Vista emphasizes security over compatibility

http://www.fcw.com/article97508-01-30-07-Web





Vista emphasizes security over compatibility
BY Wade-Hahn Chan
Published on Jan. 30, 2007
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Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system may have sacrificed
compatibility with third-party applications in favor of security.
At a launch event for the new version of Windows today, Microsoft
representatives said security was a greater issue with customers than
making sure applications run reliably on the operating system.
"Every single time we had a tradeoff between security and application
compatibility, we went security," said Bill Veghte, corporate vice
president for Microsoft North America, who leads sales, marketing and
services. Windows Vista rolled out nationwide today.
Customer feedback drove Microsoft to make many Windows XP-optional
security measures default in Vista, Veghte said. Windows Firewall, for
example, used to be turned off by default in XP due to the possibility
that the firewall might block the functionality of pages and Web
applications. The firewall is now on by default.
To compensate for any problems with applications, Vista includes
several troubleshooting tools to track and update nonfunctioning
programs.
For example, the application compatibility tool allows users to track
the number of times programs crash and hang across the enterprise and
through Microsoft. Also, Microsoft applications can be updated from
the tool. Microsoft Office 2007 has its own diagnostic application to
check the integrity of individual functions and update or repair them,
as necessary.
Another diagnostic tool, Reliability Monitor, keeps track of how often
applications, hardware and installation fail.