Introduction to Windows Vista

Windows Vista (formerly codenamed Longhorn) has many new features compared with
previous Microsoft Windows versions, covering most aspects of the operating system.

This project discusses the changes most likely to be of interest to non-technical users. The
companion article, Technical features new to Windows Vista, discusses the technical
advancements in Windows Vista, while the article Security and safety features new to Windows
Vista discusses the security advancements. The article Management features new to Windows
Vista discusses the management and administrative improvements, which may be of interest to
IT professionals.

USES NEW FEATURES AND

Contents

 1 Shell & User interface

o 1.1 Windows Aero
o 1.2 Windows Explorer
 1.2.1 Layout and visualization
 1.2.2 Icons
 1.2.3 Organizing & metadata
 1.2.4 File operations
o 1.3 Default Programs
o 1.4 Windows Flip and Flip 3D
o 1.5 Other shell improvements
o 1.6 Windows Search
o 1.7 Windows Sidebar
 2 New and upgraded applications
o 2.1 Windows Internet Explorer 7
o 2.2 Windows Media Player 11
o 2.3 Windows Media Center
o 2.4 Internet Information Services 7
 3 Security and safety
 4 Management and administration
 5 Graphics
o 5.1 Desktop Window Manager
o 5.2 DirectX
o 5.3 Imaging
o 5.4 Color management
 6 Mobile computing
o 6.1 Power management
 6.1.1 Sleep state
 6.1.2 Fine-grained power configuration
o 6.2 Other mobility enhancements
 7 New fonts
 8 Language support
11 External links

Shell & User interface

Windows Aero

Windows Vista uses the Windows Aero graphical user interface.

Premium editions of Windows Vista include a redesigned user interface and visual style, named
Windows Aero (Authentic, Energetic, Reflective and Open).[1] Aero is intended to be cleaner and
more aesthetically pleasing than previous Windows versions, including glass-like transparencies
and window animations. Windows Aero also features a new default font (Segoe UI) with a
slightly larger size, a streamlined style for wizards, and a change in the tone and phrasing of
most of the dialogs and control panels.

In addition to the Windows Aero visual style, Windows Vista Home Basic exclusively includes a
"Windows Vista Standard" theme which has the same hardware requirements as "Windows
Aero", and therefore uses the Desktop Window Manager for desktop composition, but does not
include the ability to generate live thumbnails of running applications, nor does it allow
transparency of the window frame. As a result, 3D effects and other features associated with live
thumbnails are not included with this theme.[2][3]

Included with all versions, there is a "Windows Vista Basic" theme which does not use desktop
composition, and is geared towards lower-end machines that are not able to use the Desktop
Window Manager; this theme being comparable to the Luna XP theme. Finally Vista includes
the "Windows Classic" and "Windows Standard" themes which are similar to the classic themes
in Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Windows Aero is not available in Windows Vista Home
Basic and Starter editions, although the Desktop Window Manager is included in Windows Vista
Home Basic.
Windows Explorer

Layout and visualization

Windows Explorer's task pane has been removed, integrating the relevant task options into the
toolbar. A Favorites pane on the left contains commonly accessed folders and prepopulated
Search Folders. Seven different views are available to view files and folders, namely, List,
Details, Small icons, Medium icons, Large icons, Extra large icons or Tiles. File and folder
actions such as Cut, Copy, Paste, Undo, Redo, Delete, Rename and Properties are built into a
dropdown menu which appears when the Organize button is clicked. It is also possible to change
the layout of the Explorer window by using the Organize button. Users can select whether to
display Classic Menus, a Search Pane, a Preview Pane, a Reading Pane, and/or the Navigation
Pane. Document Properties are available from the common 'Open' and 'Save' dialog boxes, so it
is easier to add metadata (such as author or subject) to a document. The metadata can be viewed
and edited in the Details Pane that shows up at the bottom of an Explorer window. The
Navigation Pane contains a list of most common folders (the Favorites) for quick navigation. It
can also show the folder layout of the entire hard drive or a subset of it. It can contain both real
folders as well as virtual ones. By default it contains links to folders such as Documents and the
publicly shared folder, as well as virtual folders that search and present the saved virtual folders
and that lists the recently changed documents. The Preview Pane can be used to preview the
contents of a document, including viewing pictures in a size larger than the thumbnails shown in
the folder listing, and sampling contents of a media file, without opening any additional program.
Explorer can show a preview for any image format if the necessary codec authored using the
Windows Imaging Component is installed. Also, if an application installs proper handlers for the
preview pane (like Office 2007 does), then the documents can be edited in the preview pane
itself.[4]

Windows Explorer also contains modifications in the visualization of files on a computer. A new
addition to Windows Explorer is the Details pane, which displays metadata and information
relating to the currently selected file or folder. The Details pane will also display a graphical
thumbnail of the file (known as live icon). Furthermore, different imagery is overlaid on
thumbnails to give more information about the file, such as a picture frame around the thumbnail
of an image file, or a filmstrip on a video file. Thumbnails can be zoomed on. The preview panel
allows you to see thumbnails of all sorts of files and view the contents of documents, similar to
the way you can preview email messages in Outlook, without opening the files. There's a new
intelligent algorithm for creation of Video thumbnails, which chooses a random frame inside the
video and ensures the thumbnail is not black (XP showed the first frame, it was usually black).

