C# Distilled : Microsoft Windows Vista

Windows Vista RTM Available on MSDN Subscriber Downloads

DougHolland — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 18:26:00 GMT

Microsoft last night made Windows Vista build 6000 (RTM) available on MSDN Subscriber Downloads and the Microsoft Connect website for those who have access.

It has been a long time since the PDC in 2003 when many of us first heard about this new operating system, but it has been well worth the wait and contributing to the beta program was fun too.

Windows Vista Released to Manufacturing

DougHolland — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 01:27:00 GMT

It's finally happened; Microsoft has today released to manufacturing the latest version of the Windows operating system which has been in development for five long years. Windows Vista marks an important milestone for Microsoft and as Jim Allchin said "This is a good day ... An hour ago we signed off [on the RTM build]. We're ready to ship".

Keep an eye on the MSDN subscriber downloads as you'll likely see Windows Vista and Office 2007 there early next week. The MSDN subscriber downloads page today indicated that it would be down for upgrades late Friday. It's likely that Microsoft is anticipating some serious traffic on the site once those .iso images appear.

It appears that Windows Vista will RTM with the build number set to 6.0.6000.

Bug causes Microsoft to push Vista RTM to Nov. 8

DougHolland — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 22:37:00 GMT

The latest update on when to expect a copy of Microsoft Windows Vista RTM (release to manufacturing) is indicating that the RTM build will occur on November 8th. This is apparently after an unexpected bug was found in build 5824 on October 13th and subsequently fixed the following week in build 5840. As such the Windows Vista team now expects to release to manufacturing on November 8th.

You can read more at the Computer World website.

Windows Vista Build 5744 Released

DougHolland — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 18:24:00 GMT

Today Microsoft released what is expected to be the final build of Windows Vista before to leave Redmond before the final RTM (Release to Manufacturing) code. Windows Vista build 5744, like its predecessor build 5728, is built on the final RTM source code branch. I'm presently downloading this build and will post some screenshots later today. The previous build was very stable indeed and the performance characteristics were impressive. In fact the only reason I've not yet adopted build 5728 as my primary operating system on my laptop is that my Dell Wireless 5700 EVDO ExpressCard does not yet support Windows Vista, and unfortunately Dell does not release pre-release drivers.

Windows Vista Release Candidate - Build 5600

DougHolland — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 18:54:00 GMT

Yesterday Microsoft made available to select testers the final Release Candidate for Microsoft Windows Vista. Windows Vista Build 5600 is from the Release Candidate source branch with build numbers 5400 to 5699, the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) code branch begins at Build 5700 which was recently seen at Microsoft TechEd 2006 down under in Australia.

Continuing the improvements seen last week in Build 5536, the final Release Candidate is significantly faster than some of the earlier builds released outside Redmond. In Build 5472 though the Task Monitor could have its Opacity set which was a nice feature, however it seems this has now been removed in build 5536 and 5600. Hopefully, Microsoft will bring this back within the 5700 code branch so we can see that in the final RTM build expected this November.

In builds previous to 5600 Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite and SQL Server 2005 Express Edition warned of compatibility issues when installing and it is nice to see that in Build 5600 Visual Studio installs without any such warnings. It is nice to see Microsoft Windows Vista now on finals towards the November RTM build that some of us have been anticipating since Microsoft PDC 2003 and before.

Windows Vista Build 5456 and .NET Framework 3.0 June CTP

DougHolland — Sat, 24 Jun 2006 10:47:00 GMT

Yesterday Microsoft released the June CTP of the newly renamed .NET Framework 3.0 which was previously known by the codename WinFX. You can download this CTP here:

.NET Framework 3.0 June CTP

Interestingly, this download page mentions that this CTP is intended only for users of Windows Vista Build 5456, Windows XP, or Windows 2003 Server. Those of you with a keen eye will notice that Windows Vista Beta 2 was build 5384, meaning that Microsoft must be about to release build 5456 to beta testers although it is unclear if this build will also be made available to MSDN subscribers. I would hope that it would be made widely available to MSDN subscribers so that they too can contribute to the quality, not only of Windows Vista, but of the .NET Framework 3.0 as it progresses towards the RTM milestone. If you install this CTP and have any suggestions or bugs to report I would advise you to surf on over to the Microsoft Product Feedback Center and log them there for Microsoft to triage and hopefully act upon accordingly. The Microsoft Product Feedback Center is now hosted on the Microsoft Connect website which has recently undergone a major revision.

