Virtual Folders

This is perhaps one of the coolest features of Windows Vista. Virtual folders are basically XML files. You create them when you query something in the search box in Windows. The concept of virtual folders can be understood better if you think of them more like an Index than folders. Virtual folders aren’t exactly folders but are more like a file list. Say for example, you search for a particular file containing a particular term (in this case "CoolTechZone") on your computer (you can do this due to the indexing service that is now on by default). Let us also assume that you get quite a few matches for the search criteria, and if you are one of those who wish that you could just take out all these matches and store them separately, well, virtual folders do just that. Once the search is finished and you have your matches, you can store the results in a separate folder. When you click on Save Search, you get an option of Save As: Virtual Folder, where you enter a name like you do otherwise for a file and you get a pretty blue folder icon on your desktop indicating a virtual folder.

The beauty is that the actual file locations don’t change but all the matches of your search get listed inside the folder and appear like files when in fact, they are simply links to them.

In Vista, Virtual Folders are of two types, one is the ‘user created’ kind as above, the other kind are those that Windows creates by default. For example, the folder ‘All Documents’ (found in C:usersAdministratorVirtual Folders) is an extremely useful one as it stores links to every single user document created on the machine.

Now that you have a fair idea of what exactly Virtual Folders do, lets see how they go about doing things better and making your life easier. As mentioned, Virtual Folders are XML files that are created when you search for something and save the search results.

The beauty of the feature becomes more evident when you couple it with another Vista feature, which lets you add metadata (this is basically a file description line that tells anyone who listens about what the file contains etc.) to each file. Let’s assume you searched for "CoolTechZone" above and got some results that you saved. A few days/months/years later you get another file and while saving it, you enter "CoolTechZone" in its metadata. The next time you open the "CoolTechZone" virtual folder, you will find that this file has been added to it automatically. Impressive, isn’t it? The hitch, however, is that it works only with documents (text/word files) for now.

Of course the drawback of this feature is glaringly apparent. If you want to make your files searchable in this fashion, you will have to manually give them keywords and add the metadata. The integrated search service is extremely good and will search for matches within each file as well but they won’t reflect in the Virtual Folder as explained above.

The Desktop

The desktop finally boots and we get my first glimpse of what Microsoft has been postponing ad-infinitum. Straight away, it doesn’t seem to be something revolutionary. The taskbar is the same (albeit with a more gothic-y black and white theme…the start button looks a tad morbid, would’ve looked a lot better if they had colored the Windows icon in the usual colors, but maybe they will do so in the final release.)

As we went on, we notice a small little button on the bottom right and after hovering over it, we realized that it’s the Windows Indexing Service finally getting the front seat and being more visible as Microsoft has integrated MSN search into the OS.

There is fresh wallpaper with a nice close up of the grass, though it doesn’t appear to be as sharp as we would like it to be, but its decent, easy on the eyes and blends in the background without distracting you from work.

The icons are a bit too large for our liking. Moreover, they look out of sync with everything else which has been made to look a lot more compact.

Next