Namespace Improved:
After a brief, detour where we talked about socoial bookmarking, we continue on Vista Dissected.
The names for well-known Windows objects, like Windows XP's My Computer and My Documents, have lost "My". They are now simply "Computer" and "Documents." That's the way it should be. But that's just a minor aspect of the changes to the "shell namespace" in Windows Vista. When you dig a little deeper, you'll find more profound change.
To start with, the Documents and Settings folder is just an alias (called a "junction" in Vista file-system speak). Its purpose is to redirect installing programs that aren't hip to Vista's new way of doing things from Documents and Settings to the new Users folder.
Vista's new \Users folder houses individual user account folders. But there are some differences. The old All Users folder is now a junction to the new ProgramData subdirectory in the root directory. The Default User subdirectory is a junction to the new \User\Default subdirectory. The Application Data folder now redirects to the Roaming subdirectory in the AppData folder, located in the specific account name folders of the Users area. I'm not going to detail every change, but suffice it to say that there are several functionalities that these changes support, including improved security, more logical organization of user data, and the ability to access user data safely and smartly from a variety of places on a network.
Not sure how much trouble or problems this will cause during transition between XP and Vista. Hopefully with right tutorialy the transition shouldn't be too bad.
There's also a new top-level Public folder, the foundation for a replacement of the old Shared Documents folder from XP's My Computer. The Public folder is designed to be a resource to share things on a local area network. Why store the same 600MB of pictures on every computer on a family network, when you can store it on one public volume accessible to all? The Public area offers public folders for Favorites, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos and Recorded TV.
My better management of file structure. Less duplication.
The Documents folder is no longer the primary locus of user data files. It merely contains documents. A new folder, named the same as your account name (but which should probably be called something like {Account Name}'s Data), offer these folders all at the same level: Contacts, Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Favorites, Links, Music, Pictures, Saved Games, Searches and Videos.
Microsoft is trying to separate the areas where programs are allowed to write data from where programs are stored. That's a very good thing indeed, because the operating system should jealously guard the namespace for applications, and not let just any program write there. By doing so, it prevents nefarious scripts or hackers from trying to create a malware executable that masquerades as a trusted primary .EXE, like iexplore.exe (Internet Explorer's main executable). This has been a huge problem in all previous versions of Windows.
Much better managemnet of resources(separation between user resources, and application resources) where hackers will have a harder infilitrating a Windows Vista machine.
tags: software, microsoft, Windows Vista, Vista Namespace
Monday, February 19, 2007
Windows Vista Dissected: Part 9 Working With Data
Windows Photo Gallery:
Windows Photo Gallery offers an easier, more intuitive way to view, manage, and refine your photos and home movies. A streamlined process simplifies acquiring and importing images and videos, and new organizational options make it easier to find and enjoy your memories. You have the flexibility to launch any of your other photo- and video-related applications from directly within Windows Photo Gallery.
A toolbar across the top of Windows Photo Gallery offers shortcuts to tasks and information, while the familiar left-hand navigation bar provides easy access to organizational elements. You can use the control bar at the bottom of the screen to launch a slide show with a single click, and use the slider to quickly resize your thumbnails for comfortable viewing.
Windows Photo Gallery offers basic photo editing, or consider free photo editing software, such as the ability to easily remove red eye. If you decide you don't want to keep the changes, you can revert to the original version of the photo with one click.
You can easily print your photos via a local printer using the Photo Print Wizard, or use Online Printing to send them to a retail photo finisher for printing. With the integration between Windows Photo Gallery and Windows Movie Maker in Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Home Premium, and Windows Vista Ultimate, you can use your digital photos and videos to express yourself in a home movie using cool effects and transitions.
Great integration job on the photo printing features.
If you have Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate, you can then create a professional-looking video DVD to preserve and share your movies using Windows DVD Maker.
Acquiring and importing photos and videos
In Windows Vista, one click is all it takes to copy your pictures onto your PC. More advanced users can customize the process to simplify common acquisition tasks, such as changing the import destination or renaming and replicating photo and video files.
