Well, I did get my hands on a copy of 4029. I installed it blindly, and for the most part stupidly. I wasn't aware of the fact it didn't ask questions durring instalation, like where Longhorn was being installed, and I ended up hosing my XP install. Worse off, I couldn't activate it or use the activation blocking tools to get around the activation and try to get some help. Stupid mistakes. Kids, don't play with fire, you will get burnt. Long story short, I was forced to format and go leagl with my copy of XP because my XP disk wasn't bootable.

I did play with it a bit though. In safe mode where activation doesn't hinder you. Messing around with the Zoom settings in explorer was kinda cool. The sidebar was annoying and I just collapsed it. I will have to give it another shot one day when i've got a spare drive to play with so I can't screw up shit

It was cool yeha, but the end result of using leaked software stinks. Just say no, wait till the full thing comes out so you don't get hosed.

Guess what ITS ALPHA SOFTWARE


Don't judge on that version as its not even beta yet, although you can see some good stuf in it :

the new virtual libraries
SQL style search parameters (WinFS)
Breadcrumb bar

The PDC build is out soon which will be substantially better.

I think I'll just wait until the beta comes out in my TechNet Plus subscription. Yes, I know that won't be for a year or more, but i don't feel the need to rush into yet another OS install when XP is doing everything I want for me now.

I never doubted for a second what kind of software it is. I knew well enough it was an alpha. Don't start running the don't install alpha software lines on be because i've done it before, long before even this. This was the only time i've ever hit a hard wall with alpha microsoft software. Whistler alphas, XP, worked nice and so did the Windows 2000 alphas. This was my first bad time with it. Now that im done flaming.

Yeha, a lot of neat stuff is in there. I'd really like the oppertunity to try out WinFS. The niftiest visual feature is the new rotating eliptical hardware screen. Thats really flashy and cool to look at. I just don't want to see nifty visual stuff getting added and have to take a performance hit for it.

I am not flamming you, I also install alpha software. I enjoy testing it and seeing whats new.

I was just pointing out that with alpha software or any pre release software comes problems.

If you read some of the crap at Neowin, idiots asking why features don't work and how crap Longhorn is, dumb idiots.

Longhorn is going to do lots of cool 3D effects with zero hit on the CPU as the GPU will render all you see on screen.

Isn't it going to do it's graphical rendering in DirectX, as opposed to GDI or GDI+? I thought I had seen something to that effect some time ago, but I'm not positive. That's the only way I can think of that they could shift the processing burden to the GPU.

I don't usually install alpha software because I know that there will be issues with it. Once upon a time I was a bit braver and more adventurous, but now I'm older and don't feel like reloading a PC just because an alpha build totally hosed the system I put it on. I'd much rather spend my time playing games!

Thats what I read a new version of Direct X will power the GUI with various teirs of acceleration.