Just thought I'd send this link, thought it was interesting and have mixed views on how this is going to work, more a pain in the arse or will it be ok?

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1941407,00.asp

I like the approach with DirectX 10, except for the fact that it forces me to upgrade to Vista within a fixed time frame (say a year after Vista ships, all games are likely to be DX10 I think, which means having a Vista box or simply not playing them).

The changes to account permissions, etc, don't mean squat to me because as the only user of my own computers, I always have an admin account.  So far I've always been diligent about security updates, firewall defenses, and antivirus protection, and I've never had anything bad happen that might have been prevented by limited user permissions.  When so many things can't be done without an admin account, it's just too frustrating to run a normal user account.

One thing that really annoys me these days is how every bloody software developer seems to think they need to write a bunch of crap to the registry or system folders.  That's BS.  Maybe it's just how Windows is designed, I don't know.  But it's stupid that some computer games dump DLL's into the Windows system folders, and write fifty or a hundred registry keys that are, in most cases, absolutely pointless.  Put everything in the damn installation folder and use .INI's for any settings that might have been stored in the registry.

Also, I hate the "Games Explorer" concept.  I'm not mentally challenged, and don't need MS to treat me like I am.  My games are MY GAMES and I'll do with them as I please, thank you very much Mr. Gates.

Three words... ::)

HALO 2 PC 8)

...unless someone hacks it to run on WinXP. :P

well it seems like microsoft got what it wanted , shame 3dfx arn`t around to hijack the games/ api market , like they did in 97 !

Just think that this could be a pain in the ass if your working on someone else's pc and you need to install Anti-spyware or something like that and need to get their passwords in order to do it. Could be a liability for someone if that user ends up saying that so and so did this because they knew so and so's password. I mean your going to need a consent form in order to work on anyone's pc.

well microsoft like building spyware magnets ;D