• Windows Aero: The new hardware-based graphical user interface is named

Windows Aero, which Jim Allchin stated is an acronym for Authentic,

Energetic, Reflective, and Open.[21] Microsoft intended the new interface to be
cleaner and more aesthetically pleasing than those of previous Windows
versions, including new transparencies, live thumbnails, live icons, and
animations, thus providing a new level of eye candy. Laptop users report,
however, that enabling Aero shortens battery life.[22][23]
• Windows Shell: The new Windows shell differs significantly from the shell in
Windows XP, offering a new range of organization, navigation, and search
capabilities. Windows Explorer's task pane has been removed, integrating the
relevant task options into the toolbar. A "Favorite links" pane has been
added, enabling one-click access to common directories. The address bar has
been replaced with a breadcrumb navigation system. The preview pane
allows users to see thumbnails of various files and view the contents of
documents. The details pane shows information such as file size and type,
and allows viewing and editing of embedded tags in supported file formats.
The Start menu has changed as well; it no longer uses ever-expanding boxes
when navigating through Programs. The word "Start" itself has been removed
in favor of a blue Windows Pearl.
• Instant Search (also known as search as you type) : Windows Vista features
a new way of searching called Instant Search, which is significantly faster and
more in-depth (content-based) than the search features found in any of the
previous versions of Windows.[24]
• Windows Sidebar: A transparent panel anchored to the side of the screen
where a user can place Desktop Gadgets, which are small applets designed
for a specialized purpose (such as displaying the weather or sports scores).
Gadgets can also be placed on other parts of the desktop.
• Windows Internet Explorer 7: New user interface, tabbed browsing, RSS, a
search box, improved printing,[25] Page Zoom, Quick Tabs (thumbnails of all
open tabs), Anti-Phishing filter, a number of new security protection features,
Internationalized Domain Name support (IDN), and improved web standards
support. IE7 in Windows Vista runs in isolation from other applications in the
operating system (protected mode); exploits and malicious software are
restricted from writing to any location beyond Temporary Internet Files
without explicit user consent.

