It was a dark and stormy night. Jason Rappaport, headache medicine by his side, puts the DVD disc into the burner at 2am. He has planned this since the day before, although his headache has made him do it all a bit earlier than he wanted to. Despite this, he will overcome the pain of looking at a flickering screen in order to try out Microsoft’s latest public stable release of their new OS, Windows Vista.

Build 5536, or pre-RC1, is the most stable release of Vista to date. That’s what they say, anyhow. This is my first jump into the Vista world, so I haven’t experienced the headaches (no pun intended) that other people have with previous builds. I will, however, report on this latest build, as it’s my first experience.

I’d heard of a lot of people being scared of installing Vista, which made me scared, naturally. I didn’t want to be the magical 1 out of 100 people who had their hard disks cleared because of a buggy installation. I decided to go on the safer side: A dual-boot. This would be my first experience really setting up a form or permanent dual-boot system. It turned out to be quite easy. All I had to do was get some partition software and split my C:\ drive up however I wanted. I created a 60GB partition out of free space on my C:\ drive for Vista. I’d seen another person make a 20GB partition, but I felt that was definitely not enough if I wanted to really get a feel for what I would be using in the future. I named it the V:\ drive, in the tradition of the article I read that helped me create the partition.

I restarted my computer, let the partition make itself, then waited for Vista to finish downloading. It wouldn’t finish until 2am, so I set my alarm for 5am and tried to go to bed. Unfortunately, I had an annoying headache that kept me up. I got about four hours of sleep, and woke up at exactly 2am because a very bright flash of lighting had woken me. When I went to the computer to check on Vista, there were six minutes left for the download. I waited it out, and burned my DVD. Things went smoothly from then on: I inserted the DVD and a window popped up asking me to install Vista or to check compatibility. I knew my computer was compatible. For those who don’t know, here are my [basic] specs:

Windows XP Professional SP2
AMD Athlon 64 4000+
nVidia 7800GTX
1GB PC3200 RAM
Dual 250GB HDD’s

Going into any more detail than that doesn’t matter. In any case, I knew I would be fine. I expected having only 1GB of RAM might screw me over sometime in the future, but it wasn’t to be worried about now. However, it’s to be noted that Vista has a minimum requirement of 512 MB. And that’s how much it uses sitting idle, I noticed. Half of my memory is gone just from idle computing.

Welcome to Windows Vista

I checked to install, and the process began. The only problem encountered was a small restart issue, in which the computer began to restart during the very FIRST restart cycle, but never actually shut down. This was fixed by simply turning the computer off and back on, and did not hurt the installation in the slightest. It actually moved the installation along to where it was supposed to be going. The rest of the installation proceeded as a normal Windows installation would. However, the last of a proper percentage display next to the last step, “Completing Installation” made me a bit frustrated, considering it was that step which took longest to complete. There were no signs of life from my computer while that process was going on, save the moving ellipsis, and the occasional blink from my keyboard’s LCD screen. The monitor shut on and off once.

It restarted, and from there I got a message saying something like “Please wait while Windows prepares to start up for the first time…” I was fooled by it, because it wasn’t really starting up. It was still installing stuff. It restarted again, and then I was in.

I’ve modified my original Windows XP installation with Vista skins, transformation packs, sounds and whatnot, so when Vista actually turned on I was quite surprised – surprised that it looked exactly the same, and acted exactly the same, as its GUI-edited XP counterpart. I actually questioned whether or not it had worked for a moment, but as soon as I saw that the images and text underneath each transparent window were blurred, I knew it had been a success. Obviously it had selected Aero Glass as my user interface based on the fact that my computer kicks ass or something. There was a whole process before the first startup (the REAL first startup) where it detected your computer’s performance.

The whole operating system is dynamic like that. It’ll detect things for you, give you rating on your computer (mine is a 4.2, though I don’t know what that’s out of), and whatnot.

An OS made of Glass

The more you use it, the more you realize how many little differences were made from XP, especially if you’ve got the power to use Aero Glass.

Glass is the theme everyone knows about, relates to Vista, and the one that everyone wants to make sure their computer can run. Let’s face it: If you can’t run Glass, Vista is just plain ugly. Aero is one of several themes known as “High Contrast” themes. All themes are high contrast themes. I assume to use them you must have high contrast enabled, and indeed it is enabled by default if you are using a high contrast theme, which you will be because again, all themes are high contrast.

Probably the biggest hype about Aero Glass is the 3D user interface. It has its critics – most people would say it’s pointless. The 3D interface, known as “Flip 3D,” allows users to switch between windows while viewing live info of the window in, obviously, a 3D form. In short, it’s your normal Alt+Tab on steroids. Flip 3D is accessed through Windows+Tab, and then pressing Tab consecutively will surf through windows, just like Alt+Tab. To make Flip 3D seem even more pointless, you’re also offered normal Alt+Tab, in case you’re allergic to 3D, which in Vista could be a bit of a problem for you. Flip 3D isn’t really a feature, though Vista will surely make it seem like it’s the pride and joy of the operating system. One of the main benefits of using the Glass interface, it states, is the ability to use Flip 3D.

