Review of Windows Vista
One of our readers sent me a really comprehensive review of Microsoft’s new operating system Windows Vista, specializing mainly on security aspects of this fresh piece of software and I think you could be also interested in some details. Here are few paragraphs from the full article written by guy hidden under nickname Adzik. By the way, if you feel there’s some good article written by yourself or someone else, which could be interesting for our readers, don’t hesitate to mail us and if it’s good enough, it will appear on this site within few days.
Alongside the all-or-nothing approach of disabling output, Vista requires that any interface that provides high-quality output degrade the signal quality that passes through it if premium content is present. This is done through a “constrictor” that downgrades the signal to a much lower-quality one, then up-scales it again back to the original spec, but with a significant loss in quality.
So if you’re using an expensive new LCD display fed from a high- quality DVI signal on your video card and there’s protected content present, the picture you’re going to see will be, as the spec puts it, “slightly fuzzy”, a bit like a 10-year-old CRT monitor that you picked up for $2 at a yard sale.
So if you design a new security system, you can’t get it supported in Windows Vista until well-known computer security experts like Disney, MGM, and 20th Century-Fox give you the go-ahead. It’s absolutely astonishing to find paragraphs like that in what are supposed to be Windows technical documents, since it gives Hollywood studios veto rights over Windows security mechanisms.
In order to prevent active attacks, device drivers are required to poll the underlying hardware every 30ms to ensure that everything appears kosher. This means that even with nothing else happening in the system, a mass of assorted drivers has to wake up thirty times a second just to ensure that… nothing continues to happen.
At the end of all this, the question remains: Why is Microsoft going to this much trouble? Ask most people what they picture when you use the term “premium-content media player” and they’ll respond with “A PVR” or “A DVD player” and not “A Windows PC”. So why go to this much effort to try and turn the PC into something that it’s not?”
Kevin: It really doesn’t matter wat people say about Vista though, within 1 year most of the whining and bitching people will have Vista because DX10 is Vista exclusive. And within 2/3 years all games will no longer suport DX9 meaning that you can either choose to get Vista with DX10 or stop gaming. Besides, no matter what happens Windows will always be the #1 OS because of it’s popularity. Microsoft would kill itself if they changed the name to something else because the name is really all that they have going for them right now.
Comments(37)
How so many people willingly part with large amounts of money to be fucked over never ceases to amaze me.
Stupidity clearly rules the world.
Windows Millenium 2 or Windows Fucked Up Edition, maybe they should just call it Microsoft Wank. Although that could be appropriately applied to other MS products. Need names for all the versions
Microsoft Wank
Microsoft Wanker
Microsoft Wankier
Microsoft Wanked
Microsoft Wanking
etc etc
I use vista and once you disable the UAC and use it for 2 weeks its actualy pretty nice
utorrent works so does winrar and all the other stuff 
if you dont know what UAC is, its the anooying admin pop-up thing what prevents like 99% of all your daily aplications to run ^^ if you want to disable it and use vista like the good old xp do these steps
step 1: Start—>run—>msconfig
step 2: Tools—>scroll down—> Disable UAC
step 3: Start—>settings—>control pannel—>Security center
step 4: change the way Security center alerts me —>choose last option if you dont want that anooying red triangle in the tray ^^
Well this will help allot of people cause now you can use vista like you did with XP
o ya full load of vista is around 700 Mb ram (with running u torrent)
and the easy load of vista is around 300 to 400 mb ram
(with running u torrent)
Step 1: Get Linux, or buy a Mac. Anything will work, just don’t let this farce continue any longer.
Step 2: There is no step 2
I’m sticking with ‘trusty’ (relatively) XP for a more years till someone releases a safely cracked, scaled down, DRM free version of Vista.
If you want more detail,listen to security now,episode 73 and 74.Yes for those in the know,steve gibson is a total twonk,but they do talk about some good stuff.A security “expert” peter gutman wrote the original article that sparked off the whole debate.From what ive read,it looks like the whole css thing of a few years ago,for those old enough to remember,there was a time BEFORE css was cracked.As for vista,well,they should never have allowed HD or blue ray players for pc`s,simple as that. A pc`s a pc,a dvd players a dvd player.
