Overview

This article will take a look at Vista's new features, designed to help you keep up with today's ever-expanding digital lifestyle.

Exploring New Features in Microsoft® Windows Vista®

To keep up with today's ever-expanding digital lifestyle, take a look at Vista's media-handling and family-friendly new features.

Media

Windows Media Player 11 comes with Windows Vista -- on all versions except those sold in some parts of Europe. Windows Media Player enables you to play music CDs, rip music (copy music from audio CDs to your PC), burn CDs (copy music from your PC to audio CDs), and synchronize music with portable music players. With Windows Media Player, you can also play DVD movies and video clips in a variety of formats, and download licensed content from online music and video stores.

Windows Media Center is a multimedia utility that provides a single point of entry for viewing photos, recording TV shows (if you have a TV tuner card in your PC), watching DVD movies, and more. It has some features in common with Windows Media Player; however, it is in some ways more full-featured. For example, it also supports photo viewing, which Media Player does not.

The Windows Media Center interface is different from that of most Windows programs, and you might need some extra time to get used to it. After you select an action, the screen changes and includes some common elements, regardless of whether you chose to play a CD or DVD, record a TV program, and so on. As you look at the interface, the left-pointing arrow button takes you back to the previous screen, and the green Start button in the upper-left corner returns you to the main window, from which you select a type of content to work with. To exit Windows Media Center, click the Close (X) button in the upper-right corner.

If you have a TV tuner card, you can set up Windows Media Center to work as a digital video recorder, much like a TiVo. Windows Media Center can record programs that you can then watch later on your PC monitor. Or, if your TV tuner card has a TV Out port on it, you can connect an actual television to it and watch the recorded programs there.

Windows Media Center also accesses the same music library as with Windows Media Player, and you can browse and play your music collection from there.

For many families, one of the primary reasons to have a PC is to manage and organize their collection of digital "memories" -- that is, digital photos and home video clips. Windows Vista provides several tools for working with your family's unique digital content.

Scanning Photos with Windows Fax and Scan

If you have photos that aren't in digital format yet, such as photos you took with a film camera, you might want to digitize them (that is, convert them to digital format) using a scanner. A scanner is like a copier; it has a glass bed on which you place the photo you want scanned. You issue a command in the operating system to tell the scanner to scan the glass's content, and then save it to a digital file on your hard disk.

Most scanners come with their own proprietary interface software; however, you might prefer to use Windows Vista's scanning application -- Windows Fax and Scan. To run it, select Start > All Programs > Windows Fax and Scan. In the Windows Fax and Scan window, you can click New Scan to scan a photo from any supported scanner connected to your PC.

Importing Photos from a Digital Camera

When you connect a digital camera to your Windows Vista PC, the AutoPlay dialog box opens. From here you can choose to do the following:

• Import pictures using Windows: This copies the pictures to your Pictures folder automatically and displays them in the Windows Photo Gallery application. The imported pictures are stored in your Pictures folder, in a subfolder named with today's date and an optional tag (which you're prompted to enter).

In addition to working with still photos, you can also create your own movies by assembling photos, video clips, sound clips, and more, and then create your own video DVDs that you can watch on any TV -- no computer required.

Creating Movies with Windows Movie Maker

Windows Movie Maker has been around for several versions of Windows; however, it just keeps getting better. The version in Windows Vista is much easier to use and more feature-rich than any version before it. Movie Maker enables you to create your own multimedia shows using your home videos, still photos, music soundtracks, recorded voice clips, and more.

Windows Vista offers system performance ratings that can let you know how well your hardware can run Vista and what you can do to improve it. To see this in action, follow these steps:

1. In the Control Panel, click System and Maintenance.
2. Click Performance Information and Tools.
3. Note the performance information that appears.

Earlier versions of Windows had rudimentary parental controls via Windows Internet Explorer. Windows Vista goes several steps beyond that, offering the following:

• A Web filter that enables you to control what Web sites and downloads can be accessed
• Computer usage limits on a per-user basis, which enables you to let a certain user log on only during certain times
• Game restrictions that prevent certain users from playing certain games
• Program restrictions that allow or block any program on your computer from a certain user
• Activity reporting that enables you to see what a user has been doing on the PC

Many households have more than one computer, and moving data between them can become an issue. For example, you might have a desktop PC for the entire family to use, a notebook computer you take to work, and a portable music player you listen to at the gym. Windows Vista enables you to share data easily among them.

Using Windows Easy Transfer to Set Up a New PC

Windows Easy Transfer is a utility that copies the entire collection of your personal data from one PC to another, such as when you get a new PC and you want to move your documents and settings to it. To run it, select Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Windows Easy Transfer. Then, just work through the prompts.

Synching Files with Music Devices

Synchronization (also known as sync) is the process of keeping the contents of two locations matched with each other. The business versions of Windows Vista enable you to synchronize files between PCs via a feature called Offline Files. Windows Vista Home Premium doesn't have that feature; however, it does enable you to synchronize with media devices, such as portable music players.

You can create a synchronization partnership with a device by following these steps:

1. Select Start > All Programs > Accessories > Sync Center.
2. Attach the portable device to your PC and power it on.
3. In the Tasks list on the left side of the Sync Center window, click Set up new sync partnerships.
4. Select the device to add to the list.
5. On the toolbar, click Set Up. This establishes the partnership and performs the first sync, such as launching Windows Media Player to sync song files. A dialog box from that application might prompt you to specify what information to sync. Make your choices, and then click Finish.
6. Click View sync partnerships. You should see the newly listed partnership for the device.

To start syncing immediately, select your device in the list of sync partnerships, and then click Sync on the toolbar.

Family households can be hectic environments, with each person hurrying off to their activities and meetings. There are many applications available for managing schedules and contact information, such as Microsoft Outlook, ACT!, and Lotus Notes, but such programs aren't free, and they contain more features than the average household needs anyway.

Windows Vista comes with two great, family-friendly programs included for managing your schedule and contact information: Windows Calendar and Windows Contacts.

Using Windows Calendar

With Windows Calendar, each person in your family can have his or her own individual calendar, and you can view other people's calendars via your home network. To start the program, select Start > All Programs > Windows Calendar.

Now you have a good idea of what Windows Vista offers you and your family, and especially the Home Basic and Home Premium editions.