Windows Vista Team Blog

Today MS Hardware announces two new LifeCam models that will hit store shelves later this month.  The VX-7000 and the NX-3000 each boast a sleek design alongside impressive features for capturing and sharing photos with friends and family.
 
The VX-7000 is designed for the desktop PC, with a 2.0-megapixel sensor for HD video (2.0 MP) and still photography (7.6 MP interpolated).  Its new design allows it to fit seamlessly onto a PC monitor; in addition, it offers:

• Built-in unidirectional microphone with acoustic noise cancellation
• 71-degree wide-angle lens
• Automatic adjustments for low-light conditions
• Illuminated LED to indicate when it"s in use

For laptop PCs, the NX-3000 offers video at 640x480 resolution, HD still photography (1.3 MP) and a built-in unidirectional microphone with acoustic noise cancellation.  Other features are:

• Automatic audio control to enhance sound clarity
• Swivel lens to adjust camera angle for use on notebooks
• Illuminated LED indicates when it"s in use
• Video Effects to personalize video calls
• Protective carrying case

LifeCam users with Windows Live Messenger (Beta) should note that they can take advantage of a new virtual photo album called Photo Swap, which allows sharing of photos in real time.

Both the VX-7000 and NX-3000 will be available later this month, at estimated retail prices of US$99.95 and US$59.95, respectively.

A message from the Group Policy team, inviting you to provide your feedback on how you use GP in Windows Vista:

The Microsoft Group Policy team would like to hear from you!  Please take a few minutes and complete the survey on how you use Group Policy to help Microsoft enhance the manageability Group Policy provides to your organization.  The survey can be found here and is completely anonymous.  The survey will remain open through Friday, September 28, 2007.  Thank you in advance for your time and input!

The Microsoft Group Policy Team

17:25 PDT note:  due to a misunderstanding wholly on my part, I stated that this week we"d announced an IPTV feature for Windows Media Center, when in reality the new feature is a form of internet TV (meaning broadband video delivered over any internet connection, such as MSN Video).  My apologies for any misapprehension caused by my miscue.

At CEDIA EXPO 2007 in Denver this week, a few of our partners unveiled new Windows Media Extenders that will let customers easily extend the Windows Media Center experience to other rooms in their homes.  Companies involved included Linksys, D-Link and Niveus Media Inc.  Their hardware is the latest attempt to breach the PC-to-TV barrier by way of Windows Media Center.

The new Windows Media Extenders are designed to utilize the Windows Media Center capabilities from PCs running Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate.  Now they"ll be sporting some great new features:

• Support for Wireless N high-speed technology
• Extended video codec support to include DivX and Xvid
• Continued support for Windows Media Video HD files
• Ability to send protected HD content to additional rooms, including recorded TV from over-the-air Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) or CableCard tuners
• Ability to send movies and music available from providers such as CinemaNow, MovieLink and Napster
• New Reuters news feeds, National Public Radio broadcasts, up-to-date sports reports from the FOX Sports Lounge and subscription music from XM Radio
• Parental Controls built into Windows Media Center, allowing parents to choose the content their children are/not allowed to view

Also at CEDIA EXPO 2007, Life|ware and Niveus Media have both announced Windows Media Center PCs that support quad-CableCard setups.  This new configuration enables users to enjoy four cable TV channels simultaneously.

We also announced plans to add an IPTV internet TV feature (US only) to Windows Media Center in Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate.  Expect more information on this new IPTV feature at DigitalLife in New York City on 27 September.

One more thing:  I"d like to welcome Doug Berett to Microsoft.  Doug developed the now free third-party plug-in WebGuide for Windows Media Center.  WebGuide allows users to schedule TV shows and stream recorded TV shows from their Windows Media Center PC over the web to any device with a browser.  Glad to have him aboard!

Those of you involved in deploying Windows Vista to enterprises may be interested to learn of today’s publication of a study completed by Wipro and GCR Custom Research and commissioned by MS, wherein it"s demonstrated that running Windows Vista on mobile PCs delivers significant savings to organizations over running Windows XP.  The reduction in TCO (total cost of ownership) amounted to $605 per mobile PC per year, or a 14% improvement on Windows XP.  These savings were realized by employing such Windows Vista innovations as BitLocker Drive Encryption to enhance security, Network Diagnostics for improved troubleshooting, and integrated search functionality to boost productivity.  For further details, visit the GCR website.

Organizations may be interested in combining this new mobility TCO whitepaper with the how-to guide titled How to Effectively Manage Your Organization"s Mobile PCs.

The study also noted that Windows Vista-deploying organizations were able to lower the risk in complying with regulatory requirements such as Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).  Specific innovations in Windows Vista contributing to these gains were the risk reduction offered by BitLocker, increased control afforded via User Account Control and group policies, and the ability to reduce compliance testing costs through Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) Applications Virtualization.

Although many of us have used Windows Media Center Edition, there are a couple of things that may not be that well known -- one of my favorites being the Movie Browser in Windows Vista.  Let"s see how it works...

Have you ever been in the mood to watch a movie but you don"t have a particular one in mind -- and you really don"t want to have to go through all the information in the guides to find one that appeals to you?  Movie Browser allows you to see a list of movies that are either playing currently or those that will be starting in the near future.  While using Movie Browser, you can specify the type of movie you"re looking for and search using any of several criteria. 

Assuming that you have the correct hardware installed to run Media Center, using the Movie Browser is simple.  Open Media Center, select "TV & Movies" and navigate to "Search."  You can search by any of the following:

• Title
• Keyword
• Categories
• Movie Actor
• Movie Director

If you"re connected to the internet, once you select the search criteria you"ll also see the cover art from the DVD (in the US).  You can even view metadata that may include things like reviews, ratings and cast.

