Even though you might think of them this way at first, virtual folders and the files or stacks of files they contain are not Shortcuts. When you delete a virtual folder, or a stack or file in a virtual folder, you are actually deleting the real object on your hard drive, not a shortcut to that object. So even though virtual folders do not represent data as it is collected and stored on your hard drive, they do contain real data. It's possible to imagine that someday we might become (blissfully?) unaware of how our data is actually stored on our hard drives, and more focused on meaningful associations among our data and that appears to be one of Microsoft's primary goals for Windows Vista.
Getting Around Virtual Folders
Virtual folders are only partially baked into the user interface of Vista Beta 1. In this early version of Vista, virtual folders are colored light blue, instead of the manila color that designates file system folders. All virtual folders are stored in the main Users folder, in the Virtual Folders directory found in each user account folder.
You can create custom virtual folders by running a search and saving it with the name of your choice. For example, I created a search for my daughter, Emily. Windows Vista found files of all types on my computer containing the word Emily. I saved that as a virtual folder by clicking the Organize button on the search results screen, and choosing Save Search from the drop-down menu.
Another way virtual folders are exposed in Beta 1 is in the new tree area (left pane) of Windows Explorer. Some of the virtual folders that ship with Windows Vista Beta 1 are displayed in that tree, including All Documents, Authors, Rating, Keywords, Recent, and Types. Since the pre-beta builds, the user-interface controls for virtual folders, regular folders, stacks, and the baked-in desktop search functionality throughout Windows Vista have evolved somewhat. However, they're by no means all there yet. For example, the "Lists" feature is missing altogether, and the search functionality doesn't always work as expected.
The visual control surfaces of Windows Vista are all placeholders in Beta 1. That's why I'm not delivering a detailed item-by-every-single-item description and depiction of all the controls, settings, and workings of the user interface in this story. However, there are some important new structures that are well worth a closer look.
 Graphical breadcrumbs is a very useful navigational tool. It's a programmatic version of the drill-down hypertext navigational systems commonly used on the Web. Click to Enlarge |
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