Before you can share your media library content, you have to do some configuration. First, the PC must be connected to your home network, and you must have already configured the PC’s network connection to access your network as a private network. If you haven’t done this, here’s the quickest way.
Right-click the network connection icon in the system tray and choose Network and Sharing Center. Then, in the Network and Sharing Center window that appears, click Customize below the network map and next to your home network (which will typically have a name like Network). In the Set Network Location dialog box that appears, choose Private for location type and click Next. Then click Close. (Make sure you do this for your home network only, and not for any public networks you might visit.)
Please note that you need to repeat this process on any other Windows Vista– based PCs with which you’d like to share media libraries. This step isn’t required for Windows XP.
Next you need to configure Windows Media Player 11 for sharing. To do so, open the Media Player, open the Library menu (by clicking the small arrow below the Library toolbar button), and choose Media Sharing. This will display the Media Sharing dialog box.
In Media Sharing, select the check box Find Media that Others are Sharing if you’d like to find other shared music libraries on your home network. If you want to share the music library on the current PC, select the Share My Media check box, and then examine the icons that represent the various PCs and devices that you can share with. Select each in turn and click the Allow button for the devices with which you’d like to create sharing relationships. As you allow devices, a green check box will appear on their icons, (without the color, of course).
If you’d like to specify the type of content you want to share, click the Settings button. You can choose between music, pictures, and videos, and choose whether to filter via star ratings or parental ratings.
Source of Information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
Showing posts with label Windows Vista. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Windows Vista. Show all posts
What’s New in Windows Vista Networking
Moving forward to Windows Vista, the focus from a networking standpoint was to make things as simple as possible while keeping the system as secure and reliable as possible as well. At a low level, Microsoft rewrote the Windows networking stack from scratch in order to make it more scalable, improve performance, and provide a better foundation for future improvements and additions. Frankly, understanding the underpinnings of Vista’s networking technologies is nearly as important as understanding how your car converts gasoline into energy. All you really need to know is that things have improved dramatically under the hood.
Here are some of the major end-user improvements that Microsoft has made to Windows
Vista networking:
• Network and Sharing Center: In previous versions of Windows, there wasn’t a single place to go to view, configure, and troubleshoot networking issues. Windows Vista changes that with the new Network and Sharing Center, which provides access to new and improved tools that take the guesswork out of networking.
• Seamless network connections: In Windows XP, unconnected wired and wireless network connections would leave ugly red icons in your system tray, and creating new connections was confusing and painful. In Vista, secure networks connect automatically and an improved Connect To option in the Start Menu provides an obvious jumping-off point for connecting to new networks.
• Network Explorer: The old My Network Places explorer from previous versions of Windows has been replaced and upgraded significantly with the new Network Explorer. This handy interface now supports access to all of the computers, devices, and printers found on your connected networks, instead of just showing network shares, as XP did. You can even access network-connected media players, video game consoles, and other connected device types from this interface.
• Network Map: If you are in an environment with multiple networks and network types, it can be confusing to know how your PC is connected to the Internet and other devices, an issue that is particularly important to understand when troubleshooting. Vista’s new Network Map details these connections in a friendly graphical way, eliminating guesswork.
• Network Setup Wizard: If you’re unsure how to create even the simplest of home networks, fear not: Windows Vista’s improved Network Setup Wizard makes it easier than ever thanks to integration with Windows Rally (formerly Windows Connect Now) technologies, which can be used to autoconfigure network settings on PCs and compatible devices. This wizard also makes it easy to configure folder sharing (for sharing documents, music, photos, and other files between PCs) and printer sharing.
• Folder and printer sharing: The model for manually sharing folders between PCs has changed dramatically in Windows Vista, but Microsoft has intriguingly retained an alternate interface that will be familiar to those who are adept at setting up sharing on XP-based machines. I’ll show you why this type of folder sharing is, in fact, easier to set up than Vista’s new method. Printer sharing, meanwhile, works mostly like it did in XP.
Source of Information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
Here are some of the major end-user improvements that Microsoft has made to Windows
Vista networking:
• Network and Sharing Center: In previous versions of Windows, there wasn’t a single place to go to view, configure, and troubleshoot networking issues. Windows Vista changes that with the new Network and Sharing Center, which provides access to new and improved tools that take the guesswork out of networking.
• Seamless network connections: In Windows XP, unconnected wired and wireless network connections would leave ugly red icons in your system tray, and creating new connections was confusing and painful. In Vista, secure networks connect automatically and an improved Connect To option in the Start Menu provides an obvious jumping-off point for connecting to new networks.
• Network Explorer: The old My Network Places explorer from previous versions of Windows has been replaced and upgraded significantly with the new Network Explorer. This handy interface now supports access to all of the computers, devices, and printers found on your connected networks, instead of just showing network shares, as XP did. You can even access network-connected media players, video game consoles, and other connected device types from this interface.
• Network Map: If you are in an environment with multiple networks and network types, it can be confusing to know how your PC is connected to the Internet and other devices, an issue that is particularly important to understand when troubleshooting. Vista’s new Network Map details these connections in a friendly graphical way, eliminating guesswork.
• Network Setup Wizard: If you’re unsure how to create even the simplest of home networks, fear not: Windows Vista’s improved Network Setup Wizard makes it easier than ever thanks to integration with Windows Rally (formerly Windows Connect Now) technologies, which can be used to autoconfigure network settings on PCs and compatible devices. This wizard also makes it easy to configure folder sharing (for sharing documents, music, photos, and other files between PCs) and printer sharing.
• Folder and printer sharing: The model for manually sharing folders between PCs has changed dramatically in Windows Vista, but Microsoft has intriguingly retained an alternate interface that will be familiar to those who are adept at setting up sharing on XP-based machines. I’ll show you why this type of folder sharing is, in fact, easier to set up than Vista’s new method. Printer sharing, meanwhile, works mostly like it did in XP.
Source of Information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
Using ReadyBoost in Vista
Another way to improve performance on systems with 2GB or less of RAM is to use a new Windows Vista feature called ReadyBoost. This technology uses spare storage space on USB-based memory devices such as memory fobs to increase your computer’s performance. It does this by caching information to the USB device, which is typically much faster than writing to the hard drive. (Information cached to the device is encrypted so it can’t be read on other systems.)
There is a number of caveats to ReadyBoost. The USB device must meet certain speed characteristics or Vista will not allow it to be used in this fashion. Storage space that is set aside on a USB device for ReadyBoost cannot be used for other purposes until you reformat the device; and you cannot use one USB device to speed up more than one PC. (Likewise, you cannot use more than one ReadyBoost device on a single PC.) In my testing, ReadyBoost seems to have the most impact on systems with less than 1GB of RAM, and it clearly benefits notebooks more than desktops, as it’s often difficult or impossible to increase the RAM on older portable machines.
When you insert a compatible USB device into a Windows Vista machine, you will see a Speed Up My System option at the bottom of the Auto Play dialog that appears. When you select this option, the ReadyBoost tab of the Properties dialog of the associated device will appear, enabling you to configure a portion of the device’s storage space. It recommends the ideal amount based on the capacity of the device and your system’s RAM.
Obviously, ReadyBoost won’t work unless the USB memory key is plugged into your PC. This can be a bit of a hassle because you need to remember to keep plugging it in every time you break out your portable computer. Still, ReadyBoost is a great enhancement and a welcome feature, especially when a PC would otherwise run poorly with Windows Vista.
There is a number of caveats to ReadyBoost. The USB device must meet certain speed characteristics or Vista will not allow it to be used in this fashion. Storage space that is set aside on a USB device for ReadyBoost cannot be used for other purposes until you reformat the device; and you cannot use one USB device to speed up more than one PC. (Likewise, you cannot use more than one ReadyBoost device on a single PC.) In my testing, ReadyBoost seems to have the most impact on systems with less than 1GB of RAM, and it clearly benefits notebooks more than desktops, as it’s often difficult or impossible to increase the RAM on older portable machines.
When you insert a compatible USB device into a Windows Vista machine, you will see a Speed Up My System option at the bottom of the Auto Play dialog that appears. When you select this option, the ReadyBoost tab of the Properties dialog of the associated device will appear, enabling you to configure a portion of the device’s storage space. It recommends the ideal amount based on the capacity of the device and your system’s RAM.
Obviously, ReadyBoost won’t work unless the USB memory key is plugged into your PC. This can be a bit of a hassle because you need to remember to keep plugging it in every time you break out your portable computer. Still, ReadyBoost is a great enhancement and a welcome feature, especially when a PC would otherwise run poorly with Windows Vista.
ReadyBoost provides an
inexpensive and simple way to
boost performance on
low-RAM PCs.
inexpensive and simple way to
boost performance on
low-RAM PCs.
Improving Vista’s Memory
A long time ago, in an operating system far, far away, the PCs of a bygone era had woefully inadequate amounts of RAM, and the versions of Windows used back then would have to regularly swap portions of the contents of RAM back to slower, disk-based storage called virtual memory. Virtual memory was (and still is, really) an inexpensive way to overcome the limitations inherent to a low-RAM PC; but as users ran more and more applications, the amount of swapping would reach a crescendo of sorts as a magical line was crossed and performance suffered.
Today, PCs with 2 to 4GB of RAM are commonplace, so manually managing Windows Vista’s virtual memory settings is rarely needed. That said, you can do so if you want, though you’ll have to navigate through a stupefying number of windows to find the interface:
1. Open the Start Menu, right-click on Computer, and choose Properties.
2. In the System window that appears, click the Advanced System Settings link in the Tasks list on the left.
3. In the System Properties window that appears, navigate to the Advanced tab and click the Settings button in the Performance section.
4. In the Performance Options dialog that appears, navigate to the Advanced tab and click the Change button. (Whew!)
By default, Vista is configured to automatically maintain and manage the paging file, which is the single disk-based file that represents your PC’s virtual memory. Vista will grow and shrink this file based on its needs, and its behavior varies wildly depending on how much RAM is on your system: PCs with less RAM need virtual memory far more often than those with 4GB of RAM (or more with 64-bit versions of Vista). While I don’t generally recommend screwing around with the swap file, Vista’s need to constantly resize the paging file on low-RAM systems is one exception. The problem with this behavior is that resizing the paging is a resource-intensive activity that slows performance. Therefore, if you have less than 2GB of RAM and can’t upgrade for some reason, you might want to manually manage virtual memory and set the paging file to be a fixed size—one that won’t grow and shrink over time.
To do this, uncheck the option titled Automatically Manage Paging File Sizes for All Drives and select Custom Size. Then determine how much space to set aside by multiplying the system RAM (2GB or less) by 2 to 3 times. On a PC with 2GB of RAM, for example, you might specify a value of 5120 (where 2GB of RAM is 2,048MB, times 2.5). This value should be added to both the Initial Size and Maximum Size text boxes to ensure that the page file does not grow and shrink over time.
Source of Information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition Oct 2008
Today, PCs with 2 to 4GB of RAM are commonplace, so manually managing Windows Vista’s virtual memory settings is rarely needed. That said, you can do so if you want, though you’ll have to navigate through a stupefying number of windows to find the interface:
1. Open the Start Menu, right-click on Computer, and choose Properties.
2. In the System window that appears, click the Advanced System Settings link in the Tasks list on the left.
3. In the System Properties window that appears, navigate to the Advanced tab and click the Settings button in the Performance section.
4. In the Performance Options dialog that appears, navigate to the Advanced tab and click the Change button. (Whew!)
By default, Vista is configured to automatically maintain and manage the paging file, which is the single disk-based file that represents your PC’s virtual memory. Vista will grow and shrink this file based on its needs, and its behavior varies wildly depending on how much RAM is on your system: PCs with less RAM need virtual memory far more often than those with 4GB of RAM (or more with 64-bit versions of Vista). While I don’t generally recommend screwing around with the swap file, Vista’s need to constantly resize the paging file on low-RAM systems is one exception. The problem with this behavior is that resizing the paging is a resource-intensive activity that slows performance. Therefore, if you have less than 2GB of RAM and can’t upgrade for some reason, you might want to manually manage virtual memory and set the paging file to be a fixed size—one that won’t grow and shrink over time.
To do this, uncheck the option titled Automatically Manage Paging File Sizes for All Drives and select Custom Size. Then determine how much space to set aside by multiplying the system RAM (2GB or less) by 2 to 3 times. On a PC with 2GB of RAM, for example, you might specify a value of 5120 (where 2GB of RAM is 2,048MB, times 2.5). This value should be added to both the Initial Size and Maximum Size text boxes to ensure that the page file does not grow and shrink over time.
Source of Information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition Oct 2008
Using Vista’s Performance Options
Windows Vista uses an advanced desktop composition engine and provides a number of subtle but pleasing UI animations by default. Some of this stuff, frankly, is a bit much; and all of it takes its toll on the performance of your PC. Fortunately, the operating system also includes a number of configurable performance options. They’re really hard to find but it’s worth it if you have an older PC and have noticed some slowdowns with Windows Vista. To access Windows Vista’s Performance Options, you need to jump through a number of hoops: Open the Start Menu, right-click on Computer, and choose Properties. Then, in the System window that appears, click the Advanced system settings link in the Tasks list on the left. In the System Properties window that appears, navigate to the Advanced tab and click the Settings button in the Performance section.
Here you can choose between three automated settings (Let Windows Choose What’s
Best for My Computer, Adjust for Best Appearance, and Adjust for Best Performance).
Alternately, you can click the Custom option and then enable and disable any of the 20 user-interface-related options that appear in the custom settings list. Most of these options should be self-explanatory, and many appeared in previous versions of Windows, but a few Vista-specific options are worth highlighting:
• Enable desktop composition: This is the core Windows Vista display engine. If you disable this feature, you’ll lose Windows Aero and its related glass effects and will be forced to use the less attractive, less reliable Windows Vista Basic user interface. However, on systems with very low-end video cards, Windows Vista Basic will often perform faster than Windows Aero.
