Criticism of Windows Vista soon picked up by international media outlets: "Jornal de Notícias", Rádio e Televisão de Portugal, "La Nación", "The Chosun Ilbo", and 163.com. Criticism of Windows Vista Windows Vista, an operating system released by Microsoft for consumers on January 30, 2007, has been widely criticized by reviewers and users. Due to issues with new security features, performance, driver support and product activation, Windows Vista has been the subject of a number of negative assessments by various groups. For security reasons, 64-bit versions of Windows Vista (and of Windows 7 as well) allow only signed drivers to be installed in kernel mode.
Management features new to Windows Vista also install updates to an offline Windows image, including updates, boot-critical device drivers, and language packs. Windows Vista introduced Component-Based Servicing (CBS) as an architecture for installation and servicing. The deployment of Windows Vista uses a hardware-independent image, the Windows Imaging Format (WIM). The image file contains the necessary bits of the operating system, and its contents are copied "as is" to the target system. Other system specific software, such as device drivers and other applications, are installed and configured afterwards. This reduces the time taken for installation of Windows Vista. Corporations can author their own image files (using the