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VISTA
PREVIEW
Because It’s Loaded with
New Multimedia Tools
ALL THOSE MULTIMEDIA TOOLS
IN Windows XP? Child’s play. If
you’re serious about PC audio and
video—about watching TV, listening
to music, making movies,
managing your digital photos, all
from your PC—Vista is the place to do it all. For
the first time, Microsoft includes a bona fide photo
manager—not the skimpy “photo viewer” you’ll find
in Win XP. In addition, you get beefed-up versions
of Windows Media Player and Movie Maker. And
with the Premium or Ultimate versions of the OS,
you even get an updated version of Media Center,
the home entertainment system that used to be a
separate operating system.
The moment I first opened
Vista’s new Photo Gallery
tool, I knew Microsoft had
gotten it right. Finally, a
single place where we can
organize, edit, and share our
digital photos. Win XP failed
to offer any editing or sharing
options, and its organizational
tools were almost an insult.
Windows Photo Gallery can’t
quite compete with free photo
managers like Picasa (my
favorite) and Preclick, or with
Apple’s iPhoto, but it’s still a
big step for the OS.
With Photo Gallery, you
can organize videos as well
as photos, quickly searching
and sorting them via tags,
dates, and ratings. I love the
“slider” button, which lets you
instantly resize the thumbnails on your virtual lighttable,
and the default “Ken Burns” slide-show effect,
which dynamically pans and zooms each photo.
And here’s a little secret: Photo Gallery actually
integrates with the updated Windows Movie
Maker, which means you can instantly, easily move
photos and videos from one to the other. You can
spice your movies up with all sorts of new effects
and transitions. Perhaps best of all, now that Movie
Maker takes advantage of your graphics processor,
it no longer limits movie previews to a tiny 320-
by-240 window. And when your movie is finished,
you can seamlessly burn it to disc using Microsoft’s
new DVD Maker tool; you can even add chapters
and menus.
PHOTO GALLERY Vista adds basic photo organizing,
editing, and sharing tools to its photo viewer.
WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER 11 WMP has a fresh new interface to help users
better organize their music, as well as sync their music libraries with portable
devices and, of course, burn discs.
Meanwhile, Windows Media Player 11 offers a
fresh interface, making it easier to organize, find,
rip, and burn your audio files. My favorite perks:
You set up songs for burning with a mere drag and
drop, and you can add cover art with a simple paste
command. I’m into browsing by album cover, too.
Media Player is also better at syncing portable devices,
certainly a welcome improvement. Check out
the “random sync” feature, which can turn any MP3
player into an iPod shuffle. (Whether that’s a good
thing is still up for debate.) And when Vista finally
debuts, Player will work hand in hand with URGE,
MTV’s new online music service, which will offer
more than two million digital tracks. Make no mistake:
Vista can excite the senses.—Cade Metz
YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for Support
Vista Secrets
Want to see what Vista
looks like with Aero Glass
disabled? Press Ctrl-Shift-
F9. (This will work in beta
releases only, not production
versions.)
You can control volume
levels on an applicationby-application
basis
using Vista’s new audio
control panel.
Having trouble installing a
hardware device in Vista?
Try using the Windows
XP version of the driver.
Press Windows-Tab to get
the cool “Flip 3D” view of
all your open applications.
MAY 9, 2006 PC MAGAZINE 73