Oh yeah, forgot to mention, if you use Vista, NSA is watching you…
http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/5/5263/1.html
it’s not only vista that degrades content. it is a requirement of playing blu-ray or hd-dvd. so when you play that high def disc in an apple mac or a linux computer , it’ll produce the same output… crippled.
vista is no more DRM’d in that regard than competitors.
the activation is an affront to all customers (people who buy software) because they get a worse product and experience than people who infringe their copyrights.
that is still better than mac osx… which you are restricted (DRM’d) to only install on apple’s overpriced hardware, even though it works just fine on a regular pc. (apple is using regular pcs but charging a lot more for the “privilege”). they all have TPM (trusted platform module aka Trusted Computing aka Palladium) chips to enforce their will at the hardware level. all new intel and amd chips have the compliment of the TPM technology inside them to ensure that users who buy products can NOT do what they want with their own property.
thanks apple, i’ll be thinking different from now on. i won’t be buying anything that diliberately reduces my rights and i won’t be paying a penny to microsoft… if i want the dx10 and other features of vista, i’ll be downloading it.
To answer your question, Microsoft has always wanted the pc to be the center of the universe (of course it would…). So they’re doing everything they can to convince the media companies that their products will be safe on Vista.
And if that means screwing the user in the process then so be it. Most people will never realize it anyway!
you only have to worry about the video degrade if you plan to play Blu-Ray or HD-DVD from your PC, from a legit source.
i don’t plan to do that, so not a problem. if i’m going to own HD-DVD’s, then i’m going to own an HD-DVD player.
and it won’t stop me from watching ripped HD content, which i can do right now, without any problems.
i’m not touching vista. fuck all that DRM shit.
Microsoft is not building for advanced computer users. There’s no money there. In their world, it’s more profitable to build an OS that sits in the center of a household. If they construct the infrastructure that dings you for $.03 every time you watch House, shuffle a song from your music player to your phone, or play Halo 5, they win. If they make the specs so ludicrous only they meet it, they win control of the hardware market as well. With the major players on the supply side of digital content backing it, it’s a brilliant business move. And totally sucks for anyone that doesn’t own MS stock.
While we’re on this topic.
Here’s the first hd-dvd rip on bittorrent.
http://torrentfreak.com/first-hd-dvd-movie-leaked-onto-bittorrent/
Get the mac g5 it looks really good!!!!! My friend has it and says its great!!!!!!
Who wrote this article?? Why is this person? An operating system can’t ask an interface to “downgrade” a signal and then to “upgrade” it again… An interface can, for example, compress a digital stream, process it, and then send it uncompressed to the output port, of course if the gadget connected to that output port supports the uncompressed signal. If it doesn’t support that signal, then the interface(wich is smarter than the person who has written that article) sends it in a format (the downgraded one
) witch is supported by the display. Therefor you can have a 3000$ plasma, HDReady, witch isn’t supported by the video card, or the drivers on that video card might not be the right ones, and the image on that pretty plasma will look just like the image on your grandma’s TV set only on a much bigger scale 
. And by the way, a MAC or any other OS does the same… except some versions of linux witch don’t… do anything…:))
XP works fine with me
I won’t read any more “technical” articles or “reviews”
on this site, cause they only make me mad (even if they’re very very funny) how people who don’t have any idea about Hardware or Software have opinions based on their imagination. Thank you.
my xp works well, runs everything i want/need and can be stable for weeks on end… just had to tweak the shit out of it to run well. lol (oh and a firewall helps)
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.txt
Good detailed reading here.
I’ll stick to linux/BSD thanks.
i’d love for every one to let me know how Windows XP runs upcoming DirectX 10 games… assuming you can afford to buy a DirectX 10 video card.
to Martin:
Article was written by Peter Gutmann some time ago. I just happened to read it and decided to send it to you as well.
