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Recently Microsoft has published a white paper, regarding five misunderstood features in Windows Vista and how these five features can benefit your laptop, desktop or organizations computers. 

1. User Account Control
2. Image management.
3. Display Driver Model
4. Search
5. 64 bit architecture

Adopting these feature is not straightforward as it’s seen, because these five features affect two key areas: application compatibility and hardware performance. This White paper explains all these five feature in a very effective manner.

User can download and view Five Misunderstood Features in Windows Vista here

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The Windows Deployment Services is the updated and redesigned version of Remote Installation Services (RIS). Windows Deployment Services enables you to deploy Windows operating systems, particularly Windows Vista. You can use it to set up new computers by using a network-based installation. This means that you do not have to be physically present at each computer and you do not have to install each operating system directly from a CD or DVD.

What’s new in Windows Deployment Services?
Windows Deployment Services includes changes to the RIS feature set, including the following:

• Ability to deploy Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.
• Windows PE is the boot operating system.
• Image-based installation, using Windows image (.wim) files.
• An extensible and higher-performing PXE server component.
• A new boot menu format for selecting boot operating systems.
• A new graphical user interface on the client computer that you use to select images.
• The Windows Deployment Services Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in and the WDSUTIL command-line tool, which enable you to configure and manage Windows Deployment Services.

Benefits of Windows Deployment Services
Windows Deployment Services provides organizations with the following benefits:

• Allows network-based installation of Windows operating systems, which reduces the complexity and cost when compared to manual installations.
• Deploys Windows images to computers without operating systems.
  Supports mixed environments that include Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Windows Server 2003.
• Built on standard Windows Vista setup technologies including Windows PE, .wim files, and image-based setup.

This Article is taken from http://msdn.microsoft.com

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Using a mobile computer inside corporate office is very much secure as compare to using it outside the corporate network. In corporate network your mobile computer id protected with corporate firewall, anti-virus, spyware’s, corporate access control and other security polices but what about using mobile PCs outside the boundaries of corporate office. Many organizations using laptops for flexible work hours. Regardless the flexibility introduced by laptops in working hours also introduces more security risks and more unknown challenges. Once an employee takes their laptop and leaves, they are on their own. The laptop becomes an island unto itself and must be able to defend itself against malware, unauthorized access, and other malicious activities.

Microsoft’s latest operating system windows vista provides more secure foundation for laptops as compare to earlier versions of windows operating system. Let’s take a look at some of the components that go into Windows Vista’s security, and why Windows Vista should be the operating system of choice when securing your mobile computer is a priority.

Address Space Layout Randomization: Address space layout randomization (ASLR) is a computer security technique which involves randomly arranging the positions of key data areas, usually including the base of the executable and position of libraries, heap, and stack, in a process’s address space. Prior to windows vista memory addresses were static and could be discovered. Static memory addresses can be easily discovered by an attacker who is developing a malware or trying to do malicious activities on memory.

Data Execution Prevention: Data Execution Prevention (DEP) is a security feature Included in Windows Vista , that prevents any application or service to execute code from a non-executable memory location. These types of attacks mainly targets computer programs that are poorly written. Prevention from Data Execution Prevention is first introduced in windows XP sp2.

Windows Vista Firewall: Firewall is a critical first line of defense to protect your computer against many types of malicious software. Vista firewall monitors and restricts both incoming and outgoing traffic. Vista firewall also provides internet protocol security settings and Firewall filtering settings integrated. Monitoring outgoing traffic gives a fair idea which computer programs are trying to access the internet and whether are these programs also trying to send some important data to remote systems.

Internet Explorer with protected mode: Internet explorer running in protected mode provides an extra level of security and data protection to windows vista users. Protected Mode protects the system by ensuring that any malware or exploits encountered via the Web are unable to affect the operating system or core functionality. In Protected Mode, Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista cannot modify user or system files and settings without user consent. Protected Mode requires the user to confirm any activity that tries to put something on your machine or start another program.

BitLocker Drive Encryption: BitLocker Drive Encryption is a data protection feature available in Windows Vista Enterprise and Ultimate for client computers and in Windows Server 2008. BitLocker enhances data protection drive encryption and the integrity checking of early boot components. Drive encryption protects data by preventing unauthorized users from breaking Windows file and system protection on lost, stolen or inappropriately decommissioned computers. This protection is achieved by encrypting the entire Windows volume; with BitLocker all user and system files are encrypted including the swap and hibernation files. Integrity checking the early boot components helps to ensure that data decryption is performed only if those components appear unmolested and that the encrypted drive is located in the original computer.

This post is created while reading some articles on Microsoft Windows Vista website, Microsoft Technet Windows Website and definitions are taken from Wikipedia.

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Windows vista has number of memory management improvements including extensive use of lock-free synchronization techniques, finer-grained locking, tighter data-structure packing, larger paging I/Os, support for modern GPU memory architectures, and more efficient use of the hardware Translation Lookaside Buffer. Windows Vista also offers dynamic address space allocation for different workloads. Windows Vista also has four performance enhancing features SuperFetch, ReadyBoost, ReadyBoot, and ReadyDrive. Instead of discussing all of them in one post I will discuss each feature in a separate post. In this post I am discussing SuperFetch.

