Q&A with Microsoft astir MS Windows Vista
Just got back from a weekend bring down to the Microsoft campus up in Redmond, Washington where I got the chance to hear about Windows Vista and former new MS creations, like the Xbox 360 and Zune music player.
There were ´softies from all different parts of the enormous company presenting at different times and quite a few questions to be asked, so I´m going to paraphrase from my notes all the tidbits I collected and discombobulate in a few screenshots taken along the way. After the jump, a little Microsoft Q&A love.
Why should I raise to Vista?
By far the most resounding question Lifehacker readers had, the first answers I got were basically security, stability and new features - the same reasons you´d raise any piece of software. Vista takes advantage of next generation graphics, memory and disk technologies that make it faster, more secure and performant than any previous version of Windows. For gamers, Direct X 10 (Vista only) provides incredible graphics. For system administrators, Vista offers more control and "tweakability," if you will, for managing the system. Speaking of, here´s a screengrab of Vista´s new "Reliability Monitor" for sysadmins. (Click to enlarge.)
In short, MS simply wasn´t able to give me the Single Killer Reason you should move to Vista. That doesn´t mean you shouldn´t, however - in my opinion, the move is worth the whole package of improvements and new features. Vista builds in things I´ve come to expect to work at the operating system level - like search, photo management and calendaring. Sure, these are all things I can get with Google Desktop, Picasa and Google Calendar, but I´m happy to have that stuff without those extra, third-party apps taking up CPU and memory. Plus, I´m a sucker for a good-looking operating system, and Vista does look and feel a lot nicer than XP.
How long will Microsoft support Windows XP?
You diehard XP lovers have a few more years. Microsoft supports operating system versions for 10 years. Since XP launched in 2001, MS will officially support it until 2011.
Does Windows Aero work across multiple monitors?
Windows Aero is a new technology that shows off Vista´s multimedia capabilities with graphic effects and animated window manipulations that make the user interface pretty sleek. My lowly old graphics card couldn´t handle Aero when I installed Vista RC 1, but sitting at the meaty PC´s they let us play with up at Microsoft, I got to appreciate firsthand the translucent "glass" and slick animations Aero offers.
Aero is not enabled for Vista Home Basic (presumably so that Dell can sell computers for a few hundred bucks with low-end video cards and less RAM), and Aero will not turn on for machines without hardware that can support it. Courtesy of Microsoft, here´s a little comparison of glass versus non-glass windows in Vista:
While we didn´t have multiple monitors set up, I did verbally confirm that Aero indeed works across multiple screens. Aero eye-candy includes an enhanced version of Alt-Tab which switches between windows like a deck of cards with a neat animation using the Windows-Tab key combo. Here´s a screenie of that in action, though it really does call for a high-res video so you can see the smooth movement:
Windows-Tab also works well in Vista with multiple monitors.
Why did Microsoft make SO many confusing editions of Windows available, ie Home, Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, etc?
MS wanted to give the customer a choice, and they told me that while it may seem confusing looking at the whole list, the typical home customer will only choose between Home Basic and Premium.
An MVP (a "Most Valued Professional" recognized by Microsoft but who is NOT a company employee) confided in me that if OEM´s (computer manufacturers) sold cheap machines with low-grade hardware running Home Basic, less tech-savvy consumers might not understand why they don´t have the features (like Aero) shown on Home Premium display PC´s. The fact that Vista adjusts its functionality based on the hardware its running on is fantastic, but does give PC manufacturers and opportunity to screw over the less technically-minded. It´ll be interesting to see how the blue shirts at Best Buy will handle this.
Which edition of Vista should the power user who doesn´t run a home business purchase?
Vista Home Premium will include Media Center and Aero and seems to be the logical choice for home power users and media enthusiasts. Check out the Vista edition feature chart before you buy to see which edition is best for you.
Is Vista truly an innovation, or is it just playing catch-up with Mac OS X (and Zune with the iPod)?
