Windows Explorer in Vista

I like Windows Vista. I think it has some nice features and is more stable than previous versions of Windows. Windows keeps getting better in some ways, but in other ways its not moving forward. I don't like Windows Explorer in Vista. It has more fluff and nice looking stuff, but looking nice doesn't help me do my work any better. The breadcrumb feature is nice, but thats about it.

So I found a replacement for Explorer and I just love this tool. xplorer² from ZabKat is the tool and its just great. This is one of those tools that you will quickly realize has many-many features and its going to take you a little time to learn how to use it. So take your time and learn a little at a time and you will learn to love this tool too.

I'm using the Lite version which is free. I will probably upgrade to the Pro version since it's only $29.95, because it seems as I'm learning new features I'm discovering some of the features only available in Pro and they seem like something I'd like to use. And the price is certainly low enough.

Check out this tool. It's a powerful tool. It reminds me in many ways of the Norton Commander that I used back in the dark ages of computing. The last version of NC was released in 1998 and I have not used it for many years, but I still find myself wanting to type "NC" at the DOS prompt from time-to-time.

Windows Help no longer available in Vista

What? What does this mean? It means all the programs in the world that have been shipping with Windows since Windows 3.1 have help files that you cannot read when running the app on Windows Vista. I just found this out this evening when I tried to use the help on an old Windows app. I got a message with a link to this Microsoft Knowledgebase Article.

The good news is that they're offering a special version of the help program you can download and install on Vista. This allows you to view the old .hlp format help files. And you know what... it works.