The address bar has been modified to present a breadcrumbs view, which shows the full path to
the current location. Clicking any location in the path hierarchy takes the user to that level,
instead of repeatedly pressing the Back button. This is roughly analogous to what is possible
prior to Windows Vista by pressing the small down-arrow next to "Back" and selecting any
folder from a list of previously accessed folders. It is also possible to navigate to any subfolder of
the current folder using the arrow to the right of the last item, or to click in the space to the right
of this to copy or edit the path manually. As with many other Microsoft-made Windows Vista
applications, the menu bar is hidden by default. Pressing the Alt key makes the menu bar appear.
Free and used space on all drives is shown in horizontal indicator bars. Check boxes allow the
selection of multiple files.

Icons

Icons in Windows Vista are visually more realistic than illustrative. Icons are scalable in size up
to 256 × 256 pixels. Required icon sizes are 16 × 16, 32 × 32, and 256 × 256. Optional sizes are
24 × 24, 48 × 48, 64 × 64, 96 × 96, and 128 × 128. Document icons show the actual document
contents and several media types are distinguished by icon overlays (video, audio, photos). The
icons can be zoomed in and out using a gradual slider or by holding down the Ctrl key and using
the mouse scroll wheel. To optimize and reduce the size of large icons, icons may be stored as
compressed PNGs. To maintain backward compatibility with earlier versions of Windows, only
larger sized icons can use lossless PNG compression.

Organizing & metadata

Windows Explorer includes significant changes from previous versions of Windows in terms of
organization, navigation, filtering, sorting, grouping and stacking. Combined with integrated
desktop searching, Explorer allows users to find and organize their files in new ways, such as
"Stacks". The "Stacks" view groups files according to the criterion specified by the user. Stacks
can be clicked to filter the files shown in Windows Explorer. Windows Explorer also sorts files
on-the-fly automatically as they are renamed or pasted.

The Details pane also allows for the change of some textual metadata such as "Author" and
"Title" in files that support them within Windows Explorer. A new type of metadata called tags
allows users to add descriptive terms to documents for easier categorization and retrieval. Some
files support open metadata, allowing users to define new types of metadata for their files. Out of
the box, Windows Vista supports Microsoft Office documents and most audio files. Metadata
support for other file types can however be added by writing shell extensions. Unlike previous
versions of Windows, all metadata is stored inside the file, so that it will always travel with the
file. However, initially, users will be able to add metadata to only a few file types.[5]

File operations

When moving or copying files, Windows Explorer displays the full source and destination path,
size and number of items and the transfer speed in megabytes per second (MB/s). If a conflict or
error is encountered, it does not terminate the copy, move or delete operation. Rather, the file is
skipped and the rest of the files processed. At the end of the operation, the errors are presented to
the user with resolution options (if available). If two files have the same name, an option is
available to rename the file; in previous versions of Windows, the only options were to either
replace the destination file or cancel the process. The user can also choose to apply the same
action to further conflicts, if any. Also, for the first time in Windows, processing of dates when
moving trees is somewhat consistent. Until now, every folder and subfolder obtained all three
dates new to the time of operation. This was from the own nature of the operation at the file
system level, create destination folders, move files, delete origin folders. Moved folders in Vista
preserve creation and modification dates. Access date gets the time of the operation.
When renaming a file, even when extensions are being displayed, Explorer highlights only the
filename without selecting the extension. Renaming multiple files is quicker as pressing Tab
automatically renames the existing file or folder and opens the file name text field for the next
file for renaming. Shift+Tab allow renaming in the same manner upwards.

In case a file is in use or "locked" by another application, Windows Explorer informs users to
close the application and retry the file operation. Also, a new interface IFileIsInUse is
introduced into the API which developers can use to let other applications switch to the main
window of the application that has the file open or simply close the file from the "File In Use"
dialog.[6] If the running application exposes these operations by means of the IFileIsInUse
interface, Windows Explorer, upon encountering a locked file, allows the user to close the file or
switch to the application from the dialog box itself.

Default Programs

A common issue in previous Windows versions was that competing applications doing common
tasks each tried to associate themselves as the default for a certain file type using their own
custom user interface. The default application information for a particular file type was stored in
the registry on a per-machine basis, resulting in applications changing another user's default
program when one user's defaults were changed and each application querying several different
registry values when launched. In Windows Vista onwards, file type associations and protocol
handlers can be set on a per-user basis using the new Default Programs API, meaning default
programs for file types and tasks can be different for each individual user. There is an API for
calling a common user interface so applications no longer need to maintain their own file
association UI. The Default Programs API gives applications a programmatic way to check for
and discover other default applications, restore a single or all registered defaults, query for the
owner of a specific default file association/protocol, launch the Default Programs UI for a
specific application or clear all per user associations. Applications only need to be registerd at
the time of installation to be part of Default Programs.
Windows Flip and Flip 3D

Windows Flip 3D

For all Vista Premium Ready PCs, when using Alt+Tab to switch between open windows, a
preview of each open window appears instead of just the program icon. In addition, Windows
Flip 3D enables users to flip through a cascading stack of their open windows using the mouse
scroll wheel. Windows can be stacked and rotated in 3D to provide views of all of them
simultaneously. (The keyboard shortcuts are Win+Tab, which makes Flip 3D disappear after
releasing, Ctrl+Win+Tab, which keeps Flip 3D visible after releasing, and Shift+Win+Tab to
flip through open windows backward). The window buttons on the taskbar show a thumbnail
image of the window, when the mouse hovers over the button.

