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Template:Beta softwareWindows Vista (formerly codenamed Windows "Longhorn") has many significant new features compared to previous Microsoft Windows versions, covering almost every aspect of the operating system.
The full extent of the new features to be included in Windows Vista has not been stated formally, so this is not a complete list.
Windows Vista will include a re-designed user interface and visual style, named Windows Aero — an acronym (or backronym) for Authentic, Energetic, Reflective, and Open. The new interface is intended to be cleaner and more aesthetically pleasing than previous Windows, including new transparencies, window animations and eye candy. However, Microsoft makes it clear that the changes are by no means superficial. Aero also introduces a new default font with a slightly larger size, a streamlined style of wizard, and a change in the tone and phrasing of most of the dialogs and control panels.
In addition to the Windows Aero visual style, Vista includes three other variations: "Standard" which is Windows Aero without the transparencies and glass effects, "Basic" which more closely resembles Windows XP with elements of Aero, and is geared towards lower-end machines that aren't able to use the Desktop Window Manager, and "Classic" which is very similar in appearance to Windows 2000.
Initially, a variation of Aero, code-named "Aero Diamond", was slated to be the user interface for the Windows Vista Media Center experience, although there has been no mention of Diamond for a number of years, it may refer to the expectation that the interface will be written in pure XAML (as was Aero initially) but this has not been confirmed.
The new shell is a significant change from previous versions of Windows. Combined with the new desktop searching feature, the shell gives users the ability to find and organize their files in new ways. Apart from the typical file organization practice of using folders to contain files, a new collection known as Lists lets users organize files from multiple locations in a single place.
A new type of folder known as a Shadow Folder has the ability to revert its entire contents to any arbitrary point in the past. Shadow Folders utilize Transactional NTFS, a transaction feature for file system operations, in the NTFS release that will accompany Windows Vista.
Additionally, the shell contains significant advancements in the visualization of files on a computer. Previous versions of the Windows Shell would display thumbnails to represent different files on the computer. In Windows Vista the thumbnail concept is taken further by overlaying different imagery to communicate more information about the particular file such as a picture frame around the thumbnail of an image file, or a filmstrip on a video file. Windows Vista helps the user identify the file easily by more intelligently generating the thumbnails. Using algorithmic analysis, images are cropped around their likely subject, and interesting key frames are automatically chosen from a video file. Also, the ability to zoom the thumbnails in the shell greatly increases their usefulness.
The address bar has been modified to present a breadcrumbs view, which shows the entire path to the current location. Clicking any location in the path hierarchy will take to that level and allows re-navigation from there, instead of repeatedly pressing the Back button. This is roughly analogous to what is possible today by pressing the small down-arrow next to "Back" and selecting any folder from a list of previously accessed folders.
The usage of Ratings will also be expanded to all files, and not just video and music files within Windows Media Player as is currently the case. In addition, the shell exposes metadata for all files, which describe certain aspects about the files in question, such as the author, subject etc. The shell features new constructs to set-up, view and edit such metadata, which is used by the indexed search engine to retrieve results.
This new Windows Explorer shell will not be based on the Internet Explorer browser.
Search
Windows Vista will feature a search engine that will allow for instant display of results for a given search, in a manner similar to Google Desktop, Linux's Beagle, Apple Computer's Spotlight, and Microsoft's Windows Desktop Search. This is in contrast to the search engine of Windows XP, which takes some time to display results, and only after the user has finished typing the search string. The Windows Vista search will allow users to add multiple filters to continually refine search results (Such as "File contains the word 'example'").
There will also be the ability to save searches as Saved Searches where opening a folder will execute a specific search automatically and display the results as a normal folder. These virtual folders are also distributable via RSS. Previously there were rumors that unlike Tiger's smart folders or Microsoft Outlook 2003, users will not be able to open the files directly from the virtual folder in the same way as through the Windows Explorer, this was later found to be untrue.
The Windows Vista search and organize capabilities are built on the Windows Desktop Search engine and platform, allowing third-party applications (e.g. Microsoft Outlook 2007) to use the indexing platform to store metadata and perform searches on Vista or Windows XP (with the Windows Desktop Search redistributable installed). Searching in Windows Vista will also allow users to search across RSS and Atom feeds, straight from Explorer.
Windows Vista will also use IFilters that are used today by Windows Desktop Search. The IFilter interface can be implemented by software makers so that files created by their applications can be better integrated with search and indexing programs.
Windows Sidebar is a new panel on the right-hand 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). The gadgets can also be placed on other parts of the desktop, if desired. By default, Windows Vista ships with thirteen gadgets: Calculator, Clock, CPU Meter, Currency Conversion, Feed Viewer, Feed Watcher, Notes, Number Puzzle, Picture Puzzle, Recycle Bin, Slide Show, Stocks, and an egg timer. Additional gadgets are published at Microsoft's web site, which offers both Microsoft-created and user-submitted gadgets in a gallery.
Gadgets are written using a combination of DHTML for visual layout, JScript and VBScript for functional code, and an XML file for defining the gadget's metadata (author name, description, etc.) The gadget is then distributed as a ZIP file with a .gadget extension.
Windows Mail replaces Outlook Express, the well-known email client in previous Windows versions. It incorporates several user interface features from Outlook 2003, as well as Junk Mail filtering which is enhanced through regular updates via Windows Update.
Windows Calendar is the new calendar application that is included in Windows Vista. It supports sharing of calendars on WebDAV-enabled web servers.
Windows Photo Gallery, a photo and video library management application. WPG can import from digital cameras, tag and rate individual items. It also allows basic editing of images, such as adjusting color and exposure. Slideshows, with pan, fade and other effects, can also be created, and burnt to DVD. It allows custom metadata to be added to images and videos, and enables searching by the attributes.
Windows Meeting Space, the replacement for NetMeeting, is a peer-to-peer (p2p) collaboration application in Windows Vista. Users can share applications (or their entire desktop) with other users on the local network, or over the Internet. Windows Collaboration allows sharing of the desktop with other coworkers, distribution and collaborative editing of documents, and passing notes to other participants. Windows Collaboration automatically finds other users using People Near Me, a technology that uses WS-Discovery to see other users on a local network. Windows Vista also includes a p2p messenger[1]
File:Windows Vista 5384 Snipping Tool.PNGScreenshot of the Snipping ToolSnipping Tool is a screen-capture tool included with Vista that allows for taking screen shots (known as snips) of windows, rectangular areas, windows, or a free-form area. Snips can then be annotated, saved (as an image file or as an HTML page), or emailed.
Windows Experience Index ( formerly WinSAT), a built-in benchmarking tool which analyzes the different subsystems (graphics, memory, etc), and uses the results to allow for comparison to other Windows Vista systems, and for software optimizations. The optimizations can be made by both Windows and third-party software.[2]
Windows Backup (code-named SafeDocs) allowing automatic backup of files, recovery of specific files and folders, recovery of specific file types, or recovery of all files.
Windows Update has been revised, and now runs completely as a control panel application, not as a web application as in prior versions of Windows.
System Protection, previously known as System Restore, is more proactive at creating useful "Protection Points". Restore points are now "volume-level", meaning that performing a restore will capture the state of an entire system at a point in time. These can also be restored using the Windows System Recovery console when booting from the Vista DVD, and an "undo" restore point can be created prior to a restore, in case a user wishes to return to the pre-restored state.
Windows Movie Maker now supports editing and outputting HD video, as well as burning the output movie on a DVD.
Windows Contacts, a new unified contact and personal information management application, replaces Windows Address Book (WAB). It is based on a new XML based file format where each contact will appear as an individual .contact file, and features extensibility APIs for integration with other applications. It can store any custom information related to your contacts and even supports display pictures. The legacy *.wab, *.vcf (vCard) and *.csv (Comma separated values) file formats are also supported.
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.
Windows Vista will include a new version of Internet Explorer, which adds support for tabbed browsing, Atom, RSS, a search box, a phishing filter, an anti-spoofing URL engine, fine-grained control over ActiveX add-ons, thumbnails of all open tabs in a single window (called Quick Tabs), page zoom, and tab groups, which makes it possible to open a folder of Favorites in tabs with a single click. Importing bookmarks and cookies from other web browsers will also be supported.
Internet Explorer will operate in a special "Protected Mode", which runs the browser in a security sandbox that has no access to the rest of the operating system or file system, except the Temporary Internet Files folder. This feature aims to mitigate problems whereby newly-discovered flaws in the browser (or in ActiveX controls hosted inside it) allowed hackers to subversively install software on the user's computer (typically spyware).[3]
Additionally, there will be a large number of improvements and fixes to CSS and HTML rendering, and proper support for PNG images with transparency.
Windows Internet Explorer 7 will be released for Vista as well as Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, though the Vista version will be called Windows Internet Explorer 7+[4]. The Windows Vista version of Windows Internet Explorer will feature a WinINet API, different from those available for other versions of Windows. It will leverage Windows Vista's support of IPv6, and support hexadecimal literals in the IPv6 address. It also includes better support for Gzip and deflate compression, so that communication with a web server can be compressed and thus will require less data to be transferred. It will also support internationalized domain names (IDN) for web addresses.
