Sunday Tips: Windows Vista

A lot of people hate on Windows Vista. “It’s slow,” they say. “It’s buggy,” they say. “There are too many versions,” they say. “It ate my small children,” they say.

Well, I don’t care. I’ve grown to like Vista, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. It’s pretty, it works as well as XP did, and does really cool things when I type Win-Tab. What more can you ask for?

Love it or hate it, though, there are a lot of new Vista users out there, as more people and businesses upgrade (even with Windows 7 imminent, and awesome). Vista offers some cool features and usability tricks for those who know how to use it, and I’m here to impart some of what I’ve learned.

Here are eight tips everyone can make use of in Vista:

Window-Switchery

Switching between running applications (for me, usually between 350 and 11,000) is incredibly easy with Vista. Type the Windows Key (The one with the Windows logo, also known as the Start key) and Tab to get a cool 3D interface for switching. Type Alt-Tab for the standard switcher, where you can tab through open windows to find the one you want.

Win-T scrolls through your taskbar, showing you a thumbnail of a new open window every time you hit T. Your fingers never need leave the keyboard to switch to a new application, no matter how you like to do it.

Breadcrumbs

One of the things I hated about XP was the Explorer interface. If you went looking for a file, and went the wrong place for it, you had to hit the back button 13 times to get back to where you went awry. Now, with Vista’s “breadcrumbs,” you can click your way back. At the top of the Explorer window, you’ll see a list of all the folders you’ve clicked through to get where you are. You can click on any one of them to go back, no matter how many clicks ago that was. Finding files is easier with breadcrumbs, and so is fixing your mistakes.

Preview Files

Another cool new Explorer feature is the Preview Pane, which lets you see the contents of any file you’re about to open. Got a picture, or a word document, or a Powerpoint to open, but can’t remember which one it is? Just click on it once and you’ll see what the file looks like without having to wait for it to open, realize it’s wrong, close it, and open a new one. To enable this feature, open Windows Explorer. Click “Organize,” Then “Layout,” then “Enable Preview Pane.”

Launching Applications

Application launching is a key upgrade in Vista, in a couple of different ways. If you press the Windows key, you’re taken to the Start menu, and put in a text box. Start typing the name of a file or application, and Windows searches for what you’re trying to launch. Once it finds what you’re looking for, Enter launches the application or opens the document. Win-”Word” opens Microsoft Word, Win-”Firefox” opens Firefox, and so on. It’s faster and more efficient- plus, no mouse usage!

The other neat feature, one I just discovered, is the Quick Launch toolbar’s shortcuts. If you add stuff to your Quick Launch toolbar (part of the Windows taskbar), you can then access them, in order, with key shortcuts. Win-1 opens the first item in the list, Win-2 the second, and so on- all the way through Win-0, which opens the tenth item in the list. I’ve got my ten most-used apps in Quick Launch, and they now take one second and no mouse to open.

Mobility Center

Particularly if you use a laptop, you’re often going to be fiddling with things like the display brightness, battery life, wireless connection, and the like. In Vista, typing Win-X opens the “Windows Mobility Center,” which gives you access to all those settings and more, right in one place. Change the volume, screen settings, wireless connection and more right from the small, easy to access window.

Feature Choices

Windows Vista, by default, is ready for a lot of things- wireless printing, Tablet PC inputs, and the like. Instead of having to uninstall a whole bunch of things to get rid of unnecessary features, there’s the “Turn Windows Features On or Off” menu. In there, you can turn off any features you won’t need, to make your computer run faster and more smoothly. To get to this menu, open the Control Panel, then select “Programs and Features.” The Feature menu is on the left of the window.

Be careful with this one, though- don’t turn off features you might need.

Customize The Power Button

This, again, is particularly useful for laptops, but can be helpful for anyone using Vista. Under Control Panel, “Power Options,” you can change what the computer will do when you either shut the lid (only on a laptop, obviously) or press the power button. The computer can be set to do nothing, sleep (conserving power, but easy to get back to work), hibernate (saves running programs, then shuts down), or shut down (turn off). Changing these options makes mobility easier for laptops, and makes starting and ending computing sessions easier and quicker for everyone.

Check Boxes

You can set up Windows to let you select files with check boxes, instead of holding Control or Shift as you select. This means you won’t click the wrong location and lose all your selections- a feeling I’m familiar with. In Windows Explorer, click “Organize.” Then click “Folder and Search Options,” and go to the “View” tab. Make sure “Use check boxes to select items check box” is checked, and you’ll have the checkboxes next to each file or folder.

Size Your Icons

One of the things that always makes me laugh are people who email me saying “can you make the font size bigger? It’s hard to read.” My response is no, but you can. In any Internet window, type Control and + or – to make the font bigger or smaller. In Windows, press Control and scroll the mouse up to make folders larger, and down to make them smaller. You control the size of just about any folder in any window, and resize them to your heart’s content.

Though Vista certainly has its shortcomings, there’s been a lot of focus on the basic usability of the interface, and making it easier for you to work within Windows.

With these tips, you’ll be flying through your work so fast you won’t believe it! Well- maybe not, but it’ll be slightly faster. That’s good too, right?

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