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A new Download Manager shell location suggested that Internet Explorer would get a Mozilla -style download manager, though no such functionality was apparent. Significant memory leak problems with Windows Explorer and the Sidebar made this build difficult to use, which resulted in some third-party hacks to mitigate the problem.

The back-end database of Outlook Express changed completely and became dependent on WinFS to store its email. WinFS itself still had significant performance and memory usage issues, and so it became common for testers to disable WinFS entirely, thus rendering Outlook Express inoperative. The demonstrations were done on a revised build which was never released.

Several sessions for developers and hardware engineers at the conference focused on these new features, as well as the Next-Generation Secure Computing Base previously known as "Palladium" , which at the time was Microsoft's proposed solution for creating a secure computing environment.

Also at this conference, Microsoft reiterated their roadmap for delivering Longhorn, pointing to an "early " release date. Build build date of July 1, was the first known Server build and was based on Windows Server. Traditional client bits, such as visual style and look, were present but disabled by default.

Build Milestone 5 compile; build date of June 19, , was leaked on September 23, This build contained a few of the technologies new to build Windows Explorer went through several other changes. Larger image and video previews were displayed in a tooltip when the mouse hovered over a file, column-level filtering of results was introduced, and the overall performance of Explorer was somewhat improved overbuild , though the memory leak issues were not entirely resolved.

There was also a new analog clock user interface. Batch image processing of images was also introduced, making it possible for a user to rotate several images at once. Build 's name was displayed as " onghornLay rofessionalPay ersionVay " Pig Latin for Longhorn Professional Version in various places around the operating system. While some had presumed that screenshots of this build were fake because of this seemingly obvious mistake, Microsoft later explained that this was merely a test of some new code to locate and reduce the number of places in the operating system code that the name was defined.

Build Milestone 6 compile; build date of June 29, was similar to the Milestone 5 compile of build with minor improvements. Build build date of July 17, was similar to both Milestone 5 and 6 compiles of build , but contained some UI improvements, including an updated Plex theme. Build build date of August 27, was leaked on August 22, This was the last build to contain the Plex visual style.

Build Milestone 6 compile; build date of September 5, was leaked on January 23, , and is similar to build It was compiled four days before the first known Milestone 7 build, thus grouping it as a Milestone 6 build. Build Milestone 7 compile; build date of September 9, was probably the earliest build to have the Slate theme Lab06 instead of the Plex theme winmain seen in the previous builds. However, the Aero glass from Build was still present. The word "My" was removed from "Computer" and "Network Places", a change that carried over to the final version of the operating system.

When Windows Sidebar was enabled, the word "Start" was removed from the Start button—a development used later in Windows Vista. Build build date of September 28, was shown at TechEd in Israel and was one of the many numbered builds used in Microsoft demos, notably in the Professional Developers Conference. Build build date of October 1, is the build that was given to the attendees of the PDC show. It was leaked on October 20, , seven days before the start of the conference.

It introduced the Slate theme, which debuted in This build also contained an updated version of Internet Explorer with a version number of 6. New features noted by reviewers included a Download Manager, pop-up blocker, add-on manager and a tool to clear browsing history. Build build date of October 22, was leaked on March 2, , and had some minor changes.

Build build date of February 26, was a build that, although identified itself as a "Server" build, contained many of the features only ever seen and associated with desktop builds.

An updated version of Phodeo was included, as well as the Sidebar, a Mini-Windows Media Player, and associated sidebar tiles, a functioning build of the Desktop Window Manager and the Jade theme. This build also replaced many XP icons with new Longhorn icons, some of which greatly resemble icons in the final version of Vista. This build was leaked on December 20, The technology, better known by its original code-name of "Palladium", had garnered much criticism from analysts, security specialists, and researchers, and was often cited by advocates of non-Microsoft operating systems as a reason to migrate to their preferred platform.

