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Windows Longhorn Screenshots Available Online
The Fred writes "I found this website that seems to have screenshots for the next version of windows. Everything from a new start button, extended task bar, display options, .NET capability, and a bigger clock." Fair number of UI changes, some good, mostly irrelevant, but it's interesting. Wonder if it's real.
I seem to be getting the remnants of the website and it's pointing to two mirrors. Obviously, the original website is having problems catering to slash-traffic, so it's best if you go to the other two sites instead.
As for additions, there seem to be a funky looking clock and a program list on the side. Nice addition, if you ask me, getting sick of the Start button myself...
More than mere navel gazing.
Microsoft probably won't put in any significant look and feel changes until much later in the testing program, probably someplace around beta 3. I'd say it's very likely they'll try and hold something impressive back until then, to help keep the hype machine cranking away.
But screw it, maybe by the time Longhorn comes out, I'll be able to have gotten myself a Mac desktop and won't care about Windows. The only thing making me hope for a death of PC gaming is the fact it's the last thing really keeping the machine on my desk a Windows one.
My own pointless vanity vintage computing page
When you go to the Icrontic link you see:
With the help of the folks at WiNBETA we were able to get our dirty little hands on some Windows Longhorn screenies.
These are *legit* and actual screenshots -- no photoshop action here folks.
This article is quoted from WiNBETA here.
SCREENSHOTS REMOVED DUE TO MICROSOFT REQUEST
That was fast work by Microsoft
Today's vices may be tomorrow's virtues.
It appears that Microsoft finally has seen the light, as these screenshots clearly show virtual desktops being supported (and used) directly from the the os..
--
\ Christian A Strømmen
I saw the idea in use at a bank (based on OS2 of all systems) and it does work well for the majority of users that do only routine tasks. Hence I try to go task based in software that I write, though I have users that like more desktop like power and flexibility.
In the bank context the tasks that can be done are specifically limited anyway. I notice though that some of the tasks, such as buying prints of photos, seem a case of subtle revenue streams for MS' partners.
Actually, the screenshots are 100% real.
There was even a 6-minute long movie made of the OS with HyperCapture. Don't tell me someone spent time faking that.
And yes, betas can expire after a year, but this is an alpha, and since the whole program will last till 2004/2005, it's very normal for such a high expiration date. Alphas sometimes don't even have one.
As for MSN 5.0, that's simply the person who had the leaked version that decided to install it, it's not part of the OS.
Trust me, these are real.
I don't understand why people call Windows XP or Longhorn or whatever new version of Windows "userfriendly". Look at the screenshots!
There's now some kind of sidebar which duplicates the functions of the Start menu ---> confusing to new users.
If you open Windows Explorer and check My Computer, you get a complex screen with buttons, icons and progress bars.
If you go to My Documents you get overloaded with options! Any new user will get confused by that!
Not to mention all the eyecandy. Sure, it looks nice, but all those gradients and icons do is overload the user with information. New users will get confused and will have a hard time recognizing standard controls.
The entire UI is extremely cluttered.
The Longhorn GUI is good for advanced users, but will confuse new users! If GNOME or KDE do this, the Windows people will flame us down for creating a "hacker desktop" that's "not consistent" and "overloads the user with too much information". But if Windows does this, it's suddenly allright and called "huge improvements" or "innovation".
I just don't get it...
They are fake.
:-D
:-D
Shamelessly stolen from a post at the bottom of the tech-critic.com site:
The screenshots are fake for the following reasons (this is XP with a custom theme and then some hacking around in an image editor)...
For the Setup screen...
a) In the window, horizontal bar at the top doesn't meet the right hand side.
b) Alpha plane gone on setup icon (definitely would NOT happen to one icon and not others).
c) This is a BIG giveaway all over the place... The current user settings have font smoothing set to anti-alias, not cleartype or none. Anti-alias text does not come into play for small fonts including 8pt (as can be seen on dektop icons, start bar, etc). However, the new bar on the right IS anti-aliasing these fonts and not only that, but it's not using font hinting (aligning the text to the nearest pixel) which is standard for cleartype or anti-aliasing... it's fake text drawn in a graphics package.