Most aspects of the operating system under Glass run in 3D. From everything to closing or minimizing a window to playing a game of Minesweep (with new and improved 3D graphics), it’s all powered by a 3D engine. Everything has a fancy and smooth animation because of the 3D enhancements, and I mean everything. Screensavers are now much more impressive, utilizing the new hardware that will inevitably come from the future of Vista computers. The only thing that isn’t 3D about Vista are the vectors, which are new enough to the operating system that they may as well be placed in the category of “You want this if you want 3D.”

Vectors are one of the features I truly enjoy about Vista, because now icons – and everything else – can be scaled freely. I’ve waited long for an operating system where switching from 1024×768 to 1600×1200 has the ability to make it look like a much sharper 1024×768, instead of making everything else seem incredibly small. You’ll see really big icons all over the place in Vista, including the desktop. It’s very much torn out of DesktopX and similar concepts, and it’s something many people will probably enjoy. Selecting and highlighting icons on the desktop will now remind any previous Mac user more of their OSX computer than ever before.

Something many people complain are blatant rip-offs from OSX are the “gadgets” that come with Vista and can decorate the Windows Sidebar. Widgets are by far nothing new, and exist in some form on nearly every OS; even Palm OS has a calculator widget. The gadgets are highly animated and can be placed anywhere, providing neat information, slideshows of images, clocks, or even sticky notes – your general widget propaganda. This will become most interesting when people are customizing their desktops int he way they personalize their Google Homepage with widgets created by other people, and not just Google.

Something the Windowblinds theme makers will not offer you is the many colors of Vista’s Glass theme. While you can change this manually in color options, it’s neat to know the Microsoft thought that people would like to see their glass in at least eight different colors. It would be even nicer if you could change it to any color through an RGB field, but that might not happen for a while. I can see it coming in the final Vista, though.

Mom, I want the 4.2!

When it comes to changing your themes and customizing your computer, Vista is very simple. It’s a change from the way it was done in XP. Everything is now under a Control Panel option called “Personalization.” Under Personalization, you can change every normal setting you used to about your desktop, only now each tab is separated into links in a very normal-looking window. it’s impossible not to be able to find what you need; Microsoft must think we’re morons, the way they describe some of their links. Vista will definitely be suited to the users who do not know a lot about computer usage. Then again, this is Vista Ultimate you run when you beta test – if it’s Ultimate, shouldn’t we be able to turn off descriptions that make us feel like the computer thinks we’re retarded?

The entire control panel runs like that. Large icons and easy to interpret descriptions adorn the screen and every option you could think of. Going in and out of control panel options reminds one of the switch from McAfee VirusScan 7.0 to 8.0. While in 7.0 things seemed rather separated, each in their own little place with little direction of how to get to each option, 8.0 made the whole application seem like one by keeping the same window the entire time, with the same layout on each page of the window as it took you through the different settings. Applying those settings works in the same way.

In the good old “System” icon, you’ll see right away both how it matches the Control Panel you just came from, and that this operating system is very dynamic. There is checks your configuration and rates your PC on some odd scale, which will later be used for software. Software will be created for your “Base Level.” Software will have minimum Base Level requirements in order to run. Personally, I find this a step backward. Isn’t it much better to have the software check actual system specifications and determine whether it’s fit to run based on that, rather then setting it to a standard made by Microsoft? Won’t that just make it even easier to keep games stuck on Windows? Mac and Linux have no such system, a system which is designed to once again baby the people who have little computer knowledge. No longer will people have to worry about their actual system specifications, as long as they know the Base Level of their PC. Selling points for a computer will probably be based on the Base Levels of a Vista PC in the future. As for Mac and Linux machines, they may get even less buyers/users than they do now, because Vista makes it seem like anyone could handle it with little difficulty. And when I say anyone, I mean anyone – Vista even offers an “Optimized for Blindness” mode that uses no monitor.

Finding the Lost Remote

Searching wasn’t a feature to brag about in Windows XP. In fact, it’s quite a shameful process. Vista changes that, integrating magical search boxes into just about everything. The search looks through your entire system, and finds what you need rather quickly. I was able to bring up notepad fast and easily through the Start Menu search. Going to a search window is even more interesting, because it now feels like something is dedicated and working hard to find your files. When they’re found, they look like exactly what you want. A search for “Ranma” pulled up a list of recent videos I had watched with “Ranma” in the name. If those results aren’t satisfactory, you have the option of doing an advanced search. If you want to do an advanced search before a basic one, you can drop down the advanced search tab, which will bring a bunch of options quickly to you. You can also easily choose what file types to show through buttons in a toolbar rested on the window.

