My supervisor went to a presentation about Vista and brought these notes back. What feedback could I pass along about her observations? For example, an idea for the first note could be to note use Aero. What else could be suggested?
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?Resource Intensive
All three of the participants indicated that their systems ran very slowly with the new operating system. One noted it was ?markedly slower? than running the same computer with Windows XP.
?Ceased Using
Due to the sluggishness of the operating system and some breakdowns, all three stopped using the Beta version. Our guest noted that most of the problems with the Beta result from using a downloaded version. He indicated that people would be far better served by installing from an actual CD.
?Liked the Look and Some Features
The participants were optimistic about the future of Microsoft Vista once the problems are ironed out. They felt navigating it was easy and that there were a number of potential tools that might prove to be valuable.
Hardware Requirements
New software releases often drive the need for improved computer hardware. Microsoft Vista will certainly require the companies that move in its direction to carefully consider their hardware capabilities.
In particular, high levels of memory are of the utmost importance. While most of the participants indicated their companies carry an average of 256 MB ? 512 MB per computer (more for certain functions); 1GB will probably be a bare minimum to effectively utilize Vista?s abilities. In fact, 2GB of memory is truly ideal ? however, this is rapidly approaching the limit of what current laptops can handle (a limiting factor).
Participants felt that its ability to be widely adopted would be critically limited. Vista didn?t run well at 512 MB on the rep?s laptop and took 5-6 minutes to boot.
Don?t Be Fooled by Minimums
Never allow decision makers to fall into the trap of reading Microsoft?s (or any vendor?s) ?minimum requirements? and thinking it will be adequate to effectively use the product. As any experienced IT person knows, the listed ?minimums? fall WAY short of what is necessary to use the software.
Don?t even stop at the ?recommended levels? ? they are usually the true minimums. The reality lies far higher than ?recommended.?
Availability of Vista
At the session, Dan Rey cited an 80% chance that Vista will be released to the major manufacturers by November of this year. With all the delays Microsoft has incurred with Vista, the news was met with some skepticism. Rey indicated that the general availability of Vista would begin this January.
Liked the Features
Rey demonstrated a number of features ? aspects which separate Vista from XP. In general, participants liked the new options (things like Virtual PC). However, there wasn?t a single ?business case component? that truly stood out as a must have during the session.
Licensing and Activation
Microsoft will be changing their volume licensing and will be using batch activation. Microsoft believes this will become an easier process. For laptops in the field, they would need to connect to the network every 180 days for authentication purposes. If they don?t authenticate every 180 days, the operating system goes into a ?reduced function? mode. This was created for theft purposes.
However, for those who never make it to the office, Microsoft offers a one-time activation against their site.
Mass Deployment
Microsoft Vista was created in a new format, wim format, to allow for customization during mass deployment that is hardware agnostic. Images should be much easier to deploy.
Some Changes
?The ?Run? command is missing by default.
??My Documents? has changed to ?Documents?
??All Programs? expands in place
?Virtual PC is built into the operating system ? if you decide to use virtual PC, 2 GB of RAM is ideal on the PC
?Limited user profile ? allows a user to perform day-to-day functions without having to be logged on as the administrator and eliminates the unwanted installations of malware. Users can still install printers and make changes to the power options
?Battery life options
?Handwriting option is good on tablet PC
?Remote Assistance can now be initiated on the Helpdesk side, but is disabled by default ? change through Group Policy
?Remote Desktop now tells the user who locked the desktop
?Vista supports IPv6 ? disabled by default
?Windows Meeting Space, similar to LiveMeeting, but requires IPv6
?Removable media, such as a flash drive, can be used for caching along with memory and page files
?MSDE databases not supported in Vista
?Vista can support 64-bit, but not 16-bit applications, should run in virtual environment
?Vista Help has ?Show Me?, ?Do It for Me?, and ?Step-by-Step? options
?Vista can encrypt an entire hard drive
Vista can boot from the system partition and can re-partition on the fly
-----------------------
?Resource Intensive
All three of the participants indicated that their systems ran very slowly with the new operating system. One noted it was ?markedly slower? than running the same computer with Windows XP.
