Or you might want to call it Desktop Aurora. Regardless of how you want to call it, the feature to have an animated and potentially 3D desktop background would be extremely cool. We’ve already seen two proofs (one/two) such a feature is going to be shipping with Windows Vista, but along with Build 5728 comes a new hint. This is shown in the OOBE (Out-of-box-experience) testing process. I extracted this from the resource file.

This is most obvious and clearest indication of the Aurora feature. The background features the prominent blue and green colours which the Microsoft designs have been talking about for a long time, as well as the aurora effect which we’ve all been used to. But in addition, the flare makes a guest apperance with a cool glass effect.

Along with an insider tip that something exciting is going to ship with Windows Vista, I can now safely assume such a feature will either be shipping with Windows Vista or delivered as a Windows Ultimate Extra.

If you haven’t already seen the new Windows Vista control panel, then you need your eyes checked. What used to be a skill and talent in picking the right icon to change the right configurations in Windows impressing many friends and colleagues, is about to be turned into a simple task that involves little thought and greater outcomes. A necessary but devastating change to many geeks and overpaid technicians I’m sure.

So if you want someone to blame for making Windows Vista so easy to configure and personalize, that person would be Andrew McGlinchey.

My commentary are surrounded with [square brackets] in italics.

The opinions expressed by Andrew McGlinchey herein are his own personal opinions and do not represent his employer’s views in any way. If you hold Microsoft to account for anything he says, I will personally hunt you down and make your life miserable.

Who are you, what is your shoe size and how many kids do you have?

I’m Andrew McGlinchey, my shoe size is a decidedly average 9 US, 43 in Europe. No kids, which is why I can afford shoes. [Shoes vs kids. The great life balance.]

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Vinny Pasceri, the Aero Program Manager for Windows Vista, has the daunting task of oversighting the user experience development project. Many people and especially Microsoft enthusiasts do not understand why Windows has so many legacy and conflicting user experience elements, and even why Microsoft will fail to address those issues in Windows Vista.

Vinny explains, “Many people don’t realize this but these changes come with a surprisingly high “tax” that goes into updating Icons, changing text, replacing a graphic, etc.”

Having said that, Microsoft designers are unofficially committed to redesign most of the icons in Windows to the new Aero interface standards. Now, with RTM just around the corner, how are they doing? Remember last time, I recorded 4562 icons in Windows Vista? Today I took the time to extract all the icons from the Windows Vista build 5728 resource files, and identified all the 256*256 icons. I’m happy to report there are nearly 350 new high-resolution icons in Windows Vista now. Have a look for yourself. Note: icon size reduced for ease of viewing.

Download all the 256*256 icons in a ZIP (24.7MB) file for your own viewing pleasure and any other pleasures you may get out of high-resolution icons. Or, you might prefer the PNG version (ZIP, 14.9MB) for easy viewing.

And check this out, the fidelity and attention-to-detail for the Journal icon is amazing. Leather good enough to eat!

Windows Vista is looking better everyday. Even it won’t be the perfect operating system, or reach the level of ‘legacy-less’ in Mac OS X, hats off to the Microsoft designers.

Addition: Yes. I know Mac OSX 10.5 Leopard is going to have 512*512 icons, and they look amazing. But I’m only focusing on Windows for this post.

These nature wallpapers comes from Windows Vista build 5728 released today to technical beta testers and the public. These may or may not have been new to build 5728, but is interesting nevertheless. As you would expect, the quality of these wallpapers are amazing and I’m sure there are many more wallpapers like these that are not going to be in the betas, but the injected into the final builds to be a surprise.

You can find these in the C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper\Nature directory from the Windows Vista Starter edition.

Look what I found in Windows Vista build 5728.

Could this be the “spiritual” branding experience Steve Ball, group program manager for the Windows Audio Video Excellence team was talking about? Even though the sound is unique, after playing it a few times, I’ve already gotten used to it. Somewhere through the deep tones, it still reminds me of Windows.

Update: It has been confirmed this is not the official Windows Vista startup sound.

Ever since I announced the Official Windows Vista Mousemats giveaway just 3 days ago, my email inbox has been full of quirky and fun responses to the question on the submissions page, “In one word or less, why do you want a mousemat?” To be exact, I’ve received 349 entries so far. So I thought I’d share some of them here. And since this is a random prize-draw, plagiarism is encouraged!

• Supercalifragilisticexpialidoceous — Surprisingly only one person submitted this, but there were a few variations
• for when i get vista via Bit Torrent — Probably not the best idea to send your email and name along with that
• For the same reason there are more Porsche-Baseballcap owner than actual Porsche-Owners: it’s cheaper this way. — Got to get myself one of those
• It’s the Official Windows Vista Mousemats! — Thank you for completing the comprehension test
• Because I have one bum cheeks smaller than the other and I use it to sit on with that one cheek — Too much information
• Quality is not being judged?!?!? Of course it is! And I would not blame you if you threw out those other entries of ‘lesser quality’ and just made this one the winner! Thank you. — Done
• To use with my circular-shaped mouse — You mean, you don’t have a circular-shaped mouse?
• Good question. I use a touchpad… — At least you’re honest
• Because deep inside of my heart of hearts I’m actually a Microsoft fanboy. Shh… don’t tell anyone. — Whoops
• To throw like a frisbee at Mac fanboys around the office — I don’t know how well mousepads fly, but I like your way of thinking
• Rumour has it that this mat contains a hidden version of Service Pack 1 for Vista… — Shhhhh

I’d like to give James Senior one last plug for providing these mousemats.