Parrotheader.com

I just had a nice little reminder of one of the nicest (albeit seemingly tiny) features that I'm looking forward to whenever I get to fully upgrade to Vista.

To properly set the scene, I was in my office working. I primarily work on my laptop, but I also have a desktop computer in the office that I leave on 24/7 for reports and log file downloads. Whenever it's not doing anything heavy, I'll also run movies or music on it so I can have something to listen to in the background while I work. I'd rented Casino Royale last night and decided I'd 'watch' the bonus features while I worked today.

So there I was happily working away on my laptop while Daniel Craig is being interviewed about somethingorother on the other computer. Suddenly, my instant messenger (which I also run primarily on the other computer) pops-up and lets out an ear-shattering HEY YOU'VE GOT A MESSAGE beep that had to have been on the order of 200,000 decibels. I was so startled I almost broke my keyword tray with my knee from the recoil. Apparently, the volume for the DVD was much lower than my IM program (even though the media player's volume was maxed out.)

After my heartrate had finally recovered it made me remember this Vista feature that allows you to have a master control panel to control volume by application. A relatively obscure and seemingly basic feature, but after today's vivid reminder - an extremely useful little addition.