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Finding and using information with Windows Vista
Information technology (IT) has the power to help you address education challenges while improving teaching and learning opportunities. As you invest in hardware and software, you're giving the members of your learning community access to more information and more ways to communicate than ever before. For your investment to have maximum impact, however, your administrators, educators, and learners also need responsive, reliable PCs, and fast access to the information they need—both on their own computers and on the Internet. Windows Vista helps ensure that your PCs are running well, and makes it significantly easier for those in your institution to find and use the information they need.
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Benefit from high-performing, reliable PCs
Windows Vista will give your users high-performing, reliable PCs that are ready when they need them. For example, the new Windows ReadyBoost feature can increase a computer's performance by using a universal serial bus (USB) storage stick to extend the computer's memory. For your most demanding applications, support for 64-bit hardware takes advantage of the latest performance-enhancing hardware innovations.
With increased reliability and reduced downtime, Windows Vista can help lower your costs. It is engineered to prevent common system failures and to automatically diagnose and repair common errors. Built-in diagnostics detect problems with applications or hardware, and either resolve them immediately or guide you through recovery to minimize data loss. Windows Vista also offers drivers that are more reliable and protection from registry corruption.
Easily search and organize your data
On the Internet, search technology is an integral part of your everyday life. With Windows Vista, search will become an integral part of how your students and faculty use their computers. For the first time, search is integrated throughout the operating system—in the Start menu, Control Panel, and in document folders. This fundamental change can have a profound impact on productivity because it means you can easily find almost anything on your computer. And, if you frequently search for a particular type of document or for content about a specific topic, you can save the search and use it again later. In addition, first page previews and scalable thumbnails make it even easier for your users to find what they need as they browse through their files. That translates to more time spent teaching and learning, and less time searching…and searching…and searching…for information.
What if your students have files and information on more than one computer or device? For many people, having laptops, mobile phones, and other devices has made keeping track of information a real challenge. To help keep all their data up to date, Windows Vista offers improved data synchronization with an enhanced interface and faster data transfer for connected devices and remote data sources.
Effectively navigate and search data online
Improved browsing in Windows Vista makes it easier to find and navigate through content on the Internet. For example, with tabbed browsing in Windows Internet Explorer 7, you can browse multiple pages on the Internet in one window. The Quick Tabs feature allows you to switch efficiently between pages and go to the content you are looking for. And, when you print a page or piece of information from the Web, you can make sure it will get printed exactly the way you expect it. Advanced browsing capabilities and parental controls make using the Internet safer and more effective.
Enjoy streamlined user experience
Windows Vista makes working with your computer easier than ever—thanks to the new visually exciting and intuitively designed user experience. For example, the refined Start menu is more efficient—and more helpful—than in previous versions of Windows. And new features, such as Windows Flip 3D, help you quickly select one of your other open applications.
The streamlined user experience was achieved by redesigning the Windows Display Driver Model. This resulted in an interface that is not only more visually attractive, but one that is also more reliable and responsive.
Depending on your hardware, you have a choice of user experiences with Windows Vista. Your institution can minimize training costs by using Windows Vista with a familiar user interface, or you can maximize productivity with the new, streamlined Windows Aero interface. With its glass-like, transparent windows that help people focus better on the tasks they're working on, this is perhaps the most recognizable new feature in Windows Vista.
