Windows Vista

Windows Vista

File:Windows Aero.png Screenshot of Windows Vista Ultimate
Developer	Microsoft
OS family	Microsoft Windows
Source model	Closed source / Shared source
Released to manufacturing	RTM: November 8, 2006; Vol. Lic.: November 30, 2006; Retail: January 30, 2007
Latest release	6.0 Service Pack 1 (SP1) (Build 6001) (6001.18063.080425-1930) / April 25, 2008 (2008-04-25)
Latest preview	6.0 Service Pack 2 (SP2) v.113 (Build 6002) (CPP Beta) (6.0.6002.16497) / December 4, 2008 (2008-12-04)
Update method	Windows Update, Windows Server Update Services, SCCM
Platforms	x86, x86-64
Kernel type	Hybrid kernel
License	MS-EULA
Official website	Windows Vista: Homepage
Support status
Mainstream support
Articles in the series
Development of Windows Vista Features new to Windows Vista Management features new to Windows Vista Security and safety features new to Windows Vista Technical features new to Windows Vista Windows Vista I/O technologies Windows Vista networking technologies Features removed from Windows Vista Windows Vista editions Criticism of Windows Vista

Windows Vista, an operating system released by Microsoft in November 2006, has received substantial criticism by reviewers and users. Due to issues with privacy, security, performance, and product activation, Windows Vista has been the subject of a number of negative assessments by various groups.

Security

According to CNET, some critics are unenthusiastic about the Vista security features, claiming that Vista "offers mostly basic protection and is not the best of its class." Natalie Lambert, an analyst with Forrester Research, stated, "There is no doubt that Vista will be Microsoft's most secure operating system. However, most secure is not equivalent to secure."

In February 2008, Bitlocker was shown to be vulnerable to a cold boot attack. According to the researchers, the risk can be mitigated by configuring two-factor authentication (e.g. a boot PIN in conjunction with a TPM), and by disabling power standby mode.

User Account Control

The following concerns have been raised about the new User Account Control (UAC) security technology: Many third-party programs do not follow the principle of least privilege and therefore need be run as an administrator, triggering UAC prompts. For some time, Microsoft has recommended that programs be written to run as a standard user. However, because nearly all users are administrators by default in previous versions of Windows, many developers have incorrectly assumed that their applications will always execute with these privileges, or have not regression tested their code for LUA bugs. Microsoft added file and registry virtualization technology as well as application compatibility shims to reduce the number of these legacy applications that trigger UAC prompts.

User Account Control can be disabled through the Control Panel; however, this also disables privilege separation features such as Internet Explorer 7's Protected Mode, which relies on UAC for its operation.

Driver signing requirement

64-bit versions of Windows Vista allow only signed drivers to be installed in kernel mode; this feature cannot be easily overridden by system administrators.

In order for a driver to be signed, a developer will either have to pay Microsoft for the driver to be tested by Microsoft's WHQL Testing. or, if WHQL testing is not required, to purchase a "Software Publisher Certificate" with which to sign the driver.

The following criticisms/claims have been made regarding this requirement:

• that it reduces Vista's compatibility with older hardware (or, even modern software such as VMware Server, where manufacturers have not released signed drivers either)
• that it disallows experimentation from the hobbyist community. The required authenticode certificate for signing Vista drivers are expensive and out of reach for small developers, usually about $400-500/year (from VeriSign).
• that it might exist not only for security reasons, but also to enforce Digital Rights Management policies, especially the Protected Video Path.

Unsigned drivers could initially be installed through the use of tools included with Vista,as well as some third party utilities such as Atsiv. However Microsoft has closed these workarounds with hotfix KB932596, which is included in Service Pack 1.

Flaws in memory protection features

Security researchers Alexander Sotirov and Mark Dowd have developed a technique that bypasses many of the new memory-protection safeguards in Windows Vista, such as Address space layout randomization. The result of this is that any already existing buffer overflow bugs that, in Vista, were previously not exploitable due to such features, may now be exploitable. Note that this is not in itself a vulnerability: as Sotirov notes, "What we presented is weaknesses in the protection mechanism. It still requires the system under attack to have a vulnerability. Without the presence of a vulnerability these techniques don’t really [accomplish] anything." The vulnerability Sotirov and Dowd used in their paper as an example was the 2007 animated cursor bug, CVE-2007-0038.

Security researcher Dino Dai Zovi has claimed that this means that it is "completely game over" for Vista security. Sotirov himself, however, has refuted this, saying that "The articles that describe Vista security as 'broken' or 'done for,' with 'unfixable vulnerabilities' are completely inaccurate. One of the suggestions I saw in many of the discussions was that people should just use Windows XP. In fact, in XP a lot of those protections we’re bypassing [such as ASLR] don’t even exist."

Digital rights management

Another common criticism concerns the integration of new forms of digital rights management (DRM) into the operating system, specifically the Protected Video Path (PVP), which involves technologies such as High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) and the Image Constraint Token (ICT). These features have been added to Vista due to an agreement between Microsoft and major Hollywood studios. Microsoft claims that movie studios and other providers of "premium content" will only allow their data to be played back on personal computers if sufficient protection is granted. This will concern, among other things, play-back of protected content on HD DVD and Blu-ray discs, but it will not be enabled until at least 2010.

The Protected Video Path mandates that encryption must be used whenever content marked as "protected" will travel over a link where it might be intercepted. This is called a User-Accessible Bus (UAB). Additionally, all devices that come into contact with premium content (such as graphics cards) have to be certified by Microsoft. Before playback starts, all the devices involved are checked using a Hardware Functionality Scan (HFS) to verify if they are genuine and have not been tampered with. Devices are required to switch off or artificially degrade the quality of any signal outputs that are not protected by HDCP. Additionally, Microsoft maintains a global revocation list for devices that have been compromised. This list is distributed to PCs over the Internet using normal update mechanisms. The only effect on a revoked driver's functionality is that high-level protected content will not play; all other functionality, including low-definition playback, is retained.

Notable critics

Peter Gutmann, a computer security expert from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, has released a whitepaper in which he raises the following concerns against these mechanisms:

• Adding encryption facilities to devices makes them more expensive, a cost that is passed on to the user.
• If outputs are not deemed sufficiently protected by the media industry, then even very expensive equipment can be required to be switched off (for example, S/PDIF-based, high-end audio cards).
• Some newer high-definition monitors are not HDCP-enabled, even though the manufacturer may claim otherwise.
• The added complexity makes systems less reliable.
• Since non-protected media are not subject to the new restrictions, users may be encouraged to remove the protection in order to view them without restrictions, thus defeating the content protection scheme's initial purpose.
• Protection mechanisms, such as disabling or degrading outputs, may be triggered erroneously or maliciously, motivating denial-of-service attacks.
• Revoking the driver of a device that is in wide use is such a drastic measure that Gutmann doubts Microsoft will ever actually do so. On the other hand, they may be forced to because of their legal obligations to the movie studios.

