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Windows Vista (formerly codenamed Windows "Longhorn") has many significant new features compared with previous Microsoft Windows versions, covering most aspects of the operating system.
Premium editions of Windows Vista include a redesigned 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 versions, including new transparencies, window animations and eye candy. Windows Aero also introduces a new default font (Segoe UI) with a slightly larger size, a streamlined style for wizards, and a change in the tone and phrasing of most of the dialogs and control panels.
In addition to the Windows Aero visual style, Windows 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 similar in appearance to Windows 2000, or Windows XP without the "Luna" visual elements activated.
Initially, a variation of Aero, codenamed "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 includes significant changes from previous versions of Windows such as improved filtering, sorting, grouping and stacking. Combined with integrated desktop searching throughout, the Explorer shell gives users the ability to find and organize their files in new ways, such as "Stacks". The "Stacks" view groups files according to the criterion specified by the user. Each group is represented by a pile, with a larger pile for groups with more files, to give a visual indication of how many files are contained in the group. Stacks can be clicked to filter the files shown in Windows Explorer.
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 accompanies Windows Vista.
Additionally, Windows Explorer contains significant advancements in the visualization of files on a computer. Previous versions of Windows would display thumbnails for images and videos. Windows Vista allows any file to display its graphical thumbnail to show its content. Furthermore, different imagery is overlayed on thumbnails 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. Also, the ability to zoom the thumbnails 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 takes the user 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. Additionally it is possible to navigate to any subfolder of the current folder using the arrow to the right of the last item and clicking in the space to the right of this shows the filename for copying or editing the path manually.
Users can view and edit various kinds of textual metadata, such as 'Author' and 'Title', in files that support them within Windows Explorer. A new type of metadata called tags is especially useful, as it allows users to add descriptive terms to documents to facilitate their categorization and retrieval. Some files support open metadata, which will allow users to define new types of metadata for their files. Out-of-the-box, Vista supports Microsoft Office documents and most audio and video files, but independent application developers can extend Windows Vista's ability to understand metadata for other file types by writing specialized software to retrieve the metadata at the shell's request. In addition to text only metadata, files may have thumbnail previews, called live icons, that show a graphical preview of the contents of the file. Unlike previous versions of Windows, all metadata in Windows Vista is stored inside the file, so that it will always travel with the file. However, users will be able to add metadata to only a few file types, especially at first.[1]
Other features include check boxes for selecting multiple files. Also, when renaming a file, Explorer only highlights the filename without selecting the extension.
In addition, it is now possible to install and select non-English languages on a per-user basis which transforms the Vista shell and applications into Arabic, French, German, Japanese or Spanish from the next login.
The language change applies to menus, application names and all program dialogue boxes, which makes it useful for both multinational companies and bilingual households.
This new Windows Explorer shell is not integrated with the Internet Explorer browser.
Search
Windows Vista features a search engine that uses indexing to allow for instant display of results for a given search. The indexed search platform is based on Microsoft's Windows Desktop Search 3.0 release. 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 allows users to add multiple filters to continually refine search results (Such as "File contains the word 'example'").
Searching can also be done from the box at the bottom of the start menu, so it possible to start a program from here by typing its name, for example "Calc" to start the calculator, "Word" to start Microsoft Word, "Earth" to start Google Earth, a web address to start the default browser at a particular site, the default search engine, or even a folder name, filename or network share name.
There is also 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 also allows users to search across RSS and Atom feeds, straight from Windows Explorer.
Windows Vista also uses 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. Another new aspect of Vista's search capabilities is Query Composition, this feature gives the user the ability to build searches on top of each other.
The new search in Windows Vista is truly system-wide. Every Explorer window contains an integrated search box in the upper right-hand corner. Beyond searching for files, search works with Help, Control Panel, Networking, and more. In Control Panel, for example, typing "firewall" will instantly return all applets that have to do with the system firewall.[2]
Indexing of "Offline Files" via a protocol handler for the CSC (Client-Side Cache)
Use of low-priority I/O, a new Vista filesystem feature, to ensure that indexing does not interfere with user applications.
Windows Vista can remotely search the index of another Windows Vista or Longhorn Server machine if the content of the network share being searched is indexed on the server.
Combination of indexed and non-indexed search results (including filename and grep-style searches) into the same view.
Windows Vista also features an enhanced file content search for non-indexed locations, whereby the files being scanned are processed by the same IFilters that would be used for indexing - offering more consistent results between indexed and non-indexed searches as well as the ability for third-parties to add support for additional file formats to have their content searched.
