Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Windows Vista shopping experience:

1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Windows Vista offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Windows Vista at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.

2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about

3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Windows Vista? Wrong! If the Windows Vista is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.

4. Questions - Got a question about Windows Vista then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....

5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Windows Vista? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Windows Vista and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.

6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Windows Vista wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.

7. Feedback - happy with your Windows Vista then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.

8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Windows Vista site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site

9. Contact - got a question about Windows Vista, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.

10. Payment - ready to pay for your Windows Vista, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.

{{Infobox OS version| name = Windows Vista| family = Microsoft Windows| logo = Windows Vista.png| screenshot = Windows_Vista_Desktop.png| caption = Screenshot of Windows Vista Ultimate| developer = Microsoft| website = Windows Vista: Homepage| source_model = Closed source / Shared source| kernel_type = [Hybrid kernel [2007,RTM: November 8, 2006,Vol. Lic.: November 30, 2006 [2006| first_release_url = http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2006/nov06/11-08VistaRTM.mspx| support_status = Current|other_articles =-->

Windows Vista (IPA: /ˈvɪs.tə/) is a line of graphical operating systems used on personal computers, including home and business Desktop computer, laptop, Tablet PCs, and media centers. Prior to its announcement on July 22, 2005, Windows Vista was known by its List of Microsoft codenames "Longhorn". Development was completed on November 8, 2006; over the following three months it was released in stages to computer hardware and software manufacturers, business customers, and retail channels. On January 30, 2007, it was released worldwide to the general public,{{cite web]'s web site.{{cite web| url=http://www.windowsmarketplace.com/content.aspx?ctId=390&tabid=1| title=Windows Marketplace: Windows Vista Upgrade Editions: Get Started| date=2007-01-30| accessdate=2007-01-30| work=Windows Marketplace| publisher=Microsoft--> The release of Windows Vista comes more than five years after the introduction of its predecessor, Windows XP, making it the longest time span between two releases of Microsoft Windows.

Windows Vista contains Features new to Windows Vista; some of the most significant include an updated graphical user interface and Skin (computing) dubbed Windows Aero, improved Windows Search features, new multimedia creation tools such as Windows DVD Maker, and completely redesigned networking, audio, print, and display sub-systems. Vista also aims to increase the level of communication between machines on a home network using peer-to-peer technology, making it easier to share files and digital media between computers and devices. For Software development, Vista includes version 3.0 of the .NET Framework, which aims to make it significantly easier for developers to write applications than with the traditional Windows API.

Microsoft's primary stated objective with Windows Vista, however, has been to improve the state of security in the Windows operating system.{{cite web] and its predecessors has been their commonly exploited Vulnerability (computing) and overall susceptibility to malware, computer virus and buffer overflows. In light of this, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates announced in early 2002 a company-wide 'Trustworthy Computing initiative' which aims to incorporate security work into every aspect of software development at the company. Microsoft stated that it prioritized improving the security of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 above finishing Windows Vista, thus delaying its completion.{{cite web] includes protracted development time, more restrictive licensing terms, the inclusion of a number of new Digital Rights Management technologies aimed at restricting the copying of protected digital media, and the usability of other new features such as User Account Control.

Development Microsoft started work on their plans for Windows Vista ("Longhorn") in 2001,{{cite web|url=http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,113701,00.asp|title=Pushing Forward - the next version of Windows|first=Peter|last=Galli|date=2001-07-30|accessdate=2006-07-07|publisher=eWeek--> prior to the release of Windows XP. It was originally expected to ship sometime late in 2003 as a minor step between Windows XP (codenamed "Whistler") and "Blackcomb" (now known as Windows 7). Gradually, "Longhorn" assimilated many of the important new features and technologies slated for "Blackcomb", resulting in the release date being pushed back several times. Many of Microsoft's developers were also re-tasked with improving the security of Windows XP. Faced with ongoing delays and concerns about Creeping featurism, Microsoft announced on August 27 2004 that it was making changes. The original "Longhorn", based on the Windows XP source code, was scrapped, and Vista development started anew, building on the Windows Server 2003 codebase, and re-incorporating only the features that would be intended for an actual operating system release. Some previously announced features such as WinFS were dropped or postponed, and a new software development methodology called the "Security Development Lifecycle" was incorporated in an effort to address concerns with the security of the Windows codebase.{{cite web| author=Steve Lipner, Michael Howard | title=The Trustworthy Computing Security Development Lifecycle | publisher=Microsoft Developer Network | month=March | year=2005 | url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/security/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnsecure/html/sdl.asp | accessdate=2006-08-09 -->

After "Longhorn" was named Windows Vista, an unprecedented Development stage program was started, involving hundreds of thousands of volunteers and companies. In September 2005, Microsoft started releasing regular Community Technology Previews (CTP) to beta testers. The first of these was distributed at the 2005 Microsoft Professional Developers Conference, and was subsequently released to beta testers and Microsoft Developer Network subscribers. The builds that followed incorporated most of the planned features for the final product, as well as a number of changes to the user interface, based largely on feedback from beta testers. Windows Vista was deemed feature-complete with the release of the "February CTP", released on February 22 2006, and much of the remainder of work between that build and the final release of the product focused on stability, performance, application and driver compatibility, and documentation. Beta 2, released in late May, was the first build to be made available to the general public through Microsoft's Customer Preview Program. It was downloaded by over five million people. Two release candidates followed in September and October, both of which were made available to a large number of users.

While Microsoft had originally hoped to have the operating system available worldwide in time for Christmas 2006, it was announced in March 2006 that the release date would be pushed back to January 2007, in order to give the company – and the hardware and software companies which Microsoft depends on for providing device drivers – additional time to prepare. Through much of 2006, analysts and bloggers had speculated that Windows Vista would be delayed further, owing to anti-trust concerns raised by the European Commission and South Korea, and due to a perceived lack of progress with the beta releases. However, with the November 8 2006 announcement of the completion of Windows Vista, Microsoft's lengthiest operating system development project came to an end.

New or improved features End-user features has changed since Windows XP. | year=2006| publisher=National Instruments| url=http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/5604| title=A Closer Look at Windows Vista Part II: Enhanced Search--> 11 . | year=2006| publisher=Microsoft| accessdate=2006-08-24| url=http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/library/4ac505e6-dd8b-4ae7-80fa-b9d77cd8104d.mspx| title=Selected Scenarios for Maintaining Data Integrity with Windows Vista--> with Windows Ultimate Extras Talking Windows It features a redesigned user interface and configurable command-and-control commands. Unlike the Office 2003 version, which works only in Office and WordPad, Speech Recognition in Windows Vista works for any accessible application. In addition, it currently supports several languages: British and American English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), and Japanese.