Windows Media Player 11, which is also available on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, will feature a fully revamped interface. The Media Library is now presented without the category trees which were prominent in the earlier versions. Rather, on selecting the category in the left pane, the contents will appear on the right, in a graphical manner with thumbnails – a stark departure from textual presentation of information. Search has been upgraded to be much faster.
Other features include:
Stacking - Stacking allows graphical viewing of how many albums exist in a specific category of music. The pile appears larger as the category contains more albums.
Word Wheel - Searches and displays results as characters are being entered, without waiting for Enter key to be hit. Results are refined based on further characters that are typed.
CD Burning - CD Burning now shows a graphical bar showing how much space will be used on the disc.
URGE - The new music store from Microsoft and MTV networks is integrated with the player.
Global Status - Global status shows a broad overview of what the player is doing. The information presented include status information regarding buffering, ripping, burning and synchronization.
Windows Media Player 11 for Windows Vista will include a superset of features of what will be in the version for previous Windows versions.[5]
Media Center
Media Center in Windows Vista, available in the Home Premium and Ultimate editions, has been upgraded significantly, including a considerable overhaul of the user interface. Each button in the main menu, which contains sections such as "Music", "Videos", and "TV", gets encased in a box when selected, and for each selection, a submenu comes up, extending horizontally. When any of the options is selected, the entries for each are presented in a grid-like structure, with each item being identified by album art, if its an audio file, or a thumbnail image if it is a picture, a video or a TV recording, and other related options, such as different views for the music collection if "Music" is selected, extend horizontally along the top of the grid. Similarly, other items are identified by suggestive artwork. The grid displaying the items is also extended horizontally, and the selected item is enlarged compared to the rest.
Other changes include:
Addition of Movies and DVD button which lists all the movies on the hard drive and DVD.
Tasks button that provides access to jobs such as setting up and configuring a media center extender device.
Any video playing is overlaid on the background of the user interface, if the UI is navigated while the video is still playing.
Support for high-definition (HD) content, and CableCard support.
Security and safety
Beginning in early 2002 with Microsoft's announcement of their Trustworthy Computing initiative, a great deal of work has gone into making Windows Vista a more secure operating system than its predecessors. Internally, Microsoft adopted a "Security Development Lifecycle"[6] with the underlying ethos of, "Secure by design, secure by default, secure in deployment". New code for Windows Vista was developed with the SDL methodology, and all existing code was reviewed and refactored to improve security.
A number of specific improvements have been made:
Windows Resource Protection prevents "potentially damaging system configuration changes"[7], by preventing change to system files and settings by any process other than Windows Installer. Also changes to registry by unauthorized software are blocked.
Protected-Mode IE: Internet Explorer runs in a separate, low-privilege process, protecting the user from malicious content and security vulnerabilities, even in ActiveX controls.
Windows Firewall has been upgraded to support outbound packet filtering and full IPv6 support. A new MMC-based interface has been introduced which offers much more advanced control over the firewall[8].
Session 0 Isolation: Previous versions of Windows ran System services in the same login session as the locally logged-in user (Session 0). In Windows Vista, Session 0 is now reserved for these services, and all interactive logins are done in other sessions.[9] This is intended to help mitigate a class of exploits of the Windows message-passing system, known as "Shatter attacks".
Full support for the "NX" (No-Execute) feature of modern processors. This feature, present as NX (EVP) in AMD's AMD64 processors and as XD (EDB) in Intel's processors, can flag certain parts of memory as containing data instead of executable code, which prevents overflow errors from resulting in arbitrary code execution.
BitLocker Drive Encryption. Formerly known as "Secure Startup", this software utilizes a Trusted Platform Module (compliant with the 1.2 version of the TCG specifications) to improve PC security. It ensures that the PC running Windows Vista starts in a known-good state, and it also protects data from unauthorized access through full volume encryption[10]. Data on the volume is encrypted with a Full Volume Encryption Key (FVEK), which is further encrypted with a Volume Master Key(VMK) and stored on the disk itself. The VMK is then stored on the TPM chip.
Windows Vista can use Smart Cards or Smart Card/Password combo for user authentication.
Windows Vista can use smart cards to store Encrypting File System (EFS) keys. This makes sure that encrypted files are accessible only as long as the smart card is physically available.
Preventing exploits
Windows Vista uses Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) to load system files at random addresses in memory[11]. By default, all system files are loaded randomly at any of the possible 256 locations. Other executables have to specifically set a bit in the header of the PE file, which is the file format for Windows executables to use ASLR. For such executables, the stack and heap allocated is randomly decided. By loading system files at random addresses, it makes harder for malicious code to know where privileged system functions are located, thereby making it unlikely for them to predictably use them. This helps prevent most remote execution attacks by preventing Return-to-libc attacks.
The Portable Executable format has been updated to support embedding of exception handler address in the header. Whenever an exception is thrown, the address of the handler is verified with the one stored in the executable header. If they match, the exception is handled, otherwise it indicates that the run-time stack has been compromised, and hence the process is terminated.
Function pointers are obfuscated by XOR-ing with a random number, so that the actual address pointed to is hard to retrieve. So would be to manually change a pointer, as the obfuscation key used for the pointer would be very hard to retrieve. Thus, it is made hard for any unauthorized user of the function pointer to be able to actually use it. Also metadata for heap blocks are XOR-ed with random numbers. In addition, check-sums for heap blocks are maintained, which is used to detect unauthorized changes and heap corruption. Whenever a heap corruption is detected, the application is killed to prevent successful completion of the exploit.
Windows Vista binaries include intrinsic support for detection of stack-overflow. When a stack overflow in Windows Vista binaries is detected, the process is killed so that it cannot be used to carry on the exploit. Also Windows Vista binaries place buffers higher in memory and code in lower memory area. So to actually exploit, a buffer underrun is needed. However, buffer underruns are much less common than buffer overruns.
Windows Vista also uses processor-enforced Data Execution Prevention on all processes to mark data segments, and subsequently any data is prevented from being interpreted and executed as code. This prevents exploit code from being injected as data and then executed. Though DEP was present in Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1, its enforcement has been made stricter in Windows Vista.
User Account Control
File:UsrAccCtrl.jpgA dialog box prevents the program running without the permission of the user
User Account Control is a new infrastructure that requires user consent before allowing any job that requires administrative privileges. With this feature, all users, including users with administrative privileges, run in a standard user mode by default, since most applications do not require higher privileges. But when some action that needs administrative privileges, such as installing new software or changing system settings, Windows will prompt the user whether to allow the action or not. If the user chooses to allow, the process initiating the action is elevated to a higher privilege context to continue. While standard users need to enter an username and password of an administrative account to get a process elevated (Over-the-shoulders Credentials), an administrator can choose to be prompted just for consent or ask for credentials.
UAC asks for credentials in a Secure Desktop mode, where the entire screen is blacked out and temporarily disabled, to present only the elevation UI. This is to prevent spoofing[12] of the UI or the mouse by the application requesting elevation. Since the Secure Desktop allows only highest privilege System applications to run, no user mode application can present its dialog boxes thereby, so any prompt for elevation consent can be safely assumed to be genuine.
User Account Control helps improve security by preventing silent install of malware and prevents applications from changing system settings without the knowledge and consent of the users. Additionally, they can also help protect against shatter attacks, which intercept Windows inter-process messages to run malicious code or spoof the user interface, by preventing unauthorized processes from sending messages to high privilege processes. Any process to send a message to a high privilege process must get itself elevated to the higher privilege context, via UAC.
Apart from various improvements in security, Windows Vista will include Microsoft's anti-spyware utility, named Windows Defender. According to Microsoft, it was renamed from 'Microsoft AntiSpyware' because it not only features scanning of the system for spyware, similar to other free products on the market, but also includes Real Time Security agents that monitor several common areas of Windows for changes which may be caused by spyware. It also includes the ability to easily remove ActiveX applications that are installed. Also included is a SpyNet network, which allows users to communicate with Microsoft, send what they consider is spyware, and check what applications are acceptable.
Parental Controls
Windows Vista includes a range of parental controls. An administrator can apply parental control restrictions to other users on the computer. Facilities include:
Web content blocking, including the ability to limit web browsing to "kids websites", as well as blocking particular categories of content such as "Pornography", "Drugs", "Web e-mail", "Web chat", and so on. File downloads may also be disabled.
Time limitations on when the account may be used
Restrictions on what kind of games may be played. ESRB ratings are used to determine the highest allowed game rating. As with web content blocking, a number of categories of content may also be blocked regardless of ESRB rating.
Restrictions on what programs may be executed
Activity reports to monitor what was done under Parental Controls
Digital Rights Management
Microsoft is introducing a number of Digital Rights Management and content-protection features in Windows Vista, to
help digital content providers, corporations, and end-users protect their data from being copied.
PUMA: Protected User Mode Audio (PUMA) is the new User Mode Audio (UMA) audio stack. Its aim is to provide an environment for audio playback that restricts the copying of copyrighted audio, and restricts the enabled audio outputs to those allowed by the publisher of the protected content[13].