Sidebar
Windows Gadgets
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. Displaying the gadget using DHTML allows the same gadget to be used on Microsoft's Live.com and Windows Live Spaces sites. Alternatively, on Windows Vista, the gadget can detect that WPF is available and take advantage of its graphical abilities to display in a different way from the web.
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 Bayesian junk mail filtering, which is enhanced through regular updates via Windows Update. Also, e-mail messages are now stored as individual files rather than in a binary database to reduce frequent corruption and make messages searchable in real-time. Backing up and restoring account setup information, configuration and mail store is now made easier.
Windows Calendar is the new calendar application that is included in Windows Vista. It supports the popular iCalendar format as well as sharing, subscribing and publishing of calendars on WebDAV-enabled web servers and network shares.
Windows Photo Gallery, a photo and video library management application. It can import from digital cameras, tag and rate individual pictures including custom metadata. It also allows basic editing of images, such as adjusting color and exposure, resizing, cropping, red-eye reduction and printing. 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. It also supports raw images natively and can also export to the Windows Media Photo format.
Windows Fax and Scan is an integrated faxing and scanning application. With this users can send and receive faxes, fax or email scanned documents and forward faxes as email attachments from the computer. It replaces (or enhances) the 'Fax Services' component which was available as an optional component in Windows XP. It is available by default in the Ultimate edition and is also available in the Business and Enterprise editions. By connecting a scanner and a fax-capable modem to the computer, users can preview documents before scanning them and can choose to directly fax or email the scanned the documents. The user interface resembles that of 'Windows Mail' with preview pane, tree views etc.
Windows DVD Maker, a DVD creation application. Applications can also pass an XML file to DVD maker for authoring and burning.
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 Meeting Space allows sharing of the desktop with other coworkers, distribution and collaborative editing of documents, and passing notes to other participants. Windows Meeting Space automatically finds other users using People Near Me, a technology that uses WS-Discovery to see other users on a local network.
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 Windows Performance Rating), 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.[3]
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. Backups are created in Virtual PC format and therefore can be mounted using Virtual PC.
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 Restore is more proactive at creating useful restore 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 appears as an individual .contact file, and features extensibility APIs for integration with other applications. It can store custom information related to contacts, including 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 Task Manager has a new "Services" tab which gives access to the list of all Windows services, and offers the ability to start and stop any service as well as enable/disable the UAC file and registry virtualization of a process. Additionally, file properties, the full path and command line of started processes, and DEP status of processes can be viewed.
Windows Vista includes the latest version of Internet Explorer, which adds support for tabbed browsing, Atom, RSS, internationalized domain names, 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. Tab groups make it possible to open a folder of Favorites in tabs with a single click. Importing bookmarks and cookies from other web browsers is also supported. Additionally, there are improvements and fixes to CSS and HTML rendering, and proper support for PNG images with transparency.
Internet Explorer running on Windows Vista includes several new features. Internet Explorer operates 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).[4][5]
The Windows Vista version of Windows Internet Explorer additionally features a WinINet API, different from those available for other versions of Windows. It leverages Windows Vista's support of native 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.[citation needed]
Windows Media Player 11, which is also available on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, features a fully revamped interface. Windows Media Player 11 in Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate Editions natively supports playback of HD DVD. Specifically, Windows Vista supports the MMC-5 commands, the driver commands for the AACS content protection scheme, as well as the UDF file system, although UDF is currently a part of the BD-R file system and not HD DVD. Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate Editions also natively include the VC-1 and the MPEG-2 video decoders, as well as the Dolby Digital (AC-3) 5.1, MPEG-2 stereo audio and the WMA Pro audio decoders. H.264 video and other multichannel surround sound audio standards still require third party decoders. [6][7]Blu-ray playback also requires third party components to be installed. 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 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.
Media Sharing - which allows one to share their Media library and make it accessible to other PCs running Windows Vista, XBOX 360, or networked Media Receivers.
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 is a superset of features of what is in the version for previous Windows versions.[8]
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:
Support for two dual-tuner cards
Native DVD/MPEG-2, VC-1, WMA Pro 10 decoding Support
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.
Internet Information Services 7
Screenshot of IIS 7's redesigned management console
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 has 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.
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"[9] 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"[10], 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[11].
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.[12] 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.[citation needed] 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[13]. 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 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. EFS in Windows Vista can also be used to encrypt the system pagefile. The Client Side Cache, which stores offline copies of files from remote servers, can also be encrypted with EFS. When enabled, files in the cache are encrypted to specific users, and even local administrators cannot read them without having access to the users’ private keys.