Steve Gibson of Gibson Research Corporation has stated during his Security Now! show that he agrees with Peter Gutmann in principle and that what he proposes is a factually accurate description of what is found in the specification from Microsoft.

The Free Software Foundation is conducting a campaign called "BadVista" against Vista on these grounds.

Apple Inc, Microsoft's major competitor, frequently made Vista a target of its "Get a Mac" advertising campaign.

Reaction to criticism

Ed Bott, author of Windows Vista Inside Out, has published a 3 part blog which rebuts many of Gutmann's claims.

Ed Bott's criticisms can be summarized as follows:

• Gutmann allegedly based his paper on outdated documentation from Microsoft and second-hand web sources.
• Gutmann allegedly quotes selectively from the Microsoft specifications.
• Gutmann allegedly did no experimental work with Vista to prove his theories. Rather, he makes mistaken assumptions and then speculates wildly on their implications.
• Gutmann's paper, while presented as serious research, is really just an opinion piece.

Technology writer George Ou claims that Gutmann's paper relies on unreliable sources and that Gutmann has never used Windows Vista to test his theories.

Gutmann has responded to both Bott and Ou in a further article., which states that the central thesis of Gutmann's article has not been refuted and the response of Bott is "disinformation"

Microsoft has published a blog entry with "Twenty Questions (and Answers)" on Windows Vista Content Protection, intending to refute some of Gutmann's arguments.

Paul Smith, a Microsoft MVP, has written a response to Gutmann's paper in which he counters some of his arguments. Specifically, he says:

• Microsoft is not to blame for these measures. The company has been forced to do this by the movie studios.
• The Protected Video Path will not be used for quite a while. There is said to be an agreement between Microsoft and Sony that Blu-Ray discs will not mandate protection until at least 2010, possibly even 2012.
• Vista does not degrade or refuse to play any existing media, CDs or DVDs. The protected data paths are only activated if protected content requires it.
• Users of other operating systems such as Linux or Mac OS X will not have official access to this premium content.

Microsoft also noted that content protection mechanisms have existed in Windows as far back as Windows Me.

Hardware requirements and performance

According to Microsoft, "nearly all PCs on the market today will run Windows Vista" and most PCs sold after 2005 are capable of running Vista.

In addition, many Vista early adopters faced hardware incompatibility problems due to drivers not yet being available for Vista. Service Pack 1 for Vista is said to fix many of these problems.

Speed

Tom's Hardware published benchmarks in January 2007 that showed that Windows Vista executed typical applications more slowly than Windows XP with the same hardware configuration.Ten of the 15 application tests that showed performance drops did not consider the radical design changes in Vista. Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (or SPEC), the maker of those tests, states that such "results should not be compared to those generated while running Windows XP, even if testing is done with the same hardware configuration." SPEC acknowledges that an apple-to-apples comparison cannot be made in cases such as the one done by Tom's Hardware, calling such studies "invalid comparisons." In the two tests involving real world applications, WinRAR and Adobe Photoshop, Vista was faster by 21.8% and 5.5% respectively. The remaining three application benchmarks showed negligible differences between XP and Vista, with both showing leads of less than 2% among the three. According to Devil Mountain Software, Windows XP Service Pack 3 outshines Windows Vista in performance and in other benchmarking tests.

Vista, both with and without SP1, performed notably slower than XP with SP3 in the test, taking over 80 seconds to complete the test, compared to the beta SP3-enhanced XP's 35 seconds.

File operation performance

When first released in November 2006, Vista performed file operations such as copying and deletion more slowly than other operating systems. Large copies required when migrating from one computer to another seemed difficult or impossible without workarounds such as using the command line. This inability to efficiently perform basic file operations attracted strong criticism. After six months, Microsoft confirmed the existence of these problems by releasing a special performance and reliability update, which was later disseminated through Windows Update, and is included in Service Pack 1.

Nonetheless, one benchmark reported to show that, while improving performance compared to Vista's original release, Service Pack 1 does not increase the level of performance to that of Windows XP. However, that benchmark has been questioned by others within ZDNet. Ed Bott both questions his colleagues' methods and provides benchmarks that refute the results. It should also be noted that XP's file copy operation may seem faster than Vista's, when in fact it is not. This is because under XP the operation can be pushed off to cached I/O, meaning that the file copy dialog may be dismissed long before the file has actually been copied to disk.

Game performance

Early in Vista's lifecycle many games showed a drop in frame rate compared to that experienced in Windows XP. These results were largely the consequence of Vista's immature graphics processing units drivers, and higher system requirements for Vista Itself. Recent benchmarks suggest that, as of mid-2008, Vista SP1 is now on par with Windows XP in terms of game performance.

Software bloat

Concerns have been expressed that Windows Vista may contain software bloat. Speaking in 2007 at the University of Illinois, Microsoft "Distinguished Engineer" Eric Traut said, "A lot of people think of Windows as this large, bloated operating system, and that's maybe a fair characterization, I have to admit." He went on to say that, "at its core, the kernel, and the components that make up the very core of the operating system, is actually pretty streamlined."

Former PC World editor Ed Bott has expressed skepticism about the claims of bloat, noting that almost every single operating system that Microsoft has ever sold had been criticized as "bloated" when they first came out; even those now regarded as the exact opposite, such as MS-DOS.

Vista capable lawsuit

Two consumers sued Microsoft in United States federal court alleging the "Windows Vista Capable" marketing campaign was a bait and switch tactic as some computers originally installed with Windows XP could only run Vista Basic. In February 2008 a Seattle judge granted the suit class action status, permitting all purchasers in the class to participate in the case. Released documents in the case, as well as a Dell presentation in March 2007, discussed late changes to Windows Vista which permitted hardware to be certified that would require upgrading in order to use Vista, and that lack of compatible drivers forced hardware vendors to "limp out with issues" when Vista was launched. This was one of several Vista launch appraisals included in 158 pages of unsealed documents.

Laptop battery life

With the new features of Vista, criticisms have surfaced concerning the use of battery power in laptops by Vista, which can drain the battery much more rapidly than Windows XP, reducing battery life. With the Windows Aero visual effects turned off, battery life is equal to or less than Windows XP systems. "With the release of a new operating system and its new features and higher requirements, higher power consumption is normal," as Richard Shim, an analyst with IDC noted, "when Windows XP came out, that was true, and when Windows 98 came out, that was true."