Protected Video Path - Output Protection Management (PVP-OPM) is a technology that prevents copying of protected digital video streams, or their display on video devices that lack equivalent copy protection (typically HDCP). Microsoft claims that without these restrictions the content industry may prevent PCs from playing copyrighted content by refusing to issue license keys for the encryption used by HD-DVD, Blu-Ray Disc, or other copy-protected systems[13].
Rights Management Services (RMS) support, a technology that will allow corporations to apply DRM-like restrictions to corporate documents, email, and intranets to protect them from being copied, printed, or even opened by people not authorized to do so. MSN Spaces will also offer an open RMS server that home users and smaller businesses can use to extend this ability to their own documents.[citation needed]
Application isolation
Windows Vista introduces Mandatory Integrity Control to set integrity levels for processes. A low integrity process can not access the resources of a higher integrity process. This feature is being used to enforce application isolation, where applications in a medium integrity level, such as all applications running in the standard user context can not hook into system level processes which run in high integrity level, such as administrator mode applications but can hook onto lower integrity processes like Windows Internet Explorer 7+.
Service hardening
A new security feature called Windows Service Hardening prevents Windows services from doing operations on file systems, registry or networks[14] which they are not supposed to, thereby preventing entry of malware by piggybacking on system services. Services are now assigned a per-service Security identifier (SID), which allows controlling access to the service as per the access specified by the security identifier. Services can also use access control lists (ACL) to prevent external access to resources private to itself. Services in Windows Vista also run in a less privileged account such as Local Service or Network Service, instead of the System account. Services will also need explicit write permissions to write to resources, on a per-service basis. Only those resources which have to be modified by a service give it write access. So trying to modify any other resource fails. Services will also have pre-configured firewall policy, which gives it only as much privilege as is needed for it to function properly.
Network Access Protection
Network Access Protection, (NAP) which makes sure that computers connecting to a network or communicating over a network conform to a required level of system health, as has been set by the administrator of the network, has been upgraded significantly in Windows Vista. Depending on the policy set by the administrator, the computers which do not meet the requirements will either be warned and granted access or allowed a limited access to network resources or completely denied access. NAP can also optionally provide software updates to a non-compliant computer to upgrade itself to the level as required to access the network, using a Remediation Server. A conforming client is given a Health Certificate, which it then uses to access protected resources on the network.
A Network Policy Server, running Windows Server "Longhorn" acts as health policy server and clients need to use Windows Vista or better. A VPN server, RADIUS server or DHCP server can also act as the health policy server.
x86-64 -specific features
Data Execution Prevention (DEP) uses only the NX-bit support in processors, with no fallback software emulation. This ensures that the less effective software-enforced DEP, which is an option in 32-bit versions, can not be used.
PatchGuard prevents third-party software, including kernel-mode drivers from modifying the kernel in any way; this mitigates a common tactic used by rootkits to hide themselves from user-mode applications.
Code Integrity check-sums signed code. Before loading such code, it is verified against the check-sum to ensure it has not modified.
Graphics
Desktop Window Manager
The Desktop Window Manager (DWM) is the new windowing system that will be available in all versions of Windows Vista, except Starter Edition, to enable the new Windows Aero user interface. The DWM handles the drawing of all content to the screen. Instead of windows drawing directly to the video card's memory buffers, contents are instead rendered to back-buffers (technically Direct3D surfaces), which are then arranged in the appropriate Z-order, then displayed to the user. This drawing method uses significantly more video memory than the traditional window-drawing method used in previous versions of Windows, which only required enough memory to contain the composite of all currently visible windows at any given time. With the entire contents of windows being stored in video memory, a user can move windows around the screen smoothly, without having "tearing" artifacts be visible while the operating system asks applications to redraw the newly visible parts of their windows. Other features new to Vista such as live thumbnail window previews and Flip 3D are implemented through the DWM.
Users will need to have a DirectX 9-capable video card to be able to use the Desktop Window Manager. Machines that can't use the DWM will fall back to a "Basic" theme, and use screen drawing methods similar to Windows XP.
Windows Vista will include a new version of Direct3D, called D3D 10. It will add a scheduler and a memory virtualization to the graphics subsystem and forego the current DirectX practice of using "capability bits" to indicate which features are active on the current hardware. Instead, Direct3D 10 will define a minimum standard of hardware capabilities which must be supported for a display system to be "Direct3D 10 compatible". Microsoft's goal is to create an environment for developers and designers where they can be assured that the input they provide will be rendered in exactly the same fashion on all supported graphics cards. This has been a recurring problem with the DirectX 9 model, where different video cards have produced different results, thus requiring fixes keyed to specific cards to be produced by developers.
According to Microsoft, Direct3D 10 will be able to display some graphics up to 8 times faster than DirectX Graphics 9.0c. In addition, Direct3D 10 will incorporate Microsoft's High Level Shader Language 4.0. However, Direct3D 10 will not be backward compatible with prior versions of DirectX. So computer games made for Direct3D 10 will not function on versions of Windows prior to Vista, nor will Direct3D 10 be able to emulate previous versions of Direct3D.
The Direct3D 10 API will introduce unified vertex and pixel shaders. In addition, it will also support Geometry Shaders, which work on whole triangles, which make up a 3D model. Data churned out by the GPU can be reused by either the GPU or the CPU. This, at least in theory, means that the vector processing abilities of the GPU can be used for non-graphics related jobs as well.
D3D10 functionality will require the Advanced WDDM (Windows Display Driver Model), which in turn will require new graphics hardware. The graphics hardware will be pre-emptive multithreaded, to allow multiple threads use the GPU in turns. It will also provide paging of the graphics memory.
Direct3D 10 will support side-by-side installation with Direct3D 9.0L, the version of Direct3D 9.0 for Windows Vista. Direct3D 9.L adds features such as cross-process shared surfaces, managed graphics memory, prioritization of resources, text antialiasing, advanced gamma functions, and device removal.
DirectX, specifically Direct3D, is used by Windows Graphics Foundation (WGF) for the advanced presentation subsystem that unifies user interface, 2-D and 3-D drawing and imaging, document rendering and print processing, and audio and video services.
Icons
Icons in Windows Vista are visually more realistic than illustrative. Icons are scalable in size upto 256 x 256, resolution-independent and optimized for high-DPIdisplays. Optional supported sizes are 24 x 24, 48 x 48, 96 x 96 and 128 x 128. Document icons show the actual document contents and file types are distinguished by icon overlays. Windows Explorer can zoom the displayed icons in and out using a gradual slider. To optimize and reduce the size of large icons, icons may actually be stored as compressed PNGs. To maintain backward compatibility with earlier versions of Windows, only larger sized icons are recommended to use lossless PNG compression.
Audio
Windows Vista features a completely re-written audio stack designed to provide low-latency audio and a new API created by a team including Steve Ball and Larry Osterman[15][16].
A completely new set of user interface sounds are being introduced, including a new startup sound created with the help of King Crimson's Robert Fripp[17].
The new audio stack is run at user level, thus increasing performance and stability.
It also allows controlling system-wide volume or volume of individual audio devices and even individual applications separately. This feature can be used from the new Volume Control windows or programmatically using the overhauled audio API. Different sounds can be redirected to different audio devices as well.
Sound Recorder has been replaced with a new application, Windows Audio Recorder, which supports recording WMA, and can record clips of any length.
Built-in support for microphone arrays, which will let a user connect multiple microphones to a single system, so that the inputs can be combined into a single, higher-quality source. A likely implementation of this is for laptops to incorporate multiple microphones at different points.[18]
Device Support
Windows Vista builds on the Universal Audio Architecture, a new class driver definition that aims to reduce the need for third-party drivers, and to increase the overall stability and reliability of audio in Windows.
Windows Vista is the first Windows operating system to include fully integrated support for speech recognition. The speech recognition system lets a user control their machine through voice commands, as well as enable dictation into any application. Applications which don't present obvious "commands" can still be controlled by asking the system to overlay numbers on top of interface elements; the number can subsequently be spoken to activate that function. Applications needing mouse clicks in arbitrary locations can also be controlled through speech; when asked to do so, a grid of nine zones is displayed, with numbers inside each. The user speaks the number, and another grid of nine zones is placed inside the chosen zone. This continues until the user has focused to where they want to click.
Windows Vista is expected to include speech recognition for several languages at release time, and additional language support beyond that is planned for post-release.
Windows Vista will ship with version 5.3 of the Microsoft Speech API (SAPI 5.3) and version 7 of the Speech Recognition engine. A newmanaged codeAPI is being developed by Microsoft which has similar functionality to SAPI 5 but will be more suitable to be used by managed code applications. The new API is part of .NET Framework 3.0 and will be available on Windows Vista, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.
