Last week, Microsoft (finally) made the first beta of its next operating system available to beta testers. Just a few days before, it had announced that the new operating system will be named Windows® Vista™.

Beta 1 of Windows Vista is not publicly available. According to Microsoft it has been delivered to some 10,000 beta testers. Microsoft also made Beta 1 available for download for those with a Microsoft Developers Network (MSDN) or TechNet Subscription, which could potentially see the beta in the hands of another 500,000 people.

According to Microsoft, this first beta focuses on improving Windows' fundamentals - security, performance, manageability and deployment - and is therefore targeted at developers and IT professionals.

The 2nd Beta, which could be available by the end of this year, or beginning 2006, should include more of the end-user functionality, and therefore it is expected that Beta 2 will be more widely available.

One thing you want to keep in mind when you read through this review is that many things will change before the finished product ships. Beta 2 of Windows Vista will have more things in common with the final version than this first beta. According to Microsoft, Beta 1 is about 50% "feature complete", with a large feature push for Beta 2.

Ok, so much for introductions, let's have a look at it shall we?

Installation

First thing you notice: Windows Vista Beta 1 ships on a DVD, not on a CD. The size on the installation disk is some 2.4GB. Since there is no "upgrade" install available in Beta 1, I proceeded to install Windows Vista on a clean drive; both on a laptop & desktop computer.

Setup has been really simplified in Windows Vista: it prompts you for your product key, presents the End User License Agreement (EULA), next you choose the installation type (Custom, in this case), and you can choose the drive/partition on which to install (Figure), and the computer name. After completing these steps, Windows Vista installs, only rebooting twice in the process.

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