Ross Anderson , for example, published a paper, collating many of these concerns and criticisms as part of a larger analysis on Trusted Computing. Build idx01 build date of March 12, was a Itanium-only build. Leaked in July This build introduced an improved Jade theme, although the Slate theme was retained and was the default.

Also, the font Segoe UI was introduced for the Jade theme. Leaked in May This is also the most familiar pre-reset build. It was the first leaked build to have complete Aero effects in Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer from the Desktop Window Manager ; however, a registry modification was required to extend the effect into the full UI. Build build date of May 16, was leaked on November 10, Considered highly unstable, including the absence of programs in the Start menu, and driver and installation issues.

Build build date of August 19, was one of the last builds compiled before the development reset. There was also an early version of the. By , it had become obvious to the Windows team at Microsoft that they were losing sight of what needed to be done to complete the next version of Windows and ship it to customers.

Internally, some Microsoft employees were describing the Longhorn project as "another Cairo" or "Cairo. NET", referring to the Cairo development project that the company embarked on through the first half of the s, which never resulted in a shipping operating system though nearly all the technologies developed during that time did end up in Windows 95 and Windows NT.

It offered only a limited subset of features planned for Longhorn, in particular fast file searching and integrated graphics and sound processing, but appeared to have impressive reliability and performance compared to contemporary Longhorn builds. In a September 23, front-page article on The Wall Street Journal , Microsoft co-president Jim Allchin , who had overall responsibility for the development and delivery of Windows, explained how development of Longhorn was "crashing into the ground" due in large part to the haphazard methods by which features were introduced and integrated into the core of the operating system without a clear focus on an end-product.

This change, announced internally to Microsoft employees on August 26, , [ citation needed ] began in earnest in September, though it would take several more months before the new development process and build methodology would be used by all of the development teams. Several complaints came from individual developers, and Bill Gates himself, that the new development process was going to be prohibitively difficult to work within.

Changes at the build labs also resulted in a period of several months where no builds of Longhorn were leaked onto the Internet. Build Successive internal builds over several months gradually integrated a lot of the fundamental work that had been done over the previous three years, but with much stricter rules about what code could be brought into the main builds.

Builds and build dates of August 3, and September 27, , respectively, both leaked on January 23, [22] are the other Windows Longhorn builds which also have Windows XP interfaces. For build , the wallpaper is the same as Windows XP but has a bull with long horns. It was the only build from this period that was made available by Microsoft; it was not officially distributed outside of WinHEC, but the build quickly appeared on file-sharing networks. The Aero visual style made its first appearance in this build, and the Desktop Window Manager was present but disabled and hidden by default.

At the keynote presentation, Bill Gates also announced that many of the WinFX developer APIs that were originally planned exclusively for Longhorn was going to be backported to Windows XP and Server and that the final user interfaces for Longhorn would not be seen for a while longer.

Other features such as device-independent resolutions, rasterized icons, virtual folders, and registry virtualization were discussed as well. The debug checked version was leaked in December Build 's closer resemblance to Windows XP than to the prior Longhorn builds from and surprised many, leading well-known Windows enthusiast Paul Thurrott to write: "My thoughts are not positive, not positive at all.

This is a painful build to have to deal with after a year of waiting, a step back in some ways. I hope Microsoft has surprises up their sleeves. This has the makings of a train wreck. Build build date of April 17, featured no major difference to Build , apart from a new style logon screen and default desktop wallpaper.

Microsoft considered several names for its new operating system. In the end, Microsoft chose Windows Vista as confirmed on July 22, , believing it to be a "wonderful intersection of what the product does, what Windows stands for, and what resonates with customers, and their needs.

That's what Windows Vista is all about: "bringing clarity to your world. Compared with the WinHEC build released earlier in the year, Vista Beta 1 was a large advancement in introducing new user interface features.

The Windows Shell has drastically changed yet again, introducing virtual folders, a new search interface, several new high-resolution icons, and a revamped Windows Explorer interface that did away with the menus and most of the toolbar buttons that were present in previous versions.

