In Windows Vista Beta 2 and all previous builds, across all levels of hardware, Flip 3D has been a little disappointing visually. Flip 3D works well, but it has a very bad guess of the jaggies, or jagged straight lines. Also, Microsoft's decision to darken the desktop also darkens the program windows themselves. This feature seems in need of visual polish, and yet it has been unchanged over the last several Vista prereleases.

Even though I like these three features quite a bit, I'd still have to cast my vote in favor of Apple's Expos' as being a slightly better tool for dealing with program window litter. But that's just a personal preference. There's not a strong enough difference to matter. Both tools work well.

10. Wireless networking

Wireless networking improvements

I was pretty hard on the new user interface controls for Vista Beta 2's networking features in the first installment of this two-part series. It's easy to get lost in the rash of new Control Panel applets, wizards and dialogs. Worse, though, that new UI masks some of the great features Microsoft has added.