Anilrgowda

The official "feature guide" from Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...&DisplayLang=en


Here is a huge list of new features for Vista that I found somewhere, it had no author... so I have no idea, but it seems to be at most a month or two old. I recommend this be stickied and edited when we find out about these features more. This way we can keep people from going "wah wah I want more features, wah wah Vista just looks cool so I'll never upgrade wah wah wah."

Updates:
060628:
060628: Removed Avalon (don't know how I missed this one before)
060628: Renamed WinFX to .NET Framework 3.0
060628: Removed WinFS (wait... it wasn't here in the first place)
060310: Removed Monad
060310: Renamed "Faster Installation" to "Staged Installation"

Deployment/Servicing: Staged Installation
Deployment/Servicing: ClickOnce
Deployment/Servicing: Hot Patching
Deployment/Servicing: Error Data Transmission
Deployment/Servicing: Driver Protection
Deployment/Servicing: Language Independence
Filesystem: Transactional File Transfers
Filesystem: File Virtualization
Hardware: Built-in DVD Recording
Hardware: Auxiliary Devices
Hardware: Microphone Arrays
Hardware: Hybrid Hard-drive support
Hardware: Stealth Modding
Interface: Faster Search Engine
Interface: Start Menu Program Searching
Interface: Virtual Folders
Interface: Word Document Thumbnails
Interface: Excel Document Thumbnails
Interface: RAW Image Thumbnails
Interface: Device Manager Improvements
Interface: Theming Unlocked
Interface: Native RSS Support
Interface: Help and Support Headlines
Interface: Aero
- Aero Diamond (Media Center Edition)
- Aero Glass
- Aero Express
- Aero To-Go
- Aero Classic
Internet Explorer: Tabs
Internet Explorer: RSS
Internet Explorer: Search Bar
Kernel: Improved Hardware Scalability
Kernel: Application Resource Management
Kernel: Graphics Display Driver Model Improvements
Kernel: TCP/IP Offloading
Maintenance: Windows Assessment Tool
Media: Glitch-free Audio and Video Playback
Miscellaneous: Metro
Miscellaneous: Instant On
Miscellaneous: ICC v4 support
Networking: Indigo
Networking: Castle
Networking: Meeting Spaces
Programming: .NET Framework 3.0 (previously WinFX) (ties to Avalon, Indigo, WinFS when released, and XAML)
Programming: Extensible Imaging Codec
Registry: Transactional Registry Handling
Registry: Registry Virtualization
Security: full-volume encryption
Security: Full NX (No Execute) Support
Security: Least-privilege User Access
Security: Protected Administrator
Security: Parental Controls
Security: Proactive Firewall
Security: Secure Startup
Security: Optional Automation of Anti-Virus Subscription Renewals.



Deployment/Servicing: Staged Installation
Installations will take 15-20 minutes instead of an hour.

Deployment/Servicing: ClickOnce
Applications can be stored on central server and network users can launch the application on their own computers.

Filesystem: Transactional File Transfers
When updating, for just one example, the process can fail half-way and leave a half-upgraded system. Transactional file transfers means that if one change doesn't go through then all of the other changes are undone so you want have a half-upgraded system with stability issues.

Filesystem: File Virtualization
Longhorn can automatically create virtual copies of files and folders when programs need to use those files under limited accounts. This means that using limited user accounts will no longer cause applications to crash and burn and this will also mean it will protect from damages made by viruses and such.

Hardware: Built-in DVD Recording
The same the built-in CD recording in XP except with DVDs.

Hardware: Auxiliary Devices
Laptops will have small displays on their cases that give you access to emails, calendar, etc. and Longhorn will take advantage of these.

Hardware: Microphone Arrays
Several microphones can be used on a single system and the noise (read: a static-like sound) can effectively be filtered out of the recordings. The noise on one microphone may not be present on another so Longhorn will know what sounds the noise is causing and effectively remove them - giving you a very clear and well-recorded sounds.

