Examine the filtering, grouping, and stacking features in Windows Vista's Windows Explorer | BNET

Windows Vista's Windows Explorer

The filtering, grouping, and stacking features in Windows Vista's Windows Explorer can be a real boon to your everyday searching and navigation operations. Greg Shultz explains how easy it is to use these features.

This gallery is also available as Greg Shultz's article, Examine the filtering, grouping, and stacking features in Windows Vista's Windows Explorer.

Beyond Windows Vista's flashy animated graphics and transparency effects are a whole set of new and improved file management features that are destined to make everyday computing much easier. Microsoft has loosely grouped this set of features as Windows Vista's new information visualization, organization, and search features. Of course, the focus here is on Windows Explorer.

The Windows Vista Product guide points out that the key elements of Windows Vista's Windows Explorer are:
Instant Search, which is always available and finds files instantly.
Navigation Pane, which contains both the new Search folders and traditional folders.
Command Bar, which displays tasks appropriate for the files being displayed.
Live Icons, which displays a thumbnail of the actual contents of each file.
Preview Pane, which provides rich information (metadata) about files.
Reading Pane, which allows users to browse a preview of a file's contents in applications that have enabled this feature.
Enhanced Address Bar, which contains title bars and borders.

I must admit that the Instant Search and Navigation Pane features in Windows Vista's Windows Explorer are tremendous. In addition to these features, I've found that the filtering, grouping, and stacking features in Windows Vista's Windows Explorer can be a real boon to your everyday searching and navigation operations. They're also very easy to use once you learn how to take advantage of them. Let's take a closer look at these features.