Features of Longhorn

Applies to:
Microsoft Windows Vista (Longhorn)

Summary: This article talks about the features of Longhorn, these features are built to make Longhorn most versatile and powerful operating system of the era.

Contents
Application Model
Security
File System
Communication
Presentation

Application Model

Longhorn is going to provide a new dimension to applications in more productive and powerful manner.

• The APIs provided by Longhorn are managed classes that handle much of the programming tasks and reduce the workload for developers.
• The application model provided by Longhorn supports traditional form-based and new page-based navigation applications.
• A new Longhorn security and privacy model, which is the result of a combination of managed APIs and digital identity, provides application security from the beginning of the development process
• Automatic application state management and retention for easier application development.
• ClickOnce deployment technology supports sophisticated deployment features such as installation in Program Files, versioning, Side-By-Side installation.

Security

Since Microsoft took initiative of Trustworthy computing, Longhorn applications are based on application’s security on the common language runtime code access security (CAS) model but with significant extensions.

• Longhorn applications are either fully trusted or have only partial trust. Applications that fully participate in the Longhorn security model will have full access to Longhorn features. Applications that only partially participate in the model will have limited benefits.
• Longhorn provides an ultrasecure, managed-code, runtime environment, called the Secure Execution Environment (SEE) that protects the user if application behavior is bad.
• The Longhorn Trust Manager provides a scoring system for the applications which determines a suggested level of trust that users could grant to the application in order to function appropriately.
• The Longhorn Security Trust Center allows a user to manage hot fixes and access Windows updates.
• The Longhorn Security Advisor informs the user of any security risks and violations.

File System

Longhorn offers significantly improved data storage and data access via a new file system.

• The new ADO.NET provides improved data access.
• Common schemas for daily information, such as contacts, organizations, addresses, and much more, allow shared information access by applications, the operating system, and the shell.
• An application can attach additional metadata to objects in the file system,

which allows faster search and retrieval of file objects than a traditional file system.

• Changes occurred in an object in the Longhorn environment are automatically propagated to other instances of that object because of using dynamic data binding.

Communication

Longhorn applications now have a rich variety of communication and collaboration features.

• Features such as sessions and channels provide rich collaboration services to participants.
• Communication and collaboration features can securely operate through firewalls and Network Address Translation (NAT), allowing traversal of corporate boundaries.
• Standardized communication based on web services allows legacy and new applications to participate in collaboration.
• Server-based / peer-based communications features can operate over centralized infrastructure or directly to user clients.
• Virtual presence support allows users to collaborate with others through instant messaging-like features (common notification, invite, and so on).
• Integrated security is an integral part of these capabilities.
• Shell Extensibility support, such as the new people picker control provides high-level application support for communication applications.

Presentation

• Developers can more easily produce applications providing rich user interfaces using the presentation and media services available in “Longhorn”.
• Longhorn provides the developer with rich graphics classes that provide animation, effects, and visually exciting images that exploit hardware acceleration.
• Powerful declarative and dynamic vector graphics allow flexible presentation and scaling for high-resolution output devices while saving resources because graphics are generated from a descriptive language.
• Easily applied animations improve usability and continuity of the UI.
• Graphics support uses hardware accelerated DirectX/3D video cards to create a more immersive and fluid environment.
• Your application can seamlessly integrate all forms of user’s interface-images, video, audio, vector graphics, controls, text, and so on.
• A new layout model allows for rich and media display because of a framework that automatically adjusts pagination, position, and so on, to the screen size.
• New text services such as the inclusion of subpixel rendering (ClearType) allow for a visually engaging GUI on any PC with a 3D accelerator independent of possible screen resolutions.
• You can merge disparate pieces of data into containers, which can be moved around the UI.
• Conditional transformations of data based on type, value, or other rules give the developer tools to create a more facile UI.
• An extensive multimedia platform allows a glitch-free playback of audio and video; distributed A/V experiences between PCs and consumer electronics devices; highest quality audio and video codecs; high performance real-time, high-definition content capture and editing; rich CD, DVD and television metadata services.

---

About the author

I would like to thank my wife for taking pains in typing the whole article.

Vidya Vrat Agarwal, a Microsoft .NET Purist, and an MCT, MCSD.NET, MCAD.NET, MCSD. He is also a Life Member of Computer Society of India (CSI). He started working on Microsoft.NET with its beta release. He has been involved in software development, consultation, corporate trainings, T3 programs and technical writing for Microsoft .NET for various corporate clients.

He lives with his beloved wife and lovely daughter nick named Pearly. He believes that nothing will turn into a reality without them. In technologies the part which really fascinates him is the architecture of that particular technology. He is the follower of the concept No Pain, No Gain.

Presently he is working with LionBridge Technologies in Mumbai - India, where he work with Microsoft Dept. on Visual Studio 2005 (Whidbey) and SQL Server 2005 (Yukon) and his business card reads Subject Matter Expert (SME). His technical profile holds .NET Framework, VC#, VB.NET, WebServices, Remoting, SQL Server, COM, DCOM, COM+, MTS, MSMQ. Visual Studio 2005 (Whidbey), SQL Server 2005 (Yukon) and Longhorn.

His blog can be read at http://dotnetpassion.blogspot.com