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FEATURE
Vista: Under the skin
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Instant Search
Finding files in Windows XP can be a real chore, particularly if you’re not sure roughly where they are or what the file name is. Vista’s Instant Search facility aims to remedy that, and crops up everywhere from Explorer windows and the Start Menu, to bundled applications such as Calendar and Media Player. The good news is that it’s much, much quicker - if not actually instant. As soon as you start typing, results start appearing, theoretically becoming more accurate the more you enter.
Rather than searching your hard disk each time, Vista trawls through your email and user folders in the background and creates a global index. You can configure how thorough this is, choosing not just which folders are searched, but to what degree, such as compressed files or file contents. You can also use it to build an index of files on removable storage. It’s context sensitive, so the results returned are intelligently governed by the window that you’re in: the Start menu prioritises applications, the Music folder audio files.
It isn’t just filenames that are indexed either: every file can contain a number of metatags (information embedded inside a file such as its author, subject matter or category), which can be searched for in the same way. That same index is also used in Explorer windows, with each column attribute having a drop-down box to narrow down your search even further. Once you’ve set up a search, (say, documents created by you containing the words “council tax”), you can save it, creating a saved search in your Searches user folder.
Start Menu
The new search box in Vista’s Start menu (accessed via the orb at the far left of the taskbar) has other benefits. Hitting the Windows key takes the focus straight there, so you can search, launch an application or start a Control Panel applet much more quickly, and all without touching the mouse.
The rest of the menu has been overhauled too. The All programs link now reuses the same space (rather than cascading out), and it’s a fixed size: once any section of it becomes full, it adopts scroll bars rather than simply expanding to the screen-hogging proportions of Windows XP.
Sidebar & Gadgets
Since the earliest betas of Longhorn (Microsoft’s codename for Vista), the sidebar has had many forms. Originally slated as front-end for system notifications, it’s now simply an area to dock gadgets - small XML applications that perform simple tasks, such as a photo viewer or displaying RSS feeds. You can also drag them onto the desktop, exposing more features - the current weather gadget, for example, expanding to a three-day forecast.
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| Sidebar has numerous gadgets available. |
A number of these gadgets are included in Vista (some more useful than others) with more available online. The sidebar and gadgets come into their own if you’re using a widescreen monitor with a high resolution, but we suspect that many people will simply find them a distraction and either use a key gadget or two, or turn it off completely.
Virtually
Rather than worry about where your files are actually stored, the idea of Virtual Folders is to simply show them as if they were all in the same place - any document files, regardless of where they're saved, would show up in a Documents folder. Despite playing a large part in early Longhorn builds (as well as Microsoft's marketing), beta testers found it confusing in practice, and Microsoft gradually relegated them into the wings. They're still there, though - in the form of Saved Searches, so you can create your own if you wish.
Conclusion
Getting used to a new OS is a tricky process, and Vista is no exception. How well and quickly people adapt to the changes will largely depend on their experience and how they work, but for most people, it should be worth the effort.
There’s a lot to get used to: the occasionally obscure windows furniture, the benefits (and limits) of Instant Search, and the baffling number of options for filtering and labelling files for a start. Vista is also immensely configurable, and just as many immediately switched off the animated search companion and common tasks panes in Windows XP, we’re sure many will similarly customise Vista to suit their needs.
Although it’s nowhere near as radical as was originally planned, there’s no doubt that, from an interface point of view at least, Vista’s overall approach is far more mature, pleasant to use and, once you’re used to it, much faster. And while it’s not perfect, we can’t see anyone wanting to go back to the days of Windows XP.
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