The Windows Vista Resource Kit is now available for order from Amazon.com or your local bookstore. It’s the definitive guide on Vista, and there can’t possibly be another book like it–nobody else had direct access to internal Microsoft product managers and developers like we (the Vista Resource Kit authors) did. Not only did we lean on those internal resources heavily for the details of how everything in Vista works, but those guys contributed many “Direct from the source” sidebars describing the inner workings of different Vista features.

Many thanks to Mitch and Jerry (the other authors), Martin DelRe, Linda Engelman, and the dozens of other Microsofties who helped make it possible!

Hope you like it!

Live Messenger 8.1 is finally out of beta. Hopefully, it won’t crash as often. Don’t forget to close Messenger and Outlook first (it’ll warn you if you don’t), and disable all those unnecessary components!

Interestingly, setup didn’t require a UAC prompt until half-way through setup…

Tip of the hat to Steve Clayton for cluing me in–not sure why Messenger didn’t notify me of the update automatically.

Nick White announces a good deal–T-mobile is offering free Internet Access (sorry about the AWFUL AWFUL website) at their hotspots for Vista users until April 30. I’ve paid for these before, and they work well (just don’t check your e-mail if you use unencrypted POP or IMAP–it’s not encrypted!)

If you’re a subscriber, check out the Vista: Not Slow article in the News & Trends section of the latest issue of PC World.

In summary, the article concludes:

• Overall, Vista is 5-25% slower. It’s especially bad with integrated graphics, so get yourself a separate graphics card.
• Having a dual-core processor helps Vista catch up or even pass Windows XP for multitasked programs, because Vista is optimized for multitasking.
• Aero doesn’t slow things down. Yey.
• You should have at least 1GB of RAM. True, though Vista does fine with less memory, in my experience. Upgrading to 2GB improved Photoshop performance 5-20% but didn’t help with most tasks. In my experience, for desktop use when running many applications (like I do), 2GB is a MUST.
• Everything is slower on 64-bit Vista than 32-bit Vista. Their tests showed 64-bit as 0-25% slower, probably averaging around 10% slower. Should I say I told you so?
• ReadyBoost slightly hurt performance. They admit that the test scenarios might not be well suited to it. My tests showed ReadyBoost can help A LOT, or not at all, depending on your hardware.

My summary:

• If you have a single-core processor with integrated graphics and less than 1GB of RAM, Vista will be a little more sluggish than Windows XP, at least with current drivers.
• If you have a dual-core processor and a separate graphics card, you probably won’t notice any performance difference.
• Wait six months and test Vista performance again. I bet Vista will win once driver developers optimize their code a little better.

Read more »

Michael Howard has the type of post only an insider could make, describing why Windows Vista isn’t effected by the MS007-04 bulletin. Basically, Microsoft’s new development tools were created with security in mind, and libraries automatically check for overflows (where an attacker tries to insert a number that’s bigger than the program is expecting). Windows XP was compiled with an earlier version of the libraries that required developers to manually check the size and range of input values… and many developers forget to check their inputs.
Applications created for the .NET Framework have always benefited from this type of protection; I’m glad to see it getting built into C++, and thus into the Windows Vista libraries.

Businesses often use Software Assurance, a licensing plan from Microsoft, to manage their Microsoft licensing. Unfortunately, Windows Vista Ultimate isn’t available through Software Assurance. Ultimate really isn’t intended for businesses, because it has many features that you can’t manage by using Group Policy (like Media Center). But, Microsoft knows that IT guys don’t want to be told they have to use a limited feature set, so they’re giving Software Assurance customers a way to get Vista Ultimate.

Basically, have your Microsoft Volume Licensing administrator head over to your volume licensing site and order the Vista Ultimate media (you can’t download it).

Detailed instructions are available from Eric Ligman here and here. Eric also provides instructions for downloading Vista Enterprise (if you’re a Software Assurance customer)–the version of Vista that really is intended for business use.

Fellow MVP Chris Lanier points out that Monster is the first to announce a Media Center Extender for Vista (well, besides the XBox 360).

I’m disappointed, because I currently have three Windows XP Media Center Extenders spread throughout my house, and I love them. They won’t work with Vista, though, and I don’t want to put an XBox 360 in every room with a TV. Everything from Monster is high-end and thus very expensive, and from the looks of the device, this won’t be any different. I was hoping that another vendor would announce something at CES… They haven’t, which means we won’t be seeing any extenders for quite a while.

Here are more details from CEPro.

To get them, click Start, type Update, and then click Windows Update. There’s nothing especially important, just updates to the Junk Email filter and the Malicious Software Removal Tool. There are also some Office 2003 updates. You shouldn’t need to reboot.

We’ve moved past all the betas, but I found this post showing the evolution of the Vista user interface interesting…

IntelliAdmin.com: The Progression of Vista through screenshots

Clearly, the visitors at YouTube love it!

I regularly get questions from readers asking how they can connect external monitors to their laptops. If your laptop doesn’t have a docking station, your only option is a fairly lousy USB video adapter like this:

USB video adapters are limited in resolution because the bandwidth available from USB is pretty limited. It won’t be available for a couple of months, but Asus is announcing a better solution. This one uses the Express Card slot in some new computers (a faster version of the PC Card/PCMCIA slot in all laptops), which provides way more bandwidth than USB. It’s full of features, including an LCD display, and I bet it’ll be wicked expensive. As a bonus, it should be powerful enough to turn an average laptop into a good gaming computer. Hopefully, we’ll see more pedestrian external Express Card video adapter to follow soon.
Asus XG Station is Worlds First External Laptop Graphics Card - Gizmodo

SideShow is a Windows Vista feature that provides for external displays that run simple applications (like those gadgets in your sidebar). It’s hard to explain, but this video shows it in action. It’ll take a few more months before you can have your own.
Hands-on: Video of Asus SideShow laptop - Engadget

It’s worth it just to hear him say “auxiliary”.

ZDNet is reporting that Microsoft is planning a home server product code-named “Quattro”. Microsoft has actually had a vision for a home server product for many years–I saw one demonstrated during a tour of the “Microsoft Home of the Future“. It’s got a lot of potential to act as a central media server for recording TV shows and distribution audio and video throughout the house, as well as managing home automation, home security, and family communications. Microsoft Media Center has been a step in that direction, but so far, all we’ve learned is that most consumers aren’t ready to buy a dedicated computer that simply acts as a server.
My bet is that Quattro becomes an optional feature of Windows Vista or a later version of Microsoft’s consumer operating system.

The article also discusses the possibility of Microsoft announcing LiveDrive, an Internet storage service that you could use for sharing and backing up data. Not an original idea, but Microsoft has a close connection with the consumer that could quickly put them on the top of the market.

» Microsoft to unveil Windows Home Server at CES | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com