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1. Comment - Microsoft Details Vista Requirements

   (May 20, 2006 - 7:55 PM)

   Way toomany people have been saying this, clearly in ignorance. If you can't getthe beta, at least read about the changes. It's WAY more than eye candy.
   
   Compaq Presario Notebook, P4 2.8, 1156MB RAM, ATI Mobility Radeon 9100 (no Vista WDDM drivers) 128MB VRAM, installed Vista beta2 build 5308 (Feb CTP) on a 10GB partition. *Maybe* half the hardware is supported directly, the rest is legacy XP drivers or doesn't work at all.
   
   In approximate order of imprtance (to me):
   
   1) User Account Protection is the best thing to happen to Windows since 95 at least. SO much better not to run around with Admin rights all the time; Linux taught me that, but I've had to learn tons of song-and-dance to have full capability on a non-admin XP account.
   
   2) Security! Far better firewall, Security Center now checks for anti-malware status (Defender comes included in package), UAP, IE7 Protected Mode... kind of a meta-category, but it had to be mentioned all together.
   
   3) Desktop search is incredibly handy, more so because it's integrated into all of Vista's major programs, but somewhat specialized to each. For example, it will search your e-mail from the Start menu, but in categories with programs coming before e-mail or documents
   
   4) IE7 is fantastic; 5308 has an actually older version than I use in XP (on the rare occasion I boot XP anymore) but it's still very very well done. Protected mode (IE7 and all it's children run with super-low permissions that basically limit it to Temp. Internet Files unless you explicitly give access to the rest of your drive), Phishing filter, QuickTabs, Favorites Center, superior use of screen real-estate, and a pop-up blocker that outperforms Firefox's on at least a few sites are all major improvements, and more come in every release.
   
   5) Speaking of software... About time Windows had its own calendar software, and they did a great job on it. Windows Mail is much nicer to use and has a better interface (and search, of course) than OE. Windows Media Player 11 is incredible; I love its features, its intuitiveness, even its look (and I'm not an eye-candy guy). Yes, i know it's available for XP. Windows Defender built in, and integrated with Microsoft Update (also built in, i.e. not a brower ActiveX anymore) is a great move on MS's part. Sidebar is very handy, especially on a widescreen. Aside from the games (lots of eye-candy, slightly improved capabilities, and they have 3D Chess now!) I haven't tried many other builtins, but there are a LOT. (This will pobably cause lawsuits... *sigh* every other OS is allowed to bundle all they want, but not Windows.)
   
   6) Background things: SuperFetch cuts program startup to the bone once it learns your habits, and helps streamline booting (instead of XP's invisible message saying wait 3 minutes after booting while your other programs load before trying to run anything). Automatic background defrag is brilliant; a great way to use idle cycles and almost nobody runs it as often as they should. File indexing is very important for their quick search tools. Improved networking stack has noticably decreased download times.
   
   7) Interface, especially Start menu and Windows Explorer. The new Explorer is a touch buggy in this beta, but shows all kinds of promise; better viewing and preview options, superior filesysem navigation, integrated search (of course), and the ability to hide the menubar (and bring it back at the touch of a button). Start Menu is faster/easier to use most of the time, never worse than XP (a few things in XP I thought were worse than 2K). Finally, even without Aero Glass, they look better.
   
   This is only a beginning, and I've only been using Vista heavily for ~2 weeks. Try it out before judging.