IBM Mainframe

Interface: Nothing much has changed since the 5129 build, as the UI appears to be more or less set in pattern, though we do hope that Microsoft makes the color scheme a bit more cheery than a hybrid of translucent colors.

Windows Media Player 11: This is possibly the only application with more anticipation surrounding it than Internet Explorer 7, if not Vista itself. We wonder if Microsoft would bundle Windows Media Player 11 with Vista exclusively or would it be available for download separately for Windows XP as well. It most certainly will end up looking a lot better (graphically) than most music players out there, iTunes included. Although it appears to look pretty straightforward, the interface has changed drastically, which makes it far more attractive than Windows Media Player 10 as well as competing applications.

The main control buttons are centrally aligned at the bottom, as the viewing pane is split into three joints. The left pane acts as a navigation pane while the right pane manages your playlist.

The Media Library is impressive as well and now displays songs, artists, titles, genres and much more, but before you disregard this as being a stale feature ported from WMP 10, let us mention that WMP 11 is where you will really appreciate the tremendously powerful hardware to run Vista smoothly. We have never seen any WMP run this smooth especially on a beta release. While this might not mean much to anybody, it?s a step in the right direction for Microsoft. Only thing we need to check now is how smoothly it runs while running a plethora of other applications in the end.

Meanwhile, the top menu bar from WMP 10 is gone and has been replaced with a new ultra sleek looking contextual menu system (an interesting take on the Office 11 system perhaps?). Staying traditional in every way, clicking the buttons does give you the trusted drop down menu, which will let you configure the myriad of settings that not very many of us would touch often.

There?s nothing new or interesting in the options menu either, but maybe a more detailed analysis might reveal something worthwhile. The only thing we notice at the moment is the missing guide (perhaps it has been removed) and there?s a new button labeled "Windows Media Player", but it doesn?t seem to be working.

One thing we would like to mention is that our library had 1000+ songs, but there were no hiccups while scrolling through the list. It was almost like scrolling down Google?s search results, which is very smooth and hassle-free. This could be due to implementation of Microsoft?s new graphics technologies, namely XAML and WGF 2.0. Needless to say, this is definitely something to get excited about, since we can clearly remember the times when we launched WMP 10 and it would get stuck at the guide page, thereby making the user experience terrible.

Windows Mobility Center: Once we got over our initial excitement of reviewing WMP 11, we proceeded to open Control Panel to see if we could find a new icon. There is a brand new feature in Windows Vista that gives you access to commonly used functions in a notebook such as battery charge, switching between the LCD and external display, wireless properties, brightness and much more.

This is an interesting feature as most notebooks come with manufacturer?s default utility that does the exact same thing. In fact, one of our test notebooks even contains dedicated keys for all of these features, but its thoughtful to group them under one roof instead of manage numerous windows to manage these configurations. It probably reflects the design philosophy behind Vista: usability is priority number one.

Moreover, it also has a way to configure portable devices directly; we?ll analyze this feature more closely to see what it?s capable of. Could Microsoft have integrated Active Sync into Vista? Possibly. Active Sync is an application that?s bundled with devices running Microsoft Windows Mobile Edition OS.

Power Settings: The Power Settings console has completely changed from Windows XP. You now get two windows where you can configure and alter settings according to maximum efficiency. It appears to be slightly better than the previous one, but is a bit cumbersome to navigate on notebooks with touchpad. In terms of functionality, we?ll report back after a thorough analysis.

Computers & Devices: Finally, Microsoft has merged My Network Places and Network Neighborhood in Windows Vista. Apparently you can even connect other network-based devices like media players as part of the home network feature. It?s an interesting option, but personally, this feature should belong in Windows MCE. To be fair to Microsoft, however, it?s nice that they are bundling this with an OS that?s not Media Center dedicated, though it could end up taking revenue out of its MCE PCs.

Network Center: Finally, Microsoft has realized just how often users access their Network Properties area and has decided that it?s important enough to get a permanent place in the precious system tray real estate. A single click will launch a brand new window, which would try and take care of all your networking needs. Right clicking will give you a sleek menu, which would integrate all common tasks such as connecting to various networks, listing all available networks, making ad-hoc connections and whatnot. Sadly, all this seems to be a mere concept, as most of the options were grayed out. We?ll discuss this more extensively if we can somehow get it to work. If any of you reading this article have any idea on what might be wrong, please let us know.