[MIG-31]

The Avalon team has provided a version of the November 2004 Avalon Community Technology Preview for the general public.

"Avalon" is the code name for Microsoft's unified presentation subsystem for Windows. It consists of a display engine and a managed-code framework. "Avalon" unifies how Windows creates, displays, and manipulates documents, media, and user interface. This enables developers and designers to create visually-stunning, differentiated user experiences that improve customer connection. When it ships, scheduled for 2006, "Avalon" will be available on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and all future releases of the Windows operating system. When delivered, "Avalon" will become Microsoft's strategic user interface (UI) technology.

The "Avalon" Community Technology Preview (CTP) became available to the MSDN members in November of 2004. It is our pleasure to release the same build to the general public in response to numerous requests.
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Source/Download: Microsoft 255mb.

[caqde]

I still want to see a good reason to use 3d on the desktop I have yet to see one. Otherwise right now to me it is a complete and utter waste of system resources not to mention since Microsoft made it windows is probably going to be 3gb+ in size because of this. (Hopefully an exaggeration.) It's already 1.5+.