Microsoft's mantra (or advertising line) for its new operating system, Windows Vista (formerly Windows Longhorn) is 'Confidence, clarity, and connection'. For you and me, that means a promise of greater stability and security within the OS, better graphics throughout and an enhanced ability to share documents and files, including built-in P2P services. The software giant has followed the release of its Beta 1 with monthly interim builds that use coding intended for a future Beta 2 release. Specific features seen in these interim builds may or may not appear in the large-scale Beta 2 release or in the final version of Windows Vista (expected in late 2006). Here's a look at what we've seen thus far.
October 2005
During our hands-on testing of interim version build 5231, which Microsoft officially released to developers on 17 October 2005, we noticed several enhancements in Vista's network connectivity and system integrity, overall audio and multimedia capabilities, a major face-lift for Internet Explorer 7, another preview of Windows Media Player 11 and several overall improvements. As with last month's build 5219, which expanded on the 'clarity' theme, this release expands on the 'confidence and connection' themes. See our slide show of build 5231 for a detailed look inside this release.
Diagnostics
Under 'confidence', Microsoft is touting Vista's ability to ward off potential problems in the future as well as recover quickly from disasters.
Windows Vista Memory Diagnostics, a collection of tools, can detect and automatically resolve problems associated with defective physical memory. Windows Vista Disk Diagnostics, another set of tools, monitors the health of the hard drive and can proactively warn of impending disk drive failure, allowing users to backup their data and replace defective hardware before the situation turns critical.
Network diagnostics tools will analyse connectivity and network access issues and either resolve them or provide the end user with the next steps towards resolution. A new Windows Vista Network Center replaces My Network Places and My Network Neighborhood with a hub for managing computers and devices on a local network.
Also in this release, we saw more reliable transitions in and out of sleep on our notebook, giving us greater confidence when we closed the system's lid. According to Microsoft, this was accomplished by eliminating the chance for applications, services and drivers to veto or block changes in system power states.
Collaboration
For the 'connection' part of the Windows Vista motto, Microsoft wants to make connecting to a variety of devices faster, easier and more secure and simplify the synchronisation of data among devices.
To that end, build 5231 of Windows Vista provides a new Windows Mobility Center, including the tools to adjust display brightness, power plans, volume control among applications, plus wireless, synchronisation and presentation status.
Sharing files and folder contents (peer-to-peer technology) is easier in this build of Windows Vista, which includes the ability to create email with embedded links pointing to shared content. And this build of Vista includes the Microsoft XPS Document Writer, allowing you to convert any on-screen document into XPS Document format, which can be digitally signed to ensure that no-one has tampered with the contents in transit.
Internet Explorer for Windows Vista
Although we got a taste of the new IE in last month's build, Internet Explorer 7 for Windows Vista includes new security and interface features.
IE 7 for Windows Vista includes a Phishing Filter to protect against malicious Web sites, ActiveX Opt-In reduces the likelihood of potential ActiveX attacks, while a new Protected Mode safeguards users against the silent installation of malicious code. There are also new parental controls and a redesigned Favorites Center to provide quick access to History, RSS and saved Favorites.
The interface changes include Quick Tabs (thumbnails of each open tab for quick reference), Tab Groups (the ability to save groups of tabs), Page Zoom, which magnifies any part of any Web page and Advanced Printing, which shrinks output to fit on your printer's chosen paper size.
Features previewed but not yet ready in build 5231Within this build is a new Windows Media Player with program controls prominently displayed, à la QuickTime, with the right-hand margin providing additional information about the track currently playing.
We also saw a new Migration Wizard for transferring the data from one hard drive to another, a new Power Management Center for better notebook control and even a new Windows calendar.
