Windows Vista build 5231 (winmain)

Windows Vista build 5231 is a pre-Beta 2 build of Windows Vista. It is almost the same as build 5231.2 but it is only available in the x86 architecture.

Setup
Setup has received minor uplifts compared to previous builds of Vista. For starters, the fonts used in both the first section of setup and the hardware portion have been changed. There is also a new fading animation whilst switching between pages in the first section of setup. The "your installation summary" page has also been removed, and its subpages are now just generic pages shown after going past the upgrade page. The progress bar on the hardware portion stage of setup now increases in size depending on how far you actually get with setup.

New features and changes

 * Upon booting into Windows, a boot manager prompt will show by default, giving you the option to boot into this build of Vista, or to boot into a legacy Windows release (otherwise a release of Windows that is based upon NTLDR, rather than BOOTMGR).
 * The Avalon/Indigo IE 7 icon on the desktop has been removed.
 * Windows Media Player 11. This version of WMP now supports real-time searches.
 * Reliability Monitor is added.
 * Add Current Tabs to Favorites option is aded to the Favorites section in the Windows Explorer menu bar.
 * A new volume control app. It allows the volume to be set independently.
 * Network Center and Saved Networks were introduced. The taskbar has a tray icon for Network Center in this build.
 * This build is the first build to support the IPv6 protocol.
 * Windows Memory Diagnostics and Windows Disk Diagnostics were added.
 * Windows Mobility Center was added.
 * Power management options were added into Power Options control panel applet.
 * Help and Support gets an updated look.
 * Network link is added to Start menu.
 * Sounds and Audio Devices is renamed to Audio Devices and Sound Schemes in Control Panel.
 * Auxiliary Displays page has a new Control Panel banner.
 * Search... text has less margin towards the Windows Explorer search box.

Ease of Access

 * Accessibility Options is renamed to Ease of Access in Control Panel.
 * It now opens inside the Control Panel window rather thab a separate window.

Windows Digital Gallery

 * Windows Photo Library is renamed to Windows Digital Gallery.
 * About box which contained the Microsoft Digital Image Library banner is removed.
 * A downside bar is added which will be seen in the RTM version of Windows Photo Gallery and its degraded version, Windows Photo Viewer in Windows 7.
 * A search bar is added.
 * Tag button is added to the toolbar.
 * Folders View is shorted to Folders.
 * Zoom bar and rotate left-right buttons are moved to the downside bar.
 * All Pictures and Videos and Folders section in the navigation bar received new icons.
 * Register Windows Photo Library is removed.
 * App background is now a highly light blue instead of gray.

New navigation bar sections

 * Recently Imported
 * Tags
 * Dates
 * Ratings

Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer 7 has received a few minor uplifts. Some icons (such as the loading website icon found on each tab) has been replaced with a green ring spinning around, having a similar concept as the Aero waiting cursor. A new certificates page has been added, which can be seen when accessing pages with invalid certificates.

DWM
The Aero theme when DWM is initialized has received a few minor uplifts. The program buttons on the top-right are slightly lighter when the cursor isn't hovering over them. A transitioning effect is also utilized if moving your cursor on top of the buttons, and the glowing effect now mostly resembles that of RTM.

Bugs and quirks

 * PIX Slideshow Screensaver crashes if you first select a screensaver called "Slide Show" and then "My Pictures Slideshow" in screensaver preferences.

Installation
This build will BSOD during the setup on QEMU and modern versions of VMware. Using either VirtualBox, Virtual PC 2007 or VMware with either 5.x or 6.x hardware compatibility is recommended.

Taskbar

 * If DWM is enabled, the font on the start button is bolder than usual.
 * If the theme is set to Windows Classic and then reverted to Aero, parts of a taskbar reminiscent of the one seen in build 5048 may be seen.