Time for some more testing... =)

Microsoft on Monday released Windows Vista Beta Build 5472 to technical beta testers, TAP customers and MSDN subscribers. The interim update is intended to give testers a more recent build, and encourage application and device driver developers to accelerate deployment on Vista.

Quality and performance enhancements are the primary changes in 5472, along with further tweaks to User Account Control. The new build is the second to follow Beta 2, and will not be released to Customer Preview Program participants. Microsoft expects to deliver the next public release of Windows Vista, Release Candidate 1, later this quarter.

http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_Delivers_New_Vista_Beta_Build/1153157364

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• Performance is good.  Runs like XP does on my T40 - quite a marked improvement.
• I've put it on my MCE as well in dual boot.
  • Hauppage 150 MCE PCI works fine
  • nVidia GeForce3 MX 440 AGP8x has basic support in Vista ONLY - advanced (Aero) visual effects disabled.
  • Cyberlink PowerDVD 6 isn't supported - grabbed myself PowerDVD7 and put that on.
  • Booting again into my XP OS caused chkdsk to fire up - and generate LOTS of errors on the Vista partition.  More on this once I figure out what happened.
  • My sound device worked fine.
  • Still no dual language VCD support - I've bugged this.
• Office 2007 Beta 2 installed fine.
• Much cleaner - and faster now.

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I uninstalled PowerDVD6, and installed PowerDVD7.  Errors were generated when I tried to launch the app, and a popup in the tray told me to "Run chkdsk".  I fired the errors off to Microsoft.  The system then hung at shutdown.

After a cold restart, booting into XP caused chkdsk to trigger - where it found pages and pages of errors on the Vista partition.  It "repaired" them - but as I feared, Vista was damaged.  It no longer boots.  Loads into the GUI and BSOD and reboots.

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The new User Account Control notification sound reminds me of the LCARS sound in Star Trek.  Every time the user account control dialog box opens, it makes me want to watch Star Trek: First Contact again. =)

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I've put some screenshots up of Vista 5472.  I like the new Task Manager/Resource Monitor features, giving you a breakdown in areas like "Disk" and "Network" and allowing you to see which applications are using the network stack, for example.

http://photos.justinho.com/listpics.asp?dir=06.07.18.Vista

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Daemon Tools 4.03 with SPTD update installs on 5472 - doesn't cause any BSOD - but it also doesn't work, spitting an error message.  "Unable to add adapter. Unable to open file in kernel mode."

Running as administrator doesn't help, obviously.

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SSL problems with Vista 5472

1. Launch an Elevated Command Prompt (Start, All Programs, Accessories, right-click "Command Prompt", Run as administrator)

2. Type: "netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled"