hyunelan2
01-24-2008, 05:26 PM
I just got back from a seminar/conference on Microsoft Server 2008 and Windows Vista Enterprise. I must say, after seeing the "how it works" side of things, Vista is much different than XP. However, to see most of these differences, you need to be in a domain environment or doing really complex command-line programming.
The one REALLY COOL thing I learned about VISTA today (yes, I put really cool and vista in caps because it is weird): Readyboost.
What is Readyboost you ask? When you hookup a USB Flash drive to your computer running Vista, Vista scans it and checks its speed and free space. If it is fast/large enough (most are), Vista will use it as a cache/swapfile location - basically USB RAM increase. I had no idea about that, since I've never put a flash drive into my laptop. It also works this way with SD cards if you have a card reader in your computer, since that's essentially the same thing as a USB flash drive.
The Microsoft guy did some demos using it, and it actually made a difference, even though he was running 64-bit Vista with 4GB of RAM.
The other really cool thing: Bitlocker. It's Microsoft's hard drive encryption service. Unfortunately it's only available on Vista Home Ultimate, Vista Enterprise, and Vista Business. I spent about 3 hours learning how this thing works. Criminals/pirates/pedafiles are going to love it. It is secure to the point that the Secret Service asked Microsoft to create a back-door, because it is unreadable unless you have the key (which you "make" with a USB flash drive). Microsoft said "sorry, making a back door would make this unsecure." Apparently the government isn't very happy with Microsoft for that right now. How bitlocker works is more complex than I feel like typing, but it is pretty-damn secure.
The other neat thing was the conference was at the AMC movie theater. If you've never seen Windows on a movie-theater screen, it'll make you dizzy.
The one REALLY COOL thing I learned about VISTA today (yes, I put really cool and vista in caps because it is weird): Readyboost.
What is Readyboost you ask? When you hookup a USB Flash drive to your computer running Vista, Vista scans it and checks its speed and free space. If it is fast/large enough (most are), Vista will use it as a cache/swapfile location - basically USB RAM increase. I had no idea about that, since I've never put a flash drive into my laptop. It also works this way with SD cards if you have a card reader in your computer, since that's essentially the same thing as a USB flash drive.
The Microsoft guy did some demos using it, and it actually made a difference, even though he was running 64-bit Vista with 4GB of RAM.
The other really cool thing: Bitlocker. It's Microsoft's hard drive encryption service. Unfortunately it's only available on Vista Home Ultimate, Vista Enterprise, and Vista Business. I spent about 3 hours learning how this thing works. Criminals/pirates/pedafiles are going to love it. It is secure to the point that the Secret Service asked Microsoft to create a back-door, because it is unreadable unless you have the key (which you "make" with a USB flash drive). Microsoft said "sorry, making a back door would make this unsecure." Apparently the government isn't very happy with Microsoft for that right now. How bitlocker works is more complex than I feel like typing, but it is pretty-damn secure.
The other neat thing was the conference was at the AMC movie theater. If you've never seen Windows on a movie-theater screen, it'll make you dizzy.