eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: Windows Vista RC2

We kicked off our latest Vista test build tour by expanding our screen resolution.

We let Vistas search function lead us to the user creation tool when we wanted to create a standard rights user.

We created a standard rights user and could consult Vista help for reasons why standard rights accounts make sense.

Vistas built-in help offered assistance in assigning a strong password.

This spectral-looking screen shot captures Aero Glass mid-animation.

A visit to Vistas friendly new Control Panel shows little change since RC1.

The classic Windows Control Panel configuration boasts some new icons.

Internet Explorer’s Protected Mode better insulates browsers from Internet evil-doers.

Vista advised us to add unindexed locations to our index to boost search performance.

Advances in Vistas Explorer File Manager should come in handy for knowledge workers.

The Windows Experience Index will make more sense once software makers begin tagging their wares with a suggested WEI score.

Windows Mail offered us the option of choosing HTTP as a mail server option-and then told us the HTTP option no longer exists.

As in previous builds of Vista, Windows Mail wouldnt export messages for use with Exchange.

For kicks, we led our standard user, Stan, to delete an arbitrary system file. Vista asked for admin permission to carry out the operation.

While its probably a good idea to protect system files even from administrators, Vista seemed confused about which deletions it would agree to allow.

We browsed through the system information for our test machine.

The New York Times reader, which we tried out in a beta version, is a slick-looking example of whats possible with the new Windows Presentation Format. The tool also supports Windows XP.

We fetched and installed the Trend Micro anti-virus suite that Vista recommended to us. In past tests of Vista, the suite overwrote the Windows Firewall, but, in RC2, the firewall didnt budge.

Were fans of Vistas more informative Task Manager.

We used Vistas Explorer to shuffle our screen grabs. We learned to beware of the PNG format, however, as Vista doesnt support it very well.

It wouldnt be Windows without a Genuine Advantage inquisition … or six.

Why not restrict registry browsing by standard users by default? We could use Group Policy to close off regedit, however.

For companies running the right hardware, bitlocker can save money that would otherwise be spent on a third-party tool. Our test rig, however, didn’t have the right stuff.