A big new thing in Longhorn were the tasks and help topics integrated into Explorer. Many builds show an empty space where these tasks would go in Explorer’s task pane, but no tasks are showing. In this post I’ll describe a the step-by-step process of getting these tasks to work on build 4042. The idea is that we go from… Read more →
The piece of text you read below was originally part of the ‘Guide‘ section present on the very first iteration of the ‘Experience Longhorn’ site. Since the switch to WordPress as a CMS and all changes to the theme there has been no more place to have it on what is now called the Builds list. I really didn’t want… Read more →
Here’s just a funny tidbit I found some time ago to keep you guys entertained. In an interview on Channel9, Robert Scoble asks a designer on the Windows team, Jenny Lam some questions about Vista and how its coming up1)Channel9 Jenny Lam – Designing Experiences at Microsoft. During the interview the following comes up on the subject of wallpapers: S:… Read more →
I’m on some sort of ‘write down all the things’ spree, documenting things I’ve found in the past1)BetaArchive – Longhorn for everyday use (back then), but never properly have written down here on longhorn.ms. Today I’d like to have a brief look at this unidentified build. In the video ‘Why I love XAML’ on Channel9, published 20 August 20042)Channel 9… Read more →
In this post I will have a look at how one can unlock the ‘full potential’ of the wizard – to lift a corner of the veil: it doesn’t have a lot of potential. If you can vaguely remember me writing about exactly this subject a few years back.. you are right, but with the switch to the WordPress powered website… Read more →
A lot of people have been struggling to get Aero to work in build 4074. In this post I want to show you how Aero can be enabled along with a little bit of its history. If you came here looking for information about Aurora, please see my post about Aurora & Aero. A theme with two faces During the development of… Read more →
In this tutorial you will find everything you need to enable desktop compositing on the Longhorn builds that support it. I’d like to note that I am writing this tutorial with VMware workstation in mind. As such, all drivers provided on this page are meant for use with VMware. At the bottom of this page you’ll find a list of… Read more →
The RMA test tile already caused some discussion in the past and nobody has since figured out what it’s purpose is. This hidden tile for the sidebar in builds 4008 and up has no obvious functionality other than taking up space. In this article we will dive into the real meaning and function of the RMA test tile. If… Read more →
Longhorn build 3683 is the ‘youngest’ of all Longhorn builds we have access to, dating back to September 2002. As such you might expect it to be very similar to XP and Server 2003 versions of Windows. When looking superficially at this build this may seem to be correct, but for those that care to take a closer look there… Read more →
In this third part of the Hacking Avalon series we are taking a closer look at the process of making an Avalon application. To do this, we will be using a special tool only available in early Longhorn builds. This tool is called the Avalon Compiler or simply ‘ac’. This tool does what its name suggests; compile Avalon. But what is… Read more →