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This newsletter contains archived content. No warranty is made as to technical accuracy of content or currency of URLs.
Windows Aero by the Rules
The #1 rule for developers who are designing products for Windows Vista is to design for the Windows Aero experience. Windows Aero provides a new level of visual sophistication, with more responsive and manageable user interfaces than the Windows Vista Basic user experience. Aero features include smooth and tear-free window transitions and management, transparent window borders and client areas, Windows Flip and Flip 3D, and live taskbar thumbnails. Aero is based on desktop composition, a new and innovative window-management technology in Windows Vista.
Composition-based window management is much more demanding than the Graphics Device Interface (GDI)-based window management techniques used in Windows XP and Windows Vista Basic. As a result, not all systems can run Aero well, especially systems with older or less capable graphics adapters.
A new paper on WHDC, Windows Vista Rules for Enabling Aero, describes the rules that Windows Vista uses to determine whether to enable Aero based on a system's hardware capabilities, to make the best tradeoff between performance and the user experience. The paper also includes a detailed troubleshooting guide for Aero-related problems.
If you haven't already started working on Windows Vista, the Windows Vista RTM package is available to MSDN subscribers now.
This is our last WHDC Newsletter until the new year. The WHDC team will be busy finishing up some new work over the holiday.
Meanwhile, we'll leave you this for your holiday fun: How to create your own Animated Musical Holiday Light Show.
- Annie Pearson
for the WHDC Web team
WHDC After Dark:
We found this while snooping on the Kernel team's intranet. Top 10 ways to know if you are a geek:
10. 10 == 16.
9. You care more about DPI than MPG.
8. You spin when you see a door locked (and get this joke).
7. The only household appliances you care about are your computers.
6. You understand why 10 == 16.
5. Ordinary words like mouse, cookie, or bug have different meanings to you.
4. 1 mSec seems like a loooong time.
3. You think foo and bar are pronouns.
2. You know the detailed rules for leap years.
1. You wrote a program to solve your Rubik's cube.
Hardware Design for Windows Vista
The Windows team has published a new paper that describes implementation considerations for three features introduced in Windows Vista that directly address performance and responsiveness in PCs: Windows SuperFetch, Windows ReadyBoost, and Windows ReadyDrive. This paper is for PC and storage device manufacturers who want to develop products to take advantage of the Windows PC Accelerator features.
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The Windows Rally team has published a FAQ with answers to questions they have been receiving from device designers who are adopting Windows Rally technologies such as Windows Connect Now.
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The next industry event planned for developers and product planners of network-connected devices will be held in Tokyo, Japan, on February 21, 2007. This event will include technical presentations and demonstrations, but no plugfest. To register, send e-mail to rally@microsoft.com.
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The Microsoft Robotics Studio is a Windows-based environment for academic, hobbyist, and commercial developers to easily create robotics applications across a wide variety of hardware. The Microsoft Robotics Studio Runtime is a lightweight runtime written for CLR 2.0 that provides support for creating, hosting, and managing such applications. Take a peek at the November preview and explore the possibilities for your personal and professional uses.
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Tips from Windows Experts
In this two-part series, Scott provides a historical perspective of security, outlines what's new in Windows Vista, and digs into the architecture of Windows Vista security. Scott Field is an architect at Microsoft who's been working on software security for 12 years.
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Sometimes your app just works (no code changes on your part), sometimes you have to tweak a tiny bit of code, sometimes you have to make a fair amount of changes to your code, and sometimes you are left scratching your head wondering how in the world you're going to get your app to run on the new platform. Doug Wood, Maarten Van De Bospoort, Vineet Sarda, and Pat Altimore discuss the most common gotchas and address developer concerns related to making code run successfully on Windows Vista.
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The Microsoft Virtualization people answer questions about virtualization, hypervisor, and the future of this important technology.
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"Sometimes your design requires an Interlocked operation that is not currently supported by the OS, runtime libraries, or the compiler (as an intrinsic). You then have a choice to make. Either remove all Interlocked operations for that particular field and use a lock or roll you own Interlocked function. Roll your own Interlocked function? Sounded scary to me the first time it was suggested, but in reality it is a rather easy thing to do." Doron provides the basic algorithm and concrete examples on his blog.
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Windows Logo Program and WHQL News
The Works with Windows Vista program offers guidance and technical support to test your software for Windows Vista readiness. If you are already submitting hardware and software products through Windows Quality Online services, you can take advantage of this at no cost.
WinHEC News
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Sponsor and Exhibitor opportunities are now available for WinHEC 2007 in Los Angeles, May 15-17. WinHEC provides a unique opportunity to showcase your products, services, and solutions to professionals in the hardware industry. Sponsorship allows your company to connect with the right audience to introduce customers and other partners to your innovative technologies in the most time-efficient and cost-effective manner possible. You can find comprehensive information on the WinHEC Web site. Note that the Call for Presentations will be announced in January.
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Edition for  December 12, 2006 |
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Windows Vista - Driver Developer Kits, Tools, and Programs
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Hardware and Driver Developer Community
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This newsletter is composed and formatted on PCs running the Windows Vista operating system and the Microsoft Office 2007 system.
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