Windows Vista

[chrispinto]

Okay. I've had it installed now for 36 hours, and have played with it soemwhat exhaustively, i can give a proper review so far as to the new look, and a few of the new features.

First off, we have:

Aero Glass

Aero Glass is the new Visual theme. Now, not everyone will be able to run this, but a large amount of people will. Its worth noting that Aero has 4 themes. Standard, Express, Glass, and Extreme. Extreme isnt currently implemented, because, quite simply, only one graphics card can handle it (7800GTX) So that wont appear until beta 2 at earliest, when more 7xxx series cards appear. Im focusing on Aero Glass, because this is the current "Top Notch" visual experience when it comes to Vista at present, bettered only slightly by extreme's ability to res things even quicker (not that its slow by any means.

So, here's a screenshot of Aero Glass in action:

CLICK ---> http://www.utterlyridiculous.co.uk/vistasc...s/aeroglass.PNG

As you can see, the titlebars are transparent, this is what the "glass" part of aero is all about, transparency. It's not going to suit everyone, but it will be what you all see in a fresh install, and will be the most common desktop visual style. On top of that, there is the new "effects" for minimise and maximise but lets just say...it looks very very cool, and miles better than XP. - Its also worth noting, that all these fancy visual effects are generated solely by your Graphics Card's GPU, no CPU overheads at all, leaving you with a much faster navigation experience... and so far, my experience with Vista is that its faster than XP.

Next we have:

Control Panel

We all have to visit control panel at some point or another, so this is how it shapes up under Vista.

A bit different, and new options, but really its just the "look" thats changed here, and for those that use "Classic" control panel, it now looks like this: (you need to click this one, its a bit big)

CLICK --->http://www.utterlyridiculous.co.uk/vistasc...anelclassic.PNG

Lets have a look at Windows Explorer:

As you can see, this has changed quite a bit since XP, which has pretty much been the same since Windows 98 (and possibly 95, i really cant remember). You should also note the "Public" folder down the left side, and the lack of "My Everything". Microsoft have decided to get rid of the "My" moniker, and just name everything "Pictures, Music, Documents" etc. This isnt such a big deal, but i do feel this could confuse newbie users used to XP's "My" structure. But we'll all adapt i suppose, just like some of us did when Windows 3.1 turned into Windows 95. Navigation is still simple as before, it just looks better, and presents new ways of navigating, like the option to find things via "Author", by a "Rating" and by "Document type" amongst other options.

There are many other things included in this release of Vista beta 1, like Speech Engine, which ultimately, will let you control windows via voice (not sure how many people will actually use this though) However, due to Vista not allowing me to install my soundcard (the only bit of hardware i have it WONT install, btw) I cant test out this feature. There's also a new system called "Games Explorer" which has ALL your games in one place, along with content rating (ESRB Age Rating) and when you last played etc. I'll screenshot this later.

Overall, so far, Vista is promising to be a very very good Operating System to replace XP. I may be a little biased, given i am a tester, but im not, this is my own experience, and it has been a very pleasent one so far. As i find more goodies, i'll post here with screenies where possible.

Roll on beta 2!

Okay! more screenies.

Games

I personally will find this useful, as will anyone with a pile of games installed. As mentioned above, this is a system that stores all your games in one easy to access place, along with ESRB rating, and the ability to "lock" games from play on certain user accounts via "Parental Controls". It looks like this:

Then we have the new...

Computer - Formerly known as "My Computer"

Personally, i think it looks much nicer than the XP "My Computer" but thats just me, some people wont like it... but at the end of the day, who spends hours of time there anyway.

Search

This has been greatly improved in my opinion, and, coupled with the "fast search" system built into vista, should provide a quick and easy searcing solution for those misplaced files.

mp3 files

This is a big image, so you'll need to click this to view:

CLICK ---> http://www.utterlyridiculous.co.uk/vistasc...es/albumart.PNG

I love this, i think its a fantastic idea, and im glad they did it. Its worth noting that other files follow the above image model, like jpeg's etc, providing a view of what the picture is, rather than the standard jpeg logo. But this is for mp3's and i love it.

Smart Tracker

I thought this was a pretty neat idea, and i wonder why this wasnt built into sp2. Any application you install, that "takes over" association of files will bring up this prompt. Very handy indeed.

And finally, we have the transition effect of animation when you maximise or minimise an application (as discussed above). Again, this file is big, so you'll need to click to view. CLICK ---> http://www.utterlyridiculous.co.uk/vistasc...es/effects2.PNG

Thats all for now

Edited July 30, 2005 by chrispinto

[Code.Red]

Nice review, does anyone have an idea what is different in Aero Extreme?

[chrispinto]

Nice review, does anyone have an idea what is different in Aero Extreme?

586296379[/snapback]

Not until beta 2 im afraid... though there is no guarantee it'll ever make it... but it is a rumoured feature in the UI subset.

here's a guide though:

Level 1: Aero Standard (Classic Windows) This is the same as Classic mode in Windows XP, and not strictly aero in any shape or form.

