The right time to assess Windows Vista's performance

Measuring the performance of an operating system is a tricky thing. At the same time, it's the right and necessary thing to do, because performance is one of many criteria important to customers. Part of the trick of measuring performance is to time testing execution with the product cycle such that the results are as meaningful as possible for customers; this helps them make a better decision by making use of the full array of available information. As one example, about a year ago we commissioned a firm called Principled Technologies to conduct a study comparing Windows XP SP2 to Windows Vista RTM. That study found the performance measures of the two operating systems were within the same range for many tasks that home and business users frequently perform under real-world conditions.

My point is that we waited to conduct these benchmarking tests until Windows Vista had reached the RTM milestone in the product cycle, as this allowed us to provide our customers the most meaningful data available at the time -- the data most likely to directly affect their decision to upgrade to Windows Vista. We do a whole range of performance tests at every stage of the OS development process, but, as a general rule, we avoid sharing benchmark tests of software that hasn't gone RTM (i.e., final code). This explains why we have not to date published any findings of benchmark tests (nor commissioned anyone to do so) on performance improvements brought about by Windows Vista SP1. Publishing benchmarks of the performance of Windows Vista SP1 now wouldn't be a worthwhile exercise for our customers, as the code is still in development and, to the degree that benchmarking tests are involved, remains a moving target.

Aside from that point, let me also emphasize that there are a variety of ways to benchmark the performance of a PC. Different techniques can yield different results. Some benchmark techniques simply test PC hardware performance by running a series of tasks at superhuman speed. Such tests tend to exaggerate small differences between test platforms and consequently are used less frequently nowadays, replaced in favor of benchmarks running tasks at human speeds with realistic waits and data entry. Benchmarks that run at superhuman speeds often deliver results that don't tell the whole story. In fact, we made deliberate choices during the development of Windows Vista to focus on real-world scenarios affecting user experience, rather than focusing on improvement of microsecond operations imperceptible to the user. In addition, in Windows many operations can require additional processing time for work that is done for reasons that benefit the customer; these can include security, reliability or application compatibility checks conducted when a program launches. These operations may add microseconds to an individual application's launch that under real usage isn't perceivable to the human eye. When thousands such operations are strung together through automation, those few microseconds can have a cumulative effect on the benchmark result, causing performance to appear much better or worse than expected.

I've included below a video we captured depicting a "benchmark test" running a window-open, window-close routine at accelerated speed. You can see that it isn't representative of real-world user behavior and hence isn't an accurate gauge of the actual end-user experience. Further, tests like these only measure a very small set of Windows capabilities and so aren't representative of the user's overall day-to-day experience of working with Windows and running applications.


Methods like those of Principled Technologies that actually approximate the experience of using the PC, taking an OS through the paces of completing actual tasks at the approximate pace a user might click through them, tend to provide results far more useful to our customers. The typical Windows customer generally wants to know how his/her actual computing experience will change (read: improve) with an upgrade. The Principled Technologies tests do that.

For what it's worth, I can personally attest that I prefer to get my work done on Windows Vista SP1 RC bits. I run Windows Vista RTM on two production machines and SP1 RC bits on two others; in fact, I'm writing this post on a machine with SP1 RC bits installed. As a part of our internal SP1 testing program, I know that we continue to develop and improve SP1 every day, in large part based on feedback and bug submissions from external an internal Beta-test program members. IMO, the perceived gains in performance between SP1 Beta and SP1 RC code are significant. As I said at the beginning, though, performance is only part of the story -- don't forget that SP1 also brings support for new types of hardware and several emerging standards, and further eases an IT administrator's deployment and management efforts.

But don't take my word alone for it. We'll broaden the testing pool of SP1 RC bits soon (very soon), so when I post that notice here on the blog, you'll be able to put Windows Vista SP1 RC through its paces yourself. I think you'll find the experience worthwhile and satisfying.

