brucebeh Posted July 28, 2005 Share Posted July 28, 2005 (edited) EDIT - sorry, the screenshots are all over the place.. for the original post, check out http://swifthostnet.com/forum/index.php?topic=491.0 Well.. before I start.. I have to say.. I obtained the software legally, so please do not post here asking where to download it etc. And.. yes this is my very first review... so its probably lacking lots of things and most of the review is just my rant. Installation: Installing was a breeze, you only need to type in your product key, choose some hard drive partition settings and that's basically it. However, I have to say it took a long time to install, I don't know if its because I'm installing it on my super old hard drive, or if it really is a pain... I waited almost 2 hours for Windows Vista to completely finish installing. The install process was very boring, maybe its because this is the beta version, there's nothing for you to read or look at while its installing, just a green bar on the bottom with its fake progress.. the reason i say its fake its because it keeps filling itself up and empties itself.. basically you can't tell how much is left by looking at the progress bar. First Starting Up Experience.. The first thing I saw when Vista finally started up was a very nice logging on screen, now, there are some things I find really funny, when Vista is logging on, it saids, "Waiting for xxx Service", almost as if Vista is a person himself? I just found it kinda weird for it to say Waiting instead of Loading.. Anyhow, looking at the UI was a shock.. because first of all, I did not expect a completely BLACK taskbar and very ugly large desktop icons.. they honestly look like they were copied from some 12 yeard old that played with photoshop. The first thing I did was obviously open up Internet Explorer 7 which I must say is not bad at all, its a completely new experience.... Internet Explorer 7 I should say, I downloaded IE7 for XP as well but I haven't even ran it yet, after switching my HD back to XP I'll give it a shot and see if its the same as the Vista one. The best thing about IE7 is tabbed browsing which I think is a complete copy from FireFox, there's also a search bar on the right of the address bar which is ALSO a copy from FireFox. Open a new tab from middle mous click on a link is also another copy. Basically, IE7 is what FireFox users wanted in Internet Explorer. I managed to crash IE 7 lots of times by installing the snagit plugin, so I had to uninstall that or I wasn't even able to run IE 7 at all. Definitely worth the upgrade from IE 6, or whatever version Microsoft is on right now. No more "My" If you've noticed.. there's no more, My Documents, My computer, My pictures, etc. They are all just, Documents, Pictures, Computer, Videos, etc. Good move? I don't know.. i've gotten so use to MY everything, its really weird to see just Documents, Pictures, etc. Especially Computer, I keep clicking on Games which is right on top of it, because GAMES was never in the startmenu, which I think is VERY pointless. Who really plays that much of the games that Windows came with anyways? I don't think it needs to be pinned on the start menu. Start Menu The start menu looks really clogged up and too big for my liking, it takes up too much of the screen's space when you open it, and the WORST part is, clicking on ALL PROGRAMS, no longer extends another menu, its crammed into a small box that's inside the start menu itself and it makes finding things REALLY hard and difficult, that's probably why Microsoft included a very ugly search box on the start menu to search for things in the start menu (whats the point?!?! you can't use the search for ANYTHING ELSE!! jUST THE FREAKIN START MENU!) *check screenshots.. it looks REALLY UGLY!!!* Windows Explorer, or "Computer" Well, the visual appeal is awesome! It makes me like Windows all over, well not really, but the re-designed graphics and the famous XP green progress bar looks a LOT better, its animated now and just looks more.. modern. It sorta feels like you're on a mac, and I like that.. although some mac fanboys may hate me for saying this.. but Microsoft actually did a good job in copying apple. Navigating through the folders are really easy (if you get use to it), and once again, looks VERY visually appealing. New Features The new feature that caught me most was Windows Search Indexing "thing" that they had on XP, for Windows XP, the default is off.. but on Vista the default was on.. which I really don't like, I think they are trying to copy Tiger's Spotlight feature and have indexing on all the time so finding files would be really easy, but if