Vistablogged

One of the best features of Windows Vista is something dubbed as Instant Search. Instant Search is integrated at a number of places in Windows Vista. This search feature is useful not only because it is a super fast way of finding things; what makes it absolutely priceless is that it is very context sensitive, i.e. it behaves differently depending on where it is accessed from.

It shows you different results when accessed from the Start Menu, Control Panel, Explorer, Media Player, Photo Gallery, Internet Explorer, and others. For example, when you type in the Instant Search box in the Control Panel, it gets results from within the Control Panel programs. Or if you use the Instant Search from within the Photo Gallery, it filters your photographs.

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• Javier Campos: The top 10 stupid Anti-Microsoft/Vista claims
  Title says it all. Claims and the facts to counter them.
• Mac360 - Guess What? The Mac’s New Best Friend Is Windows.
  Why Windows Vista is helping to increase Mac sales.
• UnderDark » Vista still lacks the gaming performance of XP
  Why you really chould choose XP if you’re a diehard gamer.

Every once in a while you need to take screen shots of your screen. More often than not these have to be a part of your screen. In Windows XP (unless you have a Tablet PC edition), the only way to do this natively was to do a Print Screen (or a Ctrl+Print Screen) to capture the screen (or a window); then edit it in paint or something similar to get hold of the desired part of the screen that you actually wanted to capture. Of course, you could always resort to third party software for this. I have used the excellent OneNote 2007 with its simple to use rectangular screen capture feature which can be triggered by pressing the Windows Key + S. I have also used the much more versatile WinSnap for my needs. We no longer need to do any of the above in Vista.

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Microsoft has finally come out and talked about their plans about the much awaited and anticipated release of Windows Vista Service Pack 1.

The company announced a release sometime in the first quarter of 2008. The company also announced that this service pack does not contain a lot of new features, though it does have a few that a lot of users have been requesting for such as the ability to encrypt hard disk partitions.

Though a lot of people have had a chance to go through the service pack already, either through the leaked copy last month; or through the beta preview that is available to some users.

Microsoft has also announced the availability of a beta later this year. It plans to release the beta to 10000 users for testing.

Interestingly enough, even after the announcement, there are no updates available on the Windows Service Pack Road Map page (at the time of writing this post, the last updated date shows March 28, 2007).

We at VistaBlogged love our Windows Vista and, if for nothing else, we are eagerly awaiting this service pack for all the performance enhancements that it promises. Of course, if problems such as those reported by Loyd are fixed, it will be bonus.

Windows Vista has been out for quite a long time and a lot of issues have been found and a lot of fixes have come and more are on the way through SP1. A lot of people are making a move to the Vista platform from their Windows XP systems. However, there are many more who cannot move from Windows XP yet even if they could choose to. Most of such people need Windows XP due to work constraints.

This article describes the simple steps to install Windows Vista “within” your Windows XP environment using the freely available Microsoft Virtual PC 2007.

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Let me share some of the most interesting Vista related articles I’ve read this week:

• Tutorial: Run your old Xp compatible softwares in Windows Vista at Digital Technology
  Great tutorial on how to run Windows XP on Windows Vista, to be able to run some older software titles.
• Adobe Photoshop - Creating A Vista Style Nav Bar
  Ok, this is more Photoshop related, but it’s interesting
• How to Adjust the Autoplay Settings in Windows Vista - Video | eHow.com
  Self-explanatory. Nice video tutorial.
• OSWeekly.com - Windows, Linux, OS X User Interfaces: All Fluff, No Function
  “Like a Chocolate Covering Over Candy, a Fabulous UI Does Wonders to Distract Us.”