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ActiveWin.com: Microsoft Windows Vista Build 5342 Screenshots | |
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| Time: 01:24 EST/06:24 GMT | News Source: ActiveWin.com | Posted By: Robert Stein | ||
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We have posted twenty-five new screenshots of the latest Microsoft Windows Vista Build 5342 that was released on Friday. The build is not a CTP, but rather an interim build that was released to testers. The shots show a variety of different features of the operating system. | ||
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| #1 By 61 (72.64.155.167) at 3/27/2006 8:38:29 AM |
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Sniping tool is pretty cool.
Speech Recognition stuff works very well. I have to say, I really really really hate the Vista gradients. Though screenshots don't do the UI justice at all. |
| #2 By 1401 (65.255.137.20) at 3/27/2006 9:16:03 AM |
| YES!!!! GWAR!!!! THEY RULE!!!!! |
| #3 By 15406 (216.191.227.68) at 3/27/2006 11:54:00 AM |
| #2: shut up and cringe, puny human! |
| #4 By 1401 (65.255.137.20) at 3/27/2006 12:36:01 PM |
| Could Vista be any more boring??? |
| #5 By 1124 (165.170.128.65) at 3/27/2006 2:33:34 PM |
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Vista is great!!
Nothing boring here other than the delays. |
| #6 By 1401 (65.255.137.20) at 3/27/2006 2:51:01 PM |
| I haven't found anything superbly exciting about it. The SuperFetch technology looks pretty cool. The UI is ok, I mean the glass effects are cool, but the explorer windows aren't. |
| #7 By 1401 (65.255.137.20) at 3/27/2006 4:00:40 PM |
| I second that observation Bland - You know when MS comes out and says "Buy Vista for the security" that they basically don't have anything to hype up the product. |
| #8 By 61 (72.64.155.167) at 3/27/2006 4:16:20 PM |
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If you say its XP with a different theme, you must not have a support video card.
Not to mention how extremely differently things are done. Most all dialogs and everything have been redesigned. How the UI flows (when using the WPF accelerated drivers) is just amazing. |
| #9 By 116 (66.69.244.87) at 3/27/2006 4:49:47 PM |
| Anyone know where to find vista drivers? I installed everything and it looks like sound doesn't work. Went to windows update and it didn't find anything... |
| #10 By 7754 (216.160.8.41) at 3/27/2006 4:53:39 PM |
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Bland, chrishedlund--I think you were expecting something radical. I was hoping for something radical, too, in a way, but realistically it's better to have something that is similar to what people already know. Folks like us enjoy sifting through changes (sometimes...) and seeing what's new. I'd venture to say that most people don't care a great deal. Something too out-of-the-ordinary would not likely be well-received, no matter how great it was. I think they took the right approach in making the animations, etc. very subtle and high-performance--they stay out of your way, and they give it a more polished, advanced feel. Anything perceived as gratuitous would be turned off by most users (even this will be turned off by some...). Once they finish optimizing, this thing is going to scream; even now, it's pretty impressive. For example, drag a window in circles around your screen in XP (or with Glass turned off--Ctrl + Shift + F9 to toggle it in Vista), and watch your CPU utilization nearly hit 100%. Now do the same in Vista with Glass turned on (and with a Glass-compliant card, obviously). The CPU is hardly bothered.
Now, as for saying it's just XP with a different theme... that's rather ignorant of the changes that have been made below the surface. It's also somewhat of a testament to the consistency of the product, despite the many changes. I don't think the problem Microsoft has is nothing to hype... rather, they have too much to hype. It's hard to focus around one particular big feature (perhaps other than security--which I think is what will be hyped the most... let's hope it lives up to it!), and some of the stuff is way too technical to sum up in a soundbite, or even in a printed ad ("The new TCP/IP stack will help you because of its revamped way of handling TCP receive window size auto-tuning and the new compound TCP algorithm!"). I am very curious to see how they market this product--it is a huge challenge. |
| #11 By 8556 (12.207.222.149) at 3/27/2006 4:59:56 PM |
| Get Window Blinds for Vista next year to move up to the next level of cool. |
| #12 By 1401 (65.255.137.20) at 3/27/2006 6:01:39 PM |
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bluvg - don't you think after 5 years it would be something radical? 5 years in computer years is a lifetime.
