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It you listen to the comments on Microsoft’s Windows Vista made by the Technology Journalists affiliated to CNET or PC World, you would probably shy away from the software. This is because they consistently bombard the public with anti-Microsoft reports. I follow their reports weekly and what I find lacking is ‘objectivity’. My weekly routine involves digesting tech news from Websites such as CNETTV, Revision3, Cranky Geeks, DL.TV, Web Alert, BBC’s ‘Click’, Leo Laporte’s TWIT and a lot more. I believe that Windows Vista has not received fair treatment. Most of these so called ‘experts’ only have a casual relationship with Microsoft’s software programs and their experiences are limited to the Web Browser and some of the Office Applications. I am basing my conclusion on the fact that they have suggested that Open Office, IBM Lotus Symphony and Google Docs are worthy alternatives to Microsoft Office. This is ridiculous. As Journalists they might think so as they are not creating complex spreadsheets or doing complex Word Processing on a daily basis.

They are often puzzled by the fact that there is an abundance of ‘Free’ software available yet users are still buying Microsoft’s software. The answer is simple, those who use Microsoft’s software in a business environment will tell you that they work, and they work consistently to the point where businesses can build their systems around them.

Back to vista. There is a WOW factor but some Windows Vista users will not experience it. As usual, some feel that they can ignore the basic system requirements and get Vista to run the way it should on their PC’s. Let’s look at a few facts;

• Microsoft broke the mould when they created Windows Vista. Unlike Windows XP, it will NOT run on any old PC. Without the required hardware, some features of Vista will be turned off automatically. If you have stubbornly bought and loaded Vista unto on old PC without first checking its compatibility, you will experience problems. Vista will cause you to spend money, you may have to upgrade the memory or you may need a new video card or you may need to upgrade your hard drive. Microsoft has provided a tool (The Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor) that you can use to evaluate the compatibility of your PC to run Vista. Use it before investing in Vista. Additionally, you may run the ‘Windows Experience Index’ in the Control Panel to rate your system. The highest score is 5.9 but you can get the ‘WOW’ with a much lower rating. Whatever your score, the rating system will point you in the right direction as to steps that you can take to improve your rating and thus guarantee you the experience that you deserve.
• There are a lot more drivers and software available that can run on Windows Vista operating system (both 32 Bit and 64 Bit) than you are led to believe. In fact, many of the 32 Bit software will run without a hitch on Windows Vista including the 64 Bit version.
• If you continue to listen to some of these so called ‘experts’ you will bypass Vista while waiting for Microsoft to introduce the next operating system when you could have significantly improved your computing experience by upgrading now.
• There is a learning curve with Windows Vista, but once you get pass the initial hurdles; you will not look back to Windows XP. Over the next few weeks, I will demonstrate that Vista is a better interface than Win XP and it is also a perfect partner for Microsoft Office 2007.
• Microsoft did the right thing by extending the support for Windows XP. Locking down Windows XP would have prevented a number of people from owing a Windows PC as a typical Windows Vista PC is not cheap. In the long run, Windows XP will be seen as low cost alternative to Windows Vista rather than a competing alternative operating system. This is my opinion.
• There are enough compelling reasons to upgrade from Windows XP to Vista. Some users are disappointed that Microsoft did not introduce 400 new features to the new operating system. Some are even disappointed that Microsoft has included features that are readily available in other operating systems. How ridiculous can we get? Some people want features that are never used while others want features that that cannot be replicated by other software manufactures. This is their concept of ‘cool’ features.

OK. Let’s look at some of the reasons why I am using Vista and loving it. Please note that some of the features that we are going to discuss can be found on Windows XP but the interface is different and the process takes much longer.

Firstly, let us look at ‘Instant Search’. This may be the single most important feature introduced in Windows Vista and is a major enhancement to the ‘Start key’. By clicking the ‘Start key’ or pressing the ‘Windows Key’ on the Keyboard, the embedded Instant Search Box appears and you can start typing your search terms. The main feature of ‘Instant Search’ is the scope of the search. Searches covers;

Favourites and History- This feature has been available in a few browsers such as Opera for some time. It was just added to Firefox 3 and users have been oh so excited about it. Firefox users should note that the feature is NOT a desktop search; it is mainly history and favourites. This makes Vista’s Instant Search far more useful. Although searching history and favourites is a feature of Internet Explorer, Vista users have been able to search Favourites and History using Instant search from inception and it is lightning fast(WOW). There is no need to open Internet Explorer or your default browser first as once you click on the search result it will either launch the default browser automatically or open a new tab if the browser is opened already.

Files – Windows XP users have the option of using the inbuilt search tool to search for file names or content. Microsoft has also provided a download (Windows Desktop Search) which is more efficient and I would advise all Windows XP users to use WDS. Windows Vista comes with WDS automatically. There is only one drawback; you cannot search the contents of PDF files. This requires the addition of a PDF filter. I am using the 64 Bit version of Vista and the ‘Ifilter’ for the Foxit Reader works perfectly. Foxit Reader is a worthy alternative to the Adobe Reader. I am saying all of this to indicate that as soon as you start typing in the Instant Search field you automatically start to search for files as well as their contents (PDF) included once the filter has been installed.

Communications (emails, task, contacts, events etc.) – The
Instant Search box also allows us to search the various communications related folders for the file names and the contents of all emails, task, contacts and so on. If you use Microsoft Outlook and/or Windows Live Mail, the relevant folders are searched automatically. Additionally, I installed the free Outlook Connector and this allows me to include all my Windows Live Hotmail folders in the search also.

Programs –Searching programs is nothing new. The cool thing is that it is extremely easy to launch a program from the Instant Search Box by simply typing a keyword. Also, because the results are displayed as you type, you can launch the program long before you have finished typing the keyword. (WOW)

Search everywhere – This option will give you a Windows Explorer type interface. It also includes the results of your keywords or phrase for all index locations i.e. History, Programs, Desktop Folders etc. In other words ’search everywhere’ is a full Desktop Search. You will notice that the instant Search Box have been added to every Windows Explorer Folder so you can search everywhere with the same speed and efficiency.

Search the Internet – Yes, you can search the Internet right from the Instant Search Box. (WOW) The Instant Search Box uses the default search provider for the Internet Explorer. Users can setup any provider they choose as the default search engine. The following quotation shows how it is done.
The’ providers’ link is available under the drop down menu of the Instant Search Box in the top right hand corner of the Internet Explorer screen.

‘Add Search Providers to Internet Explorer

To add a provider to the Internet Explorer Instant Search box, click the provider’s link below. You can set any of these as the default search provider by selecting the Make this my default search provider check box in the Add Search Provider dialog box that appears when you click the link’. In summary, the Instant Search Box;

• Provides results as you type
• You can select the result that you want or if you want to look at all results, you can click search everywhere.
• You can also bring up the ‘context menu’ for a particular result by ‘right clicking’ the result thus making available other options such as print, send to, cut, copy etc. This is a major improvement in how we manage files and if this was the only improvement in Vista I would still upgrade. The Instant Search Box makes it virtually unnecessary to use folders for filing documents etc. Because of the ease with which one can search file names or the content of files.

Please come back to this page for the next article in the series.