Core technologies Windows Vista is intended to be a technology-based release, to provide a solid base to include technologies, many of which will be related to how the system functions, and hence not readily visible to the user. An example of this is the restructuring of the architecture of the audio, print, display, and networking subsystems; while the results of this work will be visible to software developers, end-users will only see what appear to be evolutionary changes in the user interface.

Vista includes technologies such as ReadyBoost and Windows Vista I/O technologies#ReadyDrive which employ fast flash memory (located on USB drives and hybrid drive respectively) to improve system performance by caching commonly-used programs and data. This manifests itself in improved battery life on notebook computers as well, since a hybrid drive can use the Flash memory to cache the data currently in use by the OS and/or other applications, spinning down the disc platters until some fresh data is required. Another new technology called Windows Vista I/O technologies#SuperFetch utilizes machine learning techniques to analyze usage patterns in order to allow Windows Vista to make decisions about what application and content should be present in system memory at any given time.

As part of the redesign of the networking architecture, IPv6 has been incorporated into the operating system, and a number of performance improvements have been introduced, such as TCP window scale option. Windows Vista includes more comprehensive support for wireless networking, compared with previous versions of Windows.

For graphics, Vista introduces a new Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM), as well as major revisions to Direct3D. The new driver model facilitates the new Desktop Window Manager, which provides the page tearing-free desktop and special effects that are the cornerstones of Windows Aero. WDDM's current version 1.0 is able to offload rudimentary tasks to the GPU, install drivers without requiring a system reboot and seamlessly recover from rare driver errors due to illegal application behavior. The next version is going to require an entirely new generation of GPUs, which NVIDIA and ATI are working on. Direct3D 10, developed in conjunction with major display driver manufacturers, is a new architecture with more advanced shader support, and allows the graphics processing unit to render more complex scenes without assistance from the CPU. It features improved load balancing between CPU and GPU and also optimizes data transfer between them.

At the core of the operating system, many improvements have been made to the memory manager, process scheduler, heap manager, and I/O scheduler. A Kernel Transaction Manager has been implemented that gives applications the ability to work with the file system and registry using atomic transaction operations.

Security-related technologies Improved security was a primary design goal for Vista. Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing initiative, which aims to improve public trust in its products, has had a direct effect on its development. This effort has resulted in a number of new security and safety features.

User Account Control is perhaps the most significant and visible of these changes. User Account Control is a security technology that makes it possible for users to use their computer with fewer privileges by default. This was often difficult in previous versions of Windows, as the previous "limited" user accounts proved too restrictive and incompatible with a large proportion of application software, and even prevented some basic operations such as looking at the calendar from the notification tray. In Windows Vista, when an action requiring administrative rights is requested, the user will be first prompted for an administrator name and password; in cases where the user is already an administrator, the user is still prompted to confirm the pending privileged action. User Account Control asks for credentials in a Secure Desktop mode, where the entire screen is blacked out, temporarily disabled, and only the authorization window is active and highlighted. The intent is to stop a malicious program 'spoofing' the user interface, attempting to capture admin credentials.

Internet Explorer's new security and safety features include a phishing filter, Internationalized domain name with anti-spoofing capabilities, and integration with system-wide parental controls. For added security, ActiveX controls are disabled by default. Also, Internet Explorer operates in a "protected mode" which operates with lower permissions than the user and it runs in isolation from other applications in the operating system, preventing it from accessing or modifying anything besides the Temporary Internet Files directory.Protected Mode IE has been described in detail at the Internet Explorer team blog: Protected Mode in Vista IE7 and More details on Protected Mode IE in Windows Vista. Microsoft's anti-spyware product, Windows Defender, has been incorporated into Windows, providing protection against malware and other threats. Changes to various system configuration settings (such as new auto-starting applications) are blocked unless the user gives consent.

Another significant new feature is BitLocker Drive Encryption, a data protection technology included in the Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Vista that provides encryption for the entire operating system Volume (computing). Bitlocker can work in conjunction with a Trusted Platform Module chip (version 1.2) that is on a computer's motherboard, or with a USB key.{{cite web]-->

A variety of other privilege-restriction techniques are also built into Vista. An example is the concept of "integrity levels" in user processes, whereby a process with a lower integrity level cannot interact with processes of a higher integrity level and cannot perform DLL–injection to a processes of a higher integrity level. The security restrictions of Windows services are more fine-grained, so that services (especially those listening on the network) have no ability to interact with parts of the operating system they do not need to. Obfuscation techniques such as address space layout randomization are used to increase the amount of effort required of malware before successful infiltration of a system. Code Integrity verifies that system binaries haven’t been tampered with by malicious code.

As part of the redesign of the network stack, Windows Firewall has been upgraded, with new support for filtering both incoming and outgoing traffic. Advanced packet filter rules can be created which can grant or deny communications to specific services.

Business technologies While much of the focus of Vista's new capabilities has been on the new user interface, security technologies, and improvements to the core operating system, Microsoft is also adding new deployment and maintenance features. | url=http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/library/gpol/a8366c42-6373-48cd-9d11-2510580e4817.mspx?mfr=true| title=What's New in Group Policy in Windows Vista and Windows Server "Longhorn"| accessdate=2006-05-18| work=TechNet| publisher=Microsoft-->

Business customers who are enrolled in the Microsoft Software Assurance program are offered a set of additional tools and services collectively known as the "Desktop Optimization Pack". This includes the Microsoft SoftGrid application virtualization platform, an asset inventory service, and additional tools for maintaining Group Policy settings in a fashion similar to a revision control system.

Developer technologies Windows Vista includes a large number of new application programming interfaces. Chief among them is the inclusion of .NET Framework 3.0 of the .NET Framework, which consists of a class library and Common Language Runtime. Version 3.0 includes four new major components: .NET Framework 3.0 Technologies, Microsoft These technologies will also be available for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 to facilitate their introduction to and usage by developers and end users.

There are also significant new development APIs in the core of the operating system, notably the completely re-architected audio, networking, print, and video interfaces, major changes to the security infrastructure, improvements to the deployment and installation of applications ("ClickOnce" and Windows Installer 4.0), new device driver development model ("Windows Driver Foundation"), Transactional NTFS#Transactional NTFS, mobile computing API advancements (power management, Tablet PC Ink support, Windows SideShow) and major updates to (or complete replacements of) many core subsystems such as Winlogon and Cryptographic Application Programming Interface.