Other shell improvements

 Detection of Blu-ray Disc, HD DVD, Super Video CD and Video CD were added to AutoPlay.

 It is now possible to install and select non-English languages on a per-user basis which
transforms the entire shell user interface and applications into Arabic, Chinese, French, German,
Japanese or Spanish from the next login. This feature is only available in the Enterprise and
Ultimate editions of Windows Vista.

 JPEG files can be natively set as the desktop wallpaper without using Active Desktop (which is no
longer supported).[8] Also, the aspect ratio of images is maintained properly while applying them
as the desktop wallpaper.

 A new feature known as Previous Versions can revert the contents of any file to an arbitrary
point in the past from the file's Properties. The Previous Versions feature utilizes Shadow Copy, a
storage backup technology introduced in Windows Server 2003.

 Dialog boxes also display their status on the taskbar. Previously, only windows showed their
status on the taskbar.
Windows Search

Windows Vista features system-wide integrated search, called Instant Search (also known as
Windows Search).[9] Instant Search is designed to run significantly faster and offers more
customized search capabilities. Search boxes have been added throughout the Explorer user
interface, to the Start menu, Open/Save dialog boxes, and several of the applications included
with Windows Vista. By default, Instant Search indexes only a small number of folders such as
the start menu, the names of files opened, the Documents folder, and the user's e-mail. Beyond
searching for files, search works with Help, Control Panel, Networking, and more. In Control
Panel, for example, typing "firewall" will instantly return all applets that have to do with the
system firewall.[10]

The Search Explorer advanced search pane

The search engine uses indexing to allow for a quick display of results for a given search.
Advanced options allow the user to choose the file type, how it should be indexed, the properties
only, or the properties and the file contents. The Start menu search also doubles as the Run
command from previous versions of Windows; simply typing any command will execute it. The
indexed search platform is based on Microsoft's Windows Desktop Search 3.0 (Windows Search
version 4.0 in Vista SP2), allowing third-party applications (e.g. Microsoft Outlook 2007) to use
the indexing platform to store metadata and perform searches on Windows Vista or Windows XP
(with the Windows Desktop Search redistributable installed). This is in contrast to the search
engine of Windows XP, which takes some time to display results, and only after the user has
finished typing the search string. The Windows Vista search allows users to add multiple filters
to continually refine search results (Such as "File contains the word 'example'"). It is also
possible to search across RSS and Atom feeds, straight from Windows Explorer. Windows
search uses IFilters that are used by Windows Desktop Search as well. The IFilter interface can
be implemented by software makers so that files created by their applications can be better
integrated with search and indexing programs.

Searching can also be done from the box at the bottom of the start menu, so it is possible to start
a program from here by typing its name, for example "Calc" to start the calculator, "Word" to
start Microsoft Word, "Mail" to open Windows Mail, a web address to start the default browser
at a particular site, the default search engine, or even a folder name, filename or network share
name.

There is also the ability to save searches as a Search Folder where opening the folder will
execute a specific search automatically and display the results as a normal folder. A search folder
is just an XML file which stores the search query, including the search operators as well. When
these files are accessed, the search is run with the saved query string and the results presented as
a virtual folder. Windows Vista also supports query composition, where a saved search (called a
scope) can be nested within the query string of another search.[11] These virtual folders are also
distributable via RSS.[citation needed]

Windows Vista also features an enhanced file content search for non-indexed locations, whereby
the files being scanned are processed by the same IFilters that would be used for indexing,
therefore offering more consistent results between indexed and non-indexed searches as well as
the ability for third-parties to add support for additional file formats to have their content
searched.

Windows Sidebar

Windows Gadgets

Windows Sidebar is a new panel which can be placed on either the left or the right-hand side of
the screen where a user can place Desktop Gadgets, which are small applets designed for a
specialized purpose (such as displaying the weather or sports scores). The gadgets can also be
placed on other parts of the desktop, if desired, by dragging. By default, Windows Vista ships
with 11 gadgets: Calendar, Clock, Contacts, CPU Meter, Currency Conversion, Feed Headlines,
Notes, Picture Puzzle, Slide Show, Stocks, and Weather. Additional gadgets are published at
Microsoft's web site, which offers both Microsoft-created and user-submitted gadgets in a
gallery.

