Windows Vista - Beta 2........November

Quote:

THE NEXT VERSION of the Vole's highly anticipated operating system is expected in November. It won't speed up introduction of this system but it at least means that we are one step closer to the Q4 2006 introduction.
New beta version of Longhorn aka Vista will have its graphic component a little bit readier than before as it's already time to start working on a user interface and the gaming part of the API. Both Nvidia and ATI are working on Vista drivers, and once this operating system is out, people will be able to see that last year's decision by ATI to start using frameworks was not a bad idea after all.

All Vista drivers will need frameworks, as this is something what Microsoft demanded, it was not a choice, it was an order.

Graphic companies have to start playing with Aero glass and all the other Mac OS looking visual effect features in Vista and therefore the Beta will get them even more functionality and bug fixes as well.

When it's done, Vista will have fully functional DirectX 10 inside but we suspect that some of the next betas might use DirectX 9.0L, the one that features Shader model 4.0 but we can not confirm or deny this yet.

After Beta 2 there is always Beta 3, possibly even a couple of Release candidates and it will sure take times to get the final retail product. Well, Windows XP with Service pack 2 is not bad at all at least when it comes to gaming and word processing.

Liam

Update:

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New features include WMP11, new build of IE7, some changes to the GUI also, such as the Start bar is clearer than in the previous build, and new Audio features.

Liam

Plus:

Vista Beta 2 is scheduled to launch sometime in November. While that might be a fair bit ahead in time, there are a number of new features that have been added to Windows Vista since the Beta 1 build. In this article, we will briefly discuss the integration in Windows Vista and where Microsoft is headed in its journey towards releasing its much-delayed "Revolutionary" OS.

At the recent PDC, Microsoft started a new way of launching software, and we aren’t complaining. The deal is that it will showcase a monthly update to Vista, which would show progress from the last month in terms of added functionality, features, and graphics (in addition to additional functionality). This is an excellent method as it allows Microsoft to gauge developer mood as well as check out how well the features are received overall.

First Boot Changes: To begin with, the first thing you’ll notice when you start up Vista build 5129 is that the taskbar is now slightly translucent, changed from the opaque, chunky black object in Beta 1. Whether this is a optimistic sign depends on how much you can pay for the hardware, but if you are a casual buyer and don’t have the budget, you will probably not be able to afford the hardware you’ll need for all this to run smoothly (we won’t even get into Running NAV alongside) and will end up turning this off. If you do run it, however, it looks fairly sleek.

Next up is an interesting feature that Microsoft has integrated to increase the usability of the operating system. If you hover over a minimized window in the taskbar, you get a small pop up window showcasing the contents before the window enlarges to full size. Of course, when you have multiple windows grouped, you get a stack of pop-ups, so there is an upside and downside to this feature.

Expose For Windows? The best feature that Vista has gotten now is something similar to Apple’s Expose, however, you will need to use two keys in addition to the fact that you can’t see the window contents completely (like you can in Mac). What does happen is that hitting the Win + Spacebar gives you a tilted stack of windows; thereby, letting you see the contents from one side. We wish they had copied Expose completely instead of resorting to such clever imitations because glossy as this option looks; it’s far less functional

Sidebar is in, so are Gadgets: Before the launch of Vista Beta 1, all Longhorn transformation packs featured a sidebar, although Beta 1 did not have it. However, that has been nicely fixed and it seems Beta 2 will indeed have it, and it will also support a concept called Gadgets, which is basically a Windows version of Apple’s Dashboard and Widgets. The Sidebar displays images (much like Google Desktop), news, RSS feeds and much more, in return making it a very powerful built-in program. We can already see companies dashing to courts to slam another antitrust complaint against Microsoft. The biggest losers here, if the sidebar gadget works out, would be all those who came out with similar software you had to install separately (namely Google and Yahoo).

Games: If you think Solitaire and Microsoft Hearts are as good as bundled games will get… think again! Vista will have a slew of new games from 3D Chess to Shanghai, one of the most addictive games we’ve ever played, plus the standard games which have gone through a massive face lift, even gray and boring Minesweeper has suddenly become chic and colorful. The gray has disappeared and has been replaced by an attractive electric blue.

Productivity: There have been some small additions to the default productivity applications bundled previously. It seems Microsoft has taken the Windows and Apple OS comparisons to heart and done serious re-working on its default applications. You now get an overhauled Windows Backup (codenamed SafeDocs) which lets you schedule backups to different drives, including CDs and DVDs, find files in unlabelled drives, and of course, automatically backup/restore data.

The better feature here is an integrated Shadow Copy Client, which can be enabled from the HDD’s Properties dialog box. The concept is that the OS caches older versions of your files, so if an important file gets corrupted, or gets overwritten with an unfinished version, you simply go to the file’s properties and choose the needed version from the Previous Versions pane. You get multiple versions that you can restore from, which make this feature a handy tool for human errors.

Super Fetch: Remember that bulky Pre-Fetch directory that stored all your frequently used applications to load them quickly? Vista takes this to the next level by letting you put this Fetch folder on a removable drive. For instance, if you have a 1GB flash drive (size can vary), you can plainly plug it in and increase your available Fetch memory. It’s a great feature that should free up lots of HDD and RAM space.

A plethora of options, like the start menu, driver compatibility and hardware support are still as abysmal as before, but that is not really a fair expectation as a lot can and will change before the final release around Christmas 2006.

Software compatibility is usable at best. Applications such as Office, Firefox, Winamp etcetera run just fine, but try using an obscure application that not too many people have heard of and most likely, Vista will not support it. We still can’t find any specifics on Blu-Ray and HD-DVD support in this build but going by the recent announcements, by the time Beta 2 is launched in November, we just might find Vista supporting HD-DVD natively.

So far, the only revolutionary aspect (and that too only for Windows users) about Microsoft’s next generation OS is its great user interface. On the other hand, however, it has fairly revolting hardware requirements and is surely not for the faint hearted.

Liam