The highly anticipated Beta program of Windows® Vista™, formerly known under the code name “Longhorn”, has just started. Bets 1 has been given to first batch of testers for feedback: primarily bug reporting and suggestions. The press kit, which contains official screenshots, too, can be found here.

The highly anticipated Beta 1 of Windows “Longhorn” will be released pretty soon to testers and MSDN subscribers. Subscribers can now even request product key(s) for it.

A little flashback: Windows Code Name: “Longhorn” has been developed for the last 4 years, and Microsoft switched to the Windows Server 2003 SP1 code base in September 2004. Some of the features to be implemented and which are already implemented are:

• Windows Image Deployment Features fast installation and upgrade of Windows OS using a disk image (WIM file) created with the Windows Imaging Utility, also known as xImage, an internal tool that is expected to be released to OEM partners regarding unattended installations.
• Faster Application Starting Using the more advanced ‘Pre-Fetch’, called ‘SuperFetch’.
• New User Experience, and Graphic engine The new User Experience is called Aero, and the shell - AERO. Aero has 4 tiers, which can be enabled depending on the GPU’s capabilities. Aero is bult on Avalon and will use graphics hardware acceleration where available. Requirements are: DirectX 9 GPU, at least 64MB of Video memory, drivers must be designed for the Longhorn logo, i.e. are LDDM compatible. The new graphic engine is called Avalon and is managed code API, built on MIL, for XAML Applications. Avalon graphics are resolution-independent, because they are vector, and this is a pro for users with high-DPI computer screens.

  The AERO shell, which is rumoured to be the project Code Name: “M”, as well as the Aero UX, will debut in Beta 2, which is expected to be released late 2005, or early 2006.

  Aero Glass Support for 3D graphics, animaton transitions and special effects which are made possible by the MIL

  Aero Express Comparing to Aero Glass, the Express tier presents only basic effects for the UI. Amongst the publicly released builds, only 4074.idx2 and 5048.winmain contain Aero Express, although only 5048.winmain has developed LDDM (see below).

  To Go To Go is intented for mobile computers primarily because it doesn’t take much resources, presents no special effects (legacy UX support in Windows Vista).

  Aero Diamond Diamond is a tier intented for the Media Center Edition of Windows Vista.

  The Windows Graphics Foundation draft document, as well as Caps requirements for Aero, can be found here, thanks to funny_bala for the link.

• The Indigo Services Indigo, also known as the Microsoft Message Bus, is a set of services for
• Palladium The Next-Generation Secure Computing Base (NGSCB) which presents the enhanced ways for client data protection and the Digital Rights Management, built in Windows “Longhorn”.
• Longhorn Display Driver Model LDDM allows the visual effects seen on a user’s desktop to scale relative to the available graphics hardware. The Aero Experience will need LDDM compatible drivers for best performance. The XP model, which has been used in Windows since 1996, is still supported in “Longhorn”, though, only for compatibility. 5048.winmain is the only public build to date to contain a workable LDDM, 4074.idx2 has drivers for Intel controllers, but cannot be used.

It is known that Windows Vista will also present the next (11th) version of the Media Player, Office 12 and have built-in support for writing data to DVD discs. The server version will be out in 2007, having WinFS in it — the new file storage system (not file system) which uses the SQL Server 2005 “Yukon” technology for fast desktop search and file organisation.

–Stanimir

That’s right, according to a beta community, the Beta 1 build of Windows Code Name: “Longhorn” (note that the build won’t be tagged as “Vista”) will be released to testers tomorrow, Wednesday. The number will be about 5112 and MSDN Subscribers are going to be able to get it by the targeted date, August 3rd.

The build’s downloading will be done in stages, in order to preserve the servers from hammering. And people who expect invites for the beta shouldn’t worry, either - thousands of invites are sent each week. Current “pending” testers should get their status changed to ‘Active’ or ‘Approved’ by tomorrow morning.

BTW, Beta 1 of the WinFX SDK and Avalon is going to be released by Microsoft tomorrow, too. You can expect two little articles on both themes here and/or on AeroXperience soon.

It seems that two of the registered Windows® Vista™ domains, http://www.windowsvista.us and http://www.windowsvista.tv, are live. It’s strange, though, that they do not redirect to the Vista home page, but Microsoft’s root page. The .Com, .Net and other domains still do not work.

