Windows Vista December CTP

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CNET editors' take

Reviewed by: Allen Fear
Reviewed on: 12/19/2005

• See the Windows Vista December CTP slide show

It's always fascinating when the world's most popular (and unpopular) software company along with the world's richest man decide to let you peek into what they have planned for the future of personal computing. With today's release of Windows Vista (beta 1)'s December CTP, we get another glimpse at what many of us will buy with our next computer, whether we want it or not. Code-named Longhorn early in its infancy, Microsoft started out with plenty of lofty goals for its new OS. Since then many of those plans have been scrapped or scaled back. More recently, Windows Vista has appeared to be playing catch-up, touting features, such as 64-bit computing, that are already available in Mac OS Tiger and Linux.

Vista promises better search that will hopefully match or exceed the search functionality already available through Mac OS Tiger's Spotlight and SuSE Linux's Beagle, not to mention the free Google Desktop Search utility that you can use with existing versions of Windows. In our ealier Vista coverage, we told you about the improved search functionality, the 64-bit support, and other features, such as the new version of Internet Explorer that Vista will harbor (which will boast tabbed browsing and RSS support, features already available in Firefox and Safari).

December's CTP offers us a peek at a few features we haven't seen yet, such as Windows Defender, BitLocker, single-button on/off, and Media Player 11.

Windows Defender
Formerly known as Windows AntiSpyware, Windows Defender is Microsoft's spyware and malware scanner and removal tool. The version of Windows Defender built into the December CTP of Vista is based on a new engine that Microsoft claims can detect and remove more potentially unwanted programs, or PUPs, than before. This version of Windows Defender also offers real-time protection that catches PUPs in the act, before they can be installed onto your computer.

BitLocker drive encryption
BitLocker is Vista's attempt to protect laptop users from having both their data and their computer stolen. In essence, BitLocker is a hardware-based encryption scheme capable of encrypting your entire hard drive or any volume in your computer. The trick with BitLocker is that the encryption key can be stored directly on the motherboard, in a chip called a TPM, or Trusted Platform Module. This gives IT professionals a valuable tool to lock down even lost or stolen computers. BitLocker is currently slated for the Enterprise edition of Vista only and is best thought of as a power tool for IT pros.

Device-driver locking
Another power tool targeted at IT pros is Vista's ability to block the installation of removable storage devices based on group policy. Basically, this feature lets IT administrators control who is permitted to install storage devices on the computers and who is not. In certain circumstances, allowing a user to install a removable storage device could pose a security risk, since it creates a convenient means of moving sensitive data on or off the network. For more on this type of functionality, read our review of DeviceLock.

Internet Explorer 7
Microsoft released its beta version of Internet Explorer Vista in its last CTP, but since then, the company has added support for international domain names. This should not only create a better user experience for those who frequently visit international Web sites, but it also will add a key component to the antiphishing technology built into Internet Explorer 7, which detects spoofed URLs.

See more CNET content tagged:: removable storage,; Microsoft Windows Vista,; Microsoft Internet Explorer 7,; 64-bit,; Microsoft Internet Explorer

User reviews

Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 26 reviews
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1.0 stars

17 out of 26 people found this review helpful

"ok feature, but useless"

by apocalypse07 on December 20, 2005

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1.0 stars

7 out of 9 people found this review helpful

"My Opinion"

by erikkendall on December 21, 2005

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1.0 stars

3 out of 4 people found this review helpful

"Niche product for media mavens"

by dinoaur on December 21, 2005

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Windows Vista December CTP

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