Windows Vista Build 5231 Reviewed

Well, I have been running Windows Vista Build 5231 since last Monday and I have a few observations. I will basically tie my comments to the screenshots. One thing I will mention is that the dream of a 15-20 minute install is a joke. It took about 65 minutes to install Vista on a box running a P4 2.6Ghz, 1Gb of Ram, with a ATI 9600XT. I think that the install time will come down as we approach the actual release of the software. My hunch is that quite a bit of the install is the hard drive being indexed after the OS is installed. How else could the search function work so quickly right out of the box? Just my 2 cents anyway. If you click on the title link you will be taken to the torrent for downloading this build of Vista. Enjoy everyone! For those from Digg.com, thanks for coming by.

Vista Version

The version information for people who care about this sort of stuff.

New and Improved Start Menu

I don't know how new and improved this is in reality. The structure is almost exactly the same as Windows XP but instead of popping open a list of programs that could take up your entire screen if your still runnning at less then 1024x768 but rather an extended grouping of programs within the structure of the Start Menu. Notice the text box directly above the Start button? It is a search box for just the Start Menu. Start typing and it will guess what your looking for.

Some Interesting Processes in Task Manager

There are quite a few new processes running in the background on Vista. I believe most are related to the new intergrated search feature that is now available from each and every window in Vista.

Vista does P2P

Windows P2P goes by the name of Windows Collaberation in Vista. I could not get this feature to work so I guess they turned it off after talking flak for having it enabled by default in Beta 1.

Windows Calender

Microsoft has now seen fit to include a calender client in Vista which one can share, like Hotmail's calender, or publish, like an Outlook calender, or just use on the computer like Outlook Express. Actually anyone using Outlook Express for email should be forcefully removed from their keyboard and beaten about the head with it.

Windows Digital Gallery

Vista now sports a "Digital Gallery" feature which in my humble opinion is a direct rip-off of Picasa.

The Windows Explorer

Notice the ever-present search box in the upper right corner? Search is everywhere in Vista including the Start Menu as I mentioned above. The sort options have been expanded and the metadata pane has been moved from the lower left side of a typical window in XP to the bottom band of the window in Vista. The new Windows Explorer was fairly intuitive but I can see new users stuggling to adjust, especially if they come to Vista from Windows 2000 or earlier.

TMI: Windows Style

Microsoft has seen fit to include and display metadata everywhere in Vista including the status dialogue when moving an item.

The New My Network Connections

My Network Places has been replaced by the Network Center which includes some diagnostic tools to troubleshoot a network connection and addtional information about your broadband connection.

Some New Games eh?

Finally some new games for network admins to lock down from bored users. The new games are Chess, Shanghai Solitare (a version of Mahjong), and a kids games called Purbie Place. Screenshots below...

Shanghai Solitare

Microsoft's version of Mahjong

Purbie Place

My son, age 4 1/2, liked this game and found it pretty easy to learn, enough said I guess.

A Kinder, Gentler Control Panel

For those who know where to find things, the classic view is still available.

A little something new in User rights.

I don't know if the Authenication Manager will be included in any release of Vista but the Enterprise and Ultimate editions but the idea is kinda neat. AM will allow the system admin to mark a user with standard admin rights or with super-admin rights which are designed to be used by developers.

Tablet Programs

Since the Ultra Edition is a superset of all future Vista versions there are both Tablet PC programs included as well as Media Center.

Media Center

I don't know what if anything has changed in Media Center since the test computer I installed Vista on is not a Media Center machine. Somebody let me know what has changed if you don't mind.

Windows Media Player

This new interface is nice and they have changed some of the terms used by WMP but at this stage it looks like a very early version of WMP11

Media Library Sharing in WMP11

The Basic Library Sharing options are just that basic but....

Advanced Library Sharing in WMP11

One has to wonder what the RIAA might think about WMP11 encouraging users to share their media. It appears that the options will only let you share across a home network but I am sure someone will figure out a way for this to use the Vista P2P and I predict that Microsoft will be sued by the RIAA and removed this feature before Vista is released.

