Windows Vista in a Nutshell

Chapter 1. The Lay of the Land

Microsoft spent far longer developing Windows Vista than it did any previous version of Windows, and the results show. Everything you see and use, from the desktop to networking, searching, using the Internet, and beyond, has been overhauled. The interface includes transparent windows and windows animations; the operating system includes a series of Centers, such as the Network and Sharing Center and the Mobility Center, that make it easy to perform your most common tasks and customize how your PC works; and the search function has been baked so deep into the operating system that you need to type only a few letters of what you’re looking for and the results start to show up immediately—everything from files to programs to mail to web sites. And there are plenty of other major changes as well, such as a Sidebar brimming with Gadgets that perform common tasks for you.

But it’s not just what you see that has been altered, and that’s not what took up most of Microsoft’s time in developing this new version of Windows. Under the hood, the changes are even more dramatic, mostly having to do with security. In the years leading up to the release of Windows Vista, security had become one of the top, if not the top, concerns of most PC users. Spyware, worms, viruses, scammers, crackers, and snoopers had become ubiquitous, and because Windows is by far the most dominant operating system on the planet, it was Windows that they targeted. So Microsoft spent a great ...