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Technology Interest Group - March 30, 2007 Meeting Notes

Attendance

Pam Baker, Rachel Bechtol, Robert Bohall, Perry Bratcher, Garry Collum, Craig Heaton, Mindy Holmes, Glen Horton, Anne Kling, Andre Souza, Beth Tumbleson

Tour of Windows Vista

  • Interface Enhancements
    • Task switching
      • + now shows a thumbnail image of each window
      • Flip 3D: use + to flip through windows (can also use mouse scroll wheel)
    • Sidebar
      • Add “gadgets” for weather and other info (like widgets)
      • More gadgets can be downloaded
      • Gadgets can be dragged from sidebar to desktop
    • Taskbar
      • Thumbnails of minimized windows are show when you hover over them
    • Start Menu
      • Search feature allows keyword searching of programs and documents
      • Menus don’t cascade across the screen - stay in place
    • Control Panel
      • “Centers” serve as categories for different settings
      • Examples: Welcome Center, Ease of Access, Speech Recognition
    • Explorer
      • Thumbnails of a file’s contents can be viewed when hovering over the icon
      • Allows the user to add keyword tags to files for easy findability
  • Security
    • User Account Control
      • Requires users to click “OK” when performing admin-like tasks
      • Requires a password to continue when on a domain network
    • Firewall
      • Now includes outbound as well as inbound protection
    • Windows Defender
      • built-in anti-spyware
      • Can use Software Explorer to control startup programs
    • Network Access Protection
      • Allows admin to set requirements for devices to join a network
    • Parental Controls can be used to limit what a user can do
    • Internet Explorer 7
      • In Vista, IE7 offers Protected Mode to shield computer from malicious web sites
  • Networking
    • Network and Sharing Center
      • Shows map of devices connected to local network
      • Can hover over a device to see more information
  • Other
    • Meeting Space
      • Find People Near Me
    • Windows Calendar
      • Can have multiple users/calendars on 1 PC
      • Can publish a user’s calendar to the web
    • Windows Slideshow
      • Support for a secondary mini-display on the outside of a laptop
      • Can give the user info like email/weather/etc. while the laptop is sleeping
    • SuperFetch
      • Preloads frequently used programs into memory
    • Independent sound control for different programs
  • By default, Vista puts computer to sleep rather than shut down

Member News

Indiana Wesleyan: Rob Bohall demonstrated a browser toolbar he created for his library. Patrons can download the toolbar and install it in their browser at home.

Next Meeting

Date: May 18 or 25. Location: SWON Libraries office?