Lesson 1 What is New in Windows Vista
Tuesday, May 10th 2011 @ 11:54 AM (not yet rated)
The early problems and issues with the version of Windows Vista that was released in January 2007 were widely reported in the media. Users complained that Vista did not recognize the printers or other devices they already owned, and that to run properly, Vista required computer memory and processor power greater than what was advertised.
Microsoft worked hard to remedy a large number of these problems, and most of the solutions were released as part of Vista’s “Service Pack 1.” Thankfully, if you’re in the market for a new laptop or desktop PC, it will likely have Vista pre-installed, and will include Service Pack 1. With Service Pack 1, Vista is actually a pretty good operating system.
If you haven’t yet had the opportunity to work with Vista, you may not be aware of all the ways that Vista differs from Windows XP and all the other previous versions of the Windows Operating System. Learn more now
Let’s run through some of the most significant new features of Vista.
1. Security.
Vista has a built-in firewall, and a program called “Windows Defender”, both of which help keep your computer more secure. Windows Defender helps to protect your computer against pop-up advertisements and windows that can contain spyware, and has a built-in spyware detection and removal function.
[Note that throughout these lessons, the screenshots shown may look slightly different from your own computer. This is because the author may have already made other adjustments to their own computer. You should be able to follow along on your own computer despite any such minor variations.]
Windows Vista also adds a function called “User Account Control” (or “UAC”) UAC helps you to prevent unwanted and unauthorized changes to your computer by requiring that you give permission before certain actions are performed (like changing certain computer settings or deleting certain files).
You can open the Security Center and take a look at these functions by clicking the “Start” button (the Windows symbol) in the lower left hand corner of your screen, clicking “Control Panel”, clicking “Security”, and finally clicking “Security Center”.
2. Sync Center.
Through its new Sync Center functionality, Windows Vista makes it easy for you to keep the files on your computer synchronized with the files on your mobile devices, including your PDAs, cell phones, and portable music (MP3) players, as well as with files that may be stored in any network folders in your computing environment.
This allows you to be sure that you’re always working with the current version of a file that you might access using your different devices.
Doing a sync can be “one-way” or “two-way”. With a one-way sync, each time you modify, add, or delete a file in a specified location, the same information is added, changed, or deleted in the other location. With a two-way sync, files are copied in both directions, keeping the files synchronized in two locations.
You can access the Sync Center by clicking the “Start” button in the lower right hand corner of your screen, then clicking “All Programs”, then “Accessories”, then “Sync Center”.
3. Parental Controls.
The built-in Parental Controls are a great way to put limits on the number of hours that your children can use the computer, the types of computer games they can play, what types of programs they can run, and the websites that they can visit.
When you set time limits, you can control the times of day that your children can log on, and even set different logon hours for different days of the week. (When a child tries to use the computer past the time control, they are automatically logged off.)
You can also set controls to make sure that your children don’t play games above a certain rating level, how they use the internet, and restrict them from running certain programs on the computer. You can even set up activity reports to keep a record of your children’s computer activities.
Access Parental Controls by clicking “Start”, then “Control Panel”, then clicking “Set up parental controls” under the “User Accounts and Family Safety” section.
4. Pictures.
If you’ve every used a stand-alone photo manager program like Picasa or Adobe’s Photoshop Album (or even if you haven’t), then you’ll find the Windows Photo Gallery program easy to use
Windows Photo Gallery makes it very easy to view organize and share all the digital pictures you have on your computer. The program even supports tagging and rating functions.
Access the Windows Photo Gallery by first clicking “Start”, then “All Programs”, then “Windows Photo Gallery”.
5. Backup and Restore.
Windows Vista has backup and restore features that are greatly improved over the versions that were included in Windows XP. With the new features you can schedule backups to occur automatically, and you can do your backups to many more types of devices. Learn More Now Click Here
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In this lesson you learned about some of the new features in Microsoft Vista, including the increased security functions, sync center, parental controls, picture manager, and backup and restore.