Gadgets are written using a combination of DHTML for visual layout, JScript and VBScript for
functional code, and an XML file for defining the gadget's metadata (author name, description,
etc.) The gadget is then distributed as a ZIP file with a .gadget extension. Displaying the gadget
using DHTML allows the same gadget to be used on Microsoft's Live.com and Windows Live
Spaces sites. Alternatively, on Windows Vista, the gadget can detect that WPF is available and
take advantage of its graphical abilities to display differently from the web version.
New and upgraded applications

Paint

 Backup and Restore Center also known as Windows Backup Status and Configuration replaces
NTBackup although Windows NT Backup Restore Utility is available for download [12] Backup and
Restore Center operates in two modes: (a) Backup/Restore selected files [13] or (b) Complete PC
Backup.[14] If using Complete PC Backup, incremental snapshots are stored on external hard disk
or optical media, and the complete system can be restored to protect against hardware failure
or severe software damage. Automatic scheduling of file backups is not available in Vista Home
Basic. Complete PC Backup is not available in Vista Home Basic and Home Premium.
 Windows Mail replaces Outlook Express, the email client in previous Windows versions. It
incorporates a Phishing Filter like the one found in IE7 as well as Bayesian junk mail filtering
which is updated monthly via Windows Update. Also, e-mail messages are now stored as
individual files rather than in a binary database to reduce frequent corruption and make
messages searchable in real-time. Backing up and restoring account setup information,
configuration and mail store is now made easier. It does however omit some features of Outlook
Express , such as identities and a "Block sender" for Usenet access. Windows Mail is itself being
replaced with Windows Live Mail.
 Windows Contacts, a new unified contact and personal information management application,
replaces Windows Address Book (WAB). It is based on a new XML based file format where each
contact appears as an individual .contact file, and features extensibility APIs for integration with
other applications. It can store custom information related to contacts, including display
pictures. The legacy *.wab format and the open standard *.vcf (vCard) and *.csv (Comma
separated values) file formats are also supported.
 Windows Calendar is the new calendar application that is included in Windows Vista. It supports
the popular iCalendar format as well as sharing, subscribing and publishing of calendars on
WebDAV-enabled web servers and network shares.
 Windows Fax and Scan is an integrated faxing and scanning application. With this users can
send and receive faxes, fax or email scanned documents and forward faxes as email attachments
from the computer. It replaces (or enhances) the 'Fax Services' component which was available
as an optional component in Windows XP. It is available by default in the Ultimate edition and is
also available in the Business and Enterprise editions. By connecting a scanner and a fax-capable
modem to the computer, users can preview documents before scanning them and can choose
to directly fax or email the scanned documents. The user interface resembles that of 'Windows
Mail' with preview pane, tree views etc.
  Windows Meeting Space, the replacement for NetMeeting, is a peer-to-peer (p2p) collaboration
application. Users can share applications (or their entire desktop) with other users on the local
network, or over the Internet. Windows Meeting Space allows sharing of the desktop with other
co-workers, distribution and collaborative editing of documents, and passing notes to other
participants. Windows Meeting Space automatically finds other users using People Near Me, a
technology that uses WS-Discovery to see other users on a local network.
 Paint has new features such as a crop function and the undo limit has been raised from 3 to 10.
 WordPad now supports the Text Services Framework, using which Windows Speech Recognition
is implemented. Therefore, it is possible to dictate text in WordPad, and similar other
applications which support RichEdit.
 Sound Recorder has been rewritten and now supports recording clips of any length and saving
them as WMA. However, saving to WAV format is not supported except in the N editions of
Windows Vista.

Snipping Tool

 Snipping Tool, first introduced in Experience Pack for Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005, is a
screen-capture tool that allows for taking screen shots (called snips) of windows, rectangular
areas, or free-form areas. Snips can then be annotated, saved (as an image file or HTML page),
or e-mailed.
 The Magnifier accessibility tool uses WPF, which in turn uses vector images to render the
content. As a result, the rendered magnified image is sharp and not pixelated. However, this
applies only to WPF applications. Non-WPF applications are still magnified the traditional way.
Also, due to a change introduced in WPF 3.5 SP1, this functionality is lost if .NET Framework 3.5
SP1 is installed. Microsoft has also released a Magnification API to allow assistive technology
applications to use the Magnifier engine.

Windows Photo Gallery

  Windows Photo Gallery, a photo and video library management application. It can import from
digital cameras, tag and rate individual pictures including custom metadata. It also allows basic
editing of images, such as adjusting color and exposure, resizing, cropping, red-eye reduction
and printing. Slideshows, with pan, fade and other effects, can also be created, and burnt to
DVD. It allows custom metadata to be added to images and videos, and enables searching by the
attributes. It also supports RAW images natively and can open and organize any image format
for which image codec’s are installed in the Windows Imaging Component. Images and videos
may be viewed in the Windows Photo Gallery Viewer with options to zoom, pan and lossless
rotate images, pause or play videos, and bring up the Info pane to view and edit metadata about
a photo or video. ICC V4 color profiles embedded in images are also supported. The Photo Print
Wizard has been improved to offer a lot of customizability. An upgraded version of this,
Windows Live Photo Gallery allows you to upload and share photos and videos online as part of
Windows Live services.

