Microsoft's Vista

Inside Windows Vista RC1: Initial test drive

Is Windows Vista ready for prime time?

Scot Finnie   Today's Top Stories    or  Other Windows Stories  

September 05, 2006 (Computerworld) -- Is Windows Vista ready for prime time? Microsoft is throwing open the doors on a very large public test of Vista Release Candidate 1 (RC1), which means for anyone who has a hankering to try it before it costs money, this is likely your last chance. So, whether or not it's ready, over 5 million people will be invited to find out. Microsoft is clearly betting that it's good enough to try.

Based on an initial test drive, Vista RC1 is the first version of the forthcoming Windows operating system to show true refinement, both in terms of reliability and overall performance. For this story, Computerworld worked with Vista Build 5600 on five test machines for a period of about 48 hours. It's the tip of the iceberg, offering initial impressions that will be followed by a more exhaustive review in the days ahead. But during the first two days, Vista RC1 didn't disappoint. For the first time, it feels stable enough to run on a production PC.

Performance takes many guises. Microsoft is promising 2-second resume times from Sleep mode that don't degrade over time. Another performance boost comes from smartly balancing the usage of CPU time. Microsoft is giving background services, like Windows Defender, lower //input///output priority to increase the performance of your line-of-business applications. In particular, it aims to make applications load quickly and to maintain that state of alacrity over time. It's too early to say whether the software maker has achieved that in RC1, but resume-from-sleep times are in the 3-to-5-second range. And applications such as Microsoft Word appear to pop open quickly. Time will tell.

Nuevo Networking

RC1 introduces a fairly radical overhaul of the Network and Sharing Center. It merges two previous networking control panels into one, and reworking the functionality makes it truly useful for the first time. The new Manage Wireless Networks task area finally gives wireless networking users a logical, useful way to control named and saved Wi-Fi connections. You can right-click the Network desktop icon and choose Properties to open the Network and Sharing Center. Or click the Network icon in the system tray to initiate a new network connection.

Networking controls have never been a Microsoft strong suit, but even so, the Network and Sharing Center, as well as the tasks it offers, form the best networking control interface that Windows has ever had (see our visual tour of Vista RC1).

One of the confusing things about Vista Beta 2 was the difference between public and private networks. When you create a new network connection, Vista Beta 2 asked you to classify that network as one or the other. There were many situations in which even experienced users weren't sure which of the two classifications to use for the networking environment. Private sounds more secure, but it was actually less secure. So, Microsoft has changed this for the better. There are now three classifications: Home, Work and Public Location.

This build of Vista shows a remarkable improvement in network browsing speed. When you open the Network window, which displays other workstations on a network, the mild delay before all available workstations appear is in the 5-to-10-second range on a typical six-node peer network of mixed Vista and Windows XP machines.

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