One of the more significant new features would be Windows Aero, the new hardware-based graphical user interface. The new interface Aero, which is an acronym for Authentic, Energenic, Reflective, and Open, is intended to be cleaner and more visually pleasing than past Windows, including new transparencies, live icons, live thumbnails, and ‘eye candy’. Vista also boasts the new Windows Shell, which is drastically different then Windows XP, offering a broad new range of organization, search capabilities and navigation. Windows Explorer’s task panel has been removed, and the relevant task options have been integrated into the toolbar. The address bar has been replaced with a ‘breadcrumb navigation system’, in which the preview panel will allow users to browse thumbnails of various files and also, view the contents of documents. The Start menu has been changed as well; it no longer uses expanding boxes when navigating through programs. Also, the Start button itself has been removed, and replaced with a blue Windows Orb, also called “Pearl”.
Some of the more notable Windows XP features and components have simply been replaced or removed in Windows Vista. Such features include Windows Messenger, the network Messenger Service, MSN Explorer, HyperTerminal, Active Desktop , and the replacement of Net Meeting with Windows Meeting Space. IP over FireWire (TCP/IP over IEEE 1394) has been removed as well. WinHlp32.exe, which was used to display 32-bit .hlp files (help pages), is no longer included with Windows Vista, as Microsoft considers it to be obsolete, though it is available as a separate download. Microsoft also prohibits software manufacturers from re-introducing the .hlp help system with their products. Telnet.exe is no longer installed by default, but, is included as an installable feature.
Even with it’s new features, many consumers are not very happy with the new operating system. When released, Vista performed file operations such as copying and deletion more slowly than other operating systems. The introduction of additional licensing restrictions has also been criticized. Concerns have been raised about the new User Account Control (UAC) security technology. Many consumers have noted that "while the new security system shows promise, it is far too chatty and annoying.”
Vista carries many new features and a revamped style and look to it, but it seems that for everything you gain with this new technology, everyone will be losing out on something they liked from the past editions of Windows operating systems.
01.11.2007. 17:31