Obvious and 'under the bonnet' differences between Vista and XP

Lysander

Lysander

Lysander

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OK I've been thinking about the main differences between the two OSs and though I can think of many obvious differences, I can't think of any 'background' ones, so maybe someone can help with this.

Obvious differences are:

64-bit capability
Aero interface [inc flip3d and all other minor GUI changes]
Customisation of 'off' button
Windows Defender
Rapid search function
Sidebar
WMP11 inc burn option
Windows Media Centre

Under the bonnet:

No idea, and can anyone help and explain what Superfetch is :confused:

Oh and I don't want to look at the Windows website for 'differences' since here we'll all have experiences of what we've found.
 
There is that feature where it can use flash memory for HD caching.

The is that data protection thing where it asks your permision for every freakin' registary change.

There is that superfetch thing you mentioned.

Ermm. Other then that I don't know.
 
There are three levels to look at with regards the differences between OS's.
The majority of people look at the surface and no further.
These are the people who see very little between Vista & XP.
Scratch the surface and go half-way down and you can find some changes and new features.
Some people look this deep, see there really is a difference but still many people don't see these changes as a benefit and are still looking at the surface.
Dig however right down to the ground and you get into the "nitty, gritty" code area.
It is at this point that although obviously MS will reuse some of their code (Why reinvent the wheel?) Vista is actually a new OS and not simply something built on top of WinXP.

Win2k to WinXP was a pretty minor update with some 80% - 90% of the same code being used.
With WinXP to Vista it is a total rewrite, it's been taken from the ground up and they really don't share that much.
Very, very few people look this deep - rightly so I guess, but don't be mis-lead, the two OS's are very different.
 
It is :) Remember that when the Longhorn project started Windows Server 2003 hadn't even started development.

stoofa said:
Vista is actually a new OS and not simply something built on top of WinXP.
Click to expand...
:eek: That's BS, sorry :) Vista may have redesigned some significant parts of the OS (graphics, networking and audio for example) but the kernel itself has received just incremental improvements over that of NT 5.2

stoofa said:
With WinXP to Vista it is a total rewrite, it's been taken from the ground up and they really don't share that much.
Click to expand...
Utter utter BS. Where did you hear this FUD?

stoofa said:
Very, very few people look this deep - rightly so I guess
Click to expand...
There is several million programmers in the world that look this deep (device driver programmers) and they'd all beg to disagree with you on these points :)
 
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