Vista Beta 2 is scheduled to launch sometime in November. While that might be a fair bit ahead in time, there are a number of new features that have been added to Windows Vista since the Beta 1 build. In this article, we will briefly discuss the integration in Windows Vista and where Microsoft is headed in its journey towards releasing its much-delayed "Revolutionary" OS.

At the recent PDC, Microsoft started a new way of launching software, and we aren’t complaining. The deal is that it will showcase a monthly update to Vista, which would show progress from the last month in terms of added functionality, features, and graphics (in addition to additional functionality). This is an excellent method as it allows Microsoft to gauge developer mood as well as check out how well the features are received overall.

First Boot Changes: To begin with, the first thing you’ll notice when you start up Vista build 5129 is that the taskbar is now slightly translucent, changed from the opaque, chunky black object in Beta 1. Whether this is a optimistic sign depends on how much you can pay for the hardware, but if you are a casual buyer and don’t have the budget, you will probably not be able to afford the hardware you’ll need for all this to run smoothly (we won’t even get into Running NAV alongside) and will end up turning this off. If you do run it, however, it looks fairly sleek.

Next up is an interesting feature that Microsoft has integrated to increase the usability of the operating system. If you hover over a minimized window in the taskbar, you get a small pop up window showcasing the contents before the window enlarges to full size. Of course, when you have multiple windows grouped, you get a stack of pop-ups, so there is an upside and downside to this feature.

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