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| Vista Tunes Windows for Mobile Computing |
| Oct. 23, 2006 |
A new Mobility Center feature will make Windows Vista easier to use on battery-powered, wireless-enabled, portable computers. Combined with the ability to protect data with BitLocker Drive Encryption, the Mobility Center and other features may prompt companies to move their mobile computers to Vista more rapidly than their desktops. However, organizations should be aware that while some new features such as Mobility Center work well, others, including Windows Meeting Space, have room for improvement. The Move to Mobile Microsoft defines the following categories of mobile computers running Windows:
These mobile computer definitions do not include Smartphones or Pocket PCs, which use Windows CE and the Windows Mobile Platform. Mobile computers are the fastest growing computer category, as many consumer and business users replace their desktop computers with equally powerful mobile ones. But mobile computers often have multiple personalities: A single mobile PC might switch between various "untethered" configurations (on battery power, with no network, or with a wireless connection) and "tethered" ones (plugged into a wall socket and physical network or in a docking station). The goals of the new and updated mobile features in Vista are to help users manage constant configuration changes, connect easier, be more secure, improve alternative input technologies such as ink and speech recognition, and help customers work together in face-to-face meetings. Better Configuration Management Several changes to Vista will make it easier for a user to manage and optimize the configuration of a portable computer, particularly when moving between docked and undocked configurations. These changes include a new Mobility Center, improvements to power management, and a Sync Center. Mobility Center Mobility Center is a single location for setting the most frequently used parameters of mobile computers. It provides a mini control panel for common tasks, such as adjusting the speaker volume or checking the status of a wireless network connection. Hardware vendors can extend the Mobility Center, but users will typically be able to adjust the following parameters:
(For an illustration, see "Windows Mobility Center".) Each control in the Mobile Center is called a tile; some controls allow a user to change only one or two commonly used parameters and leave full configuration to a separate control panel item. For example, the power settings tile displays the current state of the battery and allows the user to select a preconfigured power mode, but creating custom power settings is done in a control panel tool. Other tiles simply launch separate tools, such as the Sync Center tile, which launches the Sync Center application. Unfortunately, as useful as the Mobility Center is, it is hard for users to find: instead of being included in the Vista Welcome Center that appears every time a user starts a computer, it is buried deep in the Accessories folder. In contrast, the default Welcome Center contains marketing offers for Windows Live services, which arguably are less useful to most users. Hardware manufacturers or organizations could use the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) to add the Mobility Center to the Welcome Center or to the computer's desktop. (For more information on the WAIK, see "Windows Vista Setup Eases Deployment" on page 3 of the July 2006 Update.) Power Management Earlier versions of Windows featured two power-saving modes:
In Vista, hibernate is still available as an advanced power setting, but Microsoft is promoting the new Sleep mode as the best way to safely and quickly suspend operations. Sleep uses both memory and the hard disk to save all user data and state information, so that the computer can resume quickly from memory while the data is protected on the hard disk. Unlike Hibernate, Sleep does not power down, but puts the computer in a power-saving state. Microsoft is recommending that users power down, or hibernate, their computers only when they need to turn off the power, or when they don't plan to use the computer for several days. For a break of up to several hours, Microsoft recommends using Sleep, as resuming from Sleep can take less than two seconds, while resuming from Hibernate can take as long as a full reboot. How well the new Sleep mode will work is still to be seen. The most common problem with power-saving modes was that some applications and drivers ignored the request from the OS to hibernate. This rogue software sometimes stopped the computer from sleeping or hibernating correctly. In worst-case scenarios, the computer went into a "coma," and recovery sometimes required users to remove all power sources (unplugging the unit and removing the battery) to force a shutdown, then reboot and wait for Windows to recover from the unexpected shutdown. Vista no longer allows applications and drivers to veto a request to go into Sleep mode, but unless application and hardware vendors improve their support for power management, new problems may appear. Like Windows XP, Vista also offers preconfigured power plans that define hardware and system settings for managing how the computer consumes power, including the following:
