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Friday, October 20, 2006 A First Look at Windows VistaContinued from page 1 By Erika Jonietz
Despite the fact that none of the files had been indexed, Vista found every relevant file within two minutes--even those that used some variation of the word "sequencing." This is an enormous improvement over my consistently frustrating experiences with Windows XP's search function, which frequently did not find the file I wanted and, for any comparable search, took much longer. And if you'd like to improve search results even more, Vista allows you to add "tags"--short text descriptors like those used on websites such as del.icio.us and Flickr--to any file. Vista also features a top-notch photo organizer. The Windows Photo Gallery is a huge step up from any built-in photo organizer I've seen, including Apple's iPhoto. You can sort pictures by tag, date taken, or the more familiar folder system. It also includes easy-to-use tools for cropping, rotating, or adjusting the color or exposure of your pictures. It won't replace photo-editing software for anyone halfway serious about photography, but for the casual snapshot taker, the Photo Gallery is useful. Unfortunately, I couldn't evaluate the new Windows Media Center, which is designed to make it easy to find, organize, and play back all "digital entertainment" files, such as live and recorded TV (if you have a TV-tuner card), movies, music, and pictures. Each time I opened it, the program crashed within about 30 seconds. (Since I signed up for the Vista feedback program, Windows was kind enough to send an automated message assuring me that whatever caused the problem on my machine has been identified and will be fixed in the Vista final release.) Yet one of the most irritating aspects of my Vista experience so far has to do with its new security features. There are improvements: in addition to Windows Firewall, Vista includes Windows Defender, Microsoft's anti-spyware and malware scanner, and Internet Explorer 7 has a built-in Phishing Filter that sends website addresses to Microsoft, which checks whether they're fake sites known to be posing as, say, a bank or a credit-card company's site. But Vista's User Account Control is the most annoying "security feature" I have ever encountered. It's designed to prevent viruses and other malware from automatically installing themselves or initiating programs without the user's knowledge. However, its constant requests for confirmation that "you started this action"--be it launching a program built into Vista or installing new software--quickly become irksome. In many respects, the 64-bit version of Vista I installed on my personal laptop is identical to the 32-bit version. The biggest difference for me was Aero, Vista's stylish visual environment, which can run only on computers with powerful CPUs, plenty of RAM, and fairly recent graphics cards. (Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Vista's Aero visual environment can only run on 64-bit processors. In fact, Aero can run in both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Vista, as long as the computer has at least a 1 GHz processor, 1 GB of RAM, and a graphics card that supports DirectX 9. Technology Review regrets the error.) It includes visual effects such as translucent borders at the edges of windows, allowing you to see what's in the window behind. There are also live thumbnails of minimized programs: rest your pointer over an item in the taskbar (that horizontal bar running across the bottom of the screen), and a small picture of the program window pops up, revealing its content. This is incredibly handy if, like me, you often have multiple Word or Excel documents open--but no different from what Apple has done for years in its Mac OS X Dock. Regrettably, the 64-bit version of Vista has so far proved itself more of a pain than a pleasure to me. It's not possible to upgrade from a 32-bit operating system such as Windows XP Home to a 64-bit operating system, so a clean install is a must. Vista will retain all your old files and settings in a folder called Windows.old, but you still have to reinstall every piece of software after the installation. It's quite a time investment.
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10/15/2008
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Comments
qmarais on 10/20/2006 at 3:04 AM
1
cradle on 10/20/2006 at 9:30 AM
1
reriker on 10/20/2006 at 12:48 PM
1
"If the GPU uses shared memory, then no additional graphics memory is required beyond the 1 GB system memory requirement; If the GPU uses dedicated memory then 128MB is required."
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/capablefootnotes.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/capable.mspx
crisrich on 10/20/2006 at 3:15 PM
4
My PC has a Pentium 4 HT 3GHz processor and a videocard with an NVidia 6200 Graphics chip with 250 MB. This rated only 2,2 points from Vista and doesn´t qualify for Aero.
After installing some of my usual XP programs, problems also started to arise: constant total freeze ups of the OS which only hard reset would resolve (Ctrl Alt Del never makes any impression at all --> Vista OS much unstabler than XP). Basic devices like HP Lasejet 1020 didn´t work. Couldn´t find a suitable driver. HP isn´t supporting Vista publicly so far.
New security features: I totally agree with Erika: "...Vista's User Account Control is the most annoying "security feature" I have ever encountered". I have installed Vista on a separate HD in my PC and tried to move some data from the original XP HD on the same PC: basically impossible. I think one first has to share all the folders to Guests while in XP before they can be accessed through Vista.