Software compatibility

Significant problems have surfaced with other software running under Vista. According to Gartner, "Vista has been dogged by fears, in some cases proven, that many existing applications have to be re-written to operate on the new system." Cisco has been reported as saying, "Vista will solve a lot of problems, but for every action, there's a reaction, and unforeseen side-effects and mutations. Networks can become more brittle." According to PC World, "Software compatibility issues, bug worries keep businesses from moving to Microsoft's new OS." Citing "concerns over cost and compatibility," the United States Department of Transportation prohibited workers from upgrading to Vista. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said the rollout (of Vista) is significantly behind schedule because "several key programs still aren't compatible, including patient scheduling software."

As of July 2007, there were over 2,000 tested applications that were compatible with Vista. Microsoft has published a list of legacy applications that meet their "Works with Windows Vista" software standards as well as a list of applications that meet their more stringent "Certified for Windows Vista" standards. However, as of July 2007, software compatibility problems were still hindering adoption of Vista. Microsoft has released the Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.0 application for migrating Vista-incompatible applications, while virtualization solutions like Virtual PC 2007 or those from VMware can also be used as a last resort to continue running Vista-incompatible applications under legacy versions of Windows.

Microsoft also provides an Upgrade Advisor Tool (.NET must be installed and an Internet connection is required) which can be used on existing XP systems to flag driver and application compatibility issues before upgrading to Vista.

Removal of announced features

Microsoft has also been criticized for removing some heavily discussed features such as Next-Generation Secure Computing Base in May 2004, WinFS in August 2004, Windows PowerShell in August 2005 (though this was released separately from Vista prior to Vista's release, and is being included in Vista's successor, Windows 7), SecurID Support in May 2006, PC-to-PC Synchronization in June 2006. The initial "three pillars" in Vista were all radically altered to reach a release date.

Pricing

Microsoft's international pricing of Vista has been criticized by many as too expensive. The differences in pricing from one country to another vary significantly, especially considering that copies of Vista can be ordered and shipped worldwide from the United States; this could save between $42 (€26) and $314 (€200). In many cases, the difference in price is significantly greater than was the case for Windows XP. In Malaysia, the pricing for Vista is at around RM799 ($244/€155). At the current exchange rate, United Kingdom consumers could be paying almost double their United States counterparts for the same software.

Microsoft has come under fire from British consumers about the price it is charging for Vista, the latest version of Windows. British (and French) customers will pay double the US price. The upgrade from Windows XP to Vista Home Basic will cost £100 (€126), while American users will pay only £51 ($100, €64).

— Computer Active

Software Protection Platform

Vista includes an enhanced set of anti-piracy technologies, based on Windows XP's Windows Genuine Advantage, called Software Protection Platform (SPP). In the initial release of Windows Vista (without Service Pack 1), a major component of this was a reduced-functionality mode, which is entered when it is detected that the user has "failed product activation" or that his or her copy is "identified as counterfeit or non-genuine." The technology was described in a Microsoft white paper as follows:

The default Web browser will be started and the user will be presented with an option to purchase a new product key. There is no start menu, no desktop icons, and the desktop background is changed to black. [...] After one hour, the system will log the user out without warning.

This was criticised for being overly draconian, especially given an imperfect false-positive record on behalf of SPP's predecessor, and at least one temporary validation server outage.

SPP was significantly altered in Windows Vista Service Pack 1. Instead of the reduced functionality mode, an installation of Vista left unactivated for 30 days presents the user with a nag screen prompting them to activate the operating system when they log in, changes the desktop to a solid black colour every hour, and periodically warn the user about software counterfeiting with notification balloons. In addition, updates classified as optional are not available to unactivated copies of Vista. Microsoft maintains a technical bulletin providing further details on product activation for Vista.

Sales figure inflation

According to industry sources, as of late July 2008 Windows XP is still outselling Windows Vista, especially in business sales. According to HP, Microsoft is unethically manipulating and inflating Windows Vista sales figures. An HP manager is quoted in APC:

:"From the 30th of June [2008], we have no longer been able to ship a PC with a XP license," said Jane Bradburn, Market Development Manager, Commercial Notebooks for HP Australia.

"However, what we have been able to do with Microsoft is ship PCs with a Vista Business license but with XP pre-loaded. That is still the majority of business computers we are selling today."

So, in other words, Microsoft counts a sale for Vista, even though the computer manufacturer has used the downgrade rights of the Vista license and preinstalls XP.

Windows Ultimate Extras

Windows Vista Ultimate users can download exclusive Windows Ultimate Extras. These extras have been released much more slowly than expected, with only four available as of June 2008, which has prompted some criticism. Barry Goffe, Director of Windows Vista Ultimate for Microsoft states that they were unexpectedly delayed on releasing several of the extras, but that "Microsoft plans to ship a collection of additional Windows Ultimate Extras that it is confident will delight its passionate Windows Vista Ultimate customers."

Windows Mobility Center.

• Windows Mobility Center is a control panel that centralizes the most relevant information related to mobile computing (brightness, sound, battery level / power scheme selection, wireless network, screen orientation, presentation settings, etc.).
• Windows Meeting Space replaces NetMeeting. Users can share applications (or their entire desktop) with other users on the local network, or over the Internet using peer-to-peer technology (higher versions than Starter and Home Basic can take advantage of hosting capabilities, Starter and Home Basic editions are limited to "join" mode only)
• Shadow Copy automatically creates daily backup copies of files and folders. Users can also create "shadow copies" by setting a System Protection Point using the System Protection tab in the System control panel. The user can be presented multiple versions of a file throughout a limited history and be allowed to restore, delete, or copy those versions. This feature is available only in the Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista and is inherited from Windows Server 2003.

