Windows Vista Build 5270 (Dec CTP)

[NetRyder]

As expected, the December CTP is here today!

The Windows beta team is pleased to announce the availability of Windows Vista and Longhorn Server build 5270. This release is the December Customer Technology Preview (CTP). This build is not beta quality but is offered as a preview or our progress towards Beta 2. It will allow you to confirm bugs that have been fixed and begin testing features that have been added since build 5231.

Related Threads:
Windows Vista Build 5259 (Nov TAP CTP)
Windows Vista Build 5231 (Oct CTP)
Windows Vista Build 5219 (PDC CTP)
Windows Vista Build 5112 (Beta 1)
The Official PDC '05 Thread

 

[Electronic Punk]

Posted up more info on the frontpage, I don't know how well protected with regards to NDA, this release is yet.

 

[NetRyder]

Did you finish setting it up, EP? I'm going to install it tomorrow morning.

In the meantime, some screenshot galleries from this build are up on WinSuperSite:
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_5270_gallery_01.asp
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_5270_gallery_02.asp
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_5270_gallery_03.asp

Flip3D definitely needs anti-aliasing!

Update: Some more shots posted -
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_5270_gallery_04.asp
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_5270_gallery_05.asp

 

[Electronic Punk]

Yup it is all setup, I believe www.activewin.com has screenshots as well, but I am still confused about what I can and can't talk about, so I will just talk...

Both the installation DVD and installation procedure are starting to look alot more refined. As I said to you last night, thinngs seem to be starting to take a structure on the disk more like previous releases, still lots of random folders at the moment, but much more of an improvement.

As soon as I saw the grey bar going across the bottom having booted from the CD, I knew that the GUI had been changed and it now features the aero style and is starting to look more complete, rather than the very simple interface it had before.

Prompts where it wanted me to install it. I did note that after deleting my partitions C: (20gig) D: (20gig) and E: (whatever was left) it did prompt me to choose where I wanted to install, so I took the full space and it created disk(0)partition(3) - maybe that needs to refresh.

But anyway, asks my machine name and off it goes for 30-45 mins, still along time but I am sure as things are tied down this will improve. The source (i386 equiv.) directory is 6 times bigger since Windows 2000 (all I have here to compare atm) so there is definately more to be installed, but doesn't quite justify all that time so we should definately see an improvement.

Has a cheeky completing installation dialogue now but I really wasn't watching the installation.

First boot is a little more friendly now, will ask you to enter a username (profile name no different) and choose a profile picture, also now asks you to choose a PC name (again) and choose a wallpaper.

The machine then reboots (again? Don't know if it did before, as I said I wasn't watching) and you boot into Vista. The Codename Longhorn screen is still there, and I don't expect that to change until we hit release candidate, but who knows

Did feel quite sluggish but it was the first boot and had lots to do.
All installed, more later

 

[Khayman]

damn you people with your fancy computers and getting stuff and knowing things.... its annoying!

 

[NetRyder]

Nice post, EP!

I just started installing a few minutes ago, and it created disk(0)partition(3) for me too. I'm expecting the installation to take quite a while, especially since this is a laptop with a 4,200rpm drive.

Will post more after I've played with it a little. If anyone has any requests for screenshots of anything in particular, or questions about anything, post them here in this thread.

-----
Update: Looks like it's almost finished installing. That's 1 hour and 10 minutes already.
An amusing message came up on the screen now:

"Installation is taking longer than expected, but should be finishing soon.
Do not restart your computer during this time"

 

[Steevo]

Where may I find a copy of this crap called "Windows" ? To install on a small partition of this junk I like to call mine?

 

[kcnychief]

"Installation is taking longer than expected, but should be finishing soon.
Do not restart your computer during this time"

Great information here, even cooler screenshots. NR, I think that message is actually very good, because people who have slower computers or just can't tell what's going on, will no longer think the PC has frozen and restart it, which would cause it to b0rk and porbably BSOD.

This simply is amazing, the more and more I hear/see/read about Vista, it's really a revolutionary OS. They are making such leaps and bounds making it a good, stable and efficient product, I can't wait until the Beta is public, as my MSDNN expired

 

[NetRyder]

I've been using this build for two days now, and I'm really enjoying it. So much has changed since the last build I was using (5219).

The performance of the UI (with Aero Glass) seems to have improved quite a bit. I'm still using the reg hack to enable it on a puny 16MB Mobility Radeon 7500, and it performs way better than I expected it to. I'll be installing this on my desktop (dual-boot) when I go back to Cali to see how it runs on an Athlon64 4000+ with a 256MB GeForce 6800 GT. The most important thing is that they've managed to strike a balance in the window animations - they're subtle and quick, so it doesn't feel like they're getting in the way. Beautiful.

UAP finally seems to be useable in this build, even at the file-level! Some beta testers have been disabling it because they find it "annoying" to elevate privileges (it's just one extra click!), but I think that defeats the point of being a beta tester since our role is to take things the way they're given to us and provide feedback if something's too intrusive. Hopefully they make turning UAP off as difficult as possible in the RTM build.

