Word is spreading on the blogosphere about some new Windows Vista screens, the claim being these are of the new user interface Microsoft will be rolling out with RC1, here are some of the screens in question:

New fake Windows Vista UI

New fake Windows Vista UI

We see the old style Sidebar, which was dropped in favour of the new one, we see the old Media Player gadget which Microsoft said they wouldn't be shipping, and we see some really fat chunky title bars. Below is one of the old 40xx builds which Microsoft showed at PDC 2003:

PDC 2003 Windows Vista build

PDC 2003 Windows Vista build

These new screenshots look very similar to 40xx so I think it’s safe to say they're nothing more than screens of the old builds re-published, may be with a few Photoshop tweaks here and there. I don’t see Microsoft changing the user interface this close to launch, especially not to something as ugly as the 40xx builds.