The folks at Mobiform seem to be working on a XAML editor called “Aurora”. It supports the latest (Beta 1 RC) release, and I’m sure they will update their application after Jul 27th when WinFX SDK and Avalon Beta1 should be released to MSDN Subscribers.

Anyway, Aurora can be seamlessly integrated to Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 and developers easily design their XAML controls, forms and so on, used in Avalon (Navigation) Applications. If you’re a XAML enthusiast, you can get the free BETA of Aurora from Mobiform’s web-site.

“Bringing clarity to your world.”

Today Microsoft announced the official name of the next-generation Windows operating system — Windows® Vista™, formerly known under the code-name “Longhorn”.

Information about this new name was leaked last night, as ActiveWin reported, after Microsoft Global Sales Briefing held in Atlanta. Vista stands for view, prospect and this is exactly what Windows Code-name “Longhorn” is about - the innovative graphics engine, rebuilt driver model, as well as the ‘Indigo’ services. There is a new Vista-specialized microsite at Microsoft, and the former “Longhorn” Development center is gone. You can watch the “Longhorn” naming announcement video here.

Yesterday the second, and probably the last, part of Windows Longhorn BETA invitations was sent out. It’s expected that Beta 1 is going to be released to official testers on July 27th, the next Wednesday. Beta 1 of the WinFX SDK should be released on the same day, too, so the two betas’ release dates match perfectly. Testers will be able to code and test Avalon applications as soon as they get the Longhorn build.

Anyway, the beta program of MSN Messenger 7.5 (a sub-version to 7) was started today. The new version presents an updated Sign-In window, where you can see your display picture, as well as the well-known ‘always sign in as…’ options and so on. When you sign in you can see a little toolbar on top of the contacts list with only one button - ‘Add a Contact’, I don’t see big use of it, but anyway. An addition to build 160, which is the newly released one, is the ‘Voice Clip’ button in every conversation window - you can record a short audio clip and send it over to your buddy.

There are new ‘Dynamic Backgrounds’, which are Macromedia Flash-enabled files w/ animations which you may put instead of the still background. Of course, you can get some free backgrounds from BlueMountain’s web-site. If the user chooses to, he or she can disable the hyperlinks in their conversations in order to prevent clicking them.

The third beta is the Windows OneCare Live one. Windows OneCare is the anti-virus solution from Microsoft. It includes the already-released code of AntiSpyware, as well as anti-trojan and virus techniques to prevent execution of malicious code on Windows-based systems. Unfortunately, so far testers *must* be from the US in order to apply for the beta.

Well, I think that is what I had to say about those 3 betas for now. I’ll keep tracking their evolution in future, though.

As you may already know, a dozen of Windows Longhorn 5203 screenshots have been leaked to web recently. The wallpaper seen in 5203.winmain.050702-1000 is the same as the one used in private builds (~5060) shown at WinHEC 2005 and a Channel 9 video interview with Jim Allchin, but ‘non-tagged’. The major public had only a tagged 800×600 screenshots, until those 5203 screenshots leaked. But nobody has ‘recreated’ it, yet. That’s why I did it.

By clicking the image on the right you can get a really good representation of the original image, made using the losless images provided. The only con is that I had to cut about 65 pixels off the bottom of the picture because of the build tag.

I hope you enjoy it.

Please note: This is not an original wallpaper, but a representation of it. It’s an image, encoded in the PNG format, has dimentions 1680×985 (the original image is 1680×1050), and is about 1MB.

Today is kind of ‘a day of Longhorn’. Microsoft has started sending Longhorn BETA invites out, it’s known that only Top 10 R2 bug-reporters and WinHEC attendees who signed up for the BETA have beem invited so far. The Windows Server 2003 SP1 testers were promised to follow-up in the next BETA, or at least, have big chances for being accepted, but I personally haven’t received the invitation yet. There are no materials to download yet, though.

In addition, a Linux and Windows user posted Windows Longhorn screenshots which you can see are 5203-tagged. The 52** series are for internal use/testing only and most likely it was an internal worker who leaked the build, or only those screenshots.

I’ll keep tracking the news about Windows Longhorn in future, too.

Edit: Looking closely at picture number 3, you see that the same person who leaked the screenshots, has got this internal build — his own web-site it displayed in an Internet Explorer 7 window (notice the tabbed-browsing - picture 5).