Speech synthesis
Speech synthesis was first introduced in Windows with Windows 2000, but it has been significantly enhanced for Windows Vista. The old voice, Microsoft Sam, has been replaced with two new voices of generally higher naturalness and intelligibility: Anna and Lili, the latter of which is capable of speaking Chinese. The screen-reader Narrator which uses these voices has also been updated.[21]
Print
Windows Vista includes a redesigned print architecture[22], built around Windows Presentation Foundation. It provides high-fidelity color printing through improved use of color management, removes limitations of the current GDI-based print subsystem, enhances support for printing advanced effects such as gradients, transparencies, etc through the use of XML Paper Specification (XPS), and enhances support for color Laser Printers.
The print subsystem in Windows Vista implements the new XPS print path as well as the legacy GDI print path for legacy support. Windows Vista will transparently make use of the XPS print path for those printers that support it, otherwise using the GDI print path. On documents with intensive graphics, XPS printers are expected to produce better quality prints than GDI printers.
In a networked environment with a print server running Windows Vista, documents will be rendered on the client machine [23], rather than on the server, using a feature known as Client Side Rendering. The rendered intermediate form will just be transferred to the server to be printed without additional processing, making print servers more scalable by offloading rendering computation to clients.
XPS Print Path
The print spooler in the XPS Print Path uses the XPS file format, which serves as the page description language (PDL) for printers. For printers supporting XPS, this eliminates an intermediate conversion to a printer-specific language, increasing the reliability and fidelity of the printed output.
Windows Vista also provides improved color support for higher color precision and dynamic range. It also supports CMYK colorspace as also support for multiple ink systems for higher print fidelity. The print subsystem also has support for "named colors" simplifying color definition for images transmitted to printer supporting those colors.
The XPS print path can automatically calibrate color profile settings with those being used by the display subsystem. Conversely, XPS Print drivers can express the configurable capabilities of the printer, by virtue of XPS PrintCapabilities, to enable more fine-grained control of the print setting, tuned to the individual printing device.
Applications which use the Windows Presentation Foundation for the display elements can directly print to the XPS print path without the need for image or colorspace conversion. The XPS format used in the spool file, represents advanced graphics effects such as 3D images, glow effects, and gradients as Windows Presentation Foundation primitives, which are processed by the printer drivers without rasterization, preventing rendering artifacts and reducing computational load. When the legacy GDI Print Path is used, the XPS spool file is used for processing before it is converted to a GDI image to minimize the processing done at raster level.
XML Paper Specification (XPS), formerly known as "Metro", is Microsoft's upcoming XML-based document format. Intended as the replacement for the Enhanced Metafile (EMF) format, XPS Documents are a natively-supported document format that enables users to view, print, and archive files without the original program that created them. XPS is a subset of Windows Presentation Foundation, allowing it to incorporate vector-graphic elements in documents, using XAML to mark-up the WPF primitives. The elements used are taken to a lower level (i.e. described in terms of paths) to allow for portability across platforms. In effect, it consists of XAML files, with necessary fonts, zipped in a package.
The name XPS also refers to one of the print paths in Windows Vista. With XPS, documents can remain in the same format from the time they are created to the time they are printed. Microsoft claims that major printer vendors are planning to release printers with built-in XPS support and that this will provide better fidelity to the original document by using a consistent format for both screen and print output[24].
In addition to support for the document format itself, Windows Vista will also include an XPS Viewer application, as well as a printer driver that will make it possible for any application to create an XPS Document using standard print functionality.
While early reports on this technology described XPS as a "PDF-killer", Microsoft insists that it is not attempting to duplicate all the functionality of PDF[25]. For example, XPS does not incorporate facilities for multimedia capabilities, or dynamic documents such as electronic forms.
Windows Vista contains a brand new networking stack, which brings large improvements in all areas of network-related functionality[26]. It includes native implementation of Ipv6, as well as complete overhaul of IPv4. The new TCP/IP stack uses a new method to store configuration settings that enables more dynamic control and does not require a computer restart after settings are changed.
The user interface for configuring, troubleshooting and working with network connections has changed significantly from prior versions of Windows as well. Users can make use of the new "Network Center" to see the status of their network connections, and to access every aspect of configuration. The network can be browsed using Network Explorer, which replaces Windows XP's "My Network Places". Network Explorer items can be a shared device such as a scanner, or a file share. Windows Vista also has a Network Map which graphically presents how different devices are connected over a network. Network Location Awareness communicates to applications changes in network connectivity and configuration.
IPv6
A significant change is a more complete implementation of IPv6 which is now supported by all networking components, services, and the user interface. In IPv6 mode, Windows Vista can use the Link Local Multicast Name Resolution (LLMNR) protocol to resolve names of hosts on a network which does not have a DNS server running. This service is useful for networks without a central managing server, and for ad-hoc wireless networks. IPv6 can also be used over PPP, for dial-up connections as well. Support for DHCPv6, which can be used with IPv6, is also included. IPv6 can even be used when full native IPv6 connectivity is not available, using Teredo tunneling; this can even traverse most IPv4 Network Address Translations (NATs).
Wireless Networks
Wireless Networking support in Windows Vista has been upgraded. Support for wireless networks is built into the network stack itself, and does not emulate wired connections, as was the case with previous versions of Windows. This allows implementation of wireless-specific features such as larger frame sizes and optimized error recovery procedures. It will also be easier to find wireless networks in range and tell which networks are open and which are closed. Hidden wireless networks, which do not advertise their Service set identifier (SSID) will be better supported. Security for wireless networks is being improved with improved support for newer wireless standards like 802.11i. EAP Transport Layer Security (EAP-TLS) is the default authentication mode. Connections will be made at the most secure connection level supported by the wireless access point. WPA2 can be used even in ad-hoc mode. Windows Vista will also provide a Fast Roaming service that will allow users to move from one access point to another without loss of connectivity. Preauthentication with the new wireless access point will be used to retain the connectivity. The wireless card may also be virtualized to connect to multiple wireless networks simultaneously.
Profiles
Windows Vista introduces a concept of network profiles. For each network, the system will store the IP address, DNS server, Proxy server and other network features specific to the network in that network's profile. So when that network is subsequently connected to, the settings need not be reconfigured, the ones saved in its profile will be used. In the case of mobile machines, the network profiles are chosen automatically based on what networks are available.
Each profile is part of a "Private" network such as a home or small office where connectivity with other local machines is desired, a "Public" network such a public-access wireless network at an airport where other machines on the network cannot be trusted, and a "Domain" network, which is for when a machine is connected to a Windows Server domain.
Performance
Windows Vista Networking stack will also use several performance optimizations, which allow higher throughput by allowing faster recovery from packet losses, when using a high packet loss environment such as wireless networks. Windows Vista will use the NewReno algorithm which allows a sender to send more data while retrying in case it receives a partial acknowledgement, which is acknowledgement from the receiver for only a part of data that has been received. It also uses Selective Acknowledgements (SACK) to reduce the amount of data to be retransmitted in case a portion of the data sent was not received correctly. It also includes Neighbour Unreachbility Detection capability in both IPv4 and IPv6, which tracks the accessibility of neighboring nodes. This allows faster error recovery, in case a neighboring node fails.
Another significant change that will improve network throughput is the automatic resizing of TCP Receive window. The receive window (RWIN) is the buffer that is used to temporarily hold incoming TCP data. Receive window auto tuning functionality continually monitors the bandwidth and the latency of TCP connections individually and optimize the receive window for each connection. The window size will be increased in high-bandwidth (~5 Mbit/s+) or high-latency (>10ms) situations. With a large receive window, more data can be transferred at a time, so less time is spent waiting for acknowledgements for TCP packets, thereby boosting the data throughput rates considerably. It also tracks whether any intermediate routers drop the larger data packets, in which case it automatically scales back the packet size.
In previous versions of Windows, all processing needed to receive or transfer data over one network interface was done by a single processor, even in a multi processor system. Windows Vista can distribute the job of traffic processing in network communication among multiple processors. This feature is called Receive Side Scaling. Windows Vista will also support network cards with TCP Offload Engine, that has certain hardware-accelerated TCP/IP-related functionality. Windows Vista uses its TCP Chimney Offload system to offload to such cards framing, routing, error-correction and acknowledgement and retransmission jobs required in TCP. However, for application compatibility, only TCP data transfer functionality is offloaded to the NIC, not TCP connection setup. This will remove a huge load from the CPU. Traffic processing in both IPv4 and IPv6 can be offloaded. Windows Vista also supports NetDMA, which uses the DMA engine to allow processors to be freed from the hassles of moving data between network card data buffers and application buffers. It requires specific hardware DMA architectures, such as Intel I/O Acceleration to be enabled.
Security and reliability
Windows Vista's networking stack includes integrated Quality of Service functionality to prioritize network traffic. Quality of Service can be used to manage network usage by specific applications or users, by throttling the bandwidth available to them. Or it can be used to limit bandwidth usage by other applications when high priority applications, such as real time conferencing applications, are being run, to ensure they get the bandwidth they need. Windows Vista also includes qWave, which is a pre-configured Quality of Service module for time dependent multimedia data, such as audio or video streams. qWave uses different packet priority schemes for real-time flows (such as multimedia packets) and best-effort flows (such as file downloads or e-mails) to ensure that real time data gets as little delays as possible, while providing a high quality channel for other data packets.