That is interesting about dragging a window around the screen and watching it peg the proc... This post was edited by chrishedlund on Monday, March 27, 2006 at 18:04. |
| #13 By 7760 (12.155.143.50) at 3/27/2006 6:27:52 PM |
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Bluvg is right on. Vista has too many new features. Most are ones that you may not even realize are there. For example, the networking stack and print paths have been completely rewritten. Then there's the graphics subsystem, as we all know. It takes years to completely re-write major components like those from the ground up. Vista is equal parts "cool feature" and "about time they re-did/fixed that."
This may sound corny, but the fact that they re-did the built-in games (ie. Solitaire, Minesweeper) for the first time in 11 years tells me something about what their goal with Vista was. They didn't have to re-do the games. They could've continued to use the 1995 versions that have been included in every Windows since '95. The fact that they re-did them tells me that Microsoft was interested in improving the experience of using Windows. Most of Vista's new features (ex. Avalon, the new networking stack, the new printing paths, new games, anti-spywareetc.) are about improving the experience for the end-user, not necessarily revolutionizing the way we use computers. |
| #14 By 7754 (216.160.8.41) at 3/27/2006 6:56:56 PM |
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chrishedlund--you know, no matter what it was like, I don't think Aero Glass could have lived up to the hype and rumor surrounding it. Short of a new display technology, I'm not sure what they could have done that would satisfy everyone. You know, with Apple, they can cater to a select audience--there is a niche that values a certain kind of UI. I don't think they can do that in Vista--look at lketchum's comments, for example. If something smells like eye candy--even if it's very unobtrusive and actually performs better than before--the perception among some is that it's unnecessary, fancy-schmancy bloat that just gets in the way and eats resources. Then there are the WindowBlinds-type folks that spend more time tweaking their UI than doing anything truly productive. ;) You can't be all things to all people, so I think Microsoft covers about as much as they can by offering a Classic mode to the anti-candy people, and letting 3rd parties like Stardock go after the UI crazies.
As for 5 years going by... I'd say it's even more significant than that--how long has the Windows UI been GDI-based? (Contrary to popular belief, though, GDI is hardware accelerated, but at a different point in the process.) Well, that's all changing with Vista. This is a radical change. The steering wheel and gas pedal may look familiar, but you're now driving a Ferrari rather than a Model T. Did you really want something other than a steering wheel and a gas pedal? Incidentally, take a look at some of the information behind DirectX 10 (aka Windows Graphics Foundation 2.0, aka Direct3D10): http://news.com.com/An+inside+look+at+Windows+Vista+-+page+4/2100-1043_3-6051736-4.html?tag=st.num DirectX 10 will increase game performance by as much as six to eight times. And that, my guess is, will be a big reason to upgrade to Vista (for much of this audience, at least). |
| #15 By 1401 (65.255.137.20) at 3/27/2006 6:58:37 PM |
| I think they redid the games because that's the most used feature in Windows - everytime I look around, someone is playing FreeCell... |
| #16 By 1401 (65.255.137.20) at 3/27/2006 7:01:38 PM |
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"DirectX 10 will increase game performance by as much as six to eight times."
That's all??? With a Mac I can... hahaha - just kidding... |
| #17 By 23275 (68.17.42.38) at 3/27/2006 9:57:57 PM |
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...well...dad gummit... no one ever even touches what want talk about - it's all GUI this, GUI that.... drip, drip, drip...
