XP has classic view, too.  Vista has some of the more common applets under
each category listed as a link under the category when you're in the
category view, which I've found saves me the trouble of having to either
drill down, or switch to classic.  So it is an improvement.

I have found one other thing recently about Vista that may be the killer
app I've been looking for:  CD writing is much improved.  With XP, Send
files to a blank disk, then write them, it works fine.  Now send more
files, tell XP to write those to the disk, and the result is all too often
a trashed disk.  With Vista, stick a blank CD in, it'll ask if you want to
master it, which is similar to burning CDs in a lot of CD burning apps, or
if you want to format it as UDF, which is similar to using DirectCD with
Roxio or IBM's DLA.  You can use it like a random access removable drive
(except that with CD-Rs, you lose the space when you erase a file, of
course).  The difference is, UDF can be read by XP, or even 2000 if you
change to version 1.5 of UDF, whereas DirectCD only works if the target
machine has Roxio, too.

I had a kid in the lab write a powerpoint presentation to a disk, then
later come back, revise it, write it to the disk again, and it  worked. 
With XP, I'd have expected an unreadable disk to result.  She then took
the CD to a laptop with XP and ran the presentation. It all worked. I was
amazed.


School Information Technology Discussion <[log in to unmask]> writes:
>I have been playing with Vista a little bit.  Something that I have
>found that may make it easier for students is changing the control panel
>and the personalized settings (old display) to classic view.  It makes
>the toolbars and menus look more like something we are all familiar
>with.
>
>John Peters
>Network Administrator
>Morristown School District
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: School Information Technology Discussion
>[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bob Wickberg
>Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 11:51 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Vista vs XP
>
>I recently bought a batch of new machines for the lab I most directly
>supervise, so I figured that was good place to get my feet wet with
>Vista.
> 
>
>Pros:
>
>1) One issue we have with XP laptops all the time is when kids log into
>their own accounts in the students domain on a laptop, then close the
>lid
>on the laptop and put it back in the cart, without properly logging off,
>the next kid who opens that laptop gets a message saying the machine is
>locked, and only an administrator or the first kid can unlock it.  The
>workaround is to yank the battery, crashing the machine, then restarting
>it.  Kind of a dumb approach, though, huh?  There is a workaround where
>I
>can set them up not to lock when the lid is closed, but then the second
>kid would have access to the first kid's account (which is his own
>fault,
>but...)
>
>In Vista, user switching is supported even when the computer is joined
>to
>a domain, so if the machine is locked, and the screen says someone is
>logged in, you can hit control-alt-del, and either log in to your own
>account without logging the other person off, in which case the first
>user
>is still hogging a bit of RAM, but you'll probably never notice, or you
>can restart the machine.
>
>2) in Vista, ordinary users can set up local printers.  In XP, you need
>admin privileges.  This is a real problem with teacher machines, where
>they have a hundred different kinds of printers at home, and want to be
>able to use them, and I really don't want to give them local admin
>privileges, just because of the time required to do this for 100
>teachers,
>if for no other reason.  Since we haven't deployed Vista laptops yet,
>I'm
>not sure if this solves this problem 100%, or only for printers where
>Vista has the drivers built in, but we'll see.
>
>3) I like the enhancements to the toolbar, where you see snapshots of
>the
>windows when you move the mouse over the open apps, instead of just
>showing the titles to the window.  I think it'll help make a crowded
>desktop easier to navigate.
>
>4) I like the spot on  the start menu (do they even call it the start
>menu
>any more?  It doesn't say "start") that does double duty as the search
>and
>the run functions.  I do File , run all the time in XP, it's one less
>click now. 
>
>Cons:
>
>1) you have to work harder to find the logoff start menu item, that was
>a
>real dumb move on MS' part.  I'm forever logging kids off now after
>they've left the lab, cause they couldn't figure out how.
>
>2) MS is tightening the licensing process, the keys you buy under select
>agreements will only work  N times, where N is the # of licenses
>purchased.  When hard drives die and the OS has to be reinstalled, this
>will result in phone calls to MS to get them to reset the license count
>(if they even will, I don't know).
>
>3) We did find one courseware site a kid is taking a course on that
>relies
>on Java, that worked fine under XP, and  didn't work right on Vista, so
>the kid can't work on that course in the lab any more.
>
>4) We use First Class for e-mail, the installer doesn't  install the
>spelling dictionary in the right spot under Vista.
>
>5) It's just different, so things hide in different places.  My Computer
>is now just Computer, for example.  Also, there are directory entries
>that
>are really pointers to other directory entries, kind of like symbolic
>links in Unix.  Nothing I can't get used to, but....   
>
>6) an issue on machines folks bring in, that aren't domain members, who
>want to connect to our with our wireless network -  A few security
>settings have to be changed from the defaults, and these were fairly
>easy
>to find in XP, but are harder to find in Vista in order to change them. 
>Once you've found the right dialog box, it's the same as XP, but finding
>it in Vista is harder.
>
>7) it's kind of a resource pig, isn't it?
>
>
>Let's face it, if you're a PC shop, Vista is pretty much inevitable,
>unless you really can convince your faculty, administration, board,
>whoever, to convert to Linux.  I like Linux, really I do, I'm writing
>this
>on my Debian machine at home, but we're a long, long way for taking that
>kind of a plunge at school.  So it's not so much an issue of whether
>you're switching to Vista, it's just a matter of when.  If you're a
>Novell
>shop, the answer would seem to be, "not yet", but for our environment,
>it
>seems to work OK, and I'll support it.  Unlike the 2000 to XP switch,
>where I found built in support for CD burning, and for zip files, to be
>compelling reasons to prefer XP to 2000, as long as the hardware was
>sufficient, I really haven't found a killer reason to make this switch,
>though.