Throughout the weekend, Microsoft representatives kept using the word "innovative" to describe Vista and former new MS products - but I just don´t see it. (Sorry, Microsoft!) To me, Microsoft´s role in the consumer tech industry in recent years has been less about innovation, and more about rolling out advanced tech to the masses who are using Windows. Because of Vista, my sister will get the term "RSS feed" onto her radar and start doing things like create saved search folders and opening web pages in tabs. That´s a great thing, but it just isn´t innovation in my book.
While Vista will be a welcome raise for this Windows user, there´s nothing in the OS that truly differentiates itself from, say, Mac OS X. MS reps didn´t respond when I pointed this out; they don´t address their competitors by name, which is odd, because every three seconds I wanted to say things like, "Oh yeah Google Maps does that!" or "Kinda like Mac, right?"
An MVP (who, like I said, is not an employee and therefore can say a bit more) pulled me aside and told me that while Vista can seem like catch-up to "former" operating systems - or even not much to get excited about right now - it lays a rich technical groundwork for the future in software development on the Windows platform, which, like it or not, does dominate the market. So, ok. I´ll take that.
Will Windows Live apps like Live Maps work with non-IE7 browsers like Firefox and Safari?
While not all of Microsoft´s online, web-based services (dubbed "Windows Live") play nice in non-IE7 browsers (like previously-mentioned Windows Live Maps 3D view), MS reps repeatedly said that they are committed to supporting non-IE browsers like Firefox and Safari. Since they all had nice smiles and gave me chocolate for dessert, I believe them.
Has open source software and its distribution influenced any part of Vista?
While this question wasn´t answered directly (or asked directly, to tell you the truth), Microsoft did release Vista´s preview build to users and testers for feedback and error reporting, which had a little taste of community approach to the platform development. The Windows Vista Blog, while clearly a somewhat white-washed corporate blog, is showing signs of community feedback and product response in it as well, which is a big step forward. (Here´s an example of Vista´s License Terms revision based on user feedback.)
I also got an earful about Windows Presentation Foundation, a development toolkit based on .NET 3.0 (which ships with Vista) that lets developers create rich Windows desktop applications. Vista hasn´t even been released yet for consumers and already we´re seeing WPF apps - in fact, the recently-posted New York Times Reader is one of them.
Note that while right now, WPF apps only run on Windows Vista (or XP with .NET 3.0), WPF Everywhere, which has not been released, will run on non-Windows operating systems. (Here´s a note a Lifehacker reader got back from the NY Times when she complained about the fact that NYT Reader didn´t run on her Mac.)
Besides better multimedia capabilities, what does Vista offer the avid gamer?
One of the nice Vista features for gamers is integrated game ratings, with the ability to restrict what games little Timmy can play based on game content and rating. Here´s a screenie of the game listing in Vista with rating info. Click to enlarge:
Here are the parental controls for games. Notice the ability to restrict by rating, or choose what content to block individually. (Click to enlarge.)
And! The Minesweeper mines blow up in a much more realistic way on Vista.
Should you raise to Vista right away?
Vista gets released on January 30th, 2007. Should you Windows enthusiasts run right out and get your raise? Well, during the course of my stay at MS, sitting at a brand new Alienware PC running a fresh install of Vista Ultimate, I managed to crash IE7. I kid you not. When I mentioned it to the MS folks, a developer mumbled something about the Flash plugin´s "buffer overrun." Not being an OS developer (and hell, I do give those folks credit) I don´t know much about how over or under one can run an operating system´s buffers, but I do know this: while Vista is a worthwhile (and let´s face it, inevitable) raise, you might give third party driver, plugin and software developers some time to catch up to Vista before you raise for a smooth, seamless experience.