Hardware: Touch-screen support (maybe?)
Already explained in the post above.

Hardware: Hybrid Hard-drive support
Hard-drives that utilize flash memory (hence, hybrids) will be used in Longhorn for caching purposes, "instant on" (hey! I forgot to list that feature!), etc. The flash memory reduces the amount of spinning the hard drive has to do and can deliver data faster so the computer will run faster, produce less heat, the hard drive will last longer, and laptop users will experience longer battery life.

Hardware: Stealth Modding
Currently, you have to start your system from scratch if you replace the motherboard or something in the computer. Stealth modding allows the user to just use different drivers when hardware is replaced so the upgrade process is much simpler. This effectively means that you CAN throw hardware at a problem.

Interface: Faster Search Engine
If you know what Apple's SpotLight is then you will know what this does.

Interface: Start Menu Program Searching
The search field in the Start menu can instantly filter the programs on the computer when you type. Thus, type "D" and it would only list programs that start with "D", type "De" and it will only show you results that start with those letters, etc.

Interface: Virtual Folders
You can create virtual folders that behave like file organizers. For example, you could create a virtual folder about "Longhorn" and it will pull ALL of the files related to Longhorn on your computer to that central location for you to easily browse by. Effectively removing the need to stay organized.

Interface: Word Document Thumbnails
Interface: Excel Document Thumbnails
Interface: RAW Image Thumbnails

These should be self-explanatory.

Interface: Theming Unlocked
Unlike Windows XP, the theming capabilities will not be limited to Microsoft-only themes so we will no longer need to patch our system to enjoy a wide variety of themes.

Interface: Native RSS Support
RSS feeds will be available to every application on the computer and they can all save the feeds to the same location. This means that subscribing to a feed in Internet Explorer will also result in the Opera browser seeing the same feed (of course, Opera would have to utilize the feature themselves for this to work, its just an example.)

Interface: Aero
- Aero Diamond (Media Center Edition)
- Aero Glass
- Aero Express
- Aero To-Go
- Aero Classic
Aero Diamond is the most beautiful Aero interface and will only be available to users of the Media Center Edition of Longhorn (perhaps it could be backported now that theming capabilities are unlocked?) Aero Glass is the interface most of us see in the Longhorn screenshots. Aero Express is similar to the Aero Glass theme except toned down a little for slower hardware. Aero To-Go is for laptops and other battery-powered devices and will have an XP-like interface. Aero Classic is the 2000-style theme.

Internet: Indigo
Programming framework for creating powerful Internet-based applications and web services.

Internet Explorer: Tabs
Self-explanatory. The only thing about this that might not be self-explanatory is the "empty tab" at the end of the tab toolbar that essentially removes the need to create a new tab, there will always be one available so you can just switch to it.

Internet Explorer: RSS
Self-explanatory.

Internet Explorer: Search Bar
Internet Explorer is following the searching trends that other browsers have created/followed by placing a search field to the right of the address field. I'm assuming it will use MSN search.

Kernel: Improved Hardware Scalability
Single-core processor with 512mb of RAM can easily be upgraded to a multi-core multi-processor rig with several gigabytes of RAM. Combine the better hardware scalability with the "Stealth Modding" capability, you will be able to throw hardware at problems.

Kernel: Application Resource Management
Applications can tell Longhorn how much CPU time, memory space, etc. they need to run glitch free. This will mainly benefit Audio and Video playback under heavy loads because they will remain glitch-free.

Kernel: Graphics Display Driver Model Improvements
Moves the screen-drawing work from the CPU to the graphics card so the screen will always be drawn like it should be (you'll never see things repaint themselves, windows will no longer turn into white boxes, you'll no longer see artifacts, etc.) and effectively reduces the amount of work the CPU has to do.

