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The new Aero graphics engine within Windows Vista is dynamic, so file icons not only show you the contents of the file but also scale to the size of the page. And now you can view thumbnails of any open task across the bottom of the screen. These, too, are dynamic; you could, for example, monitor the progress of a sporting event just by passing your mouse over the open application.
Until now, we've seen builds of Windows Ultimate, the full-blown version of the new operating system with all the bells and whistles turned on. Going forward, Microsoft will issue keys that are specific to each edition of Windows Vista. For example, most people will purchase the Windows Vista Home Premium edition, which includes Windows Gadgets, Windows Vista Media Center, and Windows Tablet PC, along with the ability to author and burn DVDs. Office users will get Windows Vista Business, which includes Windows Meeting Space, for setting up secure ad hoc wireless peer-to-peer collaborations, and the Windows Mobility Center, for controlling laptop functions and PowerPoint presentations on a display screen. At the low end is the Windows Vista Basic edition, which doesn't include the entertainment or mobile features, nor does it contain the Aero graphics system. Designed for older hardware, Windows Vista Basic includes the new file search capabilities and parental controls, with a lot of extra media functions.
All editions of Windows Vista will include Windows Sidebar, Windows Media Player 11, Windows Photo Gallery, Windows Movie Maker, Windows Firewall, Windows Defender antispyware, Parental Controls, Internet Explorer 7, Windows Mail, Windows Calendar, Games Explorer, and several other features. For a full list of the programs in a certain edition, see the Microsoft site.
With the release of Windows Vista RTM, Microsoft is not really finished; in fact, the company will continue to work on Windows Vista code up until the business release on November 30, 2006 and the retail release in January 2007. We identified a few glitches that struck us as significant and were apparent as recently as last month (in Windows Vista RC2). According to Chris Flores, Microsoft Group Product Manager for Windows Vista, the visual glitch on our laptop when the User Account Control notice appears is a known bug within the ATI device driver and should be fixed by January 2007. The battery drain issue we identified in Windows Vista beta 2 is a bit more complicated to resolve, but Flores says it should be improved by the general availability date in January 2007. Finally, we called out that the Program Compatibility Wizard was missing; it was not user accessible via search, nor was it apparent as an option from the Start menu. The Program Compatibility Wizard, which allowed you to tweak the operating system to behave like Windows 95 with only 128-bit graphics in order to run older applications, was totally buried under Start, Control Panel, Programs and Features. Now, in the final Windows Vista release the Program Accessibility Wizard is accessible only after an incompatible program crashes under Windows Vista.
Overall, we find this Windows Vista RTM build very stable and feature rich, and we look forward to reviewing the final release on January 30, 2007. Given the way the installation process checks for program updates, Microsoft has the opportunity to roll out the operating system with a few known bugs. So long as Microsoft is able to fix these bugs by its self-imposed general availability date, we think Vista could be a worthy upgrade for most PC users.
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