Windows Vista build 5112

Windows Vista build 5112 is the official Beta 1 release of Windows Vista. This build was officially released on 2005-07-27. It is one of the first Beta 1-class builds to be compiled, and certainly, the first Longhorn/Vista build to become widely available. At this point in development, Microsoft had decided that Windows Vista would be the final name of the operating system, hoping to boost the image and perception of the product among end users.

Jim Allchin himself expressed his feelings for the name, stating: "''Vista' creates the right imagery for the new product capabilities and inspires the imagination with all the possibilities of what can be done with Windows – making people’s passions come alive.'"

However, the name Longhorn was still used in numerous areas, such as within the About Windows dialog box, registry entry for Winlogon, and in the boot splash. This is to be expected, considering the point at which this build was compiled (it was compiled two days before the name change to Vista). The name Vista was only mentioned in the build tag.

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, many new icons (mostly for the Control Panel), and a redesigned toolbar. The Aero theme looks very similar to the RTM version, although the Aero Basic theme still has numerous differences when compared with the version of the theme that RTM'ed.

This build also introduced many other features that were originally planned for "Longhorn", including the new networking and audio subsystems, and the .NET Framework 3.0 (still referred to as WinFX) which was nearly complete at the time this build was compiled.