4. Classic Techie Components

Restart Manager

The number of forced reboots has dropped dramatically since NT 4.0. Vista now has the Restart Manager, which shows Microsoft's commitment to improving 'Up Time'. The Restart Manger is an Automatic version of what I have been preaching for sometime, namely don't reboot, just reboot the appropriate service. $5

Networking

Network Technologies have been extended or improved. Bear in mind when you make your purchase, Vista Home cannot join a domain (neither can XP Home). Here is a selection of new or improved network features.

WWAN - Spec and driver support for Wireless Wide Area Networking. WWAN requires routers for the "Big solution." WLAN - Better Wireless LAN, for example, automatic configuration for WLANs when a WLAN adapter is installed. VLAN - Allows devices on different LANs to communicate as if they were attached to the same wire, Virtual LANS. VLANs are based on logical instead of physical connections.

Peer Name Resolution Protocol (PNRP) is a genuine new technology in Vista. It's like a poor man's DNS in that it allows hosts to discover one another. PNRP uses the Winsock 2 Namespace Provider API. Apparently PNPR only works on IPv6. It can also be used by applications to find and connect with each other.

Network Map provides a visual representation of how the Vista client routes to other computers, including Wireless Networks.

Network Awareness provides seamless switching between networks, for example home and work networks.

The idea of Network Access Protection (NAP) is to identify and then to isolate "unhealthy" Windows Vista computers. The number one type of "unhealthy" computer is likely to be a visiting laptop. NAP is a tricky acronym, the keyword is P = Protection. Don't confuse Vista's NAP with Windows Server 2003's NAT or NAS or even Network Access Quarantine Control. NAP links with Group Policy. So, for example, you can define "unhealthy" in terms of clients with unsuitable DHCP scopes. Other NAP protection includes excluding clients with an "unhealthy" IPSec policy, VPN or 802.1x validation. Value $10.

I bundle all these new features and improvements and value them at $25.