Windows Vista Ulimate, one week before release

Windows Vista will be officially released at Microsoft headquarters in New York City on November 30. The retail program begins in January to the following year, after two months of business release. We would like to provide a review, which can be called the last of Vista before the operating system officially launches users. Also included is a photo gallery, which helps readers get a full view of a Vista image from the first test versions so far.

A big surprise in the upcoming release is . nothing new will surprise us and look forward! Because Vista officially hasn't changed much compared to the most recent beta. Windows Vista RTM is better than the Beta 2 of summer and RC2 was released early this fall.

Since its inception, Vista has also gone through many intermediate steps. To sum up, it can be seen that the official Vista image is not much different from the latest test version. Here are some brief summary steps about the process that people often call " from the beginning to the new civilization ".

Vista's Flip 3D graphics component lets you arrange open windows in the middle of the screen and scroll them when hovering from the front to the back between applications.

Installation: C + points, a mixed bag.

64-bit versions often cause problems. Even with the computer I used to test (3.2 GHz, 64-bit, Pentium D dual-core speed), I got into trouble. Many times the installation was done, almost all parts were finished, but ultimately it was impossible to complete the entire program. The problem arises again, sometimes because your hard drive is incompatible with the new operating system at some point.

With the 32-bit version everything seems a little easier, but it takes a lot of time. Its load operation usually takes 42 minutes. Then you may have to change the display settings yourself if Vista doesn't recognize the graphics card to load the drive properly for the Aero interface. On the device I used to check that the card is Nvidia GeForce 7300, "luckily" Vista automatically recognizes and selects the WDM drive.

The Vista installation program is not as user-friendly as Windows XP. Even when you upgrade to the official version directly from Windows XP, you will still face a lot more complicated issues than the test versions.

Perhaps Microsoft is planning to add a dialog for advanced DVDs, which helps alleviate the complexity of the problem. However, upgrades will mainly focus on consumers buying XP-equipped computers from now until the end of January next year. Vista requires a good graphics card to run its translucent Aero interface, so some older XP users (but not all) will get a free upgrade. Most facilitated users have a relatively bright installation program. As for businesses, it is not so, that is the problem of IT department.

View and feel: A + score

Vista's Aero screen interface is one of the most powerful interfaces ever. The Flip 3D hologram component and open applications scrolling feature give us a user-friendly and pretty fun interface. (Although previously there were some similar components on Mac OS X and some Linux distributions).

There is nothing strange about the first setting screen that requires you to enter your username, password and background.( Source: informationweek )

Enforcement and utility: point A-

Vista's execution program has obviously improved significantly since the early Beta 2 in June. With RC2 released in October, Vista's speed was faster, much quieter.

But there is a drawback to the fact that recording large files is slow. In security, the User Account Controls component is not perfect. Microsoft still seems to be reading a book about entertainment Transportation Security Administration. Do you really need to use extended "privileges" to see screen device properties?

There are also many complaints about the combined components (located in Accessories) in the operating system. Microsoft did a weird passive thing when embedding all those components into Vista. Even Media Center and Photo Gallery are included in the Star menu instead of the default setting on the desktop. You should even put a dialog box at initial startup, inviting users to configure all these basic components before pressing the "go" button?

After booting, Vista's second welcome screen indicates system configuration and some commonly used functions.( Source: informationweek )

The improvements of the Sidebar are particularly emphasized. But only ten of them are bundled with Vista even though these parts are already in third-party products. If Microsoft defaults to certain types of light-emitting groups of components on the desktop, it would be much more convenient to use applications.

Time (aka management): point B-

Sure, as you can see, the release of Vista was horribly late, with a lot of reasons that you might have heard. The person in charge of Jim Allchin, the co-director of platform at Microsoft, was blamed for Vista's delay.

But do we really want the new operating system to hit the market in the middle of the technology crisis of the 9/11 period? With the advent of current Web 2.0 technology, Vista's lag becomes beneficial.

Overall: point B +

The most surprising thing about Vista is that despite trying a lot, it's hard to find a significant difference between the new operating system and its previous versions.

But that seems to be a good signal. Because this means that Microsoft no longer focuses too much on its appearance, but focuses on internal software content, protecting Vista from vandalism.

With Beta 2 and even RC2, Vista always requires constant attention and attention.

Vista components are time-temperature applications, even allowing you to play video poker or Sudoku while still working normally.( Source: informationweek )

To decide whether to upgrade to Vista, businesses and financial managers often have to face three questions: how much is Vista's security better than XP; How much is the copyright price? How much does Vista's hardware capacity require to upgrade? Vista's security features depend on the size of the steps, regardless of the components that control user accounts. Microsoft has built Vista systems with both Office 2007 and Exchange 2007, aimed at preventing intrusion of desktops from Linux. At the given price, it is better to leave Vista out of the box. Businesses will definitely be excited to have Vista as part of the regular computer upgrade cycle.

Final comment : The official version of Vista released on November 30 will not be surprising.

T.Thu