In order to provide better security when transferring data over a network, Windows Vista provides enhancements to the cryptographic algorithms used to obfuscate data. Support for 256-bit and 384-bit Diffie-Hellman (DH) algorithms, as well as for 128-bit, 192-bit and 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is included in the network stack itself.
Furthermore, the stack contains improved resistance against all known TCP/IP-based denial of service and other types of network attacks. The new TCP/IP suite utilizes a per-user routing table, thus compartmentalizing the network according to the user's needs. Data from one segment cannot go into another.
The ability to assist the user in diagnosing a network problem is expected to be a major new networking feature. It can inform user of most causes of network transmission failure, such as incorrect IP address, gateway failure, port in use, receiver not ready etc. Transmission errors are also exhaustively logged, which can be analyzed to better find the cause of error. Windows Vista has a greater awareness of the network topology the host computer is in, using technologies such as Universal Plug and Play. With this new network awareness technology it can provide help to the user in fixing network issues or simply provide a graphical view of the perceived network configuration. There is also a new "Network Center", allowing the administration of the network topology. Windows Vista also provides a GUI module for configuration of both IPv4 and IPv6 properties.
Windows Filtering Platform
Windows Vista network stack includes Windows Filtering Platform[27], which allows external applications to access and hook into the packet processing pipeline of the networking subsystem. WFP allows incoming and outgoing packets to be analyzed or modified. Because WFP has an inbuilt filtering engine, applications need not write any custom engine, they just need to provide the custom logic for the engine to use. WFP includes a Base Filtering Engine which implements the filter requests. The packets are then processed using the Generic Filtering Engine, which also includes a Callout Module, where applications providing the custom processing logic can be hooked up. WFP can be put to uses such as inspecting packets for malware, selective packet restriction, such as in firewalls, or providing custom encryption systems, among others.
Peer-to-peer communication
Windows Vista includes support for peer-to-peer communication and includes implementation of peer-to-peer protocols out of the box. It also includes a new version of the Peer Name Resolution Protocol (PNRPv2), which is faster and more scalable. Peer-to-peer networking functionality can be accessed from the WinSock API as well. The peer-to-peer networking subsystem can also discover other people running the same service in the local subnet, using a feature dubbed People Near Me. This facility can be used to develop ad-hoc collaborative applications.
A planned feature in Windows Vista would have taken advantage of peer-to-peer technology to provide a new type of domain-like networking setup known as a Castle, but Microsoft has indicated that this will not make it into the release version. Castle would have made it possible to have an identification service, which provides user authentication, for all members on the network, without a centralized server. It would have allowed user credentials to propagate across the peer-to-peer network, making them more suitable for a home network.
SMB 2.0
A new version of the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol is being introduced with Windows Vista[28]. The most significant improvement over SMB support in prior versions of Windows is the ability to compound multiple actions into a single request, which significantly reduces the number of round-trips the client needs to make to the server, improving performance as a result. Larger buffer sizes are supported, also increasing performance with large file transfers. The notion of "durable file handles" is introduced, which allow a connection to an SMB server to survive brief network outages, such as with a wireless network, without having to construct a new session. Support for symbolic links is included as well.
SMB 2.0 will only be used when communicating with other Windows Vista machines, or with Windows Server "Longhorn". SMB 1.0 will continue to be used for connections to any previous version of Windows, or to Samba.
Mobile computing
Some significant changes have been made to Windows Vista for mobile computing.
"Stand By" and "Hibernate" have been combined into an additional "Sleep" function. On mobile PCs, this function is displayed on the Start menu, and is intended to be the mode by which users will shut down their computer. When chosen, the new "Sleep" mode puts the computer into Stand By mode for three hours, then switches to Hibernate mode. Also, in earlier Windows versions, drivers were able to prevent Windows from entering a standby or sleep state. Windows Vista takes away those privileges from the drivers and ensures the availability of the new standby or sleep states.
Windows Mobility Center is a new control panel that centralizes information and functionality that is important to mobile PC's.
Windows SideShow is a new technology that lets Windows Vista drive a small external display that is built into the outside of a mobile PC's lid. The display can be updated with a number of different kinds of information, such as contacts, maps, calendar, and email. This can then be consulted while the mobile PC is otherwise powered down.[29]
The battery icon in the notification area has been improved to let the user more easily select a "Power plan".
"Presentation Settings" allow saving of display preferences when an external display such as a projector or external monitor is connected. The setting can be restored when the same device is re-connected later.
"Sync Center" is a centralized location for managing all data synchronization tasks, between multiple PCs, network servers and external devices, or any combination of them. However, the ability to automatically synchronize files among PCs will not be included[30].
Intrinsic support for handwriting and ink, via the Ink Analysis API[31]. A new control, the InkCanvas is made available by the API to add ink support to applications. Ink support can not only recognize handwriting and formatting, but also hand-drawn shapes are converted to vector-graphics, rendered as the shape that was intended to be drawn. Support for touchscreens and tablets is also included.
Windows Vista includes Windows Mobile Device Center, which centralizes management of external mobile devices. It features intrinsic support for Windows Mobile devices. Whenever a Windows Mobile device is connected, the Mobile Device Center pane pops up giving options to manage media and other files on the device, as well as control their settings. However, there is no straightforward way to sync organizational apps, like tasks and contacts[32].
Color management
Windows Vista features Windows Color System (WCS)[33], a platform for color management, that strives to achieve color consistency across various software and hardware, including cameras, monitors and printers. Different devices interpret the same colors differently, according to their software and hardware configurations. As a result, they must be properly calibrated to reproduce colors consistently across different devices. WCS aims to make this process of color calibration automatic and transparent, as an evolution of ICC Color Profiles.
Windows Color System features a completely redesigned Color Infrastructure and Translation Engine (CITE) at its core. It is backed up by an enhanced color processing pipeline that supports bit-depths more than 32 bits per pixel, multiple color channels (more than 3), alternative color spaces and high dynamic range coloring, using a technology named Kyuanos[34] developed by Canon. The color processing pipeline allows device developers to add their own gamut mapping algorithm into the pipeline to customize the color response of the device. The new pipeline also supports floating point calculations to minimize round-off losses, which are inherent in integer processing. Once the color pipeline finishes processing the colors, the CITE engine will apply a color transform according to a color profile, specific to a device to ensure the output color matches to what is expected.
WCS features explicit support for LCD as well as CRT monitors, projectors, printers, projectors and other imaging devices and provide customized support for each. WCS uses color profiles according to the CIE Color Appearance Model recommendation (CIECAM02), defined using XML, to define the how the color representation actually translate to a visible color.
bcdedit — create, delete, and reorder the bootloader. (boot.ini is no longer used)
robocopy — the next version of xcopy with additional features
transaction — uses the new Transactional NTFS capabilities to allow a set of file operations to be executed (and succeed or fail) as a single unit. Parameters are /start, /commit, and /rollback.
Updates to existing command-line tools:
diskpart has been expanded to support hard disks with the GUID Partition Table, and a new "shrink" command has been added which facilitates shrinking a pre-existing NTFS partition.
The setup process for Windows Vista has been completely rewritten. Setup is now based on Windows Preinstallation Environment version 2.0, which, amongst other things, runs the entire setup process in a graphical environment, as opposed to the text-based environments of previous versions. Visually, the user interface resembles Windows Vista itself, using ClearType fonts and the Aero visual style, and enabling the use of a mouse.
The Windows System Recovery tools have been significantly expanded to take advantage of the new graphical setup environment. A "toolbox" is presented to the user, offering access to repair functions, System Restore (something which was not possible in prior versions of Windows), a new memory diagnostic tool, access to CompletePC backup images, and access to a command prompt. Multiple command prompts can be spawned at once, and more command-line tools are available. Command prompts can be spawned at any time during setup by pressing Ctrl+F10.
Support for loading third-party disk drivers has improved. Whereas Windows XP only supports loading drivers from floppy disks while the setup environment is initially loading, Vista additionally supports loading drivers from USB and Firewire storage devices, and CDs and DVDs from within the main setup wizard.
Microsoft has aimed to reduce the amount of time setup takes to complete. While present preview releases of Vista are not significantly faster for installation than Windows XP, it is still notable considering that the Windows Vista install is more than three times the size of its predecessor.
Other improvements include automatically downloading and applying Windows Updates at the end of the installation.
Windows Vista includes Internet Information Services (IIS) version 7, which has been refactored into a modular architecture, with integrated .NET extensibility. Instead of a monolithic server which features all services, IIS 7 will have a core web server engine, and modules offering specific functionality can be added to the engine to enable its features. Writing extensions to IIS 7 using ISAPI has been deprecated in favor of the module API. Much of IIS's own functionality is built on this API, and as such, developers will have much more control over a request process than was possible in prior versions.
A significant change from previous versions of IIS is that all web server configuration information is stored solely in XML configuration files, instead of in the metabase. The server has a global configuration file that provides defaults, and each virtual web's document root (and any subdirectory thereof) may contain a web.config containing settings that augment or override the defaults. Changes to these files take effect immediately. This marks a significant departure from previous versions whereby web interfaces, or machine administrator access, was required to change simple settings such as default document, active modules and security/authentication.