Windows Media Player 11

• Windows Media Player 11, a major revamp of Microsoft's program for

playing and organizing music and video. New features in this version include
word wheeling (incremental search or "search as you type"), a new GUI for
the media library, photo display and organization, the ability to share music
libraries over a network with other Windows Vista machines, Xbox 360
integration, and support for other Media Center Extenders.
• Backup and Restore Center: Includes a backup and restore application
that gives users the ability to schedule periodic backups of files on their
computer, as well as recovery from previous backups. Backups are
incremental, storing only the changes each time, minimizing disk usage. It
also features Complete PC Backup (available only in the Ultimate, Business,
and Enterprise versions) which backs up an entire computer as an image onto
a hard disk or DVD. Complete PC Backup can automatically recreate a
machine setup onto new hardware or hard disk in case of any hardware
failures. Complete PC Restore can be initiated from within Windows Vista or
from the Windows Vista installation CD in the event the PC is so corrupt that
it cannot start up normally from the hard disk.
• Windows Mail: A replacement for Outlook Express that includes a new mail
store that improves stability,[26] and features integrated Instant Search. It has
the Phishing Filter like IE7 and Junk mail filtering that is enhanced through
regular updates via Windows Update.[27]
• Windows Calendar is a new calendar and task application.
• Windows Photo Gallery, a photo and movie library management
application. It can import from digital cameras, tag and rate individual items,
adjust colors and exposure, create and display slideshows (with pan and fade
effects) and burn slideshows to DVD.
• Windows DVD Maker, a companion program to Windows Movie Maker that
provides the ability to create video DVDs based on a user's content. Users
can design a DVD with title, menu, video, soundtrack, pan and zoom motion
effects on pictures or slides.
• Windows Media Center, which was previously exclusively bundled in a
separate version of Windows XP, known as Windows XP Media Center Edition,
has been incorporated into the Home Premium and Ultimate editions of
Windows Vista.
• Games and Games Explorer: Games included with Windows have been
modified to showcase Vista's graphics capabilities. New games are Chess
Titans, Mahjong Titans and Purble Place. A new Games Explorer special folder
contains shortcuts and information to all games on the user's computer.
• Windows Mobility Center is a control panel that centralizes the most
relevant information related to mobile computing (brightness, sound, battery
level / power scheme selection, wireless network, screen orientation,
presentation settings, etc.).
• Windows Meeting Space replaces NetMeeting. Users can share
applications (or their entire desktop) with other users on the local network, or
over the Internet using peer-to-peer technology (higher versions than Starter
and Home Basic can take advantage of hosting capabilities, Starter and
Home Basic editions are limited to "join" mode only)
• Shadow Copy automatically creates daily backup copies of files and folders.
Users can also create "shadow copies" by setting a System Protection Point
using the System Protection tab in the System control panel. The user can be
presented multiple versions of a file throughout a limited history and be
allowed to restore, delete, or copy those versions. This feature is available
 only in the Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista and
is inherited from Windows Server 2003.[28]
Windows Update: Software and security updates have been simplified,[29]
now operating solely via a control panel instead of as a web application.
Windows Mail's spam filter and Windows Defender's definitions are updated
automatically via Windows Update. Users who choose the recommended
setting for Automatic Updates will have the latest drivers installed and
available when they add a new device.
• Parental controls: Allows administrators to control which websites,
programs and games each Limited user can use and install. This feature is
not included in the Business or Enterprise editions of Vista.
• Windows SideShow: Enables the auxiliary displays on newer laptops or on
supported Windows Mobile devices. It is meant to be used to display device
gadgets while the computer is on or off.
• Speech recognition is integrated into Vista.[30] It features a redesigned user
interface and configurable command-and-control commands. Unlike the
Office 2003 version, which works only in Office and WordPad, Speech
Recognition in Windows Vista works for any accessible application. In
addition, it currently supports several languages: British and American
English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified) and
Japanese.
• New fonts, including several designed for screen reading, and improved
Chinese (Yahei, JhengHei), Japanese (Meiryo) and Korean (Malgun) fonts.
ClearType has also been enhanced and enabled by default.
• Improved audio controls allow the system-wide volume or volume of
individual audio devices and even individual applications to be controlled
separately. New audio functionalities such as Room Correction, Bass
Management, Speaker Fill and Headphone virtualization have also been
incorporated.
• Problem Reports and Solutions, a control panel which allows users to
view previously sent problems and any solutions or additional information
that is available.
• Windows System Assessment Tool is a tool used to benchmark system
performance. Software such as games can retrieve this rating and modify its
own behavior at runtime to improve performance. The benchmark tests CPU,
RAM, 2-D and 3-D graphics acceleration, graphics memory and hard disk
space.[31][32]
• Windows Ultimate Extras: The Ultimate edition of Windows Vista provides,
via Windows Update, access to some additional features. These are a
collection of additional MUI language packs, Texas Hold 'Em (a Poker game)
and Microsoft Tinker (a strategy game where the character is a robot),
BitLocker and EFS enhancements which allow users to back up their
encryption key online in a Digital Locker, and Windows Dreamscene, which
enables the use of videos in MPEG and WMV formats as the desktop
background. On April 21, 2008, Microsoft launched two more Ultimate Extras;
three new Windows sound schemes, and a content pack for Dreamscene.
 Various DreamScene Content Packs have been released since the final
version of DreamScene was released.
• Reliability and Performance Monitor includes various tools for tuning and
monitoring system performance and resources activities of CPU, disks,
network, memory and other resources. It shows the operations on files, the
opened connections, etc.
• Disk Management: The Logical Disk Manager in Windows Vista supports
shrinking and expanding volumes on-the-fly.

