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Windows Vista Feature Focus: Windows Vista Standard User Interface | |
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| Time: 11:08 EST/16:08 GMT | News Source: Windows SuperSite | Posted By: Michael Dragone | ||
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Perhaps the least well understood of the numerous Windows Vista user interface types, Windows Vista Standard is only available on Windows Vista Home Basic (and Home Basic N), and only on systems with compatible graphics display hardware. What's odd about this situation is that the underlying graphics hardware must be capable of running the vaunted Windows Aero user interface; but because the low-end Vista Home Basic product edition does not include that feature, Microsoft has created a special UI that looks somewhat like Aero but uses older display techniques. | ||
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| #1 By 2960 (24.254.95.224) at 5/25/2007 11:15:16 AM |
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I've actually turned off Aero and gone back to the standard Start Menu. I really do not like the new Vista Start menu.
The system is a bit more responsive this way. TL |
| #2 By 7390 (24.191.94.91) at 5/25/2007 12:20:41 PM |
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to me, vista takes forever to boot up
whenever I remote desktop to a vista PC I literally have to wait 3 minutes to be able to use that PC the windows explorer freezes for a few seconds whenever I open it also seems a little silly that only vista ultimate can have the moving desktop background |
| #3 By 8556 (12.207.97.148) at 5/25/2007 2:10:42 PM |
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#1 - as in Windows XP, if you turn off the sliding menus, and some other unneeded UI features, Vista Basic is even more responsive.
#2 - At an MS Vista seminar when Dreamscene videos were played, and a CPU gauge was onscreen, the CPU meter never went below 30% cycle time even when only the desktop and sidebar gadgets were on screen. Dreamscene continues to play even when you are using programs and the desktop is buried. What a resource hog. Do not want. |
| #4 By 23275 (24.179.4.158) at 5/25/2007 2:21:19 PM |
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The following is speculative, and based upon personal observations and my experiences with Windows Vista as it was developed, and shipped in various BETAs and staged commercial/public release.
There’s is a huge back story here that has not been told - so good, in fact, that it'd make a great TV movie - if one doubts that IT/MIS is not exciting enough to form the basis of a series, there are two shows shipping this fall that suggest one would be wrong for holding such beliefs. Many people do not know that the UI in Windows Vista Home Basic still uses GDI+ and that it differs and is unavailable in premium versions of Vista - it is not like Windows Vista Basic, which uses even older technologies that pre-date Windows XP, but interestingly, it does require hardware very similar to that which can support the Windows Vista Aero interface. The Windows Vista Standard UI [WVSUI] emerged <publicly> mid Summer 2006, as a curious revelation - it was introduced at a point when very few people, myself included, understood fully, how Vista's UI was architected in great detail. Not long after that revelation, we began to see stories about Windows Vista's ship date slipping into 2007 - which it did for consumer versions of the OS. By that time most in our industry had become so jaded by the many delays opposite the shipping of the new OS that most were not surprised and the real reasons behind the delay and split in how and when Vista shipped, may have been overlooked, or at least not full examined. That is the basis behind the speculation shared here. At the time of the release schedule announcement, we heard stories that the "slip and split" [say that five times fast without dotting your monitor with saliva], were due to the requirements of computer manufacturers and partners. Some blogs scoffed at that part of the announcement, but few articles followed up on it - it seemed, conspicuously, that those that would comment [the OEM's and hardware partners like AMD/ATI, or Nvidia] would have spoken up - and loudly, if it were not actually true. Cont... |
| #5 By 23275 (24.179.4.158) at 5/25/2007 2:21:50 PM |
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As I learned more about Windows Vista, and its video/driver model in particular, I began to question things and wonder just what the heck happened.
In some ways, I was personally frustrated with the bevy of "Vista BSODed, or BSODs all the time when I try and run, x, y, or z video card..." <Griping without doing anything about the underlying causes always trips a gland or two in me - especially when those griping ought to know better> By now most know that as hardware drivers relate to the Vista Kernel, that they remain one of the fewer areas that run in part, in that mode - in XP, drivers execute entirely in kernel mode and if installed incorrectly, would ensure a system would fail to start or restart with great regularity. Even more frustrating for me was the lack of information about what was actually happening being reflected in our industry press - or better, why things were happening as they were. To help some understand things, the new driver model [the WDDM], allows multiple applications to utilize the GPU simultaneously by implementing the following: GPU memory manager—arbitrates video memory allocation GPU scheduler—schedules various GPU applications according to their priority "With these technologies, applications no longer have to cede the GPU when another application requiring its services starts-up. Instead, the GPU is scheduled in a more efficient fashion." REF: Microsoft MSDN/TechNet Perhaps the most significant change comes with the understanding that under the WDDM and Windows Vista [with properly crafted WDDM drivers!!!!!!!], the need to include code for the support of various device driver interfaces introduced over many years, has been removed [again, ref MSDN and MS TechNet]. Thus, Windows Vista implements only a single interface while ensuring that all the older drivers are recognized and function optimally. [Lib REF: aa480220]. Cont... |
| #6 By 23275 (24.179.4.158) at 5/25/2007 2:22:30 PM |
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Ok, so what do I think happened and who did what?