• Enable transparent glass: This option configures the translucency effects you see in the Windows Aero interface. Disabling this feature is equivalent to unchecking the Enable Transparency check box in the Window Color and Appearance control panel and results in a slight performance boost.
• Use visual styles on windows and buttons: Disabling this feature causes Vista to revert to the ancient-looking Windows Classic user interface. It will dramatically increase the performance of your PC at the expense of attractiveness and reliability.
Source of Information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
Here you can choose between three automated settings (Let Windows Choose What’s
Best for My Computer, Adjust for Best Appearance, and Adjust for Best Performance).
Alternately, you can click the Custom option and then enable and disable any of the 20 user-interface-related options that appear in the custom settings list. Most of these options should be self-explanatory, and many appeared in previous versions of Windows, but a few Vista-specific options are worth highlighting:
• Enable desktop composition: This is the core Windows Vista display engine. If you disable this feature, you’ll lose Windows Aero and its related glass effects and will be forced to use the less attractive, less reliable Windows Vista Basic user interface. However, on systems with very low-end video cards, Windows Vista Basic will often perform faster than Windows Aero.
• Enable transparent glass: This option configures the translucency effects you see in the Windows Aero interface. Disabling this feature is equivalent to unchecking the Enable Transparency check box in the Window Color and Appearance control panel and results in a slight performance boost.
• Use visual styles on windows and buttons: Disabling this feature causes Vista to revert to the ancient-looking Windows Classic user interface. It will dramatically increase the performance of your PC at the expense of attractiveness and reliability.
Source of Information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
Making Windows Vista Boot Faster
Throughout the years, all Windows versions have shared a common problem: they degrade in performance over time and boot more slowly the longer the computer is used. Microsoft addressed this gradual sludgification somewhat in Windows Vista, and compared to Windows XP there are certainly some improvements. For example, unlike XP, it’s actually possible to take a year-old Windows Vista install, clean some things up, and get it back in tip-top shape. With XP, you’d eventually be forced to reinstall the entire OS in order to regain lost performance.
Boot-up speed, of course, is a primary concern. In order to speed the time it takes for your PC to return to life each time you sit down in front of it, there are a number of steps
you can take:
• Remove unwanted startup items: Over time, as you install more and more software on your computer, the number of small utilities, application launchers, and, most annoyingly, application prelaunchers (which essentially make it look like those applications start more quickly later because large chunks of them are already pre-loaded) that are configured to run at startup multiply dramatically. There are several ways you can cull this list, but the best one is a hidden feature inside Windows Defender, the antispyware utility that’s built into Windows Vista. (What’s a start-time optimizer doing in Windows Defender, you ask? Well, Windows Defender is based on a product Microsoft purchased that once included a number of cool PC utilities, and this one was apparently deemed good enough to keep it included in the product.) To cull the list of startup applications, open Windows Defender (Start Menu Search, and enter defender) and click the Tools link in the toolbar. Then click Software Explorer to see the interface. Before attempting to make any changes, you must click the button Show for All Users. After dealing with the User Account Control prompt that appears, you can scan the list on the left side, looking for any suspicious or unwanted startup applications. As you click each option, the right side of the application will provide information about the selection. You can also remove or disable unwanted items. Success!
• Do a little cleanup: There is a number of things you can clean up on your PC that will have mild effects on performance. One of the more effective is Vista’s hidden Disk Cleanup tool (Start Menu Search, and type disk clean). This little wonder frees up hard drive space by removing unused temporary files. (Free hard drive space is important for keeping virtual memory running optimally. Virtual-memory optimization is covered in just a bit.)
Source of Information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
Boot-up speed, of course, is a primary concern. In order to speed the time it takes for your PC to return to life each time you sit down in front of it, there are a number of steps
you can take:
• Remove unwanted startup items: Over time, as you install more and more software on your computer, the number of small utilities, application launchers, and, most annoyingly, application prelaunchers (which essentially make it look like those applications start more quickly later because large chunks of them are already pre-loaded) that are configured to run at startup multiply dramatically. There are several ways you can cull this list, but the best one is a hidden feature inside Windows Defender, the antispyware utility that’s built into Windows Vista. (What’s a start-time optimizer doing in Windows Defender, you ask? Well, Windows Defender is based on a product Microsoft purchased that once included a number of cool PC utilities, and this one was apparently deemed good enough to keep it included in the product.) To cull the list of startup applications, open Windows Defender (Start Menu Search, and enter defender) and click the Tools link in the toolbar. Then click Software Explorer to see the interface. Before attempting to make any changes, you must click the button Show for All Users. After dealing with the User Account Control prompt that appears, you can scan the list on the left side, looking for any suspicious or unwanted startup applications. As you click each option, the right side of the application will provide information about the selection. You can also remove or disable unwanted items. Success!
• Do a little cleanup: There is a number of things you can clean up on your PC that will have mild effects on performance. One of the more effective is Vista’s hidden Disk Cleanup tool (Start Menu Search, and type disk clean). This little wonder frees up hard drive space by removing unused temporary files. (Free hard drive space is important for keeping virtual memory running optimally. Virtual-memory optimization is covered in just a bit.)
Source of Information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
Exploring Vista Sidebar Alternatives
Number of Microsoft competitors has created alternatives to Windows Sidebar. These systems are sometimes designed to be cross-platform—that is, they run on non-Windows systems such as Mac OS X. They also run on previous versions of Windows, such as Windows XP. Most of these products are also free, so while they don’t offer the advantage of shipping inside of Windows, they’re easy enough to obtain online.
All of these environments share the same basic principles, although each has its own differences, advantages, and limitations. The question, of course, is whether any of these alternatives outshine Windows Sidebar enough to consider installing them on Windows Vista.
I’ll state right up front that I don’t think so. Assuming you’re even interested in using gadgets, the way that Sidebar integrates into Windows and is supported by such a wideranging set of third-party gadgets outweighs any small advantages that other environments might have. Installing yet another gadget-type environment would bring little advantage, but would clutter up your desktop in an unnecessary way. Chances are good that if you need a particular kind of gadget, there’s one available for Windows Sidebar, and ultimately that is likely the biggest consideration any potential user should entertain. Yet alternatives do have some advantages. I’ve chosen to focus on two here because they’re both widely used and offer deep integration features with the two most popular online services currently available, Google and Yahoo!. If you’re a heavy user of Google products such as Google Search, Gmail, and Google Calendar, Google Desktop may very much be of interest; and if you’re a big Yahoo! fan, that company’s Yahoo! Widgets provides a compelling Sidebar alternative.
Google Desktop
Google Desktop is Google’s desktop search product, but it has evolved over the years to include far more than just desktop search. Indeed, given the integrated Instant Search functionality that’s now available in Windows Vista, desktop search is barely a reason to even consider Google Desktop anymore. Even Google recognizes this reality: By default,
Google Desktop is no longer preconfigured to index the PC when installed on Windows Vista.
What makes Google Desktop special, in my opinion, are its Google Gadgets and Sidebar features. (Sound familiar?) As with Windows Sidebar, Google Desktop provides a very familiar panel, which can be docked to either side of the screen and can hold several gadgets. It’s just like Windows Sidebar from a usability perspective.
However, because this is Google, the Google Desktop Sidebar comes with a host of Googlemade gadgets that integrate with the many Google online services that are currently available. If you’re a big Google user, as I am, this may put Google Desktop over the top; because while it offers clock, calendar, weather, and notes gadgets just like Windows Sidebar, Google also provides gadgets for Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Video, Google Talk, and other Google services. There are even gadgets for popular non-Google services such as eBay, Twitter, and Wikipedia. Moreover, in my experience, developers have taken to Google’s gadgets much more obviously than they have to those for Windows Sidebar. That suggests that Google Desktop users may have an easier time finding useful new gadgets in the future than Windows Sidebar users.
Google Desktop can be configured to look and function very much like Windows Sidebar. Google Desktop can be downloaded from the Google Web site at http://desktop.google.com/.
Yahoo! Widgets
Give Yahoo! a bit of credit: Not only is its Yahoo! Widgets tool arguably among the first of the desktop gadget tools—it’s based on the Konfabulator engine that has been around for several years—but it also does things its own way. Unlike Google Desktop, Yahoo! Widgets doesn’t look and act almost exactly like Windows Sidebar. Yes, Yahoo! Widgets offers mini-applications, called widgets instead of gadgets, which can live directly on the desktop or be docked on a sidebar-like panel, called a Widget Dock, on the side of the screen. And yes, these widgets often integrate with online services to provide such things as stock quotes, weather, and other timely information.
The similarities end there, however. Yahoo!’s widgets are unique-looking and, dare I say, are generally better-looking than the gadgets offered by Microsoft and Google. For one thing, they’re more consistent: Unlike Microsoft or Google gadgets, Yahoo! widgets are all sized identically when docked, resulting in a cleaner look. (They are different sizes when undocked, or floating on the desktop, however.) You can also choose between available widgets directly from within the Yahoo! Widget Gallery, part of Yahoo! Widgets. That is, you won’t be shuttled off to your Web browser to find other utilities as you are with both Windows Sidebar and Google Desktop.
I also like how Yahoo! handles widget overflow. If you have too many widgets to fit on the dock, you can scroll down the list to access hidden widgets; with Windows Sidebar you have to switch left to right between entire sets of gadgets. Unlike Windows Sidebar, the Yahoo! Widget Dock can be docked to any edge of the screen, not just the left and
right sides. In addition, if you have two monitors, the Dock can extend across both screens if desired.
Yahoo’s product is, of course, linked heavily to Yahoo’s own online services. So if you’re a Yahoo! kind of person, you’ll appreciate integration with Yahoo! services such as Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Calendar, Yahoo! Finance, and Flickr. In addition, like Google’s service, Yahoo! Widgets seems to be well supported by developers, and you can find a wide range of third-party widgets out there as well. It’s also available for the Mac, if you’re into that kind of thing.
Yahoo! Widgets is like the quirkier, cooler, younger sibling of Windows Sidebar. Yahoo! Widgets can be downloaded from the Yahoo! Web site at http://widgets.yahoo.com/.
Source of Information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
All of these environments share the same basic principles, although each has its own differences, advantages, and limitations. The question, of course, is whether any of these alternatives outshine Windows Sidebar enough to consider installing them on Windows Vista.
I’ll state right up front that I don’t think so. Assuming you’re even interested in using gadgets, the way that Sidebar integrates into Windows and is supported by such a wideranging set of third-party gadgets outweighs any small advantages that other environments might have. Installing yet another gadget-type environment would bring little advantage, but would clutter up your desktop in an unnecessary way. Chances are good that if you need a particular kind of gadget, there’s one available for Windows Sidebar, and ultimately that is likely the biggest consideration any potential user should entertain. Yet alternatives do have some advantages. I’ve chosen to focus on two here because they’re both widely used and offer deep integration features with the two most popular online services currently available, Google and Yahoo!. If you’re a heavy user of Google products such as Google Search, Gmail, and Google Calendar, Google Desktop may very much be of interest; and if you’re a big Yahoo! fan, that company’s Yahoo! Widgets provides a compelling Sidebar alternative.
Google Desktop
Google Desktop is Google’s desktop search product, but it has evolved over the years to include far more than just desktop search. Indeed, given the integrated Instant Search functionality that’s now available in Windows Vista, desktop search is barely a reason to even consider Google Desktop anymore. Even Google recognizes this reality: By default,
Google Desktop is no longer preconfigured to index the PC when installed on Windows Vista.
What makes Google Desktop special, in my opinion, are its Google Gadgets and Sidebar features. (Sound familiar?) As with Windows Sidebar, Google Desktop provides a very familiar panel, which can be docked to either side of the screen and can hold several gadgets. It’s just like Windows Sidebar from a usability perspective.
However, because this is Google, the Google Desktop Sidebar comes with a host of Googlemade gadgets that integrate with the many Google online services that are currently available. If you’re a big Google user, as I am, this may put Google Desktop over the top; because while it offers clock, calendar, weather, and notes gadgets just like Windows Sidebar, Google also provides gadgets for Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Video, Google Talk, and other Google services. There are even gadgets for popular non-Google services such as eBay, Twitter, and Wikipedia. Moreover, in my experience, developers have taken to Google’s gadgets much more obviously than they have to those for Windows Sidebar. That suggests that Google Desktop users may have an easier time finding useful new gadgets in the future than Windows Sidebar users.
Google Desktop can be configured to look and function very much like Windows Sidebar. Google Desktop can be downloaded from the Google Web site at http://desktop.google.com/.
Yahoo! Widgets
Give Yahoo! a bit of credit: Not only is its Yahoo! Widgets tool arguably among the first of the desktop gadget tools—it’s based on the Konfabulator engine that has been around for several years—but it also does things its own way. Unlike Google Desktop, Yahoo! Widgets doesn’t look and act almost exactly like Windows Sidebar. Yes, Yahoo! Widgets offers mini-applications, called widgets instead of gadgets, which can live directly on the desktop or be docked on a sidebar-like panel, called a Widget Dock, on the side of the screen. And yes, these widgets often integrate with online services to provide such things as stock quotes, weather, and other timely information.
The similarities end there, however. Yahoo!’s widgets are unique-looking and, dare I say, are generally better-looking than the gadgets offered by Microsoft and Google. For one thing, they’re more consistent: Unlike Microsoft or Google gadgets, Yahoo! widgets are all sized identically when docked, resulting in a cleaner look. (They are different sizes when undocked, or floating on the desktop, however.) You can also choose between available widgets directly from within the Yahoo! Widget Gallery, part of Yahoo! Widgets. That is, you won’t be shuttled off to your Web browser to find other utilities as you are with both Windows Sidebar and Google Desktop.
