Windows 7 has launched, and has been way too popular than what perhaps even Microsoft could have thought of. Its reviews are sky rocketing with praises on its new GUI, ability to be used with touch-screen devices and something which I love to say as “User Account Control 2.0”. Thanks to Microsoft’s latest attempt to build the perfect OS in form of Windows 7, people will soon forget the Vista menace which made us scorn and curse the poor Redmond folks as if they were sandbags.
But lets be practical here, look at a Windows Vista computer and then a Windows XP one and you will realize that maybe Windows Vista wasn’t so bad after all. Previously the Operating System was believed to be something on which beautiful applications with glossy interfaces ran. Windows Vista proved that an Operating System can also be “sexy” in itself and can give a competition to all those beautiful apps it ran on it. The operating system can also be interactive and user-friendly (although Vista never was so).
Since Windows Vista is going to be buried sooner than later in the graveyard of Microsoft’s Blunders, I think this is the perfect time to give it a befitting Eulogy and remember what revolutions it caused in the way users see the Operating System.
The Aero Interface:
The first thing we all loved about Windows Vista was its Aero Interface, that sexy looking GUI which made us look at it with awe the first time we saw it after installing Windows Vista in our PCs. Transparent windows sliding into place with animations, useful gadgets on the right side of the screen, and the colors, subtler than in previous versions of Windows. Overall, it was less cartoonish and more Mac-like than Windows XP. At the heart of the new interface is Windows Aero, which features windows with glassy,translucent edges, and whose colors, level of transparency, and saturation can be customized. The Alt-Tab switching between open windows has been drastically improved with Windows Flip and Windows Flip 3D. With Windows Flip (Alt-Tab), you see thumbnails of all your windows as you rotate through them. Windows Flip 3D stacks all of your windows in three dimensions; you can flip through them like cards. (To run it, click the Windows Flip 3D button in Quick Launch, or press the Windows Key-Tab combination.)
Two elements of the new user interface were particularly notable: the gadgets on the Sidebar, and Live Thumbnails. Hovering our mouse over a window on the Taskbar, and a thumbnail of that window pops up, including the program and document name or website just above it. These thumbnails are "live"; if there's video playing in the windows, we'll are able to see the video playing in the thumbnail.
Windows 7 did improvise on the Aero Interface but Ladies and Gentlemen lets not forget, it was Windows Vista who gave it to us.
Network and Sharing Center:
Networking was never made easier and simple to handle before Windows Vista. I still remember how confusing it was to create an Ad-hoc Network or setup an internet connection (PPPOE) in XP. Windows Vista is the first version of Windows built in a world where networking has become nearly ubiquitous, and it shows. Microsoft has finally gotten networking right; for the first time, the network seems a natural extension of the PC.
Network and Sharing Center is Windows Vista’s Networking Command Center, which easily configured a network and all its features, including sharing files and folders, connecting to and managing multiple networks, and accessing all of a network's resources. All vital networking tools and information are right at hand, from file sharing to changing a network name, connecting to a network, managing network connections, repairing broken connections, and more.
When we clicked "View Full Map," Vista shows a complete map of all of the PCs and devices on the network, including switches and gateways. Clicking a device or hovering over it showed more details like shared network files and folders, IP address and MAC address etc., depending on the device in question.
Wireless Networking Made Easy
Windows Vista made connecting and managing wireless networking easy for those who frequently accessed Wireless Networks for Internet and sharing purposes (count me in). Clicking the network icon in the System Tray and then clicking “Connect or Disconnect” gave a list of wireless networking which are available. Hovering mouse over any network shows the details about it, including the network type (802.11b, 802.11g, etc.), whether security is being used, and if so, what kind.
Also the features which make it worth mentioning here are that Windows Vista also made us easily manage multiple networks and connections. For example, if you use a wireless network at home, one at work, and several at hot spots, you can name and save each connection and tell Vista to automatically connect to each when you're in range. That way, you won't have to fumble with making manual connections. It also lets us configure our wireless connections so that if we're in range of more than one network, we can set which one takes precedence over the others. There's nice built-in security as well.
Windows Vista also introduced classifying networks as Private and Public (Home, Office or School, Public). It allowed sharing in Home Networks and not in other ones.
