Lunchtime kickoff: Arsenal vs Vista

Yesterday, I was presenting at an event in the new Emirates Stadium which is the home of Arsenal FC.  The stadium itself is fantastic and the executive box where I was presenting, provided a great view of the pitch.  It was apt considering I was showing off our new OS; Vista - and Office 2007.  According to their website, it cost the club £390 million to build the new stadium - and it is a very impressive facility indeed. 

As I sat there admiring the view, it got me thinking - Microsoft has invested $9 billion in R&D for Vista - enough to build just over 12 Emirates Stadiums; one new stadium each for 2/3rds of the teams in the Premiership.  And what did I have to show for all this R&D?  Well it was sitting on my laptop, waiting to be demoed....

I made a mental note of some of the popular questions that I received and have written them up for you here:

What is XPS?

The XML Paper Specification (XPS) makes modern documents possible for all. Simply put, XPS describes electronic paper in a way that can be read by hardware, read by software, and read by humans. With XPS, documents print better, can be shared easier, be archived with confidence, and are more secure.

Microsoft has integrated XPS-based technologies into the 2007 Microsoft Office system and the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system, but XPS itself is platform independent, openly published, and available royalty-free. Microsoft is using XPS to bring additional document value to its customers, its partners, and the computing industry.

More Depth:

https://www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps/default.mspx

Where can I get RC1?

Here: https://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/preview.mspx

What is User Account Control

The main goal of User Account Control is to reduce the exposure and attack surface of the operating system by requiring that all users run in standard user mode. This limitation minimizes the ability for users to make changes that could destabilize their computers or inadvertently expose the network to viruses through undetected malware that has infected their computer.

With User Account Control, IT administrators can run most applications, components and processes with a limited privilege, but have "elevation potential" for specific administrative tasks and application functions.

More depth: https://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/security/uac.mspx

What's the difference between SuperFetch (Vista) and PreFetch (XP)

PreFetch was where XP put files used by an application close together on the hard disk so that access times were reduced when running the app.

SuperFetch proactively loads all or part of the customer’s most-often used applications and files into unallocated system memory before they are needed by the system. This improves application performance by minimizing or eliminating the need to pull information off the hard drive when starting or running applications, since the information is already in memory and ready to be used. Windows SuperFetch adapts to a customer’s usage patterns, optimizing the utilization of available memory in order to help keep the PC performance at its peak.

URBAN MYTH: You can enable SuperFetch in XP by tweaking the registry.... simply not true.

Technorati tags: Vista FAQ, Arsenal, Emirates Stadium