Review: Windows Vista
A lot of people have been discussing that Vista doesn’t have anything new other than the look. Most people hate Vista because it’s been delayed so much and still lacks a lot of promised features. But I’m here to tell you why Vista is better than XP and what are the advantages of using Vista. This is in no way exhaustive, but you can get some insight in making a buying decision with Vista. Tomorrow Vista will be launched to businesses and hence this review. Its long but I wanted it to be as much complete on all info I know. Please read through and pass your comments. It’s a guide as well as a review so… mods decide the section!!
I have been looking at Longhorn (err... Vista) since the very early builds. Then sometime in Dec 2005 became part of the testing team for Windows Vista (they are said to have close to 20k guys!). I have to say the entire process has been a great learning experience. And finally at the end, Microsoft has rewarded all of us with 1 valid serial, which none of us ever expected. Such a nice gift for having fun using a new product and getting bragging rights about using something very few people had access to.
I have installed Vista on 3 different PCs (for 30 day trial) to try and see the performance. Compare for yourself and understand your requirement. All settings are default for Vista and XP Pro SP2.
Code:
PC 1 PC 2 PC 3
Processor Core 2 Duo E6300 Athlon 64 3000+ Athlon XP 2600+
Graphics Intel GMA 3000 Ati Xpress 200 ATI Radeon 9600 Pro
HDD 250 GB IDE 120 GB SATA 60 GB IDE
RAM 1GB DDR2 512 MB DDR 512 MB DDR
Normal Windows Runs Aero Glass Runs Aero Glass Runs Aero Glass
Operations like (8-10% faster (8-10% slower (4-5% slower
Restarting, than XP) than XP) than XP)
Sleep,
Hibernate,etc.You have to realize that the drivers are still not there, but there is still an improvement in performance. If you run it with all visual UI disabled and “adjust for best performance†under Advanced Settings, all the above machines are faster than XP in day-to-day stuff. Would love to make my claim using some benchmark apps, but without the drivers I know the benchmark apps would say XP is faster. But I programmatically (using Java, jre6) opened 50 apps and closed them, measured the time. Also tried threading ïƒ by creating random threads and killing them. Like mentioned above measured time for restarting, sleep, hibernate etc.
How Vista Boots: (bcdedit, memory diagnostic)
If you have a dual boot system, you’ll realize that vista’s bootloader seems a little different. No more boot.ini for storing boot configuration. Vista has something called bcdedit (Boot Configuration Data Editor). BCD brings a lot of advantages as well as modernization for the booting of OS. BCD helps move away from the BIOS-based booting to EFI-based booting. Although BIOS is still supported, it’s a step towards better looking and more secure booting mechanisms. A lot of customization can be done to the BCD using the available options. For more info read: Boot Configuration Data Editor Frequently Asked Questions . The boot loader screen also comes with the memory diagnostic tool to quick check if your RAM is working fine or has some errors. This simplifies identification of problems for people who see BSODs or automatic restarts due to memory problems. Although memtest86 or GoldMemory IMHO may be more complete memory error checkers, the Vista memory diagnostic is quite a useful feature. A little test on faulty RAM on my part has given me 100% results, although I just tested it with 3 faulty sticks I had.
The next part after the boot loader loads all the files is the boot screen. No more Microsoft branding or logo here. Just plain bars moving forward. This may look unfinished but Microsoft chooses performance over looks and I am proud they did that. Removing the logo helped Vista boot 5-6 seconds faster and that’s quite a lot considering the fact that Vista still takes 10-20 secs more than XP on my test machines. PC 1 takes about 45 sec to boot completely in Vista while it takes 30 sec in XP (tweaked).
Vista Kernel: (memory, heap, security, HAL, power mgmt, I/O…. many many more improvements)
Vista’s kernel is the biggest and possibly the most important change over XP. Although people just read “buzz words†in kernel changes, it is what determines the quality of any OS.
1.) Vista has greatly enhanced allocation of virtual memory and kernel page tables. This means more efficient paging and faster data sharing between OS internals.
2.) Vista also has support for multi-processing, multi-core as well as NUMA machines. All your dual/quad cores will surely work better in Vista.
3.) The heap manager from Vista detects allocation patterns when a program is running. Thus enhancing operations that are regularly performed.
4.) Security in heap is excellent now. Block metadata encoding can protect from memory exploits. Also features like integrity checks on block headers helps prevent malicious code that attempts to corrupt heaps.
5.) Registry has many enhancements. One big improvement is by virtualization of the registry. Thus, if any malicious program (virus, worm) writes a registry entry for one user it can be easily prevented to other user accounts. Registry corruption is reduced by making registry read-only as soon as an update is made.
6.) Kernel patching is prevented in x64 mode. Also known as PatchGaurd, which Symantec and McAfee have made a lot of noise about. It means that now only Microsoft HotFixes can patch the kernel and no one else (Some people have already found techniques to break it, but still something really secure from MS).
