Session- 2008-11

Submitted To: Ambica Verma Date of Issue: 26 September 2008

Compiled By: Prince Satija Class: BBA 1st SEM Sec: B Roll No. : R357A26 Reg. No. : 10800936

Q1. What version does Windows Vista came in?

At one point, it seemed as if Vista would come in as many flavors as the ice cream offered at your local BaskinRobbins. Things aren't quite that complicated, but there will be five different core Vista versions and three others sold outside the United States. Here are those versions, and how they differ: Windows Vista Home Basic: As the name implies, this one offers only bare-bones features. Designed to run on entry-level PCs, it won't have the Windows Aero interface, won't support DVD burning, and will lack Media Center features. It will be missing more as well, such as mobility feature and it won't support Tablet pcs.
Windows Vista Business: This version is aimed at small to medium-sized businesses. It will include Windows Aero (shown below), will support Tablet PCs, and will have most other Vista features aside from a variety of multimedia functions, such as the ability to create and burn DVDs. It will, however, have several features aimed at IT folks, such as wireless network provisioning capabilities, Remote Desktop connections, image-based backup, and other network administration features. Windows Vista Home Premium: This version will have Aero and support for all the multimedia Vista features, such as DVD burning, slide-show creation, and the Media Center. It will support basic networking and wireless networking, but it won't have network administration tools, wireless network provisioning, or the ability to connect to a domain. It also won't have the Encrypting File System or image-based backup. Windows Vista Enterprise: This one is for large businesses, and only companies that have Microsoft Software Assurance or a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement get this version. It offers everything Windows Vista Business does, plus it includes hardware-based encryption called Bit Locker Drive Encryption, which employs a physical hardware key and a pass code to secure volumes, or storage areas in the file system. This version also comes as a single image that companies can deploy from a central location. Windows Vista Ultimate: Like the name says, this is the Mother of All Vistas. It has all the features and tools in every other version of Vista -- the networking and administrative tools of the various business editions, plus the multimedia features of the home editions. Also in the works are Windows Ultimate Extras, components that Microsoft says will be included with the Ultimate edition. What are these ultimate extras? Microsoft isn't saying, so we'll have to wait for launch to find out. And Others: The final tally of Vista versions will be eight. The remaining three versions will be sold only outside the United States. The Windows Vista Starter edition will be sold only on low-end PCs in emerging markets, and two N versions of Vista, which lack some media-related features, will be designed to conform to European Union regulations.

What unique features are offered in each?

Feature

Brief description

Ease of Access Center

Provides a centralized location where you can adjust accessibility settings and manage accessibility programs.

Speech Recognition

Enables you to interact with your computer using only your voice while maintaining, or even increasing, your productivity.

Magnifier

Enlarges part of the screen while you work, leaving the rest of your desktop in a standard display.

Narrator

A text-to-speech program that reads aloud on-screen text and describes some events (such as error messages) that happen while you're using the computer.

On-Screen Keyboard

A visual, on-screen keyboard with all the standard keys that you can use instead of a physical keyboard. On-Screen Keyboard also lets you type using an alternative input device.

Keyboard shortcuts

Use keyboard shortcuts as an alternative to the mouse. Keyboard shortcuts can be found in the menus of programs, or, if a letter is underlined on a menu, it usually means that pressing the ALT key in combination with the underlined key has the same effect as clicking that menu item.

Mouse Keys

Instead of using the mouse, you can use the arrow keys on the numeric keypad to move the pointer.

Sticky Keys

Instead of having to press three keys at once (such as when you must press the CTRL, ALT, and DELETE keys

simultaneously to log on to Windows), you can press one key at a time when Sticky Keys is turned on.

Filter Keys

Ignore keystrokes that occur in rapid succession and keystrokes that are held down for several seconds unintentionally.

Visual Notifications

Replace system sounds with visual cues, such as a flash on the screen, so system alerts are announced with visual notifications instead of sounds.

Captions

Get information via animations and video that some programs use to indicate that activity is happening on your computer.

Q2. What are the most important new features in Vista for home users? The new interface, Aero Glass, is the one people will notice the most. It uses transparent windows, a 3-D task switcher, and animated windows, boosting Windows' visual appeal. The Sidebar, with its Gadgets -- small applets that can automatically grab and display information -- will be a crowd-pleaser as well. The new Network Center, which makes it easier for home users to manage their small wired and wireless networks, is another welcome addition. New security features that protect against spyware, such as Windows Defender and new tools built into Internet Explorer are important as well because they will lead to fewer spyware-infested PCs.
Multimedia mavens who want to listen to music, burn DVDs and watch TV and DVDs on their computers will focus on the Vista Media Center, which has a better-organized interface and easy syncing with remote devices such as media players, and allows for better browsing of music collections. Windows Media Player 11 has a new interface and expanded content offerings, including MTV's Urge music service. Finally, Vista's Internet Explorer 7 is a big improvement over version 6, and includes tabbed browsing (finally!) and security features such as an anti-phishing filter.

