Windows Vista installation and procedure

Windows Vista (IPA: /ˈvɪs.tə/) is a line of graphical operating systems used on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, Tablet PCs, and media centers. Prior to its announcement on July 22, 2005, Windows Vista was known by its codename "Longhorn".[1] Development was completed on November 8, 2006; over the following three months it was released in stages to computer hardware and software manufacturers, business customers, and retail channels. On January 30, 2007, it was released worldwide to the general public,[2] and was made available for purchase and downloading from Microsoft's web site.[3] The release of Windows Vista comes more than five years after the introduction of its predecessor, Windows XP, making it the longest time span between two releases of Microsoft Windows.Windows Vista contains hundreds of new and reworked features; some of the most significant include an updated graphical user interface and visual style dubbed Windows Aero, improved searching features, new multimedia creation tools such as Windows DVD Maker, and completely redesigned networking, audio, print, and display sub-systems. Vista also aims to increase the level of communication between machines on a home network using peer-to-peer technology, making it easier to share files and digital media between computers and devices. For developers, Vista includes version 3.0 of the .NET Framework, which aims to make it significantly easier for developers to write applications than with the traditional Windows API.Microsoft's primary stated objective with Windows Vista, however, has been to improve the state of security in the Windows operating system.[4] One common criticism of Windows XP and its predecessors has been their commonly exploited security vulnerabilities and overall susceptibility to malware, viruses and buffer overflows. In light of this, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates announced in early 2002 a company-wide "Trustworthy Computing initiative" which aims to incorporate security work into every aspect of software development at the company. Microsoft stated that it prioritized improving the security of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 above finishing Windows Vista, thus delaying its completion.[5]Windows Vista is the target of a number of negative assessments by various groups. Criticisms of Windows Vista include protracted development time, more restrictive licensing terms, the inclusion of a number of new Digital Rights Management technologies aimed at restricting the copying of protected digital media, lack of device drivers for some hardware, and the usability of other new features such as User Account Control.

installation and procedure (Windows XP)

Once the partition has been created you are returned to the screen in Figure 08. If there is still unallocated space on the drive and you want to create another partition, highlight the unallocated space entry and press C again to repeat the partition creation process. If you want to change the partition that was just created, highlight it using the up and down arrow keys and press D. A confirmation message will be displayed. Once you're satisfied with the partition scheme, highlight the desired install partition and press Enter.

MS DOS

MS-DOS (short for Microsoft Disk Operating System) is an operating system commercialised by Microsoft. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems and was the dominant operating system for the PC compatible platform during the 1980s. It has gradually been replaced on consumer desktop computers by various generations of the Windows operating system.
MS-DOS was originally released in 1981 and had eight major versions released before Microsoft stopped development in 2000. It was the key product in Microsoft's growth from a programming languages company to a diverse software development firm, providing the company with essential revenue and marketing resources. It also provided the platform on which early versions of Windows ran.

windows Vista

Windows Vista contains hundreds of new and reworked features; some of the most significant include an updated graphical user interface and visual style dubbed Windows Aero, improved searching features, new multimedia creation tools such as Windows DVD Maker, and completely redesigned networking, audio, print, and display sub-systems. Vista also aims to increase the level of communication between machines on a home network using peer-to-peer technology, making it easier to share files and digital media between computers and devices. For developers, Vista includes version 3.0 of the .NET Framework, which aims to make it significantly easier for developers to write applications than with the traditional Windows API.

windows Me

Windows Me is not a new Windows version; the user interface makes the program look like Windows 2000, but "under the hood" it's still Windows 9x code.
New in Windows Me are:
System Restore function
A new TCP/IP stack
Windows Media Player 7
Internet Explorer 5.5
Movie Maker application for recording, editing, publishing, and organizing audio and video content
No Real mode DOS

OS/2

The Window List displays a list of open windows that you can select. In Os/2 minimized windows DISAPPEAR instead of float to the bottom of the screen by default and you would need to use the Window List to retrieve it.
The OS/2 desktop can also create shortcuts to items, except here they are referred to as "shadows" (and are actually more advanced, more like MacOS aliases).

Mac OS

Mac OS X (pronounced /mæk.oʊ.ɛs.tɛn/) is a line of graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc., the latest of which is pre-loaded on all currently shipping Macintosh computers. Mac OS X is the successor to the original Mac OS, which had been Apple's primary operating system since 1984. Unlike its predecessors, Mac OS X is a Unix-based operating system[1] built on technology that had been developed at NeXT through the second half of the 1980s until Apple purchased the company in early 1997.
The first version released was Mac OS X Server 1.0 in 1999, and a desktop-oriented version, Mac OS X v10.0 followed in March 2001. Since then, five more distinct "end-user" and "server" versions have been released, most recently Mac OS X v10.5 in October 2007. Releases of Mac OS X are named after big cats, for example Mac OS X v10.5 is usually referred to by Apple and users as "Leopard".