Windows Update with Windows Ultimate Extras

• Windows Update: Software and security updates have been simplified, now operating solely via a control panel instead of as a web application. Windows Mail's spam filter and Windows Defender's definitions are updated automatically via Windows Update. Users who choose the recommended setting for Automatic Updates will have the latest drivers installed and available when they add a new device.
• Parental controls: Allows administrators to control which websites, programs and games each standard user can use and install. This feature is not included in the Business or Enterprise editions of Vista.
• Windows SideShow: Enables the auxiliary displays on newer laptops or on supported Windows Mobile devices. It is meant to be used to display device gadgets while the computer is on or off.
• Speech recognition is integrated into Vista. It features a redesigned user interface and configurable command-and-control commands. Unlike the Office 2003 version, which works only in Office and WordPad, Speech Recognition in Windows Vista works for any accessible application. In addition, it currently supports several languages: British and American English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified) and Japanese.
• New fonts, including several designed for screen reading, and improved Chinese (Yahei, JhengHei), Japanese (Meiryo) and Korean (Malgun) fonts. ClearType has also been enhanced and enabled by default.
• Problem Reports and Solutions, a control panel which allows users to view previously sent problems and any solutions or additional information that is available.
• Improved audio controls allow the system-wide volume or volume of individual audio devices and even individual applications to be controlled separately. New audio functionalities such as Room Correction, Bass Management, Speaker Fill and Headphone virtualization have also been incorporated.
• Windows System Assessment Tool is a tool used to benchmark system performance. Software such as games can retrieve this rating and modify its own behavior at runtime to improve performance. The benchmark tests CPU, RAM, 2-D and 3-D graphics acceleration, graphics memory and hard disk space.
• Windows Ultimate Extras: The Ultimate edition of Windows Vista provides, via Windows Update, access to some additional features. These are a collection of additional MUI language packs, Texas Hold 'Em (a Poker game) and Microsoft Tinker (a strategy game where the character is a robot), BitLocker and EFS enhancements which allow users to back up their encryption key online in a Digital Locker, and Windows Dreamscene, which enables the use of videos in MPEG and WMV formats as the desktop background. On April 21, 2008, Microsoft launched two more Ultimate Extras; three new Windows sound schemes, and a content pack for Dreamscene. Various DreamScene Content Packs have been released since the final version of DreamScene was released.
• Reliability and Performance Monitor includes various tools for tuning and monitoring system performance and resources activities of CPU, disks, network, memory and other resources. It shows the operations on files, the opened connections, etc.
• Disk Management: The Logical Disk Manager in Windows Vista supports shrinking and expanding volumes on-the-fly.

Core technologies

Main article: Technical features new to Windows Vista

Windows Vista is intended to be a technology-based release, to provide a base to include advanced technologies, many of which are related to how the system functions and thus not readily visible to the user. An example is the complete restructuring of the architecture of the audio, print, display, and networking subsystems; although the results of this work are visible to software developers, end-users will only see what appear to be evolutionary changes in the user interface.

Vista includes technologies such as ReadyBoost and ReadyDrive which employ fast flash memory (located on USB drives and hybrid hard disk drives) to improve system performance by caching commonly used programs and data. This manifests itself in improved battery life on notebook computers as well, since a hybrid drive can be spun down when not in use. Another new technology called SuperFetch utilizes machine learning techniques to analyze usage patterns to allow Windows Vista to make intelligent decisions about what content should be present in system memory at any given time. It uses almost all the extra RAM as disk cache. In conjunction with SuperFetch, an automatic built-in Windows Disk Defragmenter makes sure that those applications are strategically positioned on the hard disk where they can be loaded into memory very quickly with the least amount of physical movement of the hard disk’s read-write heads.

As part of the redesign of the networking architecture, IPv6 has been fully incorporated into the operating system and a number of performance improvements have been introduced, such as TCP window scaling. Earlier versions of Windows typically needed third-party wireless networking software to work properly, but this is not the case with Vista, which includes more comprehensive wireless networking support.

For graphics, Vista introduces a new Windows Display Driver Model and a major revision to Direct3D. The new driver model facilitates the new Desktop Window Manager, which provides the tearing-free desktop and special effects that are the cornerstones of Windows Aero. Direct3D 10, developed in conjunction with major display driver manufacturers, is a new architecture with more advanced shader support, and allows the graphics processing unit to render more complex scenes without assistance from the CPU. It features improved load balancing between CPU and GPU and also optimizes data transfer between them.

At the core of the operating system, many improvements have been made to the memory manager, process scheduler and I/O scheduler. The Heap Manager implements additional features such as integrity checking in order to improve robustness and defend against buffer overflow security exploits, although this comes at the price of breaking backward compatibility with some legacy applications. A Kernel Transaction Manager has been implemented that enables applications to work with the file system and Registry using atomic transaction operations.

Security-related technologies

A User Account Control consent dialog

Main article: Security and safety features new to Windows Vista

Improved security was a primary design goal for Vista. Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing initiative, which aims to improve public trust in its products, has had a direct effect on its development. This effort has resulted in a number of new security and safety features.

User Account Control, or UAC is perhaps the most significant and visible of these changes. UAC is a security technology that makes it possible for users to use their computer with fewer privileges by default, with a view to stopping malware from making unauthorized changes to the system. This was often difficult in previous versions of Windows, as the previous "limited" user accounts proved too restrictive and incompatible with a large proportion of application software, and even prevented some basic operations such as looking at the calendar from the notification tray. In Windows Vista, when an action requiring administrative rights—such as installing/uninstalling software or making system-wide configuration changes—is performed, the user is first prompted for an administrator name and password; in cases where the user is already an administrator, the user is still prompted to confirm the pending privileged action. Regular use of the computer such as running programs, printing, or surfing the Internet does not trigger UAC prompts. User Account Control asks for credentials in a Secure Desktop mode, in which the entire screen is dimmed, and only the authorization window is active and highlighted. The intent is to stop a malicious program misleading the user by interfering with the authorization window, and to hint to the user the importance of the prompt.

Testing by Symantec Corporation has proved the effectiveness of UAC. Symantec used over 2,000 active malware samples, consisting of backdoors, keyloggers, rootkits, mass mailers, trojan horses, spyware, adware, and various other samples. Each was executed on a default Windows Vista installation within a standard user account. UAC effectively blocked over 50 percent of each threat, excluding rootkits. 5 percent or less of the malware which evaded UAC survived a reboot.

Internet Explorer 7's new security and safety features include a phishing filter, IDN with anti-spoofing capabilities, and integration with system-wide parental controls. For added security, ActiveX controls are disabled by default. Also, Internet Explorer operates in a protected mode, which operates with lower permissions than the user and runs in isolation from other applications in the operating system, preventing it from accessing or modifying anything besides the Temporary Internet Files directory. Microsoft's anti-spyware product, Windows Defender, has been incorporated into Windows, providing protection against malware and other threats. Changes to various system configuration settings (such as new auto-starting applications) are blocked unless the user gives consent.

Whereas prior releases of Windows supported per-file encryption using Encrypting File System, the Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Vista include BitLocker Drive Encryption which can protect entire volumes, notably the operating system volume. However, BitLocker requires approximately a 1.5-gigabyte partition to be permanently unencrypted and to contain system files in order for Windows to boot. In normal circumstances, the only time this partition is accessed is when the computer is booting, or when there is a Windows update that changes files in this area which is a legitimate reason to access this section of the drive. The area can be a potential security issue, because a hexadecimal editor (such as dskprobe.exe), or malicious software running with administrator and/or kernel level privileges would be able to write to this "Ghost Partition" and allow a piece of malicious software to compromise the system, or disable the encryption. BitLocker can work in conjunction with a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) cryptoprocessor (version 1.2) embedded in a computer's motherboard, or with a USB key. However, as with other full disk encryption technologies, BitLocker is vulnerable to a cold boot attack, especially where TPM is used as a key protector without a boot PIN being required too.

