Author: Anonymous
Completed: November 26, 2024

here it starts with setup progress, nothing much changed, and ik its bc of its earliness so nothing special at all.

when i tried windows xp, it mentioned "Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP", but in 3683, it mentions just "Microsoft(R) Windows(R)", which it means they forked from a windows server 2003 development build, they removed the "xp" references bc they could unify windows server 2003 and windows xp 64-bit edition (along with x64 edition).

and in the eula part, they reused the windows whistler one for some reason, maybe to save their time from writing all of tht so they had to use this for beta development builds as they dont have time. but the rest of the setup, iykyk.

as i noticed when the files are copying, they added mui to the os as well, which it tht means, a mui language pack is required to use the os, pretty much like today windows requires it. without it, it wont boot anymore, which is now critical part of the os itself.

boot screen copyright header is different, its indeed forked from a windows server 2003 development build. this is also the same boot screen when client sku is set in windows server 2003 rtm.

and here goes the setup billboard screens being the same as windows xp one. but i wanna say abt smth the eta in the setup, why it loves to lie sm? setup says tht it finishes like in 39 mins while in reality is 8 mins! why!? glad this thing got removed in vista, so no more lie. but yk all of how the setup looks the same as windows xp and everything else. i believe the lie got first introduced in memphis.

and in og xp, theres no cmd dialogs opening up, but in this one, it means tht theyre registering avalon components in here.

the desktop watermark shows "longhorn xp professional" instead of "windows xp professional". ig thts to distinguish the og xp from lh.

the oobe is just the same as the windows xp one, but instead of the familiar oobe song velkommen, it got replaced with a new song named "no hay problema" by pink martini.

if u want to check it out, heres the song.

and it introduces a brand new logon screen instead of the xp one. it have a white gradient and navy blue bars. it also introduces the date and time located at the right of the top bar.

and we greet with a brand new theme named plex, with a brand new wallpaper instead of bliss. my recent documents icon seems to be off. it introduces "my hardware" feature and all programs font size is large. lets see wht this build has to offer.

the file explorer have some updates. there are new toolbar items, the windows flag "throbber" is having a white box, the left pane is updated (which i explain abt disabling the new one for later), it adds a new search edit box and it adds a drive space indicator progress bar, just like wht we got today.

the views menu, it adds a preview option which it shows the details pane, just like in windows vista and 7 (its disabled by default in windows 8 and later). and oh, the toolbar item details gets toggled. so whts the meaning of this?

the 2nd "search" icon is the zoom feature, which is like the views option in windows vista and later. this feature just changes the zoom of the icons, but the icons use the nearest neighborhood sizing method.

and theres pivots which it must be similar to stacking feature in windows vista. lets try with any of these.

and this option searches for photos grouped by date taken, but most of these are unspecified bc i dont have a photo or smth and it shows firstly the default user account pictures.

trying the create photo album feature, it doesnt work.

wht i can find in search companion is basically the same as xp one, but the close glyph graphic is corrupted in explorer bars.

going to help, its the same as xp one but it shows the text labels, nothing special, so moving on.

here goes my hardware feature, which in later, windows 7 could have this similar feature but named as devices and printers. see also lacks any options.

manage device function opens the device properties dialog,

and viewing details is similar to the summary tab and details tab in windows vista and later.

and oh i forgot to mention, selecting and devices, it makes the options appear.
interesting how selecting a mouse provides u to open paint, which is weird.

paint is basically the same as xp one.

after closing it, it shows a error which it wasnt in windows xp or any early version of windows. maybe smth wrong to the code?

even selecting a keyboard provides to open notepad

winver is the same as the xp one but with the year 2002, nothing special

while i was going to display properties, i noticed the new item menu is messed up while "arrange icons by" are displaying fine somehow. lets move on again.

and they changed the display properties, and its built in avalon, wht happens if i press any of these options?

desktop background have a bug, but lets see setting a solid color works.

lets see wht will happen if i apply this.

and it works.

and for some reason, the bug is gone.

color blend feature. well, it doesnt look as expected in the preview, but after applying this, it appears a error. but using as the bg, it still works.

and the same bug came back.

rotating pictures is under construction, but setting a wallpaper, same error appears, but after applying tht, its not looking as it must be.

this is how collage feature looks like when u set multiple pictures.

and it works

i dont wanna show screensaver image, bc its under construction, ig they predate windows dreamscene, maybe?
scale and resolution is primitive.and advanced options looked primitive too, but clicking on try this, the display properties app hangs by itself. showing how lh could become a mess in later builds.

all options display connection settings except the list box all are under construction which im not gonna show tht.

same with theme and screen saver options functions, theyre all under construction. this is why lh became too ambitious at the time.
and thankfully we got the legacy display properties.

and yeah, theyre generated with lh display properties and replaces wallpaper1.bmp.

the windows xp screensaver is named as logon, but nothing special anyway. its just the regular xp one

we got both plex and windows xp style so yeah, iykyk.

the autorun is updated. opening it, its animated.

dos installing support is deprecated. as ms is preparing for the wim image format support and may deprecate i386 soon in future builds. and ms-dos didnt release in 1985, actually it is 1981, which i done a research abt it. and windows as a whole released in 1985. windows longhorn was supposed to be released in 2004, but due to the feature creep going on and too much ambition in here. if they continue at this point, windows longhorn will make into a failed product and buggy mess. thankfully, they did reset the development and started over, as lh is a mess, which later it could become windows vista in 2007.

the taskbar properties added a option to enable the sidebar. and lets see how bad it goes.

there u go, its empty, u have to go options and add some new tiles.

