Guide to New Vista Features [closed]

Question

I'm an MFC programmer. I just had my first taste of Vista (on a VPC... Yup, I'm late). I should be evaluating things in depth in the coming days. On taking a casual look, I noticed two major changes:

• The shell is new
• User Access Control
• Event Viewer has changed (would like more info on this)

What other new features should I look out for from a programmer's point of view?

Answer 1

There's a significant set of changes depending on what sort of software you write.

It's never a bad idea to check out the Windows Logo Certification (for Vista). There's a link to the Software technical requirements here. It always gives you a bit of an idea what to avoid doing (and what to design for).

In my opinion, Vista mostly started to enforce [existing] Logo certification requirements, in particular:

Don't write to HKLM

Don't save application data under the Program Files directory

Don't assume administrative permissions

Do save data to the user's application data directory

Regarding User Access Control (new to Vista), It's also a good idea to get across Manifest files. The best thing I could find on them is this blog entry here.

Windows Drivers are under higher scrutiny under Windows Vista and pretty much require certification IMHO.

The TCP/IP stack was rewritten and so too the audio subsystem (and multimedia streaming etc). Obviously advances in graphics, plus the inclusion of DirectX 10 and usual rollout of an updated Media Player, etc.

Sorry, I also forgot to mention that Microsoft replaced ActiveSync (for Windows Mobile) with a completely new framework in Vista.