Having written the article "Why You Want Vista Now!" in our May 9 issue, I held my breath when I installed beta 2, fearing that after the OS gets hammered by as many as 2 million users beyond the usual set of testers, I'd have to eat my words. To my relief, this release largely lives up to my expectations. Sure, it's still beta code and not something to run on a production system. There are bugs and nuisances, it blue-screens sometimes when resuming from sleep, and compatibility isn't perfect. But there's a lot that's enticing, and increasingly, there are features I miss when I'm using XP.
The Aero user interface strikes a comfortable balance between looking good and being useful. The new Windows Explorer, with its live icons, reading pane, and directory breadcrumbs, is particularly appealing.
The new Start menu is a winner. Its integrated search box lets me easily find programs, files, and documents including e-mails—I haven't yet needed to download the desktop-search tools I consider essential for XP. And I'm becoming accustomed to pressing the Windows key, typing a destination (like C:\users\john or www.pcmag.com), and immediately jumping there without explicitly launching an app.
Windows Vista Beta 2 Start Menu Search
Vista's revamped Start menu lets you incrementally search applications, documents, and e-mails - or fire off a Web search. Hierarchical programs folders remain within the left pane instead of spilling out into awkward cascading menus.
Windows Vista Beta 2 Advanced Search
With Vista's advanced search, you can build complex queries step by step. If you like, you can also save them into dynamic search folders.
Windows Vista Beta 2 Taskbar Previews
If you're running Vista's Aero mode, taskbar buttons show live previews of their corresponding application windows when you hover over them.
Windows Vista Beta 2 Alt-Tab
Pressing Alt-Tab shows live previews of all your application windows (requires Aero).
Windows Vista Beta 2 Windows Tab
Pressing Windows-Tab activates Vista's Flip 3-D view. Use the mouse scroll wheel to spin the live preview windows, Rolodex-style.
Windows Vista Beta 2 New Explorer
Windows Explorer's Live Icons show the contents of your documents and scale to arbitrary sizes. Explorer also provides context-sensitive task buttons and detailed file metadata when available.
Windows Vista Beta 2 IE 7
Internet Explorer 7 finally includes tabbed browsing. Its unique Quick Tabs view shows you snap-shots of all your open tabs. Other IE 7 improvements include integrated security enhancements such as anti-phishing warnings and protection against internationalized domain name spoofing; printing enhancements such as automatic fit-to-page; and auto-detection of RSS feeds.
Windows Vista Beta 2 Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player 11 provides an incremental search of your media files and integrates MTV's Urge online music service.
Windows Vista Beta 2 Windows Defender
Vista includes Windows Defender antispyware software, in addition to a variety of other security enhancements, many of which work mostly behind the scenes.
Windows Vista Beta 2 Windows Mail
Windows Mail, a new version of Outlook Express, includes incremental searching.
Windows Vista Beta 2 Windows Photo Gallery
The Windows Photo Gallery lets you easily manipulate, tag, and search your photographs.
Windows Vista Beta 2 Windows Calendar
Vista includes the basic Windows Calendar application for keeping and sharing your schedules.
Windows Vista Beta 2 Windows Collaboration
Create an ad-hoc network for sharing files with Windows MeetingSpace.
Windows Vista Beta 2 Speech Recognition
Vista includes speech recognition that works with any application as well as the shell itself.
Install
Vista does a nice job of performing an unattended install. Complete a few short dialog boxes at the very beginning of the process, and you can come back when it's done. (Microsoft claims that installations from image servers will take as little as 20 minutes.)
Welcome Center
The Welcome Center that appears when you first start Vista gains some new options.
Welcome Center Expanded
Here's a close-up of all 12 Welcome Center options.
Windows Basics
True newbies can learn fundamentals from the Windows Basics help material. In general, Vista's help material continues to get more fleshed out.
Network Public or Private
Vista lets you establish firewall rules for three different types of network connections: domain, public and private. When Vista detects a live network connection, it first attempts to determine whether it's part of a corporate domain. If so, it automatically applies domain rules. If not, it asks you whether you're on a public network (in which case the firewall settings are relatively restric-tive) or a private one (where you're likely to want less restrictive rules so you can share files more freely, for example). Specifying the private network option requires privilege elevation.
UAP
While we applaud Microsoft's intention to improve security in Vista, the user experience still needs work. Every time you take an action that requires administrator privileges (denoted by the small shield you can see on the "OK" button the background), Vista stops and asks for confirmation. In beta 2, the "secure desktop" mode forces you to focus attention on the elevation dialog, graying out and disabling the remainder of the screen. This particular dialog appears when you try to run a piece of signed code.
UAC Again
A more cautionary elevation dialog appears when elevation is requested by unsigned code. In this case, the top of the window is colored yellow rather than gray, the text is more comprehensive, and the default action is to cancel rather than to continue.
Programs Explorer
Instead of the Add/Remove Programs control-panel applet, Vista includes the Programs Explorer, giving you more visibility into applications that have been installed or are currently running.
Windows Ultimate Extras
Microsoft seems poised to deliver an ongoing stream of goodies to Ultimate edition buyers, but there's nothing much to see yet.
Security Center New Look
The Vista Security Center has a slightly new look.
File and Printer Sharing
File and Printer Sharing dialogs continue to improve.
Backup Center
Vista's Backup and Restore Center significantly improves the interface to the tedious but important task of backing up your PC. On Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions, it also includes whole-PC imaging capabilities like those in Norton Ghost.
Code Name InfoCard
If you poke around in the Control Panel, you'll find an icon called "Digital Identities" that launches this application, code-named InfoCard. The application seems to be designed as a digital wallet, but we don't yet see any integration with Internet Explorer or other bundled applications.
Sidebar
Vista's Sidebar, which by default appears on the right side of the screen, can host a variety of "Gadgets".
Add Gadget
You can add a variety of built-in gadgets, or—eventually—gadgets from third-party developers. Gadgets are simply a combination of HTML and script, so we expect to see a proliferation of interesting options.
Gadgets on Desktop
Gadgets don't need to be confined to the Sidebar: you can also drag them onto the desktop, where they can overlap the background or each other.
Gadget Settings
Right-click a gadget and choose Settings to configure a specific gadget.
Adjust Opacity
You can tune gadgets' opacity so they're less distracting.
Rollover
Mousing over a partially-transparent gadget increases its opacity so its contents are easier to read.
Calculator
There's a very basic calculator gadget.
Clock
Hands on the clock gadget move with realistic-looking physics.
CPU Meter
The CPU meter gadget shows processor usage and memory usage.
Currency Converter
Dreaming about your next vacation? See how far your dollars will go overseas with the currency converter.
Feed Viewer
The feed viewer shows headlines from RSS feeds you've subscribed to in any application that uses Vista's unified RSS store. So, if you subscribe to a feed in Internet Explorer 7, it's automatically available here.
Feed Watcher
Get a snapshot of all your feeds with the Feed Watcher. Like the Feed Viewer, it uses Vista's unified RSS store.
Notepad
The handy Notepad lets you jot down phone messages and other brief tidbits. Press the Plus button to add another page.
Number Puzzle
There's no Minesweeper gadget yet, but there is the classic Number Puzzle.
Picture Puzzle
There's also a Picture Puzzle variation on the Number Puzzle (shown here in mid-shuffle).
Recycle Bin
The Recycle Bin is now available in gadget form.
Slide Show
The Slide Show gadget cycles through pictures from a directory you specify. Click the magnifying glass to open the photo in Windows Photo Gallery.
Egg Timer
The egg timer is useful even if the interface is a bit too literal.