Author: Blue Horizon

We're now in the home stretch of Windows XP development builds. There isn't much to see here since most of these builds focus on bug fixes and minor changes, but there's still some hidden treasures to look at in here that lots of people overlook.

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Nothing new here to see in this build, though I find it irritating that they put a link right in the Help menu of the Explorer to determine if your copy of Windows is "legal", because it's not like there exists ways to bypass that.

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Yeah, if an operating system's installation screen supposedly tells you to enjoy the OS, 9 times out of 10, it's gonna be unpleasent.

Start menu that points to several options? Webby help & support pages? Gee, that hasn't been done before!

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The only difference I could find in this build is that IDW Logging Tool isn't in the Startup folder.

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Same thing, although I forgot to mention since build 2485, there's a clicking sound whenever you open the start menu or select a menu item. I guess they removed that since it felt too similar to Apple's Mac OS line.

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When you first get this build, it isn't installable. Not even the first part of setup runs. To fix this, you need to copy a long list of files from build 2505 and then put them in the 2509 ISO. Those files starting from AAAAMON.DL_ all the way to CYZPORT.INI_.

During installation, you will get prompted about device driver errors, but you can install them anyway by clicking Yes.

If you want a fixed version of this build, message me and I can link you my fixed version I made.

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And they put IDW back in Startup. I assume they change their mind many times here since this is the bug fixing stage of development.

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During setup, there's a different font style used. To be fair, I get sick of Tahoma once in a while. I'd rather just have good old MS Sans Serif. Of course they knew that people have opinions that aren't congruent to theirs, so MS actually purposly forbid most newer MS products at the time from having MS Sans Serif as a choosable font for the UI. Of course there's always easy workarounds for that: http://toastytech.com/files/sansurfh.htm

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This build also introduces a new product key icon during setup.

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Another different profile icon.

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The MIDIs in the music folder are now gone. Now it's just the two you would find on any regular XP installation.

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Well, finally IE is added in Add/Remove Components. BUT all it does is remove some shortcuts from the start menu and desktop. IE is NOT uninstalled and can still be accessed in Program Files. Even entering a URL in Windows Explorer does the same.

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By "removing" IE in Add/Remove Components, it removes any reference of IE in the start menu and desktop.

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And as I said already, even after unchecking that box, you can still open it in Program Files and enjoy the wonders of intentional security holes bigger than the state of Texas.

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Another build that only seems to be on the BetaArchive FTP, so I can't review it. It doesn't look any different anyway.

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This build only temporarly removes those clicking sounds when opening the start menu and menu items.

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I also did come across this folder. It's nothing new. To get it you have to open Windows Movie Maker and then you can see the folder.

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Wait a minute... This wallpaper doesn't look MS approved... Also the build string on the bottom right is disabled.

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WTF? I don't remember some of these wallpapers being in XP, most of them being outer space ones. And there's even a Simpsons one!

So apparently, someone has modified this build and they added their own wallpapers here. Why? Is it supposed to be funny? Well thank goodness I know these exist. You can download these wallpapers right here:

Windows_XP_Build_2531_Wallpapers.zip

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Much like build 2495, it includes Tweak UI and a different CMD color pallete and font size.

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And we have the Marine Aquarium like in build 2495. I also realize that it's also included with the Aquarium theme on XP Plus!.

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I'm not sure if this is in the actual OS, but apparently while shutting down it tells me it's running shutdown scripts. Is that even nessesary? What happened to the days of "It is now safe to turn off your computer"?

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Nothing to say about this one, though this is the last build that features the "Windows XP Professional" wallpaper by default.

Well that was a mouthfull, but there's still 2 more builds to explore before the RTM. Stay tuned until then.