Features new to Windows Vista

•

[edit] Shell & User interface

[edit] Windows Aero
Windows Aero (pronounced /ˈer-(ˌ)ō/) is the graphical user interface and the
default theme
Intended to be a cleaner, more powerful, more efficient and more aesthetically
pleasing user interface than the previously used theme (Luna), it includes new
translucency, live thumbnails, live icons, animations and eye candy. Aero also
encompasses a set of user interface design guidelines for Microsoft Windows.
. Windows Aero also features a new default font (Segoe UI) with a slightly larger size, a
streaWindows Vista uses the Windows Aero graphical user interface.
Main article: Windows Aero
[edit] Windows Explorer
Main article: Windows Explorer
[edit] Layout and visualization
Windows Explorer's task pane has been removed, integrating the relevant task options into the
toolbar. A Favorites pane on the left contains commonly accessed folders and prepopulated
Search Folders. Seven different views are available to view files and folders, namely, List,
Details, Small icons, Medium icons, Large icons, Extra large icons or Tiles. File and folder
actions such as Cut, Copy, Paste, Undo, Redo, Delete, Rename and Properties are built into a
dropdown menu which appears when the Organize button is clicked. It is also possible to change
the layout of the Explorer window by using the Organize button. Users can select whether to
display Classic Menus, a Search Pane, a Preview Pane, a Reading Pane, and/or the Navigation
Pane. Document Properties are available from the common 'Open' and 'Save' dialog boxes, so it
is easier to add metadata (such as author or subject) to a document. The metadata can be viewed
and edited in the Details Pane that shows up at the bottom of an Explorer window. The
Navigation Pane contains a list of most common folders (the Favorites) for quick navigation. It
can also show the folder layout of the entire hard drive or a subset of it. It can contain both real
folders as well as virtual ones. By default it contains links to folders such as Documents and the
publicly shared folder, as well as virtual folders that search and present the saved virtual folders
and that lists the recently changed documents. The Preview Pane can be used to preview the
contents of a document, including viewing pictures in a size larger than the thumbnails shown in
the folder listing, and sampling contents of a media file, without opening any additional program.
Explorer can show a preview for any image format if the necessary codec authored using the
Windows Imaging Component is installed..[
[edit] Icons
Icons in Windows Vista are visually more realistic than illustrative. Icons are scalable in size up
to 256 × 256 pixels. Required icon sizes are 16 × 16, 32 × 32, and 256 × 256. Optional sizes are
24 × 24, 48 × 48, 64 × 64, 96 × 96, and 128 × 128. Document icons show the actual document
contents and several media types are distinguished by icon overlays (video, audio, photos). The
icons can be zoomed in and out using a gradual slider or by holding down the Ctrl key and using
the mouse scroll wheel.
[edit] Organizing & metadata
Combined with integrated desktop searching, Explorer allows users to find and organize their
files in new ways, such as "Stacks". The "Stacks" view groups files according to the criterion
specified by the user. Stacks can be clicked to filter the files shown in Windows Explorer.
Windows Explorer also sorts files on-the-fly automatically as they are renamed or pasted.
The Details pane also allows for the change of some textual metadata such as "Author" and
"Title" in files that support them within Windows Explorer. A new type of metadata called tags
allows users to add descriptive terms to documents for easier categorization and retrieval. Some
files support open metadata, allowing users to define new types of metadata for their files. Out of
the box, Windows Vista supports Microsoft Office documents and most audio files. Metadata
support for other file types can however be added by writing shell extensions. Unlike previous
versions of Windows, all metadata is stored inside the file, so that it will always travel with the
file. However, initially, users will be able to add metadata to only a few file types.[5]
[edit] File operations
When moving or copying files, Windows Explorer displays the full source and destination path,
size and number of items and the transfer speed in megabytes per second (MB/s). If a conflict or
error is encountered, it does not terminate the copy, move or delete operation. Rather, the file is
skipped and the rest of the files processed. At the end of the operation, the errors are presented to
the user with resolution options (if available). If two files have the same name, an option is
available to rename the file;.. Moved folders in Vista preserve creation and modification dates.
Access date gets the time of the operation.
When renaming a file, even when extensions are being displayed, Explorer highlights only the
filename without selecting the extension. Renaming multiple files is quicker as pressing Tab
automatically renames the existing file or folder and opens the file name text field for the next
file for renaming. Shift+Tab allow renaming in the same manner upwards.
[edit] Default Programs
[edit] Windows Flip and Flip 3D