Enhanced Desktop Search
If you're like me, you'd too had a love/hate relationship with the new Search. On the one hand, it's exceedingly fast, made it a breeze to find any file, and let us save searches for future reference. On the other hand, we had to perform a few workarounds to get it to work right. Search is built into every level of Windows Vista; it's on the Start menu, it's on the upper right hand side of Windows Explorer, and it can be accessed via Start-->Search. It uses indexing to perform your searches, and because of that, it displays results lightning-fast. It searches the index as we typed, so results appear as we typed the first letter, and narrowed as you keep typing. It found documents, emails, applications, and even websites we'd visited. In addition, there was a very powerful advanced search tool that let us narrow our search by date, file size, author, tags, and location. It even accepted Boolean searching. It also searched other computers on the network, which had the rights to read from the other PCs.
Security
It's no secret that previous versions of Windows have been chock-full of security holes. Microsoft aimed to plug them in Windows Vista, and it did quite a nice job. The Windows firewall was improved; it now blocks dangerous outbound connections as well as inbound ones. (In Windows XP, it only blocked inbound connections.) This adds an extra level of security against Trojans and bots.
Vista also came with Windows Defender, anti-spyware software with some particularly notable features, especially the Software Explorer, which showed programs that run at startup and currently running programs, and provides details about each, including whether it's classified as malware, and also gave an option of removing them or disabling them if required.
Some of the biggest security improvements were under the hood. Network Access Protection, designed for enterprise-level networks, let network administrators set up requirements that any PC must meet before it can connect to the network, such as having up-to-date antivirus signatures.
BitLocker Drive Encryption, available only on the Enterprise and Ultimate versions, provided a hardware-based way of locking down an entire PC and all its data.
Internet security also was improved. Internet Explorer 7 included a very good antiphishing filter. In addition, any IE window, including pop ups, now included an Address Bar with a URL. In previous versions of the browser, pop ups didn't include URLs, so you couldn't know whether they originated from a legitimate site or a spyware purveyor.
The User Account Control
Don’t boo me yet. I admit that UAC 1.0 (that’s what I call Vista’s UAC) was, at the least to say, horrible, but it did pave the path for the new and improved UAC 2.0 which Windows 7 uses. Previously in the legacy versions of Windows, there was no control over what a program does when its launched, there was no way the user could know or control whether the setup he/she’s running is editing the registry, replacing a system file with an infected one or simply accessing the hard disk for information. With UAC 1.0, the User got the control of what a program can do. Whenever a program accessed the registry or ran in the memory, the user would be given a “UAC Prompt” asking whether it should be allowed to do so or not. If the user selected “Continue” it was given a go for the same, otherwise it was stopped.
Although its continual nagging during installation of any software, or during formatting a drive or deleting a file made most of us completely turn if off leaving the computer at risk, the whole idea of UAC is worth applauding, and the way UAC 2.0 is working (I have kept it ON even now), I think Windows Vista should get the credit for showing us UAC in the first place.
Other Interface Improvements
Dragging files and folders was improved in Windows Vista. When we selected multiple objects and dragged them around, a small box near the cursor appeared which displayed how many objects had been selected..
Voice recognition was also a new feature in Vista which although was in earlier stages of its evolution, still helped us in many ways to access the programs we required.
The Volume Control was improved too. “Sounds” crazy, but this is a feature everybody wished they had. Volume levels for various programs could be set independently now - without touching the default system volume.
Horizontal scrollbars are the bane of my existence. They’ve eliminated them partially from the Windows Explorer. When you navigate the Folders pane, it will auto-scroll for you - never displaying a horizontal scrollbar. Intuitive.
Parting Words
Dear Windows Vista, we will not miss you because of what you were, but we will definitely remember you for what you gave to us by coming into existence. The annoyance you gave us gave birth to Windows 7, which perhaps is the best OS ever made by Microsoft. Still then, you will always be remembered in History as a revolutionary Operating System, something which changed the way we saw and perceived it.
As we gradually bury you into the graveyard of Microsoft’s Blunders, we pray that through this article people at least recall your name when the roll call of Windows versions is made, and you don’t meet with the same fate as your ancestors, Windows NT and ME.
May your Kernel rest in peace. The OS world wouldn’t have been the same without you. Amen.