Finding, organizing, viewing, and editing photos and videos
Windows Vista indexes the pictures and videos on your PC for fast, efficient retrieval. You can even customize this function and choose which folders to index.
To find a picture quickly, enter a word or two in the search field. Instant Search searches across tags, folder names, file names, and captions and gives you fast results.
Organizing your photos and videos using tags
You can apply tags in a variety of ways to help you organize and find your photos and videos. You can add tags when you first add a photo or video to your collection, or you can select a photo, or multiple photos, to tag at any time.
Alternatively, you can tag images using the new Info Pane. You can open the Info Pane to view basic information about a photo or a video, including the file name, date taken, rating, and other information. You can change most of this information just by clicking and typing.
Viewing and fixing photos and videos
The Windows Photo Gallery Viewer provides a large view of individual photos or clips with options to zoom, pan, and rotate photos, pause or play video files, and bring up the Info Pane. You can quickly navigate from one photo or video clip to the next.
The Viewer also has built-in editing capabilities—such as fixing red eye and adjusting exposure, color, and size—to help you make your photos look great.
Creating and viewing slide shows
Remember when a slide show was just a series of photos? Not anymore. Windows Vista Slide Show sets a new standard for creating and presenting your digital memories full-screen. You can include video as well as still photos—another benefit of the slide show functionality in Windows Photo Gallery. Great improvement for including images, as well as video as part of the slide show.
Choose from a variety of themes to help you quickly incorporate cool visual effects and transitions; Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate have more slide show themes than the Home Basic edition.
Slide Show Screen Saver
A new desktop Slide Show Screen Saver feature helps you to choose photos, videos, and even themes to be displayed in Screen Saver. The Slide Show Screen Saver introduces powerful queries that you can use to base slide shows on tags and ratings you applied in Windows Photo Gallery.
Sharing photos and videos via e-mail
The Windows Vista Photo-Video E-Mail Wizard enables you to easily select, compress, and send photos and videos via e-mail in just a few short steps.
Printing photos
Windows Vista gives you two ways to print photos: the Online Print Wizard and the Photo Print Wizard. With either method, you can select photos and then a print task from either Windows Photo Gallery or the Pictures Explorer.
Enjoy home videos in Windows Photo Gallery
You can view video clips and photos in the new Windows Photo Gallery Viewer or in slide show mode. Both the Viewer and the slide show take full advantage of your computer's graphics processing power, using it to boost performance and enable high-definition video playback.
Windows Photo Gallery works with other programs, too, including Windows Movie Maker and Windows DVD Maker. You can drag photos and video clips from Windows Photo Gallery into either of these programs, making it easy to create rich movies and video DVDs from the content in your library.
tags: Windows Vista, DVD Maker, Home Videos, Photo Gallery, software
Windows Photo Gallery offers an easier, more intuitive way to view, manage, and refine your photos and home movies. A streamlined process simplifies acquiring and importing images and videos, and new organizational options make it easier to find and enjoy your memories. You have the flexibility to launch any of your other photo- and video-related applications from directly within Windows Photo Gallery.
A toolbar across the top of Windows Photo Gallery offers shortcuts to tasks and information, while the familiar left-hand navigation bar provides easy access to organizational elements. You can use the control bar at the bottom of the screen to launch a slide show with a single click, and use the slider to quickly resize your thumbnails for comfortable viewing.
Windows Photo Gallery offers basic photo editing, or consider free photo editing software, such as the ability to easily remove red eye. If you decide you don't want to keep the changes, you can revert to the original version of the photo with one click.
You can easily print your photos via a local printer using the Photo Print Wizard, or use Online Printing to send them to a retail photo finisher for printing. With the integration between Windows Photo Gallery and Windows Movie Maker in Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Home Premium, and Windows Vista Ultimate, you can use your digital photos and videos to express yourself in a home movie using cool effects and transitions.