IE7

First looks is misleading, but it does look very slick.

Default IE7

As it appears when first launched, the only change I had made at this point was to change the homepage.

IE7 with Favorites Sidebar open

The Favorites Sidebar now contains your subscribed feeds and history as well. The normal menu toolbar is hidden by default.

IE7 with an active RSS feed plus new right-click option

IE7 handled the flash of ESPN right out of the box(as it should) and lights up and beeps when a valid RSS feed is detected on a webpage. As expected the right-click menu now includes the open in a new tab option but if your trying to open a favorite from the sidebar, forget it. You can not open a favorite from the sidebar in a new tab unless the tab is already open and selected.

Adding a new RSS feed

To add a feed, you have to click on the orange RSS button which opens the feed as an xml document in IE7. You then have the option to subscribe by clikcing on the yellow plus sign on the right side of the toolbar above the document.

IE7 Anti-Phishing Filter

IE7 not has a phishing filter that checks whether the website your visiting is the real website or one doctored up to fool people into giving up personal information. In my screenshot that is the real CNN.com, I assure you or IE7 does.

IE7 Quick Tabs

IE7 does have a neat feature called Quick Tabs. The feature can be accessed either through Ctrl+Q or the little four square icon in the upper left corner of the "tab"bar next to the favorites star icon. Of course the more tabs you have open the smaller the previews in the quick tabs screen.

Overall Vista is rather polished for a pre Beta 2 release. I like that Microsoft is going to release an updated build every month for the forseeable future. The drivers for many devices are not available but that should change pretty quickly. The only programs I could not run and that crashed the shell were Google Earth, and Activesync 3.8. I did try to manually update the drivers for my video (ATI 9600XT), my sound (Audigy 2) and my Canon i860 usb printer. I was able to install without problem, Office 2003, Skype (latest version), iTunes 6.0 with QuickTime 7.0 Pro, MSN Messenger 7.5, and Microsoft Anti-spyware beta. I could not find a anti-virus program that would install and run even after AVG ran perfectly in Beta 1. I could not even get Windows OneCare Beta to install, go figure. Well that is the review of Vista for this month, look for a review of next month's build as soon as it becomes available. Remember, the title link goes to a torrent so you can download Vista and enjoy all of it's fun.

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Once you sign up and get your referral code, send it to me in an email from the address that you signed up with and I will add your link to a rotating link banner that I am crafting for the sidebars of this site. So go ahead and click here for your new video iPod. Thanks.

FREE VIDEO IPOD

Just a quick question....

Do people with large bug eyes have better peripheral vision?

Forget Vampires and Werewolves, The Left and the ACLU are the New Undead!!!

Yes I said it.

Actually what caused me to come to this conclusion was posting a comment over here at Jay's to a moronic moonbat. Come to think of it, all moonbats are moronic, so I repeated myself there.

Anyway, let's compare the classic undead, such as vampires and werewolves to the american left and especially the ACLU.


Classic Undead;
Vampire;

A soulless creature that cowers at the sight of a crucifix and lives by sucking the blood of other creatures that it ambushes in the dark. Cannot be seen in a mirror's reflection.

American Left Undead;
ACLU Lawyer;

A soulless creature that cowers at the sight of a crucifix and lives by sucking money from the government suing Christians it ambushes. Refuses to be seen in any media interview, since the glaring light of truth shone upon the world through an honest question is the ACLU Lawyers equivalent of a mirror.

American Left Undead;
Liberal Whiner;

A soulless creature that cowers at the sight of a crucifix causing an immediate call to it's brethren at the ACLU and wants everyone to live in a dream world by sucking hardearned money away from those with drive to coddle those with no drive. Can usually be seen braiding pit hair in San Francisco or following Cindy Sheehan like a slavering moron.

Classic Undead;
Werewolf;

A diseased creature that appears normal during the day but changes hidiously during certain times of the month into an unrecognizable creature of destruction.

