SWON Libraries

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?