Windows

I read this article at the Microsoft Watch website, and it seems Microsoft revealed some features on privacy notices intended for beta testers. This list and the many other lists of features are making my jaw drop… it looks like Windows is finally going to be a real competitor to Mac OS X and Linux.

Some of the Windows Vista features mentioned are:

• An audit feature allowing administrators to monitor the system and create security logs.
• Microsoft Rights Management Services (RMS), which is a Digital Rights Management (DRM) client for applications.
• “Speech Recognizer” speech recognition system that will be available to any application choosing to use it. The Speech Recognizer will adjust to the speaking and grammatical style of the user.
• Driver Protection that will prevent drivers from loading that are listed on a Microsoft database of drivers known to cause problems. This will result in less blue screens of death.
• A “Games Explorer” that will list games installed on the user’s computer, keep track of information (such as the last time each game was played), and receive metadata from Microsoft.
• Peer Name Resolution Service that will allow on-the-fly P2P collaboration.

Some Internet Explorer 7 features:

• Tab support (finally!).
• Phishing Filter.
• Add-on management, which will allow you to manage add-ons such as ActiveX controls, toolbars, etc.
• Add-on crash detection, which will determine which add-on, if any, caused an Internet Explorer crash.