American Left Undead;
ACLU Lawyer;

A diseased creature that appears normal until they enter a courtroom, where they immediaately turn into a creature with hypnotic powers over judges that twists reality to attempt to switch the world to their dreamland version of reality, an example of which is the European Union. This version of reality is failing miserably.

American Left Undead;
Liberal Whiner:

A diseased creature that appears normal when you talk to them in polite company but readily becomes a raving madman at the mention of Bush, the Global War on Terror or Rush Limbaugh.

Classic Undead;
Zombie;

A soulless brain eating creature that wanders through the land randomly attacking people to further it's agenda of destroying people to consume their brains. Unable to think for itself.

American Left Undead;
ACLU Lawyer;

A soulless, brainless creature that wanders through the land looking for other brainless creatures to further it's agenda of of destroying the U.S. by brainwashing it's gullible inhabitants. Unable to think for itself.

American Left Undead;
Liberal Whiner;

A soulless, brainless creature that wanders through the land looking only at the liberal slanted media and believing that up is down, the palestinians and radical muslims are peaceful people and the war in Iraq is illegal. Unable to think for itself.

As you can see, just my cursory look at the New Undead has opened my eyes, and I am sure, your eyes also.

The only question remains is this;

Do we use stakes through the heart, silver bullets or beheadings to protect ourselves and our country?

I vote for silver bullets. A stake through the heart means you must get within their reach, and I am leaving the beheadings to the "peaceful radical muslims".


Now, how many more can you come up with?

XPOSTED@Kender's and Cao's

Guard Our Borders Blogburst Roundup (sorta)

Linked in the title is
Kit's post at The Wide Awakes.

Kit started the Guard Our Borders blogburst to point out why we need to secure our borders and to bring more attention to the fact that our borders are basically open.

She has a story up about 14 illegal immigrants gang-raping a woman in Florida, go rad that.

Some others in the blogroll to help save our country are:

The Mary Hunter over at his little slice of correct thinking cyber-heaven. Go read what he has to say about the idiots that opened the floodgates to the American Dream and actually have done more damage with their short-sighted goals and pandering policies. Don't be surprised when you see that the Democrats were behind this one.

Over at Cao's we get a short reminder that the mexican government publishes comic books on how to sneak into the U.S. Let me ask you, do you really want people coming here, illegally or not, who have the comprehension level it takes to read a comic book? Me either.

GMRoper over at Social Sense has a post up wondering why so many people don't seem to care about our border's security. Damned good question my friend.

Go visit more of those signed up for this blogburst. At this writing (early AM) many people haven't had time or been awake long enough to get their nickel's worth in yet.

XPOSTED@Kender's

Militant Environmentalists and Wind Power (or, Let's all go live in caves and dress in leaves and grasses)

Linked in the title is a story about environmentalists that are now fighting wind farms.

Seriously.

Apparently these wind farms are allegedly responsible for the deaths of some predatory birds that use it the land they are on as a feeding ground.

Environmentalists claim that they aren't against wind farms, but that their locations should be chosen more carefully, so as to avoid having an impact on wildlife. I am wondering just where that place may be.....Mars? Mars has wind. How about in the middle of the city? NonononononoNO......pigeons live there, and we wouldn't want any precious little pigeons getting their stupid asses whacked by a windmill now would we?

Oh wait....how about out at sea? Yeah, there is plenty of wind at sea, and peoplel have been harnessing that wind for thousands of years, so that would be ok to build wind farms at sea right? What?

WTF do you mean no, building it offshore would not only endanger seabirds but would be an eyesore to beachgoers?

OK FINE!!!!!

You know what? I give the hell up. Let's just go do what this guy here has done and be done with it.

But just know that if you bitch about one little worm losing his home I am so gonna kick your ass!!!!

XPOSTED@Kenders

Been a Little Busy

I have been a little busy with the new job and life in general but I should return shortly to my regularly scheduled rants. I am working on a full blown review of Windows Vista Build 5231 with a ton of screenshots so check back in a couple of days for that. Thanks to all the new visitors from Digg.com and everyone who linked to me based on the Kahuna post. I do write a lot of political posts but every now and then an actual tech post sneaks in.

