Dec 08, 2021 20:00:00

Windows Vista test screenshots unearthed

Microsoft released Windows XP in 2001, and then released its successor, Windows Vista , in 2006. During the long development period of Windows Vista, implementation of various functions was considered, and one of them, a test version screenshot, has been unearthed.

Testers dig up an early 2003-era version of Windows Vista's Aero theme | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/12/testers-dig-up-an-early-2003-era-version-of-windows-vistas-aero-theme/

Released by Microsoft in 2006, Windows Vista was code-named 'Longhorn' during development. When Microsoft was developing Windows Vista as Longhorn, it planned a lot of new features, but most of the new features never saw the light of day. One of the new features that never happened is the new file system that replaces NTFS.

On the other hand, there are many features implemented in Windows Vista. One of them is the GUI environment and theme 'Windows Aero ', which is a function realized by the promotion of Direct3D to the basic graphics function of the OS in Windows Vista.

@Thebookisclosed, an excavator of older development versions of Windows, found a screenshot of 'Windows Aero as of March 2003,' the oldest development build of Longhorn before Windows Vista was released.

The Desktop Composition research was worth it!
Happy to give you the 1st ever look at the earliest 'Aero' frames hidden in build 4020
Big thanks to @evil_pro_ for testing on real hardware
At this point only the window icon and caption buttons use textures, the frame is a D3D mesh pic.twitter.com/HA1nz9Yxzl

— Albacore (@thebookisclosed) December 5, 2021

The following is Windows Aero as of March 2003. In the commercial version of Windows Vista and Windows 7, when Windows Aero is enabled, the window part becomes like transparent glass and the background can be seen through, but as of March 2003, translucent smoke It looks like glass, and although the background is transparent, the overall impression is quite different.

The following is the window when Windows Aero is enabled on the retail version of Windows Vista. It has a more vivid and three-dimensional appearance, which is significantly different from that of March 2003.

In addition, Microsoft reset the development of Longhorn in 2004 and restarted the development from the code base of Windows Server 2003. As a result, many of the security features planned for Longhorn, including Windows Firewall, are now included in Windows XP Service Pack 2 . However, as many of the security features have been introduced in Windows XP Service Pack 2, 'as a result, the release of Windows Vista has been further delayed,' said Ars Technica, an overseas media outlet.