First look at my copy of Windows Vista

[StuartD]

I'm actually posting from vista right now... it definitely isn't quite as smooth as I'd like, seems to be programming things. Not performance things.

Anyway, have a look:


The 3D task switcher is cool, but you have to click a button in the quick launch to get it. It would be better if I could map the Alt-Tab to it to use it by default.


Image preview is now more versatile with colour correction, brightness, cropping, resizing and others. Also, you get more info and can set descriptions for them.


The task bar is way more helpful now, by showing thumbnails of what you're working on, and the stacking of similar programs works better too.


The menus are quite different, especially the start menu. But my favorite little handy option is the "Add to QuickLaunch" menu item. That is handy at first.


Explorer is way more intuitive as well... with icons that can go as big or as small as you like... or 'details' view as always. The folder icons actually pan out to show you actual pics, vids, html or what have you coming out. It'll actually show you the first frame of a video in that folder!!
And the information bar along the bottom is very detailed.


The control panel, while WAY better, is also way more complicated. Things are hard to find now, because they've generalized it so much. And getting to some things can require 4 or 5 clicks to get to. But once you do get it, you get some pretty cool results.
This one is a shot of my system specs.

Anyway, that's it for now... I'll have more for you when I have more time

[squishypimp]

holy shit thats nice, i need to check it out

[madawgz]

they are so going in the direction of the macintosh its disgusting

[The Other Steve]

What are the specs of the machine you're running it on Stuart?

edit: ah - now I see the final picture

[surfer on acid]

looks pretty cool

[StuartD]

What are the specs of the machine you're running it on Stuart?

You can see the main specs in the last pic there... but other info, I have a GeForce 7800 video card, a 10k rpm 80gig SATA drive and two 120 gig ide drives. I installed Vista onto one of the ide drives simply because I am not brave enough to wipe out my copy of XP on the SATA drive quite yet.
I'm running this as a dual boot.

Hm... what other specs would you like to know?

[The Other Steve]

Thanks for that Stuart - I was talking to a guy down at the computer shop who was trying to run it with 512 of RAM - he didn't quite understand why it took so long to do anything

[martinsc]

i love my vista... i am using it since the first alpha release

[StuartD]

Thanks for that Stuart - I was talking to a guy down at the computer shop who was trying to run it with 512 of RAM - he didn't quite understand why it took so long to do anything

hahaha... yeah, it's not for the weaker systems. Infact, when you first install Vista, it looks like a skinned version of XP for the most part, even on my system.

And does it ask you to change it or run anything? Nope.

So what you have to do is track down the "Windows Experience Index" thingy which does a thorough test of your system and THEN it will throw in the transparencies and 3D's and other little fancy things depending on how well your system stacks up.

At first I was like "WTF? This doesn't look THAT different." until I found that and ran it. Now everything is much more slick.

But like XP, you can turn on and off each of the effects, which will mean better performance.

[fallenmuffin]

That's pretty slick and I bet it's a HUGE install 2GB+... XP is 1GB.

Their shit is so heavy they need to start fresh and spend the next 10 years doing everything over.

[johnny o]

looks pretty groovy

[Twisted Dave]

PLEASE take that HIDEOUS background off! Just a blank blue or something Would be easier to see the details of Vista Thanks

[tranza]

Looks pretty cool. I'll wait a few more months before I get mine.

[leedsfan]

looks pretty groovy. I looked through the demo they had on the windows site. I was surprised to see how much they had ripped off safari. That is until i saw the upcoming zune product. Then i just fucking laughed...

[StuartD]

PLEASE take that HIDEOUS background off! Just a blank blue or something Would be easier to see the details of Vista Thanks

I put it on there to give people a better idea of the transparency... otherwise it would just look like the programs have a blue border

[Dvae]

they are so going in the direction of the macintosh its disgusting

You say that like its a bad thing.
Its nothing new, they've always done that!
It should not surprise you. Microsoft has never had an original idea.

There still only a wannabe at best.

[Vitasoy]

If I use it, I'll swtich to windows classic

[Solid Bob]

You say that like its a bad thing.
Its nothing new, they've always done that!
It should not surprise you. Microsoft has never had an original idea.

There still only a wannabe at best.

Why worry about innovating when you can just let someone else do it, steal it, and make 100 times the money?

[chaze]

holy shit thats nice, i need to check it out

Seriously that looks sweet.

[Rankings]

Rolex or one of the other watch companies should have tried an bought rights to sponsor the clock in the top right corner. I could not imagine the cost of that sponsorship, but it would have been hot.