I also like how Yahoo! handles widget overflow. If you have too many widgets to fit on the dock, you can scroll down the list to access hidden widgets; with Windows Sidebar you have to switch left to right between entire sets of gadgets. Unlike Windows Sidebar, the Yahoo! Widget Dock can be docked to any edge of the screen, not just the left and
right sides. In addition, if you have two monitors, the Dock can extend across both screens if desired.
Yahoo’s product is, of course, linked heavily to Yahoo’s own online services. So if you’re a Yahoo! kind of person, you’ll appreciate integration with Yahoo! services such as Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Calendar, Yahoo! Finance, and Flickr. In addition, like Google’s service, Yahoo! Widgets seems to be well supported by developers, and you can find a wide range of third-party widgets out there as well. It’s also available for the Mac, if you’re into that kind of thing.
Yahoo! Widgets is like the quirkier, cooler, younger sibling of Windows Sidebar. Yahoo! Widgets can be downloaded from the Yahoo! Web site at http://widgets.yahoo.com/.
Source of Information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
Advanced Sidebar-Confi guration Options
Although the Sidebar confi guration user interface is fairly complete, there are a few things you can’t easily do. Behind the scenes, however, the Windows Sidebar utilize special confi guration fi les named settings.ini to determine all of its configuration possibilities. If you don’t mind taking a small risk by editing these fi les with a text editor such as Notepad, you can perform various configuration tasks that are impossible with the standard Sidebar UI. Before you make changes, be sure to back up any files you’ll be editing. You’ll also want to quit the Sidebar before editing these files. There are two versions of settings.ini. The first is devoted to system wide configuration options and default settings, and is located in C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar by default. If you right-click this files and choose Edit, you’ll see the contents of this file, which should resemble the following (obviously, the details vary on a system-by-system basis):
[Root]
SettingsVersion=00.00.00.01
SidebarShowState=Imploded
SidebarDockedPartsOrder=0x1,0x2,0x3,
Section0=1
Section1=2
Section2=3
[Section 1]
PrivateSetting_GadgetName=%PROGRAMFILES%\windows sidebar\gadgets\Clock.
gadget
PrivateSetting_Enabled=true
[Section 2]
PrivateSetting_GadgetName=%PROGRAMFILES%\windows sidebar\gadgets\
SlideShow.Gadget
PrivateSetting_Enabled=true
[Section 3]
PrivateSetting_GadgetName=%PROGRAMFILES%\windows sidebar\gadgets\
RSSFeeds.Gadget
PrivateSetting_Enabled=true
loadFirstTime=defaultGadget
A second version of the Sidebar settings.ini file is available for each user. This file is located in C:\Users\[your user name]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar by default. This fi le has a similar structure, but will typically be much longer depending on how much you’ve configured Windows Sidebar. Here’s an example of what the first section of this fi le could look like:
[Root]
SettingsVersion=”00.00.00.01”
SidebarShowState=”Imploded”
SidebarDockedPartsOrder=”0x1,0x2,0x3,0x8,0x5,0x6,0x7,0x9,”
Section0=”1”
SidebarAutoStart=”true”
SidebarDockedPartsPage1=”8”
OneTimeRemoveGadgetMessageShown=”true”
Section1=”2”
Section2=”3”
PickerPosX=”482”
PickerPosY=”313”
Section3=”5”
Section4=”6”
Section5=”7”
Section6=”8”
OneTimeExitMessageShown=”false”
SidebarDockSide=”2”
SidebarAlwaysOnTop=”false”
SidebarDockMonitor=”0”
OneTimeHideMessageShown=”true”
[Section 1]
PrivateSetting_GadgetName=%PROGRAMFILES%\windows sidebar\gadgets\Clock.
gadget
PrivateSetting_Enabled=true
SettingsExist=”True”
clockName=
themeID=”5”
timeZoneIndex=”-1”
secondsEnabled=”False”
PrivateSetting_GadgetTopmost=”false”
PrivateSetting_SidebarDockedState=”Docked”
[Hashes]
...
Take a look at a few of these settings. The SidebarShowState option is set to Imploded in the code example. This means that the Sidebar will be displayed normally, and not in front of other windows. SidebarDockSide is set to 2, which is the right side of the screen. If you change this number to 1, the Windows Sidebar will be displayed on the left. In addition to the options shown here, there are a few other undocumented options. For example, if you’d like a certain gadget to never appear in the Add Gadgets windows, you could simply fi nd the gadget in C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets and delete it, but what if you wanted it to be available to other users? In this case you could simply add a line like the following to your user’s version of settings.ini:
PickerDefaultPackageSkipList=SlideShow.Gadget,worldClock.Gadget
This particular code would only make the Clock gadget unavailable. Obviously, there are many more settings possibilities. It’s also likely that an enterprising software developer will come up with a TweakUI-style application that provides the same functionality. Stay tuned to my Web site, the SuperSite for Windows, for any breaking news in this regard: www.winsupersite.com.
Source of Information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
[Root]
SettingsVersion=00.00.00.01
SidebarShowState=Imploded
SidebarDockedPartsOrder=0x1,0x2,0x3,
Section0=1
Section1=2
Section2=3
[Section 1]
PrivateSetting_GadgetName=%PROGRAMFILES%\windows sidebar\gadgets\Clock.
gadget
PrivateSetting_Enabled=true
[Section 2]
PrivateSetting_GadgetName=%PROGRAMFILES%\windows sidebar\gadgets\
SlideShow.Gadget
PrivateSetting_Enabled=true
[Section 3]
PrivateSetting_GadgetName=%PROGRAMFILES%\windows sidebar\gadgets\
RSSFeeds.Gadget
PrivateSetting_Enabled=true
loadFirstTime=defaultGadget
A second version of the Sidebar settings.ini file is available for each user. This file is located in C:\Users\[your user name]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar by default. This fi le has a similar structure, but will typically be much longer depending on how much you’ve configured Windows Sidebar. Here’s an example of what the first section of this fi le could look like:
[Root]
SettingsVersion=”00.00.00.01”
SidebarShowState=”Imploded”
SidebarDockedPartsOrder=”0x1,0x2,0x3,0x8,0x5,0x6,0x7,0x9,”
Section0=”1”
SidebarAutoStart=”true”
SidebarDockedPartsPage1=”8”
OneTimeRemoveGadgetMessageShown=”true”
Section1=”2”
Section2=”3”
PickerPosX=”482”
PickerPosY=”313”
Section3=”5”
Section4=”6”
Section5=”7”
Section6=”8”
OneTimeExitMessageShown=”false”
SidebarDockSide=”2”
SidebarAlwaysOnTop=”false”
SidebarDockMonitor=”0”
OneTimeHideMessageShown=”true”
[Section 1]
PrivateSetting_GadgetName=%PROGRAMFILES%\windows sidebar\gadgets\Clock.
gadget
PrivateSetting_Enabled=true
SettingsExist=”True”
clockName=
themeID=”5”
timeZoneIndex=”-1”
secondsEnabled=”False”
PrivateSetting_GadgetTopmost=”false”
PrivateSetting_SidebarDockedState=”Docked”
[Hashes]
...
Take a look at a few of these settings. The SidebarShowState option is set to Imploded in the code example. This means that the Sidebar will be displayed normally, and not in front of other windows. SidebarDockSide is set to 2, which is the right side of the screen. If you change this number to 1, the Windows Sidebar will be displayed on the left. In addition to the options shown here, there are a few other undocumented options. For example, if you’d like a certain gadget to never appear in the Add Gadgets windows, you could simply fi nd the gadget in C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets and delete it, but what if you wanted it to be available to other users? In this case you could simply add a line like the following to your user’s version of settings.ini:
PickerDefaultPackageSkipList=SlideShow.Gadget,worldClock.Gadget
This particular code would only make the Clock gadget unavailable. Obviously, there are many more settings possibilities. It’s also likely that an enterprising software developer will come up with a TweakUI-style application that provides the same functionality. Stay tuned to my Web site, the SuperSite for Windows, for any breaking news in this regard: www.winsupersite.com.
Source of Information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
What Is Windows Sidebar?
Back when Microsoft shipped Windows 98, it added a debatably useful feature called Active Desktop that provided an HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) layer on top of the traditional desktop. Active Desktop was an attempt to capitalize on the then-emerging trend of users wanting to combine live data from the Web with their PC operating system.
The term for this at the time was push technology. The idea was that although you could use a Web browser to manually find data on the Web, or pull data from the Web, a pushtechnology client like Active Desktop could push data to the user automatically with no interaction required.
Ultimately, users found Active Desktop to be confusing and undesirable, mostly because
Microsoft and its partners used it as a front end for advertisements and other unwanted information; and although the feature was never really removed from Windows, it was deemphasized in subsequent Windows versions, such as Windows XP. However, it’s still possible to add Web content to your XP desktop via Active
Desktop if you really want to.
Active Desktop may have failed, but the underlying benefits of push technology are still valid today. You can see that this type of functionality still exists in such technologies as RSS (Really Simple Syndication), which in fact attempts to solve essentially the same problem as Active Desktop: Rather than force users to manually search for the content they want, that content is delivered automatically to them using a unique kind of client
(in this case, an RSS client).
In Windows Vista, Active Desktop is finally gone forever, but integrated push technology lives on with a brand-new feature called Windows Sidebar. Like Active Desktop,
Windows Sidebar is available by default and is running when you start up your new Windows Vista–based PC for the first time. Moreover, it will keep on running unless you configure it not to do so, but Windows Sidebar solves one of Active Desktop’s major problems by moving the main user interface off the desktop and to the side of the screen where it won’t typically be hidden under your open applications and other windows. (If it is hidden by windows, you can optionally configure Windows Sidebar to appear “on top” of other windows.)
Source of Information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
The term for this at the time was push technology. The idea was that although you could use a Web browser to manually find data on the Web, or pull data from the Web, a pushtechnology client like Active Desktop could push data to the user automatically with no interaction required.
Ultimately, users found Active Desktop to be confusing and undesirable, mostly because
Microsoft and its partners used it as a front end for advertisements and other unwanted information; and although the feature was never really removed from Windows, it was deemphasized in subsequent Windows versions, such as Windows XP. However, it’s still possible to add Web content to your XP desktop via Active
Desktop if you really want to.
Active Desktop may have failed, but the underlying benefits of push technology are still valid today. You can see that this type of functionality still exists in such technologies as RSS (Really Simple Syndication), which in fact attempts to solve essentially the same problem as Active Desktop: Rather than force users to manually search for the content they want, that content is delivered automatically to them using a unique kind of client
(in this case, an RSS client).
In Windows Vista, Active Desktop is finally gone forever, but integrated push technology lives on with a brand-new feature called Windows Sidebar. Like Active Desktop,
Windows Sidebar is available by default and is running when you start up your new Windows Vista–based PC for the first time. Moreover, it will keep on running unless you configure it not to do so, but Windows Sidebar solves one of Active Desktop’s major problems by moving the main user interface off the desktop and to the side of the screen where it won’t typically be hidden under your open applications and other windows. (If it is hidden by windows, you can optionally configure Windows Sidebar to appear “on top” of other windows.)
Source of Information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
Virtual Folders
Let’s step back a bit before diving too deeply into potentially confusing territory. In order to understand Vista’s virtual folders, it’s important to first understand the thinking that went into this feature; and because this is the ever-delayed Windows Vista I’m talking about, it might also be helpful to know about Microsoft’s original plans for the Vista shell and virtual folders and compare those plans with what eventually happened.
Microsoft originally decided not to include in Vista a traditional file system with drive letters, physical file-system paths, and real folders. The software giant wanted to virtualize the entire file system so that you wouldn’t need to worry about such arcane things as “the root of C:” and the Program Files folder. Instead, you would just access your documents and applications without ever thinking about where they resided on the disk. After all, that sort of electronic housekeeping is what a computer is good at, right?
This original vision required a healthy dose of technology. The core piece of this technology would be a new storage engine called WinFS (short for Windows Future Storage), which would have combined the best features of the NTFS file system with the relational database functionality of Microsoft’s SQL Server products. As of this writing, Microsoft has been working on WinFS, and its predecessors, for about a decade.
Unfortunately, the WinFS technology wasn’t even close to being ready in time for
Windows Vista, so Microsoft pulled WinFS out of Vista and began developing it separately from the OS. Ultimately, it completely canceled plans to ship WinFS as a separate product. Instead, WinFS technologies will be integrated into future Windows versions and other Microsoft products.
Even though WinFS was out of the picture, Microsoft figured it could deliver much of that system’s benefits using an updated version of the file system indexer it has shipped in Windows for years; and for about a year of Vista’s development in 2004–2005, that was the plan. Instead of special shell folders such as Documents, users would access virtual folders such as All Documents, which would aggregate all of the documents on the hard drive and present them in a single location. Other special shell folders, such as Pictures and Music, would also be replaced by virtual folders.
Problem solved, right? Wrong. Beta testers—who are presumably more technical than most PC users—found the transition from normal folders to virtual folders to be extremely confusing. In retrospect, this should have been obvious. After all, a virtual folder that displays all of your documents is kind of useful when you’re looking for something, but where do you save a new file? Is a virtual folder even a real place for applications that want to save data? And do users need to understand the differences between normal folders and virtual folders? Why have both kinds of folders?
With the delays mounting, Microsoft retreated from the virtual-folder scheme, just as it had when it stripped out WinFS previously. That’s why the file system you see in Windows Vista is actually quite similar to that in Windows XP and previous Windows versions. That is, the file system still uses drive letters, normal folders, and special shell folders such as Documents and Pictures. If you’re familiar with any prior Windows version, you should feel right at home in the Vista shell. (Likewise, if you’ve found the Windows file system to be a bit, well, lackluster, all the same complaints still apply in Vista.)