Q3. What are the most important new features for businesses?
Vista's new security features will certainly be greeted with open arms by businesses, and may be the single most important reason to upgrade. In addition, IT departments will get new deployment tools, including the Windows Imaging Format (WIM), which allows a single image to be deployed to different types of PCs with different language requirements. Group Policy, which allows centralized management of users and computers in an active directory environment has been improved, and Windows Resource Protection gives IT departments

ways to stop users from making dangerous system changes or problematic

Registry edits. Windows Update Agent (WUA) has

been improved as well, making it easier for IT departments to ensure that PCs are kept up to date with the latest patches. Although companies might not use it right away, built-in support for ivps the next evolution of the protocol that underlies the Internet and enterprise networks will help prepare for next-generation networking. And built-in IPSEC an encryption and authentication standard for IP security at the network layer, makes it easier to maintain and use Virtual Private Networks VPNS. Finally, the Windows Vista Network Explorer makes it easier for users to visually browse through network resources, including computers, devices, people, and shared folders.

Q4. What are the most important new features for mobile users?
The most noticeable improvement is the Mobility Center, which lets users control every aspect of their laptops from a single interface and gives a quick view of the current state of the laptop. Separate panes let users adjust screen brightness, change power schemes, view their wireless network status, change screen orientation between portrait and landscape modes, and more. One of the leasttalked-about Vista features may be one of the most useful for mobile users -- the Sync Center, which makes it easy to synchronize just about any kind of data you can imagine, starting with simple folder synchronization between a laptop and desktop or network. But there's more to syncing as well, such as updating contact information between a PC and a mobile phone, and synchronizing calendar information and e-mail messages with a PDA or Smartphone. In addition, the power settings for managing laptop batteries offer an amazing amount of granular control, and will help mobile users get more battery life out of their PCs.

Q5. Explain visual style available in windows vista? Visual style of windows vista
The new Start menu: The Start menu displays everything within the context of a single menu. Instead of having to scroll through a list of applications (which took up considerable screen real estate in Windows XP), you can now view a single, collapsible Start menu. Improved folders: My Documents, My Music, My Videos, and so on are simplified and appear simply as Documents, Music, and Videos. These folders are always present when you search folders. For example, if you're in the Documents folder, folder representations of Music, Videos, Searches, and so on, appear on the left side of the Documents folder. Live Icons: When you're using Windows Aero, we can hover our mouse over open windows in the task bar and see a live representation of what's running in them. You can get the same preview by using the Windows Flip 3D feature or even by pressing ALT+TAB to toggle windows and folders, which makes navigation much easier.

Visual styles
Luna is the default visual style in Windows XP. It is available in three color schemes: Default (blue), Olive Green, and Silver. Windows XP Media Center Edition comes with Royale as the default theme. In most editions of Windows Vista, the default theme is Windows Aero. Aero offers translucent window effects, as well as live thumbnails, animated transitions and Flip 3D. However, it requires a higher-end video graphics card, DirectX 9 support and 32-bit color; otherwise, Windows Vista is displayed using "Windows Vista Basic" visual style.

Q6. What are the system requirements for Vista, and how do I know if my PC will support it?
If you believe Microsoft, all you'll need to run Vista are a "modern CPU" (essentially a Pentium 4 or equivalent), 512MB of RAM, and "a graphics processor that is DirectX 9 capable." But don't believe Microsoft. The company has a history of significantly lowballing the hardware requirements for its operating systems. For example, it says that the XP Home Edition can be run with 128MB of memory. Don't try that at home, kids. Gartner estimates that

half of corporate PCs won't be able to run Vista --

and you can bet

that number is higher for home users, who tend to upgrade less frequently. For example, the above specifications are for running what Microsoft calls a "Vista Capable" PC, and a Vista Capable PC won't be able to handle all of Vista's advanced features. For those, you'll need a "Vista Premium Ready" PC, which must have a 32- or 64-bit processor running at least as fast as 1GHz, 1GB of RAM, 128MB of graphics memory, a 40GB hard drive (with 15GB free), and a DVD-ROM drive. You may also need more RAM on the graphics card if you want to run the Vista Aero interface in high resolutions and/or on multiple monitors. Keep in mind that Vista is a graphics-hungry, RAM-eating beast. If possible, get 2GB of RAM instead of 1GB. Look for an AGP or PCI Express graphics adapter that supports DirectX 9 with a Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) developed for Vista, and that has 32-bits-per-pixel color depth and at least 64MB of video memory. Better yet, get 128MB. If you want to find out if your hardware can handle Vista, Microsoft recently released the beta version of a new tool called the windows vista upgrade advisor that, when run on a Windows XP system, scans the PC and issues a report on its components and how they stack up against Vista's needs. It also recommends which to use.