If you never used the search function much in XP, it’s because you knew how long it took to find something, and how pitiful the results were. if you thought you;d never use the search function again, you’ll be thinking different with Vista. As soon as you know the name of the program you want to use, but don’t feel like going through the programs menu in the Start Menu, you’ll end up typing the name into the little search bar in the Start Menu, which will make the program appear as you type in the area where your most used programs used to be. And once you click out of the search and onto something else, those most used programs come right back.

The Headaches

A Vista pre-RC1 build doesn’t come without bugs and incompatible software. While everything ran smoothly, it first started with no software and no drivers. My keyboard and mouse worked, but Logitech didn’t offer any advanced drivers for Vista. nVidia claimed that their drivers worked with Vista, however I can only assume this is what happened: Microsoft has made this build of Vista so new and incredible, that things no longer work with it.

In the middle of the installation, I received an error message saying that the drivers were not recognized by Vista. The dialog asked me whether or not I trusted the content, and I said I did. The drivers began to install, but not long afterward did the entire system crash, reduced to a blinking white underscore (a la DOS) on the top of my screen. Realizing the OS was lost, I restarted my computer with the power button.

The keyboard and mouse I have don’t work until the actual OS boots up, so when I received the normal screen asking me which operating system to boot into, I had no choice but to say Vista. After that, it asked me whether or not to boot in Safe Mode. I would have liked Safe Mode, but I had no choice but to boot normally, since that’s what was highlighted. Booting normally, Vista now had no video. I waited and wondered why my monitor didn’t turn on, and I realized it was because of the faulty graphics drivers. I restarted and plugged in a spare keyboard, which I’m never without in case I do need it for these types of situations. I booted into Safe Mode, and installed the drivers successfully from there. When I restarted, there was still no picture on my screen. I restarted again, booted into Safe Mode, and did a quick system restore.

System Restore is now a bit smarter. It has the ability to recommend which restore point to use before you actually look at your available restore points. This is useful, but may be more useful if you knew chronologically where that recommended restore point was. I didn’t know if it was the most recent or the first one made, so I checked – it was the most recent. I restored to one before that, and lo and behold my video came back. nVidia’s Vista Drivers need an update to ensure compatibility with Vista RC1.

Creative’s Sound Blaster X-Fi Fata1ity drivers were next on the list. Luckily, those worked without a problem, even though they’re experimental Vista drivers. While it’s lacking almost all of the features of the XP version, it allows the sound card to produce sound, namely out of the X-Fi I/O drive I plug my headphones into, which for the testing purposes of Vista is all I need.

Installing older programs doesn’t always work. For this, Vista has a Compatibility program. Running an installer under this allows Vista to tweak it’s settings to support Windows Vista the best it can, and install from there. It allowed me to have a very successful installation of CCCP, which before running under the compatibility program said it was for XP/2000/etc only. Google Talk and Trillian, my two main instant messaging clients, work flawlessly on Vista – and I’m executing them from the C:\ drive, not the V:\ drive. I tried to execute various other programs of of the C:\ drive in hopes that I wouldn’t have to install too many things on the Vista partition, but many applications had errors, and said things were missing. Winamp would open but not play any music. Office 2003 said that the system was not configured to run the programs. Cakewalk’s Sonar 5 wouldn’t even start up without a barrage of error messages. Installing various codecs for video and audio brought error popups due to incompatibility. Running World of Warcraft worked, but it was slow due to my lack of 2GB’s of memory, and could not connect to the server for some reason.

Something worthy to mention, though, is that now when Windows reports an error, you can click the cancel button and the error reporting will actually cancel, and the window will fade away in it’s fancy 3D animation.

The most recent headache produced by Vista is the consistent crashing of explorer.exe. This has happened twice in about ten minutes. First all of the names of windows disappeared – I could have sworn seeing the name of my folder on the top bar one minute, and gone the next. Soon after, there was a message saying that explorer.exe has crashed. Vista knew how to handle it, though, which is a good thing. All of my windows, namely this browser which I was using to type this very article, were saved and put back up when explorer came back. However, it does not atone for the fact that it did happen, something which I hope is fixed for future versions.

The Final Verdict

Vista is going to make a fine operating system. It just needs a bit more time, and they’ve got until November of this year to make us happy. I’ll be picking up my copy from a business, and I do hope they choose to get Vista Ultimate, because I don’t feel like paying the steep prices that will be put out for some features I deem necessary.

This build was far more stable and functional than I imagined it to be, and yet it can’t hold much to what XP has at the moment. It’s got the fancy 3D workings and the nice search options, but what it needs to really feel like home is more software. It being a pre-RC1 build, I can’t be picky about software, because most of it is still in development. However, it’s when these in-development products clash with the system that you get the real problems. Otherwise, Vista is looking to be in fine shape for a January ’07 release to the public.

Right now, it’s not worth the switch. If you’re desperate for the Vista look, download Vista Transformation Pack 5.0, and find a copy of WindowBlinds. The resemblance to Vista that this makes on XP is uncanny, and now I can say that from experience.

RC1 supposedly comes out publicly on September 5th. I’ll be waiting to download it, just like everyone and their pants will be.