There’s one major difference between Vista’s file system and that of previous Windows versions, although it’s not particularly obvious. Even though Microsoft has decided not to replace special shell folders with virtual folders in this release, the company is still shipping virtual-folder technology in Windows Vista. The idea is that users will get used to virtual folders now, and then perhaps a future Windows version will simply move to that system, and eventually we’ll all reach some nerdvana where all the silly file-system constructs used today are suddenly passé.
In short, virtual folders do exist in Windows Vista; they’re just somewhat hidden. OK, they’re really well hidden, maybe even devilishly well hidden. That makes them a power-user feature and thus, for readers of this book, inherently interesting. Most people won’t even discover virtual folders and their contained shared searches. In fact, if you want to harness some of the most awesome and unique technology in Windows Vista, this is the place to start; the skills you learn now will give you a leg up when Microsoft finally gets around to retiring the current file system. It’s only a matter of time.
Source of Information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
Microsoft originally decided not to include in Vista a traditional file system with drive letters, physical file-system paths, and real folders. The software giant wanted to virtualize the entire file system so that you wouldn’t need to worry about such arcane things as “the root of C:” and the Program Files folder. Instead, you would just access your documents and applications without ever thinking about where they resided on the disk. After all, that sort of electronic housekeeping is what a computer is good at, right?
This original vision required a healthy dose of technology. The core piece of this technology would be a new storage engine called WinFS (short for Windows Future Storage), which would have combined the best features of the NTFS file system with the relational database functionality of Microsoft’s SQL Server products. As of this writing, Microsoft has been working on WinFS, and its predecessors, for about a decade.
Unfortunately, the WinFS technology wasn’t even close to being ready in time for
Windows Vista, so Microsoft pulled WinFS out of Vista and began developing it separately from the OS. Ultimately, it completely canceled plans to ship WinFS as a separate product. Instead, WinFS technologies will be integrated into future Windows versions and other Microsoft products.
Even though WinFS was out of the picture, Microsoft figured it could deliver much of that system’s benefits using an updated version of the file system indexer it has shipped in Windows for years; and for about a year of Vista’s development in 2004–2005, that was the plan. Instead of special shell folders such as Documents, users would access virtual folders such as All Documents, which would aggregate all of the documents on the hard drive and present them in a single location. Other special shell folders, such as Pictures and Music, would also be replaced by virtual folders.
Problem solved, right? Wrong. Beta testers—who are presumably more technical than most PC users—found the transition from normal folders to virtual folders to be extremely confusing. In retrospect, this should have been obvious. After all, a virtual folder that displays all of your documents is kind of useful when you’re looking for something, but where do you save a new file? Is a virtual folder even a real place for applications that want to save data? And do users need to understand the differences between normal folders and virtual folders? Why have both kinds of folders?
With the delays mounting, Microsoft retreated from the virtual-folder scheme, just as it had when it stripped out WinFS previously. That’s why the file system you see in Windows Vista is actually quite similar to that in Windows XP and previous Windows versions. That is, the file system still uses drive letters, normal folders, and special shell folders such as Documents and Pictures. If you’re familiar with any prior Windows version, you should feel right at home in the Vista shell. (Likewise, if you’ve found the Windows file system to be a bit, well, lackluster, all the same complaints still apply in Vista.)
There’s one major difference between Vista’s file system and that of previous Windows versions, although it’s not particularly obvious. Even though Microsoft has decided not to replace special shell folders with virtual folders in this release, the company is still shipping virtual-folder technology in Windows Vista. The idea is that users will get used to virtual folders now, and then perhaps a future Windows version will simply move to that system, and eventually we’ll all reach some nerdvana where all the silly file-system constructs used today are suddenly passé.
In short, virtual folders do exist in Windows Vista; they’re just somewhat hidden. OK, they’re really well hidden, maybe even devilishly well hidden. That makes them a power-user feature and thus, for readers of this book, inherently interesting. Most people won’t even discover virtual folders and their contained shared searches. In fact, if you want to harness some of the most awesome and unique technology in Windows Vista, this is the place to start; the skills you learn now will give you a leg up when Microsoft finally gets around to retiring the current file system. It’s only a matter of time.
Source of Information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
Windows Vista Special Shell Folders
Most Windows Vista Secrets readers are probably familiar with basic computer file system concepts such as files, folders, and drive letters; but you may not realize that certain locations in the Windows shell—that is, Windows Explorer, the application with which you literally explore the contents of your PC’s hard drives—have been specially configured to work with particular data types, and live in the shell hierarchy outside of their physical locations. In Windows XP and previous Windows versions, these locations were called special shell folders, and they included such things as My Documents, My Pictures, and My Music.
In Windows Vista these special shell folders still exist, but now most of them have different names and are accompanied by a number of new members. They’re also in a different location: Whereas Windows XP placed user folders (which contain the special shell folders for each user) in C:\Documents and Settings\Your_User_Name by default, Windows Vista uses the simpler C:\Users\Your_User_Name.
Special Shell Folders
Home. This special location is named after your user name. If you chose the user name Paul, for example, then your Home folder would be named Paul as well. (Case matters: If you enter paul, it will be paul and not Paul.) This folder is available as the top option on the right-hand, fixed part of the Start Menu. Although it was never particularly obvious, every user actually had a Home folder in previous Windows versions.
Contacts. A new addition to Windows Vista, Contacts acts as a central database for Vista’s centralized contacts management, which is used by Windows Mail and can be used by any third-party application.
Desktop. This folder represents your Windows Vista desktop. Any folders, files, or shortcuts you place on the desktop appear in this folder too (and vice versa). There’s one exception: If you enable certain desktop icons—such as Computer, User’s Files, Network, Recycle Bin, or Control Panel—via the Desktop Icon Settings dialog, these icons will not appear in the Desktop folder.
Documents. A replacement for My Documents, this folder is specially configured to handle various document types, such as Word documents, text fi les, and the like. As with
its predecessor, Documents is the default location for the Save and Save As dialog boxes in most applications.
Downloads. New to Windows Vista, this folder is the default location for files downloaded from the Web with Internet Explorer and other Web browsers, including Mozilla Firefox.
Favorites. A central repository for your Internet Explorer Favorites (or what other browsers typically call Bookmarks). The Favorites folder has been in Windows for several years.
Links. New to Windows Vista, this folder typically contains shortcuts to common shell locations. Its contents appear in the Favorite Links pane of Windows Explorer windows. Note that only shortcuts to folder and other shell locations appear in Favorite Links. If you copy a shortcut to a document here, for example, it will not appear in the list.
Saved Games. A new addition to Windows Vista, the Saved Games folder is designed as a place for Vista-compatible game titles to store saved game information.
Pictures. A replacement for My Pictures. The Pictures folder is designed to handle digital photographs and other picture fi les and to work in tandem with other photorelated tools in Vista, such as Windows Photo Gallery and the Import Pictures and Videos Wizard.
Music. A replacement for XP’s My Music folder. The Music folder is designed to work with digital music and other audio fi les. If you rip music from an audio CD or purchase music from an online music service such as the Apple iTunes Store or Amazon MP3, those fi les are typically saved to your Music folder by default.
Searches. New to Windows Vista, this folder contains built-in and user-created saved searches.
Videos. A replacement for My Videos. This folder is designed to store digital videos of any kind, including home movies. It also interacts with video-oriented tools in Vista, such as Windows Movie Maker and Windows DVD Maker. In Windows XP you had to run Windows Movie Maker once before the My Videos folder would appear. This is no longer the case in Windows Vista, where the new Videos folder is always available under each user’s Home folder. However, as with XP, it’s still impossible to add a link to the Videos folder to the right side of the Start Menu. The Videos folder, it seems, is still a second-class citizen in Microsoft’s eyes.
Each of the special shell folders in Windows Vista shares certain characteristics. First, they are all physical folders in the sense that they are represented by a specific location in the Windows shell hierarchy. For example, your Home folder is now found at C:\Users\username by default. Likewise, Documents can be found at C:\Users\username\Documents.
You might notice that most folder names (Saved Games is a curious exception)—and indeed the names of the folders above each of them in the shell path—has been stripped of spaces. That is, each folder is now a single word (e.g., Documents instead of My Documents). That’s because of a renewed commitment to shell scripting in Windows Vista, an environment in which it’s simply harder to deal with spaces.
Finally, many of the special shell folders are represented somewhat differently in the Windows shell than are other folders, which you might think of as normal physical folders.
The Documents, Favorites, Music, and Pictures folders are all colored blue-green now instead of the normal yellow folder color; and although you can create a folder almost anywhere you’d like in the Windows Vista shell—assuming you have the security credentials to do so—special shell folders are typically found only in their preset locations within the file system.
In addition to the new special shell folders in Vista, there are also some differences in the way that preexisting special shell folders are organized now. For example, folders such as My Pictures, My Music, and My Videos were physically arranged below (and logically contained within) the My Documents folder in previous Windows versions; but in Windows Vista the new versions of these folders are found directly below each user’s Home folder, alongside Documents. This won’t affect typical users, who will likely access special shell folders like My Documents and My Pictures only from the Start Menu, but more advanced users will want to be aware of the changes.
Advanced users can use the Registry Editor (regedit.exe) to change special shell-folder locations. (If you’re not familiar with the Registry, this isn’t the time to start. You can irreperably harm Windows via the Registry.) Using regedit, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\Shell Folders. You’ll see a variety of special shell folders listed there, including Personal (Documents), My Music (Music), My Pictures (Pictures), and My Video (Videos). To change the location of one of these special folders, simply double-click in regedit and add the new location to the Value data field in the dialog that appears.
You can see some of Vista’s special folders in your Start Menu, but if you want a better idea of how they’re laid out in the fi le system, simply launch Windows Explorer and enable the classic left-mounted folder hierarchy, which is now found in the bottom-left corner of the window. The new Home folder layout is actually quite similar to that used by Unix and Linux systems, including Apple’s Mac OS X. Vista even follows the same naming conventions these competitors utilize.
Source of information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
In Windows Vista these special shell folders still exist, but now most of them have different names and are accompanied by a number of new members. They’re also in a different location: Whereas Windows XP placed user folders (which contain the special shell folders for each user) in C:\Documents and Settings\Your_User_Name by default, Windows Vista uses the simpler C:\Users\Your_User_Name.
Special Shell Folders
Home. This special location is named after your user name. If you chose the user name Paul, for example, then your Home folder would be named Paul as well. (Case matters: If you enter paul, it will be paul and not Paul.) This folder is available as the top option on the right-hand, fixed part of the Start Menu. Although it was never particularly obvious, every user actually had a Home folder in previous Windows versions.
Contacts. A new addition to Windows Vista, Contacts acts as a central database for Vista’s centralized contacts management, which is used by Windows Mail and can be used by any third-party application.
Desktop. This folder represents your Windows Vista desktop. Any folders, files, or shortcuts you place on the desktop appear in this folder too (and vice versa). There’s one exception: If you enable certain desktop icons—such as Computer, User’s Files, Network, Recycle Bin, or Control Panel—via the Desktop Icon Settings dialog, these icons will not appear in the Desktop folder.
Documents. A replacement for My Documents, this folder is specially configured to handle various document types, such as Word documents, text fi les, and the like. As with
its predecessor, Documents is the default location for the Save and Save As dialog boxes in most applications.
Downloads. New to Windows Vista, this folder is the default location for files downloaded from the Web with Internet Explorer and other Web browsers, including Mozilla Firefox.
Favorites. A central repository for your Internet Explorer Favorites (or what other browsers typically call Bookmarks). The Favorites folder has been in Windows for several years.
Links. New to Windows Vista, this folder typically contains shortcuts to common shell locations. Its contents appear in the Favorite Links pane of Windows Explorer windows. Note that only shortcuts to folder and other shell locations appear in Favorite Links. If you copy a shortcut to a document here, for example, it will not appear in the list.
Saved Games. A new addition to Windows Vista, the Saved Games folder is designed as a place for Vista-compatible game titles to store saved game information.
Pictures. A replacement for My Pictures. The Pictures folder is designed to handle digital photographs and other picture fi les and to work in tandem with other photorelated tools in Vista, such as Windows Photo Gallery and the Import Pictures and Videos Wizard.
Music. A replacement for XP’s My Music folder. The Music folder is designed to work with digital music and other audio fi les. If you rip music from an audio CD or purchase music from an online music service such as the Apple iTunes Store or Amazon MP3, those fi les are typically saved to your Music folder by default.
Searches. New to Windows Vista, this folder contains built-in and user-created saved searches.
Videos. A replacement for My Videos. This folder is designed to store digital videos of any kind, including home movies. It also interacts with video-oriented tools in Vista, such as Windows Movie Maker and Windows DVD Maker. In Windows XP you had to run Windows Movie Maker once before the My Videos folder would appear. This is no longer the case in Windows Vista, where the new Videos folder is always available under each user’s Home folder. However, as with XP, it’s still impossible to add a link to the Videos folder to the right side of the Start Menu. The Videos folder, it seems, is still a second-class citizen in Microsoft’s eyes.
Each of the special shell folders in Windows Vista shares certain characteristics. First, they are all physical folders in the sense that they are represented by a specific location in the Windows shell hierarchy. For example, your Home folder is now found at C:\Users\username by default. Likewise, Documents can be found at C:\Users\username\Documents.
You might notice that most folder names (Saved Games is a curious exception)—and indeed the names of the folders above each of them in the shell path—has been stripped of spaces. That is, each folder is now a single word (e.g., Documents instead of My Documents). That’s because of a renewed commitment to shell scripting in Windows Vista, an environment in which it’s simply harder to deal with spaces.
Finally, many of the special shell folders are represented somewhat differently in the Windows shell than are other folders, which you might think of as normal physical folders.
The Documents, Favorites, Music, and Pictures folders are all colored blue-green now instead of the normal yellow folder color; and although you can create a folder almost anywhere you’d like in the Windows Vista shell—assuming you have the security credentials to do so—special shell folders are typically found only in their preset locations within the file system.
