How Windows Vista Affects You

Everybody uses an operating system in a different way and approaches a new operating system with different expectations. Some of those expectations are nearly universal: We all want an OS that's fast, secure, and stable, and if it's pretty to look at as well, that's a bonus. Beyond all that, different types of users focus on different aspects of the system. The rest of this chapter looks at nine different user typesIT professionals, developers, power users, digital media users, business users, road warriors, small business owners, gamers, and parentsand discusses what in Vista should appeal to them (or repel them).

IT Professionals

The big news for IT pros is the new set of deployment tools and technologies that Microsoft has created for Windows Vista. In the past, deploying Windows to multiple desktops was a time-consuming and complex chore that require a hodgepodge of tools from not only Microsoft, but usually a few third-party vendors as well. I discuss Vista deployment in more detail in Chapter 2, "Moving to Windows Vista," but here's a summary of what's new that will make your life easier:

• Modularized Windows Vista begins with a core OS that contains 95% of the functionality, and all the other editions are created by adding the appropriate modules to that core. This includes not only OS features such as Media Player and games, but also language packs.

• Windows Imaging (WIM) This is a new file-based imaging file format that enables you to create images for deployment. WIM files can contain images for multiple SKUs, so you can deploy any edition of Vista, for any computer type, in any language, customized in any way you want, using just a single file.

• System Image Manager This new GUI and command-line tool enables you to create a custom Vista deployment.

• XML answer file The customizations and settings created by Setup Manager are stored in a single XML file, usually called unattend.xml.

• XImage This command-line tool enables you to capture volume to image files, mount image files to folders for offline editing of the image, and perform other image-based tasks.

Support professionals always want a more stable Windows to make their lives easier. Vista innovations such as I/O Cancellation, Service Recovery, and the Startup Repair Tool should help keep users up and running, and the extra security offered by User Account Control, Windows Defender, and Windows Service Hardening should keep users out of trouble. However, it's also good to know that diagnostic tools such as the Reliability Monitor, Disk Diagnostics, and Network Diagnostics should ease tech support when problems crop up.

However, if there's one technology that has the potential to turn IT engineers into corporate stars, it's probably Transactional NTFS and the previous versions of files that it creates. There probably isn't a support desk pro who hasn't been yelled at because an employee has lost all of his or her work due to a program crash. By restoring a recent version of that work with just a few mouse clicks, there will be kudos and glory for all.

Developers

The big news for independent software vendors (ISVs) and other Windows developers is WinFX, the new application programming interface (API) for Vista. WinFX is based on (actually, it's a superset of) the .NET Framework. That's where the name comes from: WinFX is the Windows .NET Framework Extension. Its .NET underpinnings tell you that WinFX is a managed API, which means that the runtime environment handles things such as allocating and reclaiming memory. (In the old Win32 API, programmers had to manage memory themselves.) This should mean that WinFX applications are a bit more stable than their Win32 counterparts because there's less chance of memory mismanagement or other programmer error. (Of course, the old Win32 API is still supported in Vista, meaning that most Windows applications built on the Win32 framework will still work in Vista.)

A major component of WinFX is the Windows Presentation Foundation, which developers should love because it replaces the myriad of APIsincluding but not limited to the Graphics Device Interface (GDI), Direct3D, OpenGL, DirectShow, USER32, and Windows Formswith a single API. With WPF, developers can do 2D, 3D, animation, imaging, video, audio, special effects, and text rendering using a single API that works consistently no matter what type of object the developer is working with.

Developers also get to play with a new markup language called XAMLeXtensible Application Markup Languagewhich acts as a kind of front end for building interfaces. XAML implements a simple markup language that enables developers and designers to work together to build user interfaces.

Microsoft has also put together a number of APIs that enable developers to hook into other new Vista features. Here's a list of just a few of these new features that come with APIs:

• Microsoft has published the API for viewing and manipulating XPS documents, so there's little doubt that third-party developers will come up with XPS viewers for the Mac, Linux, and other systems. Microsoft is also licensing XPS royalty-free, so developers can incorporate XPS viewing and publishing features into their products without cost. This means it should be easy to publish XPS documents from a variety of applications.

