Windows Vista - Control Panel

The screen shot is taken from the new vista control panel. Note the high pixel definition on these Vista Icons. This is an example of the new AERO high resolution graphics.

Examine Vista's new look Control Panel

Even though XP has been widely available for over four years, if you happen to observe people configuring the Control Panel, you will see that 80% switch from the new mode to the Classic. My personal mission is to shake off this 'Luddite' thinking, abandon the Classic View and to practice with only the new Vista Control Panel.

Network and Internet Section.

The Network and Internet Section is a good bellwether for appreciating what's new in Vista. Click on an icon and what you get is one of eight sub menus. Three are new, one is improved and four are just polished. My mission is to go beyond the feature headlines and show you the details.

Here are the nine sub-items in the Network and Internet section of the Control Panel.Network and Sharing Center, Network Map, People Near Me, Internet Options, Windows Firewall, Network ListOffline Settings, Network File and Print Sharing, Sync Center.
Incidentally, the names and number of icons has change since the early betas, and therefore, may change again in the final version.

The benefit of the Network Center is that it displays at a glance how a machine is connected to both the local network and the internet. Moreover, the left panel displays a list of all the items that you may need, for example to Manage Connections or Configure Network.

I find Vista's troubleshooters in general and the network diagnostics in particular help me get started. To let you into a secret, the diagnostics help when I overlook something obvious. My point is that if these troubleshooters are useful to a so called expert, then they will be a life save to ordinary users.

What I particularly like about the new troubleshooters are that they are smart, yet not in your face like the irritating office paper clip wizard. The Vista troubleshooter sort of sidles up to you and says, 'I can see something is not quite right, would you like me to help you solve it?' If you want to prod one of the troubleshooters into action, just click on one of the many Diagnose buttons, which you see on Vista menus.

Three incidental network items. In addition to IPv4, IPv6 is installed and waiting. Ipconfig has a new switch called: /allcompartments

Looking at the other icons under Network and Internet, Network Map is a subset of the Network Center, mine shows local and wide area connections. 'People Near Me' is new and is designed for applications such as Windows Network MeetingSpace, I did not investigate further. At the bottom is an icon called Wireless Support, inside are tabs for us to configure Infra Red, Image transfer from Cameras and hardware.

The Internet Section icon is just a shortcut leading to the new IE7 settings. These three icons, Windows Firewall, Offline Settings, Files and Print Sharing, are also much the same as XP.