?Ceased Using
Due to the sluggishness of the operating system and some breakdowns, all three stopped using the Beta version. Our guest noted that most of the problems with the Beta result from using a downloaded version. He indicated that people would be far better served by installing from an actual CD.
?Liked the Look and Some Features
The participants were optimistic about the future of Microsoft Vista once the problems are ironed out. They felt navigating it was easy and that there were a number of potential tools that might prove to be valuable.
Hardware Requirements
New software releases often drive the need for improved computer hardware. Microsoft Vista will certainly require the companies that move in its direction to carefully consider their hardware capabilities.
In particular, high levels of memory are of the utmost importance. While most of the participants indicated their companies carry an average of 256 MB ? 512 MB per computer (more for certain functions); 1GB will probably be a bare minimum to effectively utilize Vista?s abilities. In fact, 2GB of memory is truly ideal ? however, this is rapidly approaching the limit of what current laptops can handle (a limiting factor).
Participants felt that its ability to be widely adopted would be critically limited. Vista didn?t run well at 512 MB on the rep?s laptop and took 5-6 minutes to boot.
Don?t Be Fooled by Minimums
Never allow decision makers to fall into the trap of reading Microsoft?s (or any vendor?s) ?minimum requirements? and thinking it will be adequate to effectively use the product. As any experienced IT person knows, the listed ?minimums? fall WAY short of what is necessary to use the software.
Don?t even stop at the ?recommended levels? ? they are usually the true minimums. The reality lies far higher than ?recommended.?
Availability of Vista
At the session, Dan Rey cited an 80% chance that Vista will be released to the major manufacturers by November of this year. With all the delays Microsoft has incurred with Vista, the news was met with some skepticism. Rey indicated that the general availability of Vista would begin this January.
Liked the Features
Rey demonstrated a number of features ? aspects which separate Vista from XP. In general, participants liked the new options (things like Virtual PC). However, there wasn?t a single ?business case component? that truly stood out as a must have during the session.
Licensing and Activation
Microsoft will be changing their volume licensing and will be using batch activation. Microsoft believes this will become an easier process. For laptops in the field, they would need to connect to the network every 180 days for authentication purposes. If they don?t authenticate every 180 days, the operating system goes into a ?reduced function? mode. This was created for theft purposes.
However, for those who never make it to the office, Microsoft offers a one-time activation against their site.
Mass Deployment
Microsoft Vista was created in a new format, wim format, to allow for customization during mass deployment that is hardware agnostic. Images should be much easier to deploy.
Some Changes
?The ?Run? command is missing by default.
??My Documents? has changed to ?Documents?
??All Programs? expands in place
?Virtual PC is built into the operating system ? if you decide to use virtual PC, 2 GB of RAM is ideal on the PC
?Limited user profile ? allows a user to perform day-to-day functions without having to be logged on as the administrator and eliminates the unwanted installations of malware. Users can still install printers and make changes to the power options
?Battery life options
?Handwriting option is good on tablet PC
?Remote Assistance can now be initiated on the Helpdesk side, but is disabled by default ? change through Group Policy
?Remote Desktop now tells the user who locked the desktop
?Vista supports IPv6 ? disabled by default
?Windows Meeting Space, similar to LiveMeeting, but requires IPv6
?Removable media, such as a flash drive, can be used for caching along with memory and page files
?MSDE databases not supported in Vista
?Vista can support 64-bit, but not 16-bit applications, should run in virtual environment
?Vista Help has ?Show Me?, ?Do It for Me?, and ?Step-by-Step? options
?Vista can encrypt an entire hard drive
Vista can boot from the system partition and can re-partition on the fly