Level 2: Aero Express. This is akin to the Windows XP style. It'll be pretty basic but have the new general look and feel.

Level 3: Aero Glass. This will require a decent video card that supports DirectX 9. This will probably be the most common look we'll see with Longhorn initially.

Level 4: Aero "Diamond" (Aero Extreme) This is the ultimate experience and you'll need a pretty good video card (i.e. 128 meg at least with very good LDDM drivers).

Edited July 30, 2005 by chrispinto

[piehouserat]

quality review mate.

[GhostShell]

Well done, nice review.

[Preto]

nice

[vcv]

First I've seen of the smart tracker bit, which is very cool. Thanks.

[chrispinto]

glad you all enjoyed :)

[georgevella]

anyone would like to tell me how to enable aero glass? i can't find any option regarding it in the Desktop/Appearance options.

[chrispinto]

anyone would like to tell me how to enable aero glass? i can't find any option regarding it in the Desktop/Appearance options.

586296736[/snapback]

your card isnt a DX9c compliant card... i short, you cant get glass

[brammes]

Very nice review indeed! It all looks very promising.

[chrispinto]

Very nice review indeed! It all looks very promising.

586296776[/snapback]

thanks dude, i just hope it provides a more... "down to earth" review than the majority of sites and forums

[tazzeh]

Excellent and informative review mate :]

[chrispinto]

@Admins: is there any chance this can be stickied? i'll be updating it fairly regularly

[ninj0r]

I installed the 64-bit version and I have a GeForce 6600 GT and I cannot get Aero Glass. The only option is Standard.

[georgevella]

your card isnt a DX9c compliant card... i  short, you cant get glass

586296742[/snapback]

carp... okay ... no prob :-) soon i should get a new card :-D

ps: has any1 tried to use remote desktop with longhorn? In the RD client i disabled the themes for a lil bit more performance, but when i connected to the other machine (the one running lh) the theme appeared nonethless. dunno if its the way it should work in longhorn (in xp, the theme reverted to classical) - some1 should post a bug

[adamcsays]

Very nice review! Thanks. :yes:

I see the screen shot of the minimize, but what exactly happens? Does it just fade out?

[chrispinto]

Very nice review!  Thanks.  :yes:

I see the screen shot of the minimize, but what exactly happens?  Does it just fade out?

586299148[/snapback]

Yes, it fades in and out, very cool effect

[cropcircles]

I was able to get a few programs installed without any problems. CCleaner and RegSupreme Pro installed with no problems along with bookmark converter. No luck with sound drivers so far. I also noticed a glitch/bug in network connections for the wireless connection. When the icon had the red X over it, instead of being disabled it said it was enabled. I'm connected directly through a LAN. The glass look looks great. I haven't got to that yet, I'll have to check it out. Getting back to the topic. I've had it installed twice and have made a image disk using

Acronis up to the point of installing drivers and software. Its very promising and there is no comparison with 5048.

.... I tried Avast home antivirus and it installed with no errors or conflicts and I was able to update the virus definitions, but it blocked my ability to surf the net?

[chrispinto]

I was able to get a few programs installed without any problems.  CCleaner and RegSupreme Pro installed with no problems along with bookmark converter.  No luck with sound drivers so far.  I also noticed a glitch/bug in network connections for the wireless connection.  When the icon had the red X over it, instead of being disabled it said it was enabled. I'm connected directly through a LAN.  The glass look looks great.  I haven't got to that yet, I'll have to check it out.  Getting back to the topic. I've had it installed twice and have made a image disk using

Acronis up to the point of installing drivers and software.  Its very promising and there is no comparison with 5048.

....  I tried Avast home antivirus and it installed with no errors or conflicts and I was able to update the virus definitions, but it blocked my ability to surf the net?

586301128[/snapback]

Not sure why an A/V would block internet access... curious

[chrispinto]

seems you're not alone in this issue, so ive submitted a bug about it

[sunbiz_3000]

Nice review mate....Im also enjoying Vista's Beta1.... Nice work from MS.....But as a beta tester I would rather want to criticize MS, than just praise them for features they have added. I think we all have to do some constructive critisism rather than just being overawed by the nice beta that they have done !!

So lets clean the slate out and start submitting the bugs !! :woot:

[chrispinto]

Nice review mate....Im also enjoying Vista's Beta1.... Nice work from MS.....But as a beta tester I would rather want to criticize MS, than just praise them for features they have added. I think we all have to do some constructive critisism rather than just being overawed by the nice beta that they have done !!

So lets clean the slate out and start submitting the bugs !! :woot:

586306102[/snapback]

31 bugs submitted by myself so far!

like you say, gotta keep the good with the bad :)

[MrMB]

Wow, I hadn't noticed how well the games explorer actually works. I didn't even install Doom3 just ran it from my old xp partition and here's what appeared in the games explorer.

Cool eh?

[HoochieMamma]

^Wow thats ****ing cool (Y)