Just booting into build 5219, you can see a number of functional and aesthetic changes. The taskbar in this build is now translucent--compared to an opaque black color in Beta 1--and more elegant looking. That translucency won't help you get work done more quickly, but it does hint at fit and finish improvements to come. The taskbar improvements don't end with this simple graphical change, however. When you mouse over the taskbar buttons of running tasks, a new taskbar preview window pops-up (
Figure), giving you a nice visual reminder of the underlying window. What about when the taskbar is grouping buttons? Why, the pop-up stacks up, of course (
Figure).
Copy and move operations are much smoother in build 5219 than they were in Beta 1. For example, I often had problems dragging and dropping before, and had to resort to Copy/Cut and Paste instead. Now, everything works properly.
Task switching has also improved, and in two different ways no less. The typical ALT+TAB key combination, which switches you between running tasks, has changed to a more visual presentation, codenamed Flip, that previews the contents of each application's window as you navigate through the list. There is also a second new kind of task switching, codenamed Flip 3D, which is instantiated by hitting Windows Key + Spacebar; this style of task switching open windows in a stacked, three-dimensional view that appears to have been lifted wholeheartedly from Sun's Project Looking Glass, an advanced UI effort that will result in a future Linux and Solaris interface. No matter its origins, Flip 3D is cool looking (
Figure).
Help, though still woefully incomplete, does offer more information and is even occasionally (very occasionally) helpful (
Figure). Tray icons and other UI elements now display a new rounded balloon help pop-up (
Figure). Instead of cryptic desktop clean-up options like Tile Windows Horizontally and Tile Windows Vertically (as in XP), build 5219 now offers simpler options such as Show Windows Stacked and Show Windows Side by Side (
Figure).