Windows Vista Review
Before taking Windows Vista review you must know that
after the release of Disk Operating System by Microsoft,
the company released a version of Graphical User Interface
based operating environment and named it as Windows
Version 1.0. From there on, the company kept improving
the design of Windows. In 1995, Microsoft released Windows
95, which was said to be the first among Windows family
of operating systems. After releasing Windows 95, Microsoft
enhanced some of the features in Windows 95 and released
Windows 98 in 1998. Inspired by huge success with Windows
98, Microsoft went on developing Windows XP, with new
Graphical User Interface.
The invention of Internet led to the development of
server operating systems, which is also called as network
operating systems. The windows family of Network Operating
systems developed so far are Windows NT, Windows 2000
Server, and Windows 2003 Server. Windows Vista, previously
code named "LongHorn", is a next generation
operating system, scheduled to be released during November
2006.
According to the company, there was a plan to release
a new File System, called as WinFS. But, some how Microsoft
announced that they have dropped the plans, and said
that it will be a feature in service packs. The Setup
program of Windows Vista, detected only clean formatted
NTFS partitions, which means the existing file systems
FAT, FAT32 are no longer used for installing future
windows family of operating systems.
So far Microsoft released only Beta versions of Windows
Vista. Only clean install was available with Beta 1.
Beta 1 had the name of codenamed Longhorn. The user
interface has been given a facelift. The task bar, start
button and menus appears to be different. The color
of the task bar is changed to black. The semi transparency
effect has been applied to the task bar.
Experience 3D graphic effect with AERO
Windows vista includes a new feature called "Aero"
which enable one to view 3D windows. This feature is
enabled only in systems with graphic cards supporting
DirectX 9.0 and must have at least 128 MB graphics card
RAM. One can fine tune Aero by adjusting color, brightness,
intensity, etc. by using options such as color mixer,
available in Aero.
Amazing color schemes
Microsoft has supplied various color schemes such
as Frost, Smoke, Sea foam, and others, which can be
applied to change the look of the screen. Windows Vista
comes with Internet Explorer 7.0 the long awaited new
version of the web browser. This enables one to browse
the internet using tabbed browsing.
Tabbed browsing for group view
The Tabs are used in the same window. This was the
feature that was available in Mozilla fire fox. Tabbed
browsing enables one to view similar contents in the
same window, rather than in separate window, i.e. group
view can be possible. The window can be treated as group.
The security feature in this browser has been improved.
Improved sound quality
Windows Vista introduces Media Player version 11.
This brought some enhancements to Media Library. The
Sound qualities have been improved a lot. Windows Vista
comes with a side bar which can be optionally enabled
to be viewed at the startup. The side bar can be made
hidden when the mouse leaves side bar area, by selecting
auto hide feature.
One can use the side bar for slide showing of pictures.
Pictures and photos stored in a folder can be viewed
as a slide show, which is another feature in windows
vista. The term slide show is used in Microsoft Power
point. It is a feature in power point that enables one
to view the presentation on full screen, with animation
effects.
For Windows Vista, the minimum requirements are not
announced so far. It will be released before a week
or two before the final release. However, it is certainly
sure that, one needs to have high end systems for working
with all features available. |