There is so much gorgeous code - so many really [forgive me] innovative feature sets - not just features - it's just wild. Yet...seeing any of that spoken to? Nope - it's all about what it looks like. Now, look...a discoverable OS Windows is - in spades. "Starting" any task and accomplishing that task is more possible in windows than any other and Vista rules that, too. No one talks about how easy it is to use - ever. "Give me the goo!" That's all we hear about and I am sick of it. Does the world not know... this is about secure virtualization of the disparate spaces and connecting people to other "people" - forget the people to processes rubbish of days gone by. This is about what people do with one another - the many transactions that take place opposite any effort - do we hear of that... nope! "Give me the goo - measure my goo - see how much of the screen we can take up with goo...." Just shoot me with the goo gun - all greenish and sticky - like Mountain Dew syrup, or some kind of toxic pudding. Mask all the good stuff - at least Paul Thurott will be happy....plenty of icky stuff to force one into diabetic shock. Under all this is something so special - so sweet - it's like Mozart - when o when will we talk about that? I want to talk about how this is going to so fundamentally change human interaction that it is nothing less than he equivalent of discovering a written language. Then perhaps [not sure yet], it hit me - may be that was the point.... connect people so well, that how they were connected was transparent - we'd need something to look at, right? May be that is the point of the goo? It better be, or I'll be adding an easy button to turn it off, if one is not provided. |
| #18 By 16451 (71.213.150.29) at 3/27/2006 10:32:45 PM |
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"I want to talk about how this is going to so fundamentally change human interaction "
Its not, so move on... |
| #19 By 7754 (216.160.8.41) at 3/29/2006 1:10:28 AM |
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lketchum--I agree with you on many things, really. There is so much under the covers that will never see any coverage. I'm always amazed by how much I discover every time I watch Channel 9. It's like there are two worlds regarding Vista--the speculative, uninformed one you read about in ZDNet, PCMag, etc. (although occasionally you do find some decent, somewhat in-depth ones), and the one that is discussed by the actual creators on Channel 9, on their blogs, etc.
At the same time, though, the GUI is important in a lot of ways--certainly, it has the capacity to expose the computer's power in ways that casual users can understand and easily leverage... and it can also be implemented poorly, of course. But beyond that, I don't think aesthetics need to be thrown out the window. I think you're a little harsh towards that lady on the Vista UI team in the Channel 9 video, and in my opinion, you mischaracterize the Aero Glass interface. It's really not that flashy at all... in fact, the effects are quite subtle--which I think is what folks like Paul and chrishedlund find disappointing. What I think is important, though, is that the underlying technology used to produce those effects is a big improvement, and we may yet see applications expose the computer's power to end users via that functionality in ways we may have not imagined. I can certainly see how some BI applications could leverage it in very useful, productivity-enhancing ways. If nothing else, some of the odd occasional GUI artifacts and oddities that we see due to the current graphics subsystem's pecularities may disappear (and hopefully aren't replaced with new ones...). I'm sure there are things that we won't like (for sure there will be some, at least at first) in Vista. That has happened with every Windows release I've witnessed. For instance, why do they have to move Control Panel settings around all the time??? Like in Vista--instead of the Display settings all in one dialog with separate tabs, the settings are all spread out into separate dialogs... why??? I remember hating how the networking applets in NT 4 changed to be more like 9x during the 2000 release... but now, on the increasingly rare occasion I'm configuring an NT 4 machine, it takes me a bit to adjust. I honestly think the biggest task facing Microsoft now is not getting Vista out the door, but getting Vista's message out the door. With so much going on, it's difficult to decide on one thing, other than security--and they've used that message before, so people are jaded. This is the first Windows OS in which the user is by default a non-administrator, though, and it's also the first in which IE runs in a very low-privileged context, both of which are very significant--and long-overdue, at least in the user as non-admin case--developments (incidentally, Allchin said they were "this close!" to getting low-rights IE to ship with XP SP2, IIRC). I don't follow you on how it will "fundamentally change human interaction," though. I'd love to hear any insights you have that lead you to believe that. |
| #20 By 23275 (68.17.42.38) at 3/30/2006 11:26:40 PM |
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#20, Bluvg, we have a very fortunate station in our business and the world is a very small place. We are very close with our clients and many used to pay checks out to Paul Allen and Bill, etc... - remembering fondly how Paul would call and check on payment. we've been around a long time and most of our guys have, too - may be too long. Any case... we are perhaps the last truly full service provider in our area [SE]. The only thing we buy is top-shelf parts, raw bandwidh [we have our own RING], and MS Servers and Tools - God we love their servers and tools these days - amazing!