 Windows Movie Maker supports smooth Direct3D-based effects and transitions, editing and
outputting HD video, importing recorded DVR-MS format videos, as well as burning the output
movie on a CD. In Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate editions, it can import HDV video
from camcorders and output video to Windows DVD Maker for creating DVD-Video discs. New
effects and transitions have been added. All Windows Vista Movie Maker versions require pixel
shader hardware support.
 Windows DVD Maker, a DVD creation application. Applications can also pass an XML file to DVD
maker for authoring and burning.

 Games: Minesweeper, Solitaire, Hearts, FreeCell and Spider Solitaire have been updated and
rewritten to take advantage of Windows Vista's new graphics capabilities. Also included are new
games, namely, Purble Place, Chess Titans and Mahjong Titans. InkBall, a game previously
available only with Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, has been included and can also be played
using a mouse. Pinball has been dropped. As of September 2008, users of the Ultimate edition
of Windows Vista can also download Texas Hold 'Em Poker and Microsoft Tinker as Ultimate
Extras.

Windows Internet Explorer 7

Windows Internet Explorer 7

Windows Vista includes Internet Explorer 7 and can be upgraded to later versions of Internet
Explorer such as Internet Explorer 8 or Internet Explorer 9. Internet Explorer 7 adds support for
tabbed browsing, Atom, RSS, internationalized domain names, a search box, a phishing filter, an
anti-spoofing URL engine, fine-grained control over ActiveX add-ons, thumbnails of all open
tabs in a single window (called Quick Tabs), page zoom, and tab groups. Tab groups make it
possible to open a folder of Favorites in tabs with a single click. Importing bookmarks and
cookies from other web browsers is also supported. Additionally, there is now proper support for
PNG images with transparency as well as improvements and fixes to CSS and HTML rendering.
The Windows RSS Platform offers native RSS support, with developer APIs.

On Windows Vista, Internet Explorer operates in a special "Protected Mode", which runs the
browser in a security sandbox that has no access to the rest of the operating system or file
system, except the Temporary Internet Files folder. This feature aims to mitigate problems
whereby newly-discovered flaws in the browser (or in ActiveX controls hosted inside it) allowed
hackers to subversively install software on the user's computer (typically spyware).[18][19] Internet
Explorer 7 in Windows Vista also exclusively supports Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)
key lengths up to 256 bits outlined in RFC 3268 and certificate revocation checking using Online
Certificate Status Protocol. The TLS implementation has also been updated to support extensions
as outlined in RFC 3546, most notable of which is Server Name Indication support.

Internet Explorer 7 additionally features an update to the WinInet API. The new version has
better support for IPv6, and handles hexadecimal literals in the IPv6 address. It also includes
better support for Gzip and deflate compression, so that communication with a web server can be
compressed and thus will require less data to be transferred.[20][21] Internet Explorer Protected
Mode support in WinInet is exclusive to Windows Vista and later Windows versions.

Windows Media Player 11

Windows Media Player 11

Windows Media Player 11, which is also available on Windows XP, features a revised interface.
The Media Library is now presented without the category trees which were prominent in the
earlier versions. Rather, on selecting the category in the left pane, the contents appear on the
right, in a graphical manner with thumbnails—a departure from textual presentation of
information. Missing album art can be added directly to the placeholders in the Library itself
(though the program re-renders all album art imported this way into 1:1 pixel ratio, 200x200
resolution jpegs). Views for Music, Pictures, Video and Recorded TV are separate and can be
chosen individually from the navigation bar. Entries for Pictures and Video show their
thumbnails. Search has been upgraded to be much faster.
Windows Media Player 11 in Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate Editions supports
MMC-5 driver commands for the AACS content protection scheme, as well as the UDF file
system which is required for Blu-ray and HD DVD playback. However, all of the codecs
required for playback of HD DVD and Blu-ray video are not included. VC-1 and the MPEG-2
video decoders, as well as the Dolby Digital (AC-3) 5.1 audio decoder are included in Windows
Vista Home Premium and Ultimate Editions. H.264 video and other multichannel surround
sound audio standards still require third party decoders.[22][23]

Other features of Windows Media Player 11 include:

 Windows Media Format 11 Runtime - Updates the earlier Windows Media runtime to support
low bitrate WMA Professional Audio and includes a VC-1 compliant WMV Advanced Profile
codec. Support for ripping audio CDs to WAV and WMA 10 Pro formats is also added.
 Stacking - Stacking allows graphical viewing of how many albums exist in a specific category of
music. The pile appears larger as the category contains more albums.
 Search improvements - Searches and displays results as characters are being entered, without
waiting for Enter key to be hit. Results are refined based on further characters that are typed.
 Disc spanning - CD Burning now shows a graphical bar showing how much space will be used on
the disc. It splits a burn list onto multiple discs in case the content does not fit on one disc.
 Global Status - Global status shows a broad overview of what the player is doing. The
information presented include status information regarding buffering, ripping, burning and
synchronization.
 Improved synchronization features for loading content onto PlaysForSure-compatible portable
players. WMP 11 supports reverse-synchronization, by which media present on the portable
device can be replicated back to the PC.
 Media Sharing - which allows one to share their Media library and make it accessible to other
PCs running Windows Vista or later Windows versions, Xbox 360, or networked Media Receivers
via UPnP. Content (Music, Pictures, Video) can be streamed to and from Universal Plug and Play
(UPnP) AV enabled devices such as the PS3, Xbox 360, and Roku SoundBridge. This includes DRM
protected PlaysForSure content.
 URGE - The new music store from Microsoft and MTV networks is integrated with the player. As
of October 28, 2007, the URGE service was discontinued when it merged with Rhapsody; the link
in Windows Media Player 11 remains but is no longer functional. In order to use Rhapsody, a
separate download is required.

