View Full Version : Windows Vista Update



okcpulse
10-06-2005, 01:43 PM
This is the Windows Vista update thread. I will be posting regular updates on the new operating system, due out in October 2006. Remember that even though Windows Vista was built on the Windows Server 2003 code base, many applications now running under Windows XP will be compatible. Some applications will meet the same fate as when a user upgraded from Windows Millenium Edition to XP.

Windows Vista's code base is much less complex that XP's, which removes a ton of bug issues. Microsoft threw out all of the old Longhorn Code and started over using the under-pinnings of the highly stable and secure Windows Server 2003. The new GUI, Aero, will give Vista a whole new look... sleek, sharp and sophisticated. No doubt, the hardware requirements will be more than that of a PC running XP. There are several different sources providing different minimum system requirements, but I will confirm the final system requirements in the updates to come.

Beta 2 is due out in a few months, but there will be issues with Beta 1 as we progress.

This thread, as well as others I have posted, are a result of heavily increased competition between software conglomerates and open source communities waging a war over the best computing features, all to attract a loyal following. So far, as I concerned, the battle is head to head, with the "BIG THREE" using the weapons of 'security', 'reliability', 'stability', 'best gaming', 'best productivity' and the largest install base.

www.okcpulse.com

MadMonk
10-06-2005, 02:52 PM
Are you in the Beta 1 testing program? I'm looking forward to playing with the new file system (when it comes out). I think you will see many features cross over to the other OSes as they become popular (i.e. Aero = The new Mac look), but Windows has a huge installed base that will be difficult to overcome.

okcpulse
10-12-2005, 06:36 AM
Unfortunately, I am not in the Beta program, though it would be nice. However, I do know of someone who is, so I periodically get updates from him. Beta 2 will have plenty of differences from Beta 1, and although Microsoft has vowed a stable operating system, some IT professionals say they'll believe it when they see it, weary from a constantly corrupted Windows XP registry.

okcpulse
10-25-2005, 11:04 AM
It is clear now that all applications will run at the user level in Windows Vista. This is where Linux and Mac have had a head start for quite some time. Some applications currently run at the kernel level in XP, and when those applications crash, it brings the operating system with it. That includes XP's notorious freeze. No one likes a frozen operating system, and Microsoft is finally jumping on the bandwagon with Vista.

Any applications that run at the user level which crash will be closed immediately or will give you the option to restart the application. This leaves the OS and all other running programs uninterrupted. So for now, it seems Bill Gates is nailing down stability and reliability. But the next big question is integration. Previously, some software applications used dynamic link library files from other applications. When you uninstall a program, you are asked whether a certian file should be kept or deleted since "some other programs may not work properly". PC Magazine has indicated all new dll's and drivers, but time will only tell if this gets addressed before the final release.

MadMonk
10-25-2005, 11:57 AM
I just got my hands on a Vista DVD. I'll have to check it out, but it does look interesting from what I've been reading.

flyingcowz
11-05-2005, 01:26 PM
Too many security issues with Windows. I will be using Linux.

MadMonk
11-05-2005, 06:59 PM
Linux isn't perfect either, but to each his own. :tiphat:

okcpulse
11-06-2005, 10:11 AM
flyingcowz, what version of linux do you plan to use? MadMonk, please feel free to let us know your experiences with Vista.

It appears that Microsoft will be addressing security issues with Vista by bundling security features in a OneCare subscription package rather than integrating it with the operating system. If this is the case, Microsoft will doom istelf to failure, while Mac OS X and Linux have these features integrated. It should be a no brainer.

okcpulse
11-30-2005, 12:22 AM
Windows Vista may be ahead of schedule, as was mentioned by Paul Thurrott of Windows IT Pro. The Vista code should be ready by August 31st, giving Microsoft a chance to beat its shipping date by a month or so.

okcpulse
12-03-2005, 12:51 AM
Microsoft recently held a briefing concerning the Vista OS. The software giant confirmed that the code for Beta 2 will be finished by the end of the year, verifying the Beta 2 release early next year.

To counteract the falling market share of Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft is speeding up IE 7, especially after Mozilla released Firefox 1.5.

okcpulse
01-02-2006, 11:26 AM
Here is another Vista update...