The sidebar as startmenu screen...
d) Looks nice, but examine the desktop images... no windows in the first one... later on they have images of the windows!
Sidebar on the right...
e) Where did the windows in the desktop image come from in this one ?
f) Aren't those icons on the bar a bit big compared with the later bars?
Display Properties screen (oh my god)...
g) Nice text antialiasing again (hmm)
h) 'You can change the image that appears on your windo...' ooops. Clipped that text a bit. Note this can't happen with the windows API when you have a multi-line text field (using TextOut, etc). Hmm... minor cockup
i) Ah my windows are back in the desktop images (on the sidebar), but now the current window is bigger with a black splodge at the bottom.
My Computer screen...
j) Love the antialiasing on the left, but not in the middle... nice.
k) How fake are the section buttons on the left hand side? Come on guys... you can't flip images horizontally... MS insist on a top left light source. Oh, and your button with the shadow should either have an alpha plane or not... don't do half a job... it really doens't look real.
My Documents...
l) Oooh, Oooh, an anti-aliased dropdown. Fake Fake Fake.
My Pictures..
m) Nice... what happened to Burn CD though? Have MS dropped it now they support DVD burning?
n) Oops, you should have removed the LH.bmp from your My Pictures. Remember you only used it to create the backgroud.
DOS Setup
o) Love it... now your just taking the piss. How did you get the screenshot??? and the 'install Windows Longhorn 2004 using DOS 1985' is excelent. Very funny
p) The URL is superb. ROTFLMAO.
So...
Nice theming... love the sidebar, good use of blending in your graphics package, but FAKE FAKE FAKE.
Great for a laugh though.
Si.
Actually, Win2k is 5, and XP is 5.1 (run cmd and see the version number.) There was an avi titled "LH3683PreviewLong-WinBeta" that showed him moving around on the desktop. I suppose you might be able to doctor that, but it seems really unlikely.
Hopefully it works as well as it looks. I'm a hardcore linux user, but it's a windows world out there and I have not been able to free myself from that thing yet...
.
.
You say "one thing that I noticed immediately upon setting it up for clients is that more and more window space is given over to branding (mucho!) and white space, with less "real" information available" plus a few more quite valid observations along that line.
:)
Actually, this trend has been in place since IE4's Active Desktop's "web content in every window" thing. It first became the default in Win98, grew another step in Win2K, and contaged directly to WinME and XP -- but in XP it grew by an order of magnitude, to where a default display is more "Hello stupid user, you're so incompetent we'll just TELL you what you're doing and what your files are" than it is useful information. On a low-res screen, even its initial limited incarnation can waste over 75% of the screen. And in my observation, it's even MORE intimidating to newbies, because it's so visually distracting.
The wasted screen estate, not to mention the useless clutter, makes me insane and consequently is the first thing I do away with. Funny thing: if you delve deep enough into XP's admin tools, all this clutter goes away without being told to! Gee, could it be that admin types don't have time to scroll around trying to see the rest of the screen??
And another menu sidebar??! It reminds me of Active Desktop's "Channels" (partner advertising), and I wouldn't be surprised if this new menu sidebar eventually becomes a streaming ad host.
M$ has said that they want to blur the distinction between Web and Desktop, and for a certainty, Active Desktop and its horrible brood do tend to look more like misplaced web pages than like useful desktop elements.
M$'s own research indicates that most users treat Windows like a big menuing system, not as a multitasking workspace (and this unfortunately agrees with my own observation of average users), but how this justifies turning the desktop into nothing BUT a menuing system escapes me.
Not sure what you consider "high density desktop" but mine tend to collect 30-40 icons (mostly useful, tho some are solely for decorative effect) and I think having a score of windows open at once is "normal".
Oh, as to the futzy CPU speed, yesterday I was fiddling with a new linux install on a venerable K6-200, and something or other informed me that it was a "199MHz CPU". Er, well, if you say so!!
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
Several people have said that these "screen shots" are obvious Photoshop, and so "fake".
But, perhaps they are "real" UI design concepts? After all, when you design a UI like this, you let the "designers" play with pictures before rendering it all into code... Just like web design...