Certain features of Media Sharing in Windows Media Player 11 are only available in Windows
Vista and later.[24] For example, WMP 11 on Windows Vista can also connect to remote media
libraries; this is not available in the Windows XP version.

Windows Media Center

Media Center in Windows Vista, available in the Home Premium and Ultimate editions, has been
upgraded significantly, including a considerable overhaul of the user interface. Each button in
the main menu, which contains sections such as "Music", "Videos", and "TV", gets encased in a
box when selected, and for each selection, a submenu comes up, extending horizontally. When
any of the options is selected, the entries for each are presented in a grid-like structure, with each
item being identified by album art, if its an audio file, or a thumbnail image if it is a picture, a
video or a TV recording, and other related options, such as different views for the music
collection if "Music" is selected, extend horizontally along the top of the grid. Similarly, other
items are identified by suggestive artwork. The grid displaying the items is also extended
horizontally, and the selected item is enlarged compared to the rest. Other features of Windows
Media Center include:

 Support for two dual-tuner cards

 Native DVD/MPEG-2 support
 Addition of Movies and DVD button which lists all the movies on the hard drive and DVD.
 Tasks button that provides access to jobs such as setting up and configuring a media center
extender device.
 Any video playing is overlaid on the background of the user interface, if the UI is navigated while
the video is still playing.
 Support for high-definition (HD) content, and CableCARD support.
 Uses the .NET 2.0 CLR

Internet Information Services 7

IIS 7's redesigned management console

Windows Vista includes Internet Information Services (IIS) version 7, which has been
refactored into a modular architecture, with integrated .NET extensibility. Instead of a
monolithic server which features all services, IIS 7 has a core web server engine, and modules
offering specific functionality can be added to the engine to enable its features. Writing
extensions to IIS 7 using ISAPI has been deprecated in favor of the module API. Much of IIS's
own functionality is built on this API, and as such, developers will have much more control over
a request process than was possible in prior versions.

A significant change from previous versions of IIS is that all web server configuration
information is stored solely in XML configuration files, instead of in the metabase. The server
has a global configuration file that provides defaults, and each virtual web's document root (and
any subdirectory thereof) may contain a web.config containing settings that augment or override
the defaults. Changes to these files take effect immediately. This marks a significant departure
from previous versions whereby web interfaces, or machine administrator access, was required to
change simple settings such as default document, active modules, and security/authentication.
IIS 7 also features a completely rewritten administration interface that takes advantage of
modern MMC features such as task panes and asynchronous operation. Configuration of
ASP.NET is more fully integrated into the administrative interface.

Security and safety

Main article: Security and safety features new to Windows Vista

Beginning in early 2002 with Microsoft's announcement of their Trustworthy Computing

initiative, a great deal of work has gone into making Windows Vista a more secure operating
system than its predecessors. Internally, Microsoft adopted a "Secure Development Lifecycle"[25]
with the underlying ethos of, "Secure by design, secure by default, secure in deployment". New
code for Windows Vista was developed with the SDL methodology, and all existing code was
reviewed and refactored to improve security.

Some of the most significant and most discussed security features included with Windows Vista
include User Account Control, Kernel Patch Protection, BitLocker Drive Encryption, Mandatory
Integrity Control, Digital Rights Management, TCP/IP stack security improvements, Address
Space Layout Randomization and the EFS and cryptography improvements. Additionally,
Windows Vista includes a range of parental controls, which give owners of a computer a set of
tools to limit what other accounts on a computer can do, and an improved Windows Firewall
which supports both inbound and outbound packet filtering, IPv6 connection filtering and more
detailed configurable rules and policies.

Management and administration

Windows Vista contains a range of new technologies and features that are intended to help
network administrators and power users better manage their systems. Notable changes include a
complete replacement of the "Windows Setup" process based on Windows Preinstallation
Environment (WinPE), completely rewritten image-based deployment mechanisms, a
significantly improved Task Scheduler, a revamped eventing infrastructure, GUI recovery tools,
support for per-application Remote Desktop sessions, new diagnostic, health monitoring and
system administration tools, and a range of new Group Policy settings covering many of the new
features.