AlexC:
the problem is that the interfaces and transport mechanisms all support any video signal including “HD”… it’s the copyright cartel and their cronies who want to make sure you don’t do anything with your property ( you BUY movies/music/software) that they didn’t give you “permission” to do.
and the OS’s from microsoft and apple make sure that the drivers and APIs and playback software won’t allow “thieves” to do something useful with such content, such as watching it streamed through your network or resampled for playback on other devices. they accomplish this by making everyone think they don’t have any rights and also twisting copyright law far beyond anything even the most sadistic and sinister law maker ever dreamed.
so yeah, it’s not “vista’s” fault per se but is the primary accomplice along with OS X (linux doesn’t have a chance… they’ll never allow them to have such DRM even if it were closed source but apparently Linus welcomes it for political reasons).
yeah, most people have no idea that they are losing more rights every day. they take it for granted that when they encounter a digital restriction of some kind, they just chalk it up to “that’s life”. now imagine what happens in this world if that kind of attitude is taken to it’s logical conclusion…
I really hope that until DX10 games will come to market, there will be other alternative available to play them.
ScytheNoire,
To my knowledge, poorly, since winXP wont support directX 10, dx10 is for Vista only.
How can a company knowinly rip off everyone.
Every company that has a pc or a 100 will have to get vista and new pcs to make the thing work.
Spending thousands – keeping the makers of pc parts busy for years trying to keep it all working.
How will this all affect XP? Bt creating a whole new world that needs to work with Vista and al media and web content – how long before our old operating systems will not be able to live in the VISTA world?
Will everyone then be forced to buy this product and spend a lot more money for an over complecated life?
The option is to convert to Mac yes..But what about a good operating system that will compete with windows as a choice.
For most people its Microsoft or nothing…they have us all by the short pubic hairs….
The richest man and the biggest company in the world….greedy bastards all of em.
SF – “you BUY movies/music/software”
actually, you don’t. You buy a COPY of them in some format for your own personal use, subject to terms in a licence, which is completely different. To actually “buy” a movie would cost millions of dollars! There’s a subtle distinction there, but it is important to understand. Although, I do agree that the people regulating these matters have made some silly decisions about how to enforce their copyrights…
I’m not going to install Vista any time soon. This system might be completely useless if someone will “transfer” DX10 to XP. That’s the only thing (i mean DX10) which could FORCE me to migrate to Vista. But if DX10 can be run on XP (one way or another
) there no reason to use new M$ operating system. Everything I hear about Vista assures me that it’s not good idea to use it (DRM, resource usage, ammount of RAM required, the list goes on and on…).
the whining about vista inst really much different than what went on before XP was released.. same shit different day…
i think we’ll all survive – even with vista
#7: Format
that article is from 1999. i dont think it has any relevance
@ Qred,
I know, I was being sarcastic since all these anti-Vista fools don’t realize that to game in DirectX 10 they have to go with Vista. So next-gen HD content be damned, gaming will force people to upgrade to Vista. Personally, I can’t wait for Vista to come out so I can buy a new DX10 video card. Might wait until closer to the summer for the video card, see what’s out then, maybe, guess I’ll have to look at the nVidia roadmap. See if they are releasing a dual-GPU 8800 card.
ScytheNoire …YOU are the FOOL if you accept what Microsoft is dishing out!
If everyone thought like you, there would be no one trying to change things! Try to think before you type next time.
People WILL get around the DRM in Vista and if you think they won’t, you are a bigger fool than I thought you were. As far as people being “forced” to buy Vista? Think again.
Microsoft will be pressured and eventually have direct x 10 for xp, the only reason they do not have it work on xp now is because that is really the ONLY reason for people to switch to vista, but I don’t think even THAT will force them to switch to such a piece of garbage as vista is turning out to be.
If you’re looking for a comprehensive Vista review, take a look at Paul Thurott’s 8-part review over at http://winsupersite.com/reviews/winvista.asp
It will be fascinating to watch who ports dx10 to XP and how the scene + HW/SW market + MS reacts to it. I can’t think of any hack in recent memory that will be as famous and impact more people, since the anti-DRM encoding/burning ratio of users is still relatively small compared to the gamer segment.
