Vista’s New Apps
With new versions of Windows come all-new applications. Here’s a look at the freebie apps Microsoft
is including with Vista32 MAMAMAXIMXIMXIMXIMUUUUMMPPPCC JUNE 2006
Internet Explorer 7 takes advantage of the new renderer
to render a preview page of all the tabs open on your com-
puter at once. And, it only works on Vista!Internet Explorer 7
Microsoft’s answer to Firefox will be available for Windows
XP fi rst, but IE7 will really come into its own when you run it
on Vista. IE7 will be one of the fi rst apps to leverage the Aero
Glass interface, actually using the fancy new rendering tech for
something useful. On Vista, you can navigate your open tabs
using a page of thumbnails, which show the contents of each
tab. Of course, Firefox users can get similar functionality using
the Reveal extension.Windows Collaboration
Part Rendezvous user-discovery service, and part weird busi-
ness-collaboration software, the new Windows Collaboration
app has us scratching our heads. Sure, it’s great to share
your fi les, but in most offi ce environments, the tools to do
this are already present (hint: they’re called fi le servers). As
for working together in apps, if you’re in the same subnet and
UPNP discovery works, you’re probably close enough to get
up and walk over to your collaborator’s desk.Windows Calendar and Mail
We’re big fans of
the simple, yet very
powerful iCal cal-
endar program that
ships with OS X.
By embracing open
document formats,
iCal makes it easy for
people to share their
calendars with any-
one on the Internet.
Windows Calendar
could deliver the
same functionality to
Windows users. If so, we’ll gladly ditch Outlook’s over-engineered
scheduling program for a faster, lighter, simpler, more ubiquitous
calendaring app.
With Vista comes a new mail client to replace Outlook Express,
but frankly, we’re not terribly excited about it (or any new mail clients,
for that matter). As far as we’re concerned, the stand-alone mail cli-
ent is a dying breed. The access-anywhere convenience, seemingly
limitless storage capacity, and raw power of modern webmail makes
us wonder if there’s a future for any POP clients.Parental Controls
You love playing Grand Theft Auto, but you don’t want your 12-year-
old to fi re it up when you’re not around. That’s understandable. But
up until now, there was no easy way for you to lock your kids out of
inappropriate games if they could log onto the same computer—at
least, not without mucking around with confusing security settings.
Vista’s gaming portal lets you, as an Administrator, determine which
games are appropriate for your kids, selecting by either ESRB rating,
specifi c types of content, or on a game-by-game basis. These per-
missions are applied at the OS level, so not only will your kids not see
the game on the Games screen, they won’t be able to bypass your
Backup Utility edict by browsing to the directory in Windows Explorer.The backup utility built into Windows XP is a pathetic remnant
of Windows 3.1, designed to work with 100MB tape backups
and other such nonsense. Vista’s backup utility was designed to
work with modern backup drives, and gives you multiple backup
options, which work really well when paired. With the utility, you
can save a complete image of your Windows install to an exter-
nal hard drive, just like you would with a third-party app such as
Ghost. Backup also lets you run regularly scheduled backups of
your profi le directories. With these tools, you should be able to
keep the contents of your machine regularly backed up, for rela-
tively painless recovery in the event of a hardware failure.Sidebar + Gadgets
First there were Konfabulator Widgets, then there were Dashboard
Widgets, and now there are Windows Gadgets. They all serve
essentially the same purpose—delivering to the user some bit of
information or access to a utility in an ever-present, always-on way.
With Vista, you can embed your Gadgets in the desktop, just like
with Konfabulator , or you can mount them to the new Sidebar.Kiss Outlook goodbye! Windows
Calendar offers quick ‘n easy shared
calendars for everyone with Vista.Vista Preview
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