Desktop Shell
Windows Vista SP1 significantly improves the performance of thumbnail display of files on network shares.
On Windows Vista RTM, when a user views a thumbnail for a file on a network share, Windows Vista downloads the file (or as much of it as needed to extract a thumbnail), extracts the thumbnail and then saves the cached thumbnail in a per-user cache (thumbs.db) on the user’s local machine. For each subsequent time that the user views the thumbnail, the user gets the locally cached copy. However, when another user uses the same computer to browse the share, Windows Vista will have to repeat the expensive and timely process of downloading, extracting, and locally caching the thumbnail.
With Windows Vista SP1, any other users who browse the share will experience performance improvements since Windows Vista will first try to use the thumbs.db cache created by the previous users.
Key Scenarios Scenario 1 – Multiple users viewing the same pictures on a network share: Prerequisites or specific configuration for the scenario:
Users A and B both have read/write access to pictures on a network share.
The Group Policy to disable thumbnails on network shares must be turned off (which is the default).
Client-side Caching must not be turned on for User A.
Step-by-step scenario description:
1. (User A) Browse to the network share using Windows Explorer. The images appear one by one as each thumbnail is extracted.
2. (User A) Close Windows Explorer.
3. (User A) Browse to the network share using Windows Explorer. The images appear instantly; they’re cached in user A’s thumbnail cache (no change from Windows Vista RTM).
4. (User B) Browse to the network share using Windows Explorer. In Windows Vista RTM, the images appear one by one as each thumbnail is extracted and stored in user B’s thumbnail cache. In Windows Vista SP1, the images appear a lot quicker, as they are retrieved from thumbs.db that was created by user A.
Known Issues for scenarios
None.
Scenario 1 - Extract a Large File From a Zip Folder: Goal:
To improve performance when extracting a single large zip from a zip folder.
Prerequisites or specific configuration for the scenario:
The user should have a zip folder containing a file of 100Mbytes or larger.
Step-by-step scenario description:
1. Select zip folder
2. Right-click and select Extract All
3. Extract
Expected results:
File is copied from the zip folder to a newly created folder.
Exceptions:
None.
Scenario 2 - Move a large number of files/folders on the same volume: Goal:
To improve performance when moving files/folders on the same volume.
Prerequisites or specific configuration for the scenario:
The user should have a folder containing 20000 files/folders or more.
Step-by-step scenario description:
1. Select a folder that contains a large number of items
2. Move it to another folder on the same volume
Expected results:
Files/folders are moved nearly instantaneously.
Exceptions:
Move files/folders from the Desktop (not Desktop Folder)
Move files/folders from and to the drive’s root (e.g. C:\ )
Scenario 3 - Copy a large file over the network: Goal:
To improve performance when copying large files over the network.
Prerequisites or specific configuration for the scenario:
The user should have access to a network share that contains a file 100Mbytes or larger.
Step-by-step scenario description:
1. Navigate to the network share that contains a large file
2. Copy the large file to the Desktop
Expected results:
The file is copied to the local machine faster than in Windows Vista RTM.
Exceptions:
On high latency networks this copy operation will be slower than Windows Vista RTM.
Scenario 4 - Copy a small set of local files on the same machine: Goal:
To improve performance when copying local files that are already in memory.
Prerequisites or specific configuration for the scenario:
The user should have access to approximately 100 small files (10 Mbytes or less per file).
Step-by-step scenario description:
1. Copy the set of small files in another folder on the local machine (E.g. files are originally in folder A; copy files from folder A to folder B).
2. Copy a subset of newly copied files in folder B into some other folder (E.g. from folder B to folder C).
Expected results:
The files that are already in memory are copied on the local machine approximately 30% faster than in Windows Vista RTM.
Exceptions:
This performance improvement only affects files that are in memory, so the first copy operation will have similar performance to Windows Vista RTM. However, the files that remain in memory after the first copy operation are copied significantly faster in the second copy operation.
Known Issues for scenarios
In scenario 5, it is not clear how files remain in memory. This scenario is not relevant if the files copied are not in memory.
What’s New in Compressed Folders?
Improved Performance when extracting the contents of compressed folders.
The time to extract content from compressed folders is significantly improved from Windows Vista RTM, especially for large, single compressed items.
Who Should Use Compressed Folder feature enhancements?
Customers who use Windows Vista’s built-in compressed folders functionality for archiving.
Key Scenarios Scenario 1 – Extract a large single file from a compressed folder Goal of the scenario
Improve performance times when extracting a large single file that is in a compressed folder.
None
Customer archives large files using the compressed folders feature in Windows Vista.
1. Step-by-step scenario description
2. Right-click a compressed folder containing a single large file (for example, a file over 350 MB).
3. Select Extract all.
4. Select the location to extract to (for default, click OK; otherwise, either type in or browse to a location).
5. Click OK.
Expected results
Extraction performance is faster than in Windows Vista RTM.
Exceptions
None if these specific steps are followed. If extraction is attempted via the “move method,” (right-click the file, drag file to a non-compressed folder, select “move”), performance may not be as good.
Scenario 2 – Extract several small files from a compressed folder: Goal of the scenario
Improved performance compared to Windows Vista RTM when extracting several smaller files contained in a compressed folder.
Specific hardware requirements
None
Pre-requisites or specific configuration for the scenario
Customer archives a large number of smaller files using the compressed folders feature in Windows Vista.
Step-by-step scenario description
1. Right-click a compressed folder containing a large number of (compressed) files, for example: 2500 13k files compressed from 30k.
2. Select Extract all.
3. Select the location to extract to (for default, click OK; otherwise, either type in or browse to a location).
4. Click OK.
Expected results
Extraction performance is faster than in Windows Vista RTM.
Exceptions
None
Known Issues for scenarios
None for these specific scenarios.
| 