Code Integrity (CI) protects Windows Vista by verifying that system binaries haven’t been tampered with by malicious code and by ensuring that there are no unsigned drivers running in kernel mode on the system. CI starts as Windows starts up. The boot loader checks the integrity of the kernel, the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL), and the boot-start drivers. After these binaries have been verified, the system starts and the memory manager calls CI to verify any binaries that are loaded into the kernel’s memory space. The binaries are verified by looking up their signatures in the system catalogs. Aside from the kernel memory space, CI verifies binaries loaded into a protected process and system installed dynamic libraries that implement core cryptographic functions.
Mandatory Integrity Control (MIC) allows Windows to control communication between processes by defining various integrity levels in which processes execute. An application running as a standard user in Windows Vista would typically be created at the medium level, whereas an application running with the full administrator access token would be running at the high level. Process isolation provides a way to extend the authorization model to common extension points for interprocess communication.
Authentication and logon
Graphical identification and authentication (GINA), used for secure authentication and interactive logon has been replaced by Credential Providers. Combined with supporting hardware, Credential Providers can extend the operating system to enable users to logon through biometric devices (fingerprint, retinal, or voice recognition), passwords, PINs and smart card certificates, or any custom authentication package and schema third party developers wish to create. Enterprises may develop, deploy, and optionally enforce custom authentication mechanisms for all domain users. Credential Providers may be designed to support Single sign-on (SSO), authenticating users to a secure network access point (leveraging RADIUS and other technologies) as well as machine logon. Credential Providers are also designed to support application-specific credential gathering, and may be used for authentication to network resources, joining machines to a domain, or to provide administrator consent for User Account Control.
User Account Control
File:UsrAccCtrl.jpgA dialog box prevents the program running without the permission of the user
User Account Control (UAC) is a new infrastructure that requires user consent before allowing any action 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. When some action is attempted 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 a username and password of an administrative account to get a process elevated (Over-the-shoulder 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 faded out and temporarily disabled, to present only the elevation UI. This is to prevent spoofing of the UI or the mouse by the application requesting elevation. Any application requesting elevation has to have focus before the switch to Secure Desktop occurs. Else its taskbar icon blinks, and when focussed, the elevation UI is presented. Since the Secure Desktop allows only highest privilege System applications to run, no user mode application can present its dialog boxes, so any prompt for elevation consent can be safely assumed to be genuine. 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 that wants to send a message to a high privilege process must get itself elevated to the higher privilege context, via UAC.
Windows Vista includes Windows Defender, Microsoft's anti-spyware utility. 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. These areas include Internet Explorer configuration and downloads, auto-start applications, system configuration settings, and add-ons to Windows such as Windows Shell extensions.
Windows Defender also includes the ability to easily remove ActiveX applications that are installed. It also incorporates the SpyNet network, which allows users to communicate with Microsoft, send what they consider is spyware, and check what applications are acceptable.
Parental controls
Parental controls control panel
The Home Basic, Home Premium, and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista include 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. An administrator may choose from one of five different game rating services: ESRB (United States and Canada), PEGI (Europe), USK (Germany), OFLC (Australia and New Zealand), CERO (Japan). 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 game ratings.
Restrictions on what programs may be executed
Activity reports to monitor what was done under Parental Controls
Ability to log actions such as Instant Messaging conversations
The Parental Controls area is "pluggable" allowing applications to add their own settings. For example, a chat program might offer a restriction to only allow the user to enter certain channels, and forbid private conversation outside those channels.
Preventing exploits
Windows Vista uses Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) to load system files at random addresses in memory[14]. 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 becomes 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. Windows XP SP2 also has exception chain protection support. Support for generating EXEs with exception chain protection was first introduced in the Visual Studio 2005 compiler.
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 non buffers, like pointers and supplied parameters, in lower memory area. So to actually exploit, a buffer underrun is needed to gain access to those locations. However, buffer underruns are much less common than buffer overruns.
Windows Vista also uses processor-enforced Data Execution Prevention on all processes to mark some memory pages as non-executable data segments (like the heap and stack), 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.
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[15].
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[15].
Rights Management Services (RMS) support, a technology that allows users to apply restrictions to documents, email, and intranets to protect them from being copied, printed, or even opened by people not authorized to do so. Windows Live 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 cannot 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 performing operations on file systems, registry or networks[16] 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 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 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 only safe exception handling) is not used. In 32 bit versions, however, software-enforced DEP is an option.
