Evolving Vista

Vista has grown out of its teething troubles, claims Microsoft.
CHIP tested Vista with Service Pack 1 and can vouch that the
claim is valid to a certain extent.
It might sound strange to you but we actually
asked average computer users if they or
somebody they know are using Vista. After
all, Microsoft has sold over 100 million licenses
of Vista since the introduction of the operating
system last February. Besides, this number is
supposedly well distributed around the world.
We wanted to find out why so many people
hesitate to buy Vista and hence, we conducted
an online survey. “My current programs won’t
run since they are incompatible with Vista”,
dreaded about 22 percent of those surveyed.
They are not completely wrong in their
assertion. Even with an installed XP emulator,
some programs refuse to operate in Vista.
More than a year after Vista’s release,
frustrated users feel that they have been
unknowingly tangled in a beta test of incomplete
software. Service Pack 1 (SP1) seems to provide
relief to the disgruntled. Microsoft hopes that
the release of SP1 will make Vista a full-fledged
operating system. Yet, at first glance, it doesn’t
seem to promise much. When the update is first
run, the improvements are not very obvious.
The situation is analogous to that in the auto
world: If Volkswagen introduces the next Golf
VI, it will look very much like the Golf V but
underneath the surface the changed mechanism
may actually make the vehicle run smoothly, or
better still, it may even be a complete overhaul.
That’s exactly how it is with Windows: the
manufacturers claim to have improved features
such as performance, security, and reliability
under its bonnet. How much more exactly? We
tested the claims in detail.
Performance: Vista is much faster
with Service Pack 1
Microsoft still asserts that an 800 MHz PC with
512 MB RAM and a DirectX 9 graphics card
should be enough to run the system smoothly.
In practice however, it turns out that Vista
performs best only on the latest CPUs with dual-core technology and a minimum of
1 GB RAM. Still, there are performance
problems even with fast computers:
music crackles, power consumption on
notebooks is extremely high, and it still
takes ages for Vista to launch. Resource
sparing, stability and faster operations are
still the mainstays of the proven success
of Windows XP. Microsoft has, however,
improved considerably with the Service
Pack.
Copying Faster: The average hard disk
could transmit 25 MB of data per second
but only if Vista’s brakes were absent.
This transfer rate is achieved only in the
rarest of the cases because of the sub
par programming of Vista. Technicians in
Redmond have identified the defect and
repaired it, and this happens to be the
biggest plus point of Vista SP1.
On a computer running the new
software package, data can allegedly be
copied on the local disk up to 25 percent
faster and 50 percent faster across the
network. However, in practical tests
conducted in our test center, the increase
in speed was not so high—it was 18
percent higher while copying locally and
33 percent higher over the network.
Though not reaching the speeds touted by
Microsoft, it is still good improvement.
Incidentally, Microsoft has also rectified
the way the copying process works. Until
now, the Vista time specification while
copying was rather haphazard. With
SP1—while few of the time progress bars
are still inconsistent with the actual time
taken—the display is right most of the
time. However, folders containing a cluster
of small files still have problems in gauging
estimated time.
Enjoying music without interference:
Today we can simultaneously perform
multiple tasks on the PC. However, Vista
is still riddled with flaws. Whenever
several memory- and computing-intensive
applications are simultaneously running
on Vista, the audio playback is usually
interrupted. This occurs because the media
player gets allocated very little CPU time to
decode the MP3 and this results in crackles
while playing music. Leave alone slower
machines, this is a problem that can take
place even on fast systems.
While testing the original Vista,
Amy Winehouse, for instance, started
stammering when we ran iTunes,
Photoshop and Microsoft Word
simultaneously on our 2.4 GHz large
Dual Core system. With SP1, Microsoft
gets rid of this exasperating problem by
reserving CPU time for audio and video
playback. If you believe that this is the
only reason for the sluggish functioning
of other operational applications, you
are just deceiving yourself: Windows
cleverly divides the CPU time amongst
the applications and performance is not
lost with Photoshop & Co. The only hitch
is that Microsoft has not integrated a cool
user-friendly playing tool, such as iTunes
offered by Apple.
Notebooks hold out longer: Laptop users
ought to rejoice with SP1 because the
computer battery should now last longer.
We tried it out and installed the new Service
Pack on a Lenovo notebook. The outcome:
about seven percent more run time. In
order to achieve this increase in battery
time, Vista SP1 has especially optimized
the working of the major power devourer—
laptop display. For instance, the CPU can
now discretely go into sleep mode as soon
as the display content does not change for a
determined time. SP1 also gets rid of a bug
with certain video chipset.
