WINDOWS VISTA

WINDOWS Vista is Microsoft’s much anticipated new
client operating system. When released, it is due to
replace Windows XP as Microsoft’s premier desktop
operating system. Windows Vista represents a significant
departure from previous Windows systems both in terms of
its emphasis on security and its many new features. As
security has grown in importance, Microsoft has paid
increasingly more attention to it, evidenced by the
significant resource investment that has been made.
Windows Vista provides Microsoft with its first opportunity
to introduce security into the design process of the core
operating system itself. Microsoft has also chosen Windows
Vista as the platform on which to introduce many newly
developed technologies.
The Windows Vista network stack is particularly interesting
because many of its components are new. The TCP/IP
network stack itself has been rewritten and is one of Vista’s
largest departures from previous versions of Windows. The
new stack was written to allow easier maintenance,
important new performance enhancements, and improved
stability [30].