33 Facts About Windows Vista

Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft.

New features of Windows Vista include an updated graphical user interface and visual style dubbed Aero, a new search component called Windows Search, redesigned networking, audio, print and display sub-systems, and new multimedia tools such as Windows DVD Maker.

Windows Vista aimed to increase the level of communication between machines on a home network, using peer-to-peer technology to simplify sharing files and media between computers and devices.

Criticism of Windows Vista includes its high system requirements, its more restrictive licensing terms, lack of compatibility, longer boot time, and excessive authorization prompts from User Account Control.

However, Windows Vista usage had surpassed Microsoft's pre-launch two-year-out expectations of achieving 200 million users, with an estimated 330 million Internet users in January 2009.

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Microsoft began work on Windows Vista, known at the time by its codename "Longhorn", in May 2001, five months before the release of Windows XP.

Srivastava employed a team of core architects to visually map out the entirety of the Windows operating system, and to proactively work towards a development process that would enforce high levels of code quality, reduce interdependencies between components, and in general, "not make things worse with Vista".

That's what Windows Vista is all about: "bringing clarity to your world", so you can focus on what matters to you".

Windows Vista was deemed feature-complete with the release of the "February CTP", released on February 22, 2006, and much of the remainder of the work between that build and the final release of the product focused on stability, performance, application and driver compatibility, and documentation.

On June 14, 2006, Windows developer Philip Su posted a blog entry which decried the development process of Windows Vista, stating that "The code is way too complicated, and that the pace of coding has been tremendously slowed down by overbearing process.

Windows Vista build 5824 was supposed to be the RTM release, but a bug, where the OOBE hangs at the start of the WinSAT Assessment (if upgraded from Windows XP), requiring the user to terminate the msoobe.

Development of Windows Vista came to an end when Microsoft announced that it had been finalized on November 8, 2006, and was concluded by co-president of Windows development, Jim Allchin.

Windows Vista was launched for general customer availability on January 30, 2007.

Windows Vista introduced several features and functionality not present in its predecessors.

Windows Vista includes technologies such as ReadyBoost and ReadyDrive, which employ fast flash memory to improve system performance by caching commonly used programs and data.

Microsoft's anti-spyware product, Windows Vista Defender, has been incorporated into Windows Vista, protecting against malware and other threats.

Whereas prior releases of Windows supported per-file encryption using Encrypting File System, the Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Vista include BitLocker Drive Encryption, which can protect entire volumes, notably the operating system volume.

In normal circumstances, the only time this partition is accessed is when the computer is booting, or when there is a Windows Vista update that changes files in this area, which is a legitimate reason to access this section of the drive.

The security restrictions of Windows Vista services are more fine-grained, so that services cannot interact with parts of the operating system they do not need to.

Windows Vista includes a large number of new application programming interfaces.

OEM and retail versions of Windows before Windows Vista were maintained separately on optical media—users with a manufacturer-supplied disc could not use a retail license during installation, and users with a retail disc could not use an OEM license during installation.

Some notable Windows XP features and components have been replaced or removed in Windows Vista, including several shell and Windows Explorer features, multimedia features, networking related functionality, Windows Messenger, NTBackup, the network Windows Messenger service, HyperTerminal, MSN Explorer, Active Desktop, and the replacement of NetMeeting with Windows Meeting Space.

Windows Vista Business is specifically designed for small and medium-sized enterprises, while Windows Vista Enterprise is only available to customers participating in Microsoft's Software Assurance program.

Windows Vista Ultimate contains the complete feature-set of both the Home and Business editions, as well as a set of Windows Ultimate Extras, and is aimed at enthusiasts.

Computers capable of running Windows Vista are classified as Vista Capable and Vista Premium Ready.

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Maximum number of physical processors in a PC that Windows Vista supports is: 2 for Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate, and 1 for Starter, Home Basic, and Home Premium.

Microsoft occasionally releases updates such as service packs for its Windows Vista operating systems to fix bugs, improve performance and add new features.

Windows Vista support ended on April 11, 2017, and no more updates were released for the OS apart from the rare out-of-band patches.

Windows Vista received mixed to negative reviews at the time of its release and throughout its lifespan, mainly for its much higher hardware requirements and perceived slowness compared to Windows XP.

In terms of the magnitude and extent of these changes, Windows Vista represents probably the biggest leap that the NT platform has ever seen.

Windows Vista received the "Best of CES" award at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2007.

At a May 2009 conference, a Microsoft Vice President said "Adoption and deployment of Windows Vista has been slightly ahead of where we had been with XP" for big businesses.

Originally, Windows Vista Ultimate was priced at $399, and Home Premium Windows Vista at $239.