Windows Vista build 5098

Windows Vista build 5098 is one of the last builds compiled before the Beta 1 stage of Windows Vista. By this point, Microsoft implemented a substantial amount of features originally planned for Windows "Longhorn", thus ending the Omega-13 milestone.

This build cannot upgrade to 5112 because build 5099 or higher is required to do so. Before it was leaked, Paul Thurrott used screenshots of this build in his review of Windows Vista Beta 1, and UX.Unleaked also has a few images of it available. On 23 January 2020, this build was listed on a thread by UX.Unleaked founder Grabberslasher to be released to the BetaArchive FTP, and was later released in the fourth set of his 33 Longhorn/Vista builds on 27 January 2020, along with build 4081.

Setup
Setup has received many major uplifts. A new "Windows is copying files" screen now appears upon booting into setup, and the overall theme has been changed drastically to a more bluish-like style. Upon reaching the beginning of setup, an autorun prompt will appear, giving you the options of either installing Windows, repairing your Windows installation, or reading notes. Upon installing Windows, you will see a familiar, but slightly changed layout, alongside the new said theme. A new upgrade page has also been added if booting off of the disc, however it isn't functional since it isn't possible to upgrade without being inside Windows at this current stage. The review and adjust page has been cut down massively, and is now referred to as the "your installation settings" page. Once reaching the second stage of setup, you will be granted with a more pre-reset resembling hardware setup, since it's mostly just the new WinPE wallpaper, alongside text that now uses anti-aliasing.

Changes

 * A shutdown timer, similar to that found in Windows Longhorn build 4093, has been added.
 * Microsoft Digital Document Writer is added.
 * Windows XP screensaver is replaced with Windows® screensaver and now shows the Windows Longhorn logo instead of Windows XP.
 * "How to Report a Bug" is added to the desktop.


 * Although Outlook Express reports itself as version 6, it contains a few new features that isn't found in the RTM of Outlook Express 6, such as a new search bar.
 * Proxy server options are added to Remote Desktop Connection.
 * This is the first build to include Konica Minolta printer drivers out-of-the-box.
 * Updated Change and Remove Programs control panel applet.

Address Bar changes

 * Current folder icon no longer has a white background behind it.
 * Down arrow is replaced with right arrow.
 * The address bar box color is lighter.
 * A refresh button is added.

Details Pane changes

 * "Show all properties" hyperlink is removed from the Details Pane.
 * "Hide Preview Pane" is added to Details Pane context menu.

Toolbar changes

 * Organize, Window and Share buttons are added.
 * View slider received new icons, looking more like RTM's.

Virtual Folders
Virtual Folders are implemented in this build:


 * Albums
 * All Documents
 * All Music
 * All Pictures and Videos
 * All Videos
 * Artists
 * Authors
 * Date Taken
 * Favorite Music
 * Genre
 * Keywords
 * Rating
 * Unrated
 * 1 Star
 * 2 Stars
 * 3 Stars
 * 4 Stars
 * 5 Stars
 * Recent
 * Types
 * User's Files

Other changes

 * Main window frame no longer shows the folder icon and name since it's all mentioned in address bar.
 * Back&Next buttons are more finalized.

Taskbar and Start Menu Properties
Under Start Menu tab, a new section called "Privacy" is added. There, you can tell the system to show recently opened files or folders inside Start Menu. The System Tray tab is renamed to Notification Area however no changes happened under that section. A new tab called Toolbars is added where you can enable or disable which deskbands (equivalent of toolbars) will be shown in the taskbar.

Internet Explorer
This is the earliest leaked build of Windows Vista to contain a beta build of Internet Explorer 7. Although the icon used in certain builds of IE 7 was found as early as Windows Server 2008 build 4066, IE itself was still a build of IE 6.

This build of IE 7 already contains many new features and changes, including:


 * Tabs instead of new windows
 * The new icon replacing most areas with the old IE 6 icon (though not all areas) and many more new icons
 * A new loading animation
 * Updated searching engine
 * Search box now says "Search the web" instead of "Type to Search".

File

 * "New" subsection is replaced with "New Tab" and "New Window" options.
 * "Close tab" is added.

View

 * "Security Report" is added.

Favorites

 * Web Feeds section is added.
 * New links:
 * IE Add-on site
 * MSDN IE
 * See what's new in IE7
 * TechNet IE
 * Windows Update

Tools

 * "Mail and News" and "Feed Discovery" are removed.

Help

 * "For Netscape Users" is removed.

Games Explorer
This is the first post-reset build of Windows Vista to introduce Games Explorer (first known as Games Center in pre-reset builds of Longhorn).

The menu bar of the Games Explorer has links to "Hardware", "Change/Remove Programs"and "Windows Parental Controls" sections of Control Panel. If you click a game, it also shows "Play" button in the menu bar.

Preview Pane shows the game's rating, publisher, developer and last played date.

User Interface
In comparison with build 5048, this build was a much more significant advancement with regards to introducing new user interface features:


 * Many of the icons have been updated to what would be found in the RTM release of Vista.
 * The Login screen has been changed and now resembles the one seen in 5112, with the same style as the installation process.
 * This build also updated the Windows Aero theme, making it look very similar to the RTM version. However, Windows Aero now requires a LDDM driver and XDDM drivers do not work, so Aero is currently not known to run in this build outside of real hardware.
 * The Aero Basic theme has been updated quite a fair bit, now showing more distinctive buttons, slightly different shading colors and slightly different font colors. The theme still has numerous differences when compared to the theme that is in the RTM.
 * The arrow that minimizes the tray area in taskbar is removed. Every tray icon is now shown by default.
 * Desktop icons are now larger compared to build 5048.
 * Show Desktop, Internet Explorer 6 and Windows Media Player buttons are added to the taskbar.
 * Also, the Luna theme is removed in this build.