“SF – “you BUY movies/music/software”
“actually, you don’t. You buy a COPY of them in some format for your own personal use, subject to terms in a licence, which is completely different. To actually “buy” a movie would cost millions of dollars! There’s a subtle distinction there, but it is important to understand.”
actually, that is exactly what i’m talking about.
you are convinced that you are “subject to terms of a license”. you are NOT! the only thing you are subject to is copyright law and copyright law doesn’t say anything about licensing. you don’t need a “license” to use a product you have paid for.
people simply believe that all those EULAs are legally or even morally binding. they are not. the manufacturers include them and make them such a part of everyday life that people just assume they are legally bound by them.
and no, if you buy a copy of a movie/music/software you can do whatever you want with them, short of copying and redistributing them. including but not limited to, stripping out the DRM and playing back that movie on ANY device you wish, installing software on any device you want and not just what the manufacturer demands you to do (apple os x), connecting to “unathorized” game servers.
don’t buy the bullshit that you are bound by anything.
if they want to include all these restrictions, first of all, they should be stripped of copyright protection (not copy protection, that’s a different thing altogether aka DRM). copyright does not restrict use, only distribution (copying).
second, they shouldn’t let people buy any digital product without a company representative there to administer a written contract, a real contract, not some pseudo-legal garbage EULA.
a EULA is NOT a contract.
repeat that with me.
a EULA is NOT a contract.
a EULA is NOT a contract.
a EULA is NOT a contract.
a EULA is NOT a contract.
you are not legally bound by anything in it. even more so, you are not morally bound by any of the terms.
just as an aside, has anyone really read any EULAs? the stuff in there is so absurd, it ought to be illegal to read it.
they restrict you so much, THAT ought to be against the law.
a contract by definition cannot be one-sided.
after having paid for said product, then they go on and on about what you’re not allowed to do with it. EXCUSE ME, you greedy pos. i just paid for it, tell me why, logically if you can, should i listen to your insane ramblings? i won’t copy it and give it out to my friends (if we had sane laws i might actually follow this more often) but anything else i do with it is justified and warranted.
disgusting and obscene.
the public needs to know that they shouldn’t believe whatever the copyright cartel tells them. they have the right to use digital products in any way they see fit and not the way the manufacturer “approves”.
i want to pay for good software/movies/music at fair prices and with NO restrictions, as per copyright law (even the immoral version that exists in contemporary history).
DMCA? yeah, we have a moral right to follow immoral laws (aka not in the public’s benefit)…. sarcasm, a fitting end to my diatribe.
to be honest these days i dont play a lot of games i get far more entertainment out of various other things, so i genuinely am getting to the point that i can move over to suse linux 10.2 permenently. Fuck Vista suse 10.2 is much better as a desktop operating system. More secure too. you’d never get people like ‘wartopia #3′ complaining that the ‘login as root’ thing comes up because it all works properly as a non pirvelledged user.
good work Jon.
now if i could give up gaming i’d join you and the other freedom loving anti-DRM linux users.
it’s my achilles heel.
but even now i don’t game as much as i used to.
maybe in a few more years i’ll lose enough interest to dump this proprietary, closed-source piece of junk and make the move to an open non-drm os. one that doesn’t have the blessing of the NSA. sure open source os’s can be infiltrated but it’s that much more difficult. and don’t be arrogant mac users, apple “cooperates” with the government as much as ms does.
Vista is coming? NO THANKS. I’m done with Windows. I’m done with Activation…I’m done with Windows Geniune (dis)Advantage.
Haven’t been gaming for over a year now, and funny enough, I don’t miss it…Have been using Linux for just under 2 years.
Using Arch Linux now. This distro puts you into a position where you build the system up the way YOU want it. While Post No. 3 says 300 to 400 MB RAM on Vista…I’m sitting on less than 100MB in Linux! (Is that efficiency or what?!)…I can reduce this further by using a different desktop environment.
…I even write programs now!
Its sad that post No. 3 “Wartopia” has disabled UAC.
UAC stands for User-Access Control…A concept from Unix. Sadly, Micrsoft in all its genius, have made a proven, mature, 30yr concept and turned it into the most annoying pop-up implementation known to man.
Effectively, UAC is a pointless feature, as people will get annoyed with it, and like Wartopia, will disable it.