AMD has a basic driver for it's R600 ready for action, though they definitely want to polish some things before releasing it. AMD knows that CrossFire and OpenGL performance are huge problems in Windows Vista, so AMD is working hard on tweaking these things. The R600 is confirmed to use an 80nm process, have a 512-bit memory controller, unified shader architecture, DX10 support, and enough performance to "make G80 run for its money." The launch is expected to take place in early February, though the launch date has been moved several times.

Microsoft has sponsored a study into its latest operating system and the new Aero theme, which has come to the conclusion that it doesn't slow PCs. Apparently the new interface "had little or no negative impact on Vista's performance". Matt Ayers, a program manager at Microsoft, wrote "We put quite a bit of effort into making sure that the new visuals were as efficient as possible, and it really paid off," continuing "You can run Aero without guilt!" Many people have criticised the resource-hungry Windows Vista which has put some gamers off using it, and this report may make people sceptical as to why Microsoft recommends a noticeably more powerful system when running the Aero interface. Although the report comes to this conclusion, it does not appear to contain any benchmarks related to gaming or 3D applications.

It has been a month since Microsoft released their latest (somewhat) public copy of Windows Vista, and there has been no major upgrade to Windows Vista in most corporations. Since Vista is technologically solid, why is there such a slow adoption of the software? There are several reasons, but the most obvious are pointed out in a quote by Russ Cooper, a senior information security analyst at Cybertrust.

I say Microsoft never intended anybody to run Vista prior to January, What works on Vista, beyond Office 2007? I'm going to Vista ... when my VPN supplier tells me that they have drivers that work, and when my anti-virus vendor tells me that they have non-beta versions that work.

While many G80 owners were expecting at least a beta driver for Microsoft Windows Vista, NVIDIA will not be releasing anything like it until at least January. The lack of even a beta driver for Microsoft Windows Vista is getting a lot of criticism. When anyone with a G80 tries to install Microsoft Windows Vista, they will be forced to install a "standard VGA". This means that there are no shiny Aero Glass effects, and even 2D graphics might be challenging. NVIDIA is expected to have something ready for CES 2007.

ATI has teamed up with laptop-maker Asus to introduce a series of 'Ready for Vista' notebook graphics processors. There are three processors in the Mobility Radeon X1K family: the X1700, X1450 and X1350. Each of the processors has been designed to play high-definition(HD) video formats such as HD-DVD/H.264 and Blu-ray and support Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system. ATI's deal with Asus follows a similar deal with NVIDIA in recent weeks to use the GeForce Go 7700 chips in its ultra-portable AJ8 notebook series. Asus will use the ATI chips in its forthcoming Mobile TV, Mobility, Multimedia and Entertainment laptops. Longer battery life is a key component of the new processors, despite running faster than previous graphics processors. They will use the Powerplay 6.0 power management technology, which allows the chips to automatically adjust the balance between performance and power consumption based on the workload.

On November 15th, we reported that the Microsoft Zune music player was not Vista-ready. Microsoft has patched the Zune installer so that it will not only allow installs on Windows Vista, but add a performance increase for people who do so. Microsoft also patched various security issues in the installer they refused to elaborate on. You can download the updated software here.

ViewSonic said recently that its LCD monitors have won certification for the Windows Vista operating system (OS). New LCD monitors from ViewSonic shipped since December are compliant with Windows Vista, with the new models including the entry-level VA-series, graphics-use VG-series, professional-use VP-series and design-oriented VX-series, according to Alan Chang, vice president of ViewSonic for Asia-Pacific sales and marketing.

While NVIDIA still hasn't posted a G80 driver, ATI has upgraded it's suite of drivers for Windows Vista. Anyone with Windows Vista RC2 or RTM can download and install the latest version of Catalyst Beta Driver for Windows Vista, which fixes issues in several games such as Serious Sam 2. It also fixes issues in Windows Media Player, the general installation/uninstallation of the drivers, and Temporal Anti-Aliasing. You can read the full release notes here.

You can download the December 13th version of the drivers here.

AMD/ATI does not reccomend using these drivers on mission-critical systems, does not support them, and says they will only install on a computer with Windows Vista RC2 or later.

