Finally, I found enough space on my tiny HDD to show you the last build of Windows Longhorn or its new name - Windows Vista. Rumours says build 5472 (the one below) is the last before upcomming RC1. In the time before Windows XP x64 officially been released microsoft act in the same way - first they showed Release Candidate 1 then RC2 and the final version. Final version of Vista is expected in the beggining of 2007.
INSTALLATION
Before i get this build i heard that previos versions took between 1-2h to install and need ~15GB free space (that sounds scary). Actually current version is slowly going on the right route and the installation took me about 25-30min comparable to standart XP or the Media Center Edition. The 15GB of free disk space dont sound that scare when you know that when installation is finished it dont take more than ~7GB. To install Windows Vista you need 7-8GB free disk space on the target partition and additional 8-7GB on other partitions so installation have enough space to store temporaly files during installation. Afterall you need to choose region, installation language, keyboard layout, enter windows key (for the 14 days trial period) and choose drive to install. All this stuff is in the verry beggining and you can go have a beer or coffee 
AFTER INSTALLATION
Similar to XP you're been asked to create user account, choose Security Options, background and account picture. Despite the fact your account is with administrator rights you will see message asking for your confirmation (to grant permission) to run some programs and Option windows quite often 
This is getting disturbing when you install software and configure windows for your needs. Windows was smart enough to dissallow me to capture those and some other system messages but i'll add pictures from camera later 
Ofcourse evrythign is in Windows Vista Aero Style
A friend told me that last 1-2 versiosn of vista that he tried took about 40-60% of his RAM ( and that was a 1GB of RAM) that didnt sound well when i'm using 512MB. When i checked Task Manager reported between 67-75% used physical memory that wasnt so bad. Task Manager itself looks the same on fights sight but Performance tab now shows graph of Physical used memory instead of page file usage and also report the used physical memory in percents:
As you see above there is also connection to more detailed tool that offer much more detailed information about how your system is functioning at the moment:
And the info about each component usage:
When we talk about system Windows Vista perform a system performance test to rate your system in different aspects - you can run this test again later if you want:
Is that the new 3DMark huh
With Vista comes full package - latest versions of Internet Explorer, Media Player, new Media Center, new games, Windows Defender (which purpouse is to play the role of antivirus software):
Drivers support is still poor - dunno what scientific qualification is needed to do the manual nvidia motherboard drivers installation, atleast the video ones was fine. There was no control panel for video drivers too but maybe you dont need such at all cause the build in looked fine. There is also build in DX10 (voala, and microsoft was saying all the time that next generation DX will be called XDA or something). IPv6 protocol is supported too for future network address expansion.
It was no problem to configure LAN network and internet connection, well almost, if you dont count that it was hard to find the right menu in new control panel but no worry - you can always switch to classic view:
Also my PCI slot Surecom network adapter, usually recognized right in XP here was found as a Realtek adapter - it worked but it was strange. I havent tested the gigabit build in controler of the motherboard - probably it will be realtek or nvidia one in real, might be found in vista as surecom 
AMD processor driver declined to install - atleats it saved me the warnings from Vista before isee does it gonna work or not.
Tried to start some games straight that was installed on XP - NFS Most Wanted reported error cause cant find some DX9 files, 3D driving school seemes to work and dunno for darkstar-one cause i needed the virtual CD tool installed to start it right . I'm concidering to try with Battlefield 1942.
Audio driver for build in AC'97 realtek ALC850 chip worked only with latest Vista beta drivers in Realtek website but with limited control panel options.
If evrythign goes fine i will be able to test Vista with 2GB RAM and dual-core processor at the end of this week or beggining of next one.
I can add more screenshots later.
Feel free to ask about stuff concerning Vista and windows itself.