As an example, I did a search for movie actor Brad Pitt.  The resulting list showed 44 movies:

Clicking on any one of them gives the option to:

• Record it when it airs
• Read the Plot
• See the Cast Info
• Read Reviews
• Look for Similar Movies

My favorite feature on Media Center in Windows Vista is the ability to find a movie and set it to be recorded when it"s next scheduled to be shown on TV, even if it isn"t currently listed in the guide.  Once you select the movie, Media Center will automatically record it for you the next time it’s playing on TV.  Although this capability isn"t new to Windows Vista, it"s still something that isn"t known by a lot of Windows Vista users.

In the example above, you"ll see that Ocean"s Thirteen is not scheduled to air within the timeframe indicated in the guide.  But, that doesn"t mean that you"ll need to continue checking continuously to see when it"s going to air.  Once I chose Ocean"s Thirteen from the menu, the option changed from "Record" to "Record in the Future."

Once I selected "Record in Future," the movie was set to record when it plays on television.

And helpfully, whenever Media Center is opened, you"ll see the red "Record" dot to remind you that you have a pending recording session scheduled.

Over the past few weeks, we have been talking about the Certified for Windows Vista Logo Program specifically related to devices. That’s only half the story. Today’s demo video is all about Certified for Windows Vista Software. The video is shot using Canon"s new high-def HV20, which is a Certified for Windows Vista device.

In this video I talk about Certified for Windows Vista software from a security, reliability, performance and compatibility perspective.  The video shows how easy and seamless it is to install a Certified for Windows Vista software application. To demonstrate that, I have chosen CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3 to be installed on an HP Pavilion dv9000z.

Click here for general information on the Windows Vista Logo Program.

Windows Vista recently passed the 180 day mark since it was made available to business customers.   Just as he did at the 90-day mark, Jeff Jones, a Microsoft Director from the Trustworthy Computing group and frequent blogger on security topics, has done a comparison of vulnerabilities discovered in Windows Vista versus other operating systems in their first 6 months of availability.   Windows Vista holds up well in this comparison, showing a significantly improved vulnerability profile over its first 180 days of availability compared to Windows XP and the other operating systems that were examined.   It’s interesting to note that Windows Vista is being subjected to a greater level of scrutiny than its predecessor, as tools used by security researchers have become significantly more sophisticated since Windows XP was released.

Of course, we’re always working harder to further reduce the number of vulnerabilities in our products.  Windows Vista was our first client release to leverage the Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) throughout the entire development cycle.   As new techniques for finding vulnerabilities are discovered, we make updates to the SDL which will be used in the development of future products.   A good example of how that process works is in Michael Howard’s entry on the SDL blog.

 Jeff’s “Windows Vista 6-month Vulnerability Report” is available here .

An astute Windows user was intrigued by the holographic image on the face of the Windows Vista Business DVD and decided to take a much closer look, discovering in the margin a microscopic photograph of three men.  Just who they could be?  The user posted a blog entry mentioning the discovery, which was noticed by a few others in the community and has prompted a number of people to contact us in Windows to find out just exactly what is going on.

The real story is interesting, but conspiracy theorists will be disappointed to learn that it is not the result of a deliberate attempt to deceive.  The photo displays members of the team who worked on the Windows Vista DVD hologram design.  Microsoft’s Anti-Piracy Team designed a counterfeit-resistant digital "watermark" for the non-encoded surface of Windows Vista DVDs.  The photo in question is only one of multiple images contained in the hologram design, all of whose inclusion serves to make it more difficult to replicate a Windows Vista DVD.  The other images are of old master works of art that are in the public domain.  These images are part of numerous other security measures that have been designed into our media, packaging and certificates of authenticity.  Hence, even though this image has been reproduced on the Web, there are many other features providing further security.

The images are less than 1mm in size and are not visible to the naked eye, so must be viewed using optical magnification.  Their presence does not affect the contents of the DVD any more than would applying a label to the front of an audio CD you may have created at home.  These security measures were never intended to be impossible to find, but rather difficult to reproduce.  While it"s extremely difficult to replicate a holographic design in general, the inclusion of original images makes it that much more so. 

Incorporating optical security into our physical media is just one of many efforts to ensure that Microsoft customers get what they paid for.  You can learn more about Microsoft’s anti-piracy measures at our How To Tell site; the holographic images used on the Windows Vista Ultimate DVD are discussed here.

On Tuesday 22 May we"ll be publishing via Windows Update the final version of a compatibility update for Windows Vista to support new 8GB and larger Secure Digital (SD) cards.  Customers using this type of card for ReadyBoost or other purposes can receive this update via the usual automatic Windows Update method.  It will allow for full functionality of these newer SD cards on Windows Vista, and also improves support for SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) and SDIO (Secure Digital Input-Output) cards.

My favorite part of this year"s TechEd was talking to the IT pros that are using Windows Vista. Last year at TechEd 2006, Windows Vista Beta 2 was just released and for many of the people that I talked to at our booth, this was the first time they"ve seen Windows Vista running with their own eyes. Contrast it to this year where I"m talking with IT pros that have already deployed Windows Vista to hundreds of users, in addition to running it on their own PC.

If you missed TechEd this year, don"t despair. You can see some of the highlights at http://www.virtualteched.com/Pages/default.aspx. You can also attend one of the 10+ worldwide TechEd events happening in the next year in, see http://www.microsoft.com/events/teched2007/worldwide.mspx. Or mark your calendar for TechEd 2008, which will be back in Orlando June 9-13, 2008.

- Alex