A variety of other privilege-restriction techniques are also built into Vista. An example is the concept of "integrity levels" in user processes, whereby a process with a lower integrity level cannot interact with processes of a higher integrity level and cannot perform DLL–injection to a processes of a higher integrity level. The security restrictions of Windows services are more fine-grained, so that services (especially those listening on the network) have no ability to interact with parts of the operating system they do not need to. Obfuscation techniques such as address space layout randomization are used to increase the amount of effort required of malware before successful infiltration of a system. Code Integrity verifies that system binaries haven’t been tampered with by malicious code.

As part of the redesign of the network stack, Windows Firewall has been upgraded, with new support for filtering both incoming and outgoing traffic. Advanced packet filter rules can be created which can grant or deny communications to specific services.

The 64-bit versions of Vista require that all device drivers be digitally signed, so that the creator of the driver can be identified.

Business technologies

Main article: Management features new to Windows Vista

While much of the focus of Vista's new capabilities has been on the new user interface, security technologies, and improvements to the core operating system, Microsoft is also adding new deployment and maintenance features.

• The Windows Imaging Format (WIM) is the cornerstone of Microsoft's new deployment and packaging system. WIM files, which contain a HAL-independent image of Windows Vista, can be maintained and patched without having to rebuild new images. Windows Images can be delivered via Systems Management Server or Business Desktop Deployment technologies. Images can be customized and configured with applications then deployed to corporate client personal computers using little to no touch by a system administrator. ImageX is the Microsoft tool used to create and customize images.
• Windows Deployment Services replaces Remote Installation Services for deploying Vista and prior versions of Windows.
• Approximately 700 new Group Policy settings have been added, covering most aspects of the new features in the operating system, as well as significantly expanding the configurability of wireless networks, removable storage devices, and user desktop experience. Vista also introduced an XML based format (ADMX) to display registry-based policy settings, making it easier to manage networks that span geographic locations and different languages.
• 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.
• Multilingual User Interface–Unlike previous version of Windows which required language packs to be loaded to provide local language support, Windows Vista Ultimate and Enterprise editions support the ability to dynamically change languages based on the logged on user's preference. It is not possible to change the language, even for all users, in Windows Vista Home.
• Wireless Projector support

Developer technologies

Windows Vista includes a large number of new application programming interfaces. Chief among them is the inclusion of version 3.0 of the .NET Framework, which consists of a class library and Common Language Runtime. Version 3.0 includes four new major components:

• Windows Presentation Foundation is a user interface subsystem and framework based vector graphics, which makes use of 3D computer graphics hardware and Direct3D technologies. It provides the foundation for building applications and blending together application UI, documents, and media content. It is the successor to Windows Forms.
• Windows Communication Foundation is a service-oriented messaging subsystem which enables applications and systems to interoperate locally or remotely using Web services.
• Windows Workflow Foundation provides task automation and integrated transactions using workflows. It is the programming model, engine and tools for building workflow-enabled applications on Windows.
• Windows CardSpace is a component which securely stores digital identities of a person, and provides a unified interface for choosing the identity for a particular transaction, such as logging into a website.

These technologies are also available for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 to facilitate their introduction to and usage by developers and end users.

There are also significant new development APIs in the core of the operating system, notably the completely re-architected audio, networking, print, and video interfaces, major changes to the security infrastructure, improvements to the deployment and installation of applications ("ClickOnce" and Windows Installer 4.0) , new device driver development model ("Windows Driver Foundation") , Transactional NTFS, mobile computing API advancements (power management, Tablet PC Ink support, SideShow) and major updates to (or complete replacements of) many core subsystems such as Winlogon and CAPI.

There are some issues for software developers using some of the graphics APIs in Vista. Games or programs which are built solely on the Windows Vista-exclusive version of DirectX, version 10, cannot work on prior versions of Windows, as DirectX 10 is not available for previous Windows versions. Also, games which require the features of D3D9Ex, the updated implementation of DirectX 9 in Windows Vista are also incompatible with previous Windows versions. According to a Microsoft blog, there are three choices for OpenGL implementation on Vista. An application can use the default implementation, which translates OpenGL calls into the Direct3D API and is frozen at OpenGL version 1.4, or an application can use an Installable Client Driver (ICD) , which comes in two flavors: legacy and Vista-compatible. A legacy ICD disables the Desktop Window Manager, a Vista-compatible ICD takes advantage of a new API, and is fully compatible with the Desktop Window Manager. At least two primary vendors, ATI and NVIDIA provided full Vista-compatible ICDs. However, hardware overlay is not supported, because it is considered as an obsolete feature in Vista. ATI and NVIDIA strongly recommend using compositing desktop/Framebuffer Objects for same functionality.

Removed features

Main article: Features removed from Windows Vista

Some notable Windows XP features and components have been replaced or removed in Windows Vista, including Windows Messenger, NTBackup, the network Messenger Service, HyperTerminal, MSN Explorer, Active Desktop, and the replacement of NetMeeting with Windows Meeting Space. Windows Vista also does not include the Windows XP "Luna" visual theme, or most of the classic color schemes which have been part of Windows since the Windows 3.x era. The "Hardware profiles" startup feature has also been removed, along with support for older motherboard technologies like the EISA bus, APM and Game port support (though game port support can be enabled by applying an older driver). IP over FireWire (TCP/IP over IEEE 1394) has been removed as well. The IPX/SPX Protocol has also been removed, although it can be enabled by a third-party plugin.

Editions

Main article: Windows Vista editions

Windows Vista ships in six editions. These are roughly divided into two target markets, consumer and business, with editions varying to cater for specific sub-markets. For consumers, there are four editions, with three available for developed countries. Windows Vista Starter edition is limited to emerging markets. Windows Vista Home Basic is intended for budget users with low needs. Windows Vista Home Premium covers the majority of the consumer market, and contains applications for creating and using multimedia. The home editions cannot join a Windows Server domain. For businesses, there are two editions. Windows Vista Business is specifically designed for small and medium-sized businesses, while Windows Vista Enterprise is only available to customers participating in Microsoft's Software Assurance program. Windows Vista Ultimate contains the complete feature-set of both the Home and Business (combination of both Home Premium and Enterprise) editions, as well as a set of Windows Ultimate Extras, and is aimed at enthusiasts.

All editions except Windows Vista Starter support both 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) processor architectures.

In the European Union, Home Basic N and Business N versions are also available. These come without Windows Media Player, due to EU sanctions brought against Microsoft for violating anti-trust laws. Similar sanctions exist in South Korea.

Dell and Microsoft partnered to support (PRODUCT) RED. Microsoft released the Windows Vista Ultimate (PRODUCT) RED that exclusively will come together with Dell (PRODUCT) RED Computers.

