Software: The Next Windows: Windows Vista

If you didn't know, Microsoft is working on their next OS: Windows Vista. The system requirements will be pretty heavy, including a minimum of 512MB of RAM and a dedicated graphics card with DirectX 9.0 support.

One of the new features is virtual folders, which are basically XML files. You create them when you query something in the search box in Windows. Virtual folders aren’t exactly folders but are more like a file list. Say for example, you search for a particular file containing 'openpost' on your computer. Once the search is finished and you have your matches, you can store the results in a separate folder. When you click on Save Search, you get an option of Save As: Virtual Folder, where you enter a name like you do otherwise for a file and you get a pretty blue folder icon on your desktop indicating a virtual folder. So actual file locations don’t change but all the matches of your search get listed inside the folder and appear like files when in fact, they are simply links to them.

Microsoft has also completely integrated MSN search into the OS. No doubt this is a punch in the face for Google.

The start menu now has a small search box in case you have too many programs and don’t want to scroll through Windows.

The next change is when you click on "All Programs" option, there is no new pane that slides out, instead the pane on the left simply switches to the entire list of programs and clicking on a folder opens it up in the Explorer style.

The other subtle change is that no longer do we have any more of "My" computer, etc. The "My" part is all gone and now there’s only Computer, Documents, Music and so on. The reason for the shift is that Microsoft had introduced it to make computers appear friendlier and with the growing adoption of computer as an everyday device, the "My" is not required anymore, so it was booted out.

The much-awaited IE7 has its beta version embedded into Vista Beta 1 as well. Not surprisingly, they're going head to head with Firefox. It has tabbed browsing, supports RSS and even extensions. Infact, it sounds like they've completely ripped off Firefox! Bastards! The default interface looks more on the lines of Safari too.

So far, Windows Vista doesn't sound to be all that different from XP. It has some cool features but requires way too many resources in order to function. There's also been some reported glitches, but hopefully those will fixed in the final build (unlikely?). Vista is coming 2006.

What do you think so far?

yea its actually pretty cool, a friend of mine gave the the pre-beta beta called Windows Longhorn. it's basically the same thing as XP but with more control. think of it as the same jump from windows 2000 to windows ME, or whichever order they went in.

takai! u expect microsoft to NOT steal?!? :P

but other then that, i can see no reason to get this.... odds are it will cost 400 or more, do nothing but slow your system up and if you have a slow system already freeze it), and look pretty.

a waste of money if you ask me...


im interested though, whats the "gothic" look

Wow, I'm way digging the black.


I imagine I'll just pirate it, and hope that I can use my XP Serial to upgrade. But none of you heard me say that.


And wtf is with the p2p thing? Like ANYONE'S gonna use it. Transfer any "illegal" file, and M$ is gonna be up your ass.

Mac feel? wtf?

Looks like some WindowBlindsXP theme, nothing major. I was hoping for a radical change like with ME and XP.

windows vista is pretty sweet. kinda lagged though since it kept asking to install drivers for my vid card/printer/webcam when it's not even supported on vista. i like the new explorer as well. it's not plain any more. vista adds style to windows. im pretty sure once it's released in 2007 it's going to be even better.

This may sound totally biased, but I hate Microsoft for trying to imitate Firefox. I'll always use Firefox, it doesn't matter if IE puts in the same features. Firefox is my buddy, not my utility. Well, it is my utility, but it's also my buddy :).

And last time I tried Vista (it might have still been codenamed Longhorn back then), it was really, really slow (at the time I was using 512 RAM). I'm guessing this is just something wrong with the beta, or alpha or whatever, but that whole thing about making your computer boot up faster might make everything else hella (and I really don't like saying that word ("hella", not "hell")) slow. It took a good amount of foot-tapping to open the start menu, and to have the programs display in the left side (which I'm not very fond of, especially if you have a lot of programs - it gives it a real limited feeling).

Agreeing with takai, right now I like XP the way it is. Of course I'll be using Vista when it comes out, but maybe Bill should focus more on the backend than the looks, like the whole virtual folder thing. Well, I guess it's only a non-existent folder with what we now know as shortcuts in it, but that's the kinda stuff that I wanna see more of.

Whatever, all opinionated.