Microsoft Vista easy Tour guide for having in depth idea about whereabouts of the Operating System at large.

1. VISTA – KNOW MORE ! BY Biswadip Goswami

2. Walkthrough ! Introduction. Prologue for its development(Project Longhorn). New and Changed features. The Core (technical description). Security (The promise). Vista for Business. Vista for developer. Vanished features. Hardware Requirements. Resources (c) Biswadip Goswami, biswadip@cognobytes.com

3. SOME FACTS ! In 1983 Microsoft announced the development of Windows, a graphical user interface (GUI) for its own operating system (MS-DOS), which had shipped for IBM PC and compatible computers since 1981. (c) Biswadip Goswami, biswadip@cognobytes.com

4. Progress report ! MS-DOS based MS-DOS 1.x through 6.22 Windows 95 (MS-DOS 7.0) Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2.x and Windows 98 (MS-DOS 7.1) Windows Millennium Edition (MS-DOS 8.0) (c) Biswadip Goswami, biswadip@cognobytes.com

5. Contd… Windows (MS-DOS Based) Windows 1.0 Windows 2.0 Windows/286 and Windows/386 (Windows 2.1) Windows 3.0 Windows 3.1, Windows 3.1 for Workgroups, Windows 3.11, and Windows 3.11 for Workgroups (WfW) Windows 95 (Windows 4.0) Windows 98 (Windows 4.1) Windows Millennium Edition (Windows 4.9) (c) Biswadip Goswami, biswadip@cognobytes.com

6. Contd… Windows NT based Windows NT 3.1 Windows NT 3.5 Windows NT 3.51 Windows NT 4.0 including up to Service Pack 6a Windows 2000 (Windows NT 5.0) including up to Service Pack 4 Windows XP (Windows NT 5.1) including up to Service Pack 3 Windows Server 2003 (Windows NT 5.2) including up to Service Pack 2 Windows XP Professional x64 Edition (Windows NT 5.2) including up to Service Pack 2 Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs (Windows NT 5.1) including up to Service Pack 3 Windows Home Server (Windows NT 5.2) Windows Vista (Windows NT 6.0) including up to Service Pack 2 Windows Server 2008 (Windows NT 6.0) including up to Service Pack 2 Windows 7 (Windows NT 6.1) Windows Server 2008 R2 (Windows NT 6.1) (c) Biswadip Goswami, biswadip@cognobytes.com

7. Vista Editions ! Windows Vista ships in several editions: Starter (32 bits only) Home Basic Home Premium Business Enterprise (only available to large businesses and enterprises) Ultimate (combines both Home Premium and Business) (c) Biswadip Goswami, biswadip@cognobytes.com

8. VISTA (codename: longhorn) Release Date – 08/11/2006 Current Version – SP2-6002 License : MS EULA Based on Kernel –NT 6.0 Supported architecture – x86-32,x86-64 APIs – win32, .NET , POSIX FILES System - FAT16,FAT32,UDF,NTFSv3.1 (c) Biswadip Goswami, biswadip@cognobytes.com

9. Long Story Short ! Microsoft began work on Windows Vista, known at the time by its codename Longhorn, in May 2001. Microsoft announced on August 27, 2004 that it had revised its plans. Longhorn's development started anew, building on the Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 codebase. A new software development methodology called the Security Development Life cycle was incorporated in an effort to address concerns with the security of the Windows codebase. Windows Vista cost Microsoft 6 billion dollars to develop. (c) Biswadip Goswami, biswadip@cognobytes.com

10. New and Changed Features ! Sync Center: windows->all programs->accessories->sync center BitLocker Drive Encryption: BitLocker prevents a thief who boots another operating system or runs a software hacking tool from breaking Windows Vista file and system protections or performing offline viewing of the files stored on the protected drive. Ease of Access Center Built-in diagnostics: Disk Diagnostics, Memory Diagnostics, Network Diagnostics and troubleshooting, Resource Exhaustion Prevention FLIP and FLIP 3D Games Explorer (c) Biswadip Goswami, biswadip@cognobytes.com

11. Contd… Parental Control Media player 11 Internet Explorer 8.0 Media Center Meeting Space Windows Mail Windows Calender Publishing (c) Biswadip Goswami, biswadip@cognobytes.com

12. Enhancement for End Users ! Windows Aero: Authentic, Energetic, Reflective, and Open Windows Shell: The address bar has been replaced with a breadcrumb navigation system. Instant Search Windows Sidebar Backup and Restore Center Windows DVD Maker (c) Biswadip Goswami, biswadip@cognobytes.com