IIS 7 also features a completely rewritten administration interface that takes advantage of modern MMC features such as task panes and asynchronous operation. Configuration of ASP.NET is more fully integrated into the administrative interface.
Previous versions of IIS included with Windows XP had hard limits on concurrent connections and defined web servers; these limitations have been removed.
Task Scheduler
The Task Scheduler has been significantly upgraded[35]. New features include:
Ability to schedule tasks to be executed when a particular event is logged to an event log
A number of new conditions and filters
New security features, including using Vista's new Credentials Manager to store passwords so that they cannot be found easily, and scheduled tasks are executed in their own session, instead of the same session as system services or the current user
The ability to chain a series of actions together, instead of having to create multiple scheduled tasks
Ability to wake a machine from sleep or hibernation to execute a scheduled task, or to run a previous scheduled task after a machine gets turned back on
Tasks can be scheduled to execute only when the machine is idle
A completely new user interface based on MMC
The history of executed scheduled tasks can be reviewed.
The scheduled tasks API is now fully available to scripting languages
Kernel and Core OS changes
Improved memory manager and processes scheduler. Rewritten many kernel data structures and algorithms. Lookup algorithms now run in constant time, instead of linear time as with previous versions.
Deadlock Detection Technology is a new technology that will prevent many common causes of hangs and crashes and determines if a hang is due to a deadlock condition
Process creation overhead is reduced by significant improvements to DLL address-resolving schemes.
Windows Vista introduces a Protected Process, which differ from usual processes in the sense that other processes cannot manipulate the state of such processes, nor can threads from other processes be introduced in these. Such processes have enhanced access to DRM-functions of Windows Vista. However, currently, only the applications using Protected Video Path can create such processes.
Thread Pools have been upgraded to support multiple pools per process, as well as to reduce performance overhead using thread recycling. It also includes Cleanup Groups that allow clean up of pending thread-pool requests on process shutdown.
Data Redirection: Also known as data virtualization, this virtualizes the registry and certain parts of the file system for applications running in the protected user context. Reads and writes in the HKLM\Software section of the Registry by user-mode applications while running as a standard user, as well as to folders such as "Program Files", are "redirected" to the user's profile. The process of reading and writing on the profile data and not on the application-intended location is completely transparent to the application.
Support for the PCI Express 1.1 specification, including extended confiuration space and segmentation. PCI Express registers, including capability registers, are supported, along with save and restore of configuration data.
Full support for the ACPI 2.0 specification, and parts of ACPI 3.0[37]. Support for throttling power usage of individual devices is improved.
Hardware Partitioning supported at hardware level to allow hardware-enforced virtualization.
The NTLDR boot loader has been replaced by a more flexible system, with NTLDR's functionality split between two new components: winload.exe and Windows Boot Manager[38].
Windows Vista features a Dynamic System Address Space that allocates virtual memory and kernel page tables on-demand. It also supports very large registries.
Includes enhanced support for Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) and systems with large pages. Windows Vista also exposes APIs for accessing the NUMA features.
Memory pages can be marked as read-only, to prevent data corruption.
New address mapping scheme called Rotate Virtual Address Descriptors (VAD). It is used for the advanced Video subsystem.
Swapping in of memory pages and system cache include prefetching and clustering, to improve performance.
Performance of Address Translation Buffers has been enhanced.
Heap layout has been modified to provide higher performance on 64-bit and Symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) systems. The new heap structure is also more scalable and has low management overhead, especially for large heaps.
Windows Vista automatically tunes up the heap layout for improved fragmentation management.
Lazy initialization of heap initializes only when required, to improve performance.
The Windows Vista memory manager does not have a 64 kb read-ahead cache limitation unlike previous versions of Windows and can thus improve file system performance dramatically.
File Systems
Transactional NTFS allows multiple file/folder operations to be treated as a single operation, so that a crash or power failure won't result in half-completed file writes. Transactions can also be extended to multiple machines.
File encryption support superior to that available in Windows XP, which will make it easier and more automatic to prevent unauthorized viewing of files on stolen laptops or hard drives.
A new file system called exFAT, which is similar to the FAT file system, but is optimized for use with flash-style removable devices. exFAT is going to ship as a separate release, decoupled from Vista.
Improvements to Universal Disk Format file system support; notably, the ability to format and write to UDF volumes, support for UDF 2.50, and longer volume label names.
File virtualization, a feature that automatically creates private copies of files that an application can use when it does not have permission to access the original files. This facilitates stronger file security and helps applications not written with security in mind to run under stronger restrictions.
"Previous Versions", previously known as Volume Shadow Copy in Windows Server 2003, provides read-only snapshots of files on local or network volumes from an earlier point in time. A new tab in the Properties dialog for any file or folder provides users with straightforward access to these previous versions.
A new file-based disk image format called Microsoft Windows Imaging Format (WIM), which can be mounted as a partition, or booted from. An associated tool called xImage provides facilities to create and maintain these image files.
Drivers
A new user-mode driver model called the User Mode Driver Framework, which is part of Microsoft's new driver model, Windows Driver Foundation. Badly written drivers can cause severe damage to your system since all drivers have high privileges and direct access to the kernel. The new User-Mode Drivers in Windows Vista are not able to directly access the kernel but use it through a dedicated API. If an error occurs the new framework allows for an immediate restart of the driver and does not impact the system. A user-mode driver would typically be used for devices which plug into a USB or Firewire bus, such as digital cameras, PDA's and mass storage devices, as well as "non-hardware" drivers, such as filter drivers.
Kernel-mode drivers on x64-bit versions of Windows Vista must be digitally signed; even Administrators will not be able to install unsigned kernel-mode drivers[40]. A boot-time option will be available to disable this check for a single session of Windows. Installing user-mode drivers will still work without a digital signature.
Signed drivers is required for usage of PUMA, PAP (Protected Audio Path), and PVP-OPM subsystems.
Driver packages that are used to install driver software will be copied in their entirety into a "Driver Store", which is a repository of driver packages. This ensures that drivers that need to be repaired or reinstalled won't need to ask for source media to get "fresh" files. The Driver Store can also be pre-loaded with drivers by an OEM or IT administrator to ensure that commonly used devices (e.g. external perhiperals shipped with a computer system, corporate printers) can be installed immediately, but don't need to be pre-installed.
Support for Windows Error Reporting; information on an "unknown device" is reported to Microsoft when a driver cannot be found on the system, via Windows Update, or supplied by the user. OEM's can hook into this system to provide information that can be returned to the user, such as a formal statement of non-support of a device for Windows Vista, or a link to a web site with support information, drivers, etc.
SuperFetch caches frequently-used applications and documents in memory, and keeps track of when commonly used applications are usually loaded, so that they can be pre-cached. SuperFetch aims to negate the negative performance effect of having anti-virus or backup software run when the user is not at the computer.
ReadyBoost, makes PCs running Windows Vista more responsive by using flash memory on a USB drive (USB 2.0 only), SD Card, Compact Flash, or other form of flash memory, in order to boost system performance. When such a device is plugged in, the Windows Autoplay dialog offers an additional option to use it to speed up the system; an additional "Memory" tab is added to the drive's properties dialog where the amount of space to be used can be configured.[41]
ReadyDrive is the name Microsoft has given to its support for hybrid drives, a new design of hard drive developed by Samsung and Microsoft. Hybrid drives incorporate non-volatile memory into the drive's design, resulting in lower power needs, as the drive's spindles do not need to be activated for every write operation. Windows Vista can also make use of the NVRAM to increase the speed of booting and returning from hibernation.[42]
Windows Vista features prioritized I/O which will allow developers to set application I/O priorities for read/write disk operations, similar to how currently application processes/threads can be assigned CPU priorities. [43] I/O has been enhanced with I/O asynchronous cancellation and I/O scheduling based on thread priority. Background applications running in low priority I/O do not disturb foreground applications. Applications like Windows Defender, Automatic Disk Defragmenter and Windows Desktop Search (during indexing) already use this feature. Windows Media Player 11 also supports this technology to offer glitch-free multimedia playback.
Delayed service start in Windows Vista allows services to start only when they are actually needed. The system will boot up much faster and perform tasks quicker than before.
Clean Service Shutdown
Services in Windows Vista have the capability of delaying the system shutdown in order to properly save data to the hard disk or finish current operations. Crashes and restart problems are drastically reduced since services are not damaged by a forced shutdown anymore.
Other features and changes
A new "Restart Manager" which will reduce the number of reboots required after updates and installations of applications dynamically, by temporarily stopping and restarting affected services. Windows Vista can detect which applications or libraries have been changed and restart them individually without rebooting the entire system. It also automatically restarts crashed applications and integrates with Windows Error Reporting.
The "My" prefixes for various system folders have been dropped, for example "My Documents" will become "Documents", "My Computer" will become "Computer", etc.
The long "Documents and Settings" folder is now just "Users", although a symbolic link called "Documents and Settings" is kept for compatibility.