One request before I head off to an all too short night of slumber. My brother returned to Iraq with the rest of the 101st Airborne about 3 weeks ago and as they, our coalition allies and Iraqi army and citizens prepare for the Constitutional vote on Saturday please say a prayer for their safety and continued success along the path to freedom and democracy. Thanks, talk to you soon.

Todd

KOS is a Wuss

A tip o' me tam to R'Cat.

Many people are writing about this today, after all, as Chris Muir pointed out, Kos was supposed to have taken the DLC to task, promising;

No calls for a truce will be brooked.

Wow.....a liberal calling for a no surrender fight? How very unfrenchmanlike. Frankly, most of today's liberals calling for war is almost a joke. Even the war of idea's and solutions is being lost by them, but then it is very hard to fight a war without ammunition, and even the libs realize they have nothing left but to throw their empty weapons over their shoulders as they run away.

If the libs want to take the DLC to task they had better have a better plan than the DLC has right now, which is nothing. They spew such goofy sentences as;

The right course now is neither to give the terrorists a victory by withdrawing, nor to continue Bush's failed policies.

Hhhmmm...and exactly what does that mean? Since I have your attention I will proceed to highlight some bits from the "progressive" ideas put forth by the DLC and explain just WHY those ideas are idiotic.

First bit; (emphasis mine)

First, we should formally disclaim any interest in permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq;

Sounds good huh? It will happen. Yes, we are building bases over there, but we aren't going to live in tents for the next few years while we beat back these goat-shagging sheet-heads, and the Iraqi's are gonna need bases eventually.

clearly shift the primary responsibility of defending the country to the Iraqi military (with embedded Coalition troops), and adopt a joint military strategy based on proven principles of counterinsurgency.

First off, the Dems understand proven principles of counterinsurgency? I doubt it. I know they understand the French Principle of Counterinsurgency, which is make sure the counter is clean when the insurgents come into your lil' bistro for dinner, but seriously, the next statement shows the idiocy behind their derailed train of thought;

The last point means abandoning Vietnam-style "search and destroy" missions against the insurgency, and instead focusing on progressively securing territory where reconstruction can proceed and normal civic life can resume.

Now, let us follow this convoluted line of thinking. Don't chase the "insurgents" down and kill 'em, just keep 'em out of the neighborhoods where you are rebuilding, then move on out of your "secured" territory, to "secure" more territory, and watch the "insurgents", who happen to work at blending in with the local populace, and sometimes ARE the local populace, wander back in to destroy the buildings you just finished, along with killing some civilians and maybe a soldier or a few cops.

Good plan? HELL NO!!!! You can see from the bit above that the DLC really has no clue who they are dealing with in Iraq, and have their heads firmly implanted in a place of dreams and utopian ideals. It is no coincidence that the liberals dreamland is such a ball of shit, because that is exactly where their heads actually are....up their asses.

Let us continue with this dissection of the "progressive policy of incompetence" shall we?

Paragraph two; (again, emphasis mine)

Second, we should launch a new political strategy aimed relentlessly at winning Sunni support for the new government, and at isolating jihadists.

First they want to abandon hunting terrorists, now they want to isolate them. The best, proven method of isolation for a terrorist is to isolate them in a hole in the ground, either by chasing them to the ends of the earth and keeping them penned up in a cave or by tossing them in a hole with a load of shrapnel or bullets in them. I prefer the latter method. As for gaining Sunni support for the new government, that will only come over time, as the Sunni's are (rightfully) leery of the Shia's (and after centuries of inter-tribal warfare wouldn't you be? I mean, these people have looooong memories and hold grudges that are generations removed from the offenders), and I am still not convinced that the Shia's won't decide to revive old grievances.