SuperFetch
Previous version of windows uses Standby List Management for managing physical memory. Standby List management has two limitations

1. For prioritization of pages relies on the past activities of processes and there is no mechanism for anticipating the future requirement of memory pages.
2. Data used by windows for prioritizing pages is only depends on the pages owned by the processes.

These two shortcomings can result in “after lunch syndrome” when computer is ideal for some time then some memory intensive processes may start running. Memory intensive processes can be antivirus scan or disk defragmentation processes. These processes overwrite their data to active processes cached data and code. When you again start working on the computer system you get the sluggish performance.

SuperFetch is implemented in %SystemRoot%\System32\Sysmain.dll as a Windows service that runs inside a Service Host process (%SystemRoot%\System32\Svchost.exe). SuperFetch relies on support from the Memory Manager. So now operating system can get the page usage history as well as Memory Manager can preload data and code from files on disk or from a paging file into the Standby List and assign priorities to pages. The SuperFetch service essentially extends page-tracking to data and code that was once in memory, but that the Memory Manager has reused to make room for new data and code. It stores this information in scenario files with a .db extension in the %SystemRoot%\Prefetch directory alongside standard prefetch files used to optimize application launch. Using this deep knowledge of memory usage, SuperFetch can preload data and code when physical memory becomes available.

Whenever any process exists or releases the memory, SuperFetch asks the Memory Manager to fetch data and code that was recently evicted. This is done at a rate of a few pages per second with Very Low priority I/Os so that the preloading does not impact the user or other active applications. SuperFetch also includes specific scenario support for hibernation, standby, Fast User Switching (FUS), and application launch. When the system hibernates, for example, SuperFetch stores data and code in the hibernation file that it expects (based on previous hibernations) will be accessed during the subsequent resume. In contrast, when you resume Windows XP, previously cached data must be reread from the disk when it is referenced.

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Microsoft Windows XP is still preferred operating system, instead of the fact that it has a number of security loop holes. When Microsoft started building Vista, there primary goal is to make an operating that can address most of security issues that are addressed in Windows XP. Windows Vista comes with a number of security improvements. It’s important for end user to understand how to use these new security features.

• Network Access Protection (NAP): Network Access Protection (NAP) is one of the most desired and highly anticipated features of Windows Server 2008. NAP is a new platform and solution that controls access to network resources based on a client computer’s identity and compliance with corporate governance policy. NAP allows network administrators to define granular levels of network access based on who a client is, the groups to which the client belongs, and the degree to which that client is compliant with corporate governance policy. If a client is not compliant, NAP provides a mechanism to automatically bring the client back into compliance and then dynamically increase its level of network access. Network Access Protection is complicated to setup but I think it’s a good idea to setup Network Access Protection. Step by step guide: How to Set up Network Access Protection.

• Turn on Phishing Filter: Make sure that Phishing Filter is turned on for all your desktop computers. The Phishing Filter combines a local (client side) system scanning for suspicious website characteristics with an online service. Phishing Filter checks website characteristics to common Phishing websites, warn if it finds any fraudulent and legitimate website.
  The Phishing Filter is not enabled by default—you must actively enable the feature the first time you use the browser after installation. You can enable and disable the Phishing Filter with just a single click at any time using the browser menus.
• Use Network Profiles: Windows Vista does not treat all network connections equally as compare to previous version of Windows operating system. Vista’s Network and Sharing center designate a networks as public, private or a domain network. Vista treats domain networks automatically when computer is used to login into a domain. It’s very important to select proper network network profile because vista implements various security features based on network type.
• Use Vista 64-Bit Version: Windows Vista’s 64-Bit version is more secure as compare to 32-Bit version. Vista 64bit version offers Data Execution Prevention feature. DEP is a security feature that can help prevent damage to your computer from viruses and other security threats. DEP can help protect your computer by monitoring programs to make sure they use system memory safely. If a program tries running (also known as executing) code from memory in an incorrect way, DEP closes the program.

This Post is created reading  a number of Microsoft Technet Articles.

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Applying tweaks on your Vista operating system is good idea but it’s also a good idea to monitor the effects of tweaks that you have been applied on Vista. The Reliability Monitor provides a graph over time so you can see how each action might have affected the running of your PC. Launch it by click Start, typing performance information and pressing [Enter]. Select Advanced tools from the left-hand pane and click Open Reliability and Performance Monitor. Select Reliability Monitor and view the graph to see what’s been going on behind the scenes.

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Intel, the giant chip maker and longtime partner of Microsoft, has decided against upgrading the computers of its own 80,000 employees to Microsoft’s Vista operating system. According to insiders the company made its decision after a lengthy analysis by its internal technology staff of the costs and potential benefits of moving to Windows Vista, which has drawn fire from many customers as a buggy, bloated program that requires costly hardware upgrades to run smoothly.

