Get the Information You Want - the Way You Want It
Software capabilities and Internet offerings just keep getting better. That's great, but there's so much to see and do that it's easy to get overwhelmed. Now with Windows Vista and Windows Live, you can do more, experience more, and learn more, with the confidence that you can find the information you want when you need it. You have information you care about on your PC: documents, pictures, videos of family and friends, your favourite music. And there's still more information you care about on the web: mail, your contacts, and websites. Together, Windows Vista and Windows Live help you organize your information, find and use it, and make it work for you - on your desktop and on the Internet.
Find what you need
Let's say you want to find a video you created on your last trip so you can share it with a friend. With Windows Vista, you don't have to hunt through hundreds of nested folders and files on your computer to find it - you can search by anything you remember about the file: a word, a date, or a keyword or other information you've assigned to it. New controls, such as Instant Search and Enhanced Column Headers, simplify your search and help you to organize the results.
When you're ready to send the video, why not use the Internet to get information about the place where you shot it and send that to your friend, too? Live Search, a search provider you can access right from Windows Internet Explorer 7, helps you quickly find the information. Then you can add it to the file or send it in an instant message.
Windows Vista makes finding anything and everything, on your PC quick and easy.
Live Search helps you find what you want on the web - quickly.
Live Search is simple, precise, and uniquely yours. Search macros help you define your searches so that you get the results you're looking for. If you want to narrow your search results, you can refine them instantly with the powerful sorting tools in Live Search. You can even save the searches to your personalized Live.com home page, where the search results will be updated automatically.
With Windows Vista and Windows Live you can search both your desktop and the Internet with ease. And you can launch Live Search directly from the Start menu in Windows Vista and, of course, from Internet Explorer 7. So now you can find what you need - quickly - no matter where it is.
Feel at home wherever you go
No matter where you go with your Windows Vista-based PC, your important documents, your favourite music, your photos, and your videos are easily available. Whether you're sitting at your PC in your living room, at the library, or at a café, you can feel at home because you have everything you need. And, with Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista, everyday online tasks are much easier. Enhancements and new features include a streamlined interface, tabbed browsing, and shrink-to-fit printing.
When you also use Windows Live, you can get even more out of your PC and the Internet. For example, you can use Live Local Search, a free local listing and mapping service, to find a friend's home or a specific business, map the best route, and get real-time traffic information where available.
Are you looking for a nearby pizza place, dry cleaners, or museum? Search for businesses by category, and then view the location before you go with amazing bird's-eye-view images. You can even add helpful information to the map by adding a URL, photos, comments, or a list of your favourite nearby places. Send your annotated map to friends and family to help them find an event you're planning or to help them get the most out of their visit to a new location.
Customize your Live Local Search map by marking the destination, attaching a message, or showing a list of favourite places in the area.
Enhance your browsing
Browsing implies a leisurely search, but sometimes you need to find information in a hurry. New features in Internet Explorer 7, such as tabbed browsing and instant search, make it easier to locate what you're looking for.
When you add the Windows Live Toolbar to Internet Explorer 7, you get a more personalized search and browsing experience, with tools that let you search for almost anything - websites, Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds, or images - from any webpage. The enhanced Live Search experience helps you find the answers fast. Toolbar makes it easy to access Windows Live services - such as Mail, Messenger, and Windows Live Spaces - no matter where you happen to be on the web.
With Toolbar, you can add custom buttons to keep the resources you use frequently. Custom buttons provide instant access to your favourite sites and keep you informed about the latest information from those sites - whether it's news, traffic, sports scores, financial information, or the latest celebrity gossip. You can do this all conveniently within Windows Internet Explorer 7 - with one click. Find additional custom buttons for the Windows Live Toolbar in the Windows Live Gallery and enhance your browsing experience even further.
Use Windows Live Toolbar from any webpage.
Customize your PC and online experience
Your online world comes together on your personalized Live.com home page. You have a choice of layouts, and can rearrange, add, or remove information any time. Use it to store and organize all of your favourite links, searches, selected news headlines, RSS feeds, and gadgets in one place. Gadgets are mini-applications, such as webcams, interactive games, or traffic maps. They're a handy way to get up-to-the-minute information that is often displayed in a visual format, such as a weather report with icons for clouds, rain, or sun.
Include the information you want - in the way you want it - on your Live.com home page.
If there are gadgets you'd like to see on your desktop, such as your daily calendar or a favourite RSS feed, you may want to use Windows Sidebar. It's similar to your Live.com home page, but it shows up on your Windows Vista desktop instead of in your Internet browser. With Windows Vista and Windows Live you can arrange these handy tools in the way that works best for you, across your desktop and the Internet.
There are a number of gadgets available for both Windows Vista and Live.com in the Windows Live Gallery, and new ones are being created frequently.
The Windows Sidebar is totally customizable and updates automatically.