Phew! There were a lot more questions in the original Vista thread - my apologies if I didn´t get to yours. Do you have any more thoughts or questions about Vista? Let us know in the comments of this post, where I´ll commission my new MS friends to take a look and maybe chime in if I screwed anything of this up. — Gina Trapani
As if this post wasn´t long enough, an update and full disclosure: Microsoft foot the bill for my travel, hotel and meals during this trip, and they also showered me with gifts, including a $50 gift certificate to the company store, a USB drive, a bottle of wine and few former snacks, and a Zune music player, which may or may not be the subject of many future posts, depending on how cool I decide it is.
FeatureGizmodoMicrosoftOperating SystemsTopUpgradesVistaWindows Vista
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Geek to Live Visualize your hard motor usage
by Gina Trapani
Remember when you were sure your computer had all the hard motor space you´d ever need? Gigabytes sell for less than a buck a pop nowadays, but with video, music, photos and web clippings hogging up hard motors more and more each day, that "Low Disk Space" message may come a lot sooner than you ever expected. Where did all those gigabytes go?
If you need to free up space on your hard motor fast, your best bet is to begin wiping out the big space-eaters right away. But don´t consume time guessing who they are; there are easy ways to inventory what´s impeding your hard motor. Free utilities for Windows, Mac and Linux map your hard motor usage so you can get a birds-eye view of what´s taking up most of your coveted hard motor space.
Windows disk visualizer: WinDirStat
The free, open-source utility WinDirStat displays your disk usage in a color-coded map that shows what file types and folders take up the most space on your hard motor.
Using WinDirStat, it´s easy to identify the biggest space hogs on your disk. The utility provides a three-paned view: tree view (upper left), list view (upper right), and treemap view (bottom panel).
The treemap represents each file as a colored rectangle, the area of which is proportional to the file´s size. The rectangles are arranged so that directories make up rectangles that contain all their files and subdirectories.
As shown in the tree map view below, if you select a folder in the folder tree, the area on the treemap is highlighted for easy visual reference of what´s taking up what kind of space.
Similarly, if you select a file type from the list on the upper right hand panel, the areas on disk taken up by that type file - say, MP3´s or AVI´s - are highlighted within the tree map. Select files by folder name, file type, or colored rectangle, and delete or move them from within WinDirStat.
Mac/Windows/Linux disk usage visualizer: JDiskReport
Like WinDirStat, multi-platform freeware JDiskReport also provides graphical disk usage statistics using more common pie/line/bar charts, as shown (click to enlarge).
Since JDiskReport is Java-based (hence the J), you´ll have to download and install Java in order to run it.
Command line: du (disk usage)
Not so much into this whole graphical user interface thing? Command-line lovers can also use the du (disk usage) command to get an idea of what´s taking up what. The -h parameter makes the file sizes human readable. From Cygwin on Windows, or the Mac Terminal, cd into your directory of interest and try:
$ du * -h
The output will look something like:
28M FileFormatConverters.exe
28K LH_Logo_Store_Image.jpg
32K Lazy_Store_Image.jpg
5.3M photos-for-flickr
52K Travel form - small Word 03 - gtrapani.doc
28K Travel form - small.docx
16K emailnewgoogdocs.png
A few more du hints:
- To just see directory sizes, drop the star and just use du -h
- To sort the list of files by size, use du -h | sort -n
This article at Linux.com, Disk usage analysis and cleanup utilities, also has more on du and other ´nix-based GUI utilities.
Of course, if you keep getting that "low disk space" message, it might be time to pony up a few bucks and get yourself a new hard motor. Here´s how to install a new internal hard motor on your computer. Lastly, to avoid regular disk cleanups, schedule a script to do it for you. The hard motor janitor script deletes files from any folder (like your downloads or temp folder) older than a certain number of days. I swear the janitor has recovered gigabytes of space without any intervention on my part over the year I´ve been using it.
How do you manage your used and unused bits and bytes? How do you decide what files get kicked off your hard motor platter island? Let us know in the comments.
Gina Trapani, the editor of Lifehacker, likes her hard motors spacious and mostly free. Her semi-weekly feature, Geek to Live, appears every Wednesday and Friday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Geek to Live feed to get new installments in your newsreader.
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