Cool Tech Zone has an indepth look at Microsoft Windows Vista CTP Build 5270 :
A while back, when Microsoft announced its decision to no longer release a monthly CTP for Vista, we were a bit worried, since we wanted to follow-up on the latest developments of Microsoft’s next-gen. operating system (though Microsoft promised to update current versions via critical updates). To Microsoft’s credit, it has kept its word and has released an update sooner than we had anticipated, and needless to say, the changes in this release are substantial.
25.Jan.06 
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Microsoft have announced another security policy in regards to Vista :
With the threat from kernel-mode rootkits on the rise, Microsoft plans to make a significant policy change to block uncertified drivers from loading on x64 versions of Windows Vista.
Starting with Windows Vista and Windows Server (Longhorn), kernel-mode software must have a digital signature to load on x64-based computer systems.
The decision to block unsigned drivers from loading is a direct attempt to restrict the spread of powerful rootkits that intercept the native API in kernel-mode and directly manipulate Windows data structures.
Source : Eweek
25.Jan.06 General Read more Comments (0)
Office 12 will be shipping with 6 brand new Microsoft-designed fonts;
- Consolas
- Calibri
- Cambria
- Constantia
- Corbel
- Candara
I wonder who’s bright idea it was to name them so similar ? surely not as good idea.
Images and description are courtesy of Jensen Harris: An Office User Interface Blog :
Consolas
Is aimed for use in programming environments and other circumstances where a monospaced font is specified. All characters have the same width, like old typewriters, making it a good choice for personal and business correspondence. The improved Windows font display allowed a design with proportions closer to normal text than traditional monospaced fonts like Courier. This allows for more comfortably reading of extended text on screen. OpenType features include hanging or lining numerals; slashed, dotted and normal zeros; and alternative shapes for a number of lowercase letters. The look of text can be tuned to personal taste by varying the number of bars and waves.
Calibri
Is a modern sans serif family with subtle roundings on stems and corners. It features real italics, small caps, and multiple numeral sets. Its proportions allow high impact in tightly set lines of big and small text alike. Calibri’s many curves and the new rasteriser team up in bigger sizes to reveal a warm and soft character.
Cambria
Has been designed for on-screen reading and to look good when printed at small sizes. It has very even spacing and proportions. Diagonal and vertical hairlines and serifs are relatively strong, while horizontal serifs are small and intend to emphasize stroke endings rather than stand out themselves. This principle is most noticeable in the italics where the lowercase characters are subdued in style to be at their best as elements of word-images. When Cambria is used for captions at sizes over 20 point, the inter-character spacing should be slightly reduced for best results. The design isn’t just intended for business documents: The regular weight has been extended with a large set of math and science symbols. The Greek and Cyrillic has been designed under close supervision of an international team of experts, who aimed to set a historical new standard in multi-script type design.
Constantia
Is a modulated wedge-serif typeface designed primarily for continuous text in both electronic and paper publishing. The design responds to the recent narrowing of the gap between screen readability and traditional print media, exploiting specific aspects of the most recent advances in ClearType rendering, such as sub-pixel positioning. The classic proportions of relatively small x-height and long extenders make Constantia ideal for book and journal publishing, while the slight squareness and open counters ensure that it remains legible even at small sizes.
Corbel
Is designed to give an uncluttered and clean appearance on screen. The letter forms are open with soft, flowing curves. It is legible, clear and functional at small sizes. At larger sizes the detailing and style of the shapes is more apparent resulting in a modern sans serif type with a wide range of possible uses.
Candara
Is a casual humanist sans with verticals showing a graceful entasis on stems, high-branching arcades in the lowercase, large apertures in all open forms, and unique ogee curves on diagonals. The resultant texture is lively but not intrusive, and makes for a friendly and readable text.
24.Jan.06 Screenshots Read more Comments (0)
For years the mac interface has been lauded over PC users, especially within the design community and its true that that Macs did look better - they intoduced gel style icons, transparency and overall the user experience was a lot sleeker and better to look at than boring old windows.