“This isn’t a matter of ditching Microsoft, but Intel information technology staff just found no compelling case for adopting Vista,” the person said. An Intel spokesman said the company was testing and deploying Vista in certain departments, but not across the company. Intel’s decision is certain to sting Microsoft because the two companies have worked closely to align hardware and software from the earliest days of the personal computer. Indeed, the corporate duo is known as “Wintel” in the PC industry.

When a company as tech savvy as Intel, with full source code access and having written several large chunks of the OS, says no thank you, you know you have a problem. Well, everyone knows Microsoft has a problem, but it is nice to see it codified in such a black and white way though. Reassuring, like a warm cup of tea, or a public kick to the corporate crown jewels.

The Inquirer, a London-based technology website, was the first one to report Intel’s decision not to roll out Vista across the entire company. Intel is hardly alone in its reluctance to embrace Microsoft’s latest operating system, which was available to corporate customers in November 2006 and to consumers in January 2007. Large companies routinely hold off a year or so after a new version of Windows is introduced before adopting it, waiting for initial bugs to be eliminated and for applications to be written. “But by 18 months, you’d expect to see a significant uptake, and we haven’t seen that,” said David Smith, a Gartner analyst. “There’s not much excitement.”

His Gartner colleague, Michael Silver, said that about 30 percent of corporate customers skip any given new version of Windows. But the percentage will be higher for Vista, Mr. Silver predicted. Gartner’s corporate clients that plan to skip Vista, like Intel, do not see value of this upgrade, particularly since it requires new PC hardware at the time when the economy is weak and corporate budgets are tight. In the end, you have Intel flipping MS the bird, and telling them what they already know, Vista in undeployable by anyone with a grain of common sense.

There are more than 140 million copies of Vista installed on machines worldwide. Consumers and small businesses simply get the operating system that is on a new machine when they buy a PC, and that is Vista. Meanwhile, the Microsoft operating system engine chugs on, phasing out the old and proclaiming the new. The company reiterated this week that, despite some customer protests, it would halt shipments of the previous version of Windows, XP, to retail stores and stop most licensing of XP to PC makers next week. Microsoft also announced that the next version of its operating system, Windows 7, is scheduled to go on sale in January 2010.

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New figures from Net Applications shows that Microsoft’s Windows Vista shares in last one year leaped more then 355% and in the same year Apple’s operating system share gained more then 32% of operating system market share. Net Applications reports that the Mac had 7.94% market share in June, up from 6.03% a year ago. Going from a little more than 6% to just under 8% may be a big gain when measured as a percentage of growth. But when seen in absolute numbers, it’s not particularly impressive.

Vista, by way of contrast, showed far more explosive growth. In June, 2007, it had 4.54% market share. In June, 2008, it had reached 16.14%; more than a 355% gain. Those numbers are substantial not just in percentage terms, but in raw terms as well. Apple would sell the first-born children of most of its employees if it could ever get to a 16% market share.

For a chart of overall operating system trends, according to Net Applications, click here. For a chart that includes version numbers, click here.

Source: PCWorld.

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Is Windows7 will be a complete new operating system or just a modified version of Windows Vista? Microsoft has already confirmed that Windows7 is will be develop on top of the Windows Vista. Windows7 use the same architecture of Windows Vista. Microsoft is trying to build Windiws7 in such way that it won’t require any hardware to run and Windows7 is also enable applications and devices work properly with this new release of Windows that are working with previous version of Windows.

Microsoft is not creating any new Kernel for Windows7. The idea behind is that Microsoft has inverted a huge amount of money to develop a new Kernel architecture for Windows Vista. Windows has a very solid foundation as compare to previous versions of Windows operating system. Windows Vista Kernel has different subsystems like Graphics, Audio and Storage. Windows Server2008 and Windows Vista SP1 developed on top of same kernel and subsystem. As we can expect Microsoft will refine or modify some kernel modules for Windows7.

Windows7 may not have same compatibility issues that windows Vista has over the period of time.  Windows will be a transition operating system from Windows Vista. Microsoft is trying to develop Windows7 in such way that, transition process from Windows Vista to Windows7 is smooth and less painful for Windows users.

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Windows Vista SP1 RTM will stop working from today. Microsoft allow beta participants to free copy of beta software’s and all these free software’s are time bound means they expire after some time, so vista SP1 RTM makes no exception from other beat software’s. Users running Vista SP1 RTM copies will continue to boot but after one hour, Windows Vista kernel giving following error message:

END_OF_NT_EVALUATION_PERIOD.
Users permitted to reboot the system and uninstall Vista SP1 RTM

Windows Vista SP1 RTM can be uninstalled from Control Panel. Service pack installation can found in Windows updates. This will be applicable to only those users who have installed Vista SP1 RC on top of the RTM.

The next milestone in the product lifecycle of Windows Vista will come on April 13.

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