A quick look in Vista's Control Panel (Figure) will show you a number of new icons. One of those is called Family Safety and User Accounts. Using this section, a Windows Vista administrator (parent) can configure parental controls for any limited user (children) accounts on a Windows Vista PC (Figure). When enabled, parental controls allow you to set a number of restrictions on the user account, such as Web site restrictions (Figure), time limits when the account can be accessed (Figure), game limits based on international ratings (ESRB) or specified contents (Figure).

With the reporting & tracking capability switched on, this will be a big plus for any parent concerned with their children's computer use.

Internet Explorer 7

Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) is looking better with each new Vista release. Many small enhancements have been made to IE7 in this CTP release. One addition is a "Quit Tabs" function, which will show you a preview of all (open) tabs (Figure). You can select or close tabs from this Quick Tabs page. This CTP build of Vista includes the IE7 with a Phishing filter that wasn't available in the last CTP build (5231). For more information on IE7, read my Beta 1 review of IE7 for Windows XP (that Beta did include the Phishing filter).

The only key advantage that IE7 on Windows Vista will have over its Windows XP version is that in Vista, IE7 will run in Protected Mode, which will shield your OS & data from any malicious files that may be downloaded through IE7. This Protected Mode should (finally) make Internet Explorer a safe browser!

I will be looking more at other bundled applications soon.