you have a loud hard drive like the one I am on now, it really gets on your nerves, so I decided to turn that off. Another new feature is PARENTAL CONTROLS, yes.. parents can now limit the games their kids play by setting the MSRB rating their kids can install/open, so if their kids try installing San Andreas, it will probably give them a nasty error, I haven't tried this feature because I didn't feel like making another account and installing San Andreas on it. The Control Panel has all new re-designed icons.. basically the entire OS has new re-designed icons that look a LOT better on the eyes and just work better. Another thing about the CP is that its now split into so many fricken categories its REALLY hard to find something especially since most of the time you're on the computer, you're not in the control panel, but thankfully, they still have the classic view avaibale for those like me. Added Thoughts.. (keeps growing) Added July 28th: Right when I was going to shut down lovely Vista, and use my Windows XP again, I noticed Vista now has a shutdown counter, just like the mac does.. but the counter only counts for 30 seconds where as the mac is 100+ seconds. Great job copying.. I never knew why you needed to wait 100+ seconds till your mac shuts down. Added July 28th: RANT, Why on earth does Windows Media Player need 3 album art pictures?! I think we get the point the song is by Mozart after the first big picture. Added July 28th: Restarts take forever, it gets out of your user profile pretty quickly, but it takes at least a minute or two while it shuts down all the other windows services, its a big pain in the ass since no one likes restarts already. Added July 28th: So far, AIM is the only program that won't install for me, also just a note, and I don't know if its just me, when you got o Control Panel, use classic view, then admin tools, when you click on Scheduled tasks from there, it doesn't open and slows down your computer to a crawl, you have to open up taskman and end process mmc.exe. Anyone else getting this? Added August 7th: Finally got a LDDM compatible card and I must say aero glass looks fairly decent... what caught me most is the new effects for opening and closing windows.. looks like a direct copy from mac. check out dl: https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?show...#entry586340590 Overall thoughts EDIT: Removed my super biased opinions :D Enjoy some screenshots! Edit: Okay.. I'm using imageshack to host these.. its too slow. Edited August 7, 2005 by brucebeh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brucebeh Posted July 28, 2005 Author Share Posted July 28, 2005 More screenshots.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brucebeh Posted July 28, 2005 Author Share Posted July 28, 2005 and more... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deathray Posted July 28, 2005 Share Posted July 28, 2005 What an unbiased review :p It looks great in screenshots... but what about those NDA fears? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brucebeh Posted July 28, 2005 Author Share Posted July 28, 2005 sorry mods... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brucebeh Posted July 28, 2005 Author Share Posted July 28, 2005 last bit.. i promise! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LPC Posted July 28, 2005 Share Posted July 28, 2005 Nice and easy to read, just kicked my MSDE download of it off now. What I'm interested in, is is it stable enough to run as your main OS yet ? :). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mx Posted July 28, 2005 Share Posted July 28, 2005 The NDA isn't really enforced. brucebeh you aren't running aero glass? Can't your machine handle it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deathray Posted July 28, 2005 Share Posted July 28, 2005 Oh i forgot... Bootup speeds... someone else said it's blazing fast, can you confirm this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trek Posted July 28, 2005 Share Posted July 28, 2005 What graphics card are you using? I see you dont have the glass effect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brucebeh Posted July 28, 2005 Author Share Posted July 28, 2005 my video card can't.. geforce 4 mx 440.. 64mb ram :( ALTHOUGH.. it runs really fast under that.. even with the visual effects on, EXCEPT aero glass. It is overall fairly stable.. BUT... IE 7 isn't.. its crashed at least 5 times for me, and at the most random times, it crashed 2 times while I was trying to post this on neowin and on the other msg board. EDIT: Blazingly fast? I wouldn't call it BLAZINGLY fast.. but its faster than windows xp.. just by a little.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mystical112 Posted July 28, 2005 Share Posted July 28, 2005 thx for the review and the screenshots looks good... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brucebeh Posted July 28, 2005 Author Share Posted July 28, 2005 What an unbiased review :pIt looks great in screenshots... but what about those NDA fears? 586284617[/snapback] shhh.. nda is just a way to scare people. Plus.. microsoft can take the images down anytime, its not like they will raid my house like the RIAA :rofl: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