Beta 1 also introduced many of the underlying technologies slated for Vista, including the new networking and audio stacks, parental controls, and fairly complete working build of. NET Framework 3. Build build date of August 7, , was leaked on December Build build date of August 30, , Microsoft started releasing regular Community Technical Previews CTP to beta testers, with less stability work made to them than actual betas.

This was the first public "Ultimate Edition" build, and included Super Fetch. Although not enabled by default, this refresh saw the return of the Windows Sidebar , which had been removed as part of the development reset, and the introduction of Desktop Gadgets , both of which are part of Microsoft gadgets line of mini-applications.

Microsoft stated that they intended to make additional gadgets available for download from a website over time. This build also supported a new version of Windows Media Center code-named "Diamond".

This "Ultimate" build introduced Windows Media Player version The sidebar was temporarily removed; the build had a few new UI changes, including the ability to change the color and clarity of the UI. Windows AntiSpyware soon to be "Windows Defender" was integrated.

Outlook Express was renamed "Windows Mail". It leaked to the Internet on December 7, Since then, the feature-complete build was delayed until late January There were some minor UI changes.

Because of this change post the builds, the well-known keys 'UseMachineCheck' and 'EnableMachineCheck do not allow running the Desktop Window Manager in software emulation mode. Build built on December 18, was the last build to be compiled in , and to have at least one Longhorn reference. February CTP built on February 17, , with a build number of This build was meant for enterprises.

It was also the first build to have the upgrade compatibility. This build, according to Microsoft, had all but one feature which should appear in the next CTP that customers will see in the final release. However, later builds brought more improvements than previously expected. An unstaged revision was made to this build and was released on February 28, , as build The UEFI 2.

This build was shipped to technical beta testers and some corporate customers by Microsoft and was being used as a testing board for the extensive feedback they got from the February CTP. They described this release as an "External Developer Workstation", with the intent of providing an interim build between CTPs.

Microsoft claimed it was still on track to deliver the next CTP in the second quarter, the build that will be the last in the Beta 2 fork. The build included minor UI changes, most notably improvements to the Media Center, new Aero and Aurora effects, a faster setup process, some new Sidebar gadgets, and slight improvements in overall performance and stability.

This build did not meet CTP quality measurements, and was available only in Ultimate Edition, for both bit x86 and bit x64 systems. April EDW built on April 19, , with a build number of , which was released on April 21, , introduced more changes to visual user interface elements, and to the behavior of User Account Control. A number of new backgrounds were also introduced, and two new screensavers were added as well. The Sidebar was enabled by default, as was automatic defragmentation of the hard drive.

Hold'em , a game that shipped with some previous CTPs, was dropped due to apparent "political sensitivity" issues; Microsoft now offers it as a separate web download for Windows Vista Ultimate users. Windows Vista Beta 2 Preview built on May 1, , with a build number of was leaked on May 2, , and was officially released on May 6, , to Microsoft's technical beta testers. It featured mostly performance tweaks and only a few minor changes compared to build With this build, Microsoft entered Beta 2 "escrow".

Windows Vista Beta 2 built on May 18, , with a build number of , was released to Microsoft Developer Network subscribers the first since and Microsoft Connect testers on May 23, , in conjunction with Bill Gates's keynote presentation at the WinHEC conference.

On June 6, Microsoft extended the availability of Beta 2 to all users, making Vista available as a free download in several languages from their website. Some technology websites described this release as "the largest download event in software history".

In June, Microsoft made two significant changes to its plans for Windows Vista. When it was first introduced May , XPS known at the time as "Metro" was characterized as a "PDF-killer", but an Adobe representative stated that they were "not threatened" by its addition to "Longhorn". While Microsoft refused to remove XPS altogether, noting that it is at the core of Vista's print spooling system, they have offered the ability to system builders and OEMs to remove any user-visible aspects of the document format from the operating system.

