Vista Beta 2 went live while i was asleep, so now's the time to avoid the rush and get ready if you havent already started downloading. Firstly, you may want to view the
Release Notes:-)
Drivers - ATI
ATI have released updated LDDM drivers for Vista Beta 2 for both 64bit and 32bit versions of Vista. First step is to make sure the ATI hardware you have is supported by looking at the
Windows Vista Supported Products list. Then go ahead and
download the driver packages.
Cant be bothered checking?
You lazy lazy person you... heres a summary off the list of supported hardware.
Desktop
- ATI Radeon® X1900 Series
- ATI Radeon® X1800 Series
- ATI Radeon® X1600 Series
- ATI Radeon® X1300 Series
- ATI Radeon® X850 Series
- ATI Radeon® X800 Series
- ATI Radeon® X700 Series
- ATI Radeon® X600 Series
- ATI Radeon® X550 Series
- ATI Radeon® X300 Series
- ATI Radeon® 9800 Series
- ATI Radeon® 9700 Series
- ATI Radeon® 9600 Series
- ATI Radeon® 9550 Series
- ATI Radeon® 9500 Series
Multimedia
- ATI All-in-Wonder® X1900 Series
- ATI All-in-Wonder® X1800 Series
- ATI All-in-Wonder® 2006 Edition
- ATI All-in-Wonder® X800 Series
- ATI All-in-Wonder® X600 Series
- ATI Theater™ 550 PRO
- ATI TV Wonder™ Elite
- ATI All-in-Wonder® 9800 Series
- ATI All-in-Wonder® 9600 Series
Chipset
- ATI CrossFire™ Xpress 3200
- ATI Radeon® Xpress 200
- ATI CrossFire™ Xpress 1600
- ATI Radeon® Xpress 200M
Mobile
- ATI Radeon® Xpress 200M
- ATI Mobility™ Radeon® X1800 Series
- ATI Mobility™ Radeon® X1600 Series
- ATI Mobility™ Radeon® X1400 Series
- ATI Mobility™ Radeon® X1300 Series
- ATI Mobility™ Radeon® X800 Series
- ATI Mobility™ Radeon® X700 Series
- ATI Mobility™ Radeon® X600 Series
- ATI Mobility™ Radeon® X300 Series
- ATI Mobility™ Radeon® 9800 Series
- ATI Mobility™ Radeon® 9700 Series
- ATI Mobility™ Radeon® 9600 Series
- ATI Mobility™ Radeon® 9500 Series
- ATI Mobility™ FireGL™ V5200
- ATI Mobility™ FireGL™ V5000
- ATI Mobility™ FireGL™ V3200
- ATI Mobility™ FireGL™ V3100
Workstation
- ATI FireGL™ V7350
- ATI FireGL™ V7300
- ATI FireGL™ V7100
- ATI FireGL™ V5100
- ATI FireGL™ V5000
- ATI FireGL™ V3200
- ATI FireGL™ V3100E
- ATI FireMV™ 2200 PCIE
- ATI FireMV™ 2400 PCIE
See how much effort I put in for you folks?(ok ok Most of that is copy/paste + some HTML work because Firefox isnt properly supported in this release of CommunityServer)
Drivers - NVIDIA
NVIDIA have also got some
Beta 2 drivers.
NVIDIA released the following beta drivers for Windows Vista Beta 2. The current ForceWare driver is a beta release that will enable you to test the basic features and capabilities of the new operating system.
Release Highlights:
- These drivers are tested for use only with Microsoft Windows Vista Beta 2 only. Click here to download Windows Vista Beta 2.
- Includes the new NVIDIA Control Panel. Please visit the NVIDIA Control Panel website for more information.
- Includes OpenGL driver for compatibility testing.
- Improved application compatibility and performance. For a full list of fixes issues, please view the Release Notes.
- Adds support for GeForce 7900 GS, GeForce 7600 GS, GeForce 7300 GT, Quadro FX 4500 X2, Quadro FX 5500, Quadro FX 3500, Quadro FX 1500, and Quadro FX 560.
