| Windows Vista Wireless Connection Guide |
Windows Vista and Windows XP Connectivity:
While your ability to connect, share, and network with others has never been greater than with Vista, this does not mean that it has become easier to use and in fact the options and menu's are more complicated and in depth than ever before. The same steps that were required to connect to a wireless transmitter in Windows XP still apply to Windows Vista, however, accessing those steps and understanding the information presented to you is a bit more complicated due to the amount of information on each menu and screen. In their effort to explain menu's and choices Microsoft may have gone slightly overboard.
The Equivilants:
| Windows Vista |
Windows XP |
Difference Explained |
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As you can clearly see there is little or no difference in the appearance of the Vista taskbar as opposted to the XP taskbar. Functionally they both display options if you right click or left click on the icons. |
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As you can see the icons for a wireless connection do differ between Vista and XP. The XP icon for wireless is a bit easier to understand in terms of what type of connection it represents as opposed to Vista. The Vista icon does give you additional information related to your actual type of connection. The globe shows that not only are you connected but you also have internet available as opposed to being connected to a transmitter without internet. |
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This is the list of available networks that is displayed when you select "connect to a network" in Vista and "View Available Wireless Networks" in XP. Our personal preference is towards XP which displays things in a bit easier to comprehend manner. The overall functionality of both of these menu's remains about the same. |
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This is the network connections menu for Vista and XP. What is not immediately noticable is that the Vista menu subtly provides additional information. The green bar shows the progress of scanning for additional interfaces, it also displays advanced information about the interface as you can see in the listing. Our philosophy "Keep it short and simple". The average Vista user is not an IT administrator, router programmer, and does not need to be overloaded with options and information. |
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Here is where we start when we want to connect to a wireless network in Vista and XP. This is the menu presented with you left click on the connection icon in the task bar. As you can see the menu's vary greatly. The Vista menu provides you with information at the same time as providing options and is actually a little bit better at showing you whats going on. The difference here is that with XP you had to right click to see the menu with options not left click, and with Vista left clicking give you the immediate option of conencting while right clicking give you an entirely different set. |
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Here is the right click options available in Vista and XP. As you can see there are the same number of options they are simply presented differently. We will comment on the Vista menu's functionality on the next page. |
Let's get connected.
