Vista on Mac

UAC via Terminal Services.

Robert Moir — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 18:32:26 GMT

UAC via Terminal Services.

UAC as viewed over Terminal Services. As you might be able to see here, UAC is effectively an independant desktop that gets swapped in when required, which has the effect of isolating the UAC dialogues from running programs, hopefully ensuring that only the logged-in user can interact with these prompts.

Vista Terminal Server desktop

Robert Moir — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 18:30:00 GMT

Vista Terminal Server desktop

Vista's desktop over Terminal Server.

This is the same session as I used for the Aero screenshots directly. Notice that Aero is turned off, as is the sidebar.

Before anyone asks, Homer is my normal Windows desktop machine. Yes, "Homer" does have a lot of disks defined for a desktop.

Logging on Via Terminal Services

Robert Moir — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 18:27:21 GMT

Logging on Via Terminal Services

Logging onto the Vista desktop via Terminal Services

Windows Search Utility

Robert Moir — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 18:25:36 GMT

Windows Search Utility

There's an obvious parallel with Spotlight, of course. Personally, I'm just glad we've got an improvement over the badly broken Windows XP search.

Windows Mobility Centre

Robert Moir — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 18:24:19 GMT

Windows Mobility Centre

One of the nice touches - the mobility centre brings together many of the tools you might need on a laptop.

This might be a boon for 'road warriors'. You'll be able to prepare for a presentation in one place, all from setting up your displays to making sure you've got enough battery power to get through the experience.

Windows Update

Robert Moir — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 18:15:19 GMT

Windows Update

The new Windows Update applet. I've configured it to receive updates for all Microsoft products, not just Windows, but other than that this is a default install.

This is a nice clear clean view of your update needs. I quite like it!

Sync Centre

Robert Moir — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 18:12:08 GMT

Sync Centre

Sync Centre. This is controls any and all devices that connect to the computer and syncronise content of any kind, whether media player, phone or PDA.

Most commonly, it's a replacement for ActiveSync. I'd love to show you it in action, but it doesn't recognise either a XDA IIi or a Vario II, and given that those are the only PDAs I have, AND a fairly broad representation of platforms between them, I'm going to conclude it isn't working just yet.

Recycle Bin

Robert Moir — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 18:07:30 GMT

Recycle Bin

Some things never change. Warning: You're about to not defeat something. On the positive side, the information given is rather more useful in helping you pinpoint what it is you're trying to delete.

Searching a Window (Control Panel)

Robert Moir — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 18:05:25 GMT

Searching a Window (Control Panel)

An example of searching within a window, using the control panel as an example. If you compare this with the basic control panel shot then you'll see it's actually searching smartly within each of the basic categories.

If you've used a Mac recently, you'll also notice it looks a lot like the search facility in Finder.

The new Control Panel

Robert Moir — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 18:00:55 GMT

The new Control Panel

The new control panel layout looks nice. It tries to present a friendly face and list common tasks that most novice to intermediate users would perform under each heading.

Office - full screen window

Robert Moir — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 17:58:53 GMT

Office - full screen window

Office 2007 Beta 2 on Windows Vista RC1

Full window sized Microsoft Office, showing the effect of the Vista and Office themes.

Actually, I'm not too sure about this effect when compared to the normal Window sized screenshot. Why does Aero get turned off when you maximise the window, I wonder?

Office - normal window size

Robert Moir — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 17:56:54 GMT

Office - normal window size

Microsoft Office 2007 on Windows Vista RC1.

Normal Window size, showing the Vista and Office 2007 themes in action.

The infamous sidebar

Robert Moir — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 17:52:12 GMT

The infamous sidebar

The Windows Sidebar, with a couple of Widgets loaded. No wait, I mean "Gadgets", don't I? Oh heck, I can't remember any more.

Of course, this is a copy of Apple's dashboard, but then Apple's dashboard was a copy of Konfabulator. And Konfabulator was probably inspired by the Active Desktop introduced with Internet Explorer 4.

What goes around comes around eh?

Windows Experience Index - details

Robert Moir — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 17:45:56 GMT

Windows Experience Index - details

A breakdown of the Windows Experience Index scores. As you can see, the graphics are what drags the score down, followed by the hard disk.

Graphical performance is hardly a surprise, but the hard disk deserves a couple of remarks - firstly the drivers may not be optimal, and secondly, this score is for a 5400 RPM 'SATA 2' notebook hard disk. Notebook performance always lags behind desktop performance, so this again is expected.

Screenshot of the system summary screen.

Robert Moir — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 17:36:23 GMT

Screenshot of the system summary screen.

The basic "System Information" screen.

Note the 'Windows Experience Index' scoring system for performance. As you'll see later, every part of the system scores very well except for the graphics. Yet the graphics are still good enough for Aero.

The all-new Start Menu

Robert Moir — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 17:30:29 GMT

The all-new Start Menu

The new start menu, showing the re-arranged menus and the search bar at the bottom of the menu.

Windows Aero enabled

Robert Moir — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 17:27:42 GMT

Windows Aero enabled

The Windows desktop - with Aero enabled. This is the result of a default install, not tweaking.

Remember this is a MacBook, with an Intel graphics chipset, not a MacBook Pro with ATI graphics.

Vista on an Apple Mac

Robert Moir — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 17:23:12 GMT

Vista on an Apple Mac

Windows Vista RC1 login screen - on an Apple MacBook!