Hardware manufacturers or users can create additional power settings by setting individual parameters and saving the changes as a new plan. Sync Center The goal of the Sync Center is to make it easier to move files, such as documents, pictures, music, and contacts, from the PC (including a mobile PC) to another device, such as a desktop, network server, portable music player, digital camera, or mobile phone. In addition to copying files from one device to another, Sync Center can maintain consistency among two or more versions of the same file stored in different locations. If a file is added, changed, or deleted in one location, Sync Center can add, overwrite, or delete an earlier version of the file in other locations. Sync Center is also used to manage Offline Files in Vista Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate Editions. Offline files are stored in a cache on the local machine, while keeping the original on a network server or a desktop computer. (For more information on Offline Files, see "Windows Vista Improves Desktop Management" on page 3 of the Aug. 2006 Update.) When synchronizing files, Sync Center compares the file versions in each location to see whether they differ (based on size and time stamps). If the versions differ, Sync Center determines which version to keep (generally favoring the most recent version) and copies that version to the other location, overwriting the version there. If Sync Center finds a new file in one location (such as on a server but not on a mobile device), it copies the file to the other location. If a file has been deleted in one location, Sync Center will delete the file in the other location. In the event a file has changed in both locations—a conflict—Sync Center prompts the user to choose which version of a file to keep, showing the user detailed information about the files, including the file name, which device in the sync partnership it is currently on, the size, and the date modified. Sync Center will also rename one of the file versions so the user can keep both of them and resolve any issues later. To use Sync Center, a device's manufacturer must support the Sync Center API, and therefore not all devices will be initially supported. Those that don't support the API will continue to be managed through their existing synchronization software. Sync Center is not designed to replace the device manufacturer's synchronization and configuration utilities. For example, Microsoft's Windows Mobile team will be replacing its synchronization utility, ActiveSync, with a new Windows Mobile Device Center utility that users can access from Sync Center. Although Sync Center provides a centralized location for synchronizing devices, the third-party applications that come with the devices are better suited for managing device settings and troubleshooting, and will often include a synchronization utility. Vista SideShow Vista SideShow is a utility that displays critical information, such as a user's next meeting time and location, on an auxiliary display that works even when the computer is switched off. For example, a laptop user who cannot remember the location of a meeting could look up the meeting request on a small LCD display on the outside of the laptop. SideShow does not show real-time data, but snapshots of data taken earlier. So if the meeting displayed in SideShow is updated while the laptop is switched off, the user will not have the correct meeting details. SideShow will let hardware manufacturers build auxiliary displays in a wide range of peripheral devices, such as keyboards, displays, remote controls, and cell phones. These devices can then display information received from a Vista-based PC in SideShow applications that could be written by Microsoft, the hardware manufacturer, or other developers. Microsoft is also supplying a version of the .NET Framework to facilitate the development of SideShow applications. SideShow applications are referred to as "gadgets" even though they use completely different technology and are not compatible with other Microsoft "gadget" technologies, such as Windows Vista SideBar gadgets (miniature applications that users can add to the Vista shell) and Windows Live gadgets (Web-based miniature applications used to customize personal home pages). Microsoft says it is working to unify these gadget technologies, which means that gadgets developed with one of today's technologies might not work in the future. Ink and Speech Recognition Vista includes incremental improvements to ink recognition, primarily through improvements to the Input Panel (used by Tablet PCs to enter handwritten text) and improvements to editing and navigation gestures. The recognition software will continually analyze input and learn more about how a user writes letters, numbers, and words, improving accuracy. A key change to the Input Panel is the addition of AutoComplete, which works in the same way as AutoComplete in common programs, such as Microsoft Word. As the user begins to enter text, it displays possible matches and offers to complete the word for the user. Vista also supports more scratch-out gestures for deleting handwriting