Windows vesta release notes

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Windows 10, version and Windows Server update history. Windows 10 initial version released July update history. Windows 10, version , all editions Windows Server version More Release Date:. What's new for Windows 10, version and Windows 10, version release notes Windows 10, versions and share a common core operating system and an identical set of system files.

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Release Notes - This version is not fully optimized for full 3D performance and may not include all available features available on different operating systems. NVIDIA, along with the industry, is continuing to update its Windows Vista drivers to ensure maximum performance on 3D applications and add support for features.

These drivers are provided "AS IS. 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. UAC is a security technology that makes it possible for users to use their computer with fewer privileges by default, with a view to stopping malware from making unauthorized changes to the system. 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.

Regular use of the computer such as running programs, printing, or surfing the Internet does not trigger UAC prompts. User Account Control asks for credentials in a Secure Desktop mode, in which the entire screen is dimmed, and only the authorization window is active and highlighted. The intent is to stop a malicious program misleading the user by interfering with the authorization window, and to hint to the user the importance of the prompt.

Symantec used over 2, active malware samples, consisting of backdoors, keyloggers , rootkits, mass mailers, trojan horses, spyware, adware, and various other samples. Each was executed on a default Windows Vista installation within a standard user account.

UAC effectively blocked over 50 percent of each threat, excluding rootkits. Internet Explorer 7 's new security and safety features include a phishing filter, IDN 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 runs in isolation from other applications in the operating system, preventing it from accessing or modifying anything besides the Temporary Internet Files directory.

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.

Whereas prior releases of Windows supported per-file encryption using Encrypting File System , the Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Vista include BitLocker Drive Encryption which can protect entire volumes, notably the operating system volume. However, BitLocker requires approximately a 1. In normal circumstances, the only time this partition is accessed is when the computer is booting, or when there is a Windows update that changes files in this area which is a legitimate reason to access this section of the drive.

The area can be a potential security issue, because a hexadecimal editor such as dskprobe. However, as with other full disk encryption technologies, BitLocker is vulnerable to a cold boot attack, especially where TPM is used as a key protector without a boot PIN being required too. 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 have not 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. The bit versions of Vista require that all device drivers be digitally signed, so that the creator of the driver can be identified. While much of the focus of Vista's new capabilities has highlighted the new user-interface, security technologies, and improvements to the core operating system, Microsoft also adding new deployment and maintenance features:.

Windows Vista includes a large number of new application programming interfaces. Chief among them is the inclusion of version 3. Version 3. These technologies are also available for Windows XP and Windows Server 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.

There are some issues for software developers using some of the graphics APIs in Vista. Games or programs which are built solely on the Windows Vista-exclusive version of DirectX , version 10, cannot work on prior versions of Windows, as DirectX 10 is not available for previous Windows versions.

Also, games which require the features of D3D9Ex, the updated implementation of DirectX 9 in Windows Vista are also incompatible with previous Windows versions. However, hardware overlay is not supported, because it is considered as an obsolete feature in Vista. The "Hardware profiles" startup feature has also been removed, along with support for older motherboard technologies like the EISA bus, APM and Game port support though on the bit version game port support can be enabled by applying an older driver.

Windows Vista does not include the " Luna " visual theme, created in for Windows XP, or most of the classic color schemes which have been part of Windows since the Windows 3. Also the caption buttons are changed. Only Windows Classic can still be found in that operating system. Windows Vista ships in six different editions.

These 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 economically more developed countries.

Windows Vista Home Basic is intended for budget users and is available only in emerging markets. Windows Vista Home Premium covers the majority of the consumer market, and contains applications for creating and using multimedia. The home editions cannot join a Windows Server domain.

For businesses, there are three editions. Windows Vista Business is specifically designed for small and medium enterprises small and medium-sized businesses, is only available to customers participating in Microsoft's Microsoft Software Assurance Software Assurance program.

Windows Vista Ultimate contains the complete feature-set of both the Home and Business combination of both Home Premium and Enterprise editions, as well as a set of Windows Ultimate Extras , and is aimed at enthusiasts. All editions except Windows Vista Starter support both bit x86 and bit x64 processor architectures.

Similar sanctions exist in South Korea. A Vista Capable or equivalent PC is 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. Windows Vista's Basic and Classic interfaces work with virtually any graphics hardware that supports Windows XP or ; accordingly, most discussion around Vista's graphics requirements centers on those for the Windows Aero interface.

Microsoft offers a tool called the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor to assist Windows 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 bit DVD, customers needing a CD-ROM or customers who wish for a bit install media are able to acquire this media through the Windows Vista Alternate Media program.

The Ultimate edition includes both bit and bit media. The digitally downloaded version of Ultimate includes only one version, either bit or bit, from Windows Marketplace. Maximum limits on physical memory RAM that Windows Vista can address vary depending on the both the Windows version and between bit and bit versions.

The following table specifies the maximum physical memory limits supported:. The total maximum number of logical processors of a PC that Windows Vista supports is: 32 for bit; 64 for bit. Microsoft occasionally releases service packs for its Windows operating systems to fix bugs and add new features.

The initial deployment of the service pack caused a number of machines to continually reboot, rendering the machines unusable. This caused Microsoft to temporarily suspend automatic deployment of the service pack until the problem was resolved. The synchronized release date of the two operating systems reflected the merging of the workstation and server kernels back into a single code base for the first time since Windows Initially, the service pack only supported 5 languages — English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese.

Support for the remaining 31 languages was released on April 14, A whitepaper published by Microsoft near the end of August 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.

One area of particular note is performance. Areas of improvement include file copy operations, hibernation, logging off on domain-joined machines, JavaScript parsing in Internet Explorer, network file share browsing, Windows Explorer ZIP file handling, and Windows Disk Defragmenter.