RSSMicrosoft Releases December Vista CTP
By Nate Mook | Published December 19, 2005, 2:58 PM
In a conference call Monday afternoon, Shanen Boettcher of the Windows Client group announced the availability of the December Windows Vista CTP, numbered build 5270. The CTP focuses on improving security, performance and mobility aspects of Microsoft's next Windows release, but still lacks the Sidebar.
The test build is available now to Vista technical beta testers and will show up later today on MSDN and TechNet. Around 500,000 people will be testing the December CTP, which according to Boettcher is, "intended for use by developers and IT pros."
On the security side of things, build 5270 features the newly re-branded Windows Defender, formerly known as AntiSpyware. The malware removal tool is now able to run as a standard user, rather than requiring an administrator account.
Defender also sports a "redesigned and simplified user interface to fit with the vista theme," says Boettcher.
In order to keep information on a Windows Vista computer from being stolen through USB drives, build 5270 implements a group policy to control removable storage and prevent data leakage. "This features gives IT pros a centralized way to control and block the use of these devices with the machine," said Boettcher.
International Domain Name (IDN) support has also been added to the IE7 build in the December CTP with security in mind. "You'll see the ability here to detect if characters are being used in the URL that are not consistent to the language that the user is set to be running in," explained Boettcher.
Parental controls are now available through the Control Panel or Games Explorer to limit the time children can use a Vista computer and prevent games with certain ESRB ratings from being played. Parents can access a detailed report their children's usage of the system.
Windows Vista's firewall has been bulked up in build 5270 as well. Bi-directional filtering is now supported, along with advanced security features around IPsec, used by corporations with virtual private networks.
Boettcher also revealed in the conference call that the default Off mode in Vista would not shut down the computer entirely. Instead, the system will enter a sleep mode that, after a certain period of time, will roll over into a hibernate mode. This will help systems boot faster and save power, says Boettcher.
A new feature in build 5270 is full hard drive encryption, known as BitLocker. By using a Trusted Platform Module, or TPM, chipset, users can lock down all the data on a system including the operating system and boot sector. The idea is to keep data on stolen laptops from being accessed.
SuperFetch, a Vista feature which speeds up the system by keeping applications used frequently in a memory cache, now supports the use of expandable memory by plugging in USB drives. Jim Allchin demonstrated the SuperFetch technology at the PDC in September.
Not all changes in build 5270 are on the inside, however. Microsoft says it has been making progress with Vista's user interface and the December CTP features new forms of transparency and animations in the UI. "[It's] not done yet, but I think you'll see some great advances," said Boettcher.
The Media Center and Windows Media Player user interfaces have also been tweaked to be more Vista-like. WMP 11 now uses thumbnails to give users a better view of their content.
The Windows Sidebar has still yet to make an appearance in an official Vista build. Microsoft has not yet commented on when the feature would be added, but Boettcher said the company is on track for a feature-complete build of Windows Vista to be ready by early next year.
During a question and answer session, Boettcher hinted that the February CTP is expected to be that release, but Microsoft is providing no official timeframe for the next CTP build or Windows Vista Beta 2.
I have windows vista beta 1 installed on my computer and have been having a hard time just getting a virus scanner to work on it. Yeah they might have the security bulked up but the virus protection won't work I tried mainly nortons 2004 for both systemworks and internet security and the internet security wouldn't let me even boot the computer so I had to reinstall witch takes over an hour to do. but I do like a lot of the features that I see that windows vista is going to be coming out with after they get all the bugs out of it.
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|Basically Windows Vista should be renamed to Windows Katrina because it is a hurricane of hot air attempting to package minor features as a rich rewarding upgrade. Outside of Yet Another Revamped UI the majority of "features" are items that should have been in Windows years ago. There's nothing new here that the end user will notice or that adds anything to the standard "features" (WordPad, NotePad, etc.) of Windows.
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|Liked this article! Much more info than CNET's! Hopefully by mid-2007 SP1 for Vista will come out with the sweet SQL-based file system (infinitely useful). Oh, and hopefully by that time MS has bought Maxthon and made it into IE 8...
Within a year or two from that point, Firefox would lose 90% of its userbase and go back to its "natural size" of hardcore MS haters - the rest will use whatever their "shiny new PC" comes with (IE7/8).
Then again they say "PROPHECY WAS GIVEN TO THE FOOLS".
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|lol. possible.
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|Great~~ looking forward for a great O/S that's the best out there.
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|I do NOT like its name. I repeat, I do ...NOT... like "Vista" name.
!"#¤@£$
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|I don't either but there's nothing to be done about it now. It's final. Besides they could have done much worse. I thought XP was a really stupid name too but I got used to it.
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|I don't like it really, but it's cool to think about. Vista is a view. Windows is the mechanism which aids viewing. Windows.... Vista.... Windows Vista. Ahh, I can see clearly now!
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|lol... it's just a name.
It could be called "dirt" for all I care.
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|Funny, I don't recall them asking for our opinions. I guess we're left with two choices: accept it or refuse to buy it.
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|...or cement?
