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Window's Vista - Everything You Wanna Know About


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Vista to give HD Photo format more exposure

Microsoft is looking to supplant the ubiquitous JPEG with an image format of its own--and it's hoping the debut of Windows Vista will help do the job.

In 2006, Microsoft began promoting its own image standard, formerly called Windows Media Photo but renamed HD Photo in November. The company makes no bones about its ambitions: "Our ultimate goal is that it does become the de facto standard people are using for digital photos," said Josh Weisberg, Microsoft's director of digital imaging evangelism.

Read more at CNet

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Vista "upgrade" drops compliance checking, requires old OS to install

Microsoft's quest to closely control the way Windows Vista can be used on PCs has taken a turn for the worse as new information indicates that the company is breaking tradition when it comes to Windows Vista upgrades. With Windows Vista, users will not be able to use upgrade keys to initiate completely new installations. It is a change that will affect few users, but enthusiasts will certainly be amongst those pinched.

Upgrade versions of Windows Vista Home Basic, Premium, and Starter Edition will not install on any PC unless Windows XP or Windows 2000 is already on the machine in question. In years previous, upgrade versions of Windows could be installed on any PC. If a PC did not have an older version of Windows installed, users could provide an older installation CD of Windows for verification. After dropping a qualifying CD in the CD-ROM drive, the installation routine would verify the disc and you'd be on your way. With this approach, one could use an "upgrade" copy of Windows to lay a new Windows install on a computer.

Read more at ArsTechnica

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Microsoft views family input as key to its Vista

Ordinary users served as beta testers of the new operating system, which the company touts as easier to use.

Melissa Regan is not your typical "beta tester," the hardy breed of computer geek who seeks out the maddening bugs and glitches in software that other people try to avoid.

But the 39-year-old mother of three agreed to test early versions of Microsoft Corp.'s new operating system, Vista, with a single goal: to banish generic, and generally unhelpful, computer terms such as "tools."

"I told them, 'I want nothing labeled tools,' " said Regan, who lives in Germantown, Md. "I told them that's a terrible computer name: tools. The first thing you think about is a hammer."

Read more at the LA Times

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Jefferson Starship to help Microsoft launch Vista

Microsoft has hired Jefferson Starship to help launch their new Vista operating system. The Starship will play on the back of a special Microsoft flatbed truck in four cities in the coming weeks -- Los Angeles on Tuesday (January 30th); San Francisco on February 7th; New Orleans on February 13th; and Austin, Texas, on March 14th.

All shows will be on the Microsoft/T-Mobile "Airship" Stage, and according to a message from the band's manager on the official Jefferson Starship website, "They are providing a revolutionary, dynamic portable stage that opens like a lotus from a flatbed. The truck itself is decorated with our name and the dates and can be seen cruising around the streets of the cities we are to perform in, several days in advance of the concerts." There's also a website for the Starship/Microsoft/T-Mobile project at skysurprise.com.

Source: Rock Radio

:lol: How sad is that?

Stereogum suggests firing the marketing guy--Amen!

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Wired's Cult Of Mac takes a look at Vista on a Mac!

The Mac Pro is a very fast and capable OS X machine, but it’s an even faster Windows Vista machine.

Vista really flies on this beast, and feels like it’s faster than OS X – it boots faster, folders burst open and apps launch instantly.

(The Mac Pro has two dual-core 2.66GHz Xeon chips; 3GBs of RAM; and a medium-range NVidia GeForce 7300 GT graphics card)

I’m especially delighted with Vista’s “glass” Aero interface, which works in all its glory on this machine.

The OS is dark and handsome. It’s really quite exciting. Like the Zune’s interface, it's artfully done. The beautifully-rendered shadow effects and transparency give Vista a greater “depth” than OS X, which looks a little flat and well… old fashioned in comparison. I know this is because Vista’s new and novel, but it makes OS X look dated.

There’s a bunch of interface features I wish Apple would copy. Vista’s widgets, called “Gadgets,” are always on top – a vast improvement over having to hit a hotkey to see them.

Vista’s icons are big and colorful, and frankly, a lot more logical and easy to read than some of OS X’s, like the intelligible iWeb icon.

I like the way Windows Explorer file browser has a “back” button, web browser style.

Of course, in many ways it’s the same old Windows. There are pop-up dialogs galore thanks to the new security features, and the Start menu, though slimmed down, is still a confusing mess. Maybe it’s just me.

Thanks to Apple’s Boot Camp software, installation was a breeze.

