Five Features of Windows Vista
Windows Vista is an operating system developed and published by Microsoft. It was intended to be the successor to Windows XP, which had previously been dominating the market. Vista has been released in a number of different versions and has several new features intended to make it easier and more pleasant to use, as well as more powerful.
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Windows Aero
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Vista features Windows Aero (Authentic, Energetic, Reflective and Open), a redesigned user interface (UI). Windows appear glasslike and transparent and are animated as they open and close. The new UI also features a new, slightly bigger, font; new styles for wizards, the programs that guide users through setting up new software; and a change in phrasing and tone for the majority of control panels and dialogs.
Icons
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Icons are small images meant to represent programs, objects -- such as files -- and actions, such as saving or loading data. In Windows Vista, the icons have been changed from previous versions of Windows. The new style of iconography is described as "more realistic than illustrative"; that is, they look more like the items they are intended to represent and less like stylized sketches. Windows Vista icons are three-dimensional, with highlights and shadows. For simplicity, they are not quite photorealistic.
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The Start Menu
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Previous versions of Windows have featured a "Start" button in the bottom-left corner of the screen. In Vista, the "Start" button has been replaced with the Windows orb, a round graphical element with a glassy appearance featuring the Windows logo. Clicking the orb opens up a two-column menu as in Windows XP; however, the Vista version has a new search box into which users can type search terms, allowing them to immediately begin looking for files or programs.
Default Programs
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For every file type in Windows, there is a default program which may be user-assigned or assigned automatically. For example, double-clicking on a Rich Text Format file with the .rtf extension would automatically open the file in Wordpad, unless a different program was assigned. In previous versions of Windows, different programs would attempt to assign themselves automatically as the default for a specific file type. This meant one user could inadvertently change another user's default programs. In Vista, default programs can be set individually for each user.
System Font (Segoe UI)
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Vista features a new system font, Segoe UI. Pronounced SEE-go, the new font is optimized for user interfaces. The developers state Segoe UI's design is intended to be easier to scan and read, making the user interface smoother. The font is optimized for Microsoft's ClearType technology, a way of displaying text on LCD screens intended to make such text easier to read. Segoe UI contains Latin, Arabic, Cyrillic and Greek character sets.
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References
- Microsoft Windows: Windows Vista Features
- "Computerworld"; Has Microsoft Finally Killed Windows Xp, the Operating System that Refuses to Die?; Preston Gralla; April 11, 2011
- MSDN: What's New in Windows Vista
- MSDN: Wizards (What's New in Windows Vista)
- MSDN: Icons (What's New in Windows Vista)
- MSDN: System Font (Segoe UI) (What's New in Windows Vista)
Resources
- Photo Credit Sean Gallup/Getty Images News/Getty Images
