How to get up to speed with Vista more quickly

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I have talked to a number of IT Pros that have taken Windows Vista for a spin and many have made the same comment to me - There is so much in Windows Vista and I don't have time to go through it all. I just want to find out quickly how to do X. Where can I get that info?   

Getting started with a new OS is always a bit of a challenge.  I can speak from experience since part of what our team does is get the technology early, work with it, and then show you how it works on our tours.  I don't recommend that all of you do that since it can incur a minor level of frustration.  :-(

However, targeted advice on how to use a specific feature of Vista is at hand, and updated for RC1.  The User Assistance team at Microsoft has released a number of Step-by-Step Guides to allow you to configure specific features of Vista quickly or find out how to incorporate some of your existing procedures into a Vista environment.  The Step-by-Step Guides can be found at https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=311f4be8-9983-4ab0-9685-f1bfec1e7d62&DisplayLang=en

The guides currently available include:

  • Deploying Vista Step by Step Guide.doc (195 KB)
  • Managing Group Policy ADMX Files Step by Step Guide.doc ( 150 KB)
  • Managing Roaming User Data Deployment Guide.doc (414 KB)
  • Performance Monitoring and Tuning Step by Step Guide.doc (209 KB)
  • Print Management Step by Step Guide.doc (260 KB)
  • Step by Step Guide to Controlling Device Installation and Usage with Group Policy.doc (640 KB)
  • Step by Step Guide to Device Driver Signing and Staging.doc (748 KB)
  • Step by Step Guide to Managing Multiple Local Group Policy.doc (274 KB)
  • User Account Control Step by Step Guide.doc (146 KB)
  • Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption Step-by-Step Guide (September 2006).doc (169 KB)
  • Windows Vista Beta 2 Migration Step by Step Guide.doc (152 KB)
  • Windows Vista Beta 2 Trusted Platform Module Services Step by Step Guide (May 2006).doc (157 KB)
  • Windows Vista Mobile Device Center Step by Step.doc (134 KB)
  • Windows Vista Multilingual User Interface Step by Step Guide.doc (158 KB)
  • Windows Vista Speech Recognition Step by Step.doc (118 KB)
  • Windows Vista Windows Meeting Space Step by Step Guide.doc (388 KB)

 Check them out.  Post a comment on the blog about your experience. 

BTW, if you have not yet downloaded Windows Vista RC1, go to https://download.windowsvista.com/preview/rc1/en/download.htm.