Windows Vista gets installed on test box

So I got my hands on a copy of the new Windows Vista Pre-Release ed. from Technet and I must say, it is pretty. The interface is slightly altered (again) from what we are used to but the graphics are definately nice. They look almost as good as a well-built Linux OS. One thing I noticed about the graphics of the new Windows edition was that they are vector-based which means lots and lots of memory is used up just running Windows. On a machine with 512MB RAM the memory utilization was 82%+ with nothing running. Wouldn't hurt to have a decent graphics card too.

Another new feature includes a slick new login interface and start menu, easy to use Network connection and problem solving utilities which makes setting up your home or business network a snap. It seems like MS has worked hard at the built-in help and self-diagnostic system. Also had a cool new side-bar type application that sat on the right or left side of your screen that kind of faded away unobtrusively where which you could load various 'widgets'. These included a nice clock, calendar, memory usage meter, a notepad etc. After oohing and aahing at the cool new toy I moved onto the work-related side of Vista.

I was disappointed to find out that it has problems integrating itself into a previously existing network. I couldn't get ANY snap-ins that I use on a daily basis to work right. These include Active Directory for Users and Computers, Group Policy, Certificates etc. etc. Couldn't remote into it even after I added it to the domain. I did some research and they (Microsoft) are still working on these issues. Of course you don't want to buy in my opinion ANY new copy of Windows without letting MS work out the bugs first. (IE: Windows XP)

So ultimately the box I had just built was pretty much useless. There is next to no driver support for various devices and no domain-level functionality aside from adding the machine to the domain. Other than that it sure was pretty to look at!

Look for the new release in the latter half of Jan 07.