Linux

Linux can be as useful on the desktop as Windows operating system and at the same time far more stable and secure. This is because of the Linux programs written by the companies and free software programmers all around the world and shared with the users under the liberal GNU/GPL license

windows 2000

Windows 2000 (also referred to as Win2K) is a preemptive, interruptible, graphical and business-oriented operating system designed to work with either uniprocessor or symmetric multi-processor computers. It is part of the Microsoft Windows NT line of operating systems and was released on February 17, 2000. It was succeeded by Windows XP in October 2001 and Windows Server 2003 in April 2003. Windows 2000 is classified as a hybrid kernel operating system.
Windows 2000 was made available in four editions: Professional, Server, Advanced Server, and Datacenter Server. Additionally, Microsoft offered Windows 2000 Advanced Server Limited Edition and Windows 2000 Datacenter Server Limited Edition, which were released in 2001 and run on 64-bit Intel Itanium microprocessors.[4] Whilst all editions of Windows 2000 are targeted to different markets, they each share a core set of common functionality, including many system utilities such as the Microsoft Management Console and standard system administration applications. Support for people with disabilities was improved over Windows NT 4.0 with a number of new assistive technologies, and Microsoft included increased support for different languages and locale information. All versions of the operating system support the Windows NT filesystem, NTFS 3.0,[5] the Encrypting File System, as well as basic and dynamic disk storage.

Unix

Microsoft Windows Services for UNIX (SFU) is a software package produced by Microsoft which provides a Unix subsystem and other parts of a full Unix environment on Windows NT and its successors. The subsystem included is called Interix.
Like the Microsoft POSIX subsystem in Windows NT, Interix is not an emulation of a Unix kernel, but rather an implementation of a user-mode subsystem running directly on top of the Windows NT kernel.
It is important to note that though both Cygwin (a free alternative to Interix) and Windows Services for Unix provide header files and libraries that make it easier to recompile or port Unix applications for use on Windows, they do not make Unix binaries compatible with Windows binaries.

windows 95

Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products. During development it was referred to as Windows 4.0 or by the internal codename Chicago.
Windows 95 was intended to integrate Microsoft's formerly separate MS-DOS and Windows products and includes an enhanced version of DOS, often referred to as MS-DOS 7.0. It features significant improvements over its predecessor, Windows 3.1, most visibly the graphical user interface (GUI) whose basic format and structure is still used in later versions such as Windows Vista. There were also large changes made to the underlying workings, including support for 255-character mixed-case long filenames and preemptively multitasked protected-mode 32-bit applications. Whereas its predecessors are optional "operating environments" requiring the MS-DOS operating system (usually available separately), Windows 95 is a consolidated operating system, which was a significant marketing change.

windows XP

Windows XP is a line of operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on general-purpose computer systems, including home and business desktops, notebook computers, and media centers. The letters "XP" stand for eXPerience.[2] It was codenamed "Whistler", after Whistler, British Columbia, as many Microsoft employees skied at the Whistler-Blackcomb ski resort during its development. Windows XP is the successor to both Windows 2000 Professional and Windows Me, and is the first consumer-oriented operating system produced by Microsoft to be built on the Windows NT kernel and architecture. Windows XP was first released on October 25, 2001, and over 400 million copies were in use in January 2006, according to an estimate in that month by an IDC analyst.[3] It is succeeded by Windows Vista, which was released to volume license customers on November 8, 2006, and worldwide to the general public on January 30, 2007.
The most common editions of the operating system are Windows XP Home Edition, which is targeted at home users, and Windows XP Professional, which has additional features such as support for Windows Server domains and two physical processors, and is targeted at power users and business clients. Windows XP Media Center Edition has additional multimedia features enhancing the ability to record and watch TV shows, view DVD movies, and listen to music. Windows XP Tablet PC Edition is designed to run the ink-aware Tablet PC platform. Two separate 64-bit versions of Windows XP were also released, Windows XP 64-bit Edition for IA-64 (Itanium) processors and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition for x86-64.
Windows XP is known for its improved stability and efficiency over the 9x versions of Microsoft Windows. It presents a significantly redesigned graphical user interface, a change Microsoft promoted more user-friendly than previous versions of Windows. New software management capabilities were introduced to avoid the "DLL hell" that plagued older consumer-oriented 9x versions of Windows. It is also the first version of Windows to use product activation to combat software piracy, a restriction that did not sit well with some users and privacy advocates. Windows XP has also been criticized by some users for security vulnerabilities, tight integration of applications such as Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player, and for aspects of its default user interface.
Windows XP had been in development since early 1999, when Microsoft started working on Windows Neptune, an operating system intended to be the "Home Edition" equivalent to Windows 2000 Professional. It was eventually merged into the Whistler project, which later became Windows XP.

