Windows Vista Beta 1 Notes
It's almost 4 AM here and I'm still up. Am I hardcore or insane? I'll let you be the judge because I already know the truth...ouch! Anywho, this is extremely crude (since I'm short on time), but after installing Beta 1 and just playing with it like any consumer would for a few hours and taking down everything that I notice (bugs, new features, removed features, changes from XP, things I think are cool, etc) and even a few screen shots from some of the things I've been writing down and the follow is what I came up with. I'm sorry it's so crude (this is just copy/paste from notepad and print screens from paint), but I've got to get to bed...you understand! :P
Install
-Microsoft Bluetooth Mouse doesn't work for setup (I'm sure it will work in later builds)
-In the future it would be nice if bluetooth device installation were part of the final start-up process so you can at least use the device instead of being screwed.
-When creating a new partition there is no indication that it's working on building the new partition except for my hard drive light blinking periodically. Would be nice to see a wait cursor or something to let me know it's working.
-Glad to see the entire installation process can be done with just a keyboard now (early Alphas had some "issues")
-I like that there are only two steps to get it installing
-Not sure why the installation is even laid out into two steps. What's the point of steps if there's only two? Why not just say at the beginning that we need to collect some information before installation can begin. Then installation just begins and goes from there with the progress bar.
-Pet Peeve: Completing installation screen should not use the poor man's progress bar (progress bar moves at a set and constant rate and starts over in a loop until windows is done). I know this is a beta, just saying... ;)
-Total installation time was approximately 2 hours...not bad.
Windows
-Pretty dialog movement (zooms in and out [kind of mac'ish])
-Sound didn't install (to be expected)
-Switching to 1600x1200 on my nVidia GeForce FX 5200 gave a blue screen of death
-Tooltips seem to be a bit smarter and sort of move out of the way. Might be nice if they could be transparent.
-Impressed that it already showed my batter backup that's connected via USB and it's status. XP never did that.
-Bluetooth device wizard has some bug still that XP did where you can't tab to the device selection box once the device is found. This is crucial if you don't have a mouse hooked up at all other than your bluetooth mouse that you're trying to add.
-The Aero skin is very cool
-The transparent bar and border do a neat effect with bluring what's behind it like plastic. It's even more transparent towards the center than the edges.
-Rollover is cool for window buttons (LED glow effect)
-dropshadow
-Shell acts like a browser and shows that it's "loading" in the address bar
-MSN Desktop Search appears to have become Windows Search (looks very similar)
-Presentation Mode in System Tray
-Broadcast a Presentation (doesn't work, what a tease)
-Close Button for window is bigger than minimize and maximize
-Display Properties -> Desktop Tab -> Background -> Position is automatic now
-Search in start bar
-UAP (Allows you to run under a non-administrative account all the time, then when administrative privelages are needed, it will prompt you for the password...very cool)
-Neat Categorizations (True the day of folders is ending for Windows users, but why call them virtual folders? Is my mom going to understand what that is?)
-Auxiliary Display? Huh?
-Sync Manager
-Parental Control
-Programs (Manage the programs on your machine, updates, etc)
-Solutions to Problems (Manage History of Problems, check up on resolutions, etc)
-Windows Backup
-Notepad gets a new icon!
-Pretty fast for the most part
-All Programs fills up start window instead of a popup menu and adds a back button (great!) The idea of browsing around for what you want is taking over everywhere.
-Can't resolve computers on my local network (possibly related to default settings of windows firewall? Strangely, if I expand "Network" while in an open dialog or other shell locations, I can see the computers on my network that doing a simple ping on, doesn't resolve)
-Remote Desktop confirms that you trust the source you're connecting to and allows you to not allow the remote computer access to your clipboard
-Remote Desktop functions pretty much the same except that your cursor is black instead of white
-Delete file dialog gives you more information and an image preview of what you're deleting if you're only deleting one item
-Keywords on pictures and keyword filtering...very awesome for categorizing your stuff
-New options under customize start menu
-Highlight newly installed programs
-Network (although clicking on this option brings up a blank shell)
-Open submenus when I pause on them with the mouse pointer
-Set Program Access and Defaults
-Sort All Programs menu by name
-Fantastic new file copy dialog
-Open/Save dialogs are now just modal dialog explorer windows (resizable, woohoo, file type dropdown off to the side, all files shown and currently selected file types are highlighted, instead of side bar like in XP for common locations, there's a common locations folder)
-Image Preview (for say a jpg saved on your desktop) shows the exact size and shape (like Photoshop)
-Why isn't timezone selection in setup anymore?
-"My" is completely gone (now called, Computer, Network, Documents)
-You can now have Control Panel show up on your desktop
-Pretty neat that clicking on the separating line of a group in the shell selects all the items in that group
-Trying to run "setup a home or small office network" results in this error...RunDLL, Error loading hnetwiz.dll, The specified module could not be found
-BUG: The top left corner of a window (when maximized) does not activate the window dropdown like in every version of windows before. The Closing "X" isn't in the top right either and it really should be.
-Modal dialog resize problem...When a modal dialog is resized, such as clicking the more options button on the IE Security dialog, the window goes through it's fading in animation again instead of just resizing. Same thing with installation wizards on every step. I understand why it's happening (it must be a whole new window), but there either needs to be a fix for this or some way for developers to get around it.
-Passport setup dialog appears to work (correctly, unlike the above mentioned wizards). It also doesn't show the back button by the next button, but instead shows a browser back button in the top left hand side of the dialog)
-Tab order is messed up on passport setup login dialog (using tab never gets to the password field...apparently it didn't really save my password either because it told me my password was blank, but after entering it again, went in fine)
IE 7.0
-Home & End keys don't work in address bar
-MSN Search bar in IE (cool, even lets you use other search engines and add your own)
-Tabbed Browsing (never really cared for the feature, but it seems really interesting. Has a little blank tab you can click to bring up a new tab...nice! New tab brings up blank page and not home page...this is very good! Ctrl+T for new tab...now if I could only drag them and change their order, i'd be set)
-Feed button is there, but nothing like what was demo'd on the channel 9 video. Better luck next beta!
-No more dropdown on back and foward button, just one dropdown that shows the history for the current browser life
-Tools -> Delete Browsing History (All in one shabang...great!)
-IE Team blog in favorites by default, but it just takes you to the RSS feed...wth?
-Funky full screen bugs when you bring it out of full screen mode the top toolbar is double in height
-Weblogs.asp.net New Post Text Editor does not function at all in IE 7
-new progress bar in status bar is neat, but a little distracting
-css support looks good so far, but i haven't actually tested anything, other than running a couple sites to see
Images