Posted by Nick White on Windows Vista Blog

Windows Fax and Scan

Windows Fax and Scan, available in the Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions of Windows Vista, makes it easy to send and receive faxes, scan documents and images, and share those items with others-right from your computer.

Windows Fax and Scan in the Windows Vista operating system provides flexible, integrated faxing and scanning capabilities that make it easy to send and receive faxes, scan documents and images, and share those resources with other users. Whether you are a home user or a business professional in a small or medium-size business, the new enhancements in Windows Fax and Scan can help you send information, handle documents, and save time.

Easy-to-use Fax and Scan
Windows Fax and Scan is on the main All Programs menu of the Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Ultimate editions. It can be installed as an optional component in Windows Vista Enterprise. Windows Fax and Scan enables you to perform all faxing and scanning tasks and manage all of your faxes and scanned documents from one location.

Windows Fax and Scan offers several preset categories and folders to help you organize your faxes and scanned documents more easily, and it enables you to create customized folders. To file faxes and scans, drag them into the appropriate folder, just as you file and organize e-mail in Microsoft Office Outlook. Terminology and functionality familiar to users of other Windows applications make using Windows Fax and Scan simple and intuitive. In addition, Windows Fax and Scan supports multiple user accounts on the same computer. This is particularly useful for small businesses that have several employees sharing a single computer. Different employees can log on to the same computer to send faxes, and each one will be appropriately recognized and identified as the sender of his or her own faxes. Instead of receiving generic faxes from the business, customers and suppliers will get the personal touch.

Faxing
With Windows Fax and Scan, sending and receiving faxes is as simple as using e-mail. Just select New Fax from the File menu to get a fax template with all of the fields you need.

The To line in the fax template links directly to your address book-either the address book in Outlook or the Windows Address Book. Just click the name of the contact to whom you want to send a fax, and Windows Fax and Scan retrieves the fax number. If you prefer, or if you are sending a fax to someone not listed in your address book, you can type in the fax number instead. Next, you fill in the Subject field and type any notes you want to add to the fax cover sheet. Attach the document you want to fax, just as you would add an attachment to an e-mail message, and the pages of the attachment become the pages of your fax. You can send more documents in the same fax by adding more attachments.

Scanning
Windows Fax and Scan offers one-click scanning of documents and images from locally connected or network-connected scanners and multifunction print/scan/fax devices. Windows Fax and Scan lists all of your scanned files plus other useful information, such as the scanner used to create the file and the day and time the document was scanned.

You can adjust the settings for documents you are scanning, selecting the correct paper size and controlling colors and resolution, and then store those settings as a scan profile. With Windows Fax and Scan you can create and store multiple scan profiles to make it easy to get consistent quality every time you scan, without the need to reselect all of your settings for different types of documents and images.

Before you do a full scan of a document, you can use the Live Preview feature to see how it will appear on your computer after the final scan. Live Preview creates a low-resolution cached image of the document that you can easily modify. You can use it to experiment with changes and view them instantly.

Earlier versions of Windows offer scan support, but only for scanners connected directly to your PC. Windows Vista improves scanning in three key ways. First, it supports scanners that are connected across a network, making it easy for you to share scanners with your family members or colleagues. Second, it offers an enhanced user experience by providing integrated support for scanning, faxing, and e-mail so that all three features work together smoothly. Third, it enables you to easily manage documents after you have scanned them into your system.

Sharing scanned documents
Windows Fax and Scan enables you to set up routing lists for scanned documents. From the File menu, choose Set Up Routing, and then designate the e-mail addresses and server shares that should receive your scanned documents. Whenever you scan a document from that scanner, you can choose from among the routing lists you previously set up.

For later sharing, right-click the icon for e-mail or faxing (both are built in to the task bar of Windows Fax and Scan), which brings up an e-mail or fax template, respectively, with the scanned file attached. From there, you can send the e-mail message or fax as you normally would.

Some product features are only available in certain editions of Windows Vista and may require advanced or additional hardware.

For more features of vista please visit www.microsoft.com