Vista's Games Explorer, Part of FD's guide to Windows Vista♠ Options

[FallenDeku]

One of Vista’s new features is the Games Explorer; basically it is a special folder in which shortcuts to all your games are stored, removing the need to use the Start Menu, in particular developers creating their own folder on the Menu to hold all the game-related links.
When you install a new game, or play one already on your system, Vista will create a link to it in the Games Explorer automatically (providing it’s recognised). Vista will also use online services to download the game’s information, including developer, genre and box art. New games create these shortcuts themselves adding advanced functionality. If a game is compatible Vista will also display its performance ratings along with your system’s, this gives you an indication of how you can expect the game to run.

The Icons
When you first install Vista the only icons in the folder will be those for the bundled games, these are part of the first type of icon you can find. They include publisher and developer information, as well as performance information and a classification. They don’t have box art but do have a Vista-style saleable icon.
You can except to see more of these games pop up in the future as downloaded games, without a retail product.
[Screen]

The second type of icon applies to older games, Microsoft has done a good job of collecting information on a wide range of games including Diablo II, Rayman 2 and so on; these games are able to download their developer’s information, a classification and box art but lack the performance information. If the game’s icon is scaled down far enough the box image is replaced by the game’s normal icon.
Unfortunately some modern games also fall into this category including Age of Empires III and Civilisation IV.
[Screen]

The third type of icon you’ll start to see more of in the future, these include all applicable information and box art/custom image, although these custom images are still replaced by the default icon if they’re scaled down far enough. It is these icons that make use of the advanced shortcut options available to them.
[Screen]

The final type of icon is not added to the folder automatically, requiring you to drag the shortcut into it. These icons appear as the standard program/shortcut icon displayed in a thumbnail style view. They do not have any developer information and don’t allow you to add any; they also lack classification and a performance rating.
These icons can be expected from old (pre-Win95) games and small developers who make games generally as freeware or shareware distributed over the internet. In the future these games may feature the Vista-style scalable icons but will still lack the developer’s information.
If you use an unofficially patched or otherwise hacked version of a game (i.e. no-CD) then those games may not be recognised and hence these icons will be used.
[Screen]


Advanced Shortcuts
Double clicking an icon will play the game, however selecting it allows you to access advanced shortcuts through the “Play” and “Community and Support” menus at the top of the Window.
Each icon can have six different shortcuts built into it under the Play menu, clicking Customise allows you to edit existing shortcuts and add your own. The Community and Support menu is made by the developer and contains links to websites; usually the game’s homepage, support page and/or forum, the games that come in Vista also have a link to Windows Marketplace in this section.

Parental Controls and Classification
You’re able to select the classification system used for your games; this can be done through the Parental Controls page. At time of writing ESRB contains the most comprehensive set of ratings, covering all the games on my system. If you’d rather not look at the classification information it is simply a matter of selecting a provider that hasn’t rated your games, in place of an actual rating “No Rating Provided” is displayed, at time of wring OFLC was best of this purpose, not having rated any of my games, including the ones bundled with Vista.
Parents may wish to use these ratings along with the Parental Controls tool. However to do this requires that none of the administrator accounts has a blank password, nor can Parental Controls be applied to an administrator, this is so kids can't simply disable the Parental Controls settings.

Search and Sorting
As with all Explorer windows Vista allows a large rage of sorting, filtering and searching options. While these would only generally become useful if you had a very large collection of games, but is nevertheless an available feature.
Unfortunately searching from the Start Menu doesn't search this folder, however if your games also include links on the Start Menu you can access them via this method.


Windows Experience Index
If a game provides performance ratings you can follow a link to “Performance Information and Tools”, here you have access to several performance options as well as your own system’s rating. Your system’s rating (formally, Windows Experience Index) is equal to that of your weakest component, giving you a good indication of what needs upgrading, however it also means that even though a game suggests a particular score odds are it will perform better than expected if that game doesn’t rely heavily on the component letting you down.
At the time of Vista’s release the highest possible WEI was 5.9, but as the rating system is designed to handle advancements higher scores will appear in the future. If your computer scores over 3 then you’re doing well, if you manage to top 4.5 odds are you can run just about everything out there, issues start to arise if you clock in around the 1 mark, in which case even Vista would be struggling to run.
If you’re considering buying a new PC see if you can find out its WEI, this will make it easier to compare it to other systems, as well as the software (mainly games) you intend to run.