I’d often find that in 2000 and XP, it was faster to access certain tools from the Run dialog. Pressing the Windows key and the letter “R” gives you the run dialog and if you know the filename of the tool (and it was in the system path) you could type some filenames and hit enter faster than you could dig for the shortcut. A common example for me would be CMD for a command prompt or EVENTVWR to get the Windows Event Log Viewer launched.

Given this practice, I am very pleased that Vista makes running applications even more convenient. When you hit the start button (or click the Windows Start “orb” on the taskbar) the cursor defaults to the search entry box. Just start typing the name of what you want to run and the search results start listing out above, hit “enter” and the selected item is executed. Quite often you can just type a portion of the application name, but it really depends on what you have on the computer. Getting into device manager would be something I’d click for in XP, but in Vista I can hit the Windows button, type “Device M” and hit enter. On another computer, I can get away with just typing “Device”. It may be better to get used to typing more letters than less so your habits translate better when you move to another computer, but play with it and many who like the keyboard more than the mouse will be very pleased with this “feature”.