Well, now that Vista is finally out I guess I should add some screen shots. This is actually a "release candidate" version but I haven't yet come across the final version and I am not about to run out and buy one. At any rate this appears to be close enough for a few quick screen shots.

This is what you get when you first boot up. As you can see Microsoft has given Windows a completely new look yet again. It may not be obvious at first but it is now using 3D-accelerated rendering to display the desktop. Also the window borders and the new "Windows Sidebar" are translucent.

Hmmm... I have seen this somewhere before. Oh, right, MacOS X has been doing this for quite a while now and this somewhat mimics the Aqua look. Oh, well, nice to see Microsoft finally catching up in the area of 3d video accelerated desktops.

When you first start Vista you will see the "Welcome Center" that just shows some common things you might want to do if you are new to Vista.

In the past there have been "home" "professional" and "server" versions of Windows, but now they have dozens of different versions with such creative names as "Home Premium" and "Ultimate" that bring images of gas pumps to mind. Even more confusingly it seems they are now pushing their 64-bit versions of Windows a bit more.

First, lets get rid of the background to reduce the screen shot file sizes. For more than 10 years the way to do that has been to right click on the desktop and select "properties". No more! The menu option is now called "personalize", and the "Display Properties" tabbed dialog has been replaced with a webby style window.

And they have rearranged the start menu again. They removed the "run" menu item and replaced it with a "search" box that can be used for the same purpose. The "all programs" menu item no longer opens a sub-menu, but rather switches places with the list of recently used program items.

And by this time I am getting a little annoyed with that "Sidebar". I don't need a second clock, I can't even read old-fasioned analog clocks very easily anyway, that RSS feed thing isn't going to connect to anything since I'm not configuring IE... and WHAT IN THE HELL gives with that picture that keeps changing?

Supposedly you can add additional "gadgets" to it, but I don't see why anyone would really want to.

It seems like I have seen this somewhere else... Right, MacOS X calls this the "Dashboard", except theirs is not this annoying and Apple doesn't stick it in your face.

And this is one of the big new featues in Vista: Exposé.... no, wait, that is what *MacOS* calls it... Dang it Bill, stop blatantly ripping off Mac OS X!

Oh, and the task bar now has little previews of minimized windows... kind of like... you know... Mac OS X, although Apple's is a little better as the preview becomes the minimized icon itself.

The Windows control panel still defaults to a webby view like similar to Windows XP, but thankfully you can still select "classic" mode, as shown above. (Classic mode is actually more like MacOS, but that was ripped off way back in Windows 3.0)