srizo Posted July 28, 2005 Share Posted July 28, 2005 how do u turn on the glass effect? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
windowsvista Posted July 28, 2005 Share Posted July 28, 2005 thanks for your kind sharing..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viciv Posted July 28, 2005 Share Posted July 28, 2005 really nice.. downloading.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NienorGT Posted July 28, 2005 Share Posted July 28, 2005 A quick shot of sys prop screen? [Win Key] + [Pause] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_snitch Posted July 28, 2005 Share Posted July 28, 2005 not really likeing the tabs in IE7 :s Why did ms have to go and put the tabs in such a weird place... kudos for finally doing it though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neostyle Posted July 28, 2005 Share Posted July 28, 2005 (edited) juding from the screenshots i have seen : ok its a nice look (aero glass ) but why is everything so cluttered ? the startmenu , the folders etc ... everything looks a bit of confusing to me btw : forgot to ask . is this the classic theme u are running ? Edited July 28, 2005 by neostyle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wicker_man Posted July 28, 2005 Share Posted July 28, 2005 Just my 2 cents: 1. I like the reported speed improvement factor. Or is it just some TweakUI-like functionality implemented by default? (i.e. does the system feel more responsive overall or just the menu type things?) 2. WTF is up with the start menu? Don't they have designers there who take human factor into the account? How the hell an average Joe would be able to find his newly installed program on it and how long would it take for him to do that? Yes, I am talking about an AVERAGE Joe here, hope you'll understand. 3. How about program install? Does it prompt you for a password like *nix OSes or just goes ahead with it since you are an administrator? 4. IE improvements are definitely good, they would increase usability and create less clutter on a desktop for users. But what's up with the crashes? 5. I think there's quite a bit of screen space laid to waste - all them 'information'-type bars that take up huge amount of window space, etc. And considering that an overwhelming majority of users run their systems with 1024x768 resolution, how much window scrolling would be needed to find a file? 6. Everyone seems to be mesmerized by the glass look of windows. How about them fugly 16-bit icons that you see in Administrative Tools in the fugly start menu? Seems like they are some kind of Win95 legacy. 7. Parental controls are a good thing. *. No word about the DRM crap yet - will wait on that one. Well, as you can see, I've got some good and some bad points for me. As of NOW, I don't see too much reason to upgrade, if that. Hopefully the final version will be a big improvement from this. For me personally, the looks are almost nothing, I prefer the usability over that, which I don't see in the current Beta. On the contrary, it seems like a challenge when it comes to the speed of work and finding something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brucebeh Posted July 28, 2005 Author Share Posted July 28, 2005 This is gonna be tough but I'll try to the best of my abilities answer the questions.... btw : forgot to ask . is this the classic theme u are running ? Classic Theme? No way, that's the "Aero" theme that comes with Vista Beta 1, its the only theme available, other than Aero Glass which I didn't have because of my system specs. It does look a little bland in my opinion. A quick shot of sys prop screen?