Super-analysts at Gartner have something to say about Microsoft and its Windows software. For those of you unfamiliar with the company, Gartner is the largest IT industry analyst firm in the world, and it got there for a reason - it's pretty good at its guesses.

Gartner estimates that Windows Vista will be the last Windows as we know it. The company predicts that it is too difficult and expensive to keep pushing box sales for new versions.

Perhaps a modular architecture, where you download updated versions of modules that piece together the OS, is on its way?

Every HP computer that is "Windows Vista ready" and shipped with a Windows Vista upgrade coupon will get a free copy of Windows Vista when it is released. However, they will also get a free DVD full of various drivers, as well as a small guide on upgrading to Windows Vista, to make the upgrade process as worry free as possible. HP has worked since 2001 with Microsoft to ensure an easy upgrade path.

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies and PC platform solutions, today announced that all VIA Vinyl HD audio codecs have passed the Microsoft Windows Vista 32bit/64bit Premium logo tests, ensuring users can feel the warmth of sound in the Vista environment.

According to a press release from TI, their IT department has strongly advised against moving the company to Windows Vista.

TI will use Windows XP SP2 until at least 2009, as they "are confident Windows XP will continue to be a stable, cost-effective and secure operating system standard for TI during the next two years.

Maintaining Windows XP on their corporate network should save TI a lot of money in licensing and support costs.

As several readers may be fully aware of, Microsoft is releasing Windows Vista in several different versions:

• Vista Home Basic
• Vista Home Premium
• Vista Business
• Vista Enterprise
• Vista Ultimate

Each edition contains their own feature-set and upgrades/enhancements over the 'lower-level' editions.

ExtremeTech has taken the liberty on writing up an article detailing the differences in each version so the user can get a firm grip on which Vista edition is right for them (if they plan on purchasing it).

The folks over at Tech ARP have written up a beginners guide to installing the Windows Vista OS.

The process is quite similar to Windows XP installations with only minor additions in the look and feel.

What's interesting though, is that the installation process does not require the user to enter in a registration key. In fact, they can choose any Windows Vista version they want to install. A piracy plan waiting to happen (Or a piracy plan that's already happened...)?

Market research firm iSupply did their homework, and found some very interesting numbers. Hardware wise, a new computer designed for Windows XP will cost no less then $500 to build. However, to make a computer ready for Windows Vista, there are several changes necessary. A gigabyte of memory will be just short of required, and supporting the Aero interface will also be a challenge. This can make a computer ready for Windows Vista cost no less then $600. That figure is for hardware alone, and so OEM's will likely charge significantly more than that.

ATI is about to introduce new entry-level graphics accelerator dubbed X1050 later this month. The new chip is set to replace the X300 and X550 cards from the market. It will be clocked at 400MHz core and 666MHz memory. It will support both 64- and 128- bit memory interfaces.

A Trojan virus has already been written and released for Microsoft's new operating system. The malware, posing under the name "Windows Vista All Versions Activation 21.11.06", pretends to be a crack to lets users avoid activating their copy of Vista but in reality it carries a the Trojan Trojan-PSW.Win32.LdPinch.aze. Apparently most virus scanners can detect this Trojan but for some reason Norton and Nod32 let it slip by them.

VIA Technologies, today announced that the VIA K8M890 and the VIA P4M900 chipsets have passed the Microsoft Windows Vista 32bit/64bit Basic logo tests, enabling customers get ready for Vista with confidence. This certification means that users can perform trouble-free installation of Windows Vista, including Ultimate, Enterprise, Business, Home Premium and Home Basic editions. The VIA K8M890 and VIA P4M900 North Bridges both feature the VIA Chrome9 IGP core which provides DirectX 9.0 graphics support with hardware pixel shaders, supported by a WDM driver for Microsoft Windows Vista. The VIA K8M890 and P4M900 chipsets are available now. Boards featuring the chipsets are available from all the world's leading motherboard manufacturers.

The Inquirer learned that NVIDIA plans to release the G80 driver for Windows Vista, DirectX10 enabled and fully functional, in mid December. NVIDIA is not giving away "review samples" of the driver, but internal sources say that the driver is very nice and works quite well. NVIDIA hasn't released a public Vista driver yet because the mainstream version of Vista is not due for release until January 30th, and NVIDIA wants time to work all the bugs out.