Windows Vista Seminar Review

As I stated yesterday, I went to a training/educational seminar yesterday that focused on the features coming with Windows Vista and Office 2007, along with the deployment of both in your enterprises. Even though there are some other b5 blogs that cover Windows Vista and Office 2007, I’m going to share some general thoughts here since it’s obviously about Microsoft.

There wasn’t too much new information shared about Office 2007, and I’ve already shared those specific thoughts on the Office 12 Watch blog so check them out there if you’re interested, so I’m going to focus on Vista and just general Microsoft comments.

Let’s jump in.

First, I realize it’s a beta software (specifically beta 2 Vista build 8354) that the presenter was using, but I would expect as much pre-work to have been done prior to the demonstration as possible. Things got started late because the presenter’s laptop didn’t have the drivers it needed to send the signal to both the laptop screen and the projector screen. If it were me presenting, I’d have been there an hour early to make sure everything went smoothly. Am I the only one that thinks like this? In addition, he didn’t already have his wi-fi for the room connected for his machine and also could find some of his own files for the presentation.

The other thing that surprised me about the presentation was some of the candor that the sponsoring partners had towards their almost mistrust of Vista and the new Office. It came across as more of a negative than an un-biased opinion. I’m all for openness and honesty from partners, especially in the development phase, but this seemed a little over-the-top.

The presenter did confirm that we should expect an RC1 release of Vista in early September. From the features they shared, I think I’ll be installing it on my home machine, I’m really liking what I saw yesterday.

Most of these thoughts are probably old hat for now, but they’re new from me.

• The Jewel – Start no more, it’s the “Windows Jewel” now. I like it! It’s clean and perpetuates the brand image.
• Aero Glass – Wow! Some great features. I’m not so much interested in the transparency although it is nice eye-candy. I’m really eager to get my hands on the new Alt-Tab preview, taskbar preview, and Flip3D features to cycle through programs. Absolutely need 128MB minimum of video ram to run Aero glass. The other nice feature to go with that is full video rendering in the small preview screens and tabs.
• 5 Vistas – Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, Ultimate. There is no Media Center edition anymore, it will be additional configuration packs you can add to any version. Also, the only difference between Business and Enterprise is that Business is sold as OEM and Enterprise is the version that’s used when Microsoft’s Software Assurance is purchased. Not really any new features, just some enhanced services that come along with it.
• Search – This is the new “Start” feature to me. As important as it was when 95 was released, search seems to be the new way to get everything done with Vista. You’re able to run programs by searching for them by name from the Windows Jewel, and applications are easily found by new indexing that takes place automatically and is continually updated.
• Screen Shots – Vista will include a screen shot grabber utility out of the box that also allows mark-up and editing of the file before sharing.
• Virtualization – One nice feature that I’m not sure was normally available is that a Windows Vista license includes up to 4 other licenses for previous operating systems if needed. This would be used for example in software development or test environments, or if you have some legacy software application that must be run in another version of the Windows OS.
• Mobility – many new improvements on mobility operations with Vista. Although not ground-shaking, but more of a heightened awareness of improved user interface is the “Mobility Center”. It works like a sub-control panel for all the settings that could be related to a laptop usage. One specific piece is the “Presentation Mode”, which allows you to quickly change power, volume, brightness, desktop wallpaper, suppress notifications and disable screen saver all with one-click.
• ReadyBoost – Don’t have enough RAM in your system? Or just need an extra boost every now and then? What if you could add another 2GB of RAM to your system as easily as plugging in a USB drive? ReadyBoost gives you this option. If you have it enabled and you insert a thumbdrive, you’ll be prompted on how you’d like to use the device. Very interesting! Regretfully in the build the presenter was using, it wasn’t enabled, so we couldn’t see it in action.
• Security – Only two default user types out of the box. Admins and Standard users. Highly recommended to normally logon as a standard user and always are prompted for credentials if you request to do something that needs admin privileges. Microsoft has improved the amounts of things that a standard user can do without admin access, like add a printer. You can still setup your own custom user levels if desired. Also to note, IE7 always runs as Standard User access regardless of login.