Q: Windows Vista?
A: Windows Vista is Microsoft's next generation operating system, formerly known by its code-name Longhorn. Originally announced in 2001, and officially unveiled at Microsoft's 2003 developers' conference, Vista faced numerous delays, with Microsoft scaling back some of its features in order to help get it out the door within the stated target of 2006.

Beta 1 has been released to over 10,000 Microsoft beta testers on July 27th. This first beta is aimed at IT Professionals and developers, and does not include most of the user interface updates, which according to Microsoft should appear in Beta 2, expected "later this year".

Windows Vista Beta 1 will not be made available to the general public, but besides beta testers, MSDN and TechNet Plus subscribers can download the beta.

Q: What's with the name?
A: Microsoft had a list of names to choose from. While they will not say what the other choices are, they included everything from using simple numbers (Windows 2007) to letters (like Windows XP), and more inventive names. Using a process of elimination, they finally decided to go with Windows Vista. Microsoft's slogan for Windows Vista is "Bringing clarity to your world".

Q: So, what about security?
A: Windows Vista will deliver many new or improved security features. Some of these are:

• User Account Protection features enables administrators to deploy PCs set up to give end users only the privileges they need to perform their tasks.
• Windows Service Hardening monitors critical Windows services for abnormal activity in the file system, registry and network that could be used to allow malware to persist on a machine or propagate to other machines.
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista includes many features to help protect against malicious Web sites and malware, and includes protection against phishing and spoofing attacks.
• Network Access Protection. Windows Vista has Network Access Protection to help prevent security-compromised computers from connecting to a user's internal network until security criteria (such as the latest updates, security configuration settings or virus signatures downloaded) are met.
• Firewall. Windows Vista provides outgoing as well as incoming filtering, which can be centrally managed via Group Policy. This lets administrators control which applications are allowed to communicate or are blocked from communicating on the.

Q: What are the System Requirements to run Windows Vista?
A: According to Microsoft, minimum system requirements will not be known until summer 2006 at the earliest. However, these guidelines provide useful estimates:

• 512 MB or more of RAM
• A dedicated graphics card with DirectX® 9.0 support
• A modern, Intel Pentium- or AMD Athlon-based PC

Q: Can I get Windows Vista Beta 1?
A: Probably not. Beta 1 is only available to private testers, MSDN and TechNet subscribers. However, Windows Vista Beta 2 (which might be available late 2005 or early 2006) will be made available to the public.

You will probably see downloads popping up on P2P networks. I'd suggest you resist the temptation to download it though. The 1st beta doesn't include most of the GUI (Graphical User Interface) improvements that will appear in Beta 2, so really Beta 2 is what you want.

Q: Will Windows Vista be a 32-bit or 64-bit operating system?
A: Windows Vista will be available in both 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) versions.

Q: When will Windows Vista ship?
A: Microsoft is targeting the second half of 2006. Let's hope it is ready near the end (Sept/Nov) of 2006.

Q: Is there going to be a server version?
A: Yes. It is not known yet under which name that product will be released; right now "Windows Server 2007" is a top runner in the speculation-charts. Microsoft is targeting a 2007 release date for the server product.

Q: What is WinFS?
A: WinFS (Windows Future Storage), is a database-based storage engine, based on SQL Server 2005. This new file system has some capabilities designed to improve searches for certain files on ever increasing storage media. To this end two new features called Windows Future Storage Services and Windows Storage Full-Text Index are part of the new file system.

Late August 2004, Microsoft announced it would not include the WinFS data storage engine in Windows Vista, but would ship that technology in beta form by the time Windows Vista will ship, probably late 2006.

Even without WinFS, Windows Vista still includes virtually all of the end user search features that Microsoft had originally promised.

Q: What are "Avalon" and "Indigo"?
A: Avalon (now officially known as Windows Presentation Foundation) is a graphics subsystem. Windows Presentation Foundation is built on top of Microsoft DirectX, which enables it to unleash the full power of the graphics hardware present in modern computers and is engineered to exploit advances in hardware moving forward.

Indigo (now officially known as Windows Communication Foundation) is Microsoft's unified programming model for building Web service applications with managed code. It extends the .NET Framework to enable developers to build secure, reliable, and transacted Web services.

Together, they enable developers to build connected systems that take advantage of the processing power of the smart client, incorporate cutting-edge media and graphics, and communicate with other applications with improved security and reliability.