Windows Flip 3D: Windows can be stacked and rotated in 3D to provide views of all of them simultaneously[46]
New tools under Computer Management to allow a user to visually monitor CPU, disk, network, and memory activity over a period of time, including exactly which applications are consuming these resources.
Significantly upgraded support for printer management.
The Events facility has been completely rewritten around XML, and allows applications to more precisely log events. Event Viewer has also been rewritten to take advantage of these new features.
New support for infrared receivers and Bluetooth 2.0 wireless standards; devices supporting these can transfer files and sync data wirelessly to a Windows Vista PC with no additional software.
Remote Desktop Protocol 6.0 incorporating support for application-level remoting, improved security (TLS 1.0), support for connections via an SSL gateway, improved remoting of devices, and support for .NET remoting.
A new Task Dialog API to address the common misuse of the old Message Box API and make designing custom dialogs easier.
New Open/Save file dialogs.
WebDAV has been enhanced to support operation over SSL connections, as well as connecting on alternate ports.
The Disk Defragmenter in Vista is configured to automatically defragment the hard drive on a regular basis. The user interface has been simplified, with the color graph being removed entirely. Chunks of data over 64MB in size will not be defragmented; Microsoft has stated that this is because there is no discernable performance benefit in doing so.[47]
A non-administrator user can share only the folders under his user profile. In addition, all users have a Public folder which is shared, though an administrator can override this.
Windows Media Foundation is a new set of APIs to handle audio and video playback that provides DirectX Hardware Acceleration 2.0 and better resilience to CPU, I/O, and memory stress for glitch-free low-latency playback of audio and video. It also enables high color spaces through the multimedia processing pipeline. DirectShow and Windows Media SDK will be deprecated.
Windows Media Photo[48] is a high quality photographic still image format, that will be debuting with Windows Vista. It is the preferred image format for XPS documents.
The window buttons on the taskbar show a thumbnail image of the window, when the mouse hovers over the button.
Network Projection[49] is used to detect and use network-connected projectors. It can then be used to display a presentation, or share a presentation with the machine which hosts the projector.
Windows Vista includes a Game folder, which provides access to all games from a single location, thereby making it easy to manage multiple games.
DFS Replication[50], a successor to File Replication Service, is a state-based replication engine for file replication among DFS shares, which supports replication scheduling and bandwith throttling. It uses Remote Differential Compression to detect and replicate only the change to files, rather than replicating entire files, if changed.
Guided Help, or Active Content Wizard is an automated tutorial and self-help system available from the Help & Support Center in which Windows performs system actions such as showing hidden files, and the procedure is shown in animated steps so users are acquainted with how to perform those tasks[51]. It highlights only the options and the parts of screen that are relevant to the task and darkening the rest of the screen. A separate file format is used for ACW help files.
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.
Management and configuration
Windows Vista provides numerous enhancements for local as well as remote management. The control panel has been refined by grouping related options into Categories, much like Windows XP, but the available categories are more exhaustive. In addition, it also features Network Center, Sync Center and other similar applets, which are centralized locations that deal exposing the usage and management options for specific tasks, such as Network Center deals with networking options and Sync Center deals with data synchronization. Windows Vista control panel also includes applets called Solutions to Problems, which are like Windows XP troubleshooters, only that the troubleshooting options that they provide actually depend on the actual problem they can identify.
Windows Vista includes a number of self-diagnostic features which help identify various problems and, if possible, suggest corrective actions. They also log detailed information which helps in assisted troubleshooting. Remote Assistance features, which help in troubleshooting remotely, are also being updates to work properly on low bandwidth networks and also through NAT devices. The event logging subsystem in Windows Vista also has been completely overhauled. Event logs can now be configured to be automatically forwarded to other persons. Event logs can also be remotely viewed from other computers. Custom views for events can be created, and events can also be associated with tasks, via the redesigned task scheduler.
The redesigned task scheduler can be used to automate management and configuration tasks. In addition to running tasks at predefined times, task scheduler can be configured to run tasks when specific events occur. A task can also be configured to start only on multiple triggers. Such a task starts only when all the triggering events occur. Also, several tasks that are triggered by the same event can be configured to run either simultaneously or in a pre-determined sequence. Tasks can also be configured to run based on system status such as being idle for a pre-configured amount of time, or startup, logoff, or other triggers. Further customization to the tasks can also be added, such as delaying a task to start sometime after the triggering event has occurred, or repeat until some other event occurs. Even actions that need to be done if a task fails can also be configured. Tasks can also be created using scripts, programmatically. Task scheduler keeps a log of all execution details of all the tasks.
Windows Vista also includes Windows Remote Management (WinRM), which is Microsoft’s implementation of WS-Management standard, and allows Windows Vista to be easily managed, remotely. WinRM, along with compatible tools, allows administrators to remotely run management scripts. A WinRM session needs to be authenticated to minimize security risks.
Using System Resource Manager, administrators can control how much resource a process or an user can use. A Process Matching Criteria can be set, which is be defined by the name, type or owner of the process, and specifies the restrictions that are to be enforced. Whenever a process matches the criteria set, the restrictions are applied on the process. Restrictions that can be applied include the CPU time and bandwidth that it can use, number of processors it can be run on, and memory allocated to it. Restrictions can be set to be imposed on certain dates as well. In addition, network bandwidth can be controlled using Quality of Service settings and disk usage can be configured using NTFS quotas.
Management Console
Windows Vista also includes Microsoft Management Console 3.0 (MMC), which includes several enhancements, including running multiple tasks in parallel. In addition, snap-ins present their UI in a different thread than in which the operation is run, thus keeping the snap-in responsive, even when it is doing a computationally intensive task. The new MMC interface includes support for better graphics and as well as features a task pane that shows actions available for a snap-in, when it is selected. Windows Vista also includes several new as well as upgraded snap-ins, such as Diagnostic Console, that has various tools for tuning system performance, as well as shows system statistics such as performance of CPU, disks, network, memory and other resources, in a graphical manner, in the Resource View. The Reliability Monitor tracks applications and driver installations, along with the date they were installed on, and by using system reliability statistics from Reliability Analysis Components, presents a graphical view of the variation in system reliability and stability. It also includes snap-ins for configuration of task scheduler and Windows firewall. The Print Management snap-in enables centralized installation and management of all printers in an organization. It allows installation of network-attached printers to a group of clients simultaneously, and provides continually updated status information for the printers and print servers. It also supports finding printers needing operator attention by filtering the display of printers based on error conditions, such as out of paper, and can also send e-mail notifications or run scripts when a printer encounters the error condition.
Group Policy
Windows Vista includes around 2400 group policy settings[52], which lets administrators specify settings for groups of computers, especially in a domain. Group policy can be set and edited via the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) is provided as a MMC snap-in, or by using the Group Policy editor object. It uses a new XML based policy definition file format, known as ADMX. ADMX files contain the configuration settings for individual Group Policy Objects (GPO). For domain based GPOs, the ADMX files can be centrally stored, and all computers on the domain will retrieve them to configure themselves, using the File Replication Service, which is used to replicate files on a configured system from a remote location. The Group Policy service is no longer attached with the Winlogon service, rather it runs as a service on its own. Group Policy event message are now logged in the system event log. Group Policy objects in Windows Vista can also be applied on a per-user basis. Group Policy uses Network Location Awareness to update the configuration based on changes in network configuration.
Windows Vista includes many new Group Policy settings, most of which deal with security settings. The available GP settings are grouped by categories. The different categories include settings on Power Management, device installations, security settings, Internet Explorer settings, and printer settings, among others. GP settings also need to be used to enable two way communication filtering in Windows Vista firewall, which by default enables only incoming data filtering. Printer settings can be used to install printers based on the network location. Whenever the user connects to a different network, the available printers are updated for the new network. GP settings specify which printer is available on which network. Also, printer settings can be used to allow standard users to install printers. Group Policy can also be used for specifying Quality of Service (QoS) settings. Device installation settings can be used to prevent users from connecting external storage devices, as a means to prevent data theft.
.NET Framework 3.0, previously known as WinFX[53], is a set of managed codeAPIs with Windows Vista that is slated to succeed Win32 and .NET Framework 2.0. The Win32 and previous .NET APIs will still be present in Vista, but will not give direct access to all the new functionality introduced with .NET Framework 3.0. In addition, .NET Framework 3.0 is intended to give programmers easier access to the functionality present in Windows itself.
.NET Framework 3.0 includes APIs such as ADO.NET, ASP.NET, Windows Forms, among others, and adds four core frameworks to .NET:
Despite its name, .NET Framework 3.0 runs on the version 2.0 of the Common Language Runtime, as already used by .NET Framework 2.0.
WCF
Windows Communication Foundation is a new communication subsystem to enable applications, in one machine or across multiple machines connected by a network, to communicate. WCF programming model unifies Web Services, .NET Remoting, Distributed Transactions, and Message Queues into a single Service-oriented architecture model for distributed computing. It provides a single API for inter-process communication in a local machine, LAN, or over the Internet. WCF runs in a sandbox and provides the enhanced security model all .NET applications provide.
