100 from Tiger Direct. But as for my current PC's performance....

Pentium 4 1.3GHz

A whole 1 gig of ram

Nvidia Geforce 2

No idea what our soundcard is.

40GB HD

80GB Maxtor HD

Sony 32X DVD R/RW, CD RW

Standard Black and silver case

Dell P780 CRT Monitor

That's about all I know. And yup, you guessed it, it'a a dell. :lol:

The reason I'm going with Acer for a laptop, is because it's cheaper, and more durable. My friend got one a month back, and it's fine. After a month of having our Dell Dimension 8100, our CD drive quit working. How about that? Later, we got a virus and had to replace some RAM.

[The Wind Seer]

I heard somewhere that Vista could hack into computers...
What if hacks unto bank accounts on the computer?

[Twit]

The Wind Seer, on Feb 13 2007, 11:15 PM, said:

I heard somewhere that Vista could hack into computers...
What if hacks unto bank accounts on the computer?

Umm Bank accounts are more secure than you think.

And any operating system can hack. You just have to be smart and know what you're doing.

Direct X 10 is AWESOME!~~ Look at how it improves graphics! I think theres a feature for it at gamespot...

[Lan]

It looks to me that the only improvement in Vista is the UI. Linux is way better, and has been for I don't know how long. I took a look at my friends computer running Ubuntu, and it looks way better than Vista.

[Twit]

Linux has game compatibilty issues though... I wouldn't say its for the obsessive gamer.

[Someone Else]

Windows is best to me because it has allll of the games.

Also, with Xbox 360 being so popular, and with Gates putting his sweat and blood into making Vista, along with the fact that I read in some PC gaming magazine about Vista gamers and 360 gamers would be able to play online with each other, I expect to see a lot of good ports from the Xbox to Vista.

And no, ports don't always suck.

So does anyone actually have Vista yet?

[The Wind Seer]

Nope...Windows XP is just fine for me...

[Someone Else]

Hah, you say that now. Just wait, in like two years you'll have to switch to Vista. This is Microsoft we're talking about.

[Twit]

xD I remember the days when people still had 98.

Those days are gone.

Right now, we are good. As with anything, there is a transition time between new and old. But Microsoft will slowly make it so that you have to buy Vista to get the best things. They may start with denying support for critical XP updates, and then move to making only vista programs ;D

[The Wind Seer]

yeah...I know...

[TheEnglishman]

Twit, on Feb 16 2007, 04:47 AM, said:

xD I remember the days when people still had 98.

Those days are gone.

Heh. Our old computer still has Windows 95 on it. Shame it crashes so easily with just about everything.
I'm wondering when Vista will be brought into our school. As WD said, people will only stay with XP for so long before they make the switch.

[Toasty]

Twit, on Feb 15 2007, 08:47 PM, said:

xD I remember the days when people still had 98.

Those days are gone.

Right now, we are good. As with anything, there is a transition time between new and old. But Microsoft will slowly make it so that you have to buy Vista to get the best things. They may start with denying support for critical XP updates, and then move to making only vista programs ;D

98? I remember when we had windows 3.1! Then everyone switched to 98 because they were all freaked out because of the Y2K bug. Which never happened.

And yeah, they probably will start out with that. It's what they did with 98. But they released an upgrade to 98 and 95 to allow users who still used it to be able to keep up with the newest flash drive tech, and firewalls, and joysticks and such. Basically, to bring it slightly out of obsoleteness.

[Neon]

The main reason for upgrading to vista is because it's 64-bit. Right now that just means compatibility issues with old driver software and crap, but that should all be sorted out in the next few months, and we will also get the first wave of 64-bit software (which naturally won't work on your 32-bit XP pos :))...

[Lan]

Not exactly. There was already a version of XP for 64-bit machines, plus plenty of distros of Linux, so Vista really doesn't have superiority there, either.

[Toasty]

Yeah, it was Microsoft Office 64 XP or Professional 64 XP. Or something like that. I've heard of it before.

[Lan]

No, not office. Windows. Windows XP 64 bit edition. It had good compatibility, from what I'm told.

[Neon]

XP may have had a 64-bit version but it definately wasn't very popular. it was more of an afterthought, unlike vista which is made for 64-bit. 32-bit and the basic version exist for the massive portion of the market that don't have recent computers. The idea I assume is that in the next few years there will be a shift to 64-bit. As this happens Vista will become more popular.

Plus the really large security flaws and everything should be patched up by then :P. It's worth noting that no Windows OS has outperformed the pervious on release. it's a few months later that it starts to show its potential.
Which leads to the point that M$ are charging us so much for an incomplete product... "buy vista for $1000! We promise all the holes will be patched up by the end of 2012!"

[Split Infinity]

Well I didn't end up getting Vista, since my dad wants to wait until they 'fix the bugs' assosciated with the OS, so we'll have to put up with XP for a few months. However, that doesn't stop this machine from being HELLA FAST.

[Lan]

Fix the bugs? So you're going to wait until never?
I kid, but really there's always going to be something to fix, and that goes for any OS.

[Split Infinity]

I told him that Windows Update would fix them eventually, but he says that you have to pay for it now. Really?

[PDM]

I can't wait to get Vista, I love the fact that people can take my firewall off whenever they want!

[Split Infinity]

Just like every other third party firewall.