Although Microsoft didn't announce general hardware requirements for Longhorn as expected at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) 2004 trade show this week, company representatives did reveal that the graphics-card requirements for the upcoming system have changed since Microsoft first revealed them at WinHEC 2003. Microsoft also presented details about Longhorn's so-called tiered user experience, which the company calls Aero. "The Aero user experience is a generational leap over what's available today in Windows XP," Kerry Hammil, a program manager on the Avalon team, said during a graphics session at the show Monday afternoon. "There will be two discrete...