Vista New Features Guide

Question

I am an MFC programmer. I only had a first taste of Vista (on VPC ... Yes, I'm late). In the coming days I will have to understand the details. Taking a casual look, I noticed two main changes:

• The shell is new
• User Access Control
• Event Viewer has changed (would like more information about this)

What other new features should I look for from a programmer’s point of view?

Answer 1

Perhaps wikipedia Features new to Windows Vista and perhaps Remote Features from Windows Vista will be useful to you.

Answer 2

There is a significant set of changes depending on what kind of software you are writing.

It’s a good idea to check the Windows Logo Certificate (for Vista) . There is a link to software specifications here . This always gives you an idea of ​​what should not be done (and why you need to construct it).

In my opinion, Vista has basically begun to apply the [existing] logo certification requirements, in particular:

Do not write to HKLM Do not save application data in the Program Files directory Do not allow administrative rights Save data in the user application data directory

Regarding user access control (new to Vista), it is also nice to get manifest files. The best I could find on them was a blog post here .

Windows drivers are more closely controlled under Windows Vista and require IMHO certification to a large extent.

The TCP / IP stack has been overwritten, as well as the audio subsystem (and multimedia streaming, etc.). Obviously, progress in graphics, plus the inclusion of DirectX 10 and the usual deployment of the updated Media Player, etc.

Sorry, I also forgot to mention that Microsoft has replaced ActiveSync (for Windows Mobile) with a completely new infrastructure in Vista.

Answer 3

Vista follows the rules that you should have used for XP anyway.

For example, you should not do anything that requires write access to the program installation folder. In XP, many programmers left with a breakdown because so many users started as an administrator, but Vista actually imposed this. The folder folder was moved ("Users" instead of "Documents and settings", my documents are different, etc.), but if you use the correct methods to extract these paths, and do not assume that they will always be in the same place you will well.

Answer 4

Processes and resources have “integrity levels”. A process is only available to access resources at or below its own integrity level.

If you ever work with IE extensions, it will become PITA when you want to access something and find that everything has a higher level of integrity than IE in protected mode (by default).

Answer 5

Well, from the point of view of the programmer, WPF is "built-in" into the system. This means that if you are targeting an application to version 3.0 of the .NET Framework, it must be installed on Vista without installing the .NET Framework.

DirectX 10 is also new in Vista, but I assume that if you did not know this, you probably will not program against it.

Search is common. Numerous kernel improvements. SuperFetch (friggin 'awesome if you have enough RAM). IMO Vista goes to bed and wakes up LOT easier and more reliable than XP ever did. I / O Priority - Applications such as AntiVirus and search indexes can now request a lower priority for disk access than in XP or earlier. This makes the user experience more enjoyable when something indexes the disk or crawls. Overall, Vista is good stuff if you have throats and sips of memory to throw at it. I am running Vista x64 with 4 GB of RAM and I really like it.

Answer 6

The sound subsystem has been redesigned, so if you are doing anything related to audio, it is worth checking very carefully if it still works.

Although many of the older API calls still work, some may not work as expected.

As a simple example, audio devices have much longer and more descriptive names than XP, but if you continue to use older APIs, you may find that these longer names are truncated.

Answer 7

Oh yeah. There is a completely different driver model in which most of the code is knocked out of the kernel space and back into the user area to prevent unauthorized system drivers. Therefore, if you work with any driver, it is almost like starting from scratch.

Answer 8

1 Vista machine has more Ram, this is good news for you :)

2 The path to the "Program Files" is divided into 2: \ Program Files (x86) \ and \ Program Files \

3- My document has changed

Answer 9

VIRTUALIZATION is also an interesting and necessary feature of the perspective.