Windows Vista, Microsoft's latest operating system is the ultimate gaming platform. The Redmond company revealed that, in its perspective, the operating system is designed from the ground up for gaming. "We've built Windows Vista from the ground-up with gaming in mind. We wanted to create a platform that significantly improves the gaming experience for everyone, from the mom who plays "Bejeweled" to the most avid late-night "World of Warcraft" player," Kevin Unangst, global director of Games for Windows, commented on what Games for Windows means for consumers and Microsoft.

Unangst also offered an insight into Microsoft's strategy with Windows Vista and DirectX 10. By the Redmond company's estimates, in excess of 200 million people worldwide use Windows as a gaming platform. "Our first priority was making it easier to find games that are installed on your Windows Vista PC - so we created the Games Explorer. No more hunting through multi-level menus to find the game icon. The Games Explorer is right on the "Start" menu next to Music and Pictures. It's not only a convenient place to find and play games, but you can also learn about your games too. The Games Explorer displays high-resolution box art graphics for each game along with useful information, such as the game publisher and developer, when the game was last played, and the game release date and rating," Unangst added.

But the fact of the matter is that Microsoft's priority was the exclusive integration of DirectX 10 in Windows Vista. Any way you might look at it, 200 million gamers make for quite a few sold Vista copies. The gaming community experiences via DirectX 10 an unsubtle incentive for forced migration to Windows Vista. And while the technology is not yet a standard, it is going in that direction, with Microsoft refusing to both backport DirectX 10 on XP and make Vista exclusive titles available for DirectX 9.

"DirectX 10 is another great improvement that we introduced with Windows Vista. DirectX is the graphics engine for Windows, and DirectX 10 along with new DirectX 10 hardware allows developers to create jaw-dropping graphics on Windows Vista. Games are more detailed and realistic. Landscapes come to life. We also redesigned the video driver technology in Windows Vista to make it more stable and crash-resistant while taking advantage of all the new DirectX functionality," Unangst said.

If you have any doubts about DirectX 10 becoming synonymous with the top gaming experience, then you have to keep in mind the fact that both game developers and hardware manufacturers are increasingly leveraging the default graphics engine in Windows Vista.

"We've given developers an entirely new canvas upon which to create, and that takes a bit of time. The great news is that games that take advantage of DirectX 10 are starting to hit the market. "Company of Heroes" was the first DirectX 10 game available on the market through a downloadable patch released in May. There is also a line-up of DirectX 10 titles ready to hit store shelves this fall and winter including, "Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures," "BioShock", "Crysis," and "World in Conflict." And with both AMD and NVIDIA delivering many choices for DirectX 10 cards, including new laptops with integrated DirectX 10 capabilities, this technology is changing the way gamers look at gaming graphics," Unangst predicted.