Microsoft attempts a tightrope walking act with each new version of Windows. It tries to dazzle us with new features while at the same time offering familiar surroundings so we can get down to work without too much fuss. While it has sometimes failed to deliver on the dazzle, so far it has been successful at packaging new features in a familiar style.

With Vista, there's a little more dazzle and a little less familiarity. The move from XP to Vista is not as big a leap as from DOS to Windows or from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95, but it certainly is the most radical Windows redesign we've experienced in almost a dozen years.

Because of that, Vista takes some learning. If you expect to click the Start button and launch into well-worn working patterns, you'll be brought up short. In fact, strictly speaking there is no Start button.

A desktop overview

When you first load up Vista, you're greeted with a desktop which looks slicker but on the whole not that much different from earlier versions. The taskbar sits across the bottom of the screen, with the unlabelled Windows orb replacing the Start button on the left, the Quick Launch bar in its usual place and the Notifications Area and the clock over on the right. If you've installed the operating system yourself, the only icon you'll see on the desktop is the Recycle Bin. The Welcome Center opens automatically each time you start Windows until you untick its Run At Startup checkbox. On the right of the screen, there's the translucent Sidebar.

Vista's Welcome Center

Spend some time in the Welcome Center while getting acquainted with Vista (click the screenshot to see a full-sized version).

A new start

Click the Start orb (or tap the WinKey) and you'll notice a few changes. The Start Menu is divided into two main sections, as of old: on the left are frequently used programs and pinned programs; on the right is a list providing access to important folders, utilities and settings. The "My" has been stripped from My Computer, My Documents, My Pictures, My Music and other central folders. That cosmetic change is a sign of more fundamental changes to the folder system, including a reshuffle of folder locations.

A new item on this part of the Start Menu is the user folder, which bears your Windows log on name. It's a handy addition. From your user folder, it's a single step not only to Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos and your Desktop folder, but also to Contacts, Favorites, Downloads, Links, Saved Searches and -- provided you stop Vista from hiding hidden files and folders -- the formerly elusive AppData folder.

Two other items debuting on the right side of the Start Menu are Games and Default Programs. Click Games and the new Games Explorer opens in all its glory. Here you'll find Windows' collection of free games, including several old favourites plus some new ones (alas, no more Pinball). The Games Explorer is one of Windows' special folders: it features a command bar along the top with games-specific options, including Parental Controls and a Tools Menu dedicated to tweaking your computer's performance for video-intensive games. Your system's performance rating is shown in the pane on the right while the currently selected game's performance requirements are also listed. Run any of the familiar games such as Minesweeper or Solitaire and you'll find the games themselves have been given visual and audio facelifts, plus the option to save a game when you exit.

Access context sensitive commands via the Command Bar

The command bar in each special folder provides context sensitive commands.

The Default Programs option on the Start Menu lets you select default programs for email, browsing, media playing and photo viewing; set up file associations; change AutoPlay settings; and control access to certain programs.

The Network button opens a folder showing the computers on your local network, while the Connect To option lets you see available wireless, VPN (Virtual Private Network) and dial-up networks. If you're looking for more centralised management of your network and Internet options, you'll need to open the Network and Sharing Center by clicking its icon in the taskbar notifications area.

You can easily customise the Start Menu:

  1. Right-click the Start orb and select Properties from the pop-up menu.
  2. On the Start Menu tab click the Customize button beside Start Menu.
  3. In the Customize Start Menu dialog box, select the items you want displayed and adjust other settings. Advanced users will probably want to add the Run command and System Administrative Tools.

At the bottom of the Start Menu is a new instant search box on the left and the reorganised shutdown buttons on the right. You'll find instant search boxes throughout Vista. The operating system's integrated search features are so good they'll not only enhance your ability to find any file or program on your computer, they'll change the way you work. If you've ever torn your hair out trying to track down an infrequently used program in a cluttered Start Menu, you'll relish instant search. But locating programs is only one of its tricks. You can use the Start Menu's instant search box to locate any program or file on your computer, any Internet site you've visited or any contact or appointment.

Using Vista's Start Menu search

Track down programs and files from the Start Menu's integrated search.