In addition to the CTP build of the .NET Framework 3.0, a release candidate (RC) build of the Windows Workflow Foundation has also been released and can be downloaded here:

June CTP Available, RC Build of WF

Update June 24, 2006 1:08PM PST - Microsoft may well have uploaded Windows Vista Build 5456 as Microsoft Connect is suddenly very slow...

Update June 24 2006 1:35PM PST - Build 5456 of Windows Vista is now available for download on Microsoft Connect in both x86 and x64 editions.

WinHEC 2006 - Windows Vista Beta 2 and Office 2007 Beta 2

DougHolland — Tue, 23 May 2006 18:37:00 GMT

At the Microsoft WinHEC 2006 conference in Seattle today, Microsoft announced the release of the Beta 2 milestone binaries for both Windows Vista (Build 5384), Windows "Longhorn" Server (Build 5384), and Office 2007.

As I write this blog entry I'm downloading these binaries and will blog about the quality of these builds once I have had a chance to install them in the next day or so. One thing to note if you're planning on testing Windows Vista on an x64 platform you'll need a DVD burner capable of burning dual layer 8Gb DVD's as the .iso image for the x64 platform is just a touch above the 4.7Gb limit on conventional DVD's.

Update May 24, 2006 - NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 Device Driver Problems

I successfully downloaded both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows Vista Beta 2 last night and today installed the 32-bit version on my Dell Inspiron 9400 laptop which is equipped with the NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 graphics card. The graphics driver for this device still causes the blue screen of death when I attempt to refresh the performance rating or run any application that uses the more impressive graphics characteristics of Windows Vista such as the new chess application. While I'm sure that NVIDIA will resolve these issues before Windows Vista RTM (release to manufacturing) I would have certainly liked these problems to have been solved for the Beta 2 milestone.

I'll therefore post some screenshots of Windows Vista Beta 2 and Office 2007 Beta 2 using my workstation that uses an ATI graphics card instead, these should be available sometime on May 25th 2006.

Update May 25, 2006 - Windows Server "Longhorn" Beta 2 Does Not Support Dual Booting Windows Vista Beta 2

So last night I installed Windows Vista Beta 2 and Office 2007 Beta 2 and life was being fairly good to me until I decided that I would install Windows Server "Longhorn" Beta 2 onto the second hard drive within the workstation; unfortunately Windows Server "Longhorn" Beta 2 never presents me with a boot menu to enable me to get back to the Windows Vista Beta 2 installation. If anyone reading this knows how to customize the boot loader such that I can see both operating systems when I turn on the machine please e-mail me through this blog and let me know how to do this.

As such the screenshots that I'd previously promised will be slightly delayed while I resolve these issues.

Windows Vista Build 5381

DougHolland — Thu, 11 May 2006 06:36:00 GMT

Windows Vista build 5381 was recently released to beta testers and although it is not due to be released as a CTP build on MSDN subscriber downloads, it appears to be one of the best builds of Windows Vista released to date.

Below are several screen shots from the 64-bit version of Windows Vista build 5381 beginning with one showing the new desktop with several windows being tabbed between using the new tabbing feature (Windows Key + Tab), which makes use of the graphics capabilities of Windows Vista assuming you have an appropriate graphics card.

Windows Vista now includes a performance scoring that is intended to help you determine software that will be, or will not be, supported by the hardware upon which Windows Vista is running.

In Windows Vista build 5381 we also can see the improved graphics available in the Minesweeper and Solitaire games along with a new Chess game.

February CTP for Windows Vista, Windows SDK, and Orcas released

DougHolland — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 21:31:00 GMT

The February CTP for Windows Vista, Windows SDK (and WinFX) and Orcas technologies such as Cider have been released on the Windows Vista and WinFX Dev Centers.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/

http://msdn.microsoft.com/winfx/