Microsoft Windows Vista

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Windows Vista is the next version of Windows for clients and servers. With the client version expected in 2006 for businesses and 2007 for consumers and the server version in 2007, Vista adds numerous features, including improved security and advanced multimedia capabilities...! Vista also includes Trustworthy Computing (Palladium) and greater support for digital rights management. PCs running Vista require more memory than Windows XP. At least 1GB is recommended, with 2GB being a safer bet. Security and safety features of Windows Vista There are a number of security and safety settings of Windows Vista. Internally, Microsoft adopted a "Security Development Lifecycle" 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", 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. • 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. This is intended to help mitigate a class of exploits of the Windows message-passing system, known as Shatter attacks. • BitLocker Drive Encryption. Formerly known as "Secure Startup", this software utilizes a Trusted Platform Module 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. 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. • Windows Vista can use Smart Cards or Smart Card/Password combo for user authentication. • 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.