The most obvious change, and perhaps the most significant, is the change to the newly renamed "Network and Sharing Center," previously known as the Network Center, available from Control Panel > Network and Internet. The old Network Center was well-nigh useless, offering very few obvious ways to perform networking-related tasks such as turning on and off network discovery, and customizing file sharing and media sharing. To do them, you often had to use the Networking and Internet Control Panel.
The New Network and Sharing Center is far more useful. It includes single-click options to perform a wide variety of networking tasks, such as turning file sharing on and off, customizing how file sharing works, and giving a quick overview of your current network connection, including its strength. The Center also includes links to various ways to control and customize your network. It's a great way to get a quick network rundown, and quickly and easily make changes. Rather than avoid it like the plague, I find myself coming here often. In fact, I've created a shortcut to it on my desktop so I can get to it quickly.
  The new Networking and Sharing Center: One-click access to numerous networking tasks. Click image to enlarge. |
The new version also fixes one of the most maddening things about the old Network Center -- the icons in the Status area weren't live. Click on the Computer icon, the Network icon, or the Internet icon, and nothing would happen -- the icons seemed to serve no discernible purpose.
In the new version, the icons are live. Click the Network icon, for example, and you get a Windows Explorer list of every device on the network so you can easily connect to each. Click the Computer icon, and you are offered a Windows Explorer view of your system. Click the Internet icon and Internet Explorer launches. That's more like it.
There are plenty of other useful networking changes as well. The first time you connect to a wireless network, you're asked if you want to make it your default network. You can save it to a list, making it easier to switch among multiple networks.
Customizing network properties is easier as well, and offers more choices than before, including the ability to merge multiple networks into a single network, useful for those who are running several wireless and wired networks, and want to create a single network out of them.
 The latest Vista version makes it easier to customize your network. Click image to enlarge. |
One of Microsoft's biggest promises for Windows Vista was that it would make networking easier. In Beta 2, that promise was unfulfilled. This time around, Microsoft has hit the mark, and for people like me who have small networks of a half-a-dozen or more PCs, this is one of the most important reasons to upgrade to Vista.
