R. Craig Collins >Common > How To: Adapt to Vista

How To: Adapt to Vista © R. Craig Collins, 2007

While Microsoft Windows Vista ® is more robust and secure than Windows XP ®, the way the user interacts with the Operating system is not very different... but there are 6 items worth pointing out.

1. Sidebar
There is a sidebar, that you can add gadgets like the clock, a sticky note, performance monitor

2. Start button
The Start button look has changed.

3. Start menu
The start menu does not 'spill out' as before... if you click an item, the new menu replaces the old item. Note also, My Computer is just called Computer now, My Documents is now just called Documents

4. Menus
Application menus may be hidden; to reveal the menus, press the [Alt] key

5. Taskbar, [Alt]+[Tab] and [Start]+[Tab]
In Windows XP, pointing your mouse cursor at an item on the task bar generated a small text box describing the program; in Vista, you now get a fairly large thumbnail of the program window.

In Windows XP, you could press and hold the [Alt] key, then press [Tab] to scroll through available programs...in Vista, this action give you large thumbnails of the program windows to view... let go to select the Window you wish to switch to.

Add to that the [Start]+[Tab] sequence to get a large Rolodex style view of program windows to view... let go to select the Window you wish to switch to.

6. Run
For power users who liked being able to start a program using the Run tool, it no longer is on the main Start Menu... it has been moved to Start\All Programs\Accessories...
BUT, when you open the Start Menu, the Search box at the bottom can work just like Run used to