There are some issues for software developers using some of the graphics APIs in Vista. Games or programs which are built solely on Vista's version of DirectX, 10, will not work on prior versions of Windows, as DirectX 10 is not backwards-compatible at any level. According to a Microsoft blog, there are three choices for OpenGL implementation on Vista. An application can use the default implementation, which translates OpenGL calls into the Direct3D API and is frozen at OpenGL version 1.4, or an application can use an Installable Client device driver (ICD), which comes in two flavors: legacy and Vista-compatible. A legacy ICD, the kind already provided by independent hardware vendors targeting Windows XP, will disable the Desktop Window Manager, noticeably degrading user experience under Windows Aero. A Vista-compatible ICD takes advantage of a new API, and will be fully compatible with the Desktop Window Manager. At least two primary vendors, ATI Technologies and NVIDIA, are expected to provide full Vista-compatible ICDs in the near future. However, hardware overlay is not supported, because it is considered as an obsolete feature in Vista. ATI and NVIDIA strongly recommend using compositing desktop/FBOs for same functionality.

Deprecated features Some notable Windows XP features and components have been replaced or removed in Windows Vista, including Windows Messenger, the network Messenger Service, HyperACCESS, MSN Explorer, Active Desktop, and the replacement of NetMeeting with Windows Meeting Space. Windows Vista also does not include the Windows XP "Luna" visual theme, or most of the classic color schemes which have been part of Windows since the Windows 3.x era. The "Hardware profiles" startup feature has been removed as well, along with support for older motherboard technologies like the Extended Industry Standard Architecture bus, Advanced Power Management and Game port support.There is a way to enable Game port support on Vista by applying an older driver.{{cite web]--> IP over FireWire (TCP/IP over IEEE 1394) has been removed as well.{{cite web]-->

WinHlp32.exe, used to display 32-bit .hlp files (help pages), is no longer included in Windows Vista as Microsoft considers it obsolete,{{cite web| url=http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917607| title=Microsoft Removes WinHlp32.exe from Vista| date=2006-06-27| accessdate=2006-08-31| publisher=Microsoft--> though it is available as a separate download. Microsoft prohibits software manufacturers from re-introducing the .hlp help system with their products.

TELNET.exe is no longer installed by default, but is still included as an installable feature.{{cite web| url=http://bink.nu/Article6937.bink| title=Windows Vista does not include Telnet...or does it?| author=Tekmaven| date=2006-05-02| accessdate=2007-06-22-->

Editions and pricing Windows Vista ships in six editions.{{cite press release| url=http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/feb06/02-26WinVistaProductsPR.mspx| title=Microsoft Unveils Windows Vista Product Lineup| date=2006-02-26| accessdate=2006-10-31| work=PressPass| publisher=Microsoft--> These editions are roughly divided into two target markets, consumer and business, with editions varying to cater for specific sub-markets. For consumers, there are four editions, with three available for Western countries; Windows Vista Starter is limited to emerging markets. Windows Vista Home Basic is intended for budget users with low needs. Windows Vista Home Premium covers the majority of the consumer market. Windows Vista Ultimate contains the complete feature-set and is aimed at enthusiasts. For businesses, there are two versions. Windows Vista Business covers organizations of all sizes, while Windows Vista Enterprise is only available to customers participating in Microsoft's Microsoft Software Assurance program.

All editions except Windows Vista Starter support both 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) processor architectures.

In the European Union, Home Basic N and Business N versions will also be available. These versions come without Windows Media Player, due to EU sanctions brought against Microsoft for European Union Microsoft antitrust case. Similar sanctions exist in South Korea.

Visual styles Windows Vista has four distinct visual styles.{{cite web| url=http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/b/9/5b97017b-e28a-4bae-ba48-174cf47d23cd/PRI017_WH06.ppt| first=Kam| last=VedBrat| publisher=Microsoft| title=Desktop And Presentation Impact On Hardware Design (Powerpoint presentation)| accessdate=2006-09-01-->

Windows Aero: Windows Vista's premier visual style is built on a new desktop composition engine called Desktop Window Manager. Windows Aero introduces support for 3D graphics (Windows Flip 3D), Transparency (optics) effects (Glass), live thumbnails, window animations, and other visual effects, and is intended for mainstream and high-end graphics cards. To enable these features, the contents of every open window is stored in video memory to facilitate Page tearing-free movement of windows. As such, Windows Aero has significantly higher hardware requirements than its predecessors. 128 MB of graphics memory is the minimum requirement, depending on resolution used.{{cite web | url=http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/evaluate/hardware/vistarpc.mspx| title=Windows Vista Enterprise Hardware Planning Guidance| year=2006| accessdate=2006-10-26| work=TechNet| publisher=Microsoft--> Windows Aero (including Windows Flip 3D) is not included in the Starter and Home Basic editions. Windows Vista Standard: This mode is a variation of Windows Aero without the glass effects, window animations, and other advanced graphical effects such as Windows Flip 3D. Like Windows Aero, it uses the Desktop Window Manager, and has generally the same video hardware requirements as Windows Aero. This is the default mode for the Windows Vista Home Basic Edition. The Starter Edition does not support this mode.Windows Vista Basic: This mode has aspects that are similar to Windows XP's visual style with the addition of subtle animations such as those found on progress bars. It does not employ the Desktop Window Manager; as such, it does not feature transparency or translucency, window animation, Windows Flip 3D or any of the functions provided by the DWM. The Basic mode does not require the new Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) for display drivers, and has similar graphics card requirements to Windows XP. For computers with graphics cards that are not powerful enough to support Windows Aero, this is the default graphics mode.Windows Classic: Windows Classic has the look and feel of Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003, does not use the Desktop Window Manager, and does not require a WDDM driver. As with prior versions of Windows, this visual style supports "color schemes," which are a collection of color settings. Windows Vista includes six classic color schemes, comprised of four high-contrast color schemes and the default color schemes from Windows 98 and Windows 2000.