An upgraded Kernel Patch Protection, also referred to as PatchGuard, prevents third-party software, including kernel-mode drivers, from modifying the kernel or any data structure used by the kernel in any way; if any modification is detected, the system is shutdown. This mitigates a common tactic used by rootkits to hide themselves from user-mode applications.[17] PatchGuard was first introduced in the x64 edition of Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1, and was included in Windows XP Professional x64 edition. However in the initial implementation, it could be subverted when used with hardware virtualization systems, by injecting unsigned code when the kernel memory was paged out.[18] To block this, in the Release Candidate releases and later, Microsoft blocked raw disc access from user mode applications. But this can cause compatibility problems with older disc utilities.[19]
Graphics
Desktop Window Manager
The Desktop Window Manager (DWM) is the new windowing system that is available in all versions of Windows Vista, except Starter and Home Basic editions, 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 includes 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 defines 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 incorporates Microsoft's High Level Shader Language 4.0. However, Direct3D 10 is not backward compatible with prior versions of DirectX. So computer games made for Direct3D 10 do not function on versions of Windows prior to Vista unless they also support Direct3D 9.
The Direct3D 10 API introduces unified vertex and pixel shaders. In addition, it also supports Geometry Shaders, which operate on entire geometric primitives (points, lines, and triangles), and can allow calculations based on adjacent primitives as well. The output of the geometry shader can be passed directly onwards to the rasterizer for interpolation and pixel shading, or written to a vertex buffer (known as 'stream out') to be fed back into the beginning of the pipeline.
D3D10 functionality requires WDDM (Windows Display Driver Model) and new graphics hardware. The graphics hardware will be pre-emptive multithreaded, to allow multiple threads to use the GPU in turns. It will also provide paging of the graphics memory.
Direct3D 9 is also available under Vista. The core implementation of Direct3D 9 on Vista is known as Direct3D 9.0Ex. There is also a secondary API designed to give Direct3D 9 applications access to some of the features available in Vista such as cross-process shared surfaces, managed graphics memory, prioritization of resources, text antialiasing, advanced gamma functions, and device removal management.
Deprecation of other DirectX APIs:
In Windows Vista, only Direct3D features an overhaul. The DirectX SDK mentions that most of the other APIs have been deprecated. Specifically, DirectInput is deprecated in favor of XInput, from the Xbox team. Likewise, DirectSound is also deprecated in favor of XACT and is also not hardware accelerated. As of DirectX 9.0c, however, neither XInput nor XACT have all of the capabilities of DirectInput or DirectSound, and according to Microsoft's documentation, XInput is specifically designed for the Xbox 360 controllers. DirectPlay is deprecated in favor of Xbox Live whereas DirectShow will be gradually deprecated in favor of Media Foundation. DirectMusic lacks an equivalent modern API so far and therefore is the only component intact.
Icons
Icons in Windows Vista are visually more realistic than illustrative. Icons are scalable in size up to 256 x 256 (512 KB), resolution-independent and optimized for high-DPIdisplays. Required icon sizes are 16 x 16, 32 x 32, and 256 x 256. Optional sizes are 24 x 24, 48 x 48, 64 x 64, 96 x 96, and 128 x 128. Document icons show the actual document contents and several media types are distinguished by icon overlays (video, audio, photos). 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 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.[citation needed]
Windows Imaging Component
Windows Imaging Component (WIC) is a new extensible imaging framework that allows applications supporting the framework to automatically get support of installed codecs for graphics file formats. Windows Presentation Foundation applications also automatically support the installed image codecs. Third party developers can write their own image codecs for their specific image file formats. By default, Windows Vista ships with the JPEG, TIFF, GIF, PNG, BMP and Windows Media Photo codecs. Codecs for RAW image formats used generally by digital cameras are also supported in this manner. Windows Explorer, Windows Photo Gallery and Windows Photo Gallery Viewer are based on this new framework and can thus view and export images in any format for which the necessary codecs are installed.
Color management
Windows Vista features Windows Color System (WCS)[20], 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[21] 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 applies a color transform according to a color profile, specific to a device to ensure the output color matches to what is expected. Windows Vista also supports V4 ICC color profiles.
WCS features explicit support for LCD as well as CRT monitors, projectors, printers, and other imaging devices and provides customized support for each. WCS uses color profiles according to the CIE Color Appearance Model recommendation (CIECAM02), defined using XML, to define how the color representation actually translates to a visible color.
