Vista: "After Hours" Thoughts and Feedback

I'm writing this on the way back from sunny Leeds where Matt and I went freestyle with the demos and unleashed a load of cool technology upon an unsuspecting audience.  We went at quite a pace because we had so much to cover and I wanted to let you know about all the stuff we talked about because there was no information available in the slides (being 99.99% demo and all).

Here's what we covered:

  •  Session 1: Vista out of the Box
    • Vista Search - documents, emails, photos, movies
    • Tagging, meta data
    • Home Server
      • Users
      • Backup
      • Disk Spanning
      • Remote Access
      • Network Health
    • Managing media and publishing
      • Importing photos
      • Movie Maker
      • DVD Maker
    • Backup & Restore
      • Volume Shadow Copy
      • File & Folder Backup
      • Complete PC Backup
    • Network & Sharing Center
      • Network Location Awareness
      • Diagnosis of networking stack
      • Configuration of network settings
      • Network Map
      • USB Key
    • Parental Controls
      • UAC
      • Web Filtering
      • Game Rating and Restrictions

Phew! :-)  Then we talked about:

  • Session 2: Vista Extended
    • SideShow
      • What is it?
      • Devices
        • Photo Frame
        • SideShow Bag
      • Gadgets
        • Email
        • RSS
    • Media Center
      • SideBar Gadget
      • Media Center - what is it?
      • Remote Control
      • Recorded TV
      • Recording a Series
      • Live TV
      • Music
      • Photo Slideshow
      • RSS Reader
      • Email
      • Games
    • Xbox 360
      • Interface
      • Xbox Live
      • Media Center Extender
      • Zune Connection
      • Streaming from Home Server
    • Gaming
      • Crossfire for Vista
      • Halo 2 on Vista
      • Xbox vs PC head-to-head with "Shadowrun"
    • Live Maps
      • Touring the globe with Virtual Earth and Xbox Controller

We got lots of questions throughout the sessions (we were kind of expecting that) and I noted down the following things I have to go and find out for you guys:

  • OneCare Backup - how does this work/complement Vista Backup
  • NT Backup Utility - support for tape?
  • Home Server centralised Parental Controls
  • Parental Controls - Time Zone workaround, does it work?
  • Can you add wildcards in the Web filter in parental controls?
  • Sky integration with Media Center

If I've forgotten anything then let me know - we were asked alot of questions and I might have forgotten some - if that's the case then please let me know.

We'd love to hear your feedback from the event so we can tailor it better for next time, and if this is the kind of thing you want to see more of from Microsoft then let your feedback scores do the talking!

Any questions the feel free to drop me a line via the contact page...

Technorati tags: Vista, Event, After Hours, SideShow, Media Center, Xbox, Crossfire, Vista Games, Games for Windows Live