“Bringing clarity to your world.”

Today Microsoft announced the official name of the next-generation Windows operating system — Windows® Vista™, formerly known under the code-name “Longhorn”.

Information about this new name was leaked last night, as ActiveWin reported, after Microsoft Global Sales Briefing held in Atlanta. Vista stands for view, prospect and this is exactly what Windows Code-name “Longhorn” is about - the innovative graphics engine, rebuilt driver model, as well as the ‘Indigo’ services. There is a new Vista-specialized microsite at Microsoft, and the former “Longhorn” Development center is gone. You can watch the “Longhorn” naming announcement video here.

Yesterday the second, and probably the last, part of Windows Longhorn BETA invitations was sent out. It’s expected that Beta 1 is going to be released to official testers on July 27th, the next Wednesday. Beta 1 of the WinFX SDK should be released on the same day, too, so the two betas’ release dates match perfectly. Testers will be able to code and test Avalon applications as soon as they get the Longhorn build.

Anyway, the beta program of MSN Messenger 7.5 (a sub-version to 7) was started today. The new version presents an updated Sign-In window, where you can see your display picture, as well as the well-known ‘always sign in as…’ options and so on. When you sign in you can see a little toolbar on top of the contacts list with only one button - ‘Add a Contact’, I don’t see big use of it, but anyway. An addition to build 160, which is the newly released one, is the ‘Voice Clip’ button in every conversation window - you can record a short audio clip and send it over to your buddy.

There are new ‘Dynamic Backgrounds’, which are Macromedia Flash-enabled files w/ animations which you may put instead of the still background. Of course, you can get some free backgrounds from BlueMountain’s web-site. If the user chooses to, he or she can disable the hyperlinks in their conversations in order to prevent clicking them.

The third beta is the Windows OneCare Live one. Windows OneCare is the anti-virus solution from Microsoft. It includes the already-released code of AntiSpyware, as well as anti-trojan and virus techniques to prevent execution of malicious code on Windows-based systems. Unfortunately, so far testers *must* be from the US in order to apply for the beta.

Well, I think that is what I had to say about those 3 betas for now. I’ll keep tracking their evolution in future, though.

As you may already know, a dozen of Windows Longhorn 5203 screenshots have been leaked to web recently. The wallpaper seen in 5203.winmain.050702-1000 is the same as the one used in private builds (~5060) shown at WinHEC 2005 and a Channel 9 video interview with Jim Allchin, but ‘non-tagged’. The major public had only a tagged 800×600 screenshots, until those 5203 screenshots leaked. But nobody has ‘recreated’ it, yet. That’s why I did it.

By clicking the image on the right you can get a really good representation of the original image, made using the losless images provided. The only con is that I had to cut about 65 pixels off the bottom of the picture because of the build tag.

I hope you enjoy it.

Please note: This is not an original wallpaper, but a representation of it. It’s an image, encoded in the PNG format, has dimentions 1680×985 (the original image is 1680×1050), and is about 1MB.

Today is kind of ‘a day of Longhorn’. Microsoft has started sending Longhorn BETA invites out, it’s known that only Top 10 R2 bug-reporters and WinHEC attendees who signed up for the BETA have beem invited so far. The Windows Server 2003 SP1 testers were promised to follow-up in the next BETA, or at least, have big chances for being accepted, but I personally haven’t received the invitation yet. There are no materials to download yet, though.

In addition, a Linux and Windows user posted Windows Longhorn screenshots which you can see are 5203-tagged. The 52** series are for internal use/testing only and most likely it was an internal worker who leaked the build, or only those screenshots.

I’ll keep tracking the news about Windows Longhorn in future, too.

Edit: Looking closely at picture number 3, you see that the same person who leaked the screenshots, has got this internal build — his own web-site it displayed in an Internet Explorer 7 window (notice the tabbed-browsing - picture 5).

Jemaho, a fellow admin of AeroXperience posted the PDC 2005 Wallpaper yesterday. Get it here. It’s simple, but looks nice and professional.

I’ve just received an e-mail from Electric Rain saying that their product ZAM 3D was updated. For those of you, who don’t know what it is, it is a 3D objects-generator for XAML. Instead of spending hours of researching Videoport3D, the Meshes, ModelCollection, etc, you design your object in the application, or import a standard 3D scene there. Anyway, they updated ZAM 3D to work fine with the May CTP of Avalon. They say the Rotation Animation has been changed a lot since the March 2005 release.
If you are working with XAML + 3D, ZAM 3D would be definately useful to you, you can get it from Electric Rain Web-Site.

Long time, no post… No, this blog is not dead.

I’ve been pretty busy finishing the school year, but fortunately it’s over now, and I hope I’ll find the time to keep this blog updated more frequently.

I did find the time to *finish*, or better - redo, the web-log skin. The first version had issues with the header when using FireFox, and the pages had limited width. But now, both problems are fixed, and there is one addition - check out the top of the sidebar. I wrote a plug-in for Microsoft Windows Media Player 10 — called Windows Media iNFO, which gathers all available data about the current media and uploads it to a server. There is can be posted in a web-page, or whatever. MSN Messenger 7 users are familiar with the fact that you can share your music preferences with others. Anyway, in the Projects and Researches -> Windows Media iNFO page you can find more information about the application and screenshots, until I finish it, and then I’m going to publish it here and/or AeroXperience forums.

Today, I redesigned the blog. The theme is inspired from the 4000-4033 era of Longhorn, where blue and Aurora could be seen on the desktop, Sidebar, taskbar. I hope you guys like it. I’m going to add support for high-resolution ’stretching’ of the posts soon, so users with resolution set to 1600×1200 and similar can have the max from their useful desktop space.

The official Professional Developer Conference 2005 web site has been launched, and event information, such as the tracks that are going to be discussed are available now. PDC 2005 is one of the most anticipated Microsoft events since Late 2003 when was the last PDC. Attendees will be able to see and hear about the next-generation software and technologies, such as ASP.NET 2.0, the new version of the Common Language Runtime and SQL Server 2005. The six tracks that PDC 2005 will offer are:

• Presentation: Latest innovations in user experience technology: drill into “Avalon,” ASP.NET 2.0, Internet Explorer 7, and integrating with Windows “Longhorn.”
• Data & Systems: Advancements in data access, storage, and server technologies, including deep dives on SQL Server 2005, SharePoint® Services, and “WinFS.”
• Communications: The infrastructure for connecting applications and systems. Go deep on new innovations including “Indigo,” IIS 7, peer-to-peer, and real-time communications.
• Office: Developer features and technologies in the next versions of Microsoft Office System clients and servers.
• Tools & Languages: “Longhorn”-wave tools, languages, and application extensibility, and the latest on Visual Studio® Team System.
• Fundamentals: Platform advancements in “Longhorn” and .NET Framework that enable world-class applications, emphasizing security, compatibility, deployment, reliability, manageability, and performance.

You can learn more here, and the RSS feed is available here.

Today I added 4 pages to the “Projects and Researches” section. Currently posted are the “Hoolie” Demo, Desktop Aurora, the joint-release “Sticky Notes In Longhorn 4074″ by WinMonKey and me, and the Xaml/Baml Files Viewer. I’ll keep updating the section with upcoming projects and works, such as concept applications/images, my own implementation of the Longhorn Deploying Mechanism, “Windows Imaging Utility”, (unfortunately, two versions of which have recently been leaked to the major public).
Well, just wanted to let you know this, I hope that those of you reading my blog that didn’t know about Hoolie, Aurora, etc., will be able to see and try them out.