Windows Vista Beta 1 includes technology designed for giving presentations over a wireless network using any standard network projector. It's unclear why this esoteric functionality is provided right there in the system tray and Start menu by default, but there it is. I don't have a network projector to test this on, but I'll look into it

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While RDP doesn't appear to have changed in Windows Vista (at least not yet), it does fire up a security warning dialog when you connect to a remote server, which I'm sure is in keeping with the company's current security requirements (Figure).

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As you might expect, Product Activation is still present in Windows Vista Beta 1, but its behavior is different than it is under Windows XP. I've been told that Activation actually waits for several days now after installation before popping up its first annoying reminder dialog, but that hasn't been my experience. In fact, on most installs, I haven't even seen it yet. On one in which I was able to get networking working a few days after the initial install, the Activation dialog did finally pop-up. But Activation isn't listed anywhere in the UI by default, which is interesting

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In addition to the accessibility tools Microsoft included with Windows XP, Windows Vista Beta 1 has a new Speech Recognition application that lets you control your computer with your voice. The first time you run this application, a wizard steps you through the process of adjusting the system microphone (using a new Microphone Wizard, Figure), training the computer to recognize your voice, and then optionally prints out a cheat sheet of the 10 most often used Speech Recognition commands

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As with build 5048, the eventual greatness that will be Sync Manager is only tantalizingly hinted at by the inclusion of a bare bones version of this program (Figure). Sometime by Beta 1, we'll have a better look at Sync Manager, but right now even less useful than the Items to Synchronize applet in XP, which is really saying something.

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Remember how the Backup application in Windows XP was this bizarre byproduct of Windows NT that had somehow survived into the new millennium like a vestigial reminder of our floppy-based past? Well, wipe that awful memory from your mind. Windows Vista Beta 1 includes an early, half-finished version of a new data backup and restore application, appropriately called Windows Backup, and it looks like it's going to be a winner. Some day.

Clearly marked as Windows Backup (BETA) in Beta 1 and codenamed SafeDocs, this application will do away with the horrible directory tree structures that mar other backup solutions and work in a far more simple way. In Beta 1, you can automatically backup files, recover specific files and folders, or recover all files. Eventually, you will be able to backup according to file type and utilize removable hard drives, not just CD and DVD media, as is the case in Beta 1.

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Though Windows Vista will eventually include Windows Media Player 11, the current builds include WMP 10, although it features some odd looking controls (Figure). Don't be confused, however: It's not new.

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I spent a bunch of time comparing the Start menu entries in Beta 1 to those in Windows XP. As you might expect, in addition to the new features, there are some things missing. In Beta 1, the following applications are missing in action from the Start menu: HyperTerminal, Backup (which has been replaced), Disk Cleanup, Disk Defragmenter, Files and Settings Transfer Wizard, Scheduled Tasks, Security Center (it's in Control Panel, however), System Information, System Restore, Scanner and Camera Wizard, and Tour Windows XP. I'm sure there's more.

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In the final shipping version of Windows Vista, Microsoft is overhauling the way in which user security works, and in my opinion it's a long time coming. In Windows XP, you typically set up user accounts to be Administrator or Limited User types. More specifically, what everyone really does is give all the accounts Administrator privileges because Limited User is badly broken and doesn't work. Admin-level accounts are nice because you can install, run, and remove applications without having to worry about any restrictions. But these accounts are dangerous because everything on the system runs at the most elevated security level. And if you get hacked, malicious code usually gets to run under your Admin-level privileges as well. It's like a little hidden benefit that Windows gives you, for free.

Ahem.

In other modern operating systems like UNIX, Linux, and Mac OS X, this isn't an issue. Even when users on those systems logon with Administrator-type accounts, most actions take place using vastly reduced privileges. And when you have to do something that could harm or change the system configuration, the system will prompt you to supply an Admin-level password. Again, this happens even when you're already logged on as an Administrator.

In Windows Vista, finally, Microsoft is adopting the same approach. But there are two issues with doing so in Windows. First, Windows wasn't architected to accommodate this type of security, so Windows Vista needed to be extensively overhauled to make this possible. Second, the vast library of Windows applications out there was written to assume that the user will have Administrator privileges. Thus, part of the Windows Vista overhaul will need to fake out those applications to ensure that they work normally under the new system.

Microsoft calls this change User Account Protection (UAP; it was formerly called Least Privileged User, or LUA). In Beta 1 it is off by default, but you can enable it with a shortcut in the Start menu (Figure). I'm told it will be on for good in future builds. If my experience with Beta 1 is any indication, many Windows users are going to find this change very difficult, and much more aggravating than any of the security changes Microsoft added to Windows XP SP2. Maybe it will get simpler over time.

Here's how it works now. When you enable UAP (and logoff and logon again), you'll be presented with a Windows Security dialog (Figure) any time you try to do something dangerous. The sheer number of actions that trigger this dialog, however, is alarming. Virtually every single Control Panel applet makes it come up, for example, as does installing an application. And so on. It gets kind of tiring after a while.

Behind the scenes, Windows Vista is running under a vastly reduced privilege level automatically. When the system requires an elevated privilege level, the dialog appears and you provide a password. This password is good only for the action you initiated. Everything else you do--even while the elevated action runs--happens with reduced privileges. There are other changes, too. With UAP enabled, the Windows Firewall seems to pop up more often. For example, I used Firefox for days before turning on UAP. After I enabled UAP, however, Windows Firewall warned me before letting Firefox connect again to the Internet.

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Overall the look and feel of Windows Vista Beta 1 is pleasant and well-designed, with a vague Mac OS X-like look. The use of transparencies and translucencies, however, shows that Microsoft is still years behind Apple, experience-wise. While Apple has long ago scaled back the amount of translucency you see in Mac OS X because of illegibility complaints, Windows Vista Beta 1 is full of rookie mistakes. For example, when you pull an Aero window frame over another window, the text below, as seen through the top window, is muddy and ugly (Figure). Get enough windows over each other and the effect is chaotic (Figure). Hopefully, the right kind of feedback during the beta program will cause them to tone this stuff down.

Also, this isn't the final user interface, so it's probably not worth getting too excited over, regardless of how you feel about the current UI. As far as I'm concerned, it's good but not great

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