eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: Windows Vista RC2

eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: Windows Vista RC2

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

eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: Windows Vista RC2 – User admin search

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

eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: Windows Vista RC2 – Standard rights user

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

eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: Windows Vista RC2 – Strong password advice

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

eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: Windows Vista RC2 – Aero Glass animation

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

eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: Windows Vista RC2 – New Control Panel

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

eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: Windows Vista RC2 – Classic Control Panel

The classic Windows Control Panel configuration boasts some new icons.

eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: Windows Vista RC2 – IE Protected Mode

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

eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: Windows Vista RC2 – Indexing

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

eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: Windows Vista RC2 – File Manager

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

eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: Windows Vista RC2 – Windows Experience Index

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

eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: Windows Vista RC2 – Windows Mail

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

eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: Windows Vista RC2 – Windows Mail export bug

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

eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: Windows Vista RC2 – Standard User

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

eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: Windows Vista RC2 – Vista admin confusion

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

eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: Windows Vista RC2 – System information

We browsed through the system information for our test machine.

eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: Windows Vista RC2 – All the news that’s fit to read

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.

eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: Windows Vista RC2 – Fight for Firewall

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.

eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: Windows Vista RC2 – Task Manager

Were fans of Vistas more informative Task Manager.

eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: Windows Vista RC2 – Vista Explorer

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.

eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: Windows Vista RC2 – Genuine Advantage

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

eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: Windows Vista RC2 – Registry edit

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

eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: Windows Vista RC2 – Bitlocker

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.