here i added some tiles. and desktop manager is similar to the windows 10 and windows 11 task view. but in windows 10, u had to use the same wallpaper, but in windows 11, u have different wallpapers to set. unlike windows 10 and later which u can create many desktops as u can, there are 4 desktops.

and here some primitive stuff going on.

and theres a taskbar option, which it hides the traditional taskbar and puts it in the sidebar. its quite confusing.

well, the sidebar takes space in desktop, unlike it does in vista, its set always on top. anyways, heres the user accounts control panel. windows xp didnt include the "advanced user management" option in the user accounts control panel. tht option opens local users and groups, which is nothing special abt it, but a shortcut to it.

and they added a option for ctrl+alt+del, which it wasnt in xp user accounts control panel, but it is still included in legacy user account control panel and in local security settings (local policies>security options). i will give a try on tht one.

it works when its logged off, but not logged in. and yeah, this shows a sign theyre gonna to deprecate the classic logon screen in order to use the newer one. pretty much like vista removed this feature and server 2008 have this too.

and it shows up the user list, and indeed the step from the bottom right telling u to create new accounts is removed.

directx 9 is included by default, albeit with the old directx logo. i assume its some dx9 prerelease build.

ie is updated to 6.05, nothing special in here.

wmp is still version 8.

program manager no longer opens. and oh ofc, the my documents folder have a new preview.

selecting my pictures or my music folders, each welcome pane change.

and i selected new and photo album, a wizard appears. and why track and duration are even needed? theyre not music tracks, theyre images. and it doesnt show up the preview of the images we are gonna add.

clicking ok, it doesnt open the photo album. but opening this, it shows edit playlist.

oh right clicking on it and click open, isnt tht easy, ms?

and opening a image causes to open with, so i opened the default photo viewer, and yeah, i noticed two new buttons which arent in xp photo viewer. it lacks a black border.

it contains a feature to select a region and crop it.

and it asks me to save, no i dont wanna save

and making a new briefcase, they changed from wizard dialog to a message dialog, and it lacks visual style support for this. so inconsistent.

and heres the early new file conflict resolve dialog, which it can be used soon in windows vista and later. as bw said: A redesigned file copy conflict resolve dialog was added, which can be enabled by setting the DWORD
value NewResolve in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer to 1.

system properties is changed to say microsoft longhorn xp instead of microsoft windows xp. it says version 2003, thts bc its based on windows server 2003 codebase. and they added a new tab called "startup applications monitor" in performance options which is similar to the startup tab in windows 8 and later task manager. i didnt recall seeing this in xp.

and yeah, when i made a registry entries file for enabling both people and digital clock sidebar tiles, selecting a file, the file icon does a rotating animation in the preview pane.

and they appeared in the list after doing tht. now we added two of them. digital clock looks nice, but pressing the user icon, it appears a chat dialog, wonder if tht works.

and welp... it opens a new .net chat dialog. it looks primitive.

adding a online contact doesnt do anything, but sending a email works.

outlook express is updated to 6.05, the branding is messed up somehow.

if u want these both hidden people and digital clock tiles in the sidebar, have this file. i borrowed them from bw so yeah.

reg.reg

and they added support for my games, which it could become game explorer later in windows vista, in which later windows 8 have it hidden, and in some windows 10 update removed it.

and opening my games news, it starts first up with a error, and then clicking on continue, it brings up another primitive dialog. they dont do anything but the button between back and next change the symbol.

closing it, it causes a error. so moving up to dce (which later it could become dwm). well, dce doesnt work in any virtual or emulated machine, so the better bet is to use real hardware.

i had to borrow mytvapp.container from longhorn 3706, to get windows trust manager. it is similar to the user account control wht we got today.

and heres the start page, its looking too primitive than i thought. but if u want to explain how it works and open it, then heres the page if u want to know abt. it is intended to replace the oobe used in windows xp.

when i was enabling freestyle (which is media center edition), i scrolled down and i see two avalon related components. sidebar and the infamous windows future storage services (which is known for making longhorn unstable).

enabling it, it appears a error which tampering with the system license isnt allowed. lets see how bad it goes. i had to select d:\i386 instead of d:\cmpnents\i386\mediactr

im restarting this to complete the progress, and look wht we got in the boot screen. the edition name changed from professional to freestyle.

winver is changed to say windows xp freestyle, and in watermark, it says longhorn xp media center edition.

xp freestyle is originated from some media center edition prerelease based on xp sp1

yeah, i had to open media center many times and it crashes. its unusable.

this wht happens if u uninstall media center, but u cant, its impossible to uninstall after u installed it once. its like being stuck in a trap.

and lastly, i could show the themes and the file explorer with the old xp webby pane.
this happens if u delete webview from "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer", it falls back to the old xp pane

here are the themes from this build. it only contains the regular luna, classic theme and the new plex theme.

and finally, i could show u smth when i use luna theme with the windows xp web pane fallback. here this how it looks like. plex lacks a shellstyle file, probably bc of the new pane or maybe they forgot? who knows. and shellstyle for xp luna theme and classic are still here for some reason, so yeah. theres a last one.

and due to a naming error, first plex is the luna theme, then the second plex theme is the plex theme. its bc they used the same string which the windows xp theme had.

before the final part of this build im gonna show u the classic logon screen, nothing changed from xp except the default theme.

after i deleted the new webview from longhorn, control panel category view is now bugged.

and the final part of this review, turn off computer and log off windows are still the same as xp one, but yeah. im not pretty sure to look forward in other builds, so this is my first time trying to review this. well, this build have some bugs but in the future, things will go ambitious and messy for the lh development tht led to the reset. tht concludes all the review of this build.