Previous versions of IIS included with Windows XP had hard limits on concurrent connections
and defined web servers; IIS 7.0 on Windows Vista will not limit the number of connections
allowed but will limit workloads based on the active concurrent requests to 10.
Graphics
Desktop Window Manager

The Desktop Window Manager is the new windowing system which handles the drawing of all
content to the screen. Instead of windows drawing directly to the video card's memory buffers,
contents are instead rendered to back-buffers (technically Direct3D surfaces), which are then
arranged in the appropriate Z-order, then displayed to the user. This drawing method uses
significantly more video memory than the traditional window-drawing method used in previous
versions of Windows, which only required enough memory to contain the composite of all
currently visible windows at any given time. With the entire contents of windows being stored in
video memory, a user can move windows around the screen smoothly, without having "tearing"
artifacts be visible while the operating system asks applications to redraw the newly visible parts
of their windows. Other features new to Windows Vista such as live thumbnail window previews
and Flip 3D are implemented through the DWM.

Users need to have a DirectX 9 capable video card to be able to use the Desktop Window
Manager. Machines that can't use the DWM fall back to a "Basic" theme, and use screen drawing
methods similar to Windows XP.

The Desktop Window Manager (DWM) is included in all editions of Windows Vista except the
Starter edition.

DirectX
Direct3D

Windows Vista includes a new version of Direct3D, called Direct3D 10. It adds scheduling and
memory virtualization capabilities to the graphics subsystem and forgoes the current DirectX
practice of using "capability bits" to indicate which features are active on the current hardware.
Instead, Direct3D 10 defines a minimum standard of hardware capabilities which must be
supported for a display system to be "Direct3D 10 compatible". Microsoft's goal is to create an
environment for developers and designers where they can be assured that the input they provide
will be rendered in exactly the same fashion on all supported graphics cards. This has been a
recurring problem with the DirectX 9 model, where different video cards have produced different
results, thus requiring fixes keyed to specific cards to be produced by developers.

According to Microsoft, Direct3D 10 will be able to display some graphics up to 8 times faster
than DirectX 9.0c because of the new improved Windows Display Driver Model. In addition,
Direct3D 10 incorporates Microsoft's High Level Shader Language 4.0. However, Direct3D 10 is
not backward compatible like prior versions of DirectX. The same game will not be compatible
with both Direct3D 10 and Direct3D 9 or below. Games would need to be developed for both
APIs, one version for Direct3D 9 and below if targeting Windows versions prior to Windows
Vista and another version using Direct3D 10 if targeting only Windows Vista. Windows Vista
does, however, contain a backward compatible Direct3D 9 implementation.
The Direct3D 10 API introduces unified vertex and pixel shaders. In addition, it also supports
Geometry Shaders, which operate on entire geometric primitives (points, lines, and triangles),
and can allow calculations based on adjacent primitives as well. The output of the geometry
shader can be passed directly onwards to the rasterizer for interpolation and pixel shading, or
written to a vertex buffer (known as 'stream out') to be fed back into the beginning of the
pipeline.

The version of Direct3D 9 available in Windows Vista is called Direct3D 9Ex. This modified
API also uses the WDDM and allows Direct3D 9 applications to access some of the features
available in Windows Vista such as cross-process shared surfaces, managed graphics memory,
prioritization of resources, text anti-aliasing, advanced gamma functions, and device removal
management.

Deprecation of other DirectX APIs:

In Windows Vista, only Direct3D features an overhaul. The DirectX SDK mentions that most of
the other APIs have been deprecated. DirectInput and DirectPlay have been deprecated and some
of their components removed. DirectSound and therefore, DirectMusic lack hardware abstraction
and are emulated in software. The DirectMusic kernel mode synthesizer that supplies the
DirectMusic components with a high-resolution timer has been removed.

Imaging

Windows Imaging Component (WIC) is a new extensible imaging framework that allows
applications supporting the framework to automatically get support of installed codecs for
graphics file formats. Windows Presentation Foundation applications also automatically support
the installed image codecs. Third party developers can write their own image codecs for their
specific image file formats. By default, Windows Vista ships with the JPEG, TIFF, GIF, PNG,
BMP and HD Photo codecs. Codecs for RAW image formats used generally by high-end digital
cameras are also supported in this manner. Windows Explorer, Windows Photo Gallery and
Windows Photo Gallery Viewer are based on this new framework and can thus view and
organize images in any format for which the necessary codecs are installed.

HD Photo (previously known as Windows Media Photo) is a photographic still image file
format, that is introduced with Windows Vista. It supports features such as high dynamic range
imaging, lossy as well as lossless compression, up to 32-bpp fixed or floating point
representation, transparency, RGB, CMYK and n-channel color spaces, Radiance RGBE,
embedded ICC color profiles, multiple images per file and support for Exif and XMP metadata
formats. It is the preferred image format for XPS documents.

Color management
Windows Color System
Windows Vista features Windows Color System (WCS), a platform for color management. Its
goal is to obtain color consistency across various software and hardware, including cameras,
monitors, printers and scanners. Different devices interpret the same colors differently, according
to their software and hardware configurations. As a result, they must be properly calibrated to
reproduce colors consistently across different devices. WCS aims to make this process of color
calibration automatic and transparent, as an evolution of ICC Color Profiles.