Audio
Windows Vista features a completely re-written audio stack designed to provide low-latency 32-bit floating point audio and new audio APIs created by a team including Steve Ball and Larry Osterman[22][23].
There are three major new API components to the Vista audio architecture:
Multimedia Device API - For enumerating and managing audio endpoints.
Device Topology API - For discovering the internals of an audio card's topology.
Windows Audio Session API - Very low level API for rendering audio, render/capture audio streams, adjust volume etc. This API also provides extremely low latency for audio professionals.
All the existing audio APIs have been re-plumbed to use these APIs internally, for Vista, all audio goes through these three APIs, so that most applications "just work".
A completely new set of user interface sounds have been introduced, including a new startup sound created with the help of King Crimson's Robert Fripp[24].
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 rewritten and now supports recording clips of any length and saving them as WMA.
Built-in support for microphone arrays, lets 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.[25]
Device support
Windows Vista builds on 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.
IEEE 1394 (aka Firewire) audio support is slated for a future release of Windows Vista, to be implemented as a full class driver, automatically supporting IEEE 1394 AV/C audio devices.
Speech recognition
Screenshot of the Speech Recognition tutorial
Windows Vista is the first Windows operating system to include fully integrated support for speech recognition. Under Windows XP, Speech Recognition was installed with Office 2003. The speech recognition system lets a user control their machine through voice commands, as well as enable dictation into many applications. 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 "mousegrid" 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 Speech Recognition offers fairly high recognition accuracy and provides a rich but simple set of commands that make dictation easier. A brief speech-driven tutorial is included to help familiarize a user with speech recognition commands.
Windows Vista includes speech recognition for 8 languages at release time: U.S. English, U.K. English, traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese, Japanese, German, French and Spanish. Additional language support beyond that is planned for post-release.
Windows Vista includes version 5.3 of the Microsoft Speech API (SAPI 5.3) and version 8 of the Speech Recognition engine ("recognizer").
Speech synthesis
Speech synthesis was first introduced in Windows with Windows 2000, but it has been significantly enhanced for Windows Vista (code name Mulan). 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. Microsoft Agent and other text to speech applications now use the newer SAPI 5 voices. [28]
Print
Windows Vista includes a redesigned print architecture[29], 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 transparently makes 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 [30], 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.
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.
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[31].
In addition to support for the document format itself, Windows Vista also includes an XPS Viewer application, as well as a printer driver that makes 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[32]. For example, XPS does not incorporate facilities for multimedia capabilities, or dynamic documents such as electronic forms.
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.
Print Schemas
Print Schemas provide an XML-based format for expressing and organizing a large set of properties that describe either a job format or print capabilities in a hierarchically structured manner. Print schemas are intended to address the problems associated with internal communication between the components of the print subsystem, and external communication between the print subsystem and applications.
Networking
The Network and Sharing Center
Windows Vista contains a brand new networking stack, which brings large improvements in all areas of network-related functionality[33]. 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). Full support for multicast is also included : MLDv2 and SSM.
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 are made at the most secure connection level supported by the wireless access point. WPA2 can be used even in ad-hoc mode. Windows Vista also provides 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 stores 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 are 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 also uses 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 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 also supports network cards with TCP Offload Engine, that have 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 some 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.
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. This feature is called "Routing Compartments".[34]
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[35], 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[36]. 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 which is active by default. When chosen, this new 'Sleep" mode saves information from the computer's memory to the hibernation file on disk, but instead of turning off the computer, it simultaneously enters Standby mode. After a specified amount of time (3 hours by default), it shuts down (hibernates). If power is lost during Standby mode, the system resumes from the existing hibernate image on disk. Sleep mode, thus, offers the benefits of fast suspend and resume when in Standby mode and reliability when resuming from hibernation, in case of power loss. Also, in earlier Windows versions, drivers sometimes prevented Windows from entering or reliably resuming from a power-saving state. Windows Vista ensures the availability and reliable resuming from any power state. Applications can disable sleep idle timers when needed such as when burning discs or recording media. Away mode, which is not a power plan by itself but a feature, automatically turns off displays, video rendering and sound but keeps the computer working when the user is away from the computer. Optionally, it can also transition to sleep mode. Power settings are also configurable through Group Policy.
Windows Mobility Center is a new control panel that centralizes information and functionality that is important to mobile PC's.
Windows Portable Devices allows computers to communicate with attached media and storage devices. It provides a flexible, robust way for a computer to communicate with music players, storage devices, mobile phones, cameras, and many other types of connected devices.
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.[37]
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[38].