• Microsoft is giving PC manufacturers access to the Mobility Center, so we'll likely see the Mobility Center window customized with features that are specific to particular notebooks.

• Microsoft has created an API for SideShow, so third-party developers can create programs and gadgets that you can add to your SideShow menu.

• Microsoft is making I/O cancellation available to developers via an API, so programs, too, can cancel unresponsive requests and recover on their own.

• Microsoft is providing developers with an API for the RADAR tool, thus enabling vendors to build resource exhaustion detection into their applications. When such a program detects that it is using excessive resources, or if it detects that the system as a whole is low on virtual memory, the program can free resources to improve overall system stability.

• There is an API for the Windows System Assessment Tool (WinSAT), so third-party programsparticularly gamescan access the assessments and tune program features depending on the WinSAT metrics.

• Windows Vista supports DirectX 10, the latest version of the Windows graphics APIs, which have been completely rewritten to take full advantage of the powerful graphics hardware that's now available for PCs.

Power Users

Power users may at first be disappointed with Windows Vista because, as part of Microsoft's constant quest to make Windows easier for novices and casual users, the OS becomes increasingly encrusted with "user-friendly" features that might get in the way of the power user's goal of efficiency and speed. However, the Windows programmers and designers are mostly power users themselves, so in many cases they've slipped in alternative methods to work around the hand-holding.

For example, most power users will probably be driven to the point of insanity by User Account Control and its endless requests for your permission to do many things. I can attest that you do get used to it after a week or two. However, what's truly annoying about UAC is that it simply won't let you do some tasksit won't even ask for permission. A good example is editing a file in a protected folder. For instance, I often modify the lmhosts file to ensure proper networking, but UAP doesn't let me save my changes. However, I can get around this by right-clicking the Notepad icon and then clicking Run As Administrator.

Power users will get the most out of Vista to the extent that they discover and use such workarounds (which I talk about in more detail in my book Windows Vista Unleashed, also from Sams Publishing, 2006).

Digital Media Users

If you're a big digital media user, you should love Windows Vista because so many of its innovations and improvements were made with digital media in mind. Got a massive digital music collection? Then it will find a good home in Windows Media Player 11. The interface lets you view your music in many different ways (such as grouped or stacked), and the new search engine is lightning quick, even with the largest music collections.

Note

See Chapter 9, "Digital Media in Windows Vista," to learn more about what's new in Media Player, Media Center, and other media programs.

Microsoft has said that it will ship all the Vista SKUs to each OEM, which gives computer manufacturers complete freedom to put any version of Vista on any machine (as long as the hardware supports it). This should mean that Media Center PCs become more popular because it will no longer be perceived as some "other" version of the OS. That's good news for people looking to set up a PC as a home media hub. With its support for all types of media, as well as TV tuners, radio tuners, and media broadcast hardware, the Vista Media Center should take pride of place as the center of such as hub.

Business Users

Generalizing is always a risky proposition, but I think I'm going out on a pretty sturdy limb when I say that the majority of business users don't care about their computer's operating system. They're more focused on getting their job done as quickly and as efficiently as possible; it's the operating system's job to help when it can, and to get out of the way the rest of the time.

So, will Vista help business users get their jobs done? The new OS does come with quite a few efficiencies that should make many day-to-day chores faster. Features like as-you-type searching, faster and more powerful document searching, the streamlined Start menu, live thumbnails (particularly with Flip and taskbar thumbnails), the capability to group and stack documents, and Windows Sidebar are all productivity boosters. On the other hand, in some cases, Vista requires more involvement from the business user. The most obvious example here is document metadata, which is a great way to organize data but requires time to enter the data into each property.

How about getting out of the way of the business user? Most recent versions of Windows do a pretty good job of this, and Vista is no exception. When you're performing normal business chores, you'll probably rarely have to interact with Vista itself. The exception here will be when you try to do anything that runs afoul of the User Account Control policies, and that dialog box comes up yet again. Users will also be getting pestered by Windows Firewall (to block or allow some programs) and Windows Defender (to block or allow certain actions), so I can foresee a backlash against all these so-called "nag" dialog boxes. Also, most existing Windows applications should run well under Vista, but device driver support might be spotty for a while, and that could slow people down. In the end, however, business users want an operating system that works. Nothing sucks up time like an unstable OS that requires constant reboots, tweaking, and repairing. If Vista's promise of increased stability proves true, businesses should flock to the new OS in droves.