I think this is about to change with the introduction of Vista, Microsoft really seems to have placed a great importance on the overal look and feel of it.
The transparency effects look nicer, the icons have been improved and overall I think it shades it in the ‘looks stakes’ over OS X, not forgetting that Vista is still in Beta.
OSX :
Vista :
What do you think ?
24.Jan.06 Screenshots Read more Comments (8)
Extreme Tech takes a look at the specs needed if you want to build a decent Vista-compatible PC today :
First, we’ll assume that people will want the full Aero Glass treatment, with 3D effects, transparency and so on. Secondly, users will want to use Vista’s compositing engine, which enables more robust typeface handling. Finally, we’ll also assume people will want reasonably good performance, though that’s somewhat determined by your usage model. An office workstation won’t have the same performance requirements as a multimedia powerhouse.
24.Jan.06 General Read more Comments (0)
That’s right folks. Windows Vienna is the new codename for Windows Blackcomb the successor to Windows Vista.
Not much is known about Blackcomb officially and Microsoft is not ready to talk about it yet. However, Microsoft’s blogging guru, Robert Scoble confirmed in a thread reply to a channel 9 video, “since this video was shot the codename for Blackcomb has indeed changed to Vienna. I haven’t gotten the story on this yet, though.”
While Windows Vista is intended to be a technologies-based release, with some UI changes (in the form of the Aero set of technologies and guidelines), Vienna is targeted directly at revolutionizing the way we interact with our home and office PCs.
Source
o
23.Jan.06 News Read more Comments (0)
A feature of ie7 announced on the ie blog is a new improved way of clearing your browsing history called ‘Delete Browsing History’. At the moment this process can take a while and hog your pc resources, this will be improved in ie7 by showing a cancellable dialog box showing the progress and will run in the background.
Why would you want to do this ? the ie blog has this to say :
So you’re trying to buy a gift for your loved one and you know how important it is to keep this mission secret. You’re aware of every site you visit but your machine is aware of even more; the stuff you type, the information you read, even the cookies requested by the site where you eventually buy the gift. You realize how important it is that your loved one never gets hold of any of this information. So you do what we all would, you try and cover your tracks. Now back in IE6, you would have to spend a lot of time looking through various places on your computer to get rid of all the relevant information and possibly still miss some critical information. Now with the ‘Delete Browsing History’ feature, we are giving every person the ability to clear all their browsing information from one location with a click of a button and, the peace of mind that the job was done right.
Allvistaworld thinks this is very valiant, and wouldnt like to suggest other types of website you may not wish your loved one to see 
20.Jan.06 General Read more Comments (0)
Information Week has an article called “Five Things You Didn’t Know About Windows Vista” as follows :
- What’s the official Windows Vista launch Date?
- Want to work on Vista?
- What’s a quick way to learn to write Vista-aware code?
- Where are the games?
- Did you know that Microsoft isn’t the only entity that’s registered ‘Windows Vista’ as a trademark?
Read the full article here
16.Jan.06 General Read more Comments (0)
Another smart move Microsoft, every version of Vista will ship complete with all the operating system versions in one image. Customers will then be able to upgrade if they wish from say, the home version to the professional version by logging onto the Microsoft website.
“No matter which edition you buy you get all the bits and a key to unlock it. Everyone will have all the bits,” said one source familiar with Microsoft’s plans. “Right now we maintain master images for each version of Windows XP and it’s a lot of work. Now there’s just one master image.”
Having a master Windows Vista operating system means customers that buy PCs preloaded with one Vista SKU, Home Basic, for example, will be able to punch their credit card into a Microsoft Web site to unlock Vista Home Premium and more speedily deploy media center features without an on-site visit or requiring a wipe and reload of the system.
The impact on the channel will be “huge” since partners will no longer have to support multiple Windows images for each customer or do reloads, sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans said this week. It will also make up-selling much easier and vastly expand channel opportunities, the sources said.
Source CRN
16.Jan.06 News Read more Comments (0)
Microsoft has redesigned the vista website.
It appears more in-keeping with the look and feel of the operating sytem :
12.Jan.06 General Read more Comments (0)
