The reviews are in and Windows Vista is getting only a lukewarm reception. (Just a few weeks ago Dell announced that, due to consumer pressure, they are making Windows XP an option again for certain machines). Indeed, there are just as many compelling reasons not to upgrade to Vista as there are in favor of it.

• The hardware requirements are high.
• The learning curve for moving from XP to Vista is steeper than some would expect.
• It is not compatible with some old software and peripherals, such as printers.
• Some consider the built-in digital rights management to be draconian.

And, of course there is the price tag.

On the other hand, five years of development was not for naught. There are nifty features abound. The good news is, many of these features, or their functional equivalents, can be added to XP, obviating the need to actually upgrade to Vista. Here’s how. (Download links to all of the applications mentioned are at the end.)

Searching for Programs and Control Panel Objects: Vista made it easier to find the programs and control panel functions that are hidden somewhere in the vast tree that is the Start menu. Simply hit the Start button and then start typing in letters from the name of the program to be executed. Vista narrows down the list as you continue to type. For example, type “ex” and the list is narrowed down to include Excel and TextPad. XP users can get this same feature by installing an open source program called Launchy. It keeps its own index of the start menu for you and uses it to perform the same narrow-as-you-type search. About the only difference between Launchy and Vista is you invoke Launchy using a hot key that you assign, rather than clicking on Start.

Performance Tuning: FreeRAM XP Pro frees up and optimizes an XP computer’s RAM (Random Access Memory). It offers an automatic mode for novices but can also be customized by experts users.

Hard Disk Encryption: Vista can encrypt your entire hard disk for you, with the encryption key being stored on an external USB drive. The number of products available to achieve the same effect in XP are too numerous to mention here. They run the gamut from open source freeware to commercial products. Some of them offer whole-disk encryption, while others offer security for securing individual files or folders.

Vista Gadgets: Desktop Sidebar is a freeware app that works like the Vista Sidebar. It has over 550 extensions available. While it’s not exactly the same as gadgets running directly on your desktop, the Yahoo Widgets engine (formerly known as Konfabulator) gives you a similar effect as gadgets running in the Vista Sidebar. The Google Desktop sidebar also has gadgets of this sort.

Hard Disk Searching: Vista’s improved functions for searching the hard drive can be approximated in XP with either Windows Desktop Search or Google Desktop.

Explorer Breadcrumbs: Vista replaced the “Go up” button with breadcrumbs (a display of the actual names of the parent folders). Clicking on a folder name jumps right to it. The Explorer Breadcrumbs tool by Minimalist is a Windows Explorer plugin that approximates this feature in XP.

New Style Cursors: If you like the look of Vista’s new cursors, they’re available for XP.

TrueType Fonts: As we mentioned previously, the free Microsoft Office PowerPoint Viewer 2007 automatically installs six new “Vista” TrueType fonts. (See Free PowerPoint Viewer 2007 + Free “Vista” Fonts.)

Switching Windows: In Vista, whenever you hover the mouse cursor over a taskbar button, you get a thumbnail preview of the application. Microsoft offers an XP “PowerToy” that does a similar thing in XP, an “Alt-Tab Replacement.” It doesn’t work with the mouse, but instead, beefs up the normal Alt-Tab functionality by showing you thumbnails instead of just cycling through icons. Note: It only show thumbnails for open windows (not ones that are minimized). We previously wrote about a similar tool called Visual Task Tips, which is also free. See Taskbar screenshots of open applications.

Windows Media Player 11: Vista includes the latest Version of Windows Media Player, but, of course, it can be obtained separately.

Internet Explorer 7: Likewise.

Download Links (alphabetical):

• Alt-Tab Replacement PowerToy: www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx
• Desktop Sidebar: desktopsidebar.com
• FreeRAM XP Pro: www.yourwaresolutions.com
• Google Desktop: desktop.google.com/
• Internet Explorer 7: www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/ie/getitnow.mspx
• Launchy: www.launchy.net
• Minimalist Explorer Breadcrumbs: minimalist.com/software/ExplorerBreadcrumbs
• Vista cursors: www.gurudesign.no/downloads/aero_cursors.zip
• Windows Desktop Search: www.microsoft.com/windows/desktopsearch
• Windows Media Player 11: www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/11
• Yahoo Widgets: widgets.yahoo.com

Related articles:

• A TweakUI for Vista
• Free PowerPoint Viewer 2007 + Free “Vista” Fonts
• PC Decrapifier: Vista Support in Beta
• Quick Tip: Knowing Keyboard Shortcuts Makes Phone Support Easier
• (Not) Extending Vista Memory with a USB Device
• Taskbar screenshots of open applications

Read more: Windows, Productivity