Visual styles

Windows Vista has four distinct visual styles.

Windows Aero

Vista's premier visual style, Windows Aero, is built on a new desktop composition engine called Desktop Window Manager. Windows Aero introduces support for 3D graphics (Windows Flip 3D), translucency effects (Glass), live thumbnails, window animations, and other visual effects, and is intended for mainstream and high-end video cards. To enable these features, the contents of every open window are stored in video memory to facilitate tearing-free movement of windows. As such, Windows Aero has significantly higher hardware requirements than its predecessors. The minimum requirement is for 128 MB of graphics memory, depending on resolution used. Windows Aero (including Windows Flip 3D) is not included in the Starter and Home Basic editions.

Windows Vista Standard

This style is a variation of Windows Aero without the glass effects, window animations, and other advanced graphical effects such as Windows Flip 3D. Like Windows Aero, it uses the Desktop Window Manager, and has generally the same video hardware requirements as Windows Aero. This mode is only included in the Windows Vista Home Basic Edition as a replacement of Windows Aero style.

Windows Vista Basic

This style has aspects that are similar to Windows XP's visual style with the addition of subtle animations such as those found on progress bars. It does not employ the Desktop Window Manager(DWM); as such, it does not feature transparency or translucency, window animation, Windows Flip 3D or any of the functions provided by the DWM. The Basic mode does not require the new Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) for display drivers, and has similar video card requirements to Windows XP. For computers with video cards that are not powerful enough to support Windows Aero, this is the default graphics mode.

Windows Classic

Windows Classic resembles Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003, does not use the Desktop Window Manager, and does not require a WDDM driver. As with previous versions of Windows, this visual style supports color schemes, which are collections of color settings. Windows Vista includes six classic color schemes, comprised of four high-contrast color schemes and the default color schemes from Windows 98 and Windows 2000/Windows Me.

Hardware requirements

Computers capable of running Windows Vista are classified as Vista Capable and Vista Premium Ready. A Vista Capable or equivalent PC is capable of running all editions of Windows Vista although some of the special features and high-end graphics options may require additional or more advanced hardware. A Vista Premium Ready PC can take advantage of Vista's high-end features.

Windows Vista's Basic and Classic interfaces work with virtually any graphics hardware that supports Windows XP or 2000; accordingly, most discussion around Vista's graphics requirements centers on those for the Windows Aero interface. As of Windows Vista Beta 2, the NVIDIA GeForce 6 series and later, the ATI Radeon 9500 and later, Intel's GMA 950 and later integrated graphics, and a handful of VIA chipsets and S3 Graphics discrete chips are supported. Although originally supported, the GeForce FX 5 series has been dropped from newer drivers from NVIDIA. The last driver from NVIDIA to support the GeForce FX series on Vista was 96.85. Microsoft offers a tool called the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor to assist Windows XP and Vista users in determining what versions of Windows their machine is capable of running. Although the installation media included in retail packages is a 32-bit DVD, customers needing a CD-ROM or customers who wish for a 64-bit install media are able to acquire this media through the Windows Vista Alternate Media program. The Ultimate edition includes both 32-bit and 64-bit media. The digitally downloaded version of Ultimate includes only one version, either 32-bit or 64-bit, from Windows Marketplace.

Windows Vista system requirements

	Vista Capable	Vista Premium Ready
Processor	800 MHz	1 GHz
Memory	512 MB	1 GB
Graphics card	DirectX 9.0 capable	DirectX 9.0 capable and WDDM 1.0 driver support
Graphics memory	32 MB	128 MB supports up to 2,756,000 total pixels (e.g. 1920 × 1200) or 256 MB for greater resolutions such as 2560x1600
HDD capacity	20 GB	40 GB
HDD free space	15 GB
Other drives	DVD-ROM
Audio	Audio output

Service packs

Microsoft occasionally releases service packs for its Windows operating systems to fix bugs and add new features.

Service Pack 1

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) was released on February 4, 2008 alongside Windows Server 2008 to OEM partners, after a five-month beta test period. The initial deployment of the service pack caused a number of machines to continually reboot, rendering the machines unusable. This caused Microsoft to temporarily suspend automatic deployment of the service pack until the problem was resolved. The synchronized release date of the two operating systems reflected the merging of the workstation and server kernels back into a single code base for the first time since Windows 2000. MSDN subscribers were able to download SP1 on February 15, 2008. SP1 became available to current Windows Vista users on Windows Update and the Download Center on March 18, 2008. Initially, the service pack only supported 5 languages - English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese. Support for the remaining 31 languages was released on April 14, 2008.

A whitepaper published by Microsoft near the end of August 2007 outlined the scope and intent of the service pack, identifying three major areas of improvement: reliability and performance, administration experience, and support for newer hardware and standards.

One area of particular note is performance. Areas of improvement include file copy operations, hibernation, logging off on domain-joined machines, JavaScript parsing in Internet Explorer, network file share browsing, Windows Explorer ZIP file handling, and Windows Disk Defragmenter. The ability to choose individual drives to defragment is being reintroduced as well.

Service Pack 1 introduces support for some new hardware and software standards, notably the exFAT file system, 802.11n wireless networking, IPv6 over VPN connections, and the Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol. Booting a system using Extensible Firmware Interface on x64 systems is also being introduced; this feature had originally been slated for the initial release of Vista but was delayed due to a lack of compatible hardware at the time.

Two areas have seen changes in SP1 that have come as the result of concerns from software vendors. One of these is desktop search; users will be able to change the default desktop search program to one provided by a third party instead of the Microsoft desktop search program that comes with Windows Vista, and desktop search programs will be able to seamlessly tie in their services into the operating system. These changes come in part due to complaints from Google, whose Google Desktop Search application was hindered by the presence of Vista's built-in desktop search. In June 2007, Google claimed that the changes being introduced for SP1 "are a step in the right direction, but they should be improved further to give consumers greater access to alternate desktop search providers". The other area of note is a set of new security APIs being introduced for the benefit of antivirus software that currently relies on the unsupported practice of patching the kernel (see Kernel Patch Protection).

An update to DirectX 10, named DirectX 10.1, makes mandatory several features which were previously optional in Direct3D 10 hardware. Graphics cards will be required to support DirectX 10.1. SP1 includes a kernel (6001) that matches the version shipped with Windows Server 2008.

The Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) is being replaced by the Group Policy Object Editor. An updated downloadable version of the Group Policy Management Console was released soon after the service pack.

SP1 enables support for hotpatching, a reboot-reduction servicing technology designed to maximize uptime. It works by allowing Windows components to be updated (or "patched") while they are still in use by a running process. Hotpatch-enabled update packages are installed via the same methods as traditional update packages, and will not trigger a system reboot.