Intrinsic support for handwriting and ink, via the Ink Analysis API[39]. 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[40].
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 new Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) detects and fixes startup related problems. It can be accessed by pressing F8 during startup. The system then boots into the WinRE interface and offers various tests as well as recovery and failure detection tools. WinRE automatically detects blue screen errors and registry damage and tries to repair the system and get it up and running quickly.
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, 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 supported 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. Preview releases of Vista are now significantly faster for installation than Windows XP and can be installed in as little as 20 minutes.[41] This is especially 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.
Kernel and core OS changes
Improved memory manager and processes scheduler. Many kernel data structures and algorithms have been rewritten. 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 configuration 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[43]. 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[44].
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 memory 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.
File System Mini Filters model which are non-device kernel mode drivers, to monitor filesystem activity, have been upgraded in Windows Vista. This can be used by Anti-Virus software.
Registry notification hooks, introduced in Windows XP, and recently enhanced in Windows Vista, allow software to participate in registry related activities in the system.
Image Mastering API (IMAPI v2) enables applications to burn audio, video, data or disc images to CD and DVD devices. Windows DVD Maker can burn DVD-Video discs, while Windows Explorer can burn data on DVDs (DVD±R, DVD±R DL, DVD±R RW) in addition to DVD-RAM. Packet writing is also supported when using the UDF file system. There are improvements to Universal Disk Format file system support; notably, the ability to format and write to UDF volumes, support for reading UDF 2.60 and writing UDF 2.50, and longer volume label names. Applications using IMAPI v2 can read, create, mount and burn ISO files.
File and registry 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 ImageX 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. 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, PDAs and mass storage devices, as well as "non-hardware" drivers, such as filter drivers. This also allows for drivers which would typically require a system reboot (video card drivers, for example) to install or update without needing a reboot of the machine.
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[46]. A boot-time option is available to disable this check for a single session of Windows. Installing user-mode drivers will still work without a digital signature.
Signed drivers are required for usage of PUMA, PAP (Protected Audio Path), and PVP-OPM subsystems.
Driver packages that are used to install driver software are 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. OEMs 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 "ReadyBoost" tab is added to the drive's properties dialog where the amount of space to be used can be configured.[47]. ReadyBoost can also use spare RAM on other networked Vista PCs. [48].
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.[49]
Windows Vista features prioritized I/O which allows developers to set application I/O priorities for read/write disk operations, similar to how currently application processes/threads can be assigned CPU priorities. [50] 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.
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.
Enable advanced performance for hard disks and a PC with a power supply: with it disabled, the HDD operates in write-through cache mode, in which all data that gets written to the drive is immediately written to the disks and also stored in the cache. Writes are not cached, but reads are. When the option is enabled, the HDD operates in write-back cache mode, in which all the data that gets written to the drive is first stored in the cache, and then later written to the disk. Both writes and reads are cached in this case.
Computer Management
Windows Vista provides a large number of enhancements for local as well as remote management and administration. 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. 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.
Diagnostics, monitoring and reporting
Windows Vista includes a number of self-diagnostic features which help identify various problems and, if possible, suggest corrective actions. The event logging subsystem in Windows Vista also has been completely overhauled and rewritten around XML to allow applications to more precisely log events. 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. Event Viewer has also been rewritten to take advantage of these new features.
Restart Manager reduces 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. Application Recovery enables applications to control what actions are taken on their behalf by the system when they fail or crash such as recovering unsaved data or documents, restarting the application, and diagnosing and reporting the problem using Windows Error Reporting.
Using System Resource Manager, administrators can control how much resource a process or a 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.
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. Windows Task Manager also presents more detailed system information and monitoring. Disk Management has been improved to allow the creation and the resizing of disk partitions without any data loss.
Remote Management
Remote Desktop Protocol 6.0 incorporates support for application-level remoting, improved security (TLS 1.0), support for connections via an SSL gateway, improved remoting of devices, support for .NET remoting including support for remoting of Windows Presentation Foundation applications, WMI scripting, 32-bit color support, dual-monitor support and more.
Remote Assistance, which helps in troubleshooting remotely, is now a full-fledged standalone application and does not use the Help and Support Center or Windows Messenger. It supports session pausing, chat and file transfer and XML-based logging. It has been reworked to use less bandwidth for low-speed connections. NAT traversals are also supported, so a session can be established even if the user is behind a NAT device. However, unlike Windows XP's Remote Assistance, it is not possible now to communicate verbally.
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.