{| cellpadding="5" class="toccolours" style="border-collapse:collapse;margin:0 auto;text-align:center;width:80%;" border="1"|-| align="center" valign="top" style="width:33%;"|
"Windows Aero" visual style.| align="center" valign="top" style="width:34%;"|
"Windows Vista Basic" visual style.| align="center" valign="top" style="width:33%;"|
"Windows Classic" visual style.|}

Hardware requirements Computers capable of running Windows Vista are classified as Vista Capable and Vista Premium Ready.{{cite web| url=http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/may06/05-18GetReadyPR.mspx| title=Microsoft and PC Manufacturers Make It Easier for Customers to Get Ready for Windows Vista| date=2006-05-18| accessdate=2006-05-18| work=PressPass| publisher=Microsoft--> A Vista Capable or equivalent PC will be capable of running all editions of Windows Vista although some of the special features and high end graphics options may require additional or more advanced hardware. A Vista Premium Ready PC will take advantage of Vista's "high-end" features.

Windows Vista's "Basic" and "Classic" interfaces will work with virtually any graphics hardware that supports Windows XP or 2000; accordingly, most discussion around Vista's graphics requirements centers on those for the Windows Aero interface. As of Windows Vista Beta 2, the NVIDIA GeForce 6 series and later, the ATI Radeon 9500 and later, Intel's GMA 950 integrated graphics, and a handful of VIA chipsets and S3 Graphics discrete chips are supported. Although originally supported, the GeForce FX 5 series has been dropped from newer drivers from NVIDIA. The last driver from NVIDIA to support the GeForce FX series on Vista was 96.85. Microsoft offers a tool called the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor to assist XP and Vista users in determining what versions of Windows their machine is capable of running. Although the installation media included in retail packages is a 32-bit DVD, customers without a DVD-ROM or customers who wish for a 64-bit install media are able to acquire this media through the Windows Vista Alternate Media program.{] driver support|-!Graphics memory| N/A || 128 MB RAM supports up to 2,756,000 total pixels (e.g. 1920 × 1200) or 512 MB+ for greater resolutions such as 2560x160064 MB RAM supports Aero with up to 1,310,720 total pixels (e.g. 1280 × 1024) but is not Premium Ready |-!HDD capacity| 20 GB || 40 GB|-!HDD free space| 15 GB || 15 GB|-!Other drives| CD-ROM || DVD-ROM|}

Service Pack 1 Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) is currently in development. Microsoft is planning to release SP1 alongside Windows Server 2008 in the first quarter of 2008.{{cite news]|title = Announcing Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Beta|date = 2007-08-29|accessdate = 2007-08-29-->{{cite news|url = http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/pages/windows-vista-service-pack-1-beta-whitepaper.aspx|publisher = Microsoft News--> The first beta of Windows Vista Service Pack 1, build 16659, was released on [September 24 2007 and is currently being tested by TechBeta participants in the Windows Vista SP1 Beta Program as well as TechNet and MSDN subscribers.{{cite news] published by Microsoft near the end of August 2007 outlined the scope and intent of the service pack, identifying three major areas of improvement: reliability and performance, administration experience, and support for newer hardware and standards. A detailed analysis of a leaked beta of Vista SP1 was undertaken by APCmag.com, which examined the changes to the Vista code base and registry entries. It listed out several hundred installation packages included in the beta, which appear to target back-end features rather than front-end functionality. However the journalist observed that there was a significant performance increase when comparing SP1 to the originally released version of Vista.{{cite news|url = http://apcmag.com/6929/vista_sp1_in_depth|publisher = APCmag.com|date=[August 7 2007.{{cite web|url=http://blogs.technet.com/filecab/archive/2007/01/26/don-t-judge-a-book-by-its-cover-why-windows-vista-defrag-is-cool.aspx|title=Don’t judge a book by its cover – why Windows Vista Defrag is cool|date=[January 26 2007 file system, [802.11n wireless networking,{{cite web] connections, and the Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol. An updated version of Windows Installer (version 4.5) is included that provides support for multi-package transactions and embedding the user interface of a child Windows Installer package inside a parent installation session.{{cite web]|date=2007-06-01|accessdate=2007-07-08--> Booting a system using Extensible Firmware Interface on x64 systems is also being introduced; this feature had originally been slated for the initial release of Vista but was delayed due to a lack of compatible hardware at the time.

Two areas which have seen changes in Service Pack 1 that have come as the result of concerns from software vendors. One of these is desktop search; users will be able to change the default desktop search program to one provided by a third party instead of the Microsoft desktop search program that comes with Windows Vista. Third-party desktop search programs will be able to seamlessly tie in their services into the operating system. These changes come in part due to complaints from Google, whose Google Desktop Search application was hindered by the presence of Vista's built-in desktop search. In June 2007, Google claimed that the changes being introduced for Service Pack 1 "are a step in the right direction, but they should be improved further to give consumers greater access to alternate desktop search providers."{{cite web]|date=June 21 2007s being introduced for the benefit of [antivirus software that currently relies on the unsupported practice of patching the Kernel (computer science) (see Kernel Patch Protection).{{cite news]-->

An update to Direct3D, 10.1, is planned for inclusion, which is expected to make mandatory several features which were previously optional in Direct3D 10 hardware.{{cite web|url=http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2007/08/09/microsoft-releases-information-on-upcoming-dx10-1-update|title=Microsoft releases information on upcoming D3D 10.1 update|first=Joel|last=Hruska|date=2007-08-09|accessdate=2008-08-10--> The whitepaper also notes that Service Pack 1 will include a kernel that will be up-to-date with the version to be shipped with Windows Server 2008.

Support for the Group Policy Management Console is being removed; a replacement is planned for release the same time frame as the release of the service pack.

Criticism Windows Vista has been the target of a number of negative assessments by various groups. Criticisms of Windows Vista include protracted development time, more restrictive licensing terms, the inclusion of a number of technologies aimed at restricting the copying of protected digital media, and the usability of the new User Account Control security technology. Reviewers have also noted some similarities between Vista's Aero interface and that of Apple Computer Aqua (user interface) interface for the Mac OS X operating system. Moreover, some concerns have been raised about many PCs meeting "Vista Premium Ready" hardware requirements and Vista's pricing.

Compatibility:Some programs that ran properly on Windows XP, especially the games, have been reported to behave unexpectedly with Windows Vista.http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/winvista_06.asp Due to the new Kernel Patch Protection, some Anti-virus programs are found to cause problems.