Service Pack 2

Template:Future software Service Pack 2 is currently under development, and a beta was released to a small group of Technology Adoption Program customers on 29 October 2008. The final release date will be dependent on feedback from the beta testing. The press has reported that the next Windows Vista service pack will be released before Windows 7 in order to lessen confusion for customers who are undecided whether to deploy Vista or wait for Windows 7. On 2 December 2008, Microsoft announced that the Service Pack 2 Beta would be made available to everyone through a Customer Preview Program (CPP) from December 4.

In addition to a number of security and other fixes, the following new features will also be added in Vista SP2:

• Windows Search 4.0 (currently available for SP1 systems as a standalone update).
• Bluetooth 2.1 Feature Pack supporting the most recent specification for Bluetooth Technology.
• Ability to record data on to Blu-ray media natively in Windows Vista.
• Windows Connect Now (WCN) to simplify Wi-Fi configuration.
• Improved support for resuming with active Wi-Fi connections.
• Enables the exFAT file system to support UTC timestamps, which allows correct file synchronization across time zones.
• Support for ICCD/CCID smart cards.
• Support for VIA 64-bit CPUs.
• DirectX 11

Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 will share a single service pack binary, reflecting the fact that their code bases were joined with the release of Server 2008.

Criticism

Main article: Criticism of Windows Vista

Windows Vista has received a number of negative assessments. Criticism targets include protracted development time, more restrictive licensing terms, the inclusion of a number of technologies aimed at restricting the copying of protected digital media, and the usability of the new User Account Control security technology. Reviewers have also noted some similarities between Vista's Aero interface and that of Apple's Aqua interface for the Mac OS X operating system. Moreover, some concerns have been raised about many PCs meeting "Vista Premium Ready" hardware requirements and Vista's pricing.

Hardware requirements

While Microsoft claimed "nearly all PCs on the market today [2005] will run Windows Vista", the higher requirements of some of the "premium" features, such as the Aero interface, have impacted many upgraders. According to the UK newspaper The Times in May 2006, the full set of features "would be available to less than 5 percent of Britain’s PC market", however, this prediction was made several months before Vista was released. This continuing lack of clarity eventually led to a class action against Microsoft as people found themselves with new computers that were unable to use the new software to its full potential despite the assurance of "Vista Capable" designations. The court case has made public internal Microsoft communications that indicate that senior executives have also had difficulty with this issue. For example, his laptop's lack of an appropriate graphics chip so hobbled Vista features that vice president Mike Nash commented "I now have a $2,100 e-mail machine."

Licensing and cost

Criticism of upgrade licenses pertaining to Windows Vista Starter through Home Premium was expressed by Ars Technica's Ken Fisher, who noted that the new requirement of having a prior operating system already installed was going to cause irritation for users who reinstall Windows on a regular basis. It has been revealed that an Upgrade copy of Windows Vista can be installed clean without first installing a previous version of Windows. On the first install, Windows will refuse to activate. The user must then reinstall that same copy of Vista. Vista will then activate on the reinstall, thus allowing a user to install an Upgrade of Windows Vista without owning a previous operating system. As with Windows XP, separate rules still apply to OEM versions of Vista installed on new PCs: Microsoft asserts that these versions are not legally transferable (although whether this conflicts with the right of first sale has yet to be decided clearly legally).

The cost of Windows Vista has also been a source of concern and commentary. A majority of users in a poll said that the prices of various Windows Vista editions posted on the Microsoft Canada website in August 2006 make the product too expensive. A BBC News report on the day of Vista's release suggested that, "there may be a backlash from consumers over its pricing plans—with the cost of Vista versions in the US roughly half the price of equivalent versions in the UK."

Digital rights management

Windows Vista supports additional forms of digital rights management protections. One aspect of this is the Protected Video Path, which is designed so that "premium content" from HD DVD or Blu-ray Discs may mandate that the connections between PC components be encrypted. Depending on what the content demands, the devices may not pass premium content over non-encrypted outputs, or they must artificially degrade the quality of the signal on such outputs or not display it all. Drivers for such hardware must be approved by Microsoft; a revocation mechanism is also included which allows Microsoft to disable drivers of devices in end-user PCs over the Internet. Peter Gutmann, security researcher and author of the open source cryptlib library, claims that these mechanisms violate fundamental rights of the user (such as fair use), unnecessarily increase the cost of hardware, and make systems less reliable (the "tilt bit" being a particular worry; if triggered, the entire graphic subsystem performs a reset) and vulnerable to denial-of-service attacks. However despite several requests for evidence supporting such claims Peter Gutman has never supported his claims with any researched evidence. Proponents have claimed that Microsoft had no choice but to follow the demands of the movie studios, and that the technology will not actually be enabled until after 2010; Microsoft also noted that content protection mechanisms have existed in Windows as far back as Windows Me, and that the new protections will not apply to any existing content (only future content).

User Account Control

Although UAC is considered an important part of Vista's security infrastructure, as it blocks software from silently gaining administrator privileges without the user's knowledge, it has been widely criticized for generating too many prompts. This has led many Vista UAC users to consider it annoying and tiresome, with some consequently either turning it off or putting it in auto-approval mode. Responding to this criticism, Microsoft altered the implementation to reduce the number of prompts with SP1. Though the changes have resulted in some improvement, it has not alleviated the concerns completely.

Reception

Businesses' intended purchase rates and satisfaction ratings for Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Mac OS X Leopard, based on information from ChangeWave collected in February 2008

Initially it was thought that the adoption of Vista has been generally low, due to largely poor reviews and harsh criticism, but a later Gartner research report predicted that Vista business adoption in 2008 will actually beat that of XP during the same time frame (21.3% vs. 16.9%) while IDC had indicated that the launch of Windows Server 2008 served as a catalyst for the stronger adoption rates. Earlier, PC World rated it as the biggest tech disappointment of 2007, and it was rated by InfoWorld as #2 of Tech's all-time 25 flops. The internet-usage market share for Windows Vista, taking the latest statistic, was 20.45% as of November 2008. This figure combined with World Internet Users and Population Stats yields a user base of roughly 300 million which exceeded Microsofts expectations prior to launch.

Within its first month, 20 million copies of Vista were sold, double the amount of Windows XP sales within its first month in October 2001, five years earlier. In China, only 244 genuine retail copies were sold within the first two weeks, leading authorities to believe that software piracy left many copies unaccounted for. However, PC World indicated that the visitor base of Windows Vista was increasing at a much slower rate compared to that of Windows XP. Within the first year of its release, the percentage of Windows XP users visiting PC World's website reached 36%; in the same time frame, however, Windows Vista visitors reached only 14%, with 71% of users still running XP. In November 2006, PC World had expected the overall first-year adoption rate to be 15% (vs. 12-14% for XP). Due to Vista's relatively low adoption rates and continued demand for Windows XP, Microsoft continued to sell Windows XP until June 30, 2008 instead of the previously planned date of January 31, 2008. There were reports of Vista users downgrading their operating systems, as well as reports of businesses planning to skip Vista. A study conducted by ChangeWave in March 2008 showed that the percentage of corporate users who are "very satisfied" with Vista was dramatically lower than other operating systems, with Vista at 8%, compared to the 40% who said they were "very satisfied" with Windows XP.