I used Boot Camp to format an internal drive for Windows and create a CD of XP software drivers for the Mac-specific hardware. (Although they’re XP drivers, most worked, but I had to install them individually instead of as a package. Tips here).

There are some nice touches. Vista automatically detected and installed drivers for my printer. When I went to print I expected a wizard, but it was already set to go.

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Buying Vista? Get a guarantee

Before spending the money for Windows Vista, set to debut this week, is there any guarantee that the software you buy will run as advertised on your PC? Not exactly, analysts say.

Microsoft does offer its Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor 1.0, which scans computers for Vista readiness, indicates which of four versions will adequately run and makes upgrade recommendations, should hardware need help. CNET and other tech sites also offer free tools to analyze a PC's Vista readiness and version compatibility. Still, such tools won't absolutely certify that consumers will be able to run the version of Vista they pay for, analysts say.

"Just because a machine came back Vista-positive, I am not ready to make the assumption that all the features of Vista will run on this machine," said Michael Cherry, lead analyst for Windows and Mobile at Directions on Microsoft. His advice: "If it says (a PC) will run Vista, you still want to think about which features are important, and in talking to a vendor, you want to get an assurance that the unit (you are buying) will, in fact, accomplish those things you want."

Read more at CNet

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Vista is 'more secure' says Gates

Windows Vista is "dramatically more secure than any other operating system released", Microsoft founder Bill Gates has told BBC News.

Mr Gates said the security features in the new operating system were reason enough to upgrade from Windows XP.

Read more at the BBC

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Slate reviews Vista:

Previous Versions of Files. If you accidentally mis-edit or overwrite a document, you can right-click the file to bring up a "Previous versions" menu. Computers have had this capability for years—it's called journaling—but it's a big step forward to place the old versions in a pop-up menu so nontechie users can easily discover them. It sounds boring, but wait'll it saves your bacon when you're on a deadline.

Presentation Mode. If projecting PowerPoint slides from your laptop is a make-or-break part of your job, you'll love this: You can finally tell your OS not to bother you with IM popups, beepy noises, or the screensaver.

Upgrade Process. I upgraded computers hundreds of times in my past life as a support guy and software developer. The XP-to-Vista move was my smoothest Windows transition ever. The installer gave me a tidy, clickable report of three device drivers it couldn't guarantee would still work in Vista. Two were for old programs I'd stopped using long ago, the other for the software I used to connect to my BlackBerry.

Most of my XP-era applications work fine in Vista, but iTunes—a mission-critical app for me—has hung a couple of times when I quit the program. And if my DSL goes out this week, I won't be able to plug in the BlackBerry to get online. I'm hopeful, though, that driver updates will appear soon after Jan. 30 to fix both problems.

That leads to my final advice: You've waited five years for Vista. That means you can probably wait a bit longer. No software is bug proof, and every new OS gets patched a few times in its first weeks of public life, after the masses start using it and the black hats start cracking it. I'm enjoying the new features I've listed, but you won't die without them. If $100 for the Basic upgrade disc or $150 for Premium breaks your budget, save your cash until it's time to buy a new PC, even if that's not until 2008. Unlike past major Windows revisions, you won't find yourself barred from interacting with those who upgrade—you'll just envy them a little.SuperFetch. Vista figures out what applications you use at which time of day or day of the week. It then schedules the ones you're most likely to use and preloads them into the PC's memory. Your e-mail and calendar will be ready to go on Monday morning, and your anti-virus software won't be in the middle of a full scrub when you come back from lunch. It doesn't always guess correctly. Still, I spend less time listening to my disk drive whenever I sit down to work.

Stability and Security. For once, I believe Microsoft's promises. Insiders say the Windows division got religion about squashing bugs and writing hacker-proof software during the latter days of XP's development. Division president Jim Allchin came back from a sabbatical enraged by Windows bugs that had spoiled his vacation. "I saw what a flaky mess this thing is," he confessed to LinuxWorld columnist Doc Searls. Allchin's bug stomp-a-thon contributed to Vista's five years of production delays. Good for him. Solidly written software is harder to crack, too. I won't get phone calls from worried relatives about the Vista virus of the week like I did for XP.

SuperFetch. Vista figures out what applications you use at which time of day or day of the week. It then schedules the ones you're most likely to use and preloads them into the PC's memory. Your e-mail and calendar will be ready to go on Monday morning, and your anti-virus software won't be in the middle of a full scrub when you come back from lunch. It doesn't always guess correctly. Still, I spend less time listening to my disk drive whenever I sit down to work.

