Information about Windows Vista (The features)

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As many of you know, the up and coming OS Microsoft has been developing is soon to be released. Windows Vista will be for sale at many stores around the US and the world on January 29. Vista is a much welcomed and much improved version of Microsoft's long line of operating systems. First and foremost Vista incorporates a lot of security features into the OS. Some of which are discussed below. - Parental Controls- Windows Vista incorporates OS level parental controls making it much harder to bypass these controls. As quoted from Microsoft: "Windows Vista also makes it easy for parents to designate which games their children may play. Parents may choose to allow or restrict specific game titles, limit their children's play to games that are rated at or below a certain age level, or block any games with certain types of content they do not want their children to see or hear. Finally, Windows Vista provides parents with a detailed activity report that shows exactly what their children have been doing on the computer, including the games they have played, the websites they visited, and the applications they have used." Windows Vista also incorporates a time restriction console allowing you to restrict access for certain users during certain times of the day. -Desktop Search- Microsoft summarizes this feature very nicely: "With Windows Vista, you no longer have to remember where you store every file. Instead, to find a file, you need to only remember something about it, such as a word contained within a document, the artist of a song, or the date a picture was taken. Powerful, integrated desktop search capabilities help you find just about anything on your computer quickly, without having to search for it by browsing through folders. For example, in the new Start Menu, it is as simple as typing a word, a phrase, a property, or any part of a file name into the embedded Instant Search box to instantly find the file that you want. To make searching even more efficient, Windows Vista enables you to add or edit file properties or data associated with a file, like a keyword on a document, the artist of a song, or the event where a picture was taken, to make it easier for you to find in the future. For example, you could add a "graduation" keyword to photos taken at a graduation ceremony when you save them to your computer. Later, just search for "graduation" in the Instant Search box in the start menu or the Windows Photo Gallery, and all the graduation-related pictures will be displayed." Also within the Vista search features are search folders, also described here by Microsoft: "Windows Vista introduces Search Folders, a powerful new tool that makes it easy to find and organize your files—wherever they may be on your PC. A Search Folder is simply a search that you save. Opening a Search Folder instantly runs that saved search, displaying up-to-date results immediately. For example, you could design a search for all documents that are authored by "John" and that contain the word "project." This search, titled "Author John/Keyword Project" is saved as a Search Folder. When you open this Search Folder, the search runs, and you see the results immediately. As you add more files to your computer that have the author John and contain the word "project," those files will also appear in the Search Folder alongside the other matching files, regardless of where they are physically saved on your PC. It is simple and fast." -Windows sidebar- Windows Vista includes a handy area to store all of your frequently accessed, ever changing information, right on your desktop. The Windows sidebar is incorporates gadgets that are created by Microsoft and third parties to display everything from system performance, to time, to email, and headline news. -SideShow- Sideshow is a new feature in Windows Vista, and has yet to be incorporated into any manufacturer designs as of yet. Microsoft describes this technology: "Windows Vista SideShow technology enables laptop manufacturers to include a secondary or auxiliary display in future laptop designs. This display can be used to easily view the critical information you need, whether the laptop is on, off, or in sleep mode. The convenience provided by these auxiliary displays will save time and battery life by allowing you to quickly view meeting schedules, phone numbers, addresses, and recent e-mail messages without having to start up your laptop. The Windows Vista SideShow platform will also enable hardware manufacturers to build auxiliary displays in a wide range of peripheral devices such as keyboards, LCD display casings, remote controls, and cell phones. These devices can then display information received from a Windows Vista-based PC, providing even more convenience to your everyday computing." -Speech recognition- Windows has improved speech recognition to a great extent. However as proven in Microsoft's demonstration to a group of people a little while back, it is still an emerging technology. Vista Speech recognition is by far the most accurate and feature packed version of their Speech Recognition component. It features an intuitive interface and a new onscreen graph that you can use to select a particular item on the screen without using your mouse. As with previous versions of speech recognition, it adapts to your voice, so the more you talk to it, the more accurate it becomes. -Windows Vista Aero-Glass- Windows Vista incorporates a theme called Aero-Glass that allows for a much nicer UI. However, you must have a slightly higher end computer to use Aero-Glass. Here is Microsoft's description of Aer-Glass: "Windows Vista is the first Windows operating system that has a user experience that can gracefully scale to the hardware capabilities of the computer it is installed on. All computers that meet minimal hardware requirements will see the Windows Vista Basic user experience, which provides the benefits of the refined interface features already mentioned. Windows Vista Aero glass-like interface effects Windows Vista Aero provides spectacular visual effects such as glass-like interface elements that you can see through. Windows Aero is an environment with an additional level of visual sophistication, one that is even more responsive and manageable, providing a further level of clarity and confidence to Windows users." -Flip, and Flip-3D- "Windows Vista provides two entirely new features to manage windows: Windows Flip and Windows Flip 3D. Flip allows you to flip through open windows (by using Alt+Tab), providing a live thumbnail of each window, rather than just a generic icon and file name. Live thumbnails make it easier to quickly identify the window you want, particularly when multiple windows of the same kind are open. With Flip 3D, you can use the scroll wheel on your mouse to flip through open windows in a stack, and quickly locate and select the one you want to work with." This information has been compiled from multiple sources including but not limited to Microsoft Windows Vista website at www.windowsvista.com Please leave a message if you have any questions about this topic. I will be posting several other discussions on the security, networking, Internet Explorer 7, and performance of Windows Vista.