icnSometimes it is the simple things that make me happy. Simple things such as the way Windows Vista displays folders on the desktop. Yup, It might sound corny, but I love it as much as some of the other more important features that make Windows Vista great. The fact is everyone is attracted to looks and that does not stop at how people look. It includes cars, their homes, clothes, and even their desktop displays. After all, there is a whole market of windows customization software like Window Blinds, screen savers, desktop wallpapers and such. Maybe you have not been blessed/cursed with Vista yet and have not experienced all of the features Vista offers. Yes it is bitter sweet, Vista Good-Vista Bad.

So, three posts into my Ten Things I Like About Windows Vista series, I am finding it easier than I thought to point out the things I like, Big and small. The Windows Vista desktop has been improved significantly over Windows XP. Folders, images, and movie files now have a dynamic icon related to the content within. Folders will show little images made out of actual image and movie files contained inside. Documents within folders will be shown as little pages in between the folder. Movies and images will have an icon made directly from the file itself. See the picture below to see how image and movie files are rendered onto the Windows Vista desktop and inside folders.

icnsAt first I thought that this had little benifit and was mainly for sprucing up the look and feel of Windows Vista. But I began to realize how much I was relying on this feature to quickly locate files, images, and movies on my computer. It wasn’t until I was looking for a video I made that I truly appreciated how great this feature is. Inside a folder were dozens of videos which I named by number. I was able to find the video just by the preview icon alone within seconds. Searching for pictures became even easier. Now I can easily pick out the vacation photos I am most interested in with out opening them all up!