We still have considerable leverage among Shi'a and Kurdish leaders; we should use it to push for confidence -- building measures like the integration of communal militias into the Iraqi army and police forces; a blanket amnesty for former Baathists not implicated in atrocities; and for intensified talks with Sunnis on supplemental protocols to the proposed constitution that would ensure a viable central government and minority rights.

As I said above, I am not sure if the Shia's and Sunni's will ever completely get along. But we will see won't we?

Paragraph Three; (same disclaimer as above)

Third, we should muster all our diplomatic resources to create a more supportive international environment for the new Iraqi government. It should not be that hard to establish a UN-authorized international contact group to coordinate political support and economic assistance

This is one of my many MAJOR problems with the DLC, and in fact, the american Left, (at least those in power). They are always ready, willing and able to run to the UN whenever the first little hiccup occurs or they feel that "someone should be in charge".

They treat the world like 6 year olds, and bow to the UN as the parents of everyone. As for it not being that hard to establish a UN-authorized international contact group? It isn't that hard to get the UN to establish any group.

It's getting the UN to actually do anything, (except send pedophiles as peacekeepers, or take kickbacks and bribes), that borders on the miraculous.

So there ya' go KOS, you apparently chickened out, or got too busy rubbin' your nub, or probably realized that to take the DLC to task, (especially in a take no prisoners fashion), that you would be expected to actually have ideas that would work, and realizing that the only ideas that even have a chance of working right now are firmly considered "conservative idea's", you decided to give up and take a drubbing for talking such big shit.

S'ok though KOS, you can always get a glass belly button or a cranial-rectal-otomy and defect to the side that knows what the hell to do besides whine about it, but then, where would we get our laughs?

Banned 'Toons and a Great New Toon Campaign!!!!

With a great tip o' me well worn tam to Duncan at Parrot Check (just how does one cash one of those anyway?) who gave a hat tip to Rusty at My Pet Jawa, do I bring you today's musings.

It's funny really, that this happened across my desktop when it did, as at the time I was reading about banned cartoons. You know those old greats from when we were kids and cartoons were only on, for the most part, on saturday morning.

We would get out of bed (eventually) and scarf down some Frosted Flakes or Capt. Crunch, or any of a dozen other sugary treats just chock full of vitamins and minerals and drowning in **gasp** WHOLE MILK while sitting in front of the TV, (which most likely did NOT have a remote) and get a full days serving of sarcasm and innuendo and never once realize that we were actually getting a wonderful foundation for our adult years, (where we would need a lot of sarcasm and innuendo), while laughing madly at Bugs Bunny making a fool of Yosemite Sam or secrectly rooting for Wile E. Coyote to finally catch that annoying little bastard of a bird.

Remember this?

"Yipa yipa, andele arriba".

?

Yep. Speedy Gonzales.

This should bring back memories.

"How many lumps do ya want?"

"Oh three or four."

"BAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAM"

"Oh, sorry, one lump too many."

Or how about this one?

"Listen to me, I say, listen to me boy. Do ya think I'm just talking to hear my lips flap?"

and these classics;

"Goldarn Rabbit", Beepbeep", "Sufferin' succotash"

Yeah, good memories.

I was getting a bit old when the Smurfs hit the U.S. I hated the smurfs. My little sister loved the smurfs. I hated them, And that little bitch Strawberry Shortcake. And the whole Hello Kitty thing I never got either.

Give me the good old cartoons anyday of the week. Few cartoons have measured up in recent times. Ren and Stimpy, The Animaniacs, Beavis and Butthead (though I will admit they are a guy only thing for the most part), Southpark. I am probably forgetting a few, but the point is well made that few new cartoons even approach the old days.

However, a new cartoon may have come out that I completely have been ready to enjoy for many years. Unfortunately it is an ad campaign for UNicef.

UNicef, for those of you with your head under a rock, is the United Nations Childrens Fund. Being against the UN in general I am of course not enamored of UNicef, or any offshoot of that most corrupt organization.

However, is it really wise for UNicef to use funds that are supposed to go to saving children for a cartoon showing that war is bad? We all know war is bad, but also sometimes necessary. And as a fund raiser to boot?

