Vista Beta 2 and Office 2007 released

[Iced_Eagle]

Alright, so the Vista Beta 2 is still only MSDN subscribers and TechNet guys, and all our testers (ala me, which is why I'll write up a mini-review when I install it later tonight)... However, Office 2007 is a public release!

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/winhec/default.mspx

There are all of the details.

Note that the Vista Beta 2 will be released publically soon enough. I'm not sure when though.

I was impressed with the last build, so I can't wait for this latest one

Paul Thurrott's Vista Beta 2 review (Work in Progress)

Screenshots

Paul Thurrott's Office 2007 Beta 2 Review

*Edit* More links!

Office 2007 Screenshots

Video of Vista Beta 2

PCMag review and more screenshots

 

[xombine]

Mmmm, sexeh Aero.

 

[Ikerous]

I still use office 97
I think every version has gotten progessively worse since

 

[Adrien C]

Cool, I'll gues I'll get the new OS for my new comp.

 

[nutcrackr]

More popups than what we get now? I hope come release we can switch off that "are you sure you want to do this?" crap

 

[Ikerous]

More popups than what we get now? I hope come release we can switch off that "are you sure you want to do this?" crap

Use the 97 version, theres none of the crap

(Or open office)

 

[StardogChampion]

Microsoft Word looks sexy now...

 

[Hazar]

looks rather bloated

 

[WhiteZero]

More popups than what we get now? I hope come release we can switch off that "are you sure you want to do this?" crap

Thats kinda foolish.

You'll highly regret turning that off, when you accidently hit No to the question "Would you like to save before you quit?"
-.-

 

[hungryduck]

oh boy, screenshots of microsoft word really get me going in the evening

 

[Chris D]

More popups than what we get now? I hope come release we can switch off that "are you sure you want to do this?" crap

You already can... I'm assuming you mean the Windows Vista security alerts?

 

[Space Farm]

Please explain why is this being released to the public? Is it limited to 30 days or something?

 

[nutcrackr]

You already can... I'm assuming you mean the Windows Vista security alerts?

Yes the vista alerts, the cnet guy said it will even ask you if you are an administrator. He was just checking driver versions and it asked him a few times.

 

[Barney Fife]

I just ran Windows Vista Upgrade Adviser through system and system passed with flying colors.......Woot Woot.


Hey Vista, I'm waiting for youuuuu.

 

[Iced_Eagle]

Yes you can turn off the UAC if you would like... In some of the earlier builds (where it used to take 3 dialogs before you could erase a shortcut off of the desktop)...

When you get Vista, go into command prompt... Now, I'm not sure if it wants an elevated command prompt, but for safety's sake go into your program files, right click on Command Prompt and click "Run Elevated". Then enter "secpol.msc" and then browse to Local Settings -> Security Settings and then anything that says "User Account Countrol" or "User Account Protection" simply disable...

Then you get zero dialogs. Though, if the current progress keeps going with UAP becoming less and less annoying, then by final release they should be down to a nice level, hopefully.

I'm going to install Vista later tonight, I'll post up a mini-review after I get to the desktop

 

[Hazar]

cool

tell us how customizable the desktop/taskbar is!

 

[destrukt]

gosh, so many things to download, 13 betas from the office 2007 suite, then vista beta 2 & even a few smaller betas most people don't get, my hotmail accnt has so many emails from ms with dl links and so on.

i'm getting office professional plus 2007 first which is 451mb, 30 mins left.

 

[Iced_Eagle]

cool

tell us how customizable the desktop/taskbar is!

If you have Aero Glass, you can change the color, saturation, and brightness, and also toggle transparency.

For the wallpapers, there is a nice mix of lots of styles (I personally choose a Light Aura, a greenish toned one.)



Right now my PC has some performance issues (my power supply is about to die pretty much, so my PC is _really_ underperforming!), so I'm barely hanging onto Aero Glass mode... I mean my intellimouse laser barely has power It's flickering when I'm running some intense applications. Happens in XP too, so I know it's not an OS problem.

Oh, and they actually have a really cool screensaver called Windows Energy, that is really cool to watch Not sure if there are any videos of it out there, but it's an awesome screensaver!

This is an awesome build of Vista, and even though my computer is sucking badly due to hardware problems, I can still enjoy Vista.

Once you start seeing all of Microsoft products starting to come together, you can really see the innovation MS is trying to bring to their UI's (Office 2007 products are awesome)

Overall, Vista is just awesome... I mean, everything you need is told to you and within mouse-click, and if not, it's very close, and not 10 menu's away.

I really can't wait for Vista to become my main OS.

Right now though, Creative needs to update their audio drivers to make them a little better performing... I mean they haven't updated their drivers since August 2005... I'm sure there is _something_ they could do to make their drivers better!

Anyone have anything they want to ask, I'd be more than willing to talk about...