Slow file operations:When released, Vista performed file operations such as copying and deletion more slowly than other operating systems. Large copies required when migrating from one computer to another seemed difficult or impossible without workarounds such as using the command line. This inability to perform basic file operations efficiently attracted strong criticism. After six months, Microsoft confirmed the existence of these problems by releasing a special performance and reliability update, which was later disseminated through Windows Update, and will be included in SP1. (See 'Performance' section)

Licensing and cost:The introduction of additional Software licensing restrictions has been criticized. Criticism of upgrade licenses pertaining to Windows Vista Starter through Home Premium was expressed by Ars Technica's Ken Fisher, who noted that the new requirement of having a prior operating system already installed was going to cause irritation for users who reinstall Windows on a regular basis.{{cite web | url=http://arst {{Infobox OS version| name = Windows Vista| family = Microsoft Windows| logo = Windows Vista.png| screenshot = Windows_Vista_Desktop.png| caption = Screenshot of Windows Vista Ultimate| developer = Microsoft| website = Windows Vista: Homepage| source_model = Closed source / Shared source| kernel_type = [Hybrid kernel [2007,RTM: November 8, 2006,Vol. Lic.: November 30, 2006 [2006| first_release_url = http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2006/nov06/11-08VistaRTM.mspx| support_status = Current|other_articles =-->

Windows Vista (IPA: /ˈvɪs.tə/) is a line of graphical operating systems used on personal computers, including home and business Desktop computer, laptop, Tablet PCs, and media centers. Prior to its announcement on July 22, 2005, Windows Vista was known by its List of Microsoft codenames "Longhorn". Development was completed on November 8, 2006; over the following three months it was released in stages to computer hardware and software manufacturers, business customers, and retail channels. On January 30, 2007, it was released worldwide to the general public,{{cite web]'s web site.{{cite web| url=http://www.windowsmarketplace.com/content.aspx?ctId=390&tabid=1| title=Windows Marketplace: Windows Vista Upgrade Editions: Get Started| date=2007-01-30| accessdate=2007-01-30| work=Windows Marketplace| publisher=Microsoft--> The release of Windows Vista comes more than five years after the introduction of its predecessor, Windows XP, making it the longest time span between two releases of Microsoft Windows.

Windows Vista contains Features new to Windows Vista; some of the most significant include an updated graphical user interface and Skin (computing) dubbed Windows Aero, improved Windows Search features, new multimedia creation tools such as Windows DVD Maker, and completely redesigned networking, audio, print, and display sub-systems. Vista also aims to increase the level of communication between machines on a home network using peer-to-peer technology, making it easier to share files and digital media between computers and devices. For Software development, Vista includes version 3.0 of the .NET Framework, which aims to make it significantly easier for developers to write applications than with the traditional Windows API.

Microsoft's primary stated objective with Windows Vista, however, has been to improve the state of security in the Windows operating system.{{cite web] and its predecessors has been their commonly exploited Vulnerability (computing) and overall susceptibility to malware, computer virus and buffer overflows. In light of this, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates announced in early 2002 a company-wide 'Trustworthy Computing initiative' which aims to incorporate security work into every aspect of software development at the company. Microsoft stated that it prioritized improving the security of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 above finishing Windows Vista, thus delaying its completion.{{cite web] includes protracted development time, more restrictive licensing terms, the inclusion of a number of new Digital Rights Management technologies aimed at restricting the copying of protected digital media, and the usability of other new features such as User Account Control.

Development Microsoft started work on their plans for Windows Vista ("Longhorn") in 2001,{{cite web|url=http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,113701,00.asp|title=Pushing Forward - the next version of Windows|first=Peter|last=Galli|date=2001-07-30|accessdate=2006-07-07|publisher=eWeek--> prior to the release of Windows XP. It was originally expected to ship sometime late in 2003 as a minor step between Windows XP (codenamed "Whistler") and "Blackcomb" (now known as Windows 7). Gradually, "Longhorn" assimilated many of the important new features and technologies slated for "Blackcomb", resulting in the release date being pushed back several times. Many of Microsoft's developers were also re-tasked with improving the security of Windows XP. Faced with ongoing delays and concerns about Creeping featurism, Microsoft announced on August 27 2004 that it was making changes. The original "Longhorn", based on the Windows XP source code, was scrapped, and Vista development started anew, building on the Windows Server 2003 codebase, and re-incorporating only the features that would be intended for an actual operating system release. Some previously announced features such as WinFS were dropped or postponed, and a new software development methodology called the "Security Development Lifecycle" was incorporated in an effort to address concerns with the security of the Windows codebase.{{cite web| author=Steve Lipner, Michael Howard | title=The Trustworthy Computing Security Development Lifecycle | publisher=Microsoft Developer Network | month=March | year=2005 | url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/security/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnsecure/html/sdl.asp | accessdate=2006-08-09 -->

After "Longhorn" was named Windows Vista, an unprecedented Development stage program was started, involving hundreds of thousands of volunteers and companies. In September 2005, Microsoft started releasing regular Community Technology Previews (CTP) to beta testers. The first of these was distributed at the 2005 Microsoft Professional Developers Conference, and was subsequently released to beta testers and Microsoft Developer Network subscribers. The builds that followed incorporated most of the planned features for the final product, as well as a number of changes to the user interface, based largely on feedback from beta testers. Windows Vista was deemed feature-complete with the release of the "February CTP", released on February 22 2006, and much of the remainder of work between that build and the final release of the product focused on stability, performance, application and driver compatibility, and documentation. Beta 2, released in late May, was the first build to be made available to the general public through Microsoft's Customer Preview Program. It was downloaded by over five million people. Two release candidates followed in September and October, both of which were made available to a large number of users.

While Microsoft had originally hoped to have the operating system available worldwide in time for Christmas 2006, it was announced in March 2006 that the release date would be pushed back to January 2007, in order to give the company – and the hardware and software companies which Microsoft depends on for providing device drivers – additional time to prepare. Through much of 2006, analysts and bloggers had speculated that Windows Vista would be delayed further, owing to anti-trust concerns raised by the European Commission and South Korea, and due to a perceived lack of progress with the beta releases. However, with the November 8 2006 announcement of the completion of Windows Vista, Microsoft's lengthiest operating system development project came to an end.

New or improved features End-user features has changed since Windows XP. | year=2006| publisher=National Instruments| url=http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/5604| title=A Closer Look at Windows Vista Part II: Enhanced Search--> 11 . | year=2006| publisher=Microsoft| accessdate=2006-08-24| url=http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/library/4ac505e6-dd8b-4ae7-80fa-b9d77cd8104d.mspx| title=Selected Scenarios for Maintaining Data Integrity with Windows Vista--> with Windows Ultimate Extras Talking Windows It features a redesigned user interface and configurable command-and-control commands. Unlike the Office 2003 version, which works only in Office and WordPad, Speech Recognition in Windows Vista works for any accessible application. In addition, it currently supports several languages: British and American English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), and Japanese.