Unfortunately, however, the real problem for business users, particularly corporate desktops, will be having enough horsepowerespecially graphics powerto run Vista well and to take advantage of its new features. Business machines tend to have only the minimum amount of RAM necessary, and they almost always have a low-end graphics card. Without upgrades, this will mean that Vista runs quite slowly and that the nice Aero Glass interface and other effects will be disabled.

Road Warriors

The legion of mobile users who take their notebooks on the road will find a lot to like in Vista. The new Mobility Center makes it easy to quickly monitor and change important settings such as the screen brightness, speaker volume, and battery. Vista also comes with a new Mobile PC icon in the Control Panel that gives notebook users easy access to other settings related to notebooks, such as the display and audio devices.

Note

See Chapter 7, "Mobile Computing with Windows Vista," for more details on all the mobility features I discuss in this section.

Users who lug their notebooks with them to give presentations will make good use of the Vista Presentation Settings. This new feature enables you to specify several different notebook settings relating to giving a presentation, including turning off the screen saver, deactivating system alerts (such as incoming email messages), setting the speaker volume, and choosing a desktop background. When you're about to give a presentation, you can apply all of these settings with just a few clicks of the mouse.

In the long run, perhaps the most useful of Vista's new mobility features will be Windows SideShow, which enables a notebook manufacturer to add a small, secondary display to the outside of a notebook case, and enables Vista to display information on that secondary displaysuch as calendar data, email messages, and Media Player "now playing" data and playback controlseven if the computer is in sleep mode or turned off.

Small Business Owners

I mentioned earlier that Windows Vista is the closest that a Microsoft OS has come to being a complete system. If you're a small business owner on a budget, the addition of Windows Calendar, Windows Defender, and the bidirectional Windows Firewall should help your bottom line. Of course, you'll still likely need mainstream business tools such as a spreadsheet, database, and accounting package.

Most small businesses lack an IT department, so Vista's simple installation, easy network setups, new monitoring tools such as the Reliability Monitor, and myriad diagnostic tools should help most businesses reduce third-party IT costs.

Gamers

One of Microsoft's goals with Vista is to turn the PC into a viable gaming platform that can compete with or even exceed the capabilities of dedicated platforms such as the Xbox 360 and forthcoming PlayStation 3. To that end, Vista introduces a number of gaming features, including the Game Explorer and support for ESRB ratings that I mentioned earlier. Vista also supports a number of game-related metadataincluding the last date you played the game, the game version and release date, and the genre (such as Shooter or Strategy). Vista also comes with built-in support for peer-to-peer gaming, enabling you to play along with others on your network.

Note

To learn more about Game Explorer, ESRB ratings, and other Vista gaming innovations, see Chapter 10, "Windows Vista and Gaming."

Microsoft is also making it easier for game developers to write games for the PC by giving programmers access to WinSAT metrics, implementing the powerful DirectX 10 API, defining game-definition files that enable the game to appear in the Game Explorer, and putting developer-friendly touches into the Game Explorer: links to the developer's community and support web pages, automatic update of games, and more.

Parents

When it comes to kids and computers, most parent want to know two things about a new operating system:

• Can it help protect my kids from others?

• Can it help protect my kids from themselves?

Windows Defender, Internet Explorer Protected mode, and the bidirectional Windows Firewall all work to ensure that kids can't download and install viruses, spyware, Trojan horses, and other malware. Also, Vista's support for ESRB and other game-rating systems will help you make decisions about which games your kids can play. Note, too, that it's important to set up younger kids with their own standard user account to ensure the full effects of User Account Control.

With accounts set up for the kids, you can also take full advantage of the new set of Parental Controls in Vista. This will enable you to restrict website content and games, block specific programs, and set time limits on computer usage.