A New Vista

Its getting closer every day. It was only a few days ago that it was reported at the Windows Shell Blog that they are Putting the Final Touches on Windows Vista's "Fit-and-Finish", explaining the balancing act involved in making the decsion on what to change in the UI (User Interface). Even a small change can have a major effect not only on the users but also on the product support staff.

Yesterday evening, however, things went a step further. The Windows Vista Blog Team reported the release of Interim Windows Vista Build 5728:

"The build is available to the public.

Here's our official message to our testers:

Updated Test Build Available (September 2006): Microsoft is looking for volunteers to help test an updated, interim release of Windows Vista. This build (5728) has a number of improvements and updates from RC1, but has not been put through the same internal testing process as RC1. We are making this release available for a limited time only in order to get broad distribution and testing in a variety of PC configurations. Click here if you are interested in testing this release. Otherwise, please use the links below to download RC1 (build 5600)."

{Snip}

"One more thing to note: users of Toshiba models M400, M4 and M5 should do a clean install (not upgrade) of this build."

All that has led to even more developments. There is now a forum where Vista testers can post their "Windows Vista Rants & Raves". One feature that I am sure everyone is going to rave about is the "Ability to Mute the Windows Vista Start-up Sound". That's right, Microsoft listened when customers said they want to be able to disable the default start-up sound that plays during boot-up of Windows Vista. Now "Play Windows startup sound" can be unchecked in the Sound control panel.

How about the New Vista Nature Wallpapers? Nice, but I'll hold out for the roses.