From the
NVIDIA Beta 2 Release Notes PDF file heres the list of supported products:
Consumer
- GeForce 7900 GTX
- GeForce 7900 GT
- GeForce 7900 GS
- GeForce 7800 GTX 512
- GeForce 7800 GTX
- GeForce 7800 GT
- GeForce 7800 GS
- GeForce 7600 GT
- GeForce 7600 GS
- GeForce 7500 LE
- GeForce 7300 LE
- GeForce 7300 GS
- GeForce 7300 GT
- GeForce 7300 SE
- GeForce 6800 XT
- GeForce 6800 XE
- GeForce 6800 Ultra
- GeForce 6800 LE
- GeForce 6800 GT
- GeForce 6800 LE
- GeForce 6800 GS
- GeForce 6800
- GeForce 6700 XL
- GeForce 6610 XL
- GeForce 6600 VE
- GeForce 6600 LE
- GeForce 6600 GT
- GeForce 6600
- GeForce 6500
- GeForce 6200SE with TurboCache
- GeForce 6200 with TurboCache
- GeForce 6200 LE
- GeForce 6200
- GeForce 6150 LE
- GeForce 6150
- GeForce 6100
- GeForce PCX 5900
- GeForce PCX 5750
- GeForce PCX 5300
- GeForce FX 5950 Ultra
- GeForce FX 5900ZT
- GeForce FX 5900XT
- GeForce FX 5900 Ultra
- GeForce FX 5900
- GeForce FX 5800 Ultra
- GeForce FX 5800
- GeForce FX 5700VE
- GeForce FX 5700LE
- GeForce FX 5700 Ultra
- GeForce FX 5700
- GeForce FX 5600XT
- GeForce FX 5600SE
- GeForce FX 5600 Ultra
- GeForce FX 5600
- GeForce FX 5500
- GeForce FX 5200LE
- GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
- GeForce FX 5200
- GeForce FX 5100
Workstation
- NVIDIA Quadro FX 5500
- NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 X2
- NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500
- NVIDIA Quadro FX 4400
- NVIDIA Quadro FX 4000 SDI
- NVIDIA Quadro FX 3500
- NVIDIA Quadro FX 3450
- NVIDIA Quadro FX 3400
- NVIDIA Quadro FX 3000G
- NVIDIA Quadro FX 3000
- NVIDIA Quadro FX 2000
- NVIDIA Quadro FX 1500
- NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400
- NVIDIA Quadro FX 1300
- NVIDIA Quadro FX 1100
- NVIDIA Quadro FX 1000
- NVIDIA Quadro FX 700
- NVIDIA Quadro FX 600
- NVIDIA Quadro FX 560
- NVIDIA Quadro FX 550
- NVIDIA Quadro FX 540
- NVIDIA Quadro FX 500
- NVIDIA Quadro FX 350
- NVIDIA Quadro FX 330
- NVIDIA Quadro NVS 285
- NVIDIA Quadro NVS 440
Developer SDK - Windows SDK for Vista Beta 2
The
Windows SDKcontains pre-release documentation, samples, and tools designed to help you develop Windows applications and libraries using both Win32® and WinFX® technologies targeting Windows Vista.
Developer SDK - WinFX Runtime Components Beta 2
Download the
WinFX Runtime Components for Beta 2.
"Windows Presentation Foundation", "Windows Communication Foundation", and "Windows Workflow Foundation" are the names for three strategic developer technologies that Microsoft plans to ship in 2006 as part of the Windows Vista operating system. In addition, Microsoft is making these technologies available on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. The WinFX Runtime Components Beta 2 enables developers to continue experimenting with early builds of these technologies, get acquainted with the development experience, and provide Microsoft with feedback. More details about these technologies are below.
Developer - VS.NET “Orcas” CTP – Development Tools for WinFX
Downlaod the
Dev tools for WinFX to be able to write WinFX applications in VS.NET.
The Development Tools for WinFX® (Beta 2) provides developers with support for building WinFX applications using the final released version of Visual Studio 2005. This support includes XAML Intellisense support through schema extensions for the editor, project templates for the Windows Presentation Foundation (formerly code named “Avalon”) and the Windows Communication Foundation (formerly code named “Indigo”), and WinFX SDK documentation integration. This release contains a preview of the Visual Designer for Windows Presentation Foundation (code name "Cider"), more information can be found on the Channel 9 Wiki site for Cider. This release does not include a graphical design surface for the Windows Communication Foundation.
Now what are you waiting for? Go on and
download Vista already or if its not available to you yet, read the
PCMagazine article Inside Windows Vista!