The August 2005 issue of PC World magazine has a sneak preview into Longhorn, next year’s Windows release, complete with screenshots.

The most recent build of Longhorn–Microsoft’s next Windows–has some impressive visual touches, including the kinds of translucent objects found now in Apple’s OS X, and more powerful ways of finding files. But it doesn’t yet exhibit any breakthroughs in productivity, or promised features such as security improvements and smarter connections to handheld devices.

Well it seems that most of the big improvements are in the GUI field since:

in spite of announced planned enhancements such as monitoring of outbound data (Windows XP’s firewall watches inbound traffic only), protection against malware, a new type of restricted user account, and a secure startup scheme to ensure that a PC hasn’t been tampered with, Longhorn so far has the same minimal security toolbox as Windows XP with Service Pack 2.

More info: Microsoft Windows codenamed Longhorn

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