The Windows Vista Beta 1 desktop is visually similar to build 5048, and if you have a dedicated graphics adapter you'll notice that Aero is enabled by default. Windows feature a polished, glass-like translucent look, and window buttons light up as you mouse over them
(Figure). One nice touch: the Recycle Bin visually appears to fill up with little crumpled balls of paper as you throw items out
(Figure).
The taskbar hasn't changed much, but on notebook computers, you'll notice a new power management icon, which launches a nice dialog
(Figure), and a new Presentation Settings icon that lets you configure how the screen behaves when you're giving a presentation
(Figure) (I have no idea why that's visible by default).
A third tray icon is more auspicious and will be instantly familiar to users of MSN Toolbar with Windows Desktop Search: It's the Windows Search Engine, and clicking it provides you with quick access to the engine's configuration dialog. The search window, too, should look familiar, since it debuted earlier this year in Mac OS X Tiger (
Figure). Windows Search behaves as you'd expect, but I'm going to delve deeper into that feature in a future technology showcase.
The Start menu, too, has changed little since 5048 and features the same odd mix of Windows Vista and XP icons
(Figure); Windows Client Group Director Neil Charney told me recently not to fear, that all of the icons throughout Vista would be upgraded to be big, high-resolution, and beautiful. What's interesting is that some of the legacy icons--notably that for Set Program Access and Defaults--look the same as in XP but have been re-rendered in more high resolution versions
(Figure).
Start menu behavior is identical to that in 5048, but it bears another look. Instead of a cascading sub-menu for the All Programs link, as with XP, Vista features a curious in-place sub-menu that replaces the left half of the Start menu. Here's how it works. When you click the All Programs link, the left half of the Start menu changes to display the Programs menu, in-place
(Figure). If you click on a folder, the list expands to show the contents of that folder
(Figure). This, of course, can trigger the appearance of an in-place scroll bar if the programs list gets too long, which is odd looking
(Figure). When you click the Back link (which appears in the same location as All Programs), the Start menu returns to its normal state.
Because Microsoft built a search box into the Start menu, you can no longer use keyboard shortcuts to navigate around. To launch the Control Panel in XP, for example, you simply hit the Windows key and then the "C" key and, voila, the Control Panel opens. In Windows Vista, however, when you hit the "C" key, the system assumes you're searching for an application
(Figure). Sigh.