Microsoft has done away with the 'Start' button in favor of a simple button with the Windows logo. This is in my opinion very similar to the Linux KDE desktop look. All Linux distros have their own logo button that serves as the start menu. In SUSE Linux 10, the start button is the Iguana face, which is the SUSE logo.

It's a very good idea to make that kind of change, especially since the start button has been present since Windows 3.1, and that makes a huge difference to the interface itself.

Microsoft has also rebuilt the networking stack for better security, known to us techies as the OSI model. Each of the seven layers have been redesigned from the ground up that will ease security problems and make Vista Server OS more attractive to corporate customers. So far, the Vista schedule is on track, as Microsoft is pushing for a second-half of 2006 release of the new operating system.

Minimum system requirements include the following:

256 MB of RAM
Video card with 64 MB of RAM
Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon or later CPU
5 GB of Hard Disk Space
DVD-ROM drive or later

Recommended memory and video memory to take full advantage of the Aero GUI:
512 MB of RAM
A video card with 128 of RAM or greater

Curt
01-02-2006, 11:51 AM
I wish I could pipe in here with an intellegent answer, but I dont know all that much about all the different systems. I have Windows xp and do experience some problems with connectivity and security issues, I also get about 20 spam mails a day, and I dont know how to stop that.

ibda12u
01-03-2006, 08:01 AM
"Minimum system requirements include the following:

256 MB of RAM
Video card with 64 MB of RAM
Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon or later CPU
5 GB of Hard Disk Space
DVD-ROM drive or later

Recommended memory and video memory to take full advantage of the Aero GUI:
512 MB of RAM
A video card with 128 of RAM or greater "

Wow the pc requirements have just gone up hugely. I wonder if that 5gb of HD space vista takes up, includes office :) lol

ibda12u
01-03-2006, 08:02 AM
I wish I could pipe in here with an intellegent answer, but I dont know all that much about all the different systems. I have Windows xp and do experience some problems with connectivity and security issues, I also get about 20 spam mails a day, and I dont know how to stop that.

Mariner62, what do you use for email? Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Webmail, Other?

Curt
01-03-2006, 10:17 AM
Mariner62, what do you use for email? Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Webmail, Other?
Microsoft Outlook, you know it may be my server???? because when I go to get my mail from the comcast site the spams are there as well.

ibda12u
01-03-2006, 11:50 AM
There is a really good application that scans your incoming mail messages from Outlook, and tosses junk stuff into a junkmail folder and suspects into a suspect folder. I've used this on a corporate level and it works very well. The best part is it learns what you consider junk mail, versus good mail. http://spambayes.sourceforge.net/ You may give it a try.

Curt
01-03-2006, 03:48 PM
There is a really good application that scans your incoming mail messages from Outlook, and tosses junk stuff into a junkmail folder and suspects into a suspect folder. I've used this on a corporate level and it works very well. The best part is it learns what you consider junk mail, versus good mail. http://spambayes.sourceforge.net/ You may give it a try.
Thank you, I will check into that. I think what this thing really needs is a good cleaning and reloading.

ibda12u
01-03-2006, 04:22 PM
PC's need vacation too :) Nothing like a nice relaxing tune up, and overhaul to get a pc running like a champ again.

Curt
01-03-2006, 04:23 PM
PC's need vacation too :) Nothing like a nice relaxing tune up, and overhaul to get a pc running like a champ again.
I totally agree, I'll have to take this thing in and have that done.

okcpulse
01-03-2006, 06:21 PM
Can't wait to slap an AMD FX-53 processor in my system. That and a new motherboard with a PCI-Express slot and Corsair DDR400 RAM with heatspreaders.

I need all the muscle I can get to speed up my non-linear video editing and rendering.

okcpulse
01-10-2006, 09:37 PM
Microsoft is doing away with the Boot.ini text file that controls the boot configuration of Windows operating systems on a PC. Boot.ini will be replaced with a command-line utility called bcdedit.exe. According to Information Weekly, trojans executing scripts is presumably one reason Microsoft is giving boot.ini the boot.

"With Vista's new way of managing the multiboot script — which has been in place since the October CTP — Windows XP's boot.ini file can't control Vista at all. The Vista way of doing this trumps the XP way of doing it. Even if you entirely delete the Vista volume, as I described in the previous paragraph, you'll still see the Vista version of the multiboot screen when you boot your machine, and your Windows XP boot.ini file goes totally ignored.

