Natural Language Processing. Techopedia Terms. Connect with us. Sign up. Term of the Day. Best of Techopedia weekly. News and Special Offers occasional. Windows Vista. Windows Vista was code-named "Longhorn" for much of the development process. The operating system was originally slated to ship in as an update to Windows XP, but Microsoft decided to make additional updates to the operating system and scheduled it for release in Several delays pushed back the release date to and eventually to the beginning of To ship the consumer version by early , the new file system called Windows Future Storage, or WinFS, was left out of the release and was later canceled.
Definitions by TechTerms. Tech Factor? First Name:. Last Name:. Thank You We just sent you an email to confirm your email address. If you have any questions, please contact us. Further reading Features new to Windows Vista Security and safety features new to Windows Vista Development of Windows Vista Criticism of Windows Vista Windows Vista is the name of the latest release of Microsoft Windows , a line of graphical operating systems used on personal computers, including home and business desktops, notebook computers, and media centers.
Prior to its announcement on July 22, , Vista was known by its codename Longhorn. On November 8, , Windows Vista development was completed and is now in the release to manufacturing stage; Microsoft has stated that the scheduled release dates are currently November 30, for volume license customers and worldwide availability on January 30, Windows Vista English Edition was released to MSDN subscribers on November 16, , These release dates come more than five years after the release of Windows XP , Microsoft's current consumer and business operating system, making it the longest time span between major releases of Windows.
According to Microsoft, Windows Vista contains hundreds of new features, some of the most significant of which include an updated graphical user interface and visual style dubbed Windows Aero, improved searching features, new multimedia creation tools such as Windows DVD Maker, and completely redesigned networking, audio, print, and display sub-systems. Vista also aims to increase the level of communication between machines on a home network using peer-to-peer technology, making it easier to share files and digital media between computers and devices.
For developers, Vista introduces version 3. NET Framework, which aims to make it significantly easier for developers to write high-quality applications than with the traditional Windows API. Microsoft's primary stated objective with Vista, however, has been to improve the state of security in the Windows operating system. One of the most common criticisms of Windows XP and its predecessors has been their commonly exploited security vulnerabilities and overall susceptibility to malware, viruses and buffer overflows.
In light of this, then Microsoft chairman Bill Gates announced in early a company-wide ' Trustworthy Computing initiative' which aims to incorporate security work into every aspect of software development at the company.
Microsoft claimed that it prioritized improving the security of Windows XP and Windows Server above finishing Windows Vista, significantly delaying its completion. During the course of its development, Vista has been the target of a number of negative assessments by various groups. Criticism of Windows Vista has included protracted development time, more restrictive licensing terms, the inclusion of a number of new Digital Rights Management technologies aimed at restricting the copying of protected digital media, and the usability of new features such as User Account Control.
Development Microsoft started work on their plans for "Longhorn" in May , prior to the release of Microsoft 's Windows XP operating system. It was originally expected to ship sometime late in as a minor step between Windows XP and "Blackcomb" now known as Windows "Vienna". Indeed, Longhorn, Vista's original codename, was an allusion to this plan.
Gradually, "Longhorn" assimilated many of the important new features and technologies slated for "Blackcomb", resulting in the release date being pushed back a few times. Many of Microsoft's developers were also re-tasked with improving the security of Windows XP. Faced with ongoing delays and concerns about feature creep, Microsoft announced on August 27, that it was making significant changes. Some previously announced features, such as WinFS and NGSCB, were dropped or postponed, and a new software development methodology called the "Security Development Lifecycle" was incorporated in an effort to address concerns with the security of the Windows codebase.
After "Longhorn" was named Windows Vista, an unprecedented beta-test program was started, which has involved hundreds of thousands of volunteers and companies. The first of these was distributed among Microsoft Professional Developers Conference attendees, and was subsequently released to Microsoft Beta testers and Microsoft Developer Network subscribers.
The builds that followed incorporated most of the planned features for the final product, as well as a number of changes to the user interface, based in large part on feedback from beta testers. Windows Vista was deemed feature-complete with the release of the "February CTP", released on February 22, , and much of the remainder of work between that build and the final release of the product focused on stability, performance, application and driver compatibility, and documentation.
Beta 2, released in late May, was the first build to be made available to the general public through Microsoft's Customer Preview Program. It was downloaded by more than five million people. Two release candidates followed this in September and October, both of which were made available to a large number of users.
While Microsoft had originally hoped to have the operating system available worldwide in time for the holiday season, it was announced in March that the release date would be pushed back to January , so as to give the company — and the hardware and software companies which Microsoft depends on for providing device drivers — additional time to prepare. Through much of , analysts and bloggers had speculated that Windows Vista would be delayed further, owing to anti-trust concerns raised by the European Commission and South Korea, and due to a perceived lack of progress with the beta releases.