Windows Flip 3D
For all Vista Premium Ready PCs, when using Alt+Tab to switch between open windows, a
preview of each open window appears instead of just the program icon. In addition, Windows
Flip 3D enables users to flip through a cascading stack of their open windows using the mouse
scroll wheel. Windows can be stacked and rotated in 3D to provide views of all of them
simultaneously. (The keyboard shortcuts are Win+Tab, which makes Flip 3D disappear after
releasing, Ctrl+Win+Tab, which keeps Flip 3D visible after releasing, and Shift+Win+Tab to
flip through open windows backward).[7] The window buttons on the taskbar show a thumbnail
image of the window, when the mouse hovers over the button.
[edit] Other shell improvements
• Detection of Blu-ray Disc, HD DVD, Super Video CD and Video CD were added to
AutoPlay.
• It is now possible to install and select non-English languages on a per-user basis which
transforms the entire shell user interface and applications into Arabic, Chinese, French,
German, Japanese or Spanish from the next login. This feature is only available in the
Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista.
• JPEG files can be natively set as the desktop wallpaper without using Active Desktop
(which is no longer supported).[8] Also, the aspect ratio of images is maintained properly
while applying them as the desktop wallpaper.
• A new feature known as Previous Versions can revert the contents of any file to an
arbitrary point in the past from the file's Properties. The Previous Versions feature
utilizes Shadow Copy, a storage backup technology introduced in Windows Server 2003.
• Dialog boxes also display their status on the taskbar. Previously, only windows showed
their status on the taskbar.
[edit] Windows Search
See also: Windows Search
Windows Vista features system-wide integrated search, called Instant Search (also known as
Windows Search).[9] Instant Search is designed to run significantly faster and offers more
customized search capabilities. Search boxes have been added throughout the Explorer user
interface, to the Start menu,

