Microsoft Asks For Vista UI Critiques

Microsoft has asked testers of Windows Vista to give it feedback on the user interface's "fit & finish" as it pushes toward a final release of the operating system.

"Fit & Finish is really getting a big push for Vista, with lots of people spending time tracking down the minor errors and glitches that haven't historically been 'ship-stopping' but certainly contribute to a feeling that things are not polished," said research manager Dave Vronay on the blog of the Windows Client team.

"You can participate by providing your feedback on the various pre-release versions of Vista," added Vronay.

A forum dubbed "Windows Vista Rants & Raves" has been set up to take users' comments.

One of the heaviest-trafficked threads there revolved around the "Windows Classic" interface theme included with Release Candidate 1 (RC1). "The new 'Windows Classic' isn't very classic, it looks wrong, it looks like someone just pooped it out and slapped it on the DVD," wrote someone identified as "Simon Thulbourn."

"I agree...it needs to reflect win2k much more than it currently does," replied "shpinktaar."

This is the second time in a week that Microsoft has asked for user comments on Vista. Sunday, the Vista team posted a link to an online poll where testers can vote on whether they think the operating system is ready for prime time.

Microsoft has repeatedly held to a ship date of November for volume licensing customers, and January 2007 for all others. Analysts, however, have pointed to disagreement between the Redmond, Wash. developer and the European Union's antitrust agency over security-related features as a clue that the OS won't make it out the door on time.