However, with the November 8, announcement of the completion of Windows Vista, Microsoft's most lengthy operating system development project in the company's history has come to an end. New and improved features Windows Vista has a long list of new features, changes, and improvements. Recent development builds of Windows Vista, Microsoft employee blogs, and published documentation including a near-complete list of features in the Windows Vista Product Guide have collectively identified most of the features that Microsoft intends to include when the product is released.
End-user features Windows Aero: a new hardware-based graphical user interface, named Windows Aero — an acronym possibly a backronym for Authentic, Energetic, Reflective, and Open. The new interface is intended to be cleaner and more aesthetically pleasing than previous Windows, including new transparencies, animations and eye candy.
Windows Shell: The new Windows shell is significantly different from Windows XP, offering a new range of organization, navigation, and search capabilities. Windows Explorer's task pane has been removed, integrating the relevant task options into the toolbar. A "Favorite links" pane has been added, enabling one-click access to common directories.
The address bar has been replaced with a breadcrumb navigation system. The Start menu has changed as well; it no longer uses ever-expanding boxes when navigating through Programs. Even the word "Start" itself has been removed in favour of a blue Windows Orb.
Windows Search also known as Instant Search or search as you type : significantly faster and more thorough search capabilities. Search boxes have been added to the Start menu, Windows Explorer, and several of the applications included with Vista.
By default, Instant Search indexes only a small number of folders such as the start menu, the names of files opened, the Documents folder, and the user's e-mail. Windows Sidebar: A transparent panel anchored to the side of the screen where a user can place Desktop Gadgets, which are small applets designed for a specialized purpose such as displaying the weather or sports scores.
Gadgets can also be placed on other parts of the Desktop, if desired. Windows Internet Explorer 7 : new user interface, tabbed browsing, RSS , a search box, improved printing, Page Zoom, Quick Tabs thumbnails of all open tabs , a number of new security protection features, and improved web standards support. Windows Media Player 11 , a major revamp of Microsoft's program for playing and organizing music and video.
New features in this version include word wheeling or "search as you type" , a completely new and highly graphical interface for the media library, photo display and organization, and the ability to share music libraries over a network with other Vista machines, Xbox integration, and support for other Media Centre Extenders. Backup and Restore Centre: Includes a backup and restore application that gives users the ability to schedule periodic backups of files on their computer, as well as recovery from previous backups.
Backups are incremental, storing only the changes each time, minimizing the disk usage. CompletePC Backup can automatically recreate a machine setup onto new hardware or hard disk in case of any hardware failures.
Windows Mail: A replacement for Outlook Express that includes a completely replaced mail store that improves stability, and enables real-time search. New Junk mail filtering.
Windows Calendar is a new calendar and task application. Windows Photo Gallery , a photo and movie library management application. WPG can import from digital cameras, tag and rate individual items, adjust colors and exposure, create and display slideshows with pan and fade effects , and burn slideshows to DVD.
Windows Meeting Space is the replacement for NetMeeting. Users can share applications or their entire Desktop with other users on the local network, or over the Internet using peer-to-peer technology.
Games: Every game included with Windows has been rewritten to take advantage of Vista's new graphics capabilities. The Games section will also hold links and information to all games on the user's computer. One piece of information that will be shown is the game's ESRB rating. Previous Versions automatically creates backup copies of files and folders, with daily frequency. Users can also create "shadow copies" by setting a System Protection Point using the System Protection tab in the System control panel.
The user can be presented multiple versions of a file throughout a limited history and be allowed to restore, delete, or copy those versions. This feature is available only in the Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista and is inherited from Windows Server The Windows Mobility Centre is a new control panel that centralizes the most relevant information related to mobile computing e.
Windows Update: Software and security updates have been simplified, now operating solely via a control panel instead of as a web application. Mail's spam filter and Defender's definitions will also be automatically updated via Windows Update.
Parental controls: Allows administrators to control which websites, programs, and games each standard user can use and install. Windows SideShow: Enables the auxiliary displays on newer laptops or on supported Windows Mobile devices. It is meant to be used to display Device gadgets while the computer is on or off.
Speech recognition is fully integrated into Vista, which can be "trained" to understand a user's voice, to activate commands in any Windows application, and to enable voice dictation. It supports multiple languages. Many new fonts, including several designed especially for screen reading, and new high-quality Chinese Yahei, JhengHei , Japanese Meiryo and Korean Malgun fonts. See Windows Vista typefaces. ClearType has also been enhanced and enabled by default.
Touchscreen support will be included as part of Tablet PC, which will be incorporated as a standard component.
0コメント