Little things in Vista that make me smile

I have to admit I'm still finding small bits of functionality that I didn't know about and that makes me smile.  It's the attention to detail that makes me feel proud to be associated with such a quality product.  Take for instance today when I plugged in my headphones to listen to some non-DRM'd music using Windows Media Player.  Before I plugged in the headphones, the playback devices were listed as in the screenshot on the left.  Vista recognised immediately when I plugged in the headphones and the list changed to the screenshot on the right.

I then have the ability to configure the headphones, setting things like volume (independent to other output devices), the icon, sound enhancements like:

• Bass boost and low frequency protection
• Headphone virtualization (surround sound on your headphones)
• Loudness Equalization (stops loud surprise noises)

It even tells me which jack to plug the headphones in - nice touch.

 

Technorati tags: Vista

Comments

• Anonymous
  March 27, 2007
  I agree, the new audio stack is a great great improvement over the previous versions of Windows; relly apprecate the way we can better control application volumes individually etc. Love the headphone icons too ;-)!