Windows Vista: It's the little things...

…that make all the difference in the world to me.  I've been using Beta 1 a lot recently, and although "most of the stuff that we would expect that tech enthusiasts and consumers will be interested in will happen at Beta 2," every once in awhile come across a small improvement that makes me much more productive than on Windows XP.  I guess that officially makes me a bithead?

For example, how many times have you copied a bunch of files/folders only to have the whole operation abort because a file was in use:

(I usually get this when copying an open VS project due to those pesky .ncb files.)  I just did this on Windows Vista, and got the following instead:

It lets me fix the issue and retry!  Hooray!  Also, you've got to notice the "Repeat my answer each time this occurs" that appears on various dialogs.  No more shift-clicking to get that elusive "No to All" behavior!

Another favorite "little thing" of mine is filtering/searching of the Control Panel as you type:

This feature finally makes the default view better than the classic view!  (Although it works with that, too.)

The same type of searching can be done on your Start Menu programs:

Where's that event viewer again?  Who cares!

It even works like "Run" if the program is in the path:

It unfortunately doesn't search control panel items, though.

Even better, that search box gets focus when you click Start (or press the Windows key).  So I can save a keystroke in my frequent [Windows+R cmd Enter] routine by just typing [Windows cmd Enter] instead!

Yes the UI can be awkward at times, but I wouldn't worry too much.  Check out these screenshots - [1], [2], [3], and [4] - of Windows XP ("Whistler") Beta 1 from an old review by winsupersite.

Comments

• Anonymous
  August 25, 2005
  That's definitely a better error message. But:
  1. What does Retry + Repeat really mean? Or Cancel + Repeat? Isn't a Skip All button what we want?
  2. It's a little unclear if "Repeat my answer" is for the current operation only or if it disables the message completely, like those "Don't show this message again" check boxes. I always hesitate to click them if the message is even remotely useful, because sometimes it is not so clear who you get the message back at a later time.
  3. It would be EVEN better if I could also see which program(s) that had locked the file, presented in a list that I could simply click to switch to. Process Explorer tells me that, but it is rather cumbersome. I find this "close any programs that might be using the file" quite offensive when Windows KNOWS which programs that lock the file. Sometimes it really is a mystery, so why should the poor user have to look for them?
• Anonymous
  August 25, 2005
  You're not alone here, I'm one of those "little things" guys too.
  
  File copying/moving has been one of my pet peeves too. I'm glad to see Vista is using error dialogs that are both more informative and more usefull (by adding rectaive measures).
  
  On a tangent, what I'd like to see added to dialogs is an easy (obvious) way to copy all the text (and preferabaly images and formatting) to the clipboard so I can paste this to an email, or a word document, etc.
  
  Think of all the PC users who have had to retype error messages into online forums or emails in attempts to get troubleshooting help. And of course humans being lazy, they won't type the whole error which can make online searching for the error text hard or impossible and worse yet, they could mistype error codes.
  
• Anonymous
  August 25, 2005
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  August 25, 2005
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  August 25, 2005
  I would be pleased if Vista made it a lot easier to use only mouse or only keyboard instead of the current method of having change very frequently between the two - that is unless you have some special keyboard with integrated mouse - this seems to be the scenario Windows is optimized for. Pretty weird since I do not know anyone who uses desktop computer and has such keyboard.
  
  Is the only kbd/mouse alone scenario your in your normal usability tests? You got to do better job convincing me. And since we are getting more of touch/pen controls this should be a PRIORITY for UI DESIGN.
• Anonymous
  August 25, 2005
  Yes this is much better but oh come on... It's 2005 and we still can't seem to list the application(s) that have the file open? Have a button to close them for you? Or have an option to copy the file anyway even if it might be risky? We're still so far away from making software approachable by mere mortals.
• Anonymous
  August 25, 2005
  I'm with Dave. Knowing WHICH program(s) has the file open would be a very big help. But I still like the new interface. Good job.
• Anonymous
  August 25, 2005
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  August 25, 2005
  zzz,
  
  I own such a keyboard [http://www.fingerworks.com/]. The trouble is, the company is no longer in business, so you won't be able to buy one.
  
  Sorry to feed a troll, but it had to be said.
  
  No argument that the dialog is a huge improvement, but I must agree with everyone else, some more information about which application has a handle to the file is needed.
  
  -Scott
• Anonymous
  August 25, 2005
  "Another favorite "little thing" of mine is filtering/searching of the Control Panel as you type:"
  
  Sadly, Apple shipped that in April. :(
• Anonymous
  August 25, 2005
  Woah! Why are the close, maximise and minimize buttons like 8 feet tall?
• Anonymous
  August 25, 2005
  Ian, I had my laptop in "demo mode" with large fonts et al, so that's why parts of the UI are so large. :)
• Anonymous
  August 26, 2005
  Travis: Alt+Print Screen captures just the active window, and since Windows 2000 Ctrl+C copies the text of standard message boxes.
• Anonymous
  September 01, 2005
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  May 16, 2006
  In August I mentioned some of the little improvements in Windows Vista Beta 1 that made using my computer...
• Anonymous
  June 02, 2006
  We are wellocme to it's configuration.
• Anonymous
  June 20, 2006
  Persone los pioneros non rabata. Great...
• Anonymous
  June 23, 2006
  Best of all people w can talk...