Experience win Vista productivity and information management

Windows Vista can improve the efficiency of common PC activities, such as creating documents, collaborating with colleagues and partners, managing e-mail messages, and browsing the Web. When managing information such as documents, e-mail, photos, and music, Windows Vista is much better than simple desktop search, providing a powerful, flexible way to visualize and organize information on your PC. In addition, sharing files is simpler, and browsing the Web and sending and receiving e-mail is more secure.

Search

Windows Vista uses indexing technology and search algorithms to provide fast, scalable desktop Search that is optimized not only for local search, but also for distributed data scenarios, such as Instant Search for another Vista PC or Longhorn server. Using Windows Vista Integrated Desktop Search tool, you can find files immediately by name, Meta data label, or any word in the file or e-mail message. Using the embedded Quick Search box, you just type a few letters in the name of the application you want to start, and then press Enter, and Windows Vista launches the application. Searches can also be filtered in several powerful ways to save searches for reuse.

Redirecting Folders/Offline folders

Organizations that focus on the security of end-user data will redirect or "roam" your folders (such as My Documents) to the server. To ensure productivity, you should enable client caching so that data is still available when you are offline or not connected to the server. All redirected and offline content is indexed by the Windows Vista PC, so all Windows Vista search, visualization, and organization features should be reapply to that content.

Windows Vista computer to Windows Vista computer

By default, the search feature only searches the local computer, but you can search through a distributed search for immediate searches of public folders on a domain or on another Windows Vista computer in your home network. With distributed search, the target Windows Vista computer can quickly provide search results.

Desktop Visualization and organization

Although Desktop Search is a necessary tool for managing information effectively, it does not meet all information management needs. Windows Vista can view and process files in ways that were not previously implemented.

The new Activity icon helps you view past traditional system icons so that you can view real-time previews of applications, documents, photos and videos, and underlying data. Windows Vista allows you to see the content clearly and go directly to the desired project-saving you and your organization time and productivity.

Properties, quick search boxes, and enhanced column headings

New controls, such as the Quick Search box and enhanced column headers, make it easy for you to manage large amounts of display data. You can add or edit file properties or metadata on a file, such as a document author, a song singer, or a keyword on a picture, and then use it to find and organize content stored on your PC.

Windows Vista extracts the physical location of a file so that you no longer have to remember where a particular file is stored, but only the approximate properties of the file--in fact, Windows Vista can find the file as long as you remember anything about the file.

Windows Vista provides many ways to mark existing files, including the Navigation Pane or the preview pane. The Navigation Pane mixes the display of folders and virtual folders on a single control. You can select multiple items and drag them to any virtual folder in the Navigation Pane, mark them immediately with the given property, or select one or more files, and then change the properties directly in the Preview pane. You can also add metadata for some files when you save the file.

The browser's Quick Search box and column header control can help you reduce the range of selected data effectively. Using the Quick Search box, you can type a name or the first few letters of any display property to quickly filter the displayed files to show only matching items. The new column header Drop-down menu allows you to select only the values that you want to filter on.

Column headings also have a stack view that displays data in a more dynamic way-The view is the view of the currently displayed data, but is organized by the stack according to a specific column heading.

Folders and Virtual folders

Folders are an important part of the storage model in Windows Vista. In Windows Vista, you can still choose to save content in a folder, but when you look up files and folders, Windows Vista makes better use of folders by enabling tools such as the Quick Search box and the column headers, which is a very effective improvement.

Windows Vista introduces a new organizational concept called a virtual folder, a virtual folder that is just a saved search, running the search immediately when you open the folder. Then, as soon as you click the virtual folder, Windows Vista runs the search, providing results almost immediately. Windows Vista will provide a number of preconfigured standard virtual folders, but you can also create your own virtual folders.

Shares

Small business and home users are confused about sharing files and folders between users and computers. Windows Vista eliminates technical barriers that allow you to easily share your information by seamlessly integrating shared data with access, creation, and storage data. In particular, you can share content with the new Sharing wizard anywhere in Windows Vista. It is easier to share files and folders with colleagues in the same domain: on the same screen, simply select one or more colleagues of the Enterprise Active Directory server that provided the credentials, and then set the level of access to that content.