Core technologies Windows Vista is intended to be a technology-based release, to provide a solid base to include technologies, many of which will be related to how the system functions, and hence not readily visible to the user. An example of this is the restructuring of the architecture of the audio, print, display, and networking subsystems; while the results of this work will be visible to software developers, end-users will only see what appear to be evolutionary changes in the user interface.

Vista includes technologies such as ReadyBoost and Windows Vista I/O technologies#ReadyDrive which employ fast flash memory (located on USB drives and hybrid drive respectively) to improve system performance by caching commonly-used programs and data. This manifests itself in improved battery life on notebook computers as well, since a hybrid drive can use the Flash memory to cache the data currently in use by the OS and/or other applications, spinning down the disc platters until some fresh data is required. Another new technology called Windows Vista I/O technologies#SuperFetch utilizes machine learning techniques to analyze usage patterns in order to allow Windows Vista to make decisions about what application and content should be present in system memory at any given time.

As part of the redesign of the networking architecture, IPv6 has been incorporated into the operating system, and a number of performance improvements have been introduced, such as TCP window scale option. Windows Vista includes more comprehensive support for wireless networking, compared with previous versions of Windows.

For graphics, Vista introduces a new Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM), as well as major revisions to Direct3D. The new driver model facilitates the new Desktop Window Manager, which provides the page tearing-free desktop and special effects that are the cornerstones of Windows Aero. WDDM's current version 1.0 is able to offload rudimentary tasks to the GPU, install drivers without requiring a system reboot and seamlessly recover from rare driver errors due to illegal application behavior. The next version is going to require an entirely new generation of GPUs, which NVIDIA and ATI are working on. Direct3D 10, developed in conjunction with major display driver manufacturers, is a new architecture with more advanced shader support, and allows the graphics processing unit to render more complex scenes without assistance from the CPU. It features improved load balancing between CPU and GPU and also optimizes data transfer between them.

At the core of the operating system, many improvements have been made to the memory manager, process scheduler, heap manager, and I/O scheduler. A Kernel Transaction Manager has been implemented that gives applications the ability to work with the file system and registry using atomic transaction operations.

Security-related technologies Improved security was a primary design goal for Vista. Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing initiative, which aims to improve public trust in its products, has had a direct effect on its development. This effort has resulted in a number of new security and safety features.

User Account Control is perhaps the most significant and visible of these changes. User Account Control is a security technology that makes it possible for users to use their computer with fewer privileges by default. This was often difficult in previous versions of Windows, as the previous "limited" user accounts proved too restrictive and incompatible with a large proportion of application software, and even prevented some basic operations such as looking at the calendar from the notification tray. In Windows Vista, when an action requiring administrative rights is requested, the user will be first prompted for an administrator name and password; in cases where the user is already an administrator, the user is still prompted to confirm the pending privileged action. User Account Control asks for credentials in a Secure Desktop mode, where the entire screen is blacked out, temporarily disabled, and only the authorization window is active and highlighted. The intent is to stop a malicious program 'spoofing' the user interface, attempting to capture admin credentials.

Internet Explorer's new security and safety features include a phishing filter, Internationalized domain name with anti-spoofing capabilities, and integration with system-wide parental controls. For added security, ActiveX controls are disabled by default. Also, Internet Explorer operates in a "protected mode" which operates with lower permissions than the user and it runs in isolation from other applications in the operating system, preventing it from accessing or modifying anything besides the Temporary Internet Files directory.Protected Mode IE has been described in detail at the Internet Explorer team blog: Protected Mode in Vista IE7 and More details on Protected Mode IE in Windows Vista. Microsoft's anti-spyware product, Windows Defender, has been incorporated into Windows, providing protection against malware and other threats. Changes to various system configuration settings (such as new auto-starting applications) are blocked unless the user gives consent.

Another significant new feature is BitLocker Drive Encryption, a data protection technology included in the Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Vista that provides encryption for the entire operating system Volume (computing). Bitlocker can work in conjunction with a Trusted Platform Module chip (version 1.2) that is on a computer's motherboard, or with a USB key.{{cite web]-->

A variety of other privilege-restriction techniques are also built into Vista. An example is the concept of "integrity levels" in user processes, whereby a process with a lower integrity level cannot interact with processes of a higher integrity level and cannot perform DLL–injection to a processes of a higher integrity level. The security restrictions of Windows services are more fine-grained, so that services (especially those listening on the network) have no ability to interact with parts of the operating system they do not need to. Obfuscation techniques such as address space layout randomization are used to increase the amount of effort required of malware before successful infiltration of a system. Code Integrity verifies that system binaries haven’t been tampered with by malicious code.

As part of the redesign of the network stack, Windows Firewall has been upgraded, with new support for filtering both incoming and outgoing traffic. Advanced packet filter rules can be created which can grant or deny communications to specific services.

Business technologies While much of the focus of Vista's new capabilities has been on the new user interface, security technologies, and improvements to the core operating system, Microsoft is also adding new deployment and maintenance features. | url=http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/library/gpol/a8366c42-6373-48cd-9d11-2510580e4817.mspx?mfr=true| title=What's New in Group Policy in Windows Vista and Windows Server "Longhorn"| accessdate=2006-05-18| work=TechNet| publisher=Microsoft-->

Business customers who are enrolled in the Microsoft Software Assurance program are offered a set of additional tools and services collectively known as the "Desktop Optimization Pack". This includes the Microsoft SoftGrid application virtualization platform, an asset inventory service, and additional tools for maintaining Group Policy settings in a fashion similar to a revision control system.

Developer technologies Windows Vista includes a large number of new application programming interfaces. Chief among them is the inclusion of .NET Framework 3.0 of the .NET Framework, which consists of a class library and Common Language Runtime. Version 3.0 includes four new major components: .NET Framework 3.0 Technologies, Microsoft These technologies will also be available for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 to facilitate their introduction to and usage by developers and end users.

There are also significant new development APIs in the core of the operating system, notably the completely re-architected audio, networking, print, and video interfaces, major changes to the security infrastructure, improvements to the deployment and installation of applications ("ClickOnce" and Windows Installer 4.0), new device driver development model ("Windows Driver Foundation"), Transactional NTFS#Transactional NTFS, mobile computing API advancements (power management, Tablet PC Ink support, Windows SideShow) and major updates to (or complete replacements of) many core subsystems such as Winlogon and Cryptographic Application Programming Interface.