 

[Space Farm]

Boot times, system memory usage compared to XP?

 

[Hazar]

I ment customizable as in expanding the taskbar, creating new buttons on it, and stuff like that you can do in most linux gui's

any sign of multiple desktops either?

 

[gweedodogg69]

I'm running Vista Beta 2 and Office 2007 Beta 2 on my laptop. I'm also using Vista to write this post. Downloaded it today off newsgroups. How did I activate? Simple...just activate over the phone and tell the (no offence) foreign guy that it's only installed on one system. Runs pretty smooth, disabled a few services. I've only tested Guild Wars and it runs fine. eTrust has a free 1 year beta AV for Vista and I downloaded it.

 

[ricera10]

Can anyone help me with this error?

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/1317/screen14gj.png

I'm the administrator of the computer, and I looked at the registry key location and it says I have all access to it...no one else seems to have this problem...

 

[Hazar]

why are you editing the registry already? D:

 

[theotherguy]

You already can... I'm assuming you mean the Windows Vista security alerts?

from my experience with the vista beta, there is no option for a program list that is automatically given access to the internet or other features. you literally have to grant access to every program all the time. However I might not have been able to find the option within vista's new and confusing options interface.

In my opinion vista is way overhyped. It's bigger, eats up 800MB of system memory just sitting there(!) and only has one or two really nice features. Otherwise its just XP except dumbed down for new users and with worthless, proscessor/videocard/ram sucking features, and more new constantly running programs to bog you down with annoying and worthless popups and junk features that you will never need or use.

 

[Adrien C]

Are they going to release it for free ?

How are the new games ?

 

[gweedodogg69]

800mb of RAM? Mine is using around 60mb of RAM. I disabled some unneccessary services and am running 43 processes which include IE7, Trillian, and eTrust Antivirus Vista Beta. This free etrust I downloaded from their site is the only full working AV that I know of. I think Norton Corp works on Vista.

 

[destrukt]

In my opinion vista is way overhyped. It's bigger, eats up 800MB of system memory just sitting there(!) ..

proof ?

.. and only has one or two really nice features. Otherwise its just XP except dumbed down for new users and with worthless, proscessor/videocard/ram sucking features, and more new constantly running programs to bog you down with annoying and worthless popups and junk features that you will never need or usae.

here is a post i made months ago and i've copied/pasted it countless times because of ignorant/clueless/ugly people.

-- i updated it a bit.

here are some of the new things in vista:

- aero [glass/express] is more then how it looks, but how it is coded/rendered (everything being a 3d object and so on, go do some research on avalon and other new api's) .. also includes things like flip 3d & live taskbar previews.
- security including new user account protection, bitdefender, ie7 (protected mode / new/better ssl support, addr bar showing on every window, greater phishing site detection and much more), parental controls, new/better firewall, full volume encryption, improved efs/smartcard support, new crypto tech, windows service hardening (all processes run with lowest-possible privileges & in isolation) & more.
- new/improved windows explorer .. it's just plain 10x better.
- new/improved start menu .. also just plain better.
- instant search including new virtual folder feature.
- new quality control process [ http://blogs.msdn.com/larryosterman/archive/2005/08/23/455193.asp ].
- new installer & deployment technology.
- new versions of bunbled apps + new bundled apps, like calender, new wmp, new mc, sidebar, gadgets and so on.
- better performance including superfetch, readyboost, new audio/network stack.
- vastly improved networking, in every way though the new ui may be confusing.
- new app platforms/apis including winfx, avalon, indigo, metro and so on.
- greater orgianisation including better ingeration of search, better and new use of metadata and so on.
- kernel is more or less rewritten.
- better kernel (things like heap/io has been addressed, which had some serious problems in xp) / user mode interaction, so driver problems/full system crashes are a thing of the past.
- dx10.
- new/better power options especially for mobility.
- new/better backup options.
- new/improved home user features; windows movie maker (can author dvds now), wmp 11 & media centre, windows photo gallery & so on.
- new/improved mobility features; sync centre, tablet pc & so on.
- new/improved business features; windows meeting space, more modular design & so on.

.. so, if you can say that it is just xp is dumbed down & whatever, i reserve the right to call you a freaking idiot/lemming.

the only things i won't be using are probably the mobility/power features as i have a macbook pro, so vista will be on my desktop though i'll probably end up installing it via bootcamp.

Are they going to release it for free ?

How are the new games ?

no, you'll pay for it like you have the past 10 or so years.

new games ? i'm assuming you're talking about dx10 games.. well, they aren't out yet.

 

[Space Farm]

no, you'll pay for it like you have the past 10 or so years...
new games ? i'm assuming you're talking about dx10 games.. well, they aren't out yet.

I'm assuming he's talking about the default windows games like Solitaire, Minesweeper etc...

 

[destrukt]

well, there's some new games like chess and that, they're neat..