Of course, most libs probably have a great memory of the Smurfs, and seeing them bombed into oblivion, (where they belong, BTW, I always rooted for Gargamel) will probably get them to send money to UNicef so it can be misappropiated, misspent or doled out to lawyers defending the UN's African Rape Corps.

But I say Good Riddance to the Smurfs. I am glad they got bombed. Papa Smurf, (a dirty old man that used Smurfette as a sex slave before the ACLU stepped in at NOW's urging and demanded that Papa Smurf take picture's of his debauchery to sell or share her with all the Smurfs, hey, fair is fair), is rumored to be in league with, and possibly related to OBL. Look at the facts. They both have a beard, they both wear a funny hat, they both have a huge nose, they both have followers that do as they say with a blind obedience and they both live where nobody but those followers can find them. In fact, they both live in a place that one needs their permission to enter.

So, good, bomb the Smurfs. Damned blue little bastards.

Good riddance to 'em.

While we're at it can we take out Dora the Explorer, Barney, Spongebob and all the other nitwits and please bring back some actual cartoony goodness?

That's all I want.

Bugs, Daffy, Marvin the Martian, Yosemite Sam, Wile E. Coyote, Foghorn Leghorn and the rest.

I miss those old days.

I say kill most of the current crop of crap 'toons and bring back the classics, but it has to look legal.

Bush Finally Gets OBL

The following is a piece of speculative fiction or satire, take your pick but you had better get a freaking Mommy Note to read it. As for those moonbats who happen to miss this disclaimer, take out a loan for your therapy now because if you comment in the style of those clueless wonders over at DU, I will not pay your shrink bills and you will run crying from the computer when I am finished with you. Enough said, enjoy the piece.

After four years of hunting OBL, the President finally got his man...maybe. Seems the region of Pakistan that was hit by an earthquake recently is also the place that OBL is suspected to be hiding. The Pakistan government knows he is there, the Afghanistan government knows he is there, but more importantly the United States government knows he is there.

The President at the urging of Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and others decided to dust off the United States Earthquake Generation Machine or USEG. Since it is trials during last December were so successfully analysts predicted it would be only a matter of time before USEG became a standard option in the United States arsenal. Due to recent software refinements (i.e.: not using Microsoft products), the target zone was able to be smaller then in previous deployments of the weapon.

While the human cost will certainly be very high to Pakistan and India, this "reporter" has learned of a secret handshake agreement between the leaders of the United States, Pakistan and India. It was decided just hours before the quake that OBL and his al-Qaeda network proved to too dangerous to the entire planet and that he should be eliminated post haste.

Once the agreement was in place, an executive order was issued and the command given to the USEG team to begin planning for the seismic attack. Rumor has it that President Bush and Vice-President Cheney had to flip a coin to decide who would press the fire button. As they say, “It’s better to be lucky then good” and the President won the best of three coin flips. The Vice-President tried unsuccessfully to argue interference by the table on the final and deciding flip but was quickly overruled by the Joint Chiefs of Staff members present.

Once the weapon was fired and the 7.6 earthquake rumbled across the region spy satellites quickly zoomed in to provide a ringside seat to the destruction. While the President will surely take some major criticism for the attack, it was pointed out by the White House spokesperson Scott McClellan that often in history it is the case that many may die in pursuit of a greater goal. While most news organizations have been too shocked to comment on this turn of events there is one group that is surprisingly supportive.

Al Jazeera praised Bush for finally having a pair of testicles and compared his actions to that of the prophet Mohammad. “He saw a way to slay his enemy and did not concern himself with the cost of innocent lives. Mohammad took the same actions in his pursuit of an Islamic Empire,” said spokesperson Ali Akbar. Akbar also added, “The streets of America will run red with the blood of innocents in response to this action,” in my humble opinion this confirms that you just cannot please some people.

It remains to be seen how this will affect the United States standing in the world but I will predict that our enemies and pretend allies (yes I am talking about France and Germany) will be quite a bit more cautious in their dealings with this country.