Author: Blue Horizon
The year is now 1999, and Microsoft is gearing up for Windows 2000's final build later this year. Let's see what they've changed thus far.
BUILD 1964
Like with certain unbootable builds, you have to run setup by entering winnt from an MS-DOS/Windows 9x disk. However this time, you don't even need to type in the /b switch anymore, as at this point they've made it a floppiless installation through and through.
Since this is a server build, the bootscreen reflects this as you would expect. And there's that "Built on NT Technology" phrase again.
The file system conversion screen.
Upon entering the GUI portion of setup, you'll see that the theme of the logo/background has a higher emphasis of the square box look.
As is common with server builds for some reason, the wizard is stretched higher than it needs to, hence the empty black area below the graphic to the left.
Other than that, setup seems to flow smoothly for the most part. Until...
...You get these two errors during installation of components. You can actually just move these error messages to the side and setup will still continue as normal. Attempting to close the error dialogues won't work as they will just indefinitely pop back up through the whole setup.
As always, a better look at the new background.
As with build 1946, you get this window displaying information of starting up the operating system.
The Ctrl-Alt-Delete dialog is finalized, and is also the same one used in Windows XP/Server 2003.
The login credentials window.
The dialogue here has been changed from Configuring your settings... to Loading your personal settings... and Applying your personal settings..., just like how it is in the final build.
Right off the bat upon reaching the desktop, you'll see that the icons are the same as the final release - and it also seems that a couple quick launch icons are missing.
Also upon booting up, you'll recieve this server configuration window... that's a webpage! So now apparently, configuring and setting up a server requires IE.
The start menu graphic on the left has changed.
The active wallpaper now reveals the new logo on the top right.
The most notable change in help thus far compared to 1946 is that "How to Use Help" has been changed to "Web Resources" and "Troubleshooting" is now one whole word.
The shutdown screen.
BUILD 1965
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Not much to say what's new here as it isn't all that different from 1946 or 1964, but now it seems the "Professional" version also has this aforementioned tall wizard.
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Unlike previous builds, this one automatically logs you in if you didn't enter a password during setup.
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Overall, this is the most stable build out of the three from what it seems, and setup flows by pretty fast.
BUILD 1969
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Out of the three builds, this is probably the most tedious one to install, as you're stuck on this part of setup for about roughly 15 to 30 minutes - also getting a driver error along the way.
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Besides that, setup flows just fine as it should.
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And here's the desktop of this build along with the about dialog.
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Just a slight observation, it seems double-clicking on program groups to open them in a window isn't exactly that polished yet - as I did get explorer to crash doing this.