Great integration job on the photo printing features.
If you have Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate, you can then create a professional-looking video DVD to preserve and share your movies using Windows DVD Maker.
Acquiring and importing photos and videos
In Windows Vista, one click is all it takes to copy your pictures onto your PC. More advanced users can customize the process to simplify common acquisition tasks, such as changing the import destination or renaming and replicating photo and video files.
Finding, organizing, viewing, and editing photos and videos
Windows Vista indexes the pictures and videos on your PC for fast, efficient retrieval. You can even customize this function and choose which folders to index.
To find a picture quickly, enter a word or two in the search field. Instant Search searches across tags, folder names, file names, and captions and gives you fast results.
Organizing your photos and videos using tags
You can apply tags in a variety of ways to help you organize and find your photos and videos. You can add tags when you first add a photo or video to your collection, or you can select a photo, or multiple photos, to tag at any time.
Alternatively, you can tag images using the new Info Pane. You can open the Info Pane to view basic information about a photo or a video, including the file name, date taken, rating, and other information. You can change most of this information just by clicking and typing.
Viewing and fixing photos and videos
The Windows Photo Gallery Viewer provides a large view of individual photos or clips with options to zoom, pan, and rotate photos, pause or play video files, and bring up the Info Pane. You can quickly navigate from one photo or video clip to the next.
The Viewer also has built-in editing capabilities—such as fixing red eye and adjusting exposure, color, and size—to help you make your photos look great.
Creating and viewing slide shows
Remember when a slide show was just a series of photos? Not anymore. Windows Vista Slide Show sets a new standard for creating and presenting your digital memories full-screen. You can include video as well as still photos—another benefit of the slide show functionality in Windows Photo Gallery. Great improvement for including images, as well as video as part of the slide show.
Choose from a variety of themes to help you quickly incorporate cool visual effects and transitions; Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate have more slide show themes than the Home Basic edition.
Slide Show Screen Saver
A new desktop Slide Show Screen Saver feature helps you to choose photos, videos, and even themes to be displayed in Screen Saver. The Slide Show Screen Saver introduces powerful queries that you can use to base slide shows on tags and ratings you applied in Windows Photo Gallery.
Sharing photos and videos via e-mail
The Windows Vista Photo-Video E-Mail Wizard enables you to easily select, compress, and send photos and videos via e-mail in just a few short steps.
Printing photos
Windows Vista gives you two ways to print photos: the Online Print Wizard and the Photo Print Wizard. With either method, you can select photos and then a print task from either Windows Photo Gallery or the Pictures Explorer.
Enjoy home videos in Windows Photo Gallery
You can view video clips and photos in the new Windows Photo Gallery Viewer or in slide show mode. Both the Viewer and the slide show take full advantage of your computer's graphics processing power, using it to boost performance and enable high-definition video playback.
Windows Photo Gallery works with other programs, too, including Windows Movie Maker and Windows DVD Maker. You can drag photos and video clips from Windows Photo Gallery into either of these programs, making it easy to create rich movies and video DVDs from the content in your library.
tags: Windows Vista, DVD Maker, Home Videos, Photo Gallery, software
Windows Vista Dissected: Part 8 Working With Data
Desktop Search:
Windows Desktop Search (WDS) is the software that enables information workers to quickly find and retrieve e-mail, documents and files on a PC and corporate network. Windows Desktop Search is free with your Microsoft Windows License.
Windows Vista includes built-in desktop search capabilities. If you are running Windows Vista, you do not need this software.
The Windows Desktop Search client offers key benefits for end users, including:
Find Information Fast: You can find the information you need from the thousands of documents and e-mail located on your PC in seconds, improving your productivity.
Search Across Many File Types: Finds results from common file types (such as e-mail, Office documents, images, video, .pdf) with one tool.
Search from Familiar Interfaces: Enables you to quickly initiate searches from the Windows desktop, Outlook or Microsoft Internet Explorer, offering familiarity, convenience and ease of use.