How is that possible? Simple. Microsoft has placed a new "boot" folder on your root drive. The bcdedit utility stores data in this folder. As of the December CTP, in order to solve the problem of uninstalling a Vista build and returning to the Windows XP default boot configuration, I added a simple step. I started by editing the Windows XP boot.ini file, making XP the default entry (and deleting the Vista entry). Then I simply deleted the c:\boot directory added by Vista, and followed the steps above, deleting, recreating, and reformatting the Vista partition.

Overall, the new way of managing boot script data seems overly complex and not particularly secure. Hey, utility programmers! I see an opportunity for a GUI program that makes the Vista boot data as easy to edit as it was under previous versions of Windows. (Perhaps you could add some encryption too?)" - Information Weekly

MadMonk
01-12-2006, 08:03 AM
FYI, Microsoft has a site up with Vista screenshots and information:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/default.aspx

Bobby H
01-23-2006, 05:54 PM
I won't be upgrading to Vista on any of my existing computer systems at home or work.

However, I will be in the market for a new desktop computer around year's end. Choices are a bit murky. But I am wondering if Windows Vista will support Intel's new Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI). This is an advancement above the clunky BIOS chips on current PC motherboards. The first system on the market using it is Apple's new Intel-based iMac.

In lacking a traditional BIOS chip the new iMac and MacBook Pro will not run any current version of Windows since all of them are BIOS-dependent. Perhaps Vista may be different.

I have quite a lot of money invested in Windows-based graphics applications. But there are certain things in video, motion graphics and multimedia authoring that give the Mac platform the edge. Currently Apple's Final Cut Studio is the best mainstream video authoring suite on the market. To find something equivalent, you have to spend double for one of Avid's offerings on the PC side.

Still, I may stay on the PC side of things depending on the nature of hardware and software offerings by year's end. But it would be nice to have the option of being able to run Windows and the software I already have natively on a Mac while gracefully making a transition to that platform if I decide to do so. It is a lot more difficult to just throw out everything and start over, which is the current situation if you want to switch platforms.

okcpulse
01-23-2006, 08:14 PM
Bobby, Windows Vista will support Extensible Firmware Interface. Microsoft has not commented on Windows XP being able to support Intel's EFI, however it's safe to assume that XP SP2 will not. Another service pack is in the works for Windows XP, to be released around the same time Vista will hit store shelves. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has reassured the tech industry that Mac will not run on PC, but Apple has siad it has no plans to block Windows Vista from running on Macs.

Midtowner
02-17-2006, 09:22 AM
Bobby, AViD is a beautiful program if you can just get the damned thing to talk to all of your hardware. That was always my problem.

okcpulse
03-14-2006, 07:47 PM
Microsoft has announced Windows Vista will not be supporting EFI (extensible firmware interface). Mac OS X uses EFI for its booting sequence, while Windows XP uses BIOS. Microsoft sights a low number of 64-bit desktop systems. Since EFI does not support 32-bit systems, which make up a large majority of today's desktop computers. Once there is a substantial increase in the amount of 64-bit systems, Windows Vista will have EFI added. I don't doubt this would be in the near future.

SoonerDave
03-18-2006, 12:59 PM
>Microsoft has also rebuilt the networking stack for better security,

That network stack rewrite (at least in an indirect way) is finding its way into Windows Server 2K3, and then into IIS. The manifestation of the change in WS 2K3 is in the fact that HTTP and HTTPS handling are now separate services, wherein IIS used to handle it all. (We found this out tracking down a problem with a bug in client buffer sizes we knew how to fix in earlier versions of the OS :)

As far as which will be dominant? I think it may be the wrong question. I don't think you'll see one, single vendor emerge as the dominant manufacturer or vendor of the software tools that we use to interact with electronic devices. Devices are going to be too numerous, too fine-grained, too different for any one vendor to master them all. I think other vendors' models of non-browser-centric use of the 'net make all manner of different devices - some we haven't even thought of - an unwritten future.

As far as the desktop goes, here's an important prediction - I think that, despite the growth of the web, you're going to find in certain sectors a trend back towards applications with a non-browser-based client interface. There are many things about the web interface that are inherently limiting or are tricky to do, but are simple in a "conventional" interface.

