Microsoft.com has undergone a face lift starting this week. The beta released delivers both functionality and an aesthetics preview of the upcoming website redesign. Comprising surface elements makeover but also under the hood tune-up, the new Microsoft Home Page, while keeping within the general design trajectory of the old site, brings a Pleiads of changes both to style and to content.

In the redesign process the main menu of the Website has migrated over the span of the page and is now a right-hand navigation menu. User's interaction will spawn image browsing; a new feature introduced by the redesign that bundles interactivity with animation. Clicking on the "Hardware" button enables a new layer that contains the sub-menu options. The new menu window is accompanied with multiple effects, the main menu, positioned on top, becomes transparent, while the background is blurred in order to keep the focus on the opened menu. Users can choose from one of the image-links, close the menu, or even drag it across the page and reposition it. All this is possible through the implementation of AJAX-style navigation.

The only issue with the new Microsoft.com is that it locks out Firefox users. Multiple reports have surfaced from users of the rival Mozilla browser that when accessed through Firefox, the redesigned Microsoft.com posts a message reading "We're sorry, but there is no Microsoft.com Web page that matches your entry. It is possible you typed the address incorrectly, or the page may no longer exist. You may wish to try another entry or choose from the links below, which we hope will help you find what you're looking for." This happens while the site is completely functional with IE, or browsers are using IE as a platform.