Another big annoyance is the new automatic file structure in Vista which is different from the My Documents hierarchy and transferring data from XP to Vista seemed quite confusing to me.
Bottom line:
-To Erika and anyone else who wants to test Vista: dodn´t waste your time with RC1; try at least to get RC2. (Is Microsoft trying to fool its potential customers or itself calling these versions "Release Candidates" instead of giving them larger beta numbers?)
-To myself: it´s finally time to move back to Apple. My first computers were all Macs and I was a total fan until many of the programs I wanted to use weren´t available for that platform. So I grudgingly moved to Windows and have worked with it for more than a decade. Now that I can use all my software under the Mac OS, why should I put up with bad Microsoft products that consume a huge amount of my time just to keep it operating in a more or less stable (Registry management) and safe (additional software for Firewall, Viruses and Spams) way? Specially if I would have to substantially upgrade my hardware anyway to be able to use all the new Vista features.
McMillan968 on 10/21/2006 at 9:11 PM
38
edsuareza on 10/21/2006 at 12:02 PM
1
voltasao on 10/22/2006 at 5:45 PM
1
crisrich on 10/23/2006 at 2:57 PM
4
stonethrower on 10/22/2006 at 11:39 PM
1
Don't you see - on the long run both Windows and Apple will be overrun by free Linux, where free as in freedom. Sleek design of Vista or MacOS? You can get both "sleekies" on Linux just running the corresponding window management emulator on Linux.
bmn on 01/23/2007 at 11:45 PM
25
Julian on 10/23/2006 at 1:50 PM
1
phorne on 10/23/2006 at 1:50 PM
2
for orgnizing photos. The quick search is a good addition to the system and will make searching faster and esier. I think that the article should have given a estimated cost. The major thing that they need to focus on changing is the compatiblity is has with most computers.
CompSci123 on 10/23/2006 at 1:52 PM
1
introcompsci on 10/23/2006 at 1:55 PM
1
420 on 10/23/2006 at 1:56 PM
3
JNo on 10/23/2006 at 2:04 PM
3
Comp Sci w/ Rawlings on 10/23/2006 at 2:22 PM
1
The overall impression I got from reading Erika Jonietz’s article, was that there are many problems with Vista. There are always going to be bugs with newly designed computer programs. But Vista seems to be behind the eight ball with all the quirks that they have known about for a while and have yet to fix, such as speakers not functioning on the 64-bit version.
I could really relate to Jonietz’s negative experience with the Vista’s User Account Control. I have Windows XP currently and there is a Microsoft program that pops up frequently at the bottom of my screen asking if various programs can have permission to connect to the internet or automatically update. The purpose of this security features obviously, is to protect the computer. But when the user has no knowledge about the programs triggering the alarms or whether or not to block or allow the various programs form proceeding, the tool is really more of a bothersome then a safety feature.
mmg3488 on 10/24/2006 at 8:50 AM
5
October 24, 2006
Cyber Ethics
Windows Vista
After initially reading this article it seems to me that Windows Vista is the future of computer operating systems. It has a lot of new superior features such as, the transparent rectangular sidebar that run down the left side of the screen. The transparent side bar is very useful because it holds "gadgets”, that provide quick access to frequently needed information and tools. Windows Vista comes with 11 gadgets, 3 of which load the first time you start up: an analog-style clock, a slideshow viewer, and a newsreader with a collection of headlines from MSNBC.com and Microsoft. Vista also features a top-notch photo organizer. The Windows Photo Gallery is a huge step up from any built-in photo organizer. The Windows Media Center, is designed to make it easy to find, organize, and play back all "digital entertainment" files, such as live and recorded TV, movies, music, and pictures. Maybe the best improvement that will come with Windows Vista is the added security features.
juicyjuice on 10/24/2006 at 8:52 AM
1
scwoojems on 10/24/2006 at 8:53 AM
2
chris2 on 10/24/2006 at 8:53 AM
2
The new version of windows xp is called windows vista. This new program sounds awesome. It is in 3D and with being a lot sharper than windows xp. It will be available in early 2007. Vista will also be coming out with the new internet explorer 7. From what I saw about the internet explorer 7, it looks a lot like AOL explorer. Some new features of the program windows vista are that the start button is a circle. Overall this is a very exciting. There are also features improving the new security.
chris2 on 10/24/2006 at 8:54 AM
2
scwoojems on 10/24/2006 at 8:53 AM
2