Chapter 1. An Overview of Windows Vista


IN THIS CHAPTER

  • The Development of Longhorn

  • New Interface Features

  • What's New Under the Hood

  • New and Improved Programs and Tools

  • How Windows Vista Affects You

It's hard to believe, but when Windows Vista ships in 2007, it will be a full quarter of a century after Microsoft released its first version of MS-DOS, and an astonishing 23 years since the company announced the original version of Windows (which eventually shippedto almost no acclaimin 1985). Windows 2.0, released in 1987, was marginally more promising, but it resolutely failed to light any fires on the PC landscape. It wasn't until Windows 3.0 was released in 1990 that Windows finally came into its own and its utter dominance of the desktop began. And with the release of Windows 95 on August 24, 1995, Windows became the rock star of the computing world, beloved by many, hated by some, but known to all.

It's also hard to believe that people were actually lining up outside computer stores on the night of August 23, 1995, to be among the first to purchase Windows 95 at midnight. Why on earth would anyone do that? Were they insane? Perhaps some were, but most were just caught up in the hype and hope generated, to be sure, by Microsoft's marketing muscle, but also by the simple fact that Windows 95 was light-years ahead of any previous version of the operating system.

By comparison, the Windows world since that hot summer night in 1995 has been decidedlysome would say depressinglyquiet. There have been plenty of new versionsWindows 98 and Windows Me on the consumer side, Windows NT 4 and Windows 2000 on the corporate side, and then Windows XP in all its flavorsbut there has been a distinct lack of buzz associated with each release. True, nothing will ever live up to the hype (and hokum) that surrounded Windows 95, but the versions since have had a ho-hum quality to them. Sure, Windows 98 (particularly the Second Edition release) was solid (and is still used by many people to this day), Windows 2000 was a favorite business OS for many years, and XP has been the best Windows yet, but nobody would line up at midnight to buy any of these products.

Will any of this change with the upcoming release of Windows Vista? True, nobody's all that excited about the name, but the name is meaningless in the long run. (In 2001, most folks thought XPbased, head-scratchingly, on the word eXPeriencewas the dumbest name ever, but everyone got used to it within a month or two and the "controversy," such as it was, faded quickly.) What might get people talking about Vista isn't the name, but the simple fact that we're finally seeing some interesting OS technology from Microsoft. Vista is beautiful to look at, promises to make our day-to-day lives a bit easier, and contains some compelling architectural improvements. I doubt people will be camping out to buy Vista in the days before it releases, but many months of delving into Vista's innards has convinced me that it has at least a few things to get excited about.

This chapter gets your Windows Vista introduction off the ground by giving you an overview of the operating system. I start with a brief history of Longhorn/Vista, and then I give you a quick tour of what's new and interesting. Along the way, I point out the relevant sections in the book where you can find more information about each new feature.




Microsoft Windows Vista Unveiled
Microsoft Windows Vista Unveiled
ISBN: 0672328933
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2007
Pages: 122

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