Windows Vista December 2005 CTP (Build 5270) tested by Paul Thurrot

Windows Vista has arrived in a new suite now in December and once again Paul Thurrot over at WinSuperSite has dissected the new build. The most obvious difference is a new, updated desktop but there is of course more. Windows Vista December 2005 Community Technical Preview (Build 5270) and its GUI has been updated with a lot of features making look a lot more like who the final release actually will look. The first you see is a new Start-button, and with that comes a new Start-menu, with among others a small preview pan.

They have also chosen to revert back to the old folder system, which is available in Windows XP after using more of a virtual approach in earlier builds. I.e. when it comes to Windows special folders; Documents, pictures, etc. The virtual thinking is still there though with the Start-menu where the folders show the result of searches which match document types. Thus: you see documents and files under Documents that may lie elsewhere on your harddrive, but the real Document folder.

“We actually considered at one time not having folders,” Microsoft lead product manager Greg Sullivan told me during a recent briefing. “It was all going to be virtualized storage with search queries and so on. We would just completely abstract the file organization stuff from the physical folders and disk structure. But that was too much of a leap over the chasm, too confusing for users. But what we have now will probably evolve over time as well.“

Aero is also starting to take its final shape, both Glass and Basic, where the latter is simply a reduced version without animations or translucensy. They have chosen to keep the themes, but reduce them and instead focus on using color schemes for Aero.

Other than that Microsoft has reached a late state with many of the programs that will be shipped with Windows Vista Vista, such as Defender (antispyware), Photo Gallery, DVD Maker HD, Collaboration, which lets you connect directly to you colleagues without a server to exchange information, Calendar and Backup.

Of course the programs that have been introduced earlier have also been updated: WMP11, IE7, Media Center, which has been updated a lot as it has been heavily critisized in earlier builds, not only by Thurrot, Mail and Transfer (lets you copy and move accounts).

:: Read on at WinSuperSite