Windows Vista Overview
Windows Vista was released to the general public on January 30, 2007.
Note: The release date of Windows Vista comes more than five years after the release of Windows XP, Microsoft's current consumer and business operating system.
This was the longest time span between major releases of a Windows operating system.
Windows Vista Hardware Requirements
Processor 800 MHz 1 GHz
Memory 512 MB RAM 1 GB RAM
Graphics Card DirectX 9 capable DirectX 9 capable GPU with Hardware Pixel Shader v2.0 and WDDM Driver support
Graphics Memory N/A 128 MB RAM up to 2,756,000 total pixels (e.g. 1920 × 1200) or 512 MB+ for greater resolutions such as 2560x1600[38]
HDD capacity 20 GB 40 GB
HDD free space 15 GB 15 GB
HDD type Normal Normal, but hybrid flash memory/hard disk drive recommended
Other drives N/A DVD-ROM
Windows Vista Development History
- Development of Windows Vista
- Features new to Windows Vista
- History of Microsoft Windows
- Microsoft Office 2007 — the next release of Microsoft Office that will ship with or almost simultaneously to Windows Vista.
- Windows Server "Longhorn" — the successor to Windows Server 2003 and based on the same code-base as Windows Vista.
External Links about Windows Vista
Microsoft Windows Vista Help
From The Microsoft Windows website
- Microsoft Windows Vista — Microsoft Windows Vista homepage
- Microsoft Windows Vista RC1 — Microsoft Windows Vista RC1 build 5600 Download Page
- Microsoft Windows Vista Help — Official Windows Vista Help and Support
- Microsoft Windows Vista Upgrade Info — Windows Vista Upgrade planning
- Microsoft Windows Vista Product Guide — Contains complete, feature-by-feature comparisons of the various Windows Vista editions (current through the Beta 2 release)
- Microsoft Windows Vista Hardware Design — Hardware Design for Windows Vista — News for Driver Developers and Hardware Engineers
- Microsoft Technet — Windows Vista: Resources for IT Professionals
- MSDN — Windows Vista Developer Center on MSDN
- Windows Communities — Windows Vista Newsgroups
- Windowsvistablog.com — Windows Vista Team Blog (official)
- Channel 9 on Windows Vista International – The Making of Windows Vista international
Vista Reviews and screenshots
- Windows Vista Mega-Review — A lengthy look at Vista.
- Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows — 'Windows Vista Activity Center'
- WinVista Beta — 'Windows Vista Screenshot Gallery'
- Piecing together Windows Vista — CNet news portal for Vista
Vista Criticism
- CNET — 'Hollywood, Microsoft align on new Windows'
- Technology Review — 'Will Windows Upgrade Hand Power To Big Media?'
- PC Stats — 'Windows Vista, HDCP and Digital Rights Management'
- Yahoo News — 'Ten Reasons to Buy Windows Vista (and "five things that will give you pause")'
- Wired News — EULA La Vista, Baby
