One of the key things that we focused on for Windows Vista was improving the experience for mobile (laptop) users.  If you are like me, you spend quite a bit of time running around with a laptop.  However, when I am in my office, I tend to use my desktop.  The primary way that I share files between my desktop and my laptop is by ...

During the fall of 2006 as we were completing the final release of Windows Vista, I was getting a lot of questions about how Windows Vista compared to the original vision of Windows Longhorn.  I had someone on my team go back and look at the feature set that was first discussed at the October, 2003 PDC and not only did we ...

One of the most basic conundrums in computer security is the constant trade-off between security and usability.  At the end of the day, if security is too complicated to use, then it simply won't be used.  Even if a feature offers a good level of security protections, if it is complicated or has poor usability it will likely be disabled ...

One of the interesting things about the release of a major version upgrade like Windows Vista is that there are so many new features, that it might take you a while to discover all of the deep capabilities built into the product.  Some features you will discover are nice changes that improve specific uses.  Others can dramatically alter ...

Many people share the dream that the various electronic devices they use should do what they want without them having to ask.  In our non-computer lives, we have come to expect basic things to just happen.  We expect machines to help us by doing more things automatically, and more of the basics as we want them to happen, without ...

Anyone who has ever heard me give a talk about Windows Vista (even back when it was called Windows Longhorn) knows that I usually mention that Windows Vista is the first version of Windows since Windows 95 that truly has something for everyone, including home users, business users, IT professionals and developers.  One particular area of ...

The hardware that makes up today’s laptops has gotten quite efficient and we have worked hard to improve Windows' ability to manage that hardware.  One of the biggest improvements in the mobile PC experience for Windows since the early 1990 is longer battery life.  The trick here is to make the system as efficient as possible while still ...

A few weeks ago I wrote about the new sounds of Windows Vista and I made the point that sound is an important component of your experience using a Windows PC.  As important as the new sounds are as an interface to the Windows UI, of equal importance is the system infrastructure that enables you to control and enjoy those sounds. I ...

Anyone who has called a customer support number recently has most likely heard the recorded message ''To help us improve our quality of service this call may be recorded or monitored.''  When you call Microsoft Customer Support, one of the reasons that you hear such a message is that we have this really cool system that lets folks in the ...

If there is one thing that can really help applications on Windows Vista run better, it's memory.  When comparing the performance of Windows XP and Windows Vista on a PC with 1 GB of main memory, Windows Vista is generally comparable to Windows XP or faster.  However, we also know that in some cases, on PCs with 512 MB of main memory, ...