Tom's Hardware Guide is reporting that we shouldn't expect too much from the first beta of Windows Vista.
developers and administrators testing the system can expect an advanced shell, a completely replaced video driver model, and a sneak peek at Internet Explorer 7.0, expert sources tell Tom's Hardware Guide.

But we're also told, many of the new features users have been promised - including the remnants of features that Chairman Bill Gates introduced to such fanfare in October 2003 - may wait for initial testing for Beta 2, whose internal milestone date, if Microsoft has one, is not yet known. In fact, one of the key purposes of the Beta 1 release may be to concentrate on a subset of key features, prior to testing the critical features that end users have been promised, such as dramatically improved on-screen rendering, and upgraded wireless connectivity.
Beta 1 is "not even close" to being feature complete. When Beta 1 surfaces you can expect a lot of opinion and thoughts on Vista. My suggestion is either ignore it all, or take it all with a pinch of salt. What we're about to see is far from the finished product.