On June 14, , Windows developer Philip Su posted a blog entry that decried the development process of Windows Vista , stating that "the code is way too complicated, and that the pace of coding has been tremendously slowed down by the overbearing process. Build build date of June 20, was released on June 24, Some of the new features included a revamped Aero subsystem and a completely overhauled and significantly less obtrusive User Account Control interface.

Microsoft developer Ben Betz later explained in a blog entry that, while they felt that removing List mode made sense based on usability research and its inability to support Windows Explorer's new "grouping" feature, the feature was restored based on a great deal of feedback from beta testers. The release notes for the build state that the Time Zone bug that plagued almost all previous builds of Windows Vista had been patched, and quite a few issues in the Regional Settings and IME had also been resolved.

A new "Windows Aero" mouse pointer scheme was introduced, which introduced anti-aliasing to the mouse pointer for the first time, and many of the remaining Windows XP -style icons have been replaced with new icons. The disk space used by a clean installation was also significantly reduced. Build build date of July 13, was released on July 17, The Network Center was significantly revised as well, collating more status information in one place, and reducing the number of steps to get to most configuration options.

More desktop backgrounds and icons were introduced, and Flip3D saw some layout tweaks. A new "Windows Aero" mouse cursor is set by default. The build was a huge performance improvement over Beta 2 and was comparable to and possibly even faster than that of Windows XP. During a demonstration of the speech recognition feature new to Windows Vista at Microsoft's Financial Analyst Meeting on July 27, , the software recognized the phrase "Dear mom" as "Dear aunt".

After several failed attempts to correct the error, the sentence eventually became " Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all". On August 8, , the Microsoft Security Response Center provided "critical" security fixes for Windows Vista Beta 2, making it the first Microsoft product to get security updates while still in beta.

Build build date of August 21, was released on August 24, , and between August 29 and August 31 to the first , users who downloaded it from the Microsoft site.

Among notable changes, it featured new ties to the Windows Live online services by new icons in the Welcome Center, minor updates to the Aero appearance with a slightly more bluish tint to the glass effect, big speed improvements including setup speed , many bug fixes and further tweaked anti-aliasing in the Flip 3D feature. It was released publicly on August 29, Release Candidate 1 RC1 built on August 29, , with a build number of The CPP ended on November 26, The public release of Release Candidate 1 resulted in a number of extensive reviews and analyses on various technology news websites, both immediately after its release, and in the weeks following.

Ars Technica's Ken Fisher wrote that performance had improved significantly over Beta 2, suggesting that faster machines may perform better than Windows XP ; he also criticised the usefulness of the Windows Sidebar and the continued intrusiveness of User Account Control.

Microsoft began work on the RTM branch at the same time as it was wrapping up the RC1 branch, allowing for mainstream RC1 developers to more easily "flow" into the new development stage. This parallel development helps explain why build is older than even some pre-RC1 builds. Build build date of September 17, was released on September 22, , to technical beta participants.

The following day, Microsoft released a bit version of the build to the public, with a bit version arriving on September On October 1, Microsoft reached its goals for program participation and no longer offered the build to the public. In response to a significant amount of feedback from RC1 testers, contained many improvements, one of which was the inclusion of a check box in the Sound properties that allowed the user to disable the Windows Vista startup sound.

With this build, Microsoft neared its goal of Vista installing in 15 minutes, [54] with some reviewers reporting that took as little as 16 minutes to do a clean install. Release Candidate 2 RC2 built on October 3, , with a build number of Because of an aggressive development schedule, this was the final build that would be officially released to the general public for testing. Nevertheless, all pre-release product keys will work until the final RTM build.

Several testers reported that RC2 was faster and more stable than build This build fixed many compatibility issues that plagued previous builds. Vista's GUI , which continued to be improved, contained some minor tweaks, one of the more prominent of which was the new ability to customize the color, but not the transparency, of maximized windows. In previous builds, windows became predominantly black when maximized, an effect that could not be altered by users. Because a release to manufacturing RTM build is the final version of code shipped to retailers and other distributors, the purpose of a pre-RTM build is to eliminate any last "show-stopper" bugs that may prevent the code from responsibly being shipped to customers, as well as anything else that consumers may find annoying.