[Win Key] + [Pause] I had that.. but for some reason, that image was over 1mb and imageshack wouldn't let me upload it, I'll make it smaller and upload it again later, when I put my Vista HD back in for more tests. Anymore requests? I'll do them while I'm still playing with this. 1. I like the reported speed improvement factor. Or is it just some TweakUI-like functionality implemented by default? (i.e. does the system feel more responsive overall or just the menu type things?) i've played with tweak-ui a little, but I'm not too experienced with it, so I don't know if its just tweak-ui defaults.. but overall, the system does definitely feel more responsive, no slowdowns, or random pauses yet. Basically, it just seems like you have a faster computer when you dont. Or should I say, more ram? 3. How about program install? Does it prompt you for a password like *nix OSes or just goes ahead with it since you are an administrator? Nope, no password when you install programs with Administrator, at least not FireFox and Snagit. 5. I think there's quite a bit of screen space laid to waste - all them 'information'-type bars that take up huge amount of window space, etc. And considering that an overwhelming majority of users run their systems with 1024x768 resolution, how much window scrolling would be needed to find a file? a LOT, and I was running at 1280x1024! Especially if you leave the "preview" panel on, but there's lots of things that you can turn off, which saves lots of space, and the really nifty feautre is you can adjust how big you want your icons to be, its in one of the screenshots, there's a sliding bar tool which adjusts how your icons are displayed, so it will be easier to find something. I think what Microsoft is trying to do is force people to use the Search feature more, hence the reason for default indexing and search bars literally EVERYWHERE. 6. Everyone seems to be mesmerized by the glass look of windows. How about them fugly 16-bit icons that you see in Administrative Tools in the fugly start menu? Seems like they are some kind of Win95 legacy. No worries about those, Microsoft said they will re-design EVERY icon in longhorn, for now, they are just using them to fill up space, there's lots of icons right now that aren't even edited properly yet, lots of them don't have proper transparency and looks pretty ugly. Like I said already.. its not that big of a difference.. maybe its got a nicer UI and runs a little faster, but from the Beta 1, Vista is looking like its going to be another ME. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tempaccount Posted July 28, 2005 Share Posted July 28, 2005 updated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brucebeh Posted August 7, 2005 Author Share Posted August 7, 2005 I know this is a VERY old thread now.. but I just wanted to update this with a brand new screenshot of vista glass since i managed to get a new video card. AND... I haven't seen these yet.. and hopefully i dont get in trouble for this.. but here's a video showing the new effects from vista. http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=S4010021-1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Os1r1s Posted August 7, 2005 Share Posted August 7, 2005 Oh i forgot... Bootup speeds... someone else said it's blazing fast, can you confirm this? 586284634[/snapback] Not really blazing fast ..but fast ... the bootdown time makes up for that though ... it is slow as hell! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 7, 2005 Share Posted August 7, 2005 here's 5 more videos taken within Windows Vista beta 1. (Done with a program called camstudio). I think these videos (at least the AVI's) show vista in action quite well, perhaps even better than the video posted above (hey i'm biased of course, i did em ;-) ) There are two types of each of the 5 videos, large (AVI - full details) and modem friendly (WMV, loss of detail, smaller...), so if you have fast broadband go ahead and download the AVI's for the full experience, otherwise, have a look at the wmv's all 5 (or 10...) videos are here http://video.linux-noob.com/ details of same below:- cheers anyweb Big.avi Lh5112 (beta 1). 77.69MB (1.12 minutes viewing). Showing tabs in IE7, winver, cmd prompt, alt_tab, media player, power management options. 56k Modem friendly WMV version here (1.01MB) Big.wmv Large.avi Lh5112 (beta 1). 52.56MB (0.59 minutes viewing). Showing Explorer copying a local file in real time, start menu and games folder. 56k Modem friendly WMV version here (466KB) large.wmv Small.avi Lh5112 (beta 1). 12.01MB (0.59 minutes viewing). Showing tabs in IE7, refreshing a website in IE7, cmd prompt, etc. 56k Modem friendly WMV version here (612KB) small.wmv Tabs.avi Lh5112 (beta 1). 17.93MB (0.19 minutes viewing). Showing IE7 starting, creating a new tab. 56k Modem friendly WMV version here (216KB) tabs.wmv Winver.avi Lh5112 (beta 1). 23.17MB (0.18 minutes viewing). Showing winver. 56k Modem friendly WMV version here (173KB) winver.wmv Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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