Privacy Protection: Adheres to Windows security and privacy model and doesn’t index sensitive data such as temporary Internet files and cache.
Polite Indexing: File index is built and updated during idle time so user productivity and system performance are not affected.
If you ask me, this is a jab at search leader Google. Microsoft is attempting to beat the competition by using the age old technique of bundling.
Usabiity Tweeks:
Windows Vista includes some small usability tweaks. These tweaks make the GUI easier to use in some cases, and harder in others.
The first example is installing drivers. Installing drivers is never a fun experience in Windows, and hardware installation wizards have been anything but smart over the years. Windows Vista's hardware installation is smart enough to differentiate among .INF files and look in multiple subdirectories. That means it can search for the right drive installer in a large directory housing a large collection of subdirectories, each with drivers for different hardware, and find the correct one and install it automatically. The feature doesn't even require Vista-class drivers. Excellent feature if you ask me.
The second is a bit of whining. But it serious is a nusiance. In Vista, when you go to rename a file in any container object (such as a folder window or a File Open dialog), and you attempt to rename that file by any method, Vista no longer highlights the entire filename by default. It highlights only the characters before the period and file extension. Think of the millions of times filenames you've changed in Windows. Most of the time, you don't even want to change the extension at all. But you ended up either carefully selecting just the first part of the filename or selecting it all and just retyping the extension. There is always a better way, but it's so insignificant that complaining isn't worthwhile. You just endure things like that. It's amazing to me how much a little change like this makes you smile from the inside, though. Because it's noticeably easier to name files.
tags: Windows Vista, Search Engine, Google, software
Windows Desktop Search (WDS) is the software that enables information workers to quickly find and retrieve e-mail, documents and files on a PC and corporate network. Windows Desktop Search is free with your Microsoft Windows License.
Windows Vista includes built-in desktop search capabilities. If you are running Windows Vista, you do not need this software.
The Windows Desktop Search client offers key benefits for end users, including:
Find Information Fast: You can find the information you need from the thousands of documents and e-mail located on your PC in seconds, improving your productivity.
Search Across Many File Types: Finds results from common file types (such as e-mail, Office documents, images, video, .pdf) with one tool.
Search from Familiar Interfaces: Enables you to quickly initiate searches from the Windows desktop, Outlook or Microsoft Internet Explorer, offering familiarity, convenience and ease of use.
Privacy Protection: Adheres to Windows security and privacy model and doesn’t index sensitive data such as temporary Internet files and cache.
Polite Indexing: File index is built and updated during idle time so user productivity and system performance are not affected.
If you ask me, this is a jab at search leader Google. Microsoft is attempting to beat the competition by using the age old technique of bundling.
Usabiity Tweeks:
Windows Vista includes some small usability tweaks. These tweaks make the GUI easier to use in some cases, and harder in others.
The first example is installing drivers. Installing drivers is never a fun experience in Windows, and hardware installation wizards have been anything but smart over the years. Windows Vista's hardware installation is smart enough to differentiate among .INF files and look in multiple subdirectories. That means it can search for the right drive installer in a large directory housing a large collection of subdirectories, each with drivers for different hardware, and find the correct one and install it automatically. The feature doesn't even require Vista-class drivers. Excellent feature if you ask me.
The second is a bit of whining. But it serious is a nusiance. In Vista, when you go to rename a file in any container object (such as a folder window or a File Open dialog), and you attempt to rename that file by any method, Vista no longer highlights the entire filename by default. It highlights only the characters before the period and file extension. Think of the millions of times filenames you've changed in Windows. Most of the time, you don't even want to change the extension at all. But you ended up either carefully selecting just the first part of the filename or selecting it all and just retyping the extension. There is always a better way, but it's so insignificant that complaining isn't worthwhile. You just endure things like that. It's amazing to me how much a little change like this makes you smile from the inside, though. Because it's noticeably easier to name files.
tags: Windows Vista, Search Engine, Google, software
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