Proud Geek

You may’ve seen an ad showing Windows Vista’s cool Flip and Flip / Window Switcher feature where you can see your currently open programs shown side-by-side in full 3-D — see the picture below to see what I mean. I was positively salivating at this feature, even though I almost never use Alt-Tab to switch from program to program. Now this was one real cool feature!

Imagine my surprise when I got my new HP laptop with Vista Home Basic, and saw the old-fashioned Windows XP-esque Alt-Tab program switcher window instead of the cool 3-D Flip and Flip feature. And then when I installed Vista Home Premium onto another laptop, I still saw the same old-type Alt-Tab window. Same goes for the “Windows Switcher” icon in the Quick Launch area of the taskbar along the bottom of the screen.

I want my Flip and Flip 3-D feature! So what am I to do?

A check of the Microsoft webpage said that this feature was only available for Vista Home Premium and up, so that meant it wasn’t available for Vista Home Basic. What?! Also, Windows Aero had to be selected in the classic view of the “Window Color and Appearance” option of the Personalization control panel module.

So, if you’re lucky enough to have Vista Home Premium or Ultimate or better, then here’s how you can turn it on. (To find out what Vista version you have, click on the Windows logo at the lower left corner, right-click on “Computer,” and select Properties. Under “Windows Edition,” it’d tell you which Vista version you have, along with a link to “Upgrade Vista.”)

1) Click on the Windows logo at the lower left corner

2) Select Control Panel, and then select Personalization

3) Click on “Window Color and Appearance”

4) If you then see a row of 8 colors, you need to click on the last link, “Open classic appearance properties for more color options”

5) In the “Appearance Settings” window, under “Color Scheme,” select “Windows Aero”

6) Click on “OK”

7) Windows will then update the display properties of, well, everything.

8 ) If you’ve got a “Flip and Flip” icon in the Quick Launch area of the taskbar at the bottom of your screen, next to the Windows icon, click on it to see a neat sideways 3-D representation of all of your open windows. OR, hold down the “Start-Tab” keys in order (where Start is the key with the Windows logo) and then (still holding the Start key), hit the Tab key to 3-D’ly scroll through each of the open windows. Uber-cool.

Another Windows Aero feature I found: hovering the mouse over a program icon in the taskbar at the bottom of the screen pulls up a small thumbnail showing what that program window looks like. Useful if you’ve got numerous Firefox or Internet Explorer windows open. But again, this is only available when “Windows Aero” is selected in the “Appearance Settings.”

Now, please excuse me while I go flip flip flip flip …