Vista build 5456 is only for people who have an invitation to test Vista or MSDN subscriptions. It is not part of the public release.

And 5456 is a great build too.

I have VISTA build 5381 up and running, although I can never make it update, a bug I presume.

No, it is not a bug....as far as I am aware, the next update for the public beta will be the 'release candidate' later this year. When exactly that will be I'm not sure, whether or not it will be a Windows Update or a download you're required to burn to disc.

And 5456 is a great build too.

Thanks, ID....and not in a sarcastic, jealous way, either. I'm rather looking forward to the next public release, and your comment is positive towards it being a marked improvement to the previous one. I am enjoying using the 5381 build, but I'm interested to see if MS has responded to user feedback and fixed such issues as permissions for AV programs at startup, etc.

If there is an annoying side to Vista, that would be it, and hopefully MS has included the option to 'remember this decision' when giving permissions for essential 3rd party programs. Oh, and another convenient addition would be a copy/move option for files and folders in the toolbar or 'organize' drop-down.

Furthermore, I have received positive responses from MS, Creative, HP and others with regards to driver and software conflicts in Vista. Fixes for various issues are being worked on and they should be A-O.K, if not for the release candidate, the final release early next year. I did, however, upgrade my SoundBlaster Live card to an Audigy 4 card, and now my system sounds/music kicks some serious butt via 5.1 surround sound.

Thing is, it's all looking good.

I've got 5456 sitting on my second work box right now (the one I'm typing from) and I've had 0 problems with it.  Of course, I haven't tried to do anything particularly taxing with it, so I don't know for sure how stable it is.  Later today I'm going to drop the Office 2007 beta down on it and play with that some.  I've got the public build on my spare box at home, and it's much more sluggish and flaky.

Multiplicity works on Vista too, which has made having this second box WAY easier 

The best thing I have noticed about 5456 so far is they eased up on the security notices

Yeah, all right. This is one of the nagging issues discussed previously. Unfortunately I only have the public build over here, and this is what it's all about so far. I was way too annoyed by this never ending security dialog box clicking!

Wish I could set my hands on the 5456 to experience what you have. My public beta 5381 refuses to run. Anybody has gone thru this? It asks me to activate, but when I go further it tells me I have problems with the connection, and there's no problem at all. I can't start it anymore, even if I re-type the key. If I got another key and re-installed it, would it do?

Probably advisable to activate ASAP

Problem is I've tried to do it couple of times and never get connected to the update center. Same ol' problem of connection and stuff. Think I will re-install it and try a new key, or even the first one, as I think it will be considered a first installation, for I didn't get to activate it. Anyway, it's all being done using a spare HD.