Administrative Tools
The Disk Defragmenter in Windows 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 discernible performance benefit in doing so.[51]
Management Console
Windows Vista also includes Microsoft Management Console 3.0 (MMC), which includes several enhancements, including support for writing .NET snap-ins using Windows Forms and 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. Print Management 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.
Task Scheduler
Screenshot of 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.
[53]. Other 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 up a machine remotely or using BIOS timer from sleep or hibernation to execute a scheduled task or run a previously scheduled task after a machine gets turned on
A completely new user interface based on Management Console
The history of executed scheduled tasks can be reviewed
The scheduled tasks API is now fully available to scripting languages
bcdedit — create, delete, and reorder the bootloader (boot.ini is no longer used)
robocopy — the next version of xcopy with additional features
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.
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.
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, 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 ImageX 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.
ClickOnce is a deployment technology for "smart client" applications that enables self-updating Windows-based applications that can be installed and run with minimal user interaction.
The ActiveX Installer Service is an optional component included with the Business, Enterprise and Ultimate editions that provides a method for network administrators in a domain to authorize the installation and upgrade of specific ActiveX controls while operating as a standard user. ActiveX components that have been listed in Group Policy can be installed without a User Account Control consent dialog being displayed.[55]
Windows Vista is the first client version of Windows to ship with the .NET Framework. Specifically, it includes .NET Framework 2.0 and .NET Framework 3.0 (previously known as WinFX) but not version 1.0 or 1.1. .NET Framework, [56], is a set of managed codeAPIs that is slated to succeed Win32. The Win32 API will still be present in Windows Vista, but will not give direct access to all the new functionality introduced with the .NET Framework. In addition, .NET Framework 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 the .NET Framework:
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.
WPF
Windows Presentation Foundation (codenamed Avalon) is the overhaul of the graphical subsystem in Windows and the flagship API for 2D and 3Dgraphics, raster and vector graphics (XAML), fixed and adaptive documents (XPS), advanced typography, animation (XAML), data binding, audio and video in Windows Vista. WPF enables richer control, design, and development of the visual aspects of Windows programs. Based on DirectX, it renders all graphics using Direct3D. Routing the graphics through Direct3D allows Windows to offload graphics tasks to the GPU, reducing the workload on the computer's CPU. This capability is used by the Desktop Window Manager to make the desktop, all windows and all other shell elements into 3D surfaces. WPF applications can be deployed on the desktop or hosted in a web browser (XBAP).
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 controls. 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.
Images are supported using the Windows Imaging Component. Textrendering is supported using ClearType. This provides for sub-pixel positioning, natural advance widths and Y-direction anti-aliasing. The text engine even supports spell checking. Advanced OpenType font features such as ligatures, old-style numerals, swash variants, fractions, superscript and subscript, small capitalization, glyph substitution, multiple baselines, contextual and stylistic alternates (kerning), line-level justification, ruby characters, and so forth are also supported. OpenType type 2 fonts (CFF) are supported. Video cards that support Direct3D 10 will cache fonts in video memory and perform all ClearType text rendering in hardware. However, ClearType sub-pixel rendering (anti-aliasing) cannot be turned off optionally in WPF applications. [57] Lastly, animated text is also supported; this refers to animated glyphs, as well as real-time changes in position, size, color, and opacity of the text.
For media, WPF supports any audio and video formats which Windows Media Player can play. In addition, 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.
WPF uses 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.
WCF
Windows Communication Foundation (codenamed Indigo) 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.
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 application 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 (codenamed InfoCard), 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.
Other .NET Framework APIs
UI Automation (UIA) is a managed code API replacing Microsoft Active Accessibility to drive user interfaces. UIA is designed to serve both assistive technology and test-automation requirements.
.NET Framework 3.0 also includes a managed code speech API which has similar functionality to SAPI 5 but is suitable to be used by managed code applications.
Winsock Kernel
Winsock Kernel (WSK) is a new transport-independent kernel-mode Network Programming Interface (NPI) that provides network client developers with a sockets-like programming model similar to those supported in user-mode Winsock. While most of the same sockets programming concepts exist as in user-mode Winsock such as socket, creation, bind, connect, accept, send and receive, Winsock Kernel is a completely new programming interface with unique characteristics such as asynchronous I/O that uses IRPs and event callbacks to enhance performance.
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.
Other features and changes
Paint has now updated toolbar icons and default color palette. Also, unlimited undo levels and a crop function have been added.
File type associations can be set on a per-user basis now meaning default programs for file types and tasks can be different for each individual user.
