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 new Games Explorer application has been introduced.
 * The Luna theme is removed in this build.
 * Many of the icons have been updated to what would be found in the RTM release of Vista.
 * 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.
 * A shutdown timer, similar to that found in Windows Longhorn build 4093, has been added.


 * 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.

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, including tabs instead of new windows, the new icon replacing most areas with the old IE 6 icon (though not all areas), many new icons, and an updated searching engine.

User Interface
In comparison with build 5048, this build was a much more significant advancement with regards to introducing new user interface features. The Explorer shell had seen significant changes, including virtual folders, a new search interface, a redesigned toolbar and the addition of the Games Explorer. 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 still has numerous differences when compared to the theme that is in the RTM. User picture is readded into Start Menu.

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.