Windows Vista: Wow or Whoa?

Windows Vista, Wow or Whoa

By now you've seen it, the Wow logo for Vista. Is Vista really that good? Are people really saying "Wow" when they get Vista? Windows Vista is upon us, and you are probably wondering, "Should I make the switch from Windows XP?" The answers may not be obvious or simple. The first thing you should ask yourself is why you want Vista? If you really want the latest neat software, and don't mind buying a new computer to use the new features, then go for it. If you are not sure why, then read on. The first thing to consider is what version of Vista you want.

Vista Editions

There are five Vista editions: Home Basic; Home Premium; Business; Enterprise; and Ultimate. They each have different capabilities. Two worked pretty well for Windows XP (ok, three if you count media center). I can't answer why, but I can explain the differences between Vista editions. For some reason Microsoft decided to protect our businesses from their employees' wasteful habits by crippling the ability to author multimedia creations on DVD with the default applications on Vista for the Business and Enterprise editions. I've heard this may be in response to EU Antitrust Legislation. In addition the cute games that came with Ultimate are not installed on Business or Enterprise Editions. You can install them from Programs and Features / Turn Windows features on or off. The other oddity is why we don't get Multi-Language Support (the ability to install and use multiple languages on the same PC) for Business Edition. I wonder how that might impact Penn State lab deployments? The table below shows the features available in the different editions of Vista:

Licensing

The Penn State Computer Store has both Vista Business and Vista Enterprise available for departmental purchase. Vista Ultimate is scheduled to be available in April 2007.

Vista Business and Vista Enterprise have two types of license keys-MAK (Multiple Activation Key) and KMS (Key Management Service). These types of licenses differ from the single VLK (volume license key) used previously with Windows XP. The reason for this change is the large amount of piracy that occurred from using a single key that didn't activate using a Microsoft or University server. The KMS based license is the most similar to the VLK license for Windows XP as it has the ability to activate silently. This license provides a single key that can be used for an unlimited number of machines as long as they can communicate with a KMS. ITS has established a central KMS for the Penn State community. This type of license is best used with machines that regularly connect to the Penn State network. Information about the KMS and instructions on how to configure your machine to use the KMS are located at http://its.psu.edu/mskms. KMS is the preferred method for activating license keys for Penn State computers when installing Business or Enterprise.

The MAK based license is a license key that requires a one-time activation of the product against a Microsoft server. The setting and activating of the MAK license is by default a manual process that must be done within the first 30 days of installation on the machine. This type of license is best suited for machines that do not regularly connect to the Penn State network such as laptops that are primarily used when traveling. The University must keep a running total of the number of machines using this license method. Thus if you decide to change from a KMS to a MAK installation, the Penn State Computer Store must be informed.

Please note that the MAK license key may change over time, if the key ever becomes compromised. This will most likely not require administrators to change the license key on every MAK license based installation, but from that time forward the previous key will no longer work for initial activations.

Vista Ultimate requires a unique key for each installation as it is treated as a retail installation. Ultimate must activate directly with Microsoft. Because of the unique key per machine, Vista Ultimate will be difficult for computer lab installations. Windows Vista Ultimate should only be used when you require Ultimate Extras and Media Center capabilities.

Windows Vista Enterprise is ideal for power users, laptops, and where multi-language support is required. Windows Vista Business is meant for people who do not need the extra features of Enterprise; however, the licensing available here at Penn State for Business does not permit it to be run in a virtual machine such as Parallels or VMWare, and it has some confusing restrictions because it is an upgrade license that does not include Software Assurance. So, I recommend that you stay with Enterprise.

Good Features

There are some good features, and security is beefed up compared to Windows XP SP2. Here are some of the good features:

• The built in firewall now protects the world from you as well as protecting you from the world.
• User Access Control (UAC). Even when you are logged on with administrator privileges, you will be running in user mode. When you try to do something that requires administrator privileges, you are challenged either to agree that you mean to do that or to type in the administrator password to confirm you mean to do that. The challenge can be configured using Group Policy to be no challenge, challenge, or require password.
• BitLocker disk partition encryption—This feature will make your data much more secure, especially for laptops that may have sensitive information on their hard drives. (Note: BitLocker is only included in the Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Vista.)
• Redirect of application writes to Local Machine portion of the registry. This has been a problem (bug) since Windows 2000. Many applications try to write status information into the local machine portion of the registry on the faulty assumption that only one person uses a computer. Vista redirects those writes to a virtual directory in the user profile.
• The beautiful and intuitive Aero graphical user interface.
• The enhanced search capabilities of Vista.
• Windows Defender comes with Vista and provides additional adware and spyware protection.
• Internet Explorer 7 is more usable and more secure than IE6.