13. Contd… Windows Mobility Center Shadow copy Windows Photo Gallery Windows Update Parental Control Windows Sideshow Windows System Assessment Tools Ultimate Extra (c) Biswadip Goswami, biswadip@cognobytes.com

14. Core Vista includes technologies such as Ready Boost and Ready Drive which employ fast flash memory (located on USB drives and hybrid hard disk drives) to improve system performance by caching commonly used programs and data. As part of the redesign of the networking architecture, IPv6 has been fully incorporated into the operating system and a number of performance improvements have been introduced, such as TCP window scaling. (c) Biswadip Goswami, biswadip@cognobytes.com

15. For graphics, Vista introduces a new Windows Display Driver Model and a major revision to Direct3D. The new driver model facilitates the new Desktop Window Manager, which provides the tearing-free desktop and special effects that are the cornerstones of Windows Aero. (c) Biswadip Goswami, biswadip@cognobytes.com

16. The Heap Manager implements additional features such as integrity checking in order to improve robustness and defend against buffer overflow security exploits, although this comes at the price of breaking backward compatibility with some legacy applications. A Kernel Transaction Manager has been implemented that enables applications to work with the file system and Registry using atomic transaction operations. (c) Biswadip Goswami, biswadip@cognobytes.com

17. Security Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing initiative, which aims to improve public trust in its products, has had a direct effect on its development. User Account Control, or UAC is perhaps the most significant and visible of these changes. UAC is a security technology that makes it possible for users to use their computer with fewer privileges by default, with a view to stopping malware from making unauthorized changes to the system. (c) Biswadip Goswami, biswadip@cognobytes.com

18. Contd… Testing by Symantec Corporation has proved the effectiveness of UAC. Symantec used over 2,000 active malware samples, consisting of backdoors, keyloggers , rootkits, mass mailers, trojan horses, spyware, adware, and various other samples. Phishing filter, IDN with anti-spoofing capabilities, and integration with system-wide parental controls. (c) Biswadip Goswami, biswadip@cognobytes.com

19. Contd… Microsoft's anti-spyware product, Windows Defender, has been incorporated into Windows, providing protection against malware and other threats. BitLocker requires approximately a 1.5-gigabyte partition to be permanently unencrypted and to contain system files in order for Windows to boot. (c) Biswadip Goswami, biswadip@cognobytes.com

20. BitLocker can work in conjunction with a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) cryptoprocessor (version 1.2) embedded in a computer's motherboard, or with a USB key. (c) Biswadip Goswami, biswadip@cognobytes.com

21. VISTA for Business ! The Windows Imaging Format (WIM) is the cornerstone of Microsoft's new deployment and packaging system. Windows Deployment Services replaces Remote Installation Services for deploying Vista and prior versions of Windows. New Group Policy settings have been added. Vista also introduced an XML based format (ADMX) to display registry-based policy settings, making it easier to manage networks that span geographic locations and different languages. (c) Biswadip Goswami, biswadip@cognobytes.com

22. Services for UNIX has been renamed "Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications," and is included with the Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Vista. Multilingual User Interface Wireless Projector support (c) Biswadip Goswami, biswadip@cognobytes.com

23. For Developers Windows Presentation Foundation Windows Communication Foundation Windows Workflow Foundation Windows CardSpace (c) Biswadip Goswami, biswadip@cognobytes.com

24. Removed features Including Windows Messenger, NTBackup, the network Messenger Service, HyperTerminal, MSN Explorer, Active Desktop, and the replacement of NetMeeting with Windows Meeting Space. The "Hardware profiles" start up feature has also been removed, along with support for older motherboard technologies like the EISA bus, APM and Game port support (c) Biswadip Goswami, biswadip@cognobytes.com

25. Hardware Required Windows Vista system requirements, Vista Capable Vista Premium ReadyProcessor800 MHz/ 1 GHz Memory512 MB/1 GB Graphics cardDirectX 9.0 capable/DirectX 9.0 capable and WDDM 1.0 driver support Graphics memory32 MB/128 MB HDD capacity20 GB/40 GB HDD free space15 GB Other drivesDVD-ROM (c) Biswadip Goswami, biswadip@cognobytes.com

26. Resources http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/default.aspx http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Windows_Vista_and_Windows_XP (c) Biswadip Goswami, biswadip@cognobytes.com

27. Thank You ! For any assistance with your computing requirements contact: Biswadip Goswami Primary e-mail: biswadip_g@hotmail.com Alt e-mail: biswadip@cognobytes.com Webpage: http://people.cognobytes.com/biswadip (c) Biswadip Goswami, biswadip@cognobytes.com