7.) DLL servicing is done regularly and thus prevents constant rebooting of OS after installation of some software or hardware.
If that’s not enough there are more than 25 more enhancements to the kernel. You can read more detailed info on kernel improvements in Vista at the following link: http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/c/5/9c5b2167-8017-4bae-9fde-d599bac8184a/kernel-en.doc
Vista Start Menu, SideBar & Search: (removing ‘my’, tree items, sidebar/widgets, integrated search)
Vista’s start menu looks a lot different from XP. But like I mentioned earlier, I’m not here to talk about GUI changes.
1.) The “My†word from XP has been removed. So “My Computerâ€, “My Documentsâ€â€¦ are simply called “Computerâ€, “Documents†etc.
2.) The “All Programs†from XP which worked like a menu is more like a tree now. (I personally like XPs start menu)
3.) The power button instead of asking “Standbyâ€, “Turn Off†& “Restart†simply puts the machine on sleep. It takes just 4sec to sleep and 5sec to wake up and use my PC. Now I just make my PC sleep when I sleep and rarely shutdown my PC anymore. So the XP boot-time advantage (above) doesn’t matter to me much.
4.) Sidebar is a widget app like many available for XP. IMO, it’s a resource hog and I would rather use Avedesk, Yahoo widgets. But looks good and seems to be a nice enhancement built-in.
5.) Windows Desktop Search (WDS) is completely integrated into Vista including the start menu. So if u installed say 100 programs and all those have start menu entries, you can type in the start-up search and instantly find your program. No need to install Google Desktop Search, Yahoo Desktop Search or any similar util. Windows Search does an excellent job, takes up very little resources and u don’t even remember it’s indexing all that you are doing.
Vista’s Windows Explorer : (favorite places, recently used, files dialogs and more)
1.) Windows Explorer in Vista surely increases productivity. May be a little tough for many people to get used to… but eventually will speed up a lot of stuff
2.) You can add your favorite places. Faster access to places you always go.
3.) Explorer now shows the recent places you went to. Instead of pressing back button 5 times, just click on 5th recent place and you are where you want to go.
4.) I miss the “File types†in Folder Options though. In vista you can set default open program for each file type, but you can’t very easily change right click entries to file types. E.g. I use windows photo preview to open a jpg by default, but when I right click on jpg file and click on “Edit†I want to open the jpg in Photoshop. Making file types do such a thing is a pain in Vista and you have to use 3rd-party app to do it….or go play with the registry.
Vista-only API: (DirectX 10, WDDM, WDDM 2.0)
1.) DirectX 10 is going to be available for Vista only and its supporting Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM). Expect amazing visual experience in games with DirectX 10. Look at crysis demo video is you haven’t.
2.) WDDM means stable graphics and also better scheduling of graphic operations.
3.) WDDM 2.0 will be coming in another 2 years, but will require another graphic card upgrade. It will really make graphics flow like fluid due to very good scheduling.
Windows Update: (Drivers, No more website)
1.) Until now drivers have been my biggest issue in Vista. I couldn’t make my sound driver Sigmatel 9227 work in Vista. But a Windows Update application helped get the drivers for me.
2.) Windows Update is now a program rather than a website like it used to be in XP. You can use the app to update other Microsoft programs like Office.
ReadyBoost, Application Compatibility and Antivirus/Firewall
1.) I can start Photoshop on PC 1 in 11sec. I do a few more things. Use a little of Illustrator or CorelDraw. Then I hear by HDD clugging with the sounds of paging. So I put my 1GB Transcend drive into USB. Make it work with ReadyBoost in the autorun that came up. Photoshop starts now in 9sec. Illustrator seems to work faster. Clugging sounds from hard disk happens after 25 sec delays. Corel Trace seems a little faster although it may be due to SuperFetch feature of Vista, but it’s noticeably faster now. All in all an amazing enhancement for a PC like mine which has 1GB RAM.
2.) Until recently a lot of apps had compatibility probs with Vista, but now all the apps I regularly use works fine. Nero has a version for Vista, Alcohol 120% also works. Most apps work out of the box. Also the app compatibility after right click ïƒ properties (winXP SP2 compat) works good.
3.) Vista comes with Windows Defender and also with Malicious Software Removal Tool and is updated regularly. Tried to install a few spyware programs. Windows Defender caught 6 and missed 4. IMHO a 60% ratio is not good. I uninstalled it after that and installed PC-Cillin Internet Security Beta for Vista. That caught all the 10 spywares. Also Kaspersky beta is working fine.
Much more to write about…..but I think it’s quite a review of what I did and you should do if you wanna start with Vista. Vista is a great OS. I’ve spent this night writing the review, hope you enjoy reading it!!
