• 

  Microsoft Vista Preview

  Punit Lodaya, Jul 23, 2006 1836 hrs IST

  It's almost five years since Windows XP was shipped and today we preview the beta of the next desktop OS

  

Page 1 - Introduction & Vista's Requirement Page 2 - Setting Up & First Looks Page 3 - First Looks Cont. & Control Panel Page 4 - Security Page 5 - More Features Page 6 - Final Words

It's almost five years since the last Desktop Operating System (OS) Windows XP was shipped by Microsoft. Microsoft Windows XP was a solid operating system considering it was based on an extremely stable NT code and was a significant upgrade from Windows 98/ME editions. The next upgrade known as Microsoft Vista will be shipped in January 2007. Before, it was given the name Vista; it was codenamed Longhorn and Microsoft was showing off its feature list planned for the OS. It was in close beta stages for quite some time and it has finally reached open beta stages in June 2006. Today, we have the second version of open beta test OS. The build number is 5456; and as we read it, another version has been shipped with few minor upgrades.

Microsoft announced that Windows Vista will ship in six editions. All versions will be available in both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures, except Windows Vista Starter which will only be available for 32-bit architectures.

1] Windows Vista Starter
2] Windows Vista Home Basic
3] Windows Vista Home Premium
4] Windows Vista Business
5] Windows Vista Enterprise
6] Windows Vista Ultimate

Sounds confusing? You can hop on to Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for detailed information on each version. A partial table of the features planned for each edition is also available.

Requirements

Microsoft has given out rather hefty requirements for running vista in its full glory. With a recommended memory of 1 GB (consider that as minimum in order to have a pleasant experience with the OS), I guess many people who have purchased their PC in the past year or so, will not jump on to the new OS (The standard de facto today is around 512 MB). RAM standards are based on two things;
1. How much RAM will the OS require?
2. How much RAM will be needed to run application/s?

The first question will answer the recommended RAM for the OS; and the second one combined with the first answer will give the RAM needed to have the best experience on the OS.

Based on my personal experience with the OS, consider getting around 2 GB RAM for a pleasant experience with the OS. The OS itself used around 650MB of physical memory and around 540 MB of virtual memory. Considering most high end game as of right now, needs around 800 MB of RAM with 256 MB based graphic card in Windows XP. In Vista, this usage may rise to around 900 MB, since the Aero GUI is a graphic card rendered GUI. Also, a 512 MB based high end graphic card will be required as it will not only have to render the game, but also the Vista GUI. But, all those who have already purchased 2 GB memory kits, don't rejoice just as yet. I am speaking about the current generation games. With the advent of Direct X 10, games based on it will have even more higher requirements. Gamers will have to migrate to Vista, as Windows XP won't be getting Direct X 10 support.

So, this is just my speculation that by the time the final version of Vista is shipped, 2 GB will be the recommended specification in order to run those memory intensive applications such as Photoshop very smoothly.

All this time, I was speaking only about the memory usage. There are still two more important things to be considered; i.e. CPU and GPU.

Due to the graphical interface, the CPU usage was considerably higher. 25-40% of the CPU was constantly under load on an AMD Athlon 64 3200+ with no tweaking done. But, by the time Vista arrives, one will be able to pick a high end dual core based CPU for a very low price due to a price tussle going on between AMD and Intel, which is bound to last till Q1 2008.

But, what about the GPU? Well, I am still experimenting on this one. For the time being, the performance penalty is just not worth keeping the pretty GUI Aero on. However, Microsoft seems to have stopped further development on the features of the OS for the time being, and is just concentrating to speed it up; trying to get it resource friendly.

I tested it on a very basic machine to see how smoothly it functions. The machine comprised of:

1] AMD Athlon 64 3200+
2] MSI K8NGM2-FID (6150 NB + 430 SB)
3] 512 * 2 MB Transcend RAM 2.5-3-3-7
4] 500 GB 7200 RPM Western Digital HDD
5] Zebronics 300 Watt SMPS

Though it performed well, the system did seem a bit sluggish though and matched no where near the speed of Windows XP.

Page 1 - Introduction & Vista's Requirement Page 2 - Setting Up & First Looks Page 3 - First Looks Cont. & Control Panel Page 4 - Security Page 5 - More Features Page 6 - Final Words

Do you agree with this Review?

5

1

• Which desktop web browser do you use?

• Internet Explorer

  Firefox

  Chrome

  Safari

  Opera

  Other (specify in comments)

  Poll Results View Previous Polls