Every Flavour Beans

Now on to some serious stuff. This is the Welcome Center which opens as the first thing with every reboot until you explicitly disable it.

My dearest friend ‘My Computer’ looks like this:

Impressive thing to note about it is that there is a threadcrumb to guide easy navigation between various folders just like it is in GNU/Linux desktops(GNOME for example).

‘Documents’ folder continues to have the same old organisation:

‘Music’ folder is pepped up slightly:

Normal folders look like this. The first thing I am going to do is change the current images for the icons of the folders.

Control Panel has many more options than before. This is the default view, just like it was in earlier versions.

Now switch to the more accessible Classic View. You can play ‘Spot The Difference’ game by comparing it with the older version if you wish.

Grrrrr….Windows Defender is coming, be alert! This claims to protect from Spyware etc. For anti-virus software, use a third party tool or wait for Microsoft’s own anti-virus software that will be sold separately.

Yawn. Double Yawn. Windows Ultimate Extras.

Photo Gallery is what looks the most impressive. If you hover the mouse over an image, it is expanded. Nothing new here, Windows is just a little slow to follow the others.

Movie Maker is mostly like the old one:

Windows DVD Maker.

Interesting incident. When I tried to install the software that allows me to connect to the ISP(and hence to the Internet) I was offered to install it in the ‘Compatibility’ mode(Just like XP does for 98/Me applications).

But after rebooting the machine, all I got was BSOD(its B for ‘Black’ for a change this time). I entered into Vista using ‘Last known Good Configuration’ option and uninstalled the ISP software.

I had to search for ‘Add/Remove Programs’ after getting into problems because of the incompatible software. Its accessible right from from ‘My Computer’ through a button on the toolbar! (Available in ‘Control Panel’ too).

You can set AutoPlay properties for various types of Media through this dialog box:

The Calendar looks cute! Am I gonna use it or what?

Not a huge fan of Media Center, so just posting a couple of its pictures. Among the other things that I missed out, Internet Explorer is one – I got the internet connection too late in the day. I also found the Network configuration to be very confusing to say the least. So no screenshots of it.

After looking at all the screenshots if you have forgot how the old Windows used to look, here is a reminder. Windows Vista using Classic Theme.

So what do you say, is the overall look of Windows Vista worth giving it a test drive? Or considering buying it when the final version releases?
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