Windows Vista Flip and Flip3D

This month my team kicked off a series of free live seminars.  We are doing a Windows Vista Technical Overview in the first couple of hours, and Exchange Server 2003 and 2007 in the second couple of hours.  So far, the Windows Vista interest has been huge.  In the next few days, I'll be recording all of the Windows Vista demos (as promised).  To kick things off, lets talk about some of the sexy stuff.

I'm sure by now, you've seen some demo of Windows Vista.  Most of the webcasts we do are using Virtual Machines (VM).  VMs are great for testing and demonstrating software, but they lack the graphics card horsepower needed for Windows Vista and Aero Glass.  No fear, I'm going to show you in the screencast below, exactly what all of the fuss is about.  To do the demonstration, I'll use Camtasia to capture the screen.

Background Information and References

Before we get to the Flip3D screencast, lets look at some other information on the subject.  First of all, you should really invest at least 15 minutes watching the video at http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=114694.  It stars Kam Vedbrat being interviewed by Robert Scoble.  Kam does a good job of giving you some of the background and design points about Windows Vista, Aero Glass and the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) services.  Don't worry, the video is a high level discussion so I don't think anyone will get lost.  You'll notice this video was shot back in September long before Beta 2.  My screencast demo below was captured using a build for this week so you'll see some subtle changes.

Next, head over to microsoft.com and read up on Aero.  It's a light weight article but useful for reference purposes.  If you want to go slightly deeper, see the Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) article.  Most of the information in that article is useful for learning a little more about the requirements and mechanics.

Screencast Demo

My Windows Vista Flip3D screencast is available for viewing at a couple of locations.  It is of course published here in Windows Media Video (WMV) format and will stream from our server. 

It is also published on my blog at http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/archive/2006/08/15/447045.aspx. At the bottom of that post, you'll see "attachment".  It's actually a RSS <enclosure> for the WMV file so that if you have a video podcast player with WMV enclosure support, you can download the demo and view it offline.  Maybe Zune will do that.  If you are truly lazy like me, you can just right mouse click the attachment below and save it local for later viewing.

The capture and conversion process is still imperfect.  When you watch the video, please don't judge Windows Vista performance based on what you see in the screencast.  The conversion drops frames and the full fidelity of the true user experience.  I do think you'll get a pretty good idea of the feature though.

Summary

So what do you think about Aero Glass and Flip3D?  Hopefully you found the Windows Vista Flip3D information above useful.  As you can see, finding and "flipping" to an application is now very easy in Windows Vista.

I plan to record all of the demos we're doing at the live events.  They are hardly a comprehensive look at the OS but hey, it's a Technical Overview so we're just sticking our toe in the water.  All of my screencasts can be seen easily in this blogs screencast category.  Subscribe to my screencast RSS feed at http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/rss.aspx?CategoryID=11416.  "See you" again soon.