WCF uses the Service oriented architecture, where the distributed applications provide some service, and the clients contact these processes to consume the services. A client can consume service from more than one service; similarly a service can provide service to more than one client. Services expose an interface, defined in XML, to which any WCF client can connect to, irrespective of which platform the server was designed in.
WCF uses SOAP messages for communication between two processes; thereby making WCF based applications interoperable with any other process that communicates via SOAP messages. When a WCF process communicates with a non – WCF process, XML based encoding is used for the SOAP messages but when it communicates with another WCF process, the SOAP messages are encoded in an optimized binary format, to optimize the communication. Both the encodings conform to the data structure of the SOAP format, called Infoset.
WPF
Windows Presentation Foundation is the API for 3D graphics in Windows Vista. Based on DirectX, it renders all graphics using Direct3D. This makes the UI elements 3D surfaces. This capability is used by the Desktop Window Manager to make the desktop, all windows and all other shell elements 3D surfaces. WPF aims to unify a host of application services: user interface, 2D and 3D drawing, fixed and adaptive documents, vector graphics, raster graphics, animation, data binding, audio and video.
The 3D capabilities in WPF are limited compared to what's available in Direct3D. However, WPF provides tighter integration with other features like user interface (UI), documents and media. This makes it possible to have 3D UI, 3D documents and 3D media. A set of built-in controls is provided as part of WPF, containing items such as button, menu, and list box. WPF provides the ability to perform control composition, where a control can contain any other control or layout. WPF also has a built-in set of data services to enable application developers to bind data to the controls.
Windows Imaging Component (WIC) is a new Microsoft imaging API for WPF that will allow developers to write image codecs for their specific image file formats as well as custom bitmap effects and metadata.
In addition, WPF supports the WMV, MPEG and AVI media formats. WPF supports time-based animations, in contrast to the frame-based approach. This delinks the speed of the animation from how slow or fast the system is performing. Text rendering is supported using ClearType. This provides for Sub-pixel positioning, natural advance widths and Y-direction anti-aliasing. WPF also supports OpenType font features. Video cards that support Direct3D 10 will cache fonts in video memory and perform all ClearType text rendering in hardware.
WPF introduces a new language known as eXtensible Application Markup Language (XAML), which is a variant of XML, intended for use in developing user interfaces. Using XAML to develop user interfaces also allows for separation of model and view. In XAML, every element maps onto a class in the underlying API, and the attributes are set as properties on the instantiated classes. All elements of WPF may also be coded in a .NET language such as C#. The XAML code is ultimately compiled into a managed assembly in the same way all .NET languages are, which means that the use of XAML for development does not incur a performance cost.
WF
Windows Workflow Foundation is a Microsoft technology for defining, executing and managing workflows. This technology is part of .NET Framework 3.0 and therefore targeted primarily for the Windows Vista operating system. The Windows Workflow Foundation runtime components provide common facilities for running and managing the workflows and can be hosted in any CLR app domain.
Workflows comprise 'activities'. Developers can write their own domain-specific activities and then use them in workflows. Windows Workflow Foundation also provides a set of general-purpose 'activities' that cover several control flow constructs. It also includes a visual workflow designer. The workflow designer can be used within Visual Studio 2005, including integration with the Visual Studio project system and debugger.
Windows CardSpace
Windows CardSpace, a part of .NET Framework 3.0, is an implementation of Identity Metasystem, which centralizes acquiring, usage and management of digital identity. A digital identity is represented as logical Security Tokens, that comprise of one or more Claims, which provide information about different aspects of the identity, such as name, address etc. Any identity system centers around three entities — the User who is to be identified, an Identity Provider who provides identifying information regarding the User, and Relying Party who uses the identity to authenticate the user. An Identity Provider may be services like Active Directory, or even the user who provides an authentication password, or biometric authentication data.
A Relying Party issues a request to an application for an identity, by means of a Policy that states what Claims it needs and what will be the physical representation of the security token. The application then passes on the request to Windows CardSpace, which then contacts a suitable Identity Provider and retrieves the identity. It then provides the application with the identity along with information on how to use it.
Windows CardSpace also keeps a track of all identities used, and represents them as visually identifiable virtual cards, accessible to the user from a centralized location. Whenever an application requests any identity, Windows CardSpace informs the user about which identity is being used and needs confirmation before it provides the requestor with the identity.
Windows CardSpace presents an API that allows any application to use Windows CardSpace to handle authentication tasks. Similarly, the API allows Identity Providers to hook up with Windows CardSpace. To any Relying Party, it appears as a service which provides authentication credentials.
WinSock Kernel
WinSock Network sockets subsystem in Windows Vista includes WinSock Kernel, which is a kernel mode implementation of WinSock, which allows easier development of drivers for network protocols, as well as increase the efficiency of applications using WinSock sockets for communication. The WinSock API has also been expanded to expose the enhancements of the new network stack, as well as new logging features.
Crypto NexGen
Crypto NexGen (CNG), as an update to the Crypto API, features support for plugging in custom cryptographic APIs into the CNG runtime. Also, CNG will support Elliptic Curve Cryptography. The CNG API will also integrate with the smart-card subsystem by including a Base Smart Card Cryptographic Service Provider (Base CSP) module which encapsulates the smart card API. Smart card manufacturers just have to make their devices compatible with this, rather than provide a from-scratch solution.
Scripting
Windows Vista enhances the opportunities for scripting as well. WMI classes expose all controllable features of the operating system, and can be accessed from scripting languages. In addition, DHTML coupled with scripting languages are used to create desktop gadgets, so even gadgets can be created for configuration of various aspects of the system. It is also fully compatible with Windows PowerShell, an object-oriented command-line shell, that will be released by Microsoft, but not included with Windows Vista.
Deployment
Windows Vista is deployed using a hardware independent image, the Windows Imaging Format (WIM). The image file contains the necessary bits of the Operating System, and its contents are copied as is to the target system. Other system specific software, such as device drivers and other applications, are installed and configured afterwards. This reduces the time taken for installation of Windows Vista.
Corporations can author their own image files (using the WIM format) which might include all the applications that the organization wants to deploy. Also multiple images can be kept in a single image file, to target multiple scenarios. This facility is used by Microsoft to include all editions of Windows Vista on the same disc[54], and install the proper version based on the provided product key. In addition, initial configuration, such as locale settings, account names, etc. can be supplied in XML Answer Files to automate installation, see Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK).
Microsoft provides a tool called XImage to support creation of custom images, and edit images after they have been created. It can also be used to generate an image from a running installation, including all data and applications, for backup purposes. WIM images can also be controlled using the Windows System Image Manager, which can be used to edit images and to create XML Answer Files for unattended installations.
Also included in Windows Vista is an improved version of the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard now known as Windows Easy Transfer which allows settings to be inherited from previous installations and User State Migration Tool 3.0, to migrate user accounts during large automated deployments.
XP features excluded
Some features present in Windows XP will be removed in Windows Vista.
Windows Messenger is being removed entirely; no replacement for it is expected to be included.
Internet Explorer is no longer integrated with Windows Explorer. This can also be seen in Internet Explorer 7 Beta 3 on Windows XP.
Windows XP's well-known Luna theme has been removed.
The Gopher protocol, an old protocol now considered obsolete, is no longer supported.
Several old and little-used technologies have been removed from Internet Explorer: DirectAnimation support, XBM images, CDF, telnet protocol handlers, and 40-bit SSLciphers.
A CDF file is responsible for the "Show Desktop" Quick Launch button included in some versions of Windows. This functionality is available on XP and later with the "Show the Desktop" taskbar menu item.
HTML source is more easily accessed through a browser than through the protocol.
Due to increasing advancements in computer technology and speed, ciphers that were secure years ago are now easily cracked by an individual with his PC, given the proper software tools. 40-bit SSL has been removed to force websites to migrate to more secure alternatives.
Motherboard support for ACPI is required for Windows Vista; as a result, older motherboards supporting only Advanced Power Management will no longer work. Other "legacy" hardware technologies no longer supported include: EISA buses, game ports, MPU-401, AMD K6/2+ Mobile Processors, Mobile Pentium II, Mobile Pentium III SpeedStep, and ISAPnP[55] is disabled by default.
Startup Hardware Profiles have been removed.
Unlike Outlook Express, Windows Mail has no support for HTTP mail via the WebDAV protocol (used by older Hotmail accounts and Yahoo! Mail); the addition of Windows Live Mail Desktop is likely to be required for similar functionality
rexec, rsh, finger, and some other command-line tools primarily used to communicate with UNIX-based systems have been removed from the default installation. Services for Unix still provides them as an optional component.
Rarely used protocols such as Bandwidth Allocation Protocol and X.25 support for SLIP have also been removed. SLIP connections are automatically upgraded to use PPP.
Due to unpopularity, IP over 1394 (FireWire) support has been removed.[56]
Windows Explorer's Web Publishing Wizard has been removed.
HyperTerminal has been removed. According to the preliminary help documentation in beta 2, no replacement will be included with Vista.
Direct3D Retained Mode is no longer supported.
Services for Macintosh, which provided file and print sharing via the now deprecated AppleTalk protocol, has been removed.