But yeah, it's shaping up very nicely. Feel free to ask any questions or post any specific screenshot requests, as I mentioned earlier.

 

[apu95]

I just finished installing it now (I love being in Comp Sci ), though I'm under XP for connecting to the net. My wireless usb adapter (Dell Truemobile 1180) isn't detected, and I'm not sure if I can use one of the XP drivers. I ran it no problems, but it took a while to install, like an hour 15 min or so. As Net said, the window animations looked really balanced, and I hadn't even installed the Radeon drivers yet

EDIT: I installed the XP drivers for the wireless, and they work, so I'm online with Vista now . I'm having problems installing the Radeon drivers. I get a Code 37 error when I try to update them.

 

[NetRyder]

WMP11 is another gem in this build. Love the different views - album stacks etc. It makes so much more sense to display it this way rather than as a flat list. Of course, once you select the album you want to listen to, you get a normal flat track listing. Very slick.

 

[NetRyder]

I just finished installing it now (I love being in Comp Sci ), though I'm under XP for connecting to the net. My wireless usb adapter (Dell Truemobile 1180) isn't detected, and I'm not sure if I can use one of the XP drivers. I ran it no problems, but it took a while to install, like an hour 15 min or so. As Net said, the window animations looked really balanced, and I hadn't even installed the Radeon drivers yet

EDIT: I installed the XP drivers for the wireless, and they work, so I'm online with Vista now . I'm having problems installing the Radeon drivers. I get a Code 37 error when I try to update them.

I extracted the drivers from the Omega installer and used Device Manager to update to them. Works beautifully. Try that out: http://www.omegadrivers.net/ati/win2k_xp.php

By the way, if you want to have a bit of fun with Aero, add this reg key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\DWM
Add a DWORD value under that called "AnimationsShiftKey" and set the value to 1.

Restart the User Experience Session Management Service, and click the window minimize/close button with the Shift key held down. Hmmm...

 

[kcnychief]

NetRyder probably alread knew this, but there are a few ways to disable UAP in the new build, talked about over at bink.nu...

http://bink.nu/Article5675.bink

 

[legodude83089]

Does this version come with directx10?

 

[apu95]

Oh man, finally..I'm really starting to get ticked at having to give permission to everything I do (I mean, even deleting shortcuts in the Desktop needs an extra click). Don't get me wrong, its only an extra click, but for users who know what they're doing, its just an annoyance.

I'll try that out a little later Net, sounds fun .

As far as usability goes, I'm generally loving it. I find it kind of annoying that to access certain parts, you need to go through a very long series of other menus to get there (IE: Getting to the configuration for my wireless card so I could manually set up my IP took a while to find the first time). I'm used to using the Windows key + Pause/Break to get to the System Properties window with the Device Manager and whatnot, but they changed that also. I really wish one could customize those WinKey + Something shortcuts...

 

[NetRyder]

Apu, I'm not really fond of some of the new placements of things either. It's a little disorienting after being used to doing things a certain way for so long. But as you said, although there are a few annoyances, in general, most of the changes do feel like they're for the better.

 

[NetRyder]

Does this version come with directx10?

Yeah, it does:

 

[napalmnthemorning]

Permit, Deny, Permit, Deny. It does get a little annoying. I've installed and deleted twice. Ran into a BSOD with a bootloader not found? error. Really allot of neat stuff too but I find 5270 to be extremely sensitive to installations and errors are restricting me from reboots back into 5270 on several situations. Also not sure why the Vista bootmanager hasn't advanced at this point. For example after deleting Vista on a seperate partitian I still get the option to boot into Vista. Since so many more people will be dual booting XP and Vista it would be nice to have a more user friendly GUI for choosing which OS you want to pick from and also make it easier to edit. It gets really frustrating to have to have to run my XP recovery after each deletion of Vista. After installing I was immediately connected to the internet (Yukon Marvell) but ran into glitches again audigy 2 vista driver even after extracting to a seperate folder in XP and transfering in over to my Vista desktop. (Vista wouldn't allow me to extract the drivers.exe) I was amazed at the speeds when surfing with IE7. Not complaining as I know this is pre-beta. At this point my best performance build was 5219. By the way I do like the new start button and the Search menu is pretty cool.

 

[celticfan11]

Oh man, finally..I'm really starting to get ticked at having to give permission to everything I do (I mean, even deleting shortcuts in the Desktop needs an extra click). Don't get me wrong, its only an extra click, but for users who know what they're doing, its just an annoyance.

Yes, I agree. How do you turn that thing off where it says. "Windows needs your permission to use this program" Accpet or Deny. That is mucho annoying, especially with items in the control panel.


GRRR i cant even delete my isshortcut key in the registry. ACCESS DENIED.. i hate jumping hoops to do things.

 

[legodude83089]

Does this installation normally takes up 9 GB or is it just my hard drive? I installed Vista on a 9.5GB hard drive and after I formatted and installed I had 16 MB left of free space, which gets annoying when trying to put drivers on the thing.