There are some issues for software developers using some of the graphics APIs in Vista. Games or programs which are built solely on Vista's version of DirectX, 10, will not work on prior versions of Windows, as DirectX 10 is not backwards-compatible at any level. According to a Microsoft blog, there are three choices for OpenGL implementation on Vista. An application can use the default implementation, which translates OpenGL calls into the Direct3D API and is frozen at OpenGL version 1.4, or an application can use an Installable Client device driver (ICD), which comes in two flavors: legacy and Vista-compatible. A legacy ICD, the kind already provided by independent hardware vendors targeting Windows XP, will disable the Desktop Window Manager, noticeably degrading user experience under Windows Aero. A Vista-compatible ICD takes advantage of a new API, and will be fully compatible with the Desktop Window Manager. At least two primary vendors, ATI Technologies and NVIDIA, are expected to provide full Vista-compatible ICDs in the near future. However, hardware overlay is not supported, because it is considered as an obsolete feature in Vista. ATI and NVIDIA strongly recommend using compositing desktop/FBOs for same functionality.

Deprecated features Some notable Windows XP features and components have been replaced or removed in Windows Vista, including Windows Messenger, the network Messenger Service, HyperACCESS, MSN Explorer, Active Desktop, and the replacement of NetMeeting with Windows Meeting Space. Windows Vista also does not include the Windows XP "Luna" visual theme, or most of the classic color schemes which have been part of Windows since the Windows 3.x era. The "Hardware profiles" startup feature has been removed as well, along with support for older motherboard technologies like the Extended Industry Standard Architecture bus, Advanced Power Management and Game port support.There is a way to enable Game port support on Vista by applying an older driver.{{cite web]--> IP over FireWire (TCP/IP over IEEE 1394) has been removed as well.{{cite web]-->

WinHlp32.exe, used to display 32-bit .hlp files (help pages), is no longer included in Windows Vista as Microsoft considers it obsolete,{{cite web| url=http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917607| title=Microsoft Removes WinHlp32.exe from Vista| date=2006-06-27| accessdate=2006-08-31| publisher=Microsoft--> though it is available as a separate download. Microsoft prohibits software manufacturers from re-introducing the .hlp help system with their products.

TELNET.exe is no longer installed by default, but is still included as an installable feature.{{cite web| url=http://bink.nu/Article6937.bink| title=Windows Vista does not include Telnet...or does it?| author=Tekmaven| date=2006-05-02| accessdate=2007-06-22-->

Editions and pricing Windows Vista ships in six editions.{{cite press release| url=http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/feb06/02-26WinVistaProductsPR.mspx| title=Microsoft Unveils Windows Vista Product Lineup| date=2006-02-26| accessdate=2006-10-31| work=PressPass| publisher=Microsoft--> These editions are roughly divided into two target markets, consumer and business, with editions varying to cater for specific sub-markets. For consumers, there are four editions, with three available for Western countries; Windows Vista Starter is limited to emerging markets. Windows Vista Home Basic is intended for budget users with low needs. Windows Vista Home Premium covers the majority of the consumer market. Windows Vista Ultimate contains the complete feature-set and is aimed at enthusiasts. For businesses, there are two versions. Windows Vista Business covers organizations of all sizes, while Windows Vista Enterprise is only available to customers participating in Microsoft's Microsoft Software Assurance program.

All editions except Windows Vista Starter support both 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) processor architectures.

In the European Union, Home Basic N and Business N versions will also be available. These versions come without Windows Media Player, due to EU sanctions brought against Microsoft for European Union Microsoft antitrust case. Similar sanctions exist in South Korea.

Visual styles Windows Vista has four distinct visual styles.{{cite web| url=http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/b/9/5b97017b-e28a-4bae-ba48-174cf47d23cd/PRI017_WH06.ppt| first=Kam| last=VedBrat| publisher=Microsoft| title=Desktop And Presentation Impact On Hardware Design (Powerpoint presentation)| accessdate=2006-09-01-->

Windows Aero: Windows Vista's premier visual style is built on a new desktop composition engine called Desktop Window Manager. Windows Aero introduces support for 3D graphics (Windows Flip 3D), Transparency (optics) effects (Glass), live thumbnails, window animations, and other visual effects, and is intended for mainstream and high-end graphics cards. To enable these features, the contents of every open window is stored in video memory to facilitate Page tearing-free movement of windows. As such, Windows Aero has significantly higher hardware requirements than its predecessors. 128 MB of graphics memory is the minimum requirement, depending on resolution used.{{cite web | url=http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/evaluate/hardware/vistarpc.mspx| title=Windows Vista Enterprise Hardware Planning Guidance| year=2006| accessdate=2006-10-26| work=TechNet| publisher=Microsoft--> Windows Aero (including Windows Flip 3D) is not included in the Starter and Home Basic editions. Windows Vista Standard: This mode is a variation of Windows Aero without the glass effects, window animations, and other advanced graphical effects such as Windows Flip 3D. Like Windows Aero, it uses the Desktop Window Manager, and has generally the same video hardware requirements as Windows Aero. This is the default mode for the Windows Vista Home Basic Edition. The Starter Edition does not support this mode.Windows Vista Basic: This mode has aspects that are similar to Windows XP's visual style with the addition of subtle animations such as those found on progress bars. It does not employ the Desktop Window Manager; as such, it does not feature transparency or translucency, window animation, Windows Flip 3D or any of the functions provided by the DWM. The Basic mode does not require the new Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) for display drivers, and has similar graphics card requirements to Windows XP. For computers with graphics cards that are not powerful enough to support Windows Aero, this is the default graphics mode.Windows Classic: Windows Classic has the look and feel of Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003, does not use the Desktop Window Manager, and does not require a WDDM driver. As with prior versions of Windows, this visual style supports "color schemes," which are a collection of color settings. Windows Vista includes six classic color schemes, comprised of four high-contrast color schemes and the default color schemes from Windows 98 and Windows 2000.

{| cellpadding="5" class="toccolours" style="border-collapse:collapse;margin:0 auto;text-align:center;width:80%;" border="1"|-| align="center" valign="top" style="width:33%;"|
"Windows Aero" visual style.| align="center" valign="top" style="width:34%;"|
"Windows Vista Basic" visual style.| align="center" valign="top" style="width:33%;"|
"Windows Classic" visual style.|}

Hardware requirements Computers capable of running Windows Vista are classified as Vista Capable and Vista Premium Ready.{{cite web| url=http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/may06/05-18GetReadyPR.mspx| title=Microsoft and PC Manufacturers Make It Easier for Customers to Get Ready for Windows Vista| date=2006-05-18| accessdate=2006-05-18| work=PressPass| publisher=Microsoft--> A Vista Capable or equivalent PC will be capable of running all editions of Windows Vista although some of the special features and high end graphics options may require additional or more advanced hardware. A Vista Premium Ready PC will take advantage of Vista's "high-end" features.