While much of the focus of Vista's new capabilities highlighted the new user interface, [82] security technologies, and improvements to the core operating system, Microsoft also adding new deployment and maintenance features:.

Windows Vista includes a large number of new application programming interfaces. Chief among them is the inclusion of version 3. Version 3. These technologies are also available for Windows XP and Windows Server to facilitate their introduction to and usage by developers and end-users. There are also significant new development APIs in the core of the operating system, notably the completely re-designed audio, networking, print, and video interfaces, major changes to the security infrastructure, improvements to the deployment and installation of applications " ClickOnce " and Windows Installer 4.

There are some issues for software developers using some of the graphics APIs in Vista. Games or programs built solely on the Windows Vista-exclusive version of DirectX , version 10, cannot work on prior versions of Windows, as DirectX 10 is not available for previous Windows versions. Also, games that require the features of D3D9Ex, the updated implementation of DirectX 9 in Windows Vista are also incompatible with previous Windows versions.

Windows Vista unifies the previously separate OEM and retail distributions of Microsoft Windows; a license for the edition purchased determines which version of Windows Vista is eligible for installation, regardless of its originating source. OEM and retail versions of Windows before Windows Vista were maintained separately on optical media—users with a manufacturer-supplied disc could not use a retail license during installation, and users with a retail disc could not use an OEM license during installation.

Windows Vista also does not include the Windows XP " Luna " visual theme, or most of the classic color schemes that have been part of Windows since the Windows 3. The "Hardware profiles" startup feature has also been removed, along with support for older motherboard technologies like the EISA bus, APM and game port support though on the bit version game port support can be enabled by applying an older driver.

Support for the original release of Windows Vista without a service pack ended on April 13, Mainstream support for Windows Vista officially ended on April 10, For IT pros or users who needed to make specific fixes to the commercial Windows code, Microsoft required an extended hotfix agreement, which provided an additional 90 days from April 10, As part of the Extended Support phase, Vista users were still able to get security updates, and could still pay for support per incident, per-hour, or in other ways.

Microsoft also made Windows Vista product information available through its online Knowledge Base. Windows Vista shipped in six different editions. For consumers, there are three editions, with two available for economically more developed countries. Windows Vista Starter edition is aimed at low-powered computers with availability only in emerging markets.

Windows Vista Home Basic is intended for budget users. Windows Vista Home Premium covers the majority of the consumer market and contains applications for creating and using multimedia. The home editions cannot join a Windows Server domain. For businesses, there are three editions as well. Windows Vista Business is specifically designed for small and medium-sized enterprises , [] while Windows Vista Enterprise [] is only available to customers participating in Microsoft's Software Assurance program.

Windows Vista Ultimate contains the complete feature-set of both the Home and Business combination of both Home Premium and Enterprise editions, as well as a set of Windows Ultimate Extras , and is aimed at enthusiasts.

All editions except Windows Vista Starter support both bit x86 and bit x64 processor architectures. Similar sanctions exist in South Korea. Windows Vista has four distinct visual styles. Windows Vista's Basic and Classic interfaces work with virtually any graphics hardware that supports Windows XP or ; accordingly, most discussion around Vista's graphics requirements centers on those for the Windows Aero interface.

The required server connections for this utility are no longer available. Although the installation media included in retail packages is a bit DVD, customers needing a CD-ROM or customers who wish for a bit install media can acquire this media through the Windows Vista Alternate Media program. The maximum amount of RAM that Windows Vista can support varies, depending on both its edition and its processor architecture, as shown in the table.

The maximum number of logical processors [] in a PC that Windows Vista supports is: 32 [] for bit; 64 [] for bit. Microsoft occasionally releases updates such as service packs for its Windows operating systems to fix bugs, improve performance and add new features. The initial deployment of the service pack caused a number of machines to continually reboot, rendering the machines unusable.

