Finally Got my PC to do What I Want

Welcome to Microsoft Support: http://support.microsoft.com/

Here is a web site that shows program compatibility with Vista (thanks to Jan Miller): http://tinyurl.com/f5arg

Working With The Start Menu, Instant Search & Windows Explorer
Make Vista Your Oyster
(June 2007 Smart Computing Reference Series)

This could be the most important article in this magazine regarding how to use Windows Vista. It touches upon the Big Three items you’ll probably use the most: the Start menu, the completely overhauled Instant Search feature, and the Explorer windows you’ll use to manage your files.

All three are evolutions of familiar fixtures in earlier versions of Windows. In Vista, however, they’re more powerful than ever. Let’s take a look at them in order.

Start Menu
No longer will you see the familiar word “Start” on the button in the lower left part of the screen. Instead, you’ll see the Windows logo in a glass marble called the Start orb.

In Vista, the Start menu is laid out in a way that’s similar to Windows XP’s. On the left is a list of recently accessed programs. At the top left are “sticky,” semi-permanent icons; these link to Internet Explorer and Windows Mail (the new Outlook Express). To add any icon to this list, right-click it and choose Pin To Start Menu. To remove an icon, right-click it and choose Remove From This List.

Vista’s Start menu works like earlier versions of Windows, only it doesn’t let menus branch out all over the Desktop. Also, the Shut Down and Restart options now hide behind an arrow icon at the bottom right.

Under the left panel is a toggle labeled All Programs or Back. Click this to reveal links to programs, such as Windows DVD Maker, and folders, such as Accessories.

Vista also will add folders for most of the applications you install, such as AVG Free Edition. Click any of these folders, and its group of links will unfurl right there in the middle of the list. In short, this part of the Start menu works just as in earlier versions of Windows, except for the fact that the folders you click no longer branch out to the right. With a couple of exceptions, no more will you have to “walk the plank” with your mouse pointer as each menu spawns a submenu until they fill your screen. (However, you can tell the Start menu to use a branching Classic mode. Right-click the Start orb and choose Properties, and then Classic Start Menu and Apply.)

On the right are links to common folders, recently accessed files, and settings panels. If you’ve used earlier versions of Windows, you may feel more familiar with the new folder names, such as Documents, Computer, Pictures, and Music, if you imagine the word “My” in front of them: My Documents, My Computer, etc. Similarly, My Network Places is now simply called Network in Vista.

Meanwhile, the Default Programs link leads to options that let you designate the application Vista should launch when you open various file types. Default Programs also lets you adjust the AutoPlay functions that are triggered when you do things such as connect a USB drive or insert a CD.

Finally, you can shut down your PC, lock it, or put it into a Hibernation or Sleep mode using icons at the lower right of the Start menu. The power switch button actually puts your computer to sleep rather than turning it off. To shut down the PC completely, click the right arrow icon and choose Shut Down. Here you’ll also find Restart, Switch User, and similar functions.

Instant Search
The Start Search field at the bottom of the Start menu and the Search button at the middle right both let you access one of Vista’s most compelling reasons to upgrade from WinXP. Type a few letters of any file (or word contained in a file) you wish to find, and Instant Search will immediately supply possibilities in the Start menu’s left panel or the Search window, respectively. Vista looks for matches even in file contents and attributes, not just file names, so you may be surprised by some of the odd results it suggests. The number of possibilities will decrease the more specific your search becomes, meaning the more characters you type.

To tailor a search, click Search in the Start menu. You can narrow your search with the Show Only buttons, such as E-mail, Picture, and so on. Click Advanced Search to broaden the hunt to hidden or system files, in addition to files that Instant Search hasn’t indexed (automatically catalogued on the hard drive).

New menu options appear when you type a search term in the field at the upper right. Among these are Save Search, which lets you rerun a search at a later time and get instantly updated results. Another menu is Search Tools, whose Search Options and Modify Index Locations offer many settings with which you can tell Vista what parts of your hard drive to index.

Unlike third-party search utilities, Instant Search doubles as a command-line interface, like the Run field in the Start menus of WinXP and earlier OSes. For example, you can access Vista’s Startup list by typing msconfig and pressing ENTER.

You’ll also find a Search field in any Windows Explorer window, which brings us to. . .

Windows Explorer
Not to be confused with Internet Explorer, Microsoft’s Web browser, Windows Explorer is the ubiquitous application that lets you view and manage your files and folders. When you open Computer (formerly called “My Computer”) in the Start menu, you’ll see the definitive Explorer window. You’ll also see an Explorer window when you open or save a file from just about any application, although it may be scaled down.

The powerful new Instant Search is accessible from Explorer windows and the Start menu. Click Save Search for complex searches you plan to run often.

Vista’s Explorer works much like earlier versions, but there are a few exceptions that can confuse even longtime Windows users. Most notably, the Menu toolbar with the File, Edit, and other menus is missing. Click Organize, Layout, and Menu Bar if you want it back.

Another major change is an Address Bar at the top of the panel, similar to the one atop virtually every Web browser. But instead of showing you the URL (universal resource locator) of a Web page, Explorer’s Address Bar shows you the hierarchy of the folders and subfolders above the current files or folders in the main panel. It’s reminiscent of the old DOS prompt, which told you which folder’s directory you were viewing, as in C:\Windows\System.

In Vista, you won’t see WinXP’s Up (green arrow) button to move up one folder level, which leaves some users floundering. However, you can click any folder in the Address Bar’s hierarchy to leap up one or more levels at a time. You also can click the arrow icon next to any folder to jump up and “sideways” simultaneously, say from a subfolder deep within Music to Documents or Videos.

Finally, the + and – signs in the Folders list at the lower left, which used to designate collapsed or expanded folders, have been replaced by arrowhead icons pointing to the right and lower right, respectively. As ever, you can click a folder to view its contents or its arrow to expand it (show its subfolders) or collapse it (hide its subfolders). Double-click a file to open it.

A New Scene
Once you’ve mastered the Start menu, the Instant Search field, and Windows Explorer, you’ll be able to use Vista for just about any purpose. Give their new features a chance, and you just might find that they make you more productive.

by Marty Sems