Intuitive design
Whether you're using Windows Aero or the basic user interface, the Windows Vista desktop experience provides fast access to the applications and information you want to use. The design of Windows Vista also helps you efficiently navigate across your PC, so you can stay focused on what you want to accomplish.
The Start menu
Often, you know exactly what you're looking for—an application, document, e-mail message, or other type of file—but you can't remember where it is. Using the newly-designed Windows Vista Start menu, you can simply open the Start menu and begin typing in the new Instant Search field found in the lower-left corner. As you type a word or phrase associated with what you're looking for, Windows Vista searches the file names, the file properties (called metadata), and even the information within your files themselves, instantly and dynamically displaying the matching results. The Start menu can search for applications, documents, music, movies, e-mail messages, calendar events, and even your contacts. If it's on your PC, the Windows Vista Start menu can find it!
To find the Calculator application, you need only start typing within the integrated Instant Search box and you instantly see an organized view of all the matching files and applications. The system automatically selects the closest match, so all you need to do is press the ENTER key to launch the application or file.
The Start menu also makes it fast and easy to view and navigate all of the applications installed on your PC. The All Programs view eliminates the cascading menus from Windows XP. This new view instantly populates, and features a nested folder view that takes up less screen space, making it easier to navigate to the application that you want to use.
The Windows XP Start menu requires you to go through cascading menus to start an application.
The Windows Vista Start menu provides a nested view that enables you to quickly find and start the application you're looking for.
Windows Vista Explorers
In Windows Vista, Explorers are the main tool for finding, viewing, and managing information and resources, including documents, photos, devices, Internet content, and even system settings in the Control Panel. By providing a consistent visual and functional experience, the Windows Vista Explorers are designed to empower you to better manage your information, with optimal flexibility and control. This is accomplished by streamlining the menus, toolbars, navigation, and task and Details Panes into a single interface that is consistent across all of Windows Vista.
In Windows Vista, Explorers include a navigation pane that contains both traditional folders and the new Search Folders; a command bar that displays contextually relevant tasks; an always-available Instant Search box; live icons of each file; and a Details Pane, which provides detailed information about your files.
Navigation Pane and Search Folders
The Navigation Pane in each Explorer has been redesigned to make it simpler to navigate across your PC and quickly find what you're looking for. The default view of the Navigation Pane is a series of quick links that take you to your Documents Explorer, Pictures Explorer, or Music Explorer. There is also a Searches link that lets you see all of the Search Folders on your PC.
A traditional folder and its contents have specific addresses on your hard drive. In contrast, a Search Folder is really a saved search that runs instantly the moment you click it. Search Folders can automatically organize your files logically, without moving the files on your computer. This makes it easy for you to view your files in many different ways without actually having to worry about where your files are stored on your PC. If you prefer the traditional, folder/tree-based view in the Navigation Pane, you can simply select the folder control found at the bottom of the pane.
The Navigation Pane contains both traditional folders and the new Search Folders unique to Windows Vista.
Command bar
The new command bar displays tasks that are relevant to the files displayed in a given Explorer. For example, the Documents Explorer contains command bar tasks that are relevant to documents, while the Music Explorer contains command bar tasks relevant to music files. Unlike Windows Explorer in Windows XP, both the command bar and the navigation pane are available simultaneously—eliminating the need to switch between the two.
The command bar shows tasks relevant to the files being displayed.
Live Icons
New, scalable Live Icons in Windows Vista greatly improve on the generic system icons found in earlier versions of Windows. For applications that have this feature enabled, Live Icons provide you with a preview of the actual contents in a specific file—including documents, photos, graphics, and videos—without actually opening the file. This added visualization of your files will help you work more efficiently, confidently, and productively, since you'll know what's in a file before you open it.
Live Icons display thumbnails of the contents of each file.
Details Pane
For any selected file, Windows Vista displays a rich set of the file's properties in the Details Pane. With the Details Pane, you no longer need to right-click on a file to open the Properties dialog box. Instead, the basic file properties are always visible in the Details Pane found in each Explorer.
The Details Pane contains basic information about a selected file. The information related to your file can also be easily edited in the Details Pane itself.
Preview Pane
Some Explorers, such as the Documents, Music, or Pictures Explorer, provide an even richer way to preview the contents of documents and media files without opening them. For applications and supporting file formats that have this feature enabled, the rich Details Pane can provide a quick way to "preview" your file without opening it in its associated application. For example, when Microsoft Office 2007 is installed on a PC, using the Documents Explorer you can read the contents of a document, spreadsheet, or presentation without actually opening it.
The Preview Pane in Documents Explorer provides you with a clear preview of documents, spreadsheets, and presentations without having to open them when you have Microsoft Office 2007 installed.
Some product features are only available in certain editions of Windows Vista and may require advanced or additional hardware.
Compare key features available in editions of Windows Vista.
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