[edit] Windows Sidebar

Windows Gadgets
Main article: Windows Sidebar
Windows Sidebar is a new panel which can be placed on either the left or the right-hand side of
the screen where a user can place Desktop Gadgets, which are small applets designed for a
specialized purpose (such as displaying the weather or sports scores). The gadgets can also be
placed on other parts of the desktop, if desired, by dragging. By default, Windows Vista ships
with 11 gadgets: Calendar, Clock, Contacts, CPU Meter, Currency Conversion, Feed Headlines,
Notes, Picture Puzzle, Slide Show, Stocks, and Weather. Additional gadgets are published at
Microsoft's web site, which offers both Microsoft-created and user-submitted gadgets in a
gallery.
[edit]
• Backup and Restore Center also known as Windows Backup Status and
Configuration replaces NTBackup although Windows NT Backup Restore Utility is
available for download[12] Backup and Restore Center operates in two modes: (a)
Backup/Restore selected files[13] or (b) Complete PC Backup.[14] If using Complete PC
Backup, incremental snapshots are stored on external hard disk or optical media, and the
complete system can be restored to protect against hardware failure or severe software
damage. Automatic scheduling of file backups is not available in Vista Home Basic.
Complete PC Backup is not available in Vista Home Basic and Home Premium.
• Windows Mail replaces Outlook Express, the email client in previous Windows
versions. It incorporates a Phishing Filter like the one found in IE7 as well as Bayesian
junk mail filtering which is updated monthly via Windows Update. Also, e-mail
messages are now stored as individual files rather than in a binary database to reduce
frequent corruption and make messages searchable in real-time..
• Windows Contacts, a new unified contact and personal information management
application, replaces Windows Address Book (WAB). It is based on a new XML based
file format where each contact appears as an individual .contact file, and features
extensibility APIs for integration with other applications. It can store custom information
related to contacts, including display pictures. The legacy *.wab format and the open
standard *.vcf (vCard) and *.csv (Comma separated values) file formats are also
supported.
• Windows Calendar is the new calendar application that is included in Windows Vista. It
supports the popular iCalendar format as well as sharing, subscribing and publishing of
calendars on WebDAV-enabled web servers and network shares.
• Windows Fax and Scan is an integrated faxing and scanning application. With this users
can send and receive faxes, fax or email scanned documents and forward faxes as email
attachments from the computer. It replaces (or enhances) the 'Fax Services' component
which was available as an optional component in Windows XP. It is available by default
in the Ultimate edition and is also available in the Business and Enterprise editions. By
connecting a scanner and a fax-capable modem to the computer, users can preview
documents before scanning them and can choose to directly fax or email the scanned
documents. The user interface resembles that of 'Windows Mail' with preview pane, tree
views etc.
• Paint has new features such as a crop function and the undo limit has been raised from 3
to 10.
• WordPad now supports the Text Services Framework, using which Windows Speech
Recognition is implemented. Therefore, it is possible to dictate text in WordPad, and
similar other applications which support RichEdit.
• Sound Recorder has been rewritten and now supports recording clips of any length and
saving them as WMA. However, saving to WAV format is not supported except in the N
editions of Windows Vista.
 • Snipping Tool, is a screen-capture tool that allows for taking screen shots (called snips)
of windows, rectangular areas, or free-form areas. Snips can then be annotated, saved (as
an image file or HTML page), or e-mailed.
• The Magnifier accessibility tool uses WPF, which in turn uses vector images to render
the content. As a result, the rendered magnified image is sharp and not pixelated.[15].[17]