In one sentence, I suspect that hardware manufacturers borked the OEM's and Microsoft and that a GDI+ based driver had to be resurrected in order to address existing and planned inventories held by GPU manufacturers and enable support for a richer UI based upon largely existing GPU hardware inventories. Based upon this, the OEM manufacturers had to plan for and support essentially two channels within largely the same base of physical GPUs. Why? One has to understand what was and what is. In XP, applications could refresh based upon requests that were asynchronous. [This is what causes tearing that people see - which is related to the refresh rate that they were running]. Vista does not do this and it renders visuals off the page - so in the context of system resources, Windows Vista will run better, and feel smoother, with Aero turned on - where neither GDI+ as in XP/W2K3 is used as Vista Home Basic, or even worse, where pre-XP technologies are used as at Windows 2000, or in Windows Vista Basic <mode> as on the premium versions of Vista where Aero is disabled. Again, I suspect the GPU manufacturers - perhaps only one of them, was the real driver behind the "slip and split" and it happened because of the struggle to leverage the new API's [Direct3D10 is the new Direct3D API] in two simultaneous directions - and while the WPF is available to XP SP2 and W2K3 Server, it does not scale well in terms of parallel image processing [which is where I think things became hard to manage - getting to deep here to serve the interests of this post]. I don't yet know enough about new queuing features to speculate much more about that impact, but I suspect there were some request queuing issues in play - and for TL, I reason this is why you have seen some frustration with early and less mature drivers for your new 8800. Cont... |
| #7 By 23275 (24.179.4.158) at 5/25/2007 2:23:00 PM |
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So there you have it - my speculation as to why there is a GDI+ based UI model in Windows Vista Home Basic and why it persists in Windows - despite using hardware that could run the Vista Aero interface. It wasn't about market segmentation - as I suspect Aero was to be the preferred UI for all versions of Windows Vista - instead it was due to GPU, or "A" GPU manufacturer's struggle with the new WDDM and DWM (Desktop Window Manager) and a self-imposed late start on WDDM driver development.
If my speculation is wrong and the slip and split was not due to hardware and manufacturer requests and it was due to market segmentation alone, then Microsoft owes an explanation to all of us. I don't think that is true, however. If it were, I suspect that the manufacturer(s) would have spoken up and very loudly. I think it was a situation where all of them were impacted, and Microsoft stepped up, came up with a solution and they all circled the wagons and since all of them probably at least welcomed the additional time, they have remained quiet about it. |
| #8 By 3746 (72.12.166.62) at 5/25/2007 2:41:00 PM |
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#3
I am running dreamscape right now and the cpu cycles bounce around 5-13%. Turn it off and it bounces around 0-7%. Ram usage jumps about 4% when on. #2 Vista on my system boots faster and is more resposnive then XP. It is a pretty beefy system though. I have used it on lesser systems and it boots and runs fine for me. Remoting into it takes the same time as XP did. |
| #9 By 8556 (12.207.97.148) at 5/25/2007 3:34:07 PM |
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#8 - I didn't learn what the MS rep's laptop was hardware wise, other than it had ATI video. I recall now that he complained that ATI didn't have updated drivers for it. His system certainly wasn't as beefy as the one you must be using. The lesson here is that Dreamscapte uses at least 5% CPU cycles even when nothing is being done, and on a weak machine up to 30% depending on what video was playing.
Still, do not want Dreamscape without playing Ummagumma. |
| #10 By 15406 (74.104.251.89) at 5/25/2007 6:03:51 PM |
| #9: Go groove in your cave then, and don't forget the pict (if he's amenable)! |
| #11 By 79018 (70.180.232.32) at 5/26/2007 1:05:59 PM |
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I agree with #8 Vista starts up faster then XP. In 3 months of use I have never seen the BSD.
I kept XP just in case, now I want to get rid of it. Only one program needed an update Nero (which was free), other then that it works better then XP. Areo works fine. Among some of the programs I use Outlook 2003, OpenOffice, Photoshop, Corel X3, Painter V9 and Quicken. I have 11 USB ports (7 used), 3 Sata Hard Drives, not a single Hardware issue. I'm very happy with VISTA. |
| #12 By 2960 (24.254.95.224) at 5/28/2007 12:02:31 AM |
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IK,
You gonna make my head 'splode LOL. So, is running Vista Ultimate in standard mode good or bad? Kaikara - I agree Vista boots faster, BUT it takes time to get there. On a freshly loaded system one can indeed be disappointed. But after ReadyBoost has had a week or so to gather info, it does indeed become faster. Even well-known slugs such as CheckPoint SecureClient boot MUCH faster than they ever did. I doubt there will ever be any hope for BlueTooth though. Just keep that crap away from my system. Bob - I love the Pink Floyd references and it's hard to get one past me, though Ummagumma isn't one of my favorites. I'm a DSOTM-Forward PF fan for the most part (All due respects to Syd) :) Vegas - Your post containts text that reminds me of a trouble-ticket Subject Line that never fails to crack me up, usually written by a novice Help-Desk Analyst: "User got the BSOD". LOL TL |
| #13 By 23275 (24.179.4.158) at 5/28/2007 3:16:01 AM |
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#12, Bad. All sorts of funny things can start to happen, and there are better ways to tune the UI [down], while retaining Aero and continuing to leverage the scheduler and memory manager.
The only maintenance records funnier than PC help desk records I have seen, are those recorded by Australia's Quantas Airlines mechanics opposite their pilots - here's an example: Pilot: Starboard engine missing. Mechanic: Starboard engine found under right wing after brief search. among my personal favorites: Pilot: Noise from behind instrument panel sounds like a midget with a hammer. Mechanic: Took away hammer from midget. My absolute favorite Pilot: Auto-Lander not functioning well on aircraft - landings are bumpy. Mechanic: Auto-Lander not installed on this aircraft model. |
| #14 By 2960 (24.254.95.224) at 5/28/2007 7:50:49 PM |
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I like those :)
TL |
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