About two years ago we started to notice some interesting trends - it began with the team that was working on DFS/FRS [for real this time]. About this same time, I saw COM of any kind about dry up - new dev in any case. I spent a week working with the last good implementation of any RMI I had used - ironically in FLASH RMI to get animations to pass data to apps and SQL and back again - now of course one does not need that and one can use a combination of SQL 2005 DB out and a .NET Control aspx out to populate real time data in animations.. nuff on that, but it's relevant I realized what was happening not "in" Vista, but around it.... It was and is all about vritualization of multiple - even aliased named spaces, and if Vista was to be seen [initially] as anything more than a good looking update to Luna [and yes, I totally get the use of DirectX 10 in the UI], it was going to need an environment that could let it breathe. At first it was a hunch.... then little by little and because we work so much of the industry at very intimate levels [I still wire our systems with our guys and they still so lovingly hand build each system, server and network - we still hand write each image for each router - I have to pause and praise my guys - they are just artists - perfect - they still sign the inside of each machine and their code is just as carefully crafted]... we saw what Vista was emerge - a multipoint, multiuser host to access an environment that was simultaneously personal, closed and seamlessly open to "any" network and multiple networks at once - networks that used advanced trust and presence software to connect "people" not processes. Now, it was still not confirmed for us - not until SQl 2005 and the SP1 CTP - it was all over at that point and we knew what was up...way down deep in SQL 05 was the language that Vista would need - by that I mean the hints at how SW for it will be built - People "with" devs - not devs "for" people. Also, how server and client connections could use advanced IS/Trust to gain "Controlled" access to many networks at once. They same is true of servers to clients, or clients to other clients and clients devices. cont.... |
| #21 By 23275 (68.17.42.38) at 3/30/2006 11:27:17 PM |
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"what people do with one another will define networks - which under Vista may be so dynamic that they will build up and down moment by moment." Vista needed an environment that at least allowed for part of that right away - or what it is would be lost.
Now, in a world - as our company tag line says, "without walls" - what people "do" is how they will be measured and Vista is one way in which they will be connected - dynamically. What "Live" IS is the first dynamic environment - the multipoint destination that models all of that.... Live is NOT/NOT about competing with software as services opposite Google. Live is a place - where all that dynamic joining and un-joining of multiple networks in a safe and controlled way is going to take place... at first...and the services there? tests, models of the connectoids and quarantine areas where advanced Id will be used and systems allowed to connect as necessary - even if they are not fully compliant - meaning, limited connections. Now - the fundamental change is that the barriers to connecting people will disolve and almost over night. Think Xbox Lve "Matching" is just about gaming.... heavens no...it is a low impact, self-funded development environment. Very similar "Matching" will connect people of many diiferent types in many ways - and dynamically - have a need - get Matched and the Vista Client/Server environment leveraging "Live" will support the connection. Need help - of any kind...? turn on Vista, or even a small part of it... and away you go. and that is why Vista was delayed - it is not an OS at all - it is a vehicle within an environment that is entirely virtualized. BTW, I resent the Channel 9 gal, because masking any part of the above in any way - distracting from it - is vulgar to me - not pretty - but ugly - no matter how visually compelling. I guess I should be "big enough" to see past that, but I know this industry and I know it won't look much past its nose. And that scares me..... because the digital divide does not really exist yet.... it will - and be owned by a very few that get it and are hyper-netted. The rest will not have a prayer for a good while. I want "ALL" people to get it and for each of them to have access to that environment. We've already totally re-tooled internally and have been leveraging how that will work and our products reflect that coming world - the environment that Vista will bring. The UI needs to "show" that - not mask it as it so effectively does. The Channel 9 gal doesn't see what it is - though she's been trusted to show what it should look like and that was a mistake. Now....to show I do get the new UI.... Vista server will not have one at all... why? It won't need one... and also, under the way the UI is built.... one can build their own and MS is going to allow that - totally - make it whatever you want it to be - in fact - as apps open, close and are sized - the UI can be made to change with them...entirely and that is the real power of the UI's guts... not one team's interpretation - but what I want it to look like right now... like night mode - day mode - beach mode - blah, blah - that is simple.... try image isolation of a seph graph for an Orthodontist that does predictive correction [moves the jaw, bones, nose, chin, etc... from early on and with just braces - Vista will allow that reference that he/she will need].... That is what narrow minded people need to know and the pundits, editors taken out and assisted by educators to look a little further out. Any way - that is only part of what I can share right now. Was Vista worth the wait? I don't know... was fire? sterile procedures? it's that fundamental. |
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