Not So Good Features

There are other things in Vista that will annoy you:

• The built in firewall can only be manipulated using group policy or an MMC. Does a normal user know how to do that?
• UAC—Those continuous challenges are very annoying, and if you are doing a product install, they can be deviously hidden in a blinking orange icon on the taskbar.
• In challenge mode, Run As (runas.exe) and UAC get their feet tangled, and thus cause bad administrative habits. In Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, you could logon as a normal user and use the runas.exe command to execute commands at an elevated privilege. Now you must logon to an account with administrator privileges and use runas.exe to elevate yourself to administrator privilege (or right click the application and select Run As Administrator) or logon as a normal user and run the gauntlet of using runas.exe to change to an administrator userid and then deal with UAC prompts. In UAC credentials (password) challenge mode, you can change the userid and password in the challenge; however, you will get very tired of supplying that information for the excessive UAC challenges. Most users will probably turn this off because it is so annoying, and then they are running the same as Windows XP.
• Some software is not supported yet—SAS, SPSS, and 802.1x TTLS support for example.
• The updated graphical user interface may confuse some users, and the new Aero user interface requires a significant amount of computing resources (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aero_Glass#Requirements): 1 GHz processor, 1 GB of system memory, 128 MB or dedicated video memory, DirectX 9 compatible video card (nVidia GeForce FX 5200/ATi Radeon 9500 or newer).
• If you convert to Vista, you cannot back out (uninstall). You may want to consider dual boot or some other way to run both systems. To do a dual boot in two partitions, you must install Windows XP first, and then install Vista in the other partition. The Vista loader is quite different and will not support installing Windows XP in a partition after Vista is installed.
• Vista by default cannot connect to the PASS Samba gateway, and probably will not be able to connect to other Samba servers. Currently the PASS space gateways only support NTLMv1, and by default Windows Vista requires NTMLv2. NTLMv1 is also needed if you are doing a CIFS connection to a share on an Apple OS X server. Here are instructions to get around that:

1. Open Local Security Policy: Windows button => Control Panel => Administrative Tools => Local Security Policy.
2. In the Local Security Policy MMC, select the Local Policies Folder and then Security Options.
3. In the Security Options list select and open "Network security: LAN Manager authentication level". The setting by default is Send NTLMv2 response only.
4. Change the setting to: Send LM & NTLM - use NTLMv2 session security if negotiated.

• There will be confusion about Vista licensing. Why are there five versions? What can I get? What do I need? Even the Windows experts do not agree about licensing:
• Windows Vista Licensing Changes - Everything you've read is wrong (http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_licensing.asp).
• Windows Vista Enthusiastic Licensing Restriction (http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_licensing_reply.asp).

Can You Stay on Windows XP?

The answer is yes. You will have several more years of Windows XP support, and many of the good features of Vista are now available on Windows XP. These include the following:

• Windows Explorer 7 (IE7) is available as a free download for Windows XP SP2
• Windows Defender is available as a free download for Windows XP SP2
• Windows Desktop Live search toolbar is a free download for Windows XP
• Google Desktop is a free download for Windows XP (alternative to Desktop Live)

Paul Thurrott's article, "Sticking with Windows XP in a Windows Vista World" (http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_xp_apps.asp), provides more information for users who choose to stay with XP.

So, after all of this if you don't know why you should switch to Vista, then just stay with Windows XP. If you want to hear more about the pros and cons of Windows Vista, you will have another opportunity at the User Services Conference 2007 on April 5, at the Penn Stater Conference Center at University Park. My presentation will cover more than was reasonable in this article and will provide you with a chance to participate in the discussion and share your experiences. I hope to see you at the conference.

Resources and References

There are lots of good reference sites about Vista. Here are a few that I recommend:

• Wikipedia Vista Article—http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Vista (You know it's real when it shows up in Wikipedia )
• Paul Thurrott's Windows Super Site—http://www.winsupersite.com/
• Microsoft Windows Vista—http://www.microsoft.com/windows/default.mspx
• Windows Vista ITS Task Force Wiki—https://wiki.et-test.psu.edu/index.php/Windows_Vista (available to faculty and staff)