* Windows Aero desktop theme. This is not only a new window decoration, menu, and icon theme, but also a 3D graphical enhancement that offers translucency and fading effects for windows and dialogues.
* Improved data backup. Windows Vista comes with a framework for backing up important documents and data, or the entire operating environment, to removable media.
* Live search. If you lose track of your files, this will help you find them.
* Self-healing and shadow copy. Windows Vista can detect some kinds of errors and data corruptions and either correct them or roll back a file to a previously saved version. The same applies to accidentally saved files -- you can roll them back to a previous state.
* Windows Fax and Scan. Improved faxing and scanning tools.
* Windows Mail replaces Outlook Express. This modern email client replaces the notoriously insecure Outlook Express.
* Improved configuration tools. Every facet of the control panel has been enhanced. Configuration tools offer more options and make configuring things like the sound system and network connections much easier.
* Windows Defender security suite. This collection of anti-virus, firewall, and spyware removal tools supplants the need for several expensive third-party applications.
* Internet Explorer 7 replaces IE6. One of the worst Web browsers in modern history gets a major overhaul, including vastly improved JavaScript and W3C standards support, and dynamic security protection that helps stave off phishing schemes on the Web.
* Parental controls and enhanced user account control. You can now set better limits on Web and media content through Vista's parental controls framework. You can also create user accounts that don't have administrator permissions, which prevents the system from being changed in harmful ways. Windows XP and 2000 had this, but it never worked as intended.
* Windows Media Center added, Windows Media Player upgraded to version 11. There is an updated version of Windows Media Player for audio, but if you want your computer to function as a multimedia appliance (even or especially if only temporarily) or watch a DVD, you'd go through WMC.
* Windows Photo Gallery. This program copies photos from your camera, tags them according to your preference, and shows them to you in thumbnail or slideshow views.
* Windows Mobility Center and improved wireless networking tools. The Mobility Center makes it easier to manage laptop-oriented settings, like sound, wireless networking, power-saving functions, and screen brightness. Additionally, it's much easier to connect to wireless networks in Vista than it was in XP.
Now, some of you might ask me 'But Macs have had those things for a while now! Windows just ripped us off!'. Well, you're wrong. See, many features in Windows Vista have been around during the development of Longhorn (Which was canceled, due to an excess of features), and even more around since Windows 2000! Surely that will tell you a heap about just what Microsoft really has produced, and what Apple has blatantly ripped off and made it easier to use for people that aren't adept to the real world.
More coming later!
- Read more...
- 6 comments
- 262 views