Ok - I've been a long-time reader of Chris Sells' work. But one of his recent post on some of the Vista features he likes is one I've got to share. I'm including some of it here but take a look at his article and site, there're some nuggets you'll find helpful.
Sells ...
- I no longer have to do Ctrl+Esc, R before I can type something to run (I'm a huge keyboard guy); I just have to type Ctrl+Esc and start typing. This savings alone has ruined me for XP. (And before you point out that I can just use Win+R, I don't like the Windows key: it's not on all keyboards and it's not always in the same place.)
- If I want to search for a program in my voluminous start menu, I just do Ctrl+Esc and start typing. When the list of results contains my target, I press the down arrow to pick the one I want and press Enter when I get there.
- If I want to search for content on my computer, I just do Ctrl+Esc and start typing (once search is set to index my entire computer -- I wish that were the default). If I want to be specific that I just want to search content or file name, I can use the "content:" and "name:" designators, e.g. "content:foo name:foo.cs".
- If I want to find a setting in a particular control panel app, I open the control panel and start typing -- the results point me at the specific control panel applet and page with that setting.
- If I want to find something on the internet, I press Ctrl+Esc and start typing, then press the up arrow (to get to the "Search the Internet" option) and press Enter, which brings up the results in my IE7 favorite search engine.
- If I want to find something in my large list of installed programs, I open the Programs and Features control panel and start typing (I found the renamed "Add and Remove Programs" control panel by searching for "uninstall").
- Before you narrow my list of likes about Vista to "pervasive search" (which, obviously, I love), I also really like the sidebar. It's amazing how often I glance over there to get some quick piece of info that's always being updated for me rather than start some app, interrupting what I'm doing (e.g. lately I've been waiting with bated breath for MSFT to hit 30). I'm anxious for lots more sidebar gadgets.
- I love that the desktop is in the Alt+Tab list.
- I love the 3D Win+Tab list.
Seriously, given the experience with recent pre-release versions of Vista, I thought I was going to just stick with XP. I'm so glad I didn't. Vista rocks.
Source: I'm Thankful for Windows Vista
Originally published on Thu, 23 Nov 2006 11:25:27 GMT by Chris Sells
You know another cool feature that I have to mention is the Snipping Tool. Take a look at this screenshot "snip" of the Snipping Tool Help. Free-form, Rectangular, Window, and Full-screen snip types can be used. When captured the snip shows up in the "mark-up window" where you can crop, highlight, markup and share the snip. Take a look at this screen cap "snip".