Meiryo, supporting the new and modified characters of the JIS X 0213:2004 standard[59]
Non-Latin fonts: Malgun Gothic (Korean), Microsoft JhengHei (Chinese Traditional), Microsoft YaHei (Chinese Simplified), Majalla UI (Arabic), Gisha (Hebrew), and Leelawadee (Thai).
Support for Adobe CFF/Type2 fonts, which provides support for contextual and discretionary ligatures.
Ability to natively set a JPEG file as a wallpaper without using Active Desktop (which is no longer supported).[60] Also, the aspect ratio of images is maintained properly.
Native raw image support (a variety of formats used by professional digital cameras).
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 (keyboard shortcuts for Flip 3D are Win+Tab and Ctrl+Win+Tab)[61].
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.
A new Task Dialog API to address the common misuse of the old Message Box API and make designing custom dialogs easier.
Common dialogs for applications such as Open, Save, Choose folder, Print, Page Setup, Font have been enhanced.
WebDAV has been enhanced to support operation over SSL connections, as well as connecting on alternate ports. An update for Windows XP SP2 which supports this feature is also available. [1]
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.
Media Foundation is a new set of APIs to handle audio and video playback that provides DirectX Video 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 gradually deprecated in future versions.
Windows Media Photo[62] is a high quality photographic still image format, that will be debuting with Windows Vista. It is the preferred image format for XPS documents.
Images are now viewable in a new viewer which is based on Windows Photo Gallery. It also supports viewing videos.
The window buttons on the taskbar show a thumbnail image of the window, when the mouse hovers over the button.
Network Projection[63] 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 Games folder (also known as the Games Explorer), which provides access to all installed games from a single location, thereby making it easy to manage multiple games.
New monitor configuration APIs make it possible to adjust the monitor's display area, save and restore display settings, calibrate color and use vendor-specific monitor features. Overall too, Windows Vista is more resolution-independent than Windows XP and scales well to high resolutions and high DPI displays. Also, Transient Multimon Manager (TMM), a new feature that uses the monitor's EDID enables automatic detection, setup and proper configuration of additional or multiple displays as they are attached and removed on the fly. The settings are saved on a per-display basis when possible, so that users can move among multiple displays easily.
DFS Replication[64], the successor to File Replication Service, is a state-based replication engine for file replication among DFS shares, which supports replication scheduling and bandwidth 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[65]. 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.
All standard Edit controls and all versions of the Rich Edit controls now support the Text Services Framework.
Windows Data Access Components (Windows DAC) replace MDAC 2.81 which shipped with Windows XP Service Pack 2.
Windows XP features excluded
Some features present in Windows XP are no longer present in Windows Vista.
Since Windows Vista features a rewritten audio stack and does not inherit the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) for audio that was present under previous versions of Windows, including Windows XP, there will be no more hardware acceleration of DirectSound and DirectSound3D APIs. As a result, hardware 3D algorithms for audio spatializations such as EAX, HRTF etc. using these APIs will be lost. Developers can use OpenAL to use 3D audio spatializations. [66]
User interface for advanced file type functionality (such as defining custom secondary actions or showing extensions only for specific file types) has been removed. Vista-compatible applications are expected to use new Default Programs API. [67]
Windows Messenger is being removed entirely; no replacement for it is expected to be included, in favour of a link to Windows Live Messenger on the Welcome Center.
Internet Explorer is no longer integrated with Windows Explorer. This can also be seen in Internet Explorer 7 on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.
Windows XP's well-known Luna theme has been removed.
The Gopher protocol, an old protocol now considered obsolete, is no longer supported.
MS-CHAP v1 protocol is no longer supported for VPN authentication, in favor of MS-CHAP v2. [68]
Several old and little-used technologies have been removed from Internet Explorer: DirectAnimation support, XBM images, CDF, telnet protocol handlers, and 40-bit SSLciphers.
HTML source is more easily accessed through a browser than through the protocol.
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, and Mobile Pentium III SpeedStep; ISAPnP[69] 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 and there is a link to this from the Welcome Center
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.[70]
Windows Explorer's Web Publishing Wizard has been removed.
HyperTerminal has been removed. According to the preliminary help documentation in beta 2, no replacement is 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.
SerialKeys, an accessibility feature for augmentative communicative devices is no longer supported. [71]
The ability to view and edit metadata stored in a file's secondary stream through the "Summary" tab of the file's "Property" dialog has been removed.[72]
Support for reading .DOC files has been removed from WordPad. [73]
Button to go up one folder (or the folder containing the folder the user browsing) in Explorer has been removed.
