Windows Vista Beta

Microsoft Windows Vista (before reset called "Longhorn")

Quick introduction

Windows Vista was not the best, we can all agree on that, but however, it was not the worst either (*cough* Millenium Edition). Vista was rushed and quickly fixed after the reset in 2004 and somewhat finished in 2006.

Before the reset

Milestone 1 and 2

First we've got milestone 1 and milestone 2. In the development circle they're written as M1, M2, M3, M4 etc. The builds in M1 and M2 were never leaked, but that's probably because the system was not up and ready for the developers to try yet.

Milestone 3

But the first milestone to be leaked, is M3. With build 3683 being first to be leaked. The screenshots below are from 3718 which is not much different but it has the DCE (which still exists today under the name of DWM). The setup was (disappointingly) the same as in Windows XP, but however Microsoft will implement a new image-based installation in the next milestone so I won't mind.

After the installation I still haven't seen anything new in the OOBE, but after setup there was a new style logon screen that has the same layout as XP's but it has different colours and it also has a clock that is seen easily.

As I logged in, there was a mix between Windows XP and some brand new style called 'Plex'. I thought it was interesting, but however it didn't ship with Windows Vista :(

But still, it also came with Windows XP's Luna and still has the well kept Classic theme. They all look OK in this build but the sidebar doesn't match the theme and the white logo doesn't look good AT ALL on the classic Start button. I can barely see it. Take a look!

I tried to get the DCE working, but with no working VMWare drivers for Longhorn, there is absolutely little-to-low chance of it working.

Milestone 4

Remember when I told you that there was supposed to be a brand new image-based Windows installer? Well, it's here... Kind of. In Milestone 4, Microsoft included the installer in the installation media. But I wasn't able to make it work. Booted up, shown a command prompt, looked for installation file, ran the installation file, crashed and burned. That's it. These screenshots are from build 4008.

I've also tried builds in M5 and M6, but they are very similar to the previous ones from M4 (but the image-based setup works).

Milestone 7

Ok. Now we've got M7 (the last milestone before the project reset). There were multiple builds, but I'll be showing you the most popular build of Longhorn. This build looks something between Windows XP, Windows Vista and the betas. This is also packed full of easter eggs which I will try to make the work. This time I tried to use VMWare Workstation 6.5 and installed another set of drivers and sadly, it didn't work for me!

Here is the most over-hyped build which a lot of people thought was the closest to a final product if the reset didn't happen. Longhorn 7047.

First off, the installer is stable enough to carry a proper installation. The imaging system works and I quite literally couldn't get better back-end wise.

After the reset

System got unstable, crashed and burned

Explanation of reset goes here. And trying to explain why Vista sucks.

Omega-13

The boring client compiles Windows Server 2003 builds then the yet interesting builds 5048, 5058 and 5059 later on.

Bye Longhorn. Hello Vista.

At this point in development, Longhorn was extremely broken. And it's not a good as how it was before the reset.

Beta

Explain the Betas

Release Candidates

Last steps before release

Finalized then Released To Manufacturing (RTM'd)

Last modifications and fixes

In people's hands

How did the people react to this new release of Windows

Here is where I got the builds and here is where I got more information about Longhorn and Vista.