• Windows Photo Gallery, a photo and video library management application. It can
import from digital cameras, tag and rate individual pictures including custom metadata.
It also allows basic editing of images, such as adjusting color and exposure, resizing,
cropping, red-eye reduction and printing. Slideshows, with pan, fade and other effects,
can also be created, and burnt to DVD. It allows custom metadata to be added to images
and videos, and enables searching by the attributes. It also supports RAW images
natively and can open and organize any image format for which image codecs are
installed in the Windows Imaging Component. Images and videos may be viewed in the
Windows Photo Gallery Viewer with options to zoom, pan and losslessly rotate images,
pause or play videos, and bring up the Info pane to view and edit metadata about a photo
or video.
• Windows Movie Maker supports smooth Direct3D-based effects and transitions, editing
and outputting HD video, importing recorded DVR-MS format videos, as well as burning
the output movie on a CD. In Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate editions, it
can import HDV video from camcorders and output video to Windows DVD Maker for
creating DVD-Video discs. New effects and transitions have been added. All Windows
Vista Movie Maker versions require pixel shader hardware support.
• Windows DVD Maker, a DVD creation application. Applications can also pass an XML
file to DVD maker for authoring and burning.
• Games: Minesweeper, Solitaire, Hearts, FreeCell and Spider Solitaire have been updated
and rewritten to take advantage of Windows Vista's new graphics capabilities. Also
included are new games, namely, Purble Place, Chess Titans and Mahjong Titans.
InkBall, a game previously available only with Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, has been
included and can also be played using a mouse. Pinball has been dropped. As of
September 2008, users of the Ultimate edition of Windows Vista can also download
Texas Hold 'Em Poker and Microsoft Tinker as Ultimate Extras.
[edit] Windows Internet Explorer
On Windows Vista, Internet Explorer operates in a special "Protected Mode", which runs the
browser in a security sandbox that has no access to the rest of the operating system or file
system, except the Temporary Internet Files folder. This feature aims to mitigate problems
whereby newly-discovered flaws in the browser (or in ActiveX controls hosted inside it) allowed
hackers to subversively install software on the user's computer (typically spyware).[18] Internet
Explorer 7 additionally features an update to the WinInet API. The new version has better
support for IPv6, and handles hexadecimal literals in the IPv6 address. It also includes better
support for Gzip and deflate compression, so that communication with a web server can be
compressed and thus will require less data to be transferred.[20][21] Internet Explorer Protected
Mode support in WinInet is exclusive to Windows Vista and later Windows versions.
[edit] Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player features a revised interface. The Media Library is presented without the
category trees which were prominent in the earlier versions. Rather, on selecting the category in
the left pane, the contents appear on the right, in a graphical manner with thumbnails—a
departure from textual presentation of information. Missing album art can be added directly to
the placeholders in the Library itself (though the program re-renders all album art imported this
way into 1:1 pixel ratio, 200x200 resolution jpegs). Views for Music, Pictures, Video and
Recorded TV are separate and can be chosen individually from the navigation bar. Entries for
Pictures and Video show their thumbnails. Search has been upgraded to be much faster.
.
[edit] Windows Media Center
Media Center in Windows Vista, ,. Each button in the main menu, which contains sections such
as "Music", "Videos", and "TV", gets encased in a box when selected, and for each selection, a
submenu comes up, extending horizontally. When any of the options is selected, the entries for
each are presented in a grid-like structure, with each item being identified by album art, if its an
audio file, or a thumbnail image if it is a picture, a video or a TV recording, and other related
options, such as different views for the music collection if "Music" is selected, extend
horizontally along the top of the grid. Similarly, other items are identified by suggestive artwork.
The grid displaying the items is also extended horizontally, and the selected item is enlarged
compared to the rest. Other features of Windows Media Center include:
[edit] Security and safety
Some of the most significant and most discussed security features included with Windows Vista
include User Account Control, Kernel Patch Protection, BitLocker Drive Encryption, Mandatory
Integrity Control, Digital Rights Management, TCP/IP stack security improvements, Address
Space Layout Randomization and the EFS and cryptography improvements. Additionally,
Windows Vista includes a range of parental controls, which give owners of a computer a set of
tools to limit what other accounts on a computer can do, and an improved Windows Firewall
which supports both inbound and outbound packet filtering, IPv6 connection filtering and more
detailed configurable rules and policies.
[edit] Management and administration
Windows Vista contains a range of new technologies and features that are intended to help
network administrators and power users better manage their systems. Notable changes include a
complete replacement of the "Windows Setup" process based on Windows Preinstallation
Environment (WinPE), completely rewritten image-based deployment mechanisms, a
significantly improved Task Scheduler, a revamped eventing infrastructure, GUI recovery tools,
support for per-application Remote Desktop sessions, new diagnostic, health monitoring and
system administration tools, and a range of new Group Policy settings covering many of the new
features.
[edit] Graphics
[edit] Desktop Window Manager
The Desktop Window Manager is the new windowing system which handles the drawing of all
content to the screen. Instead of windows drawing directly to the video card's memory buffers,
contents are instead rendered to back-buffers (technically Direct3D surfaces), which are then
arranged in the appropriate Z-order, then displayed to the user. With the entire contents of
windows being stored in video memory, a user can move windows around the screen smoothly,
without having "tearing" artifacts be visible while the operating system asks applications to
redraw the newly visible parts of their windows. Other features new to Windows Vista such as
live thumbnail window previews and Flip 3D are implemented through the DWM.
Users need to have a DirectX 9 capable video card to be able to use the Desktop Window
Manager. Machines that can't use the DWM fall back to a "Basic" theme, and use screen drawing
methods similar to Windows XP.
The Desktop Window Manager (DWM) is included in all editions of Windows Vista except the
Starter edition.