Explorers
This feature is included in the following editions of Windows Vista:
In Windows, the Explorer windows are the main tools that you use to find, view, and manage information and resources. Windows Vista uses the same interface to work with virtually anything on your PC, including your documents, photos, programs, devices, and Internet content. The Windows Vista Explorer interface combines the following elements:
Instant Search, which is always available and finds files rapidly.
Navigation Pane, which contains quick links to the places your documents, pictures, and Search Folders are stored.
Command Bar, which displays tasks appropriate for the files being displayed.
Live Icons, which display a thumbnail image of the actual contents of each file.
Details Pane, which provides rich information (metadata) about files so you can easily add or edit their metadata.
Preview Pane, which you can use to browse through a preview of a file's contents in programs that have this feature.
Enhanced title bars, borders, and Address Bar.
With Windows Vista Explorer windows, you can find, sort, and organize information. Watch the What's new with finding and organizing files? demo to get a quick five-minute overview.
Explorer window.
Instant Search
Instant Search, integrated into Explorer windows, helps you find files by searching file names, file properties (metadata), and text within each file. For example, as shown in the illustration, entering the name Claudia in the Instant Search field results in a list of files related to Claudia—files for which Claudia is the author and files in which Claudia is mentioned in either the contents or the file name.
Get instant results when you search.
Navigation Pane and Search Folders
The Navigation Pane in each Explorer helps you navigate across your PC and quickly find what you're looking for. The default view is a series of quick links to your documents, pictures, and music. Additionally, clicking a Searches link displays all of the Search Folders on your PC.
A traditional folder and its contents have specific addresses on the hard disk drive. In contrast, a Search Folder is really a saved search that executes the moment you click it. Search Folders can organize your files logically, without moving the files themselves. If you prefer the traditional, folder-based or tree-based view in the Navigation Pane, just select the folder control at the bottom of the pane.
Command Bar
In each Explorer, the Command Bar displays tasks that are appropriate to the files being shown. For example, the Documents Explorer contains Command Bar tasks that you might need for documents, while the Pictures Explorer contains tasks appropriate to digital images.
Relevant tasks are always available in command bars.
Live Icons
For applications that have this feature, Live Icons provide thumbnail-sized previews of the actual content of a file, rather than merely a generic image representing the program associated with that file. You can see rich previews of your files—including the first pages of your documents, your digital photos, and even album art for your music—without actually opening the files.
Scale icon sizes for each window.
Details Pane
In the Details Pane, you can view file properties (or metadata) in the Preview Pane. You can add and edit properties easily—for one file at a time or for many files simultaneously—right in the Details Pane.
Preview Pane
Explorers such as the Documents Explorer, Music Explorer, and Pictures Explorer provide an optional Preview Pane. In programs that have this feature you can browse readable views of various documents or, with media files, preview a few seconds of content. (This is similar to previewing messages in the Preview Pane of Microsoft Office Outlook.)
Preview files without having to open them.
Address Bar, title bars, and borders
The Address Bar features drop-down menus along the current navigation path, enabling you to backtrack or navigate forward anywhere along an address location. The wide Window title bars and borders allow you to grab a border to resize or move a window.
Menus simplify navigation.