What are the system requirements in windows vista?

Windows Vista system requirements[46]
"Vista Capable" "Vista Premium Ready"

Processor Memory Graphics card Graphics memory HDD capacity HDD free space Other drives Audio

800 MHz[54] 512 MB RAM DirectX 9.0 capable 32 MB RAM 20 GB 15 GB DVD-ROM Audio output

1 GHz 1 GB RAM DirectX 9.0 capable and WDDM 1.0 driver support 128 MB RAM supports up to 2,756,000 total pixels (e.g. 1920 1200) or 512 MB+ for greater resolutions such as 2560x1600[55] 40 GB 15 GB DVD-ROM Audio output

Q7. Is vista really more secure than earlier windows version? In what way?
Security was a top priority during Windows Vista development. In Windows XP, every user is set up as an administrator by default. As a result, most home users ran all their software with Administrator access. However, this left most users unwittingly open to potential security threats, such as hacking and malware downloads. A large amount of existing software doesnt run well as a standard user. For example, applications often assume they have read and write access to the entire filesystem and system Registry.[6] Denying such an application access to any of these assumed rights can cause the application to fail. Sometimes, a person logged on as a standard user under Windows XP can't even perform some of the most basic tasks, such as changing the system clock and calendar, changing the computer's time zone, or changing the computer's power management settings.

UAC credentials dialog User Account Control in Windows Vista improves this by limiting application software to standard user privileges until an administrator authorizes an increase in privilege level. In this way, UAC prevents users from making inadvertent changes to system settings and locks down the computer to prevent unauthorized applications from installing or performing malicious actions. Internet Explorer 7's Protected Mode utilizes User Account Control to isolate IE from other applications and prevent it from writing content to any location, except the Temporary Internet Files folder. Internet Explorer 7 is available for XP, but does not support Protected Mode on XP. Windows Vista also includes Windows Defender, a spyware scanning and removal tool that is also available for Windows XP for free. Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista include BitLocker Drive Encryption, which aims to help protect data in the case of stolen devices.

Feature Windows Defender Windows Firewall Windows Security Center BitLocker Drive Encryption Parental controls User Account Control Data Execution Prevention

Windows XP Available as a free download Yes Yes (starting w/ SP2) No Some (Internet Explorer allows parental control of web browsing) No Yes (starting w/ SP2)
[7]

Windows Vista Yes Yes Yes Yes (Enterprise and Ultimate only) Yes Yes Yes

Q8. What's the most important feature previously planned for Vista that was left out?
The biggest omission by far is WinFS; an object-oriented file system that was supposed to revolutionize the way data is stored and searched, making it simple to sift though gigabytes of data to find exactly what you want. Bill Gates himself called WinFS "the most ambitious, the most shocking advance that we've got in the system." Unfortunately, Microsoft developers never got it to work properly on networks, so it was axed from both Vista and Microsoft's upcoming Longhorn Server operating system.

Q9. Will Vista run on Macs?

Mac owners can run Windows XP on an Intel based Mac using the new dual-boot boot- camp application, which lets them choose between XP and OS X at startup. But will they be able use it to boot into Vista? At the moment, the answer is yes -- but only if they want to go through a great deal of pain and give up OS X.

Messages on the OSx86 Project's Web

site

claim that users who want to boot into Vista may have to remove OS X.

"When you get to the section where it asks where to actually install Vista...well, here's the main problem," wrote a user identified as "AirmanPika" on the site. "You delete all of them. Even OS X. Yes, this isn't a dual-boot solution (yet anyway) but it does allow Vista to run." Another contributor going by "alexoughton" added that he had installed Vista without removing OS X by deleting the EFI partition that Apple's Boot Camp application creates. Vista is still in beta, of course, so all this may change when it's finally released. But until then, if you're a Mac owner and you want to use Vista, you might have to kiss OS X goodbye -- which pretty much seems beside the point.

Q10. What is the end user feature available in vista?

Various versions of Vista will support 64-bit PCs as well as 32-bit PCs, which are the standard these days. But most people won't see any benefits from the 64-bit version of the operating system, and so don't need to spend the extra money to buy a CPU with 64-bit support. Generally, 64-bit PCs will get performance benefits only if applications are specifically written for 64 bits. Currently, there's very little software written for 64-bit PCs. Although that may change to a certain extent by the time Vista is released, don't expect a groundswell of 64-bit applications. So while Vista itself may run faster on a 64-bit PC, other software won't. Your best bet? Before buying your next PC, find out from software vendors if the software you use will likely come out in 64-bit versions in the next year or two. If not, you can probably save your money and stay with a 32-bit PC, even though 64-bit Vista will be available.