Although business adoption of Vista has been far higher than Apple or Linux platforms, it has been slower than expected; while businesses do tend to delay upgrading their operating systems, there have been reports that Vista is installed on considerably fewer enterprise PCs than previously projected. According to InformationWeek, in December 2006, 6% of business enterprises were expected to employ Vista within the first year, yet as of October 2007, only about 1% of enterprise PCs were actually using Vista. While a large number of businesses had bought early-adopter licenses to run Windows Vista, many of these companies delayed deployment.

There have been a number of organizations who have denounced Vista due to its problems. For example, in October 2007, The Dutch Consumers' Association called for a boycott of Windows Vista after Microsoft refused to offer free copies of Windows XP to users who had problems with Vista.

Amid the negative reviews and reception, there have also been significant positive reviews of Vista, most notable from among PC gamers and the advantages brought about with DirectX 10, which allows for better gaming performance and more realistic graphics, as well as support for many new capabilities brought about in new video cards and GPUs. However, many DirectX 9 games showed a drop in frame rate compared to that experienced in Windows XP. These results were largely the consequence of Vista's immature graphics processing units drivers, and higher system requirements for Vista itself. Recent benchmarks suggest that, as of mid-2008, Vista SP1 is now on par with Windows XP in terms of game performance.

On February 29, 2008, Microsoft announced that it will lower the price of the Vista operating system sold at retail outlets in order to aid in its adoption. These price cuts only apply to the retail versions sold in shops, which account for less than 10% of total Vista sales. Vista Ultimate, for example, will see a 20% drop in its price, from US$399 to $319.

On July 17, 2008, Microsoft announced that it had sold 180 million licenses, which would amount to between 36 and 57 billion dollars in gross retail sale price using February 29, 2008 price tags of the various versions. Initial development of the software was claimed to be 6 billion dollars. However, according to HP, Microsoft's sales figures include business systems that ship with Vista licences but are "downgraded" and preloaded with XP.

On July 30, 2008, Microsoft indicated that Vista appears to be causing a shift in the PC industry from 32-bit to 64-bit. The installed base of 64-bit editions of Windows Vista, as a percentage of all Windows Vista systems, had more than tripled in the United States in the previous three months, while worldwide adoption had more than doubled during the same period. Another view showed that 20% of new Windows Vista PCs in the United States connecting to Windows Update in June were 64-bit PCs, up from 3% in March. Microsoft stated that the falling price of RAM and increased use of multitasking are benefits from SuperFetch, which accelerates performance with the installation of more RAM allowed 64-bit editions of Windows Vista. This has also been projected by Brad Brooks in an interview on October 13, 2008.

Competition with Windows XP

In July 2008, according to a marketing manager working for HP Australia, Windows XP was still being chosen over Windows Vista for the majority of business computer sales. As all customers of OEM versions of Vista Business and Ultimate are eligible for a free downgrade to Windows XP Professional, these Windows XP licenses are sold as Vista Business licenses, thus increasing Vista's sales figures. Some computer manufacturers have chosen to ship Windows XP restore disks along with new computers with Vista Business and Ultimate editions pre-installed, as well as new computers with XP instead of Vista.

The "Mojave Experiment"

Main article: The Mojave Experiment

In July 2008, Microsoft introduced a web-based advertising campaign called the "Mojave Experiment", that depicts a group of people who are asked to evaluate the newest operating system from Microsoft, calling it Windows 'Mojave'. Participants are first asked about Vista, if they have used it, and their overall satisfaction with Vista on a scale of 1 to 10. They are then shown a demo of some of the new operating system's features, and asked their opinion and satisfaction with it on the same 1 to 10 scale. After respondents rate "Mojave", they are then told that they were really shown a demo of Windows Vista. The object was to test "A theory: If people could see Windows Vista firsthand, they would like it." According to Microsoft, the initial sample of respondents rated Vista an average of 4.4 out of 10, and Mojave received an average of 8.5, with no respondents rating Mojave lower than they originally rated Windows Vista before the demo.

See also

• History of Microsoft Windows
• Comparison of Microsoft Windows versions
• Comparison of Windows Vista and Windows XP
• Microsoft Office 2007—the current release of Microsoft Office that was released simultaneously with Windows Vista.
• Patch Tuesday

External links

Microsoft

• Microsoft Windows Vista—Microsoft Windows Vista homepage
• Microsoft Windows Vista Upgrade Info—Windows Vista Upgrade planning
• Microsoft Windows Vista Product Guide—Contains complete, feature-by-feature comparisons of the various Windows Vista editions
• Microsoft Windows Vista Hardware Design—Hardware Design for Windows Vista—News for Driver Developers and Hardware Engineers
• Microsoft Technet—Windows Vista: Resources for IT Professionals
• MSDN—Windows Vista Developer Center on MSDN
• The Windows Vista Blog—Official blog of the Windows Vista Team
• See Windows Vista—Official Microsoft website with information on how the new Windows Vista Operating System works
• The behavior of reduced functionality mode in Windows Vista–Microsoft support explaining the Reduced functionality mode.
• Mojave Experiment An experiment related with user's experience about Windows Vista.
• Microsoft Windows Vista Images Website—Official Microsoft website with Screenshots, Icons, Logos

Reviews and screenshots

• Windows Vista Screenshots Gallery—Collection of Vista Screenshots from Different Builds
• Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows—Windows Vista Activity Center
• How secure is Windows' new Vista?
• Features of Windows Vista
• Windows Vista 32-bit and 64-bit Performance Compared
• Windows Vista Ultimate—CNET review
• Windows XP vs. Vista: The Benchmark Rundown—Tom's Hardware Guide review
• Windows Vista Software Compatibility List—ieXbeta's Wiki
• Windows Vista Feature Comparison—Yes/No Feature Comparison of Vista Versions
• Best Windows Vista Websites - The best Windows Vista sites on the web (competition)

Criticism

• CNET—Hollywood, Microsoft align on new Windows
• Technology Review—Will Windows Upgrade Hand Power To Big Media?
• Bad Vista–Free Software Foundation

Security vulnerabilities

• Vulnerability Report: Microsoft Windows Vista including known unpatched vulnerabilities from Secunia
• Vista vulnerabilities from SecurityFocus