Windows Vista: The Missing Manual

Appendix C. Where'd It Go

As the saying goes, you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. And on the road to Windows Vista, Microsoft broke enough eggs to make a Texan soufflé. Features got moved, renamed, and ripped out completely.

If you're fresh from Windows XP or another version of Windows, you might spend your first few weeks with Vista wondering where things went. Here's a handy cheat sheet: features that aren't in Vista (or aren't where you think they should be).

• "Add or Remove Programs" control panel. The Control Panel applet called Programs and Features performs the software-removal function (Start→Control Panel→Programs→Programs and Features). No Control Panel applet remains to add software, because all software these days comes with its own installer.

• Backgammon. All of Windows XP's "play across the Internet" games are gone from Vista.

• CDF protocol. Gone.

• Checkers. All of Windows XP's "play across the Internet" games are gone from Vista.

• Clipbook Viewer. This handy multi-Clipboard feature is no longer in Vista.

• .doc file support in WordPad. Gone. WordPad can no longer read Microsoft Word documents. (Microsoft must really want you to buy Microsoft Office.)

  Tip

  So how are you supposed to open and create Word files if you don't actually have Microsoft Word?

  One free, easy way is to use Google's own online word processor, Docs (http://docs.google.com). It can both create Word documents and open other people's.

• DirectAnimation. This technology has been removed from Vista. ...