The synchronized release date of the two operating systems reflected the merging of the workstation and server kernels back into a single code base for the first time since Windows Support for the remaining 31 languages was released on April 14, A white paper, published by Microsoft on August 29, , outlined the scope and intent of the service pack, identifying three major areas of improvement: reliability and performance, administration experience, and support for newer hardware and standards.

One area of particular note is performance. Areas of improvement include file copy operations, hibernation, logging off on domain-joined machines, JavaScript parsing in Internet Explorer, network file share browsing, [] Windows Explorer ZIP file handling, [] and Windows Disk Defragmenter. Service Pack 1 introduced support for some new hardware and software standards, notably the exFAT file system, [] Booting a system using Extensible Firmware Interface on x64 systems was also introduced; [] this feature had originally been slated for the initial release of Vista but was delayed due to a lack of compatible hardware at the time.

Two areas have seen changes in SP1 that have come as the result of concerns from software vendors. One of these is desktop search; users will be able to change the default desktop search program to one provided by a third party instead of the Microsoft desktop search program that comes with Windows Vista, and desktop search programs will be able to seamlessly tie in their services into the operating system.

In June , Google claimed that the changes being introduced for SP1 "are a step in the right direction, but they should be improved further to give consumers greater access to alternate desktop search providers".

An update to DirectX 10, named DirectX Graphics cards will be required to support DirectX An updated downloadable version of the Group Policy Management Console was released soon after the service pack. SP1 enables support for hotpatching, a reboot-reduction servicing technology designed to maximize uptime. It works by allowing Windows components to be updated or "patched" while they are still in use by a running process.

Hotpatch-enabled update packages are installed via the same methods as traditional update packages, and will not trigger a system reboot. Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server was released through different channels between April [] and June , one year after the release of Windows Vista SP1, and four months before the release of Windows 7.

However, it did not include Internet Explorer 8 , but instead was included in Windows 7 , which was released four months after Vista SP2. Windows Vista and Windows Server share a single service pack binary, reflecting the fact that their code bases were joined with the release of Server It includes major new components that shipped with Windows 7 , as well as updated runtime libraries.

It consists of the following components:. Although extensive, the Platform Update does not bring Windows Vista to the level of features and performance offered by Windows 7. In July , Microsoft released the Platform Update Supplement for Windows Vista and Windows Server , which contains several bug fixes and performance improvements. While Windows Vista support ended on April 11, , support could be unofficially extended by installing Windows Server updates, this allowed Windows Vista users to install security updates until the Windows Server end of support date of January 14, The Text Services Framework was compromised by a privilege escalation vulnerability CVE - that could allow attackers to use the framework to perform privileged operations, run software, or send messages to privileged processes from unprivileged processes—bypassing security features such as sandboxes or User Account Control.

If Windows Defender scanned a specially crafted file, it would lead to memory corruption, potentially allowing an attacker to control the affected machine or perform arbitrary code execution in the context of LocalSystem ; the vulnerability was exacerbated by the default real-time protection settings of Windows Defender, which were configured to automatically initiate malware scans at regular intervals.

The first version of the Protection Engine affected by the vulnerability is Version 1. Microsoft released a patch to address the issue. Windows Vista support ended on April 11, , and no more updates were released for the OS apart from the rare out-of-band patches.

In July , Microsoft introduced a web-based advertising campaign called the "Mojave Experiment", which depicts a group of people who are asked to evaluate the newest operating system from Microsoft, calling it Windows 'Mojave'.

Participants are first asked about Vista, if they have used it, and their overall satisfaction with Vista on a scale of 1 to They are then shown a demo of some of the new operating system's features, and asked their opinion and satisfaction with it on the same 1 to 10 scale.