Start Menu

 * User picture is readded to Start Menu.
 * Games link is added to Start Menu.

User Accounts
"Change the way users log on or off" is removed in User Accounts control panel applet. "Choose a certificate to encrypt my files" is added to "What do you want to change about your account?" section's "Related Tasks" options.

Printers and Faxes
In the toolbar:


 * "Install a local fax printer" task is removed.
 * "Send a fax" task is added.

New icons for printers are added too.

Print Server Properties

 * New icon for it.
 * In forms page, the "Legal Transverse" form is removed.
 * 2 new port standards are added to "Ports" page:
 * WVG:
 * IR:
 * In "Advanced" section, "Printer notifications for downlevel clients" options are removed.

Sync Manager
"Sync All" and "Stop All" tasks are added.

Library changes:

 * "Now Playing" is removed.
 * "Show List" is added to Library Options.

Playlist:

 * "Save as playlist" and "Clear basket" buttons are added next to the "Playlist Options" menu.
 * "Clear List", "Edit using Playlist Editor..." and "Edit Playlist" are removed from "Now Playing List" dropdown menu.
 * The "Now Playing List", "Sync List" and "Burn List" playlists are separated.
 * "By Name" sort option is renamed to "By Title".
 * You can now sort media as "By Release Date" in "Now Playing List".
 * "Sync List" and "Burn List" now behave like "Now Playing List" as a right-side sidebar.

Toolbar:

 * Search box is now placed in a different position and the text "Search" is now inside the text box.
 * "Now Playing", "Library", "Burn" and "Sync" menu's now have "Hide Basket" button added to their own toolbars.

Playback controls:

 * Shuffle and repeat buttons are split to two different buttons.

Other:

 * "All Pictures", "Devices" and "Other Libraries" are added to "All Music" bar.

Search Interface

 * "Including" section is renamed to just "Include" and it also includes "Videos" as a usable choice. Same drop-down menu now also has icons in the left side of its options.
 * Filters are updated. Many new filters are added:
 * Account Name
 * Album Title
 * Audio Format
 * Author
 * Bcc Address
 * Bcc Name
 * Bit Depth
 * Bit Rate
 * Camera Model
 * Category
 * Cc Address
 * Cc Name
 * Comments
 * Contributing Artist
 * Date Taken
 * Duration
 * Friendly Type Name
 * From Address
 * From Name
 * Flag Status
 * Genre
 * Importance
 * Imported On
 * People
 * Protected
 * Read
 * Received
 * Sent
 * Subject
 * To Address
 * To Name
 * Track Number
 * Year

Network Presentation
This build includes 3 new network presentation tools:


 * Broadcast a Presentation
 * Connect to a Projector
 * View a Presentation

Add Printer Wizard

 * Add Printer Wizard no longer shows the "Welcome to Add Printer Wizard" page after launching it.

"Local or Network Printer" section

 * "Local printer attached tp this computer" is renamed to "A printer attached to my computer".
 * "A network printer, or a printer attached to my computer" is renamed to "A printer that is not attache to my computer (network printer)".
 * The aforementioned 2 options now have icons and descriptions to them.
 * A balloon explanation that talks about local printer option is removed.

"Ready to install printer" section

 * "Name your printer" section is changed to this section in this build.
 * "This printer will be installed" description is added.
 * A description which mentioned the 31-character printer name for app requirements is removed.
 * Printing a test page now exists in this section rather than as a separate section.
 * Making it the default printer is now a checkbox option rather than answer choice option.

"Printer Sharing" section

 * You can now enter location and comment properties for the printer to share.

Regional and Language Options
This build includes a revamped Regional and Language Options control panel applet.

Regional Options section is split into two separate sections:


 * Formats (formerly named Standards and Formats inside Regional Options)
 * Location

In the "Formats" page, the Current Formats drop-down menu no longer has a "Customize" button at its left side.

"Where can I find tools for my current locations?" hyperlink is added to the "Location" section.

In Text Services and Input Languages, "Show additional Language bar icons in the taskbar" is enabled by default.

New User Folders

 * Desktop
 * Downloads
 * Virtual Folders

Shorter Folder Names

 * "My Documents" is renamed to "Documents".
 * "My Music" is renamed to "Music".
 * "My Pictures" is renamed to "Pictures".

New Control Panel Applets:

 * Auxiliary Display (later known as Windows SideShow)
 * Windows Parental Controls (re-added from pre-reset Longhorn builds)
 * Solutions to Problems

Windows Help and Support
Since build 5048,


 * Some new help articles are added to Help and Support.
 * A homepage button and an ask button are added to the toolbar.

SafeDocs
This build is the first to include SafeDocs, which will later be known as Windows Backup (it's also mentioned as Windows Backup (BETA) in various places such as Start Menu).

You can do 3 things there:


 * Automatic Backups
 * Manual Backups
 * Recover Files (There are two sections there: Recover Files and Automatic Backup Tasks.).
 * You can view recoverable files or perform two types of data recovery: "Recover specific files and folders" or "Recover all files and folders".

Bugs and quirks

 * Whilst partitioning on a clean drive, you will not be able to format the hard drive without restarting, due to the hard drive "not being ready".
 * Windows Media Player will crash upon exiting during its first startup.
 * The Computer folder in Windows Explorer may sometimes not display the list of drives. Refreshing the folder will usually fix the problem.
 * Apps shown on the taskbar may appear at the very end of the taskbar.