July 25, 2008

I will admit to the fact that I’m a Microsoft apologist.  I do not think that they are horrible tool of evil that many people do.  I have several Microsoft Certifications, and I’m taking a test on Monday for another (Active Directory…wish me luck!).  When Vista was released I had to buy a new laptop so that I could use it.  It had been in development for so long I really wanted to check out the new features.  So if you are still trying to figure this operating system out, or if you will be switching to a new laptop soon, here are some of the fantastic features that make Vista really fun and easy to use.

My favorite feature by far is the search function in the start menu.  In XP it would take forever to find a program that you want to run.  You would have to have shortcuts all over the place so you wouldn’t have to dig through all the programs in the start menu.  Vista makes this so easy.  You just click on the start menu to bring it up and start typing the name of the program or file you are looking for.  It quickly brings it up, whatever it is.  For example I want to run Excel.  In XP I would have to click start, look for MS Office, then find Excel under that.  Now I just click start, type “excel” and hit enter and it will pull up the program.  That works for any program you have installed.  It also searches through your files that quickly.  Say I want the file called “mailing labels” I just start typing “mailingla” an voila it’s at the top of the start menu.  I use this feature so much that when I have to use an XP machine I get really frustrated at the inability of XP to do the same thing.

I also love the popups along the taskbar.  What happens when you place your mouse over one of the programs that is in your taskbar (the bar along the bottom of your screen) it will give you a mini screen shot of what it is.  I like this when i have several windows open of the same program.  It allows me to click on the exact right one.  Another place that I can see all the windows and pick the right one is the new “alt-tab” window that also shows mini screen shots.

Previous Versions is another one of my absolute favorite features.  Vista allocates a certain amount of space on your hard drive to internal backups, and you know how much I love backups!  There has been several occasions (especially when we were in the initial testing phase of Daily Home Planer) that I have wanted to go back a couple versions to a file I had saved a few days ago, but changed and overwrote that version.  I just have to right click on the file and select “restore previous versions” pick the date I want to restore to, and I have my old version of the file back! 

One thing I do NOT like in Vista though is the User Account Control (the lame pop up that asks you to cancel or allow practically everything.  It is the first thing I turned off, and will not be turning it on again… EVER.  Also when I am supporting Vista machines, and certain programs won’t install, usually turning that off will fix it right up. 

There are several more reasons, but I don’t want to go on forever!  I’m just trying to say, don’t knock Vista until you’ve really given it a chance!  It does have some really great features new features, and doesn’t deserve all of the flack it is getting!