Stability and Security. For once, I believe Microsoft's promises. Insiders say the Windows division got religion about squashing bugs and writing hacker-proof software during the latter days of XP's development. Division president Jim Allchin came back from a sabbatical enraged by Windows bugs that had spoiled his vacation. "I saw what a flaky mess this thing is," he confessed to LinuxWorld columnist Doc Searls. Allchin's bug stomp-a-thon contributed to Vista's five years of production delays. Good for him. Solidly written software is harder to crack, too. I won't get phone calls from worried relatives about the Vista virus of the week like I did for XP.

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Internet law professor Michael Geist takes a look at Microsoft's legal small print for the BBC:

...for the past few months the legal and technical communities have dug into Vista's "fine print".

Those communities have raised red flags about Vista's legal terms and conditions as well as the technical limitations built in to the software at the insistence of the motion picture industry.

Hard look

The net effect of these concerns may constitute the real Vista revolution as they point to an unprecedented loss of consumer control over their own PCs.

In the name of shielding consumers from computer viruses and protecting copyright owners from potential infringement, Vista seemingly wrestles control of the "user experience" from the user.

Vista's legal fine print includes extensive provisions granting Microsoft the right to regularly check the legitimacy of the software and holds the prospect of deleting certain programs without the user's knowledge.

During the installation process, users "activate" Vista by associating it with a particular computer or device and transmitting certain hardware information directly to Microsoft.

Even after installation, the legal agreement grants Microsoft the right to revalidate the software or to require users to reactivate it should they make changes to their computer components.

For those users frustrated by the software's limitations, Microsoft cautions that "you may not work around any technical limitations in the software".

In addition, it sets significant limits on the ability to copy or transfer the software, prohibiting anything more than a single backup copy and setting strict limits on transferring the software to different devices or users.

Vista also incorporates Windows Defender, a security program that actively scans computers for "spyware, adware, and other potentially unwanted software". The agreement does not define any of these terms, leaving it to Microsoft to determine what constitutes unwanted software.

Once operational, the agreement warns that Windows Defender will, by default, automatically remove software rated "high" or "severe" even though that may result in other software ceasing to work or mistakenly result in the removal of software that is not unwanted.

For greater certainty, the terms and conditions remove any doubt about who is in control by providing that "this agreement only gives you some rights to use the software. Microsoft reserves all other rights".

For those users frustrated by the software's limitations, Microsoft cautions that "you may not work around any technical limitations in the software".

Those technical limitations have proven to be even more controversial than the legal ones.

Image problem

In December 2006, Peter Gutmann, a computer scientist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand released a paper called "A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection".

The paper pieced together the technical fine print behind Vista, unraveling numerous limitations in the new software seemingly installed at the direct request of Hollywood.

Mr Gutmann focused primarily on the restrictions associated with the ability to play high-definition content from the next-generation Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs (referred to as "premium content"). He noted that Vista intentionally degrades the picture quality of premium content when played on most computer monitors.

High definition DVDs are starting to become popular

Mr Gutmann's research suggests that consumers will pay more for less with poorer picture quality yet higher costs since Microsoft needed to obtain licenses from third parties in order to access the technology that protects premium content (those license fees were presumably incorporated into Vista's price).

Moreover, he calculated that the technological controls would require considerable consumption of computing power with the system conducting 30 checks each second to ensure that there are no attacks on the security of the premium content.

Microsoft responded to Mr Gutmann's paper earlier this month, maintaining that content owners demanded the premium content restrictions.

Said Microsoft: "If the policies [associated with the premium content] required protections that Windows Vista couldn't support, then the content would not be able to play at all on Windows Vista PCs."

While that may be true, left unsaid is Microsoft's ability to demand a better deal on behalf of its enormous user base or the prospect that users could opt-out of the technical controls.

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Scott Rosenberg slams Vista in his article today at the Washington Post

This says it all:

"In my view, we lost our way," Vista's manager, Jim Allchin, wrote in an e-mail (later posted online) to Microsoft founder Bill Gates and chief executive Steve Ballmer. "I would buy a Mac today if I was not working at Microsoft."

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This says it all:

"In my view, we lost our way," Vista's manager, Jim Allchin, wrote in an e-mail (later posted online) to Microsoft founder Bill Gates and chief executive Steve Ballmer. "I would buy a Mac today if I was not working at Microsoft."

damn straight :lol:

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