In addition to the new special shell folders in Vista, there are also some differences in the way that preexisting special shell folders are organized now. For example, folders such as My Pictures, My Music, and My Videos were physically arranged below (and logically contained within) the My Documents folder in previous Windows versions; but in Windows Vista the new versions of these folders are found directly below each user’s Home folder, alongside Documents. This won’t affect typical users, who will likely access special shell folders like My Documents and My Pictures only from the Start Menu, but more advanced users will want to be aware of the changes.
Advanced users can use the Registry Editor (regedit.exe) to change special shell-folder locations. (If you’re not familiar with the Registry, this isn’t the time to start. You can irreperably harm Windows via the Registry.) Using regedit, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\Shell Folders. You’ll see a variety of special shell folders listed there, including Personal (Documents), My Music (Music), My Pictures (Pictures), and My Video (Videos). To change the location of one of these special folders, simply double-click in regedit and add the new location to the Value data field in the dialog that appears.
You can see some of Vista’s special folders in your Start Menu, but if you want a better idea of how they’re laid out in the fi le system, simply launch Windows Explorer and enable the classic left-mounted folder hierarchy, which is now found in the bottom-left corner of the window. The new Home folder layout is actually quite similar to that used by Unix and Linux systems, including Apple’s Mac OS X. Vista even follows the same naming conventions these competitors utilize.
Source of information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
Windows Aero
Windows Aero is the premium user experience in Windows Vista and the one most users will want to access. It provides a number of unique features. First, Windows Aero enables the new Aero Glass look and feel in which the Start Menu, the taskbar, and all onscreen windows and dialog boxes take on a new glass-like translucent sheen
Aero Glass is designed to move the visual focus away from the windows themselves and to the content they contain. Whether that effort is successful is open to debate, but it’s certainly true that window borders have lost the vast, dark-colored title bars of previous Windows versions and provide a softer-looking and more organic-looking container around window contents. Compare Windows XP’s My Computer window to Windows Vista’s Computer window.
When you have a lot of Aero windows open onscreen, it’s often hard to tell which one is on top or has the focus. Typically, that window will have a bright red Close window button, whereas other windows will not.
When you utilize the Windows Aero user experience, you receive other benefits. Certain
Windows Vista features, for example, are available only when you’re using Aero. Windows Flip and Flip 3D, two new task-switching features, are available only in Aero.
Windows Flip and Flip 3D are most typically accessed via keyboard shortcuts. The trick, of course, is that you have to know those shortcuts. To use Windows Flip, hold down the Alt key and press the Tab key to cycle between all of the running applications and open windows. To use Flip 3D, hold down the Windows key and press the Tab key to cycle between these windows.
Aero also enables dynamic window animations, so that when you minimize a window to the taskbar, it subtly animates to show you exactly where it went. This kind of functionality was actually first introduced in Windows 95, but it has been made more subtle and fluid in Windows Vista. Additionally, Aero enables live taskbar thumbnails: When you mouse over buttons in the taskbar, a small thumbnail preview will pop up, showing you the window without actually activating it first.
In addition to its obvious visual charms, Windows Aero also offers lower-level improvements that provide a more reliable desktop experience than you might be used to with previous Windows versions. Thanks to a new graphics architecture based on DirectX video-game libraries, Windows Vista can move windows across the screen without any of the visual tearing or glitches that were common in Windows XP. The effect is most prominent in windows with animated content, such as when you’re playing a video in Windows Media Player (WMP). But it’s not just about looks. Windows Aero is simply more reliable than the other user experiences. To understand why that’s so, you need to examine Aero’s strict hardware and software requirements.
Source of information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
Aero Glass is designed to move the visual focus away from the windows themselves and to the content they contain. Whether that effort is successful is open to debate, but it’s certainly true that window borders have lost the vast, dark-colored title bars of previous Windows versions and provide a softer-looking and more organic-looking container around window contents. Compare Windows XP’s My Computer window to Windows Vista’s Computer window.
When you have a lot of Aero windows open onscreen, it’s often hard to tell which one is on top or has the focus. Typically, that window will have a bright red Close window button, whereas other windows will not.
When you utilize the Windows Aero user experience, you receive other benefits. Certain
Windows Vista features, for example, are available only when you’re using Aero. Windows Flip and Flip 3D, two new task-switching features, are available only in Aero.
Windows Flip and Flip 3D are most typically accessed via keyboard shortcuts. The trick, of course, is that you have to know those shortcuts. To use Windows Flip, hold down the Alt key and press the Tab key to cycle between all of the running applications and open windows. To use Flip 3D, hold down the Windows key and press the Tab key to cycle between these windows.
Aero also enables dynamic window animations, so that when you minimize a window to the taskbar, it subtly animates to show you exactly where it went. This kind of functionality was actually first introduced in Windows 95, but it has been made more subtle and fluid in Windows Vista. Additionally, Aero enables live taskbar thumbnails: When you mouse over buttons in the taskbar, a small thumbnail preview will pop up, showing you the window without actually activating it first.
In addition to its obvious visual charms, Windows Aero also offers lower-level improvements that provide a more reliable desktop experience than you might be used to with previous Windows versions. Thanks to a new graphics architecture based on DirectX video-game libraries, Windows Vista can move windows across the screen without any of the visual tearing or glitches that were common in Windows XP. The effect is most prominent in windows with animated content, such as when you’re playing a video in Windows Media Player (WMP). But it’s not just about looks. Windows Aero is simply more reliable than the other user experiences. To understand why that’s so, you need to examine Aero’s strict hardware and software requirements.
Source of information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
Windows Vista Standard
This oddball user experience is designed specifically for Vista Home Basic users and is an olive branch, of sorts, to those who have the hardware required to run Windows Aero but cannot do so because that user experience is not included in Home Basic.
Vista Standard is essentially a visual compromise between Vista Basic and Windows Aero. That is, it features the look and feel of Windows Aero, minus the translucency effects. Under the hood, however, it utilizes the less-sophisticated display technologies utilized by Windows Vista Basic. In addition to lacking Aero’s transparency feature, Windows Vista Standard also dispenses with many other Aero features, such as Flip 3D and live taskbar thumbnails.
If you are running Windows Vista Home Basic and would like to upgrade to Aero, you need to utilize Vista’s unique Windows Anytime Upgrade service—available to Vista Home Basic and Home Premium customers—to upgrade to Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate Edition.
Source of information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
Vista Standard is essentially a visual compromise between Vista Basic and Windows Aero. That is, it features the look and feel of Windows Aero, minus the translucency effects. Under the hood, however, it utilizes the less-sophisticated display technologies utilized by Windows Vista Basic. In addition to lacking Aero’s transparency feature, Windows Vista Standard also dispenses with many other Aero features, such as Flip 3D and live taskbar thumbnails.
If you are running Windows Vista Home Basic and would like to upgrade to Aero, you need to utilize Vista’s unique Windows Anytime Upgrade service—available to Vista Home Basic and Home Premium customers—to upgrade to Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate Edition.
Source of information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
Windows Vista Basic
Windows Vista Basic is the entry-level desktop user experience in Windows Vista and the one you will see on Windows Vista Home Basic or in other editions if you don’t meet certain hardware requirements, which I’ll discuss shortly. From a technological perspective, Windows Vista Basic renders the Windows desktop in roughly the same way as does Windows XP, meaning it doesn’t take advantage of Vista’s new graphical prowess and enhanced stability. That said, Vista Basic still provides you with many of the unique features that make Vista special, such as integrated desktop search—available via a search box in the upper-right corner of every Explorer window—and Live Icons, which show live previews of the contents of document files.
Windows Vista Basic isn’t as attractive as Windows Aero, but there are actually some advantages to using it. For starters, it offers better performance than Aero, so it’s a good bet for lower-end computers. Notebook and Tablet PC users will notice that Vista Basic actually provides better battery life than Aero too, so if you’re on the road and not connected to a power source, Vista Basic is a thriftier choice if you’re trying to maximize runtime.
Conversely, Windows Vista Basic has a few major, if non-obvious, disadvantages. Because it uses XP-era display rendering techniques, Windows Vista Basic is not as stable and reliable as Aero and could thus lead to system crashes and even “blue screen of death” crashes because of poorly written display drivers. Aero display drivers are typically far more reliable, and the Aero display itself is inherently superior to that offered by Basic. Nor does Vista Basic enable you to use some unique Vista features, such as Flip 3D and taskbar thumbnails, that require Aero technologies.
Even if you are running Windows Aero, you may still run into the occasional issue that causes the display to fl ash and suddenly revert back to Windows Vista Basic. For example, some older applications aren’t compatible with Windows Aero; when you run such an application, the user experience will revert to Windows Vista Basic. When you close the offending application, Aero returns. In other cases, certain applications that use custom window rendering will actually display in a Windows Vista Basic style, even though all of the other windows in the system are utilizing Aero. These are the issues you have to deal with when Microsoft makes such a dramatic change to the Windows rendering engine, apparently. The good news is that these glitches are significantly less common with Windows Vista and Service Pack 1 (SP1). Most modern Windows applications work just fine with Aero.
Source of information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
Windows Vista Basic isn’t as attractive as Windows Aero, but there are actually some advantages to using it. For starters, it offers better performance than Aero, so it’s a good bet for lower-end computers. Notebook and Tablet PC users will notice that Vista Basic actually provides better battery life than Aero too, so if you’re on the road and not connected to a power source, Vista Basic is a thriftier choice if you’re trying to maximize runtime.
Conversely, Windows Vista Basic has a few major, if non-obvious, disadvantages. Because it uses XP-era display rendering techniques, Windows Vista Basic is not as stable and reliable as Aero and could thus lead to system crashes and even “blue screen of death” crashes because of poorly written display drivers. Aero display drivers are typically far more reliable, and the Aero display itself is inherently superior to that offered by Basic. Nor does Vista Basic enable you to use some unique Vista features, such as Flip 3D and taskbar thumbnails, that require Aero technologies.
Even if you are running Windows Aero, you may still run into the occasional issue that causes the display to fl ash and suddenly revert back to Windows Vista Basic. For example, some older applications aren’t compatible with Windows Aero; when you run such an application, the user experience will revert to Windows Vista Basic. When you close the offending application, Aero returns. In other cases, certain applications that use custom window rendering will actually display in a Windows Vista Basic style, even though all of the other windows in the system are utilizing Aero. These are the issues you have to deal with when Microsoft makes such a dramatic change to the Windows rendering engine, apparently. The good news is that these glitches are significantly less common with Windows Vista and Service Pack 1 (SP1). Most modern Windows applications work just fine with Aero.
Source of information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
Understanding the Windows Vista User Experience
When the first PCs hit the streets over 20 years ago, users were saddled with an unfriendly, nonintuitive user interface based on the MS-DOS command line and its ubiquitous C:\prompt. Since then, computer user interfaces have come a long way, firs with the advent of the mouse-driven graphical user interface (GUI) on the Macintosh and later in Windows, and then with the proliferation of Internet connectivity in the late 1990s, which blurred the line between local and remote content and led to the currently emerging era of “cloud computing,” whereby PC-like user interfaces are available on the Web.
Microsoft has been at the forefront of the evolution of state-of-the-art computer GUIs for the masses over the years. Windows 95 introduced the notion of right-clicking on objects in the operating system to discover context-sensitive options; Windows 98 introduced a shell, Explorer, that was based on the same code found in the Internet Explorer Web browser; and Windows XP began a trend toward task-oriented user interfaces, with folder views that change depending on the content you are viewing or have selected.
In Windows Vista, the Windows user interface, or as Microsoft likes to call it, the Windows user experience, has evolved yet again. Assuming you are running a mainstream Vista product edition (Windows Vista Home Basic and Starter editions need not apply) and have the right kind of display hardware, you are presented with a translucent, glass-like interface that takes the Windows user interface metaphor to its logical conclusion. That’s right: In Windows Vista, windows actually appear to be made of glass, just like real windows. (Unfortunately, you can also break Windows as easily as the real thing, a fact driven home by the wide range of electronic attacks we’ve all experienced over the years.)
At a higher level, however, it may be comforting to understand that much in Windows
Vista has not changed since XP. That is, you still press a Start button (though it’s now officially called the Start Orb, I’ll continue to call it the Start button) to launch the Start
Menu, from where you can perform tasks such as launch applications; access the Control Panel, networking features, and other related functionality; and turn off the system. A taskbar still runs along the bottom of the Windows Vista desktop, containing buttons for each open window and application, and a tray notification area still sits in the lower-right corner of the screen, full of notification icons and the system clock. The desktop still contains icons and shortcuts.
Windows still appear to float above this desktop, and all of your familiar applications and documents will still work, especially now that Service Pack 1 is available.
What you see in Windows Vista depends largely on which version of Vista you’re using, the hardware in your system, and your own personal preferences. More confusing, perhaps, is that you likely won’t see options for all four of the user experiences Microsoft offers in Vista. However, the method you use for changing between these experiences is the same for all Vista product editions except for Starter Edition: You need to access the classic Appearance Settings dialog box, which will look familiar if you’re used to previous Windows versions. To access this dialog box, right-click the Desktop and choose Personalize. Then, click the Window Color and Appearance link in the Personalization appearance and sound effects control panel window that appears. Finally, click the link titled “Open classic appearance properties for more color options.” (Whew!)
This old-school dialog box enables you to switch between what Microsoft still calls, disconcertingly, color schemes. Windows Aero is the high-end user experience, and the one you’ll likely want (it’s not available in Vista Home Basic or Starter). Windows Vista Basic is the simplest version of the new user interface, and it is available to all Vista editions, including Starter. Windows Vista Standard (not to be confused with the Windows Standard color scheme) is available only in Windows Vista Home Basic, so many readers won’t see this option.
