Raj Jhanwar: Windows Vista Component Management Interface (CMI)

The Discussion

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  ... There’d been hints here and there about this kind of modularity... but I had no idea about the depth or the ease... after it was all built and configured that is.
  
  Wow.

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  dahat wrote:

  

  ... There’d been hints here and there about this kind of modularity... but I had no idea about the depth or the ease... after it was all built and configured that is.
  
  Wow.

  
  
  Agreed. This interview blew my mind. Hats off to the CMI team.
  
  Wow,
  C

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  So, anyway, what is a "skew?"  Actually, it is a SKU or Stock Keeping Unit number.  You see, items that are mass produced are assigned SKU numbers so that retail sellers can order and inventory by models which are distinguished by their different SKU numbers. 

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  Still watching only 7 mins in. I have to say so far this video has restored my faith in C9, thank you.
  
  I've used Windows XPe a couple of years a go and it was just awesome, can't wait to see the changes........

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  Wow, what a great video.... Very interesting and enjoyable. So much for a marketing site. That really blew my mind as well. THanks for such a great job on this Charles... You rock

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  Say Charles... while I didn’t hear it in the video... did the topic of compliance with governmental mandates come up between you and Raj?

  As nifty as this will be for OEMs and select others to easily be able to make new SKUs... it unfortunately makes it a lot easier for various governments demand that Microsoft provide a version of Vista just for them.

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  dahat wrote:

  

  Say Charles... while I didn’t hear it in the video... did the topic of compliance with governmental mandates come up between you and Raj?

  As nifty as this will be for OEMs and select others to easily be able to make new SKUs... it unfortunately makes it a lot easier for various governments demand that Microsoft provide a version of Vista just for them.

  
  
  Let's be very, very clear here. This is about componentizing the way we build Windows skus, making it very easy for OEM deployment of skus, speeding up the shipping of system fixes (security fixes for example), and increasing the number of language builds (Vista shipped in the most languages ever because of this work and Raj explains exactly why). This is about how WE manufacture various OS flavors. It enables us to make more skus, faster, and in more languages. CMI is possible because of our complete understanding of system component dependencies. Before Vista, we had no such knowledge.

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  dahat wrote:

  it unfortunately makes it a lot easier for various governments demand ...

  Why is it unfortunate?
  

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  Can we see those xml files that describe the dependencies?

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  Yes, you can see the component manifests.  They are located in %windir%\winsxs\Manifests.