WPF Aero Effects in Visual Studio Team System Orcas March CTP

Windows Vista is fantastic so far (it's only been about 2 ½ days). I can say it's the little things that make it so great, like having WPF tie in the new Aero effects into applications.

Notice that in Visual Studio for instance the code editor control hierarchies display previews of the control you are referring to:

The Document Outline pane also supports this feature.

Notice three different representations (2 buttons, a tree node view of the type and name of the variable, and the XAML) of the same information on screen.

All 4 items in the GUI arel synchronized and selected at the same time:

This is brilliant. I wonder if the Button objects are the same object really, and how the resources are managed. Tooltips will get a lot nicer going forward.

I'd like to see an additional feature added to this that allows you to click on it to center the control in the design window.

This feature works in other areas in the IDE as well ... still experimenting.

Windows Vista Experience Index Scores on Older Hardware

If you are like me you have been thinking about upgrading to Vista, but have been concerned about whether or not your hardware will perform adequately.

Yesterday I finally bit the bullet and bought a copy of Vista Ultimate, a new Seagate 7200RPM 320GB SATA II HDD, and a 4GB Flash Drive (for $69.99 at FutureShop – mislabelled price!).

I have a 64-bit system, but due to my current drive configuration, and the fact that Promise hasn't published any 64-bit drivers at all, I had to opt for the 32-bit installation for now. I will upgrade to 64-bit after I copy all my files from the XP drives.

The 64-bit installation took far less than half the time (at least as far as it got) that the 32-bit installation took.

Amazingly, my system blows away all but the most expensive desktops that you'll find at FutureShop and BestBuy, and most of the components are 1.5 -2.0 years old, and I just upgraded to the ATI Radeon All-in-Wonder 9600 about 9-12 months ago.

CONCLUSION:
NEW SYSTEMS ARE NOT WORTH THE MONEY, just buy some decent parts and build your own system.

When I built my system, I got a near the top of the line motherboard, RAM, HDDs, and CPU, and probably spent about $3500 on it spread out over the past 2 years, but you can still get most of these components for a fraction of the cost I paid for them.

If you are like me you have been thinking about upgrading to Vista, but have been concerned about whether or not your hardware will perform adequately.
Yesterday I finally bit the bullet and bought a copy of Vista Ultimate, a new Seagate 7200RPM 320GB SATA II HDD, and a 4GB Flash Drive (for $69.99 at FutureShop – mislabelled price!).
I have a 64-bit system, but due to my current drive configuration, and the fact that Promise hasn't published any 64-bit drivers at all, I had to opt for the 32-bit installation for now. I will upgrade to 64-bit after I copy all my files from the XP drives.
The 64-bit installation took far less than half the time (at least as far as it got) that the 32-bit installation took.
Amazingly, my system blows away all but the most expensive desktops that you'll find at FutureShop and BestBuy, and most of the components are 1.5 -2.0 years old, and I just upgraded to the ATI Radeon All-in-Wonder 9600 about 9-12 months ago.
CONCLUSION:
NEW SYSTEMS ARE NOT WORTH THE MONEY, just buy some decent parts and build your own system.
When I built my system, I got a near the top of the line motherboard, RAM, HDDs, and CPU, and probably spent about $3500 on it spread out over the past 2 years, but you can still get most of these components for a fraction of the cost I paid for them.

More details about my computer


Component Details Subscore Base score
Processor AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3000+ 4.0 4.0
Determined by lowest subscore

Memory (RAM) 1.00 GB 4.1
Graphics ATI Radeon 9600 / X1050 Series 4.3
Gaming graphics 383 MB Total available graphics memory 4.0
Primary hard disk 244GB Free (298GB Total) 5.5
Windows Vista (TM) Ultimate

System
Manufacturer MSI
Model MS-6702
Total amount of system memory 1.00 GB RAM
System type 32-bit operating system
Number of processor cores 1
64-bit capable Yes


Storage
Total size of hard disk(s) 567 GB
Disk partition (C:) 12 GB Free (112 GB Total)
Disk partition (D:) 9 GB Free (19 GB Total)
Media drive (E:) CD/DVD
Media drive (F:) CD/DVDCD
Disk partition (G:) 73 GB Free (138 GB Total)
Disk partition (J:) 244 GB Free (298 GB Total)


Graphics
Display adapter type RADEON 9600 Series (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM)
Total available graphics memory 383 MB
Dedicated graphics memory 128 MB
Dedicated system memory 0 MB
Shared system memory 255 MB
Display adapter driver version 8.342.0.0
Secondary monitor resolution 1280x1024
Primary monitor resolution 1280x1024
DirectX version DirectX 9.0 or better


Network
Network Adapter Realtek RTL8169/8110 Family PCI Gigabit Ethernet NIC (NDIS 6.0)
Network Adapter Microsoft Tun Miniport Adapter