Windows Vista Beta 2 is coming pretty soon. Microsoft is tweaking UI, working on performance, improving compatibility. Each build gets better.  The question that many of us have, however, is whether there's enough time for Vista to get everything together in time for a November RTM (January for consumers).

Below are 4 screenshots to help show off the UI (so far).  The UI is probably the most noticeable improvement in Windows Vista.  Take a note of the clean and efficient load and save dialogs in there.

There's also two screenshots of the alpha version of "WindowBlinds Vista".   Windows Vista, as cool as it is, is probably going to be a real boon for skinners. There's a lot of new UI and a lot of opportunities to take it to the next level.

The overall user interface feels light and clean. It's a real improvement over Windows XP.  There are nearly a thousand new icons in Windows Vista.  Beta 2 won't have all the icons in yet, there's still a lot more coming in.  The Aero glass (the new glass look) is not final either but it's pretty close (contrary to rumors, it's not going to become some vector based thing).  The performance continues to improve.  However, it's very memory intensive.  We'll be asking Microsoft a lot of tough questions this week about the significant memory foot print and some remaining performance issues.