Windows Classic is available to all Vista editions, and all of the color schemes except for Windows Aero, Windows Vista Standard, and Windows Vista Basic actually utilize the Classic user experience.
Source of information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
Microsoft has been at the forefront of the evolution of state-of-the-art computer GUIs for the masses over the years. Windows 95 introduced the notion of right-clicking on objects in the operating system to discover context-sensitive options; Windows 98 introduced a shell, Explorer, that was based on the same code found in the Internet Explorer Web browser; and Windows XP began a trend toward task-oriented user interfaces, with folder views that change depending on the content you are viewing or have selected.
In Windows Vista, the Windows user interface, or as Microsoft likes to call it, the Windows user experience, has evolved yet again. Assuming you are running a mainstream Vista product edition (Windows Vista Home Basic and Starter editions need not apply) and have the right kind of display hardware, you are presented with a translucent, glass-like interface that takes the Windows user interface metaphor to its logical conclusion. That’s right: In Windows Vista, windows actually appear to be made of glass, just like real windows. (Unfortunately, you can also break Windows as easily as the real thing, a fact driven home by the wide range of electronic attacks we’ve all experienced over the years.)
At a higher level, however, it may be comforting to understand that much in Windows
Vista has not changed since XP. That is, you still press a Start button (though it’s now officially called the Start Orb, I’ll continue to call it the Start button) to launch the Start
Menu, from where you can perform tasks such as launch applications; access the Control Panel, networking features, and other related functionality; and turn off the system. A taskbar still runs along the bottom of the Windows Vista desktop, containing buttons for each open window and application, and a tray notification area still sits in the lower-right corner of the screen, full of notification icons and the system clock. The desktop still contains icons and shortcuts.
Windows still appear to float above this desktop, and all of your familiar applications and documents will still work, especially now that Service Pack 1 is available.
What you see in Windows Vista depends largely on which version of Vista you’re using, the hardware in your system, and your own personal preferences. More confusing, perhaps, is that you likely won’t see options for all four of the user experiences Microsoft offers in Vista. However, the method you use for changing between these experiences is the same for all Vista product editions except for Starter Edition: You need to access the classic Appearance Settings dialog box, which will look familiar if you’re used to previous Windows versions. To access this dialog box, right-click the Desktop and choose Personalize. Then, click the Window Color and Appearance link in the Personalization appearance and sound effects control panel window that appears. Finally, click the link titled “Open classic appearance properties for more color options.” (Whew!)
This old-school dialog box enables you to switch between what Microsoft still calls, disconcertingly, color schemes. Windows Aero is the high-end user experience, and the one you’ll likely want (it’s not available in Vista Home Basic or Starter). Windows Vista Basic is the simplest version of the new user interface, and it is available to all Vista editions, including Starter. Windows Vista Standard (not to be confused with the Windows Standard color scheme) is available only in Windows Vista Home Basic, so many readers won’t see this option.
Windows Classic is available to all Vista editions, and all of the color schemes except for Windows Aero, Windows Vista Standard, and Windows Vista Basic actually utilize the Classic user experience.
Source of information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
Dealing with Software Incompatibility in Vista
Regardless of Windows Vista’s compatibility successes, compatibility issues can still bite you when you least expect it. Fear not: There are ways to get around most software incompatibility issues. You just have to know where to look.
Compatibility Mode
If you do run into an application that won’t work properly in Windows Vista, first try to run it within a special emulation mode called compatibility mode. This enables you to trick the application into thinking it is running on an older version of Windows. There are two ways to trigger this functionality: automatically via a wizard, or manually via the Explorer shell. There’s also a third related function, the Program Compatibility Assistant, which appears automatically when Windows Vista detects you’re having a problem installing or using an application.
Using the Program Compatibility Wizard
You’d think that using a wizard would be easier than manually configuring compatibility mode manually; and it would be if you could just find the wizard. Unfortunately, the
Program Compatibility Wizard isn’t available from the Windows Vista user interface.
Instead, you have to trigger it from within Help and Support. Here’s how: Open the Start Menu and choose Help and Support. In that application’s Search box, type Program Compatibility Wizard and press Enter. The first search result you’ll see will be Start the Program Compatibility Wizard. This entry provides a link to start the wizard.
The admittedly bare-bones-looking Program Compatibility Wizard steps you through the process of identifying the application to run in compatibility mode and which settings you’d like to configure. These steps include the following:
• Locating the application: You can have the wizard automatically generate a list of potential applications, which includes applications already installed on the system as well as downloaded and optical-disk-based installer applications. Alternately, you can choose the installer in the optical (CD-ROM) drive or locate the application manually.
• Select a compatibility mode: Select which version of Windows you’d like to emulate for that one application. Possibilities include Windows 95, Windows 98/Me, Windows NT 4.0 (Service Pack 5), Windows 2000, Windows XP (Service Pack 2), and Windows Server 2003 (Service Pack 1). You can also choose not to use a compatibility mode.
• Choose display settings: You can choose from a variety of settings that might positively affect the application. These include using only 256 colors, using a 640 × 480 resolution, disabling Vista’s visual themes, disabling desktop composition (which is responsible for the Windows Aero user interface), and disabling display scaling on high-DPI displays. These options can all be disabled independently.
• Administrative privileges: If the program must be run with administrative privileges, you can enable that functionality here.
Once you’ve configured things as you like, you can test-run the application to see how
things work out. You can then either accept the configuration, go back and make changes,
or just quit the wizard.
Enabling Compatibility Mode Manually
You don’t actually have to hunt around for the Program Compatibility Wizard if you want to run an application in compatibility mode. Instead, find the executable (or, better yet, a shortcut to the executable, such as the ones you’ll find in the Start Menu), right-click, and choose Properties. Then, navigate to the Compatibility tab. As you can see, this tab provides all of the options found in the wizard, but in a handier, more easily contained location. Just pick the options you’d like, click Apply, and test the application. Once it’s working correctly, you can click OK and never bother with this interface again. Compatibility mode is a great (if hidden) feature, but it’s no panacea. Some applications will simply never run on Windows Vista, no matter what you do.
Understanding the Program Compatibility Assistant
When Windows Vista detects that you’re installing an application with a known compatibility problem or suspects that a just-completed application installation has not concluded successfully, it will offer to fix the problem. This functionality, called the Program Compatibility Assistant, occurs automatically. You’re free to decline the offer if you believe the application ran correctly. There is no way to trigger it manually, as you can with program-compatibility mode.
Source of information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
Compatibility Mode
If you do run into an application that won’t work properly in Windows Vista, first try to run it within a special emulation mode called compatibility mode. This enables you to trick the application into thinking it is running on an older version of Windows. There are two ways to trigger this functionality: automatically via a wizard, or manually via the Explorer shell. There’s also a third related function, the Program Compatibility Assistant, which appears automatically when Windows Vista detects you’re having a problem installing or using an application.
Using the Program Compatibility Wizard
You’d think that using a wizard would be easier than manually configuring compatibility mode manually; and it would be if you could just find the wizard. Unfortunately, the
Program Compatibility Wizard isn’t available from the Windows Vista user interface.
Instead, you have to trigger it from within Help and Support. Here’s how: Open the Start Menu and choose Help and Support. In that application’s Search box, type Program Compatibility Wizard and press Enter. The first search result you’ll see will be Start the Program Compatibility Wizard. This entry provides a link to start the wizard.
The admittedly bare-bones-looking Program Compatibility Wizard steps you through the process of identifying the application to run in compatibility mode and which settings you’d like to configure. These steps include the following:
• Locating the application: You can have the wizard automatically generate a list of potential applications, which includes applications already installed on the system as well as downloaded and optical-disk-based installer applications. Alternately, you can choose the installer in the optical (CD-ROM) drive or locate the application manually.
• Select a compatibility mode: Select which version of Windows you’d like to emulate for that one application. Possibilities include Windows 95, Windows 98/Me, Windows NT 4.0 (Service Pack 5), Windows 2000, Windows XP (Service Pack 2), and Windows Server 2003 (Service Pack 1). You can also choose not to use a compatibility mode.
• Choose display settings: You can choose from a variety of settings that might positively affect the application. These include using only 256 colors, using a 640 × 480 resolution, disabling Vista’s visual themes, disabling desktop composition (which is responsible for the Windows Aero user interface), and disabling display scaling on high-DPI displays. These options can all be disabled independently.
• Administrative privileges: If the program must be run with administrative privileges, you can enable that functionality here.
Once you’ve configured things as you like, you can test-run the application to see how
things work out. You can then either accept the configuration, go back and make changes,
or just quit the wizard.
Enabling Compatibility Mode Manually
You don’t actually have to hunt around for the Program Compatibility Wizard if you want to run an application in compatibility mode. Instead, find the executable (or, better yet, a shortcut to the executable, such as the ones you’ll find in the Start Menu), right-click, and choose Properties. Then, navigate to the Compatibility tab. As you can see, this tab provides all of the options found in the wizard, but in a handier, more easily contained location. Just pick the options you’d like, click Apply, and test the application. Once it’s working correctly, you can click OK and never bother with this interface again. Compatibility mode is a great (if hidden) feature, but it’s no panacea. Some applications will simply never run on Windows Vista, no matter what you do.
Understanding the Program Compatibility Assistant
When Windows Vista detects that you’re installing an application with a known compatibility problem or suspects that a just-completed application installation has not concluded successfully, it will offer to fix the problem. This functionality, called the Program Compatibility Assistant, occurs automatically. You’re free to decline the offer if you believe the application ran correctly. There is no way to trigger it manually, as you can with program-compatibility mode.
Source of information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Offers Better Compatibility
Thanks to the evolving nature of Microsoft’s online software updating systems, today’s Windows users can take advantage of ever-improving software and hardware compatibility. Instead of being stuck with whatever drivers and software-compatibility support that came in the box, Windows Vista users benefit from ongoing compatibility fixes that appear on Windows Update and are delivered automatically to users who need them. For users who purchase Windows Vista now that Service Pack 1 (SP1) is out, the situation is even better: All the updates that have shipped since Vista first appeared are included in this upgrade.
Antivirus is an obvious area where Windows Vista lagged behind at launch, though one might also make the argument that AV vendors were at fault. After all, they knew Vista was coming for years before it shipped. Regardless, within six months of Vista’s release, all five major AV vendors had Windows Vista–compatible products on the market, compared to just three of five when Vista became generally available.
When trying to determine the success of Windows Vista’s compatibility, consider the numbers. At the time of Vista’s general availability in January 2007, over 1.5 million devices were Vista compatible. Less than a year later, it was over 2 million. Microsoft says that this figure represented about 96 percent of the devices on the market at the time. The company also notes that it was more ready with ecosystem coverage—that is, application and device support—with Vista than it was with any previous OS release, Today, Vista’s compatibility with current hardware is closing in on an impressive 100 percent.
Thanks to instrumentation that Microsoft added to Windows Vista, customers can optionally provide the company with feedback when things go wrong, as part of the Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program. This feedback has enabled the company to make fixes available at an unprecedented rate. More important, Microsoft is identifying the issues that are causing the most problems and fixing those first. Of the remaining 4 percent of incompatible devices, or about 70,000 devices, that existed at the start of 2008, 4,000 account for about 80 percent of the problems. Guess which ones Microsoft focused on first?
Microsoft tells me it will fix or create drivers for any device that generates 500 or more user reports, which further demonstrates the need to participate in the Customer Experience program. The only exception, of course, is drivers for devices that are no longer sold because the company that made them went out of business. Such devices will likely never be made compatible with Vista. As of the release of Service Pack 1, over 15,000 hardware devices have received the Certified for Windows Vista logo, a program aimed at helping consumers find Vista-compatible products. (This, by the way, explains the absence of a Hardware Compatibility List [HCL] these days.) Those looking for a seamless installation experience will be pleased to learn that the number of device drivers on Windows Update was up from about 13,000 at launch to over 54,000 with SP1, in addition to the 20,000 that ship on the Vista setup DVD.
How about software? Whereas the initially shipped version of Windows Vista supported about 250 logoed applications—that is, applications that were certified to be 100 percent compatible with Vista—as of the release of SP1, that number exceeded 2,500, over 10 times the original number. With SP1, 98 of the 100 top-selling applications at the time were compatible with Vista, while 46 of the top 50 online downloads were also Vista compatible.
Finally, Windows Vista SP1 also includes fixes for numerous incompatible enterprise applications that were deployment blockers during Vista’s first year on the market. More specifically, Microsoft and its partners remediated over 150 enterprise application blockers, applications that previously prevented one or more corporations from upgrading to Vista.
Source of information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
Antivirus is an obvious area where Windows Vista lagged behind at launch, though one might also make the argument that AV vendors were at fault. After all, they knew Vista was coming for years before it shipped. Regardless, within six months of Vista’s release, all five major AV vendors had Windows Vista–compatible products on the market, compared to just three of five when Vista became generally available.
When trying to determine the success of Windows Vista’s compatibility, consider the numbers. At the time of Vista’s general availability in January 2007, over 1.5 million devices were Vista compatible. Less than a year later, it was over 2 million. Microsoft says that this figure represented about 96 percent of the devices on the market at the time. The company also notes that it was more ready with ecosystem coverage—that is, application and device support—with Vista than it was with any previous OS release, Today, Vista’s compatibility with current hardware is closing in on an impressive 100 percent.
Thanks to instrumentation that Microsoft added to Windows Vista, customers can optionally provide the company with feedback when things go wrong, as part of the Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program. This feedback has enabled the company to make fixes available at an unprecedented rate. More important, Microsoft is identifying the issues that are causing the most problems and fixing those first. Of the remaining 4 percent of incompatible devices, or about 70,000 devices, that existed at the start of 2008, 4,000 account for about 80 percent of the problems. Guess which ones Microsoft focused on first?
