vista rocks: my favorite features & tricks
It’s taking me awhile to get used to all those new keyboard shortcuts but the more I play with Vista the harder I find it to sit down to an XP machine.
Ctrl+mouse scrollwheel resizes icons and text in Explorer, on the Desktop, in IE, in Office… I love this!
Rolodex style 3d Win+Tab list doesn’t just look cooler than Alt+Tab – it includes the desktop
Integrated Search is so intuitive:
- Find content on my computer: Ctrl+Esc and start typing
- Find content on the Internet: Ctrl+Esc and start typing, then press the up arrow (to get to the Search the Internet option) and press Enter
- Find content within Control Panel: open Control Panel and start typing. Results point to the right control panel applet and page
I love having multiple home pages in IE 7 as Steve Clayton describes.
When I set it up on my home machine it sniffed out all my network settings and ‘just worked’ without me doing anything. I clicked on the IE icon and I was online. Instantly. Thank you, Windows Networking Team!
Open Command Prompt Here is so handy! Right-click on any folder while holding down the Shift key. You'll see an extra context-sensitive menu item there: Open Command Prompt Here. Just click on this menu and a command window will open with the current working directory set to the folder's actual location. Thanks for this tip, Tim Sneath.
Add frequently used apps to the quick launch bar (just drag the icon). To run them click the Windows key + the number it is on quick launch. I have the Windows SDK command prompt set for easy access.
Windows Photo Gallery is super handy for those quick and dirty fix-its -- cropping, rotating, red-eye correction, exposure and color adjustments... nice that I don't have to fire up PhotoShop for every minor tweak before I upload a batch of family photos to Twango.
Update December 5, 2006: JoeN is happy with a few other cool Vista features that make it hard to go back to XP.
Update February 7, 2007: How-To Geek has posted a fabulous list of Vista tricks.