While instant search shows Microsoft doing some smart thinking and hard listening to customers, the arrangement of the shutdown buttons on the Start Menu must have been left to the B team. (In fact, it was designed by committee, and you can read the sorry tale from a Microsoft insider.) The large power button doesn't switch your computer off at all; it sticks it into sleep mode, a low-power mode that lets you restart your session quickly by moving the mouse or tapping a key. Clicking the Lock button displays your log-on screen and requires a password to regain access to the desktop. To switch your computer off, you'll have to click the undersized arrow to the right of the Lock button to display a menu from which you can shutdown, restart, log off or select other options.

Launching programs

Above the instant search box in the Start Menu is an All Programs button. It doesn't work at all like the old All Programs. No more cascading menus displayed to the right; instead, clicking All Programs displays an in-situ list of the programs on your computer.

When this feature was unveiled during Vista's development, it elicited cries of dismay from many beta testers, but many of those users are now converts to the new way of doing things. So if you find the in-place menu confusing and offputting at first, give it a chance. It works well in conjunction with instant search, makes sense, and is more efficient than the old cascading menus. And if you find you can't bear it, you can always revert to your old ways by opening the Customize Start Menu dialog and selecting the Classic Start Menu option.

The in-situ menu works like this: click All Programs and an alphabetically sorted programs list is displayed. If the list is too long to view at a glance, you can scroll it with your mouse. Click a program to run it or click a folder to display its contents within the menu. Can't find what you want? Type the first letter of a program and Vista will jump to the first match in the programs list.

Alternatively, bypass All Programs entirely and simply start typing in the instant search box. For example, if you type "C", the program menu will show Calculator, Character Map, Control Panel and other programs, special folders and Control Panel applets that begin with C; it will also show Windows Contacts, Windows Calendar, Backup Status and Configuration, and any other program with a "C" as a title word. It will also show matching folders and files, contacts, calendar appointments, web sites, and so on. This list is not sorted alphabetically, but it is divided into categories. You can also easily narrow the search by typing additional letters in the search box, or you can open a folder showing the complete search results.

When you perform a search like this, the programs you use most often and most recently get bubbled up to the top of the list. That makes the programs menu even easier to use over time. For example, if you regularly use Paint for image editing and it has bubbled up to the top of the menu, you can quickly access it by pressing WinKey, P, Enter. That is, you press the Windows Key to open the Start Menu, press P to locate programs starting with that letter and press Enter to launch the first program in the list.

Task switching

As with the Start Menu, the taskbar looks largely unchanged until you start to dig a little.

The Quick Launch bar to the right of the Start orb is enabled by default, a welcome change. You can use the keyboard to launch any of the items in the Quick Launch bar: WinKey+1 launches the leftmost Quick Launch program; WinKey+2 the next to the right; and so on up to WinKey+0 for the tenth Quick Launch app.

The clock looks the same, but click it and you'll see a much improved display featuring a large clock and a navigable calendar. Click the Change Date And Time Settings link in this display and you'll not only be able to adjust time zones and other time settings, you'll also be able to add two additional clocks to your display, a boon for time zone shifters.

Open a couple of folders and documents and then rest your mouse pointer over the taskbar buttons. You'll see a live thumbnail preview of the contents of the chosen item. You'll find similar visual cues when you use Alt+Tab to switch between running tasks. Alt+Tab has been renamed Flip and the new version not only provides image previews of each running app, it also includes the desktop in the flip list, so you can quickly switch to a clean desktop view. Hold down the Alt key and tap Tab to cycle through all the open windows; release both keys to bring the currently selected app to the foreground.

Live taskbar thumbnails

Visual cues abound in Vista, including live taskbar thumbnails.

For a little more pizzazz, use Flip 3D: press WinKey+Tab repeatedly to cycle through your open windows displayed in a large, angled, stacked view. Flip 3D makes it easy to see window contents and it even displays live action in video windows.

To get even more control, lock Flip 3D by pressing Ctrl+WinKey+Tab. When you do this, your open windows are displayed stacked and you can release the keys and they will remain stacked. Tap the Tab key to cycle through the stack and press Enter to select the front-most window. Or click any window in the stack to activate it. You can also use the mouse wheel and the arrow keys to scroll through the stack.

A cool new way to switch between programs - Flip 3D

Flip 3D makes task switching more enjoyable as well as more efficient.

The Sidebar

About the kindest thing that can be said about Vista's Sidebar is that it looks pleasant.