Microsoft tells me it will fix or create drivers for any device that generates 500 or more user reports, which further demonstrates the need to participate in the Customer Experience program. The only exception, of course, is drivers for devices that are no longer sold because the company that made them went out of business. Such devices will likely never be made compatible with Vista. As of the release of Service Pack 1, over 15,000 hardware devices have received the Certified for Windows Vista logo, a program aimed at helping consumers find Vista-compatible products. (This, by the way, explains the absence of a Hardware Compatibility List [HCL] these days.) Those looking for a seamless installation experience will be pleased to learn that the number of device drivers on Windows Update was up from about 13,000 at launch to over 54,000 with SP1, in addition to the 20,000 that ship on the Vista setup DVD.
How about software? Whereas the initially shipped version of Windows Vista supported about 250 logoed applications—that is, applications that were certified to be 100 percent compatible with Vista—as of the release of SP1, that number exceeded 2,500, over 10 times the original number. With SP1, 98 of the 100 top-selling applications at the time were compatible with Vista, while 46 of the top 50 online downloads were also Vista compatible.
Finally, Windows Vista SP1 also includes fixes for numerous incompatible enterprise applications that were deployment blockers during Vista’s first year on the market. More specifically, Microsoft and its partners remediated over 150 enterprise application blockers, applications that previously prevented one or more corporations from upgrading to Vista.
Source of information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
Understanding Windows Vista Compatibility Issues
Any discussion of PC compatibility, of course, encompasses two very different but related topics: hardware and software. In order for a given hardware device—a printer, graphics card, or whatever—to work correctly with Windows Vista, it needs a working driver. In many cases, drivers designed for older versions of Windows will actually work just fine in Windows Vista. However, depending on the class (or type) of device, many hardware devices need a new Vista-specific driver to function properly on Microsoft’s latest operating system.
Software offers similar challenges. While Windows Vista is largely compatible with the 32-bit software applications that Windows users have enjoyed for over a decade, some applications—and indeed, entire application classes, such as security software—simply won’t work properly in Windows Vista. Some applications can be made to work using Windows Vista’s built-in compatibility modes, as discussed below. Some can’t. A final compatibility issue that shouldn’t be overlooked is one raised by the ongoing migration to 64-bit (x64) computing. Virtually every single PC sold today does, in fact, include a 64-bit x64-compatible microprocessor, which means it is capable of running 64-bit versions of Windows Vista. However, virtually all copies of Windows Vista that are sold are the more mainstream 32-bit versions of the system
Hardware Compatibility
One of the best things about Windows has been that you could go into any electronics retailer, buy any hardware device in the store, bring it home, and know it would work. Conversely, one of the worst things about any new version of Windows is that the previous statement no longer applies. I recall wandering down the aisles of a Best Buy in Phoenix, Arizona, over a decade ago when Windows NT 4.0 first shipped, with a printed copy of the Windows NT Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) in my hand. I needed a network adapter but had to be sure I got one of the few models that worked in the then new NT 4.0 system. (In the end, I bought the side model that was compatible.)
Windows Vista users face a similar problem today, though there are some differences. First, there’s no HCL available anymore, at least not a public one, so you’re a bit more on your own when it comes to discovering what’s going to work. Second, Vista is already far more compatible with existing hardware than NT was back in the mid 1990s. Indeed, Microsoft claims that Windows Vista is actually more compatible with today’s hardware than Windows XP was when it first shipped back in 2001. Based on my testing and evidence provided by Microsoft, I believe this to be the case, though overblown tales of Vista’s compatibility issues burned up the blogosphere during its first year on the market.
I’ve tested Windows Vista over a period of years on a wide variety of systems, including several desktops (most of which use dual-core x64-compatible CPUs), Media Center PCs, notebook computers, Tablet PCs, and even two Ultra-Mobile PCs. Windows Vista’s out-of-the-box (OOTB) compatibility with the built-in devices on each system I’ve tested has been stellar. (In this case, OOTB refers to both the drivers that actually ship on the Windows Vista DVD as well as the drivers that are automatically installed via Automatic Updating the first time you boot into your new Windows Vista desktop.) On almost all of these systems, Windows Vista has found and installed drivers for every single device in or attached to the system. So much for all those storied compatibility shenanigans.
How about those fears that Vista’s high-end Windows Aero user interface requires hardware upgrades? Balderdash. On every single one of my systems, except for a 2002 era, first generation Toshiba Tablet PC that was slow the day it came out of the factory, Windows Aero is enabled by default and works just fine. This even includes systems with integrated graphics, the very types of systems that were supposed to cause all kinds of problems.
Where you might run into hardware issues is with older scanners, printers, and similar peripherals. My network-attached Dell laser printer wasn’t supported by Windows Vista– specific drivers until Service Pack 1 shipped. (It’s really a Lexmark printer in disguise, so I was able to get it up and running just fine using Lexmark drivers previous to SP1.) Ditto with an older HP Scanjet scanner: It wasn’t supported with Vista-specific drivers immediately in late 2006, but HP has since shown up with updated drivers that work just fine. An Epson photo printer has always worked just fine, and even uses Epson’s bizarre configuration utility—though I’ve never had to install the software manually myself.
TV-tuner hardware? It just works. Zune? Done. Apple’s iPods? They all work (even on x64 systems). Windows Media–compatible devices? Of course; they all connect seamlessly and even work with Vista’s Sync Center interface.
Software Compatibility
I regularly use and otherwise test what I feel is a representative collection of mostly modern software. This includes standard software applications—productivity solutions and the like—as well as games. I run a standard set of applications across most of my desktop and mobile PCs. I’ve also tested numerous video games to see how they fare under the initially shipped version of Windows Vista, as well as Vista with Service Pack 1. The results were largely positive: Not only do most Windows XP-compatible applications and games work just fine under Windows Vista, many pre-Vista games also integrate automatically into Vista’s new Games Explorer as well. Unless it’s a very new game designed specifically for Windows Vista, you won’t get performance information as you do with built-in games, but the game’s Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) rating is enough to enable parents to lock kids out of objectionable video games using Vista’s parental control features. It’s a nice touch.
Software-compatibility issues in Vista are likely to appear with very old applications that use 16-bit installers and with classes of applications—especially antivirus, antispyware, and other security solutions—that need to be rewritten to work within Vista’s new security controls. By mid 2007, compatibility issues with security software had all been resolved.
x64: Is It Time?
The one dark horse in the Windows Vista compatibility story is x64, the 64-bit hardware platform that we’re all using today (though few people realize it). The x64 platform is a miracle of sorts, at least from a technology standpoint, because it provides the best of both worlds: compatibility with virtually all of the 32-bit software that’s been created over the past 15 years combined with the increased capacity and resources that only true 64-bit platforms can provide.
When Windows Vista first debuted, x64 compatibility was a mixed bag. Hardware compatibility, surprisingly, was excellent, and virtually any hardware device that worked on 32-bit versions of Vista also worked fine on 64-bit versions. Software was another story. Too often, a critical software application simply wouldn’t install or work properly on 64-bit versions of Windows, making these versions a nonstarter for most.
Time, however, truly heals all wounds. A huge number of compatibility issues were fixed over Windows Vista’s first year on the market, and x64 versions of Windows Vista are now largely compatible, both from a hardware and software perspective, with anything that works with 32-bit versions of the system.
So, is it time? You’re getting there. And if you’re adventurous enough and technical enough, I think Vista x64 may be the right solution if you’re hamstrung by the 4GB memory limit of 32-bit versions of Vista. That said, even Microsoft has been surprised by the slow uptick of 64-bit versions of Windows Vista, so much so that the company reversed course and announced that the next version of Windows, dubbed Windows 7, would ship in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Originally, Windows 7 was going to be 64-bit only. Maybe it’s not time after all.
Source of information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
Software offers similar challenges. While Windows Vista is largely compatible with the 32-bit software applications that Windows users have enjoyed for over a decade, some applications—and indeed, entire application classes, such as security software—simply won’t work properly in Windows Vista. Some applications can be made to work using Windows Vista’s built-in compatibility modes, as discussed below. Some can’t. A final compatibility issue that shouldn’t be overlooked is one raised by the ongoing migration to 64-bit (x64) computing. Virtually every single PC sold today does, in fact, include a 64-bit x64-compatible microprocessor, which means it is capable of running 64-bit versions of Windows Vista. However, virtually all copies of Windows Vista that are sold are the more mainstream 32-bit versions of the system
Hardware Compatibility
One of the best things about Windows has been that you could go into any electronics retailer, buy any hardware device in the store, bring it home, and know it would work. Conversely, one of the worst things about any new version of Windows is that the previous statement no longer applies. I recall wandering down the aisles of a Best Buy in Phoenix, Arizona, over a decade ago when Windows NT 4.0 first shipped, with a printed copy of the Windows NT Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) in my hand. I needed a network adapter but had to be sure I got one of the few models that worked in the then new NT 4.0 system. (In the end, I bought the side model that was compatible.)
Windows Vista users face a similar problem today, though there are some differences. First, there’s no HCL available anymore, at least not a public one, so you’re a bit more on your own when it comes to discovering what’s going to work. Second, Vista is already far more compatible with existing hardware than NT was back in the mid 1990s. Indeed, Microsoft claims that Windows Vista is actually more compatible with today’s hardware than Windows XP was when it first shipped back in 2001. Based on my testing and evidence provided by Microsoft, I believe this to be the case, though overblown tales of Vista’s compatibility issues burned up the blogosphere during its first year on the market.
I’ve tested Windows Vista over a period of years on a wide variety of systems, including several desktops (most of which use dual-core x64-compatible CPUs), Media Center PCs, notebook computers, Tablet PCs, and even two Ultra-Mobile PCs. Windows Vista’s out-of-the-box (OOTB) compatibility with the built-in devices on each system I’ve tested has been stellar. (In this case, OOTB refers to both the drivers that actually ship on the Windows Vista DVD as well as the drivers that are automatically installed via Automatic Updating the first time you boot into your new Windows Vista desktop.) On almost all of these systems, Windows Vista has found and installed drivers for every single device in or attached to the system. So much for all those storied compatibility shenanigans.
How about those fears that Vista’s high-end Windows Aero user interface requires hardware upgrades? Balderdash. On every single one of my systems, except for a 2002 era, first generation Toshiba Tablet PC that was slow the day it came out of the factory, Windows Aero is enabled by default and works just fine. This even includes systems with integrated graphics, the very types of systems that were supposed to cause all kinds of problems.
Where you might run into hardware issues is with older scanners, printers, and similar peripherals. My network-attached Dell laser printer wasn’t supported by Windows Vista– specific drivers until Service Pack 1 shipped. (It’s really a Lexmark printer in disguise, so I was able to get it up and running just fine using Lexmark drivers previous to SP1.) Ditto with an older HP Scanjet scanner: It wasn’t supported with Vista-specific drivers immediately in late 2006, but HP has since shown up with updated drivers that work just fine. An Epson photo printer has always worked just fine, and even uses Epson’s bizarre configuration utility—though I’ve never had to install the software manually myself.
TV-tuner hardware? It just works. Zune? Done. Apple’s iPods? They all work (even on x64 systems). Windows Media–compatible devices? Of course; they all connect seamlessly and even work with Vista’s Sync Center interface.
Software Compatibility
I regularly use and otherwise test what I feel is a representative collection of mostly modern software. This includes standard software applications—productivity solutions and the like—as well as games. I run a standard set of applications across most of my desktop and mobile PCs. I’ve also tested numerous video games to see how they fare under the initially shipped version of Windows Vista, as well as Vista with Service Pack 1. The results were largely positive: Not only do most Windows XP-compatible applications and games work just fine under Windows Vista, many pre-Vista games also integrate automatically into Vista’s new Games Explorer as well. Unless it’s a very new game designed specifically for Windows Vista, you won’t get performance information as you do with built-in games, but the game’s Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) rating is enough to enable parents to lock kids out of objectionable video games using Vista’s parental control features. It’s a nice touch.
Software-compatibility issues in Vista are likely to appear with very old applications that use 16-bit installers and with classes of applications—especially antivirus, antispyware, and other security solutions—that need to be rewritten to work within Vista’s new security controls. By mid 2007, compatibility issues with security software had all been resolved.
x64: Is It Time?
The one dark horse in the Windows Vista compatibility story is x64, the 64-bit hardware platform that we’re all using today (though few people realize it). The x64 platform is a miracle of sorts, at least from a technology standpoint, because it provides the best of both worlds: compatibility with virtually all of the 32-bit software that’s been created over the past 15 years combined with the increased capacity and resources that only true 64-bit platforms can provide.
When Windows Vista first debuted, x64 compatibility was a mixed bag. Hardware compatibility, surprisingly, was excellent, and virtually any hardware device that worked on 32-bit versions of Vista also worked fine on 64-bit versions. Software was another story. Too often, a critical software application simply wouldn’t install or work properly on 64-bit versions of Windows, making these versions a nonstarter for most.
Time, however, truly heals all wounds. A huge number of compatibility issues were fixed over Windows Vista’s first year on the market, and x64 versions of Windows Vista are now largely compatible, both from a hardware and software perspective, with anything that works with 32-bit versions of the system.
So, is it time? You’re getting there. And if you’re adventurous enough and technical enough, I think Vista x64 may be the right solution if you’re hamstrung by the 4GB memory limit of 32-bit versions of Vista. That said, even Microsoft has been surprised by the slow uptick of 64-bit versions of Windows Vista, so much so that the company reversed course and announced that the next version of Windows, dubbed Windows 7, would ship in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Originally, Windows 7 was going to be 64-bit only. Maybe it’s not time after all.
