From Jonsdocswiki
How do I switch between applications
ALT+TAB is still available and, if you're using the default Vista look will come complete with small screenshots of the applications to aid your choice. Again, once the ALT+TAB dialog is on screen you can click the screenshot of the relevant application to go straight to it!
Failing that, if you want to stick with the good old, traditional, "I refuse to use the mouse because I'm a keyboard jockey", you can still just keep pressing tab until the desired application is highlighted.
How do I get that cascaded window effect?
Vista introduced Windows users to a new way of changing applications. Whereas Windows 9x and XP only had ALT+TAB Vista now provides the Windows+Tab combination that produces this affect. Simply holding down the Windows key (generally to the left of ALT) and pressing the tab key will give you cascaded screenshots of your running programs. Similar to ALT+TAB, if you keep pressing tab you'll cycle through the applications - releasing both keys will bring that application to front. The other option is to click the button in the Windows taskbar (to the right of the Vista orb) The cascade button.
Another feature the boys at Redmond have (finally) added is that you can now click on the desired application and that comes up straight away - no more flicking through over and over again.
I want to search for a file - how do I do that?
Searching for a file via the Vista Start menu
New to Windows Vista is the ability to do pretty much everything from the Vista orb (that's Start Menu to those used to the old way). Clicking on the orb brings up a relatively familiar "start menu" and just above the orb itself is a text box. Type whatever you like in there, press enter and your search is off!
Clicking the "power" button just suspends, how do I get out?
This one caught me out too - there was me thinking I was important enough to be asked what I wanted Vista to do! Anyway, it's quite simple once you know. When you click "the orb", you'll notice you have the power button, a padlock and then a small arrow pointing right (more a triangle really) - click that. You'll be given all the options you're accustomed to and a few more besides.
Lock is just a longer way of locking the workstation without using the padlock icon. Sleep is just a longer way of sleeping the maching without using the "power" button that appears in the start menu.
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