After all, there's a 64-bit version of XP available now, and hardly anybody is rushing out to buy 64-bit PCs.

Q11. Can a dual-boot PC be set up for Linux and Vista?

At the moment, it appears that it will be exceedingly difficult, or even impossible, to set up a dual-boot PC with both Linux and Vista on it. That's because of Vista's new hardware-based encryption feature called Bit Locker Drive Encryption, which functions as a kind of data repository that protects data in case a PC is stolen or lost. Bit Locker Drive Encryption makes it difficult or impossible to exchange the data required by a dual-boot system, says security guru Bruce Schneir. "You could look at Bit Locker as anti-Linux because it frustrates dual-boot," he said at a panel at the Infosec conference in London. However, not all versions of Vista use Bit Locker. At the moment, it's unclear if those other versions will be able to dual-boot between Linux and Vista.

Q12. Windows XP vs. Windows Vista?

Windows Vista offers a considerable number of new and improved features over Windows XP. Some of these great new features include: Windows Aero: Windows Vista features a totally different look for its interfacea cleaner, transparent look with impressive graphic quality, not to mention Live Icons and the new Windows Flip 3D feature. Windows Aero requires a higher-end video

graphics card; otherwise, Windows Vista is displayed using Windows Basic. Check with your computer manufacturer, or use the
Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor to see whether your video card is ready for Windows Aero. Windows Sidebar: Windows Vista offers a panel (transparent, if you're using Windows Aero) that displays your selection of Windows gadgetsmini-applications that perform useful functions, such as a clock, a calendar, a Microsoft Office Outlook inbox representation, and currency exchange. Microsoft Windows Media Player 11: While you can download it for Windows XP, this latest and greatest version of Windows Media Player is designed for Windows Vista and shouldn't be missed. With its new graphics-oriented interface, Windows Media Player 11 abandons the text-oriented look and field of previous versions. Did I mention that you can also use Windows Media Player 11 to share your media over your private home network? Windows Search: One of the most helpful new features in Windows Vista, you can now search for files or applications from almost anywhere. Unlike in Windows XP, with Window Search, you can simply type a few letters of your search request, and the results appear on the flya helpful feature when looking for a file or application from the Start menu. For example, type fir, and Windows Firewall entries appear in the Start menu.

Windows Aero is a wonderfully new, graphics-powered user interface.

These are just a few of the new features that might attract our attention. Of course, there are many more features and improvements for us to explore in Windows Vista.

Enjoy better security

People are concerned about security these daysnot only Windows security but also how to protect themselves and their families when using their home computers. Microsoft has addressed both of these issues head on in Windows Vista. Some of the improved security features in the new operating system include:

Parental Controls: Windows Vista includes Parental Controls that let you as the computer administrator set highly specific boundaries for other users, including separate standard user accounts for family members, especially children. You can set rules such as which sites a certain user can or cannot access and hours during which a particular user can use the computer; you can also curtail access to specific applications and view where other users have been on your computer and on the Web.

Windows Vista User Account Control (UAC): UAC is a new security feature that lets you operate Windows Vista more as a standard user than as a true administrator, where you have complete access to everything. Features that UAC protects, denoted with a multi-colored shield, require your permission or validation before you can access them. Windows Firewall: Windows Vista now features two different firewalls: the standard firewall that was available in Windows XP and Windows Firewall with Advanced Features. The latter offers true firewall protection, including bidirectional filters, meaning that both incoming and outgoing data are scanned.

With Windows Vista's Parental Controls, you can set very specific rules and usage limitations for individual users.
Other security features, such as Bit Locker Drive Encryption, are available in some editions of Windows Vista. All Windows Vista editions feature the latest version of Windows Defender, Microsoft's anti-spy ware application.

An improved user experience

The overall user experience in Windows Vista goes far beyond what is available in Windows XP. Some of the things that I've found really enjoyable are:

The new Start menu: The Start menu displays everything within the context of a single menu. Instead of having to scroll through a list of applications (which took up considerable screen real estate in Windows XP), you can now view a single, collapsible Start menu. Improved folders: My Documents, My Music, My Videos, and so on are simplified and appear simply as Documents, Music, and Videos. These folders are always present when you search folders. For example, if you're in the Documents folder, folder representations of Music, Videos, Searches, and so on, appear on the left side of the Documents folder. Live Icons: When you're using Windows Aero, we can hover our mouse over open windows in the task bar and see a live representation of what's running in them. You can get the same preview by using the Windows Flip 3D feature or even by pressing ALT+TAB to toggle windows and folders, which makes navigation much easier.

Searching folders is considerably easier in Windows Vista. These are just a few of the new features that might attract our attention. Of course, there are many more features and improvements for us to explore in Windows Vista.