Source of information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
Understanding Windows Vista Compatibility Issues
Any discussion of PC compatibility, of course, encompasses two very different but related topics: hardware and software. In order for a given hardware device—a printer, graphics card, or whatever—to work correctly with Windows Vista, it needs a working driver. In many cases, drivers designed for older versions of Windows will actually work just fine in Windows Vista. However, depending on the class (or type) of device, many hardware devices need a new Vista-specific driver to function properly on Microsoft’s latest operating system.
Software offers similar challenges. While Windows Vista is largely compatible with the 32-bit software applications that Windows users have enjoyed for over a decade, some applications—and indeed, entire application classes, such as security software—simply won’t work properly in Windows Vista. Some applications can be made to work using Windows Vista’s built-in compatibility modes, as discussed below. Some can’t. A final compatibility issue that shouldn’t be overlooked is one raised by the ongoing migration to 64-bit (x64) computing. Virtually every single PC sold today does, in fact, include a 64-bit x64-compatible microprocessor, which means it is capable of running 64-bit versions of Windows Vista. However, virtually all copies of Windows Vista that are sold are the more mainstream 32-bit versions of the system
Hardware Compatibility
One of the best things about Windows has been that you could go into any electronics retailer, buy any hardware device in the store, bring it home, and know it would work. Conversely, one of the worst things about any new version of Windows is that the previous statement no longer applies. I recall wandering down the aisles of a Best Buy in Phoenix, Arizona, over a decade ago when Windows NT 4.0 first shipped, with a printed copy of the Windows NT Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) in my hand. I needed a network adapter but had to be sure I got one of the few models that worked in the then new NT 4.0 system. (In the end, I bought the side model that was compatible.)
Windows Vista users face a similar problem today, though there are some differences. First, there’s no HCL available anymore, at least not a public one, so you’re a bit more on your own when it comes to discovering what’s going to work. Second, Vista is already far more compatible with existing hardware than NT was back in the mid 1990s. Indeed, Microsoft claims that Windows Vista is actually more compatible with today’s hardware than Windows XP was when it first shipped back in 2001. Based on my testing and evidence provided by Microsoft, I believe this to be the case, though overblown tales of Vista’s compatibility issues burned up the blogosphere during its first year on the market.
I’ve tested Windows Vista over a period of years on a wide variety of systems, including several desktops (most of which use dual-core x64-compatible CPUs), Media Center PCs, notebook computers, Tablet PCs, and even two Ultra-Mobile PCs. Windows Vista’s out-of-the-box (OOTB) compatibility with the built-in devices on each system I’ve tested has been stellar. (In this case, OOTB refers to both the drivers that actually ship on the Windows Vista DVD as well as the drivers that are automatically installed via Automatic Updating the first time you boot into your new Windows Vista desktop.) On almost all of these systems, Windows Vista has found and installed drivers for every single device in or attached to the system. So much for all those storied compatibility shenanigans.
How about those fears that Vista’s high-end Windows Aero user interface requires hardware upgrades? Balderdash. On every single one of my systems, except for a 2002 era, first generation Toshiba Tablet PC that was slow the day it came out of the factory, Windows Aero is enabled by default and works just fine. This even includes systems with integrated graphics, the very types of systems that were supposed to cause all kinds of problems.
Where you might run into hardware issues is with older scanners, printers, and similar peripherals. My network-attached Dell laser printer wasn’t supported by Windows Vista– specific drivers until Service Pack 1 shipped. (It’s really a Lexmark printer in disguise, so I was able to get it up and running just fine using Lexmark drivers previous to SP1.) Ditto with an older HP Scanjet scanner: It wasn’t supported with Vista-specific drivers immediately in late 2006, but HP has since shown up with updated drivers that work just fine. An Epson photo printer has always worked just fine, and even uses Epson’s bizarre configuration utility—though I’ve never had to install the software manually myself.
TV-tuner hardware? It just works. Zune? Done. Apple’s iPods? They all work (even on x64 systems). Windows Media–compatible devices? Of course; they all connect seamlessly and even work with Vista’s Sync Center interface.
Software Compatibility
I regularly use and otherwise test what I feel is a representative collection of mostly modern software. This includes standard software applications—productivity solutions and the like—as well as games. I run a standard set of applications across most of my desktop and mobile PCs. I’ve also tested numerous video games to see how they fare under the initially shipped version of Windows Vista, as well as Vista with Service Pack 1. The results were largely positive: Not only do most Windows XP-compatible applications and games work just fine under Windows Vista, many pre-Vista games also integrate automatically into Vista’s new Games Explorer as well. Unless it’s a very new game designed specifically for Windows Vista, you won’t get performance information as you do with built-in games, but the game’s Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) rating is enough to enable parents to lock kids out of objectionable video games using Vista’s parental control features. It’s a nice touch.
Software-compatibility issues in Vista are likely to appear with very old applications that use 16-bit installers and with classes of applications—especially antivirus, antispyware, and other security solutions—that need to be rewritten to work within Vista’s new security controls. By mid 2007, compatibility issues with security software had all been resolved.
x64: Is It Time?
The one dark horse in the Windows Vista compatibility story is x64, the 64-bit hardware platform that we’re all using today (though few people realize it). The x64 platform is a miracle of sorts, at least from a technology standpoint, because it provides the best of both worlds: compatibility with virtually all of the 32-bit software that’s been created over the past 15 years combined with the increased capacity and resources that only true 64-bit platforms can provide.
When Windows Vista first debuted, x64 compatibility was a mixed bag. Hardware compatibility, surprisingly, was excellent, and virtually any hardware device that worked on 32-bit versions of Vista also worked fine on 64-bit versions. Software was another story. Too often, a critical software application simply wouldn’t install or work properly on 64-bit versions of Windows, making these versions a nonstarter for most.
Time, however, truly heals all wounds. A huge number of compatibility issues were fixed over Windows Vista’s first year on the market, and x64 versions of Windows Vista are now largely compatible, both from a hardware and software perspective, with anything that works with 32-bit versions of the system.
So, is it time? You’re getting there. And if you’re adventurous enough and technical enough, I think Vista x64 may be the right solution if you’re hamstrung by the 4GB memory limit of 32-bit versions of Vista. That said, even Microsoft has been surprised by the slow uptick of 64-bit versions of Windows Vista, so much so that the company reversed course and announced that the next version of Windows, dubbed Windows 7, would ship in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Originally, Windows 7 was going to be 64-bit only. Maybe it’s not time after all.
Software offers similar challenges. While Windows Vista is largely compatible with the 32-bit software applications that Windows users have enjoyed for over a decade, some applications—and indeed, entire application classes, such as security software—simply won’t work properly in Windows Vista. Some applications can be made to work using Windows Vista’s built-in compatibility modes, as discussed below. Some can’t. A final compatibility issue that shouldn’t be overlooked is one raised by the ongoing migration to 64-bit (x64) computing. Virtually every single PC sold today does, in fact, include a 64-bit x64-compatible microprocessor, which means it is capable of running 64-bit versions of Windows Vista. However, virtually all copies of Windows Vista that are sold are the more mainstream 32-bit versions of the system
Hardware Compatibility
One of the best things about Windows has been that you could go into any electronics retailer, buy any hardware device in the store, bring it home, and know it would work. Conversely, one of the worst things about any new version of Windows is that the previous statement no longer applies. I recall wandering down the aisles of a Best Buy in Phoenix, Arizona, over a decade ago when Windows NT 4.0 first shipped, with a printed copy of the Windows NT Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) in my hand. I needed a network adapter but had to be sure I got one of the few models that worked in the then new NT 4.0 system. (In the end, I bought the side model that was compatible.)
Windows Vista users face a similar problem today, though there are some differences. First, there’s no HCL available anymore, at least not a public one, so you’re a bit more on your own when it comes to discovering what’s going to work. Second, Vista is already far more compatible with existing hardware than NT was back in the mid 1990s. Indeed, Microsoft claims that Windows Vista is actually more compatible with today’s hardware than Windows XP was when it first shipped back in 2001. Based on my testing and evidence provided by Microsoft, I believe this to be the case, though overblown tales of Vista’s compatibility issues burned up the blogosphere during its first year on the market.
I’ve tested Windows Vista over a period of years on a wide variety of systems, including several desktops (most of which use dual-core x64-compatible CPUs), Media Center PCs, notebook computers, Tablet PCs, and even two Ultra-Mobile PCs. Windows Vista’s out-of-the-box (OOTB) compatibility with the built-in devices on each system I’ve tested has been stellar. (In this case, OOTB refers to both the drivers that actually ship on the Windows Vista DVD as well as the drivers that are automatically installed via Automatic Updating the first time you boot into your new Windows Vista desktop.) On almost all of these systems, Windows Vista has found and installed drivers for every single device in or attached to the system. So much for all those storied compatibility shenanigans.
How about those fears that Vista’s high-end Windows Aero user interface requires hardware upgrades? Balderdash. On every single one of my systems, except for a 2002 era, first generation Toshiba Tablet PC that was slow the day it came out of the factory, Windows Aero is enabled by default and works just fine. This even includes systems with integrated graphics, the very types of systems that were supposed to cause all kinds of problems.
Where you might run into hardware issues is with older scanners, printers, and similar peripherals. My network-attached Dell laser printer wasn’t supported by Windows Vista– specific drivers until Service Pack 1 shipped. (It’s really a Lexmark printer in disguise, so I was able to get it up and running just fine using Lexmark drivers previous to SP1.) Ditto with an older HP Scanjet scanner: It wasn’t supported with Vista-specific drivers immediately in late 2006, but HP has since shown up with updated drivers that work just fine. An Epson photo printer has always worked just fine, and even uses Epson’s bizarre configuration utility—though I’ve never had to install the software manually myself.
TV-tuner hardware? It just works. Zune? Done. Apple’s iPods? They all work (even on x64 systems). Windows Media–compatible devices? Of course; they all connect seamlessly and even work with Vista’s Sync Center interface.
Software Compatibility
I regularly use and otherwise test what I feel is a representative collection of mostly modern software. This includes standard software applications—productivity solutions and the like—as well as games. I run a standard set of applications across most of my desktop and mobile PCs. I’ve also tested numerous video games to see how they fare under the initially shipped version of Windows Vista, as well as Vista with Service Pack 1. The results were largely positive: Not only do most Windows XP-compatible applications and games work just fine under Windows Vista, many pre-Vista games also integrate automatically into Vista’s new Games Explorer as well. Unless it’s a very new game designed specifically for Windows Vista, you won’t get performance information as you do with built-in games, but the game’s Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) rating is enough to enable parents to lock kids out of objectionable video games using Vista’s parental control features. It’s a nice touch.
Software-compatibility issues in Vista are likely to appear with very old applications that use 16-bit installers and with classes of applications—especially antivirus, antispyware, and other security solutions—that need to be rewritten to work within Vista’s new security controls. By mid 2007, compatibility issues with security software had all been resolved.
x64: Is It Time?
The one dark horse in the Windows Vista compatibility story is x64, the 64-bit hardware platform that we’re all using today (though few people realize it). The x64 platform is a miracle of sorts, at least from a technology standpoint, because it provides the best of both worlds: compatibility with virtually all of the 32-bit software that’s been created over the past 15 years combined with the increased capacity and resources that only true 64-bit platforms can provide.
When Windows Vista first debuted, x64 compatibility was a mixed bag. Hardware compatibility, surprisingly, was excellent, and virtually any hardware device that worked on 32-bit versions of Vista also worked fine on 64-bit versions. Software was another story. Too often, a critical software application simply wouldn’t install or work properly on 64-bit versions of Windows, making these versions a nonstarter for most.
Time, however, truly heals all wounds. A huge number of compatibility issues were fixed over Windows Vista’s first year on the market, and x64 versions of Windows Vista are now largely compatible, both from a hardware and software perspective, with anything that works with 32-bit versions of the system.
So, is it time? You’re getting there. And if you’re adventurous enough and technical enough, I think Vista x64 may be the right solution if you’re hamstrung by the 4GB memory limit of 32-bit versions of Vista. That said, even Microsoft has been surprised by the slow uptick of 64-bit versions of Windows Vista, so much so that the company reversed course and announced that the next version of Windows, dubbed Windows 7, would ship in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Originally, Windows 7 was going to be 64-bit only. Maybe it’s not time after all.
Hidden Perils of the Vista Upgrade
With all the new features and functionality provided by Windows Vista, you might be tempted to buy a retail version of the operating system and install it over your existing copy of Windows XP.
I don’t recommend doing that, for the following reasons:
• Your old PC may not be up to the challenge of running Vista. You may need substantial investments in additional RAM, a more capable video card, a larger hard drive, or all of the above to get adequate performance from Windows Vista.
• Some of your hardware, such as printers and networking adapters, may not work at all after you install Windows Vista—unless you update the drivers they need to versions that are Vista-compatible.
• Even if you find that one or more of your drivers need to be updated, the vendor of your hardware may not make a Vista-compatible version available for months, years, or ever. (It’s happened before with previous versions of Windows.)
• Some of the software that’s installed and running just fine in Windows XP may not work properly once you’ve performed the upgrade.
• Finally, some software or hardware may never work in Vista. Companies do go out of business, after all.
Source of information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
I don’t recommend doing that, for the following reasons:
• Your old PC may not be up to the challenge of running Vista. You may need substantial investments in additional RAM, a more capable video card, a larger hard drive, or all of the above to get adequate performance from Windows Vista.
• Some of your hardware, such as printers and networking adapters, may not work at all after you install Windows Vista—unless you update the drivers they need to versions that are Vista-compatible.
• Even if you find that one or more of your drivers need to be updated, the vendor of your hardware may not make a Vista-compatible version available for months, years, or ever. (It’s happened before with previous versions of Windows.)
• Some of the software that’s installed and running just fine in Windows XP may not work properly once you’ve performed the upgrade.
• Finally, some software or hardware may never work in Vista. Companies do go out of business, after all.
Source of information : Wiley Windows Vista Secrets SP1 Edition
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