Microsoft Vista: An Overview

Solutions in this chapter:

Introduction

The long-anticipated successor to Windows XP is just now making its debut to the world. Windows Vista has spent the last five years in development and has undergone many feature additions, deletions, and changes. Vista features a heavily altered core, and to many users, it will look and feel entirely different. The fact is that Vista is still built on the now mature and robust Windows NT kernel. Vista is intended to improve reliability, security, and manageability. It also was designed to provide an improved user experience.

The reliability factor has long been an issue to most Windows users, and as sys admins we all have stories of failed systems and frequent BSODs. As sys admins we also understand that a truly effective operating system (OS) doesn’t need to be rebooted, or rebuilt on a regular basis; an effective OS provides a great user experience and wide application support, as well as a stable base on which to run those applications. The Windows NT kernel and its iterations, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows 2003, have focused on improving the reliability of the OS with each release and with each service pack. Windows Vista again takes a much-needed step forward in reliability. Microsoft has built the code for Vista on top of Windows Server 2003 Service Pack (SP) 1. This design not only helps with reliability but also brings with it all the security improvements brought about by the Windows 2003 Server line of operating systems.

The recent focus of most electronic systems vendors has been security, security, security, and there is good reason for this push toward effective security controls for everything from electronic voting machines to home computers. The hacker is not a new enemy to computer systems, but the fact that electronic systems are now in use throughout our society makes available a host of new, poorly protected systems. The availability of high-speed Internet access is also a contributing factor. Previously, when people were connected to the Internet only via a slow dial-up connection for a couple hours each night, hackers had a very small window of opportunity to attack home systems. Now with ubiquitous always-on broadband connections, hackers have ample opportunity to attack home systems that rarely have strong security controls in place.

Windows Vista continues the efforts of the developers of Windows XP SP 2 and Windows Server 2003 SP 1. Vista includes an updated host-based firewall, User Account Control (UAC), Internet Explorer 7, and Windows Defender. Vista code also underwent an intensive code security audit process by Microsoft, and independent hackers in the security community were invited by Microsoft to attack Vista and make recommendations on how security could be improved. From these third-party suggestions came features such as, Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), which helps protect systems from buffer overflow attacks by randomizing the memory location where system files are loaded. This isn’t a new feature to operating systems in general; it has been used in Linux and BSD for some time now, but it is new to the Windows line of operating systems.

Manageability is another important subject related to administering Windows machines. Applying application and system patches is one of the main areas of concern when it comes to managing any OS. In previous versions of Windows, most application or system updates required a reboot of the entire system. With Vista, however, Microsoft has added the Restart Manager, which is called by the installer to look at a particular application or portion of the system and determine whether the update can be applied without rebooting the entire OS. The Restart Manager also helps in the event of a required reboot by taking a snapshot of the system and applications open on the machine. After the reboot the applications and any file resources that were in use by the system are reopened and presented to the user as if the machine were never shutdown. By separating user-mode and kernel-mode code and improving the isolation between the two, the developers of Vista have also changed the responsibility of third-party vendors.

Much concern has been expressed by the community as a whole about the requirements to run Vista. If you are wondering whether your system meets the requirements,Table 1.1 lists the Microsoft’s recommendations. You can also go to www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/upgradeadvisor/default.mspx and the upgrade advisor will analyze your current system specs. Any new software will have a few bugs, and we did experience bugs when upgrading a current system from XP to Vista, but our fresh installation with Vista went very smoothly. We have installed Vista on several different systems and only experienced a few problems during the process. The only issue that we found was on an AMD system with an NVIDIA 7300 graphics card installed. Vista was unable to properly allocate system resources for the graphics card, resulting in a 4-bit default display. A quick search revealed that others were experiencing the same issue with Vista and this particular graphics processor. Unfortunately, no fix was currently available. Minimum supported requirements for running Vista include an 800 MHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor; 512 MB of system memory; an SVGA (800 × 600) GPU; a 20 GB HDD with 15 GB of free space; and a CD-ROM optical drive. Table 1.1 lists the requirements that Microsoft recommends for new Vista installations and upgrades.

Microsoft offers six different versions of Vista for consumers and business users (see Table 1.2). The Home versions will fit into the same niche that Windows XP Home edition fit into; unfortunately, they both lack some of the higher end features that power users desire. For example, the Home Basic version is intended for people who just want to surf the Web, have e-mail access, and create documents, whereas the Home Premium version includes features for users who are interested in using the system for video, music, and mobile computing. The Vista Business edition is more centered on typical business use. It lacks the media center features of the Home premium edition. Windows Ultimate edition is for power users who require all the features. The unfortunate reality of this highly diverse field of editions is that most users will end up either missing out on features they desire or simply shelling out more money for the Ultimate edition. For example, Home premium doesn’t include Remote Desktop, the lowest cost edition to support remote desktop is the Business edition, which doesn’t include the media center features. To have both features users will need to get the Ultimate edition. Another example is the lack of BitLocker drive encryption in the Business edition, a feature that you would expect to see in the purported “business” edition of a product.