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|The Vista Sidebar will end up going the same way as the Win9x Channel Bar.
An ingeneous solution to a non-existent problem !
The Computer Rodent
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|I couldn't agree more...
there eventually IS A NEED for quick information of MANY STATISTICS at once, say on a notebook travelling in a train, you open book, look, close...
BUT, it can't be done via sidebar, something like Konfabulator or those Apple gadgets is the way to do it, it won't eat your screen when you don't need it!
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|Not Konfabulator but Object Desktop.
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|i tried installing last build...wow, my dvd drives or webcam etc. none of it had drivers...so ummm, will i have to buy all new hardware for this OS?
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|How could your DVD drives not have drivers? If you mean the ability to play movies you have to have something like PowerDVD installed for that, like always. For other stuff like webcams, etc yeah it's not quite ready for some stuff yet. I imagine they'll concentrate on drivers later on.
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|As I've noticed with previous OS releases, DVD, Webcam, and pretty much any "multimedia" device either gets supported at the last minute, or not at all. It seems like every time I upgrade, I have to plan on getting a new scanner at the very least. If your device is more than a year old, it may not be supported.
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|Uhh, they are not concentrating on drivers at the moment. Besides, it is really the manufacturers job to create the drivers for your different hardware. Just give it time and your hardware will work, I am sure of it.
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|not having drivers and not having codecs are two different things, so you're exactly right.
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|"In order to keep data on a Windows Vista computer from being stolen through USB drives, build 5270 implements a group policy to control removable storage and prevent data leakage."
Yay!
"Windows Vista's firewall has been bulked up in build 5270 as well. Bi-directional filtering is now supported,"
About. Damn. Time. (Of course, ZoneLabs will sue them now, right?)
"...into a hibernate mode. This will help systems boot faster and save power, says Boettcher."
God forbid limiting the amount of useless services running in the background....
"SuperFetch, a Vista feature"
^W^WUndocumented registry entry that's been around since win2k. (But the USB drive bit is new)
"[It's] not done yet, but..."
Er....It's a CTP build. Duh?
"WMP 11 now uses thumbnails..."
How do they thumbnail an MP3?? *grin*
"The Windows Sidebar has still yet to make an appearance..."
Yay!
I'll install it. For a day or two.
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|thumbnailing an mp3 is easy. Lets make the asumption that it is a legal mp3. WMP can do a CDDB lookup and have a thumbnail of the album cover with perhaps the track number in the corner as a thumbnail.
For other titles that it can't get an album cover for I am sure they will just have a generic icon.
Or I can be totaly wrong as I haven't seen it yet. I am just conjecturing.
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|PC_Tool wrote:-
"^W^WUndocumented registry entry that's been around since win2k."
Wrong... just some BS that has been circulating the Internet. SuperFetch ISN'T in ANY other OS like W2K, XP or W2K3.
XP and W2K3 do have prefetch, which is different from Vistas SuperFetch.
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|"Lets make the asumption that it is a legal mp3."
Legal MP3? Isn't that an oxymoron? (I'm joking for you flamers out there)
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|It could be mp3 you bought from on-line store for instance...
I really like Vista progress...so many changes and we are still in year 2005 and another one to go, maybe Vista will not need SP so fast :-)
It will be hell of an OS, a death to competition...maybe, that depends if Leopard will be so -release- buggy as Tiger was (hundreds of patches/fixes and it was just a minor redesign of Panther).
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|I wonder you reply to PC_Tool, if you would read betanews comments more often you would know his...eh...ehehe...oppinion.
LINUX ROXOOOOORS!!!!!!!
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|For the average home user? Er...you apparently *don't* read my comments.
:)
Don't be an idiot and assume just because I make one or two criticisms of MS software that I am a linux fanboy. That would be just plain stupid of you.
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|"speeds up the system by keeping applications used frequently in a memory cache"
Sounds like prefetch to me. :)
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|"maybe Vista will not need SP so fast "
You mean unless they want to add features like...WinFS...or Monad...ya know...all the stuff they dropped from it's initial release.
"and it was just a minor redesign of Panther"
Panther works wonderfully fast on my Dual 2.5Ghz G5. Tiger, fully patched? Runs like a damn dog. With three broken legs... I dispise Tiger.
And no, I'm not at all bitter. :P
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|OK, So where is it. It has not shown up on Technet or MSDN yet... Does anyone else see it?
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|Server 5270 is on the Usenet already...
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|Yeah... prefetch with massive ram requirements... lol Oh wait, that's what Vista will be right? Just one large ram requirement? ;-)
Seriously, though, it's about time they really started doing something with the prefetch... it's always been a great idea... now, if they bundle in the abilty to tweak the SuperFetch and to add apps at boot... oh that would be sweet... prefetching VS.NET at system boot would save at least 2 minutes every day of my life ;)
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|isn't bittorrent slightly faster/more reliable for this kind of massive releases?
BTW my ISP(s) meters usenet usage (1GB or so a month) - what's a recommended newsgroup provider?
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|And increase boot-times.
Not a good solution...
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