“Safety and security is the overriding feature that most people will want to have Windows Vista for,” the co-president of Microsoft’s platform, products and services division said in an interview with CNET News.com. It is reversing its plan to add virtual folders that contain all the files that match specific criteria, such as “created by Michelle” or “images,” no matter where they are on the PC.
Originally, Microsoft wanted virtual folders to replace standard views, which show the physical location of files on a hard disk drive, but it has backpedaled on that decision. The software maker had already scaled back on planned features for Vista, leaving some out so it could meet a ship date in 2006 for the update.
Vista will go much further in protecting consumers, he said. “If we ever find something trying to open a port that the developer said it should not be opening, it is immediately shut down,” he said.
Additionally, Vista aims to offer improved security by letting people run their PC with fewer privileges, which control how a particular person can interact with the software. In Windows Vista, the default will likely be “protected administrator,” a new privilege level that Microsoft is introducing with Vista, Allchin said. The standard user mode has been improved from Windows XP–people won’t have to call IT to change their PC clock, for instance–but it won’t allow a user to install applications, for example.
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