Processor

Intel takes the wraps off the latest version of the Pentium M, previously codenamed Dothan. This new design moves the Pentium M to 90-nanometer manufacturing process, pushes up clock rates, and doubles the L2 cache. While none of the changes in Dothan can be called revolutionary, it appears that Intel has improved key areas of the original Banias design from lessons learned in the field.
What is L2 Cache? (Level 2 Cache) - A piece of fast memory that sits between the L1 cache of the processor and main memory. It is usually larger than L1 cache, and the L1 cache checks the L2 cache before going to main memory for data (unless the L1 and L2 caches are unified--see unified cache). Nowadays L2 caches are almost always on the same die as the processor, but they can be off-chip. An on-die L2 cache is a faster alternative to an SRAM cache, particularly as CPU clock speeds continue to increase.The most important entries here are the changes in the L1 and L2 cache sizes, where the L1 is 4X bigger and the L2 doubles in size. In fact, the doubling of the L2 cache probably accounts for much of the 81% increase in transistor count. Dothan also offers about an 18% higher peak clock rate, as well as a lower thermal envelope, thanks to the move to Intel's 90-nanometer manufacturing process.The biggest new feature in Dothan is the big L2 cache, which is the same size as that found in Intel's Pentium 4 Extreme Edition.

Latest Motherboard "Gigabyte GA-8GPNXP Duo"

Intel’s 915P chipset is already taking its place as the logical successor to the 865P. The latest motherboard to be based around this new chipset is the flagship of Gigabyte’s 8 Sigma series, a board clearly aimed at the system builder that wants it all. Whether you’re looking for gigabit networking, 800MB FireWire support or wireless networking as standard, you won’t be disappointed.
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Not all of the features on offer are obviously useful, with Gigabyte’s Dual Power System still appearing to be little more than a board with pretty LEDs on it. It purports to provide a better power signal to the processor, but this certainly isn’t a requirement from Intel. The trendy heat-pipe for this expansion card crowds the processor fan, too.
The inclusion of a wireless networking card is a far more welcome sight, as the migration of these essential devices from notebooks to desktop systems is long overdue. Drivers are included on a separate disk but, when combined with the integrated gigabit Ethernet, the network potential of a system built around this motherboard is phenomenal. The accompanying software is somewhat tricky to set up but, once you’ve put the time in, you shouldn’t have any lasting qualms.
Gigabyte has helped make the transition to the new standard a little easier by supporting DDR, in addition to the newer DDR2 standard. This is a wise move as there’s no obvious benefit from even 533MHz memory over the existing DDR400 DIMMs currently available. The inclusion of an IDE RAID controller is also worthy of applause, as it will enable you to port across your existing drives without having to purchase SATA models.
The installation routine for motherboards isn’t something to get excited about, but Gigabyte does have one of the better systems we’ve ever seen. The automated script restarts Windows when needed, requires minimal user intervention (only once for a non-signed driver) and finishes with the motherboard totally ready for use.
In terms of performance, it’s still early days for Intel’s new chipset, and manufacturers haven’t optimised everything completely but, even so, the SYSmark 2002 of 326 is reasonable for the test set-up. When you consider the board’s performance alongside a great feature-set, this is a motherboard to covet. It’s just a shame it costs so much.

Latest slot

One SHB Express (PICMG 1.3) System Host Board Slot

Two x16 PCI Express slots (mechanical)

Four 64-bit/66MHz PCI-X Slots

Four 64-bit/33MHz PCI Slots

ATX, EPS and Extended-current power connection options

Supports Trenton 14-slot and PICMG 1.3 13-slot hole patterns

Seamless support for PCI Express, PCI-X and PCI option cards

Latest Memory

Kingston sent over a 2GB PC3-11000 HyperX memory kit that was rated to run at 1375Mhz had tight memory timings of 7-7-7-20 and operated at 1.7V. This memory kit is the fastest DDR3 memory kit from anyone to our knowledge and has really tight timings compared to other DDR3 kits at the same speed. Kingston will offer 1GB and 2GB PC3-11000 memory kits with these timings.

Hardware Components

Mouse
Printer