Windows Vista October CTP

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Product summary

CNET editors' review

• Reviewed by: Robert Vamosi
• Edited by: Allen Fear
• Reviewed on: 10/24/2005

During our hands-on testing of interim version build 5231, which Microsoft officially released to developers on October 17, 2005, we noticed several enhancements in Vista's network connectivity and system integrity, overall audio and multimedia capabilities, a major face-lift for Internet Explorer 7, another preview of Windows Media Player 11, and several overall improvements. As with last month's build 5219, which expanded on the "clarity" theme, this release expands on the "confidence and connection" themes. See our build 5231 slide show for a detailed look inside this release.

Diagnostics
Under "confidence," Microsoft is touting Vista's ability to ward off potential problems in the future as well as recover quickly from disasters. Windows Vista Memory Diagnostics, a collection of tools, can detect and automatically resolve problems associated with defective physical memory. Windows Vista Disk Diagnostics, another collection of tools, monitors the health of the hard drive and can proactively warn users of impending disk drive failure, allowing users to backup their data and replace defective hardware before the situation turns critical. Network diagnostics tools will analyze connectivity and network access issues and either resolve the issues or provide the end user with the next steps to resolve the situation. A new Windows Vista Network Center replaces My Network Places and My Network Neighborhood with a hub for managing computers and devices on a local network. And in this release, we saw increased reliability in the transition in and out of sleep on our laptop, giving us greater confidence when we closed our laptop lid. According to Microsoft, this was accomplished by eliminating the chance for applications, services, and drivers to veto or block changes in system power states.

Collaboration
For the "connection" part of the Windows Vista motto, Microsoft wants to make connecting to a variety of devices faster, easier, and more secure and the synchronization of data among devices simpler. Toward that end, this build of Windows Vista includes a new Windows Mobility Center, including the tools to adjust display brightness, power plans, volume control among applications, wireless status, synchronization status, and presentation status. Sharing files and folder contents (peer-to-peer technology) is easier in this build of Windows Vista, including the ability to create e-mail with embedded links pointing to shared content. And this build of Vista includes the Microsoft XPS Document Writer, allowing you to convert any onscreen document into XPS documents, which can be digitally signed to ensure that no one has tampered with the contents in transit.

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User reviews

• Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 4 reviews
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• Showing 3 of 4 user reviewsSee all 4 user reviews

• 4.0 stars

  "boosted boot Time"

  by iccra on December 12, 2005

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• 4.0 stars

  "Give it a chance! So far it looks good"

  by LiQuiD_FuSioN on November 6, 2005

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• 4.5 stars

  "Amazing Improvement over previous versions"

  by 9sourgrapes on November 4, 2005

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