Microsoft Vista stumbles at top digital show

Found on The Inquirer on Saturday, 14 October 2006
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Mike went through the improved search function – including how the search is now part of the task bar and is contextual and will search the entire network. In what has become a Microsoft tradition, the demo did not go off without a hitch. A search for "desktop" and "wallpaper" returned no results under the control panel. Whoops.

One interesting feature that it is incorporating is that digital images are stored as a "digital negative". If, for example, you make an edit of a photo and save over the original, you can still access the image by "retrieving" the original which the OS keeps in some dark hidey hole.

Gaming in Vista has a dedicated "gaming area" where all games are stored in a specific area of the OS.

Windows Media 11 introduces "Urge" - pronounced urj - an online subscription service that allows you to scream audio to your system but also integrates a powerful search component that will also bring up a band's homepage, any available media, and suggest similar music to your selection.

Yeah, just keep on stuffing everything into the OS. If someone fails to organize his data, can't figure out how to keep backups of pictures or messes up the system by installing everything everywhere, he should have to deal with those problems. After all, you only learn from the mistakes you make. And I'm not planning to use WMP11. The old 6.4 works fine when you add some codecs and hasn't that pesky DRM support and isn't overloaded with eyecandy. For all the rest, there's VLC.