Microsoft's biggest challenge to the desktop is itself; how many more times can it refine the idea of a spreadsheet or a business letter in a manner sufficient to convince people to buy a new version of Office? That has been MS's cash cow for years, and I think that financial artery is losing pressure. In that regard, MS is anything but an innovative company; geez, how many different ways are there to perform a "search and replace?" Reminds me of financial analyst Malcolm Berko referring to MS as a bit of a lumbering giant in the same way IBM was a few decades ago.

Geez, I'm rambling. Sorry, guys..

-SoonerDave

MadMonk
05-24-2006, 09:39 AM
FYI,
Vista Beta2 has been released yesterday (along with betas for Longhorn server and Office 2007).

{la_resistance}
05-24-2006, 10:30 PM
I will probably use dual boot on dual hdd's. Sadly, desite all of Windows' shortcoming it is the only OS compatable with many of the programs I use. I don't like Mac because you can't build your own. And I do LOVE the feeling of letting the processor slideinto its socket. But anyway, Windows stability is an issue, but so is cost. Windows has always set their prices way too high. But really, I don;t really know. I would like to see the finished product and if they can get the home edition to under $150, I might consider it. Oddly enough though I NEVEr hae any problems with viruses or other malware....

okcpulse
05-25-2006, 10:16 AM
I don't like Mac because you can't build your own. And I do LOVE the feeling of letting the processor slideinto its socket.

Amen, brother! I myself am a PC guru.

okcpulse
05-26-2006, 05:47 PM
Windows Vista will introduce a new picture format that Microsoft says will have twice the definition of jpeg. Meet .wmp, a new high-definition picture format with better editing capabilities. Will this replace the long-lived and well-known .jpeg format? What do you guys think?

RagdollOp
11-03-2006, 06:25 PM
Bobby, AViD is a beautiful program if you can just get the damned thing to talk to all of your hardware. That was always my problem.

I never had any hardware problems and have installed avid on more than three systems. I work with it everyday. There is a reason it is the industry standard.

Bobby H
11-03-2006, 07:26 PM
Avid is the industry standard, at least in those expensive turn-key systems for TV stations, video production studios and movie production.

Final Cut Pro is the current leader for mainstream personal computer based video editing. However, there's been a few things happening lately on the PC side that have been putting chinks in Apple's armor.

I thought it was actually kind of cool how Eyeon Software's Fusion application (which runs only on Windows) pretty much killed Apple's Shake. Both programs are node based video effects compositing programs. Fusion simply blew past Shake and delivered great results on movies like Sin City.

Recent mergers have me wondering if Apple's grip on creative computing is starting to slip. Adobe gobbled up Macromedia and has, for a number of years now, earned more money selling Windows-based products than Mac-based ones. Autodesk acquired Discreet and then recently acquired Alias. Even Avid has gone on a spending spree, acquiring Pinnacle and Softimage.

Simply put, there is a lot more competition happening on the Windows side. There's more going on with the PC platform in 3D, video, print and web development. More companies are making a much wider variety of hardware for the platform.

There used to be a lot of creative applications that were Mac-only. Now Apple seems to be the only one making creative programs exclusively for the Mac.

All of that competition may eventually take its toll. Just as Fusion 5 ruined Apple Shake, Adobe's new Lightroom program (currently in beta release) is head and shoulders better than Apple's Aperture program. Lightroom runs faster and demands far less of system resources. Unlike Aperture, Lightroom will be available for both Mac and Windows and will integrate well with Photoshop.

In the end, I'm just going to sit on the fence awhile longer, and perhaps wait for those new Core2 Quad CPUs to proliferate.

SoonerDave
03-01-2007, 09:59 AM
Noticed it has been a couple months since anyone added anything here, so I thought I'd add a few things I discovered and thought were VERY interesting, even bordering on cool:

* Vista's version of NTFS will support Unix-style symbolic file links.
* Vista's loader will randomize the load-points of various critical core images, thus defeating viruses that rely on entry vectors based on static module load locations under XP
* Certain processes will only be able to see virtualizations of various key file system areas, such as \windows, \windows\system32, and parts of the registry.
* Vista will support IO cancellation notification, eg no more hangs on a File..Open to an offline network share..you'll be able to cancel it.

There are lots of other geek-level kinds of changes, but these were some of the top-level ones I'd read about. The Unix-style file links is *very* cool, not to mention long overdue..

-soonerdave