Vendor Spotlight:

MS LONGHORN ATTRACTS ATTENTION WITH WinHEC PREVIEW

Microsoft offered yet another quick peek at the anticipated Longhorn operating system at last week's Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC). Some updates have been made to this system since September's initial preview, but many are not immediately noticeable.

The taskbar, which many thought was too large and intruding, is allowed to be minimized. The user interface has been improved to be more consistent as well. The operating system has a built in contact manager and contacts can be pinned to the taskbar.

Structured around XML and DirectX technology, the Avalon desktop window manager will serve as the desktop graphics makeup. The DWM is inactive when booting, but it is built into Longhorn. The DWM's API framework is similar to the GDI interface which current Windows operating systems are based upon.

Changes in appearance include variations of the minimize/maximize/close buttons at the top right of Window's boxes, which are now in 3-D. The windows look like they are floating when placed atop one another-switching tasks with ALT-TAB layers the windows three-dimensionally, making organization much easier.

Activated in a DOS shell screen, the DWM will cause all text and icons to vanish when "SBCTL Start" is typed in.

The impressive features seems to cause a lag in speed, however. Other features that are planned (compositing manager, for example) still have yet to be implemented.

This version of Longhorn ships with the necessary DirectX 9.0, though the original version only shipped with version 8.

The new Longhorn also offer "mini-domains" which require no domain server, but function in similar fashion to full domains and offer greater security to home network users.