If a program continuously accesses
the VSync-interrupt even though it
does not need to, the system does not
go to sleep mode. Vista SP1 monitors
this interrupt and checks whether the
application actually needs it. Similarly,
there are alleged improvements in the
second largest power sucker, i.e. the
hard disk. The technicians at Redmond
have improved its performance by merely
rectifying a programming error: earlier,
in some cases, the hard disk used to
continue running even though it was
actually supposed to switch over to the
standby mode. Along with that, Microsoft
has also worked on the compatibility of
the new power-saving hybrid SSD hard
disks (Solid State Disk) with SP1. These
disks are equipped with a big cache, which
buffers the data.
Earlier, the components of the hybrid
SSD hard discs used to create difficulties
while in standby mode. Unfortunately,
our tests reveal that the collaboration of
such hybrid disks with Vista SP1 has not
improved substantially. On the contrary, on
exiting the standby mode, the disk drives
by manufacturers Samsung and Seagate
take 20 seconds to start. Windows in
the meantime is completely idle—it is
neither possible to click on icons nor
start any programs. This is an extremely
embarrassing goof-up by Microsoft!
Security: Better protection
against viruses, hackers etc
Vista is relatively safer and some new
features have improved the security
aspects of SP1. But, these improvements
will only benefit corporate customers.
Encrypting data: If you want to use the
in-built Windows encryption-function
BitLocker, you either require an ‘Ultimate’
or an ‘Enterprise’ version of Vista, both
of which are expensive and are seldom
installed on any of the PCs available in the
consumer market. Users not equipped
with either and still wanting to encrypt
their operating system will have to resort
to programs from third party providers.
Until now, the problem with BitLocker
was the limitation on the size of system
volume. With SP1, users can now also
protect additional partitions from strange
eyes. Yet, it’s incomprehensible why
Microsoft is releasing this function now
since experts could already encrypt their
other partitions using BitLocker, via the
command line on Vista systems without
SP1—only the user interface was missing.
Microsoft has added it now so that the
average user can perform the same
function.
Better updates: If Windows had been a
car with a broken brake, Microsoft would gently instead of completely replacing the
brake disc. This situation is comparable
to the security updates: If the technicians
at Redmond discovered a security leak,
they would only plug the hole, and never
strive to find the cause of the leak. This
has fortunately changed with Vista.
Maybe because this is the first consumer
operating system from Microsoft that
has been developed taking SDL (Secure
Development Lifecycle) into account.
A new security strategy from Microsoft
is hidden behind SDL: right from the
initial phase of developing new systems,
the specialists study current threats
and predict possible future threats. The
programmers have upgraded the operating
system so that it can withstand all
those dangers. If you believe Microsoft,
you require around 50 percent lesser
updates—all thanks to SDL. With SP1,
Vista includes a corresponding SDL update
that should make certain parts more
secure: If Vista now blocks a program with
the user account control; the user receives
more information about it. However, the
continuous messages are still just as
annoying as before.
Reliable Info: If you want to know whether
the antivirus protection has been activated
and updated, or whether the firewall is
active or not, then you don’t need to open
Vista security any more. With SP1, it looks
like Microsoft has improved the technology
too. Before, in certain cases, malicious
software could change the status of the
security applications within the centers.
Thus, it happened that Windows would
show a green light but the firewall, for
instance, would be inactive. Security tools
can now report their status to Windows
monitoring via new and safer interfaces.
The user can thus be sure that everything
really is in order when Windows says
so—at least until hackers find a new way
of attacking it.
Reliability: Windows does not
crash so often with the SP1
The blue screen stll remains to scare
users. Crashes haven’t been rampant for
quite a while now, but the allegedly robust
Vista cannot handle everything. Many
errors have been taken care of in SP1.
Lesser data loss: Windows has drilled
it into our heads that we must first
eject the USB stick from the Windows
software before taking it out. Simply
removing the USB stick could lead to data
loss. Microsoft has improved the cache
performance with SP1, especially in the
case of NTFS media. One should still not
pull out the stick directly, but, if you do, it
is quite unlikely that your data will be lost.
Better Dr ivers: Crashes are mainly caused
due to driver problems and software
from third party providers. Compatibility
issues have been improved with SP1 and
Microsoft has even updated the drivers
for radio networks, which promises higher
rate of success with WLAN connect.
For wireless networks, the range largely
depends on the location and efficiency
of the router. Microsoft boasts a larger
range with SP1, but we could detect only a
marginal increase during testing.
Support for new hardware: Along with
the many bugfixes, this Service Pack also
introduces support for future hardware
standards. Thus, Vista SP1 can work well
with media on the new exFAT file system.
This allows the usage of media having
larger total capacity and is especially
intended for flash memory cards and
USB sticks. Even upcoming SD cards
with SD ADMA (Advanced DMA) can
communicate with Vista and they offer a
higher transfer rate as well as lesser load
on the processor.
Future PC systems with EFI-BIOS can
now be used with Vista as well. Yet, with
all these improvements, there is still room
to heap on the criticism.