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Internet Explorer 7
I can hear boos and jeers. Yes, already. One sentence into this, I can hear the screams, hissing and stomping of the townsfolk. But hear me, people! IE7 isn’t that bad. In fact, it’s pretty good. I was also one of those that left the boring and hacker-ravaged IE6 browser for Firefox. Yet, when IE7 in Vista appeared, I quickly converted back. Now, IE7 in XP isn’t so hot. But the added parental controls and phishing filters in IE7 make it a top choice for security purposes. It has tabbed browsing, which I could care less about, but I genuinely believe the popup blocker, phishing filter and parental controls are a definite improvement over the previous version of Internet Explorer.
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User Account Control
Since I warmed you up with the unpopular IE7, I thought I would slip in the most hated and feared part of Vista—its very black heart: User Account Control (UAC). I happen to want to know when changes are being made to the system files of my computer. In previous versions of Windows, changes were being made behind our backs as spyware and viruses had their way with our Operating System. UAC forces us to run in Standard User mode instead of Administrator’s mode, which was common in XP. So there are a few nag screens here and there. Live with it, folks. It’s there to help you. |
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ReadyBoost
For those of the angry mob that are still reading, I wanted to let you know about ReadyBoost. This new addition to Vista speeds up Windows by allowing you to add a ReadyBoost-capable thumbdrive to serve as disk cache. What does this mean? It means Vista will use that space before it uses the hard drive and the speed of the thumbdrive is considerably faster than that of the hard drive. In theory, it increases the speed of your system. The more RAM you have, the less performance increase you’ll notice, as the hard drive is being used less, anyway.
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The Snipping Tool
Maybe not one of the most important for most townsfolk, but the Snipping Tool in Vista allows users to quickly crop anything on their monitor. See a web graphic you like, just drag to highlight it, then snip it to save it. Don’t like that special someone in your old Prom photo? Just snip yourself out and delete the rest. It’s quick and fun for the whole family.
Integrated Search
Lastly, I feel the need to include the integrated search feature of Vista. The search box is located directly above the Windows start button. It replaces the almost useless search tool of previous versions of Windows, and acts very similar to Google’s Desktop Search tool. Once you start typing in the dialog box, Vista begins displaying results immediately. It’s very handy if you only know part of the filename.
So, I’m sure I didn’t convince the townsfolk Vista is great. But Frankenstein needs a voice because he can’t really talk by himself. He grunts, lumbers around swatting at Apple and XP users as they poke and laugh at him. But inside Vista is crying and really wants to be part of the community. Let’s give it a chance before it smashes us.
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