[Ace_luffy]

Microsoft always steal an idea on MAC OS...

damn it's like a MAC OS.... in different skin only.............

[OG LennyT]

I run Vista with the Win 3.11 skin - suhweeet

[StuartD]

LONDON--Bob Gleichauf, the chief technology officer in Cisco Systems' security technology group, has raised concerns that integrating Vista into a complex IT infrastructure could present problems.

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6...ml?tag=nl.e589

[wdsguy]

thanks for the first look.

[buddyjuf]

Im afraid what vista might do to my laptops battery life

[squishypimp]

when is the official release date of it?

[StuartD]

when is the official release date of it?

Not until May I do believe... or at least, that's when these free product keys are good until.

[Violetta]

Looking pretty slick I must say!

[beta-tester]

Yep, Vista looks really cool!
I've got RC1 after its release and I am pretty happy with it...pretty neat and nice!

[Dvae]

.

[woj]

pretty neat, but I doubt I'll be buying it..

[GrouchyAdmin]

It's like someone took all of the eyecandy that Sun was demonstrating in 2002, wrapped it up in MacOS X, and shit it out in a piss-poor means that only a way SGI could, prior.

Good to know that a 2.5Ghz dual core system with 2GB can be brought to it's knees with a painfully bad WinG API. Truly a revolution of pointless eyecandy.

[donross]

wow.. what a nice specs you have there...

[tranza]

.

Lolololololol....

[flashfire]

looks nice, dont really see the point to switch though

[ronbotx]

I would like how well it takes advantage of "Dual Core systems".

I've been looking at some of Dell's new AMD Athlon systems and debating whether I wanted a fast single processor or a dual core one. So few apps seem to take advantage of the dual core.

Any thoughts?

[Dwreck]

Thanks for putting the time in effort in that Stuartd. I admit im not the most techy person at times or rather up to date on current software improvements so may I ask where can one download it and check it out..... wow i take back... that google search thing works wonders. LOL Nevermind

[Sosa]

that looks pretty badass

[Grapesoda]

Microsoft always steal an idea on MAC OS...

damn it's like a MAC OS.... in different skin only.............

yep just like GM ripped off ford by using 4 wheels on cars . . those fucking thievs

[GatorB]

Not until May I do believe... or at least, that's when these free product keys are good until.

Actually January

[GatorB]

LONDON--Bob Gleichauf, the chief technology officer in Cisco Systems' security technology group, has raised concerns that integrating Vista into a complex IT infrastructure could present problems.

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6...ml?tag=nl.e589

Cisco huh? Not like they would have an agenda for saying things like that. Besides Cisco complaining about somebody else having security issues?

[GatorB]

I'm actually posting from vista right now... it definitely isn't quite as smooth as I'd like, seems to be programming things. Not performance things.

It's not called a BETA for nothing.

[farrelan]

If you have seen 1 windows product you have seen them all. They all crash the same. They are all POS. Go with mac or linux

If you need a super computer to run windows what the heck you need when you try and run photoshop or other resource savy programs

[dunefield]

in the end i'd rather have a better running os than something looking fancy...

[Bro Media - BANNED FOR LIFE]

i don't think i will upgrade my computer once vista hits, will most likely put that money in a savings account to buy my ultimate mac machine

[Pete-KT]

Been using it for a while now i love it

[Charlie_RedHotBucks]

wow..that is nice.. i c u have 2047 megs of ram.. does it bog down.. it looks proccessor intense!

[StuartD]

wow..that is nice.. i c u have 2047 megs of ram.. does it bog down.. it looks proccessor intense!

Not really, I loaded up a bunch of stuff last night, including Photoshop and some other programs and I never noticed it slow down at all.
And as I said, you can turn off all of those shadows, transparencies and everything else to increase the performance if you find that your computer can't quite handle it very well.

And for those of you going on and on about linux, do you seriously think that I don't know about linux if I'm trying Vista in beta?? I mean, come on. The whole point is to see how it works, how it performs, what's different.... JUST LIKE when I try with linux.

It's like people who will never try escargot simply because it's snails... they don't know what it tastes like, but they know it's icky... so they simply won't try it because of what it MIGHT be. Personally, I try everything because I won't really know otherwise... whether it be an OS or a snail

[Matiz]

yep just like GM ripped off ford by using 4 wheels on cars . . those fucking thievs

[pathmaster]

can I laugh at your name stuart?