Windows Color System is based on a completely new Color Infrastructure and Translation
Engine (CITE). It is backed up by a new color processing pipeline that supports bit-depths more
than 32 bits per pixel, multiple color channels (more than 3), alternative color spaces and high
dynamic range coloring, using a technology named Kyuanos developed by Canon. The color
processing pipeline allows device developers to add their own gamut mapping algorithm into the
pipeline to customize the color response of the device. The new pipeline also uses floating point
calculations to minimize round-off losses, which are inherent in integer processing. Once the
color pipeline finishes processing the colors, the CITE engine applies a color transform
according to a color profile, specific to a device to ensure the output color matches to what is
expected.

WCS features explicit support for LCD as well as CRT monitors, projectors, printers, and other
imaging devices and provides customized support for each. WCS uses color profiles according to
the CIE Color Appearance Model recommendation (CIECAM02), defined using XML, to define
how the color representation actually translates to a visible color. ICC V4 color profiles are also
supported. Windows Photo Gallery and Photo Viewer, Windows Imaging Component, the HD
Photo format, XPS print path and XPS documents all support color management.

Mobile computing

Some significant changes have been made to Windows Vista for mobile computing.

Power management

Sleep state

In Windows Vista, the user can select a Hybrid Sleep option. Hybrid Sleep saves information
from the computer's memory to the hibernation file on disk, but instead of turning off the
computer, it simultaneously enters Standby mode. This function already existed in Windows XP,
by holding shift when shutting down. In Vista however this feature is improved. If power is lost,
the system resumes from the existing hibernate image on disk. On a laptop, after the specified
amount of time, it shuts down (hibernates). Hybrid Sleep thus, offers the benefits of fast resume
when in Standby mode and improved reliability in case of power loss.

Fine-grained power configuration

Windows Vista allows fine-grained control over power settings such as setting the power saving
mode for wireless adapters, USB selective suspend, PCI Express link state power management,
processor state etc., and also allows configuring power settings for specific scenarios such as
while sharing media files, giving a presentation, adaptive display mode and while indexing files.

In earlier Windows versions, drivers sometimes prevented Windows from entering or reliably
resuming from a power-saving state. This problem has been solved in Windows Vista.
Applications can disable sleep idle timers when needed such as when burning discs or recording
media. Away mode, which is not a power plan by itself but a feature, automatically turns off
displays, video rendering and sound but keeps the computer working when the user is away from
the computer. Optionally, it can also switch to sleep mode. Power settings are also configurable
through Group Policy.

The battery icon in the notification area has been improved to let the user more easily select a
"Power plan". "Presentation Settings", through the Transient Multimon Manager (TMM), allow
saving of display preferences when an external display such as a projector or external monitor is
connected. The setting can be restored when the same device is re-connected later. Presentation
settings are available only on mobile computers.

Beginning with Windows Vista Service Pack 1, the operating system can turn off periodic
VSync interrupt counting of CPU when the screen is not being refreshed from new graphics or
mouse activity. This can result in significant energy savings.[33]

Other mobility enhancements

 Windows Vista supports USB selective suspend for a wider range of class drivers such as USB
video class, portable devices, USB Bluetooth class etc. [34]
 Windows Mobility Center is a new control panel available only on mobile computers that
centralizes relevant information and configuration. It is extensible so that hardware
manufacturers can add further capabilities to control other features specific to their hardware.
 Windows Mobile Device Center centralizes management of external mobile devices. It includes a
basic RNDIS driver to make simple connections to mobile devices. For complete functionality
including synchronization of tasks, calendar data, contacts, email etc. with Microsoft Office
Outlook, a driver needs to be downloaded.[35] Synchronization with Windows Mail, Windows
Calendar or Windows Contacts is not supported. Whenever a Windows Mobile device is
connected, the Mobile Device Center pane pops up giving options to manage media and other
files on the device, as well as control their settings.
 A new Windows Portable Devices API has been introduced to communicate with attached media
and all portable devices such as mobile phones, portable media players, PDAs etc.
 Sync Center is a centralized location which provides an organized summary view of any sync
partnership users have created for synchronizing data and files, such as mobile devices, network
syncing (offline files), portable media devices and so on. While the earlier promised ability to
automatically synchronize files among computers using peer-to-peer technology is not included,
[36]
a powertoy, SyncToy, is available that supports synchronizing local and network files. [37]
 Windows SideShow is a new technology that lets Windows Vista drive a small external display
that is built into the outside of a mobile PC's lid. The display can be updated with a number of
different kinds of information, such as contacts, maps, calendar, and email. This can then be
consulted while the mobile PC is otherwise powered down. [38]
 All the handwriting recognition, speech recognition and pen & ink features from Windows XP
Tablet PC Edition as well as accessories like Tablet PC Input Panel, Windows Journal, Sticky
Notes and InkBall have been included. New features include gestures and pen flicks.[39] There is
intrinsic support for handwriting and ink, via the Ink Analysis API.[40] A new control, the
InkCanvas is made available by the API to add ink support to applications. Ink support can not
only recognize handwriting and formatting, but also hand-drawn shapes which are converted to
vector-graphics, rendered as the shape that was intended to be drawn. [41] An update for
Windows XP Tablet PC Edition containing Ink Analysis and StylusInput API support is also
available.[42] Support for touchscreens is also included.