What's new in Vista?

This article is copied word-for-word from the Windows Vista Ultimate RC1 help content. It is here simply to provide a reference for those interested. I have edited out links, and formatted the text.

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This version of Windows is still in development, so some Help information might be inaccurate or missing.

Explore new features for searching, staying connected, networking, syncing devices, and managing files on your computer. Find things fast, get down to business, and focus on what matters to you.

Searching and organizing
Every folder in Windows has a search box in the upper right corner. When you type in the search box, Windows filters the view based on what you’re typing. Windows looks for words in the file name, tags that you’ve applied to the file, or other file properties. When you want to find a file in a folder, type any part of a file name in the search box in the corner of every folder to find exactly what you're looking for. You can also use Search folders when you don’t know where a file is located or you want to create a more advanced search using more than just a single file name or property.

Security Center
Windows offers several programs to help keep your computer secure. From Windows Firewall to Windows Defender to your Internet settings. The Security Center has links for checking your computer's firewall, antivirus software, and update status.

Internet Explorer
Web feeds, tabbed browsing, and always available search are just a few of the new features available in Internet Explorer.

Web feeds, also known as RSS feeds, XML feeds, or syndicated content, is frequently updated content published by a website that you can subscribe to for automatic delivery to your browser. By subscribing to a feed, you can get updated content, such as breaking news or your favorite blog, without having to manually visit the website. Tabbed browsing is a new feature in Internet Explorer that allows you to open multiple websites in a single browser window. You can open webpages or links on new tabs and then switch between them by clicking on the tab.


Sync and sharing
You can sync with other devices such as portable music players and Windows Mobile devices. The Sync Center gives you an easy way to keep all of your devices in sync. You can also use the Sync Center to manage how your devices sync, from starting a manual sync, to seeing the status of current sync activities, and checking for conflicts conflicts.

You can also share files and folders with anyone else using your computer or another computer on your network, even if they use a computer that is not running Windows. When you share files and folders on your computer with other people, they can open and view the files and folders just as if they were stored on their own computer. Any changes you allow them to make to a shared file or folder will change the file or folder on your computer. (However, you can restrict people to just viewing your shared files, without the ability to change them.)


Windows Mail
Windows Mail includes a built-in filter which automatically screens e-mail to identify and separate junk e-mail. You can choose to adjust the sensitivity of the filter to block more e-mail, or to block less e-mail, depending on your needs. Phishing is a type of fraud designed to steal your identity. In phishing scams, scam artists try to get you to disclose valuable personal data—like credit card numbers, passwords, account data, or other information—by convincing you to provide it under false pretenses. Phishing e-mails claim to be from a trusted financial institution or online service. By including links to fraudulent websites, these e-mail messages can trick you into providing your personal information. Windows Mail has a phishing filter that analyzes e-mail to help detect these fraudulent links and can help protect you from these online scams.

Ease of Access Center
This version of Windows introduces the Ease of Access Center as the replacement for Accessibility Options in earlier versions of Windows. The Ease of Access Center comes with several improvements and new features, including centralized access to accessibility settings and a new questionnaire that you can use to get suggestions for accessibility features that you might find useful.

Parental Controls
Parental Controls makes it easy for parents to designate which games their children may play. Parents may choose to allow or restrict specific game titles, limit their children's play to games that are rated at or below a certain age level, or block any games with certain types of content they do not want their children to see or hear.

Windows Fax and Scan
New enhancements in Windows Fax and Scan offer more complete document handling and communications capability, integrated with improved scanning capability—which supports one-click scanning of documents from locally connected scanners, network-connected scanners, and multifunction print/scan/fax devices.

Windows Backup
Windows helps you easily back up your settings, files, and applications when and where you choose, with the convenience of automated scheduling. You can choose to back up to CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, an external hard disk connected to your computer by USB or IEEE 1394, another hard disk on your computer, or to another computer or server connected to your network.

Networking
Use the Network Center to get real-time network status and links to customized activities. Set up a more secure wireless network, connect more securely to public networks in hotspots, and help monitor your network security. Access files and shared network devices, such as printers, more easily and use interactive diagnostics to identify and fix problems with your network.

Windows Collaboration
Collaborate with and distribute documents to other people online. Share your desktop or any program with other session participants, distribute and co-edit documents, and pass notes to others. Windows Collaboration works in a meeting room, a favorite hotspot, or where no network exists.

Windows Media Center
Enjoy all your favorite digital entertainment—including live and recorded TV, movies, music, and pictures—in one place with the Windows Media Center menu system and remote control. Windows Media Center in Windows Vista includes enhancements for expanded support of digital and high-definition cable TV, an improved menu system, and the ability to create a consumer-electronics-quality living-room experience, as well as new options for multi-room access to your entertainment through Media Center Extenders, including Xbox 360.

Pictures
The Pictures folder and Windows Photo Gallery make it easy to view, organize, edit, share, and print your digital pictures. When you plug your digital camera into your computer you can automatically transfer your photos to the Pictures folder. From there, you can use Windows Photo Galery to crop photos, remove red eye, and make color and exposure corrections.

Windows Update
Check to see if your computer is up to date, install updates, view your updates history, and choose automatic updating options in one place.

Portable computer features
Use the Mobility Center to adjust settings you regularly change when you move from place to place (such as volume and screen brightness) and to check your connectivity status. Use a secondary, or auxiliary, display to check for your next meeting, read e-mail, listen to music, or scan news without opening your portable computer. You can also have an auxiliary display on a device, such as a cell phone or TV.

Tablet PC features
Improve handwriting recognition by personalizing the handwriting recognizer. Use flicks to navigate and perform shortcuts with your pen. See pen actions more clearly with optimized cursors. Use the Input Panel to handwrite, or use the soft keyboard anywhere on your screen. Use the touch screen to perform actions with your finger (the touch screen is only available if you have a touch-enabled Tablet PC).