Microsoft characterized the retail packaging for Windows Vista as "designed to be user-friendly, a small, hard, plastic container designed to protect the software inside for life-long use"; [7] it opens sideways to reveal the Windows Vista DVD suspended in a clear plastic case. With the exception of Windows Vista Starter, all editions support both IA bit and x64 bit processor architectures. Users could purchase and download Windows Vista directly from Microsoft through the Windows Marketplace before the service's discontinuation.

Microsoft sold these licenses online through its website. Most bit programs can run natively, though applications that rely on device drivers will not run unless those device drivers have been written for x64 platforms.

All bit versions of Microsoft operating systems impose a 16 TB limit on address space. Processes created on the bit editions of Windows Vista can have 8 TB in virtual memory for user processes and 8 TB for kernel processes to create a virtual memory of 16 TB.

The Commission concluded that Microsoft "broke European Union competition law by leveraging its near monopoly in the market for PC operating systems onto the markets for work group server operating systems and for media players. Unlike that decision, however, Microsoft was also forced to withdraw the non-compliant versions of Windows from the South Korean market. As a continuance of these requirements, Microsoft released "N" and "KN" variants of some editions of Windows Vista that exclude Windows Media Player, as well as "K" and "KN" editions that include links to third-party media player and instant messaging software.

Two additional editions of Windows Vista have been released for use by developers of embedded devices. These are binary identical editions to those available in retail, but licensed exclusively for use in embedded devices. Unlike previous versions of Windows, Windows Vista does not support compliance checking during installation; compliance checking previously allowed users to insert a disc as evidence that the operating system was being upgraded over a previous version, which would allow users to enter an upgrade license to perform a clean install.

However, upgrading from a bit edition to a bit edition or downgrading from bit edition to a bit edition requires a clean install.

The following chart indicates the possible upgrade paths:. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikimedia list article. News Center. Retrieved May 26, Ars Technica. Retrieved June 2, January 29, Retrieved April 3, January 17, Redmond Magazine. Retrieved May 30, Windows Vista Team Blog. Archived from the original on November 10, Windows How-to. SuperSite for Windows. Archived from the original on March 16, Retrieved October 23, Archived from the original on June 8, PC World.

Retrieved October 25, Archived from the original RTF on September 7, Archived from the original on March 7, Archived PDF from the original on January 31, Help with Windows. Archived from the original PDF on August 2, Supersite for Windows. Retrieved April 29, CBS Interactive.

Softpedia News. Retrieved 8 June Archived from the original on January 21, Windows Hardware Engineering Conference Archived from the original EXE on December 22, Retrieved September 1, Retrieved June 15, Archived from the original on April 30, January 21, Archived from the original on February 2, January 6, Archived from the original on September 9, Vista SP1 — Which is fastest?

Retrieved June 1, Windows IT Pro. Archived from the original on April 22, Retrieved August 9, Microsoft Windows. Components History Timeline Criticism. Windows 1. Windows 95 Windows 98 Windows Me. Embedded Compact CE 5. Phone 7 Phone 8 Phone 8. Cairo Nashville Neptune Odyssey. List of versions Comparison Category. Categories : Windows Vista. Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description matches Wikidata Good articles. Namespaces Article Talk. Views Read Edit View history.

Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file. Download as PDF Printable version. Part of a series of articles on. Editions Windows Server Windows Mobile 6.

OEM licensing in emerging markets [13]. Partial no support for HD content creation. Partial no support for HD content creation 4. Partial 6. Disabled by default. No Share center. No P2P. Partial desktop composition only. No P2P meeting. View only. Yes optional. Yes Enhancements available in Windows Ultimate Extras. Requires TPM 1.

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