Windows Vista's "Basic" and "Classic" interfaces will work with virtually any graphics hardware that supports Windows XP or 2000; accordingly, most discussion around Vista's graphics requirements centers on those for the Windows Aero interface. As of Windows Vista Beta 2, the NVIDIA GeForce 6 series and later, the ATI Radeon 9500 and later, Intel's GMA 950 integrated graphics, and a handful of VIA chipsets and S3 Graphics discrete chips are supported. Although originally supported, the GeForce FX 5 series has been dropped from newer drivers from NVIDIA. The last driver from NVIDIA to support the GeForce FX series on Vista was 96.85. Microsoft offers a tool called the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor to assist XP and Vista users in determining what versions of Windows their machine is capable of running. Although the installation media included in retail packages is a 32-bit DVD, customers without a DVD-ROM or customers who wish for a 64-bit install media are able to acquire this media through the Windows Vista Alternate Media program.{] driver support|-!Graphics memory| N/A || 128 MB RAM supports up to 2,756,000 total pixels (e.g. 1920 × 1200) or 512 MB+ for greater resolutions such as 2560x160064 MB RAM supports Aero with up to 1,310,720 total pixels (e.g. 1280 × 1024) but is not Premium Ready |-!HDD capacity| 20 GB || 40 GB|-!HDD free space| 15 GB || 15 GB|-!Other drives| CD-ROM || DVD-ROM|}

Service Pack 1 Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) is currently in development. Microsoft is planning to release SP1 alongside Windows Server 2008 in the first quarter of 2008.{{cite news]|title = Announcing Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Beta|date = 2007-08-29|accessdate = 2007-08-29-->{{cite news|url = http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/pages/windows-vista-service-pack-1-beta-whitepaper.aspx|publisher = Microsoft News--> The first beta of Windows Vista Service Pack 1, build 16659, was released on [September 24 2007 and is currently being tested by TechBeta participants in the Windows Vista SP1 Beta Program as well as TechNet and MSDN subscribers.{{cite news] published by Microsoft near the end of August 2007 outlined the scope and intent of the service pack, identifying three major areas of improvement: reliability and performance, administration experience, and support for newer hardware and standards. A detailed analysis of a leaked beta of Vista SP1 was undertaken by APCmag.com, which examined the changes to the Vista code base and registry entries. It listed out several hundred installation packages included in the beta, which appear to target back-end features rather than front-end functionality. However the journalist observed that there was a significant performance increase when comparing SP1 to the originally released version of Vista.{{cite news|url = http://apcmag.com/6929/vista_sp1_in_depth|publisher = APCmag.com|date=[August 7 2007.{{cite web|url=http://blogs.technet.com/filecab/archive/2007/01/26/don-t-judge-a-book-by-its-cover-why-windows-vista-defrag-is-cool.aspx|title=Don’t judge a book by its cover – why Windows Vista Defrag is cool|date=[January 26 2007 file system, [802.11n wireless networking,{{cite web] connections, and the Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol. An updated version of Windows Installer (version 4.5) is included that provides support for multi-package transactions and embedding the user interface of a child Windows Installer package inside a parent installation session.{{cite web]|date=2007-06-01|accessdate=2007-07-08--> Booting a system using Extensible Firmware Interface on x64 systems is also being introduced; this feature had originally been slated for the initial release of Vista but was delayed due to a lack of compatible hardware at the time.

Two areas which have seen changes in Service Pack 1 that have come as the result of concerns from software vendors. One of these is desktop search; users will be able to change the default desktop search program to one provided by a third party instead of the Microsoft desktop search program that comes with Windows Vista. Third-party desktop search programs will be able to seamlessly tie in their services into the operating system. These changes come in part due to complaints from Google, whose Google Desktop Search application was hindered by the presence of Vista's built-in desktop search. In June 2007, Google claimed that the changes being introduced for Service Pack 1 "are a step in the right direction, but they should be improved further to give consumers greater access to alternate desktop search providers."{{cite web]|date=June 21 2007s being introduced for the benefit of [antivirus software that currently relies on the unsupported practice of patching the Kernel (computer science) (see Kernel Patch Protection).{{cite news]-->

An update to Direct3D, 10.1, is planned for inclusion, which is expected to make mandatory several features which were previously optional in Direct3D 10 hardware.{{cite web|url=http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2007/08/09/microsoft-releases-information-on-upcoming-dx10-1-update|title=Microsoft releases information on upcoming D3D 10.1 update|first=Joel|last=Hruska|date=2007-08-09|accessdate=2008-08-10--> The whitepaper also notes that Service Pack 1 will include a kernel that will be up-to-date with the version to be shipped with Windows Server 2008.

Support for the Group Policy Management Console is being removed; a replacement is planned for release the same time frame as the release of the service pack.

Criticism Windows Vista has been the target of a number of negative assessments by various groups. Criticisms of Windows Vista include protracted development time, more restrictive licensing terms, the inclusion of a number of technologies aimed at restricting the copying of protected digital media, and the usability of the new User Account Control security technology. Reviewers have also noted some similarities between Vista's Aero interface and that of Apple Computer Aqua (user interface) interface for the Mac OS X operating system. Moreover, some concerns have been raised about many PCs meeting "Vista Premium Ready" hardware requirements and Vista's pricing.

Compatibility:Some programs that ran properly on Windows XP, especially the games, have been reported to behave unexpectedly with Windows Vista.http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/winvista_06.asp Due to the new Kernel Patch Protection, some Anti-virus programs are found to cause problems.

Slow file operations:When released, Vista performed file operations such as copying and deletion more slowly than other operating systems. Large copies required when migrating from one computer to another seemed difficult or impossible without workarounds such as using the command line. This inability to perform basic file operations efficiently attracted strong criticism. After six months, Microsoft confirmed the existence of these problems by releasing a special performance and reliability update, which was later disseminated through Windows Update, and will be included in SP1. (See 'Performance' section)

Licensing and cost:The introduction of additional Software licensing restrictions has been criticized. Criticism of upgrade licenses pertaining to Windows Vista Starter through Home Premium was expressed by Ars Technica's Ken Fisher, who noted that the new requirement of having a prior operating system already installed was going to cause irritation for users who reinstall Windows on a regular basis.{{cite web | url=http://arst

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