Ms Vista Reviewed

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CINTEL ENTRINO

CINTEL ENTRINO

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HERE IS A REVIEW OF VISTA BY TIMES OF INDIA {TOI } :)

MEMBERS ARE FREE TO SHARE THEIR COMMENTS ON IT :)


Test drive: Windows Vista

Is Microsoft’s New Operating System Worth The Five Year Wait? Find Out What It’s Got

By Nikhil Hemrajani/TNN


When Microsoft first started speaking about ‘Longhorn’—a codename for its successor to Windows XP, it got everyone’s attention. Today, a bit more than five years after XP’s official summer launch, its successor, now renamed Windows Vista, is finally here. Initially, priority will go to its volume license customers such as Dell, HP-Compaq and Lenovo, followed by an ‘on-the-stands’ availability by January 30, 2007.
We have been keeping tab of Vista’s development thanks to Microsoft’s generous strategy of making a pre-release version of the OS freely available for a limited period of time to anyone interested in having a look at it.
Vista is available in eight iterations: Starter, Home Basic, Home Basic N, Home Premium, Business, Business N, Enterprise and Ultimate. We installed Vista Ultimate, as it is a superset of all the others.
Pre-requisites: Microsoft classifies machines into two categories for running Vista: ‘Vista-capable’ machines and ‘premium-ready’ machines. The former represent the lowest recommended configuration (1 GHz processor, 512 MB RAM, a DirectX 9 class graphics card, and 20 GB hard drive). However to run Vista without a hitch, you’ll need a premium-ready machine (1.5 GHz processor, 1 GB RAM, a DirectX 9 graphics card with its own 128 MB RAM, and 40 GB hard drive). We suggest running Vista on a premium-ready machine, as this OS is a resource hog!
What’s new: The most eye-catching aspect is Vista’ graphical interface, called ‘Aero’. The most demanding theme, Aero Glass, requires a moderately powerful configuration to run efficiently, and is stunning. Everything from the taskbar, the start panel to individual window borders is translucent. You can adjust the level of translucency from the control panel. Minimising or maximising a window doesn’t result in it just disappearing or reappearing on the screen. Instead, you’ll see cool visual effects as the window moves either to the taskbar or to the screen. Switching through windows has been stylised as well. Now if you press the keyboard shortcut Alt + Tab to move through different windows in the taskbar, you’ll see a thumbnail image of each—this makes selection a whole lot easier. But it gets better: press the Windows key in combination with Tab and you’ll see separate windows organise themselves in 3D, allowing you to scroll through each in a cyclic order!
Windows Explorer looks and behaves quite differently too. Vista also redefines the idea of the desktop. Conventionally, the desktop was a place where you could place either files or folders. But now there is a new sidebar where you can place cust o m i s e d D e s k t o p G a d g e t s — small applets designed for a specific function. For instance you can place a clock, a calculator, an RSS feed viewer and so on. Vista ships with 13 gadgets but connecting to Microsoft online will allow you to download more or customise your own.
Even searching for a file is easier. After you install Vista, the OS will spend a few minutes indexing the files on your hard drives. So the next time you search for a particular file, you’ll get an instant result. The search can be accessed either from the start panel or directly from Windows Explorer. Unfortunately, there’s a downside to this indexing service: sometimes the PC will run slower after you’ve added new files, as the system is busy indexing them.
The overall security and robustness of the OS has been increased. There’s an called the ‘User Account Control’. Any action requiring more than the default privileges explicitly asks the user, even if he is an administrator, for permissions. This, coupled with Windows Defender, an anti-spyware program, will ensure that the machine isn’t overrun with viruses and malware. Finally, you’ll find plenty of new and upgraded programs in Vista. There’s Windows Mail which replaces Outlook Express, Windows Calendar, Windows Photo Gallery, and Windows DVD Maker among others.
Click to expand...
 
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egghead

Right off the assembly line
Hello, nice to see my article being featured here. Constructive criticism is always welcome.

About the newbie article bit, do understand this is for the average indian audience and therefore has to be kept simple to grasp. Being an ex-CHIP employee I do have the capabilities required to write a technically sound review even for enthusiasts such as yourselves.

But had I to turn in such a copy to my newspaper editor, he'd have kicked me on the arse and told me to rewrite it such that my mother should be able to understand it. Hence my predicament :)

Later anyhow.

Nikhil Hemrajani
 
QwertyManiac

QwertyManiac

Commander in Chief
Sorry for telling that, but we'll be very glad if you cook us up a technical review here :)

ex-CHiP emp, what happened?

But yeah, newspaper's tech columns, even if they suck, are clear in what they imply.
 
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egghead

Right off the assembly line
^^what happened, in the sense? I moved on man! Magazines are far too restricting. I wanted to try my hand at mainstream daily journalism so I moved to TOI a year and a half ago.
 
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