I would define myself as an advanced user, and am using win2k and linux on a daily basis. Because I'm almost running Linux full time, I haven't really felt the need to upgrade to XP, which probably accounts for my unfamilliarity with the new "Luna" UI.
But seeing this almost makes me want to puke. Even though I've been using computers for decades, I wouldn't know where to begin in this UI. There seems to be redundancy all over the place, modes galore, and they seem to show/hide certain tasks/apps/files/settings/menu options completely at random.
I have to admit, maybe if I used it I would like it a bit better. But if I feel "overwhelmed" just by looking at one of the screenshots, how should a newbie user feel. (I seem to remember that when doing usability testing, they ask the subject to first look at the screen without touching anything, and then ask them what they think everything is for)
In contrast, Gnome2 seems to be moving in the right direction by simplifying ("make the simple things easy, the hard ones possible") and unifying as much as possible.
Same thing with MacOS: while the first releases of MacOSX were a step back in usability, they've been repairing the damage with the latest release. At the same time it's a good example of how unification really should work (see the iChat, iSync, iCal, Addressbook, Mail, iTunes integration)
Longhorn and XP seem to like confusion: let's do everything in all the ways everyone in the world might want, and stuff it in one interface. And let's do it all at thesame time too.
the Horror!
I talked to some people at WinBeta, the alleged leakers of these SS's. And they seem to be sticking to their story. I guess we'll have to wait it out some more to find out if it's real. But frankly, I trust the guys at WinBeta.
-------
"In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
-- George Orwell
And it is a simple one.
Microsoft never would say Windows Codename Longhorn.
They would say Windows Longhorn. Microsoft has never used the word "Codename" in any documentation nor in any releases in the past. Therefore it is faked.
RoundTop
The screenshots are fake for the following reasons (this is XP with a custom theme and then some hacking around in an image editor)...
:-D
:-D
For the Setup screen...
a) In the window, horizontal bar at the top doesn't meet the right hand side.
b) Alpha plane gone on setup icon (definitely would NOT happen to one icon and not others).
c) This is a BIG giveaway all over the place... The current user settings have font smoothing set to anti-alias, not cleartype or none. Anti-alias text does not come into play for small fonts including 8pt (as can be seen on dektop icons, start bar, etc). However, the new bar on the right IS anti-aliasing these fonts and not only that, but it's not using font hinting (aligning the text to the nearest pixel) which is standard for cleartype or anti-aliasing... it's fake text drawn in a graphics package.
The sidebar as startmenu screen...
d) Looks nice, but examine the desktop images... no windows in the first one... later on they have images of the windows!
Sidebar on the right...
e) Where did the windows in the desktop image come from in this one ?
f) Aren't those icons on the bar a bit big compared with the later bars?
Display Properties screen (oh my god)...
g) Nice text antialiasing again (hmm)
h) 'You can change the image that appears on your windo...' ooops. Clipped that text a bit. Note this can't happen with the windows API when you have a multi-line text field (using TextOut, etc). Hmm... minor cockup
i) Ah my windows are back in the desktop images (on the sidebar), but now the current window is bigger with a black splodge at the bottom.
My Computer screen...
j) Love the antialiasing on the left, but not in the middle... nice.
k) How fake are the section buttons on the left hand side? Come on guys... you can't flip images horizontally... MS insist on a top left light source. Oh, and your button with the shadow should either have an alpha plane or not... don't do half a job... it really doens't look real.
My Documents...
l) Oooh, Oooh, an anti-aliased dropdown. Fake Fake Fake.
My Pictures..
m) Nice... what happened to Burn CD though? Have MS dropped it now they support DVD burning?
n) Oops, you should have removed the LH.bmp from your My Pictures. Remember you only used it to create the backgroud.
DOS Setup
o) Love it... now your just taking the piss. How did you get the screenshot??? and the 'install Windows Longhorn 2004 using DOS 1985' is excelent. Very funny
p) The URL is superb. ROTFLMAO.
So...
Nice theming... love the sidebar, good use of blending in your graphics package, but FAKE FAKE FAKE.
Great for a laugh though.
I see on one of the screenshots (system properties) it say it's running with 512MB RAM. It scares me, i think it's minimum requirement.