After respondents rate "Mojave", they are then told that they were shown a demo of Windows Vista. The object was to test "A theory: If people could see Windows Vista firsthand, they would like it. Windows Vista received mixed to negative reviews at the time of its release and throughout its lifespan, mainly for its much higher hardware requirements and perceived slowness compared to Windows XP. It received generally positive reviews from PC gamers who praised the advantages brought by DirectX 10, which allowed for better gaming performance and more realistic graphics, as well as support for many new capabilities featured in new GPUs.

In mid, benchmarks suggested that the SP1 update improved performance to be on par with or better than Windows XP in terms of game performance. Peter Bright of Ars Technica wrote that, despite its delays and feature cuts, Windows Vista is "a huge evolution in the history of the NT platform [ In terms of the magnitude and extent of these changes, Vista represents probably the biggest leap that the NT platform has ever seen.

Never before have significant subsystems been gutted and replaced in the way they are in Vista. In its first year of availability, PC World rated it as the biggest tech disappointment of , [] and it was rated by InfoWorld as No.

Computer manufacturers such as Dell , Lenovo , and Hewlett-Packard released their newest computers with Windows Vista pre-installed; however, after the negative reception of the operating system, they also began selling their computers with Windows XP CDs included because of a drop in sales. A Gartner research report predicted that Vista business adoption in would overtake that of XP during the same time frame Within its first month, 20 million copies of Vista were sold, double the amount of Windows XP sales within its first month in October , five years earlier.

The internet-usage market share for Windows Vista after two years of availability, in January , was This figure combined with World Internet Users and Population Stats yielded a user base of roughly million, [] which exceeded Microsoft's two-year post launch expectations by million.

Windows Vista received mixed reviews. Criticism targets include protracted development time 5—6 years , more restrictive licensing terms, the inclusion of several technologies aimed at restricting the copying of protected digital media, [] and the usability of the new User Account Control security technology. Moreover, some concerns have been raised about many PCs meeting "Vista Premium Ready" hardware requirements and Vista's pricing.

While in Microsoft claimed "nearly all PCs on the market today will run Windows Vista", [] the higher requirements of some of the "premium" features, such as the Aero interface, affected many upgraders. According to the UK newspaper The Times in May , the full set of features "would be available to less than 5 percent of Britain's PC market"; however, this prediction was made several months before Vista was released.

Criticism of upgrade licenses pertaining to Windows Vista Starter through Home Premium was expressed by Ars Technica ' s Ken Fisher, who noted that the new requirement of having a prior operating system already installed was going to irritate users who reinstall Windows regularly.

On the first install, Windows will refuse to activate. The user must then reinstall that same copy of Vista. Vista will then activate on the reinstall, thus allowing a user to install an Upgrade of Windows Vista without owning a previous operating system. Initially, the cost of Windows Vista was also a source of concern and commentary. A majority of users in a poll said that the prices of various Windows Vista editions posted on the Microsoft Canada website in August make the product too expensive.

Windows Vista supports additional forms of DRM restrictions. Depending on what the content demands, the devices may not pass premium content over non-encrypted outputs, or they must artificially degrade the quality of the signal on such outputs or not display it at all.

Drivers for such hardware must be approved by Microsoft; a revocation mechanism is also included, which allows Microsoft to disable drivers of devices in end-user PCs over the Internet. Proponents have claimed that Microsoft had no choice but to follow the demands of the movie studios, and that the technology will not actually be enabled until after ; [] [] Microsoft also noted that content protection mechanisms have existed in Windows as far back as Windows ME , and that the new protections will not apply to any existing content, only future content.

Although User Account Control UAC is an important part of Vista's security infrastructure as it blocks software from silently gaining administrator privileges without the user's knowledge, it has been widely criticized for generating too many prompts. End-users of licenses of Windows 7 acquired through OEM or volume licensing may downgrade to the equivalent edition of Windows Vista. Customers licensed for use of Windows 8 Enterprise are generally licensed for Windows 8 Pro, which may be downgraded to Windows Vista Business.

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