Five Misunderstood Features in Windows Vista

Look at five features of Windows Vista that are often misunderstood, learn about their background and rationale, and get the straight scoop on how to deal with them.

Overview
Based on feedback from IT Pros in the trenches, here are the features that can cause confusion and slow Windows Vista adoption:

• User Account Control
• Image management
• Display Driver Model
• Search
• 64 bit architecture

Each of feature has specific benefits for desktop (and laptop) management, but they also make adoption a bit tougher since they affect two key areas: application compatibility and hardware performance. This article explains the rationale behind these features, shows how they actually make PC administration more controllable and robust, and provides guidance and tips to make them easier to work with.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

Dmex. Firstly, this is my first post on the forum. Hoorah.


The link to the article is interesting reading. Over a week ago, I bought a laptop,with Vista Home Premium-32bit,pre-installed. I have used Vista previously however, so it is not new to me, but I did resist until now, as my desktop has XP on it, and until funds allowed, a good laptop was out of the question. One of the main concerns I hear about with Vista (and MS in general) is security, and power consumption. However, with a little reading, and tweaking, you can make your experience fairly comfortable, so long as you create a restore point first, and as always, backup any important data.

I have heard it said that Vista is this or that ,and certain orgs refuse to upgrade until Windows 7 arrives. I have also used, dare I say it (here), various linux distros, but always preferred XP. Vista was something I always wanted to try at home, and now I can. Sure, Aero is nice, Sidebar I can live without, but leave it on, and 3D Flip is a novelty. Overall however, it's what's "under the hood" that counts, and so far, I'm happy.

Hi Nez & Welcome!

I haven't read the whole article yet, Its on my todo list

Steven

Thanks for the link.

Very informative reading.

Well, I don't like UAC. Look what they did on Mars, letting the devil out and everyth... ah. Wrong UAC. Apologies.

Thanks, Carl, I needed a good laugh.

Hey, no problem! Although I do have UAC turned off, I am the only user of my computer, and every session that I sat down to I was getting UAC prompts. Microsoft said in an earlier article I read somewhere that the average user wouldn't be bothered by UAC prompts that often. Guess I mustn't be "average" then!

It would depend on what you have installed - for example, some security minded software need elevated privileges to work correctly. Secunia PSI is a notorious one - and they haven't figured out how to make it run in the system tray without asking for elevated privileges, but if you let it load with windows then Defender blocks it from starting up because it requires elevated privileges whenever it runs. That is *Secunia's* fault, not Vistas. They have had 3+ years to develop apps which are UAC compatible - and haven't. Furthermore, being from Secunia, you'd think they'd already know better, as the ability to have system wide privilege levels in XP is what made it so easy to exploit - and Secunia is an exploitation research firm....

If this method of doing things were troublesome, or flawed, then business would not have been doing the same thing since NT 3 - running users with limited privileges. UNIX would not have done it. Linux would not be doing it. Netware would not have done it.

UAC is good - deal with the prompts, or else replace your software, or else be prepared to have a *lot* more of your system resources eaten up as you struggle to keep your system intact using HIPS, additional FWs, anti-malware (which I include anti-rootkit, antivirus, anti-spyware, etc in) and more.

Mind you, this is not meant to be derogatory or aimed specifically at *you* Carl, but is a wake up note to every one in the world.

IE 6 had the ability to automatically allow ActiveX installations without the prompt - same for cookie storage, file downloading, etc.

All of a sudden, there was a rash of drive by infections, hijacked web pages serving malware and trojans and such automatically to victims' computers without them knowing about it, etc. Even back then I always ran my IE so that it alerted me to every action it was going to take - after all, *I* am the human being using the computer - the computer isn't *smarter* than me - it may be faster at performing calculations, but unless I program it to calculate 2 dimensional matrices, it cannot do that - and it cannot learn how to on its own. I can - and have - and thus, *I* control the computer. I don't let it take many things for granted - I allow what gets started up automatically, I decided which cookies I keep, I decide which sites are allowed to use JavaScript when displaying content.

It's called responsible computing. Just as with your car, you are responsible for its maintenance, with your computer you are responsible just the same.

Hmm, interesting reading johngalt.

The link to the article is interesting reading. Over a week ago, I bought a laptop,with Vista Home Premium-32bit,pre-installed. I have used Vista previously however, so it is not new to me, but I did resist until now, as my desktop has XP on it, and until funds allowed, a good laptop was out of the question. One of the main concerns I hear about with Vista (and MS in general) is security, and power consumption. However, with a little reading, and tweaking, you can make your experience fairly comfortable, so long as you create a restore point first, and as always, backup any important data.