List of Features Removed in Windows Vista - Windows Applications and Features

Windows Applications and Features

System Restore

• System Restore no longer supports configuring its settings through the registry.
• The GUI to configure the disk space utilized for System Restore points is not available in Windows Vista.
• File types and directories can no longer be included or excluded from monitoring by System Restore by editing %windir%\system32\restore\Filelist.xml as was possible in Windows XP. This file no longer exists in Windows Vista.

Backup

• In the Windows Vista version of the Backup application, it is not possible to specify what files and folders to back up and what files and folders are to be excluded. Users can select only document categories to back up. Files from a specific path or over the network also cannot be backed up due to this reason. Backup also does not present a list of files that will be backed up. Also, Encrypting File System (EFS) files are skipped over and not backed up. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 adds support for backing up EFS-encrypted files. Also, tape drives cannot be used to back up data.
• Windows Vista Backup does not have all the features and command line parameters supported by NTBackup. It does not support the NTFS archive bit and granular restores.

Diagnostics and maintenance

• The Disk Cleanup handler to compress old files has been removed.
• The graphical representation and progress indicator of the defragmentation process or its analysis have been removed from Windows Disk Defragmenter. It is also not possible in the RTM release to manually specify which drives to defragment from the GUI without using the command line defrag.exe utility. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 includes the ability to control which volumes the disk defragmenter runs on. The ability to view any volume-related information such as its file system, capacity, free space, percentage of free space, cluster size, contiguous files, file and volume fragmentation information in the analysis report of a volume is also absent. It is also impossible to save or print the analysis report or pause and resume the defragmentation mid-way.
• The Dr. Watson application debugger and crash analysis tool has been removed. It is intended to be replaced by the Problem Reports and Solutions control panel. However, its functionality is different.
• The DirectX Diagnostic tool (DxDiag) only shows information; it is no longer possible to test the hardware and the various DirectX components.
• Certain command line switches for System Information (MSInfo32) are not supported.

Group Policy

• Several Group Policies that were applicable to various Windows XP components no longer apply to equivalent Windows Vista or later OS components due to design change. Therefore, a lot of customizability and functionality made possible by many Group Policies on XP is lost on Windows Vista and later.
• The Resultant Set of Policy snap-in no longer shows the full set of configured Group Policy settings. The command line tool, gpresult.exe has to be used to view all settings.

Connectivity

• Because of Session 0 isolation, the console session has been removed from RDP server and corresponding /console switch removed from the RDP client.
• The following MDAC/Windows Data Access Components have been deprecated: 16-bit ODBC, Jet and Replication Objects (JRO), Remote Data Services (RDS), AppleTalk and Banyan Vines SQL Network Libraries, OLEDB Simple Provider (MSDAOSP), ODBC Setup, ODBC Cursor Engine and OLE DB Interface Remoting.

Windows Fax and Scan

• The Faxing components (Fax Console and Fax wizards) have been removed. Windows Fax and Scan is their replacement, however it is only included in Windows Vista Business, Enterprise and Ultimate editions.
• Unlike Windows XP Fax, Windows Fax and Scan in Windows Vista and later does not support the V.34bis standard which allows higher fax transfer speeds.
• Windows Fax and Scan does not support TWAIN scanners. It only supports WIA scanners.
• Windows Fax and Scan does not support copy/paste, drag and drop or import/export of previous faxes like Windows XP's Fax Console did.
• Windows Fax and Scan does not allow specifying the fax recipient's name if it is not added as a contact in Windows Contacts.

E-mail and contacts

• Block sender is not available in Windows Mail for newsgroups; it is only available for e-mail.
• The ability to send email as plain text (without HTML) only to a specific contact is not available in Windows Contacts.
• It is not possible to share Microsoft Office Outlook contacts with Windows Contacts, whereas in Windows XP, configuring the "UseOutlook" value in the registry allowed sharing Outlook contacts with the Windows Address Book.

Imaging

• The wizard for transferring photos from the camera had some of its functionality removed in Windows Photo Gallery such as the ability to choose which images to transfer from the camera; users had to copy all images even if they had been previously downloaded. However, the previous behavior with options to choose and automatically organize photos into folders is available in Windows Live Photo Gallery. Also, users can still manually copy specific images from the camera by exploring the connected camera from Windows Explorer.
• Selective pages of multi-page TIFF files cannot be printed from Windows Photo Gallery; all pages are printed.
• TIFF annotations cannot be edited or created in Windows Photo Gallery or Windows Live Photo Gallery.
• Support for animated .GIF files has been removed in Windows Photo Gallery which replaced the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer. Only the first frame of the GIF animation is shown in Windows Photo Gallery. Animated GIF files display properly in Internet Explorer. Support for WMF and EMF formats has also been removed from Windows Photo Gallery.

Microsoft Agent

• Microsoft Agent character preview is not supported in the Agent Character file's property sheet.
• Microsoft Agent no longer supports multiple languages per edition of Windows. The Agent language will be the same as the language of the Windows edition.
• Due to Microsoft Agent using SAPI 5 for Agent characters instead of SAPI 4, pitch and speed settings of the characters are broken/ignored unless new SAPI 5 compatible XML tags are used.

Help and Support

• Help and Support content does not have an index.
• Help and Support no longer supports dual pane navigation.
• Favorites, History and advanced search options from the Windows XP Help and Support Center are not available in Windows Vista Help. It is not possible to share and install help content to and from other Windows computers or to install or switch to help for other operating systems.
• Built-in support for the 32-bit .HLP (WinHelp) help format has been removed to discourage software developers from using the obsolete format and encourage use of newer 32-bit help formats such as Compiled HTML Help. When starting an application which uses the 32-bit .HLP format, Windows will display a warning saying that the format is no longer supported. The viewer for viewing .HLP files is available from the Microsoft Download Center, but some features present in previous versions are disabled. Support for the 16-bit .HLP format remains.
• Context-sensitive help is not available in Windows Vista, since it was dependent on WinHelp. Although the HTML Help technology also supports context-sensitive help (including "What's this" help), Windows Vista dialogs remove the "What's This" button and context sensitive and the "What's This" help functionality.

Other features

• The ScriptPW.Password COM automation object to mask passwords from the command line is removed.
• Sound Recorder in Windows Vista can no longer open audio files. Moreover, it cannot save in lossless (uncompressed) WAV format when run without using any switches; instead, it saves in lossy 96 kbit/s WMA format. Only the version of Sound Recorder from the N editions of Windows Vista saves audio in WAV format by default. Also, all the basic audio processing features such as format conversion, sample rate conversion, adding echo, reversing the audio, changing volume and playback speed, splitting, inserting and mixing audio have been removed. The graphical viewing of the sound wave spectrum has been replaced with a level meter.
• Support for Microsoft Office Word documents (*.DOC) has been removed from WordPad. Microsoft recommends the freely downloadable Word Viewer for viewing these documents.
• The Unicode IME has been removed. It will again be included in Windows 7.

• ClipBook Viewer is not included.
• Internet Backgammon, Internet Hearts (not to be confused with Hearts), Internet Reversi, Internet Spades, and Internet Checkers have been removed. Although freely playable online on MSN Games, they now require signing in to a Windows Live ID. Pinball has also been removed. Backgammon, Spades and checkers will be back in Windows 7.
• SerialKeys, an accessibility feature for augmentative communicative devices is no longer supported.
• Many of the screen savers introduced in earlier versions of Windows are not included with Windows Vista. This includes most of the OpenGL screen savers introduced since Windows 95b, as well as classics such as the Flying Windows screen saver.