Modelled on Yahoo! Widgets and the Google Desktop Search Sidebar, the Vista Sidebar provides a dock for mini-applications – known as gadgets – such as calendars, stock tickers, feedreaders and so on. It sits translucently on the right-hand side of the desktop. If you have a large widescreen monitor, you may not resent donating that sliver of desktop to the Sidebar; if you're stuck with a smaller, squarer monitor chances are you'll want to ditch it.

The Sidebar looks nice but lacks useful gadgets

To date the Sidebar lacks compelling gadgets.

This harsh judgement of the Sidebar may be a little premature. The strength of the Sidebar depends entirely on the range and quality of its mini-applications, which, at the time of Vista's corporate release, were woeful. By the time you read this, though, Vista will have had its consumer launch. Here's hoping Microsoft will have produced a healthy crop of useful and configurable gadgets by then and that third-party programmers will chip in with their own contributions.
If not, you can always close the Sidebar down: just right-click it and choose Close Sidebar. To reopen it, click the Sidebar icon in the notifications area in the taskbar.

A very pretty face

Vista looks great. Its big beautiful icons, translucent elements, slick window animations and new system fonts make for a high wow factor. That is, of course, if you're running the Aero "Glass" interface. If you're using Vista Basic or running Vista on hardware that doesn't meet Aero's requirements or running a pirated version of Vista (that is, one that fails the Windows Genuine Advantage check), then you'll miss out on all this polish. You'll also miss out on things like Flip 3D and live taskbar thumbnails. And Aero isn't just a pretty face: it offloads much of the graphics work to the graphics processor on your video card, leaving your computer's CPU free to handle other tasks.

Dialog boxes are better looking and smarter

Vista makes familiar dialogs more informative and adds useful links to configuration options.

Vista also enables ClearType automatically. ClearType enhances the resolution of screen fonts to make them more readable. It's a technology designed to work best with LCD (liquid crystal display) monitors. With LCD monitors becoming more common, Microsoft decided it was time to switch ClearType on by default. If you're using an older style CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) monitor, you may find you prefer reading the screen with ClearType switched off. To do that, you'll have to follow a convoluted path:

  1. Right-click an empty space on the desktop and choose Personalize from the pop-up menu.
  2. Click Window Color And Appearance.
  3. Click Open Classic Appearance Properties For More Color Options.
  4. In the Appearance Settings dialog, click the Effects button.
  5. In the Use The Following Method To Smooth Edges Of Screen Fonts drop-down box select Standard (or untick the option to disable font smoothing entirely).
  6. Click OK twice and close the Personalization applet.

UAC

Sooner or later – probably sooner – you're going to run into the Vista bugbear: User Account Control. It's an annoying feature that can save you a whole lot of misery.

UAC requires that you grant permission before any potentially dangerous changes are made to your computer. Say, for example, you want to install an application. When you attempt to do so, your screen will dim, a UAC dialog box will appear and you'll be unable to do anything until you respond. To proceed you'll either need to click Continue (if you're logged on as an administrator) or supply an administrator password (if you're logged on as a standard user).

Of course, UAC can't guarantee your system will be protected, but it will make you stop and think before charging ahead with risky changes. It will also help catch any malware which tries to make such changes on the sly.

Yes, you can turn UAC off, but you shouldn't

Although it's a simple matter to turn off User Account Control, it makes your computer considerably more vulnerable if you do so.

The real danger with UAC is that you'll get sick of the interruptions it causes and either click Continue without thinking or turn UAC off entirely (there's an option to do so in the User Accounts applet in the Control Panel). Microsoft is sensitive to this possibility and, over the course of developing Vista, has dramatically reduced the number of alerts displayed by UAC.

When can you expect to see the UAC dialog box? When you:

It's important to realise that the first account you set up on a standalone Vista system is automatically given administrator privileges, so make sure you give it a strong password to ensure UAC security. Subsequent accounts you create will be standard accounts unless you specifically override the default settings.

© 2007  Rose Vines

Host your site where I host mine
Quality Web Hosting at the Best Price
Support geekgirl's

Do you find the tutorialson this site useful? If so, please show your support by kicking in a few bucks to help buy computers for the wonderful orphanages run by the Afghan organisation, afceco.org. For a small amount, it is possible to make a difference in an area of the world which is hurting badly.

Want to know more? Read this post on my blog.
top home

windows vista menu