The first thing that I noticed about Vista once I had it installed was that there was an update available for it. Howerver, gone are the days of visiting the Windows Update website; it’s now finally built into the operating system.
So with some updates out of the way, I becan to use Vista for normal file mangement tasks. WinKey+E is what I did next (for those unaware, it’s the keyboard shortcut to launch Windows Explorer). Windows Explorer looks familiar, but different nonetheless. The top menu (File | Edit | Tools | etc) has been replaced by a ribbon bar. The ribbon bar changes dynamically, presenting buttons for various tasks that changes depending on what you have selected such as a folder, a drive, an AVI file, a PNG file and so on. Actually, the first implementation of a ribbon bar that I saw was in Mastercam X. In a separate sets of posts, I’ll talk about Office 2007, which also makes extensive use of ribbon bars.
A lot of talk about Vista resolves around how Microsoft has aped a lot of visual accoutrements from Mac OS X, I can agree that there is some truth to that. However, one of the coolest things about Vista is how it will automatically scroll the left pane in Windows Explorer for you, should the folders/sub folders extend beyond the width of the pane (hey Microsoft developers, is that a souped-up Tree Control or what?!). I’ve recorded a small movie showing this functionality.
Stay tuned for more about my encounters with Windows Vista.
