If you were to explain to someone the features and benefits of Windows Vista, you’d probably start off with Aero, new Shell, Search, Sidebar, security, Media Center and all the other goodies listed on this wiki, but would you mention to them, “Dynamic multi-dimensional scrolling”? What the hell is that?

Have a look at the scrolling experience in XP (left) and Vista (right).
Excuse the quality and large file size, but I think this is the best way of showing it.

Pretty neat heh? It’s not one those things you’ll probably never notice, but once you’ve used it, you can’t go back. This ‘feature’ is currently reviewed for a patent, and as described in the application, “the automatic dynamic scrolling alleviates the effort and stress related to requiring a user to manually scroll a view in two dimensions in a tree control.” Hats off to Lyon Wong, Cornelis Van Dok , Colin Anthony and Stephan Hoefnagels.

Is it a feature? No. Is it worth mentioning? No. Is it a selling point? No.

Does it deliver a great experience? Yes.

The point I’m trying to make is, you can’t appreciate an experience until you use it. No matter how many feature lists you read, how many screenshots you see, how many screencasts you watch, you’re not going to get the full picture. Try it, experience it, then judge it.

But I’ve got to admit, the list of experience enhancing ‘features’ in Vista is not as long as the list of experience-prohibiting flaws. But maybe the next Windows will be better.

Recently, a Microsoft-sponsored research study was published to show that there was a “prevalence of malicious code and potentially unwanted software in pirated software”. That’s all well and good, but some of the statistics mentioned I found conveyed a very different message. And I’m sure I’m not alone.

25 percent of the Web sites we accessed offering counterfeit product keys, pirated software, key generators or crack tools attempted to install either malicious software or potentially unwanted software.

Does that mean 75% of websites accessed offered counterfeit product keys, pirated software, key generators or crack tools did not attempt to install malicious software? And are in theory, safe?

11 percent of the key generators and crack tools downloaded from Web sites contained either malicious or potentially unwanted software.

Does that mean an astounding 89% of key generators and crack tools downloaded from web sites were also safe?

59 percent of the key generators and crack tools downloaded from peer-to-peer networks contained either malicious software or potentially unwanted software.

Does that mean 41% of key generators and crack tools downloaded from P2P networks were also safe?

And if you think I’m just being ignorant, check out these (ugly) graphs in the official report (PDF).

If these results were designed to deter people from such activities, then it’s not doing a very good job.

In my honest opinion, not as funny as the first.

There has been more Vista scoops posted today on the series of tubes than the last 3 months combined. As we approach judgment day, things are starting to make sense.

Product branding icons

Paul Thurrott (image credit) has posted an image snippet of all the branded products’ icons in Windows Vista, set against the new default Aurora desktop wallpaper. From left to right: Windows Calendar, Windows Meeting Space, Windows DVD Maker, Windows Mail, Windows Media Player, Windows Movie Maker, Windows Photo Gallery. I haven’t seen so much glass in my whole life. But both the DVD Maker and Media Player’s icon seems extremely quirky.

New wallpapers (and real build 5840)

kenipnet (image credit) from the Neowin forums has posted this screenshot of a Vista escrow build with the final wallpapers including the new default Aurora. Comparing the wallpapers inside the betas, new ones visible on the screenshot includes a yellow beach-sunset, a standard landscape view with shrubs rock and sky, and a real aurora. The real aurora looks spectacularly hot.

Vista and Office packaging

Nick White (image credit) from the Windows Vista team blog posted these rendered shots of the packaging cases for Windows Vista and Office 2007. As Robert McLaws also pointed out, I was (nearly) right with my original assumptions for the packaging. Regardless, they’re unique and aesthetically pleasing. Although the Office box-art is considerably better than the Vista one. Like everyone else, we wait for what the Ultimate edition might look like.

Update: Big thanks to Andre Da Costa (image credit), the other Windows Vista editions’ packaging has also been released. Can anyone say, holy freaking super deliciously awesome? Jenny Lam and her team did an amazing job. Funny how Home Basic doesn’t get a prominently visible aurora background.

Windows Vista sounds

James Senior from Microsoft UK has posted a compilation of all the new sounds in Windows Vista from an unidentifiable build. The sounds he demonstrates includes: critical stop, ReadyBoost drive inserted, Windows UAC control prompt, new e-mail notification, low battery alarm, exclamation, Windows start and exit Windows. What you will hear will shock and awe you.

Vista has NOT been RTM-ed

As oppose to what several people has stated in and around enthusiast communities like Neowin, several key Microsoft employees has firmly stated that Vista has not been released to manufacturing. The day might be soon, but is certainly not today, or tomorrow. There’s still a bit more work to do. Build 6000.16384 is real, but it also doesn’t mean RTM. These days, Microsoft doesn’t have to increase the major version number when building, so theoretically, any sub-set of build 6000 (6000.16385, 16386, etc…) can be RTM. 😉

Mysteries yet to solve

However not everything has leaked, there are still many mysteries we have yet to solve, including:

• Ultimate Extras
• Television commercials/posters
• Official theme song (XP was Ray of Light)
• Celebrity endorsements (besides Demetri Martin)
• Anytime Upgrade pricing
• Windows Vista sounds (since James was no help)

It’s not over yet. The party’s just getting started.

Update: Added snippet debunking rumors Vista has been released to manufacturing.

No, terrorists did not take my blog hostage. What some of you have been experiencing in the last 12 hours can be explained with this simple graph:

The blue line also indicates the number of times the server died. Only kidding.

Clarification: I think some of you got the wrong idea, so I’ll clarify.

I am making light of the whole situation. The person to blame is me for having not set up a mirror beforehand. Obviously what happened as Oscar (my host) explained, my blog was causing the server to continuously crash so he removed the config for my domain, subsequently causing it to be redirected to the next website in the config, Jengajam. Obviously it was an abrupt change without notification to the users, so most people were confused, nevertheless, I don’t mind it. Jengajam is a fun site, a site which I helped design way too long ago.

So in conclusion, don’t blame my host. It was either having a dead server, or having this blog turned off temporarily. And you can see which was the obvious choice. The guys at Annandale Nordic (company representing) are great. They literally sponsor me with unlimited bandwidth, so I’m extremely grateful. What they’ve done might have been abrupt, but it was in good intention. I support their decision and as well as Jengajam.

If you don’t fancy the back story, skip directly to download.

Sometime after the launch of XP, somewhere in Redmond, someone on the Microsoft design team was in the progress of developing something for Media Center. It was believed to be too powerful for public consumption and forever archived in the servers at 1 Microsoft Way. Now, a young hobbit man by the name of W3bbo saw light of this unheard of theme, and traveled far and wide to uncover its mysteries. One theme to find. One theme to upload. One theme to rule them all.

Devoted Channel9 member W3bbo spotted an interesting theme on one of the “people_ready” television commercials airing in the Kingdoms. After some dedicated searching, he finally uncovered this mystery Windows XP theme by Microsoft. W3bbo writes,

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