Kernel: TCP/IP Offloading
The buffering of TCP/IP packets and the handling of the TCP/IP protocol is moved from the CPU and main system memory to the network interface card. Currently it takes a 2ghz processor to fully utilize a gigabit ethernet connection and have the computer remain fast, this will no longer be a problem because you can simply upgrade your NIC instead of your processor AND NIC to utilize faster speeds.

Maintenance: Windows Assessment Tool
This will help you tweak your system to run to its full potential.

Miscellaneous: Metro
A technology that is meant to compete with Adobe PostScript (NOT PDF! I repeat, NOT PDF!). It is essentially an easier way for applications to communicate with printers. We will no longer need to write directly to the printer line-by-line (I know this sounds weird to those who haven't done much programming, just bare with me) or having to learn PostScript. Anyone who can create an HTML file will be able to create rich printable documents.

Programming: .NET Framework 3.0 (previously WinFX) (ties to Avalon, Indigo, WinFS when released, and XAML)

Programmers currently utilize 72,000 (not a typo!) APIs to create applications for Windows. A lot of the work in Longhorn so far has been to reduce the amount of APIs that programmers have to deal with, and the current number is around 500 APIs (I can't remember the exact number from the top of my head.) Avalon, Indigo, and WinFS are all a part of WinFX, XAML is a way to describe interfaces to program compilers so we no longer need to work with an API to create interfaces. This is one of my favorite changes in Longhorn, as someone who likes to write programs in their spare time I know this will allow me to get a lot more done! (thus, it will be cheaper for programmers to create software and they can updated much quicker.)

Registry: Transactional Registry Handling
This is the same as the transactional filesystem handling except for the registry.

Registry: Registry Virtualization
This is the same as the filesystem virtualization except for the registry.

Security: full-volume encryption
Instead of allowing the user to encrypt particular folders and worry about locking people out of their accounts and other various problems associated with NTFS encryption, Longhorn will ease this process by encrypting everything for the user so potentially locking people out of their accounts is no longer a problem and encryption is there by default.

Security: Full NX (No Execute) Support
Processors support the ability to tag data memory as non-executable if the memory does not include executable data. This reduces the possibilities of arbitrary code execution exploits from occuring.

Security: Least-privilege User Access
All programs will run with the least amount of privileges they require to work. This will reduce the amount of potential security problems because email programs, for example, will not be able to launch executables found in attachments (essentially keeping viruses in the e-mail attachment instead of spreading on the user's computer.)

Security: Protected Administrator
Remember how I said that all programs will run with the least amount of privileges they require to run? This is also true for administrator accounts! If a program needs the ability to write to sensitive files, folders, or registry sections then they will not succeed (due to file/registry virtualization they will work as intended until they are closed but no changes are saved.) The user will need to "bless" programs, like their anti-virus solution, to give them access to administrative privileges if they are to actually save changes to mission-critical data. This is quite possibly the biggest security enhancement in any version of Windows! It is also my favorite addition to Longhorn thus far.

Security: Secure Startup
This is a hardware-based security improvement that Longhorn takes advantage of. Essentially, it will know if the system has been tampered with while it was online. This means that someone can't just buy an old computer, put a new hard drive in, load an operating system on the old hard drive, and try to recover files that were placed on the old hard drive.

Security: Optional Automation of Anti-Virus Subscription Renewals.
Self-explanatory.



I realized just now that I forgot to mention another security feature called Proactive Firewall (I will update the first post with this entry and the "Instant On" entry.)

Security: Proactive Firewall
The firewall in Longhorn will communicate with Windows Update at a regular interval to learn of new internet-based attacks. If there is an attack like Sasser again, for example, it will know of this attack and automatically close the port the attack occurs on so the user is protected. Once a patch has been installed the port is returned to its original state.

Miscellaneous: Instant On
Due to the support of hybrid hard drives, Longhorn enables the computer to instantly come on by pulling data from the flash memory. Unlike coming out of standby, it will no longer need to pull the data from the spinning hard drive platters. This means that going into the standby-like state and coming out of it will be much quicker and easier on battery life.