or recognized text in the Input Panel. Pen flicks—gestures made with the tablet pen to quickly navigate and perform shortcuts—are also improved, making it easier to use the pen to select or drag an item, or to perform editing tasks such as copy, paste, undo, and delete. Despite a rather unfortunate failure during a demonstration of Vista speech technology at the Financial Analysts Meeting in July 2006, during which few if any of the dictated words were correctly recognized, Vista does offer substantially improved speech recognition support. However, the hardware used seems to make a significant difference in the quality of speech recognition, meaning that users might have to employ a powerful mobile computer or suffer from poor reproduction. (For more on the improvements to speech recognition, see the sidebar "Usable Speech Recognition".) Small Team Collaboration? Windows Meeting Space is a new feature that allows up to 10 people, all of whom must be running Vista and be on the same subnet, to work together. For example, Meeting Space could let the small group share or refine a presentation or a document or project a presentation on another participant's computer display. The feature is similar to other real-time collaboration applications from Microsoft, such as Communicator, Groove, or NetMeeting, and may be a partial replacement for the Windows Messenger instant messaging client, which was a feature of Windows XP but is not included in Vista. One person can start a Meeting Space meeting on her computer and then invite others to join by sending them an invitation in e-mail, creating and distributing an invitation file, or having other participants start the Meeting Space application, which can identify active Meeting Space meetings running on the same subnet. Invitees join by accepting the invitation and entering a password. All communications in a meeting are encrypted, and only authenticated and authorized participants can see everything being shared. (For an illustration of a meeting, see "Windows Meeting Space".) Meeting Space raises a number of issues for IT departments, including potential conflicts with Group Policy, downgrading the Vista's Aero interface for performance, and duplication of numerous other Microsoft technologies. Group Policy conflicts. Meeting Space uses a substantial number of services and computer resources, including the Peer Name Resolution Protocol, Peer Networking Grouping, Peer Networking Identity Manager, and DFS Replication. Some of these services, including Meeting Space, may be disabled by Group Policy to restrict networking services for performance and security reasons, and therefore unavailable for users to start. Aero implementation. Meeting Space doesn't stand as a particularly good demonstration of Vista's high-end Aero interface. In some circumstances, the display takes on a disturbing telescoping effect when displaying another desktop. In other circumstances, the user gets a message that some visual elements, such as window frame transparency, have been turned off or the color scheme has been changed to Vista Basic, either because the program is incompatible with the Windows Aero color scheme or because the computer does not have enough memory to run everything. Duplication of other applications. It is questionable whether Microsoft needs another collaboration service when it already has Remote Desktop, Communicator 2005, Windows Live Messenger, and Groove, all of which provide similar services. The ad hoc and point-to-point features could have easily been added to one of these services or products without creating yet another application with feature over- and underlap. To differentiate Meeting Space, Microsoft promotes it as best for small, ad hoc, face-to-face meetings, where an Internet connection might not be available. Nevertheless, it could cause confusion and increase support costs as IT is forced to support yet another collaboration tool from Microsoft, or bet on which of Microsoft's collaboration technologies has the best long-term future. Deploy Mobile First? Despite the shortcomings in Meeting Space, the other mobile improvements make Vista a compelling OS for mobile computers. Organizations looking for a place to begin evaluating and deploying Vista may want to seriously consider moving some mobile users first to see whether the productivity gains of the new features can be realized. However, organizations will need to balance the benefits of starting with mobile deployments against the risks of increased support, because these users may be on the road or away from the organization, making it more difficult and potentially expensive to support them in the event of problems. Resources The mobile features in various editions of Vista are highlighted at www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/businesses/mobile.mspx. Microsoft's Ultra-Mobile Center is at www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/umpc/default.mspx. How to design, develop, and test a gadget is described at windowssdk.msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms768449.aspx. Information on the difference between the three incompatible gadget technologies is available at microsoftgadgets.com/livesdk/docs/faq.htm#Gen.1. |
