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6147book.book Page 4 Friday, December 29, 2006 10:54 PM 4 CHAPTER 1 GETTING STARTED WITH WINDOWS VISTA Understanding Administrator, Standard, and Guest Users For security and administration purposes, Windows Vista Home uses three different types of user accounts: Administrator User An Administrator user has full power to configure the computer. When you first set up Windows Vista, the first user account you create is an Administrator account.
46147book.book Page 5 Friday, December 29, 2006 10:54 PM LOGGING ON AND LOGGING OFF How Logging On and Off Worked in Windows 95, 98, Me, and Windows 2000 Logging on and off in Windows Vista works in much the same way as in Windows XP. But in versions of Windows before Windows XP, only one user at a time could be logged on to a computer running Windows. For a second user to log on, the first user needed to log off.
46147book.book Page 6 Friday, December 29, 2006 10:54 PM 6 CHAPTER 1 GETTING STARTED WITH WINDOWS VISTA Figure 1.1 The Welcome screen lists the users with accounts on this computer and indicates whether each user is logged on. If this icon appears, click it to display a menu of keyboard layouts. You may need to change keyboard layout to type your password correctly. Click here to display a menu of power-related actions: Restart, Sleep, and Shut Down To log on, click your username.
46147book.book Page 7 Friday, December 29, 2006 10:54 PM LOGGING ON AND LOGGING OFF ◆ If you enter the wrong password for the username you chose, Windows tells you “The user name or password is incorrect,” as shown here. Click the OK button, and Windows then displays your password hint (if you created one). ◆ Passwords are case sensitive, so you must type your password using the correct case. Windows Vista warns you if Caps Lock is on, as shown here.
46147book.book Page 8 Friday, December 29, 2006 10:54 PM 8 CHAPTER 1 GETTING STARTED WITH WINDOWS VISTA Making Windows Log You On Automatically Usually, forcing each user to log on before they can use Windows is a good idea, because it helps to keep your computer secure. However, you may sometimes need to set up a computer so that Windows automatically logs in a particular user account. See the section “Implementing and Preventing Automatic Logons” in Chapter 8 for instructions.
46147book.book Page 9 Friday, December 29, 2006 10:54 PM USING THE DESKTOP AND THE START MENU Using the Desktop and the Start Menu Once you’ve logged on, Windows displays the Desktop—the background area that Windows provides for you to spread your work across. Figure 1.3 shows what the Desktop looks like the first time you start Windows and start a couple of programs.
46147book.book Page 10 Friday, December 29, 2006 10:54 PM 10 CHAPTER 1 GETTING STARTED WITH WINDOWS VISTA Figure 1.4 Click the Start button to display the Start menu, then click the item you want on the Start menu itself, on the All Programs menu, or on one of the folders it contains. Click a folder to expand its contents; click again to collapse the contents again. Click the Back link to hide the All Programs menu again. ◆ The Taskbar gives you quick access to each program that’s currently running.
46147book.book Page 11 Friday, December 29, 2006 10:54 PM USING THE DESKTOP AND THE START MENU windows as a rotating stack (see Figure 1.6), and then press Tab repeatedly to bring the window you want to the front. When the window is at the front, release the Windows Key. Press Windows Key+Shift+Tab to move backward through the stack of windows. As with the Alt+Tab version of Windows Flip, the Desktop appears in the stack of windows, so you can use Windows Key+Tab to display the Desktop.
46147book.book Page 12 Friday, December 29, 2006 10:54 PM 12 CHAPTER 1 GETTING STARTED WITH WINDOWS VISTA Switching to Another User Instead of logging off (and closing all the programs you’ve been using) so that someone else can use the computer, you can switch user, leaving your programs running but letting someone else log on. To switch user, click the Start button, click the right-arrow button to the right of the Lock icon, and then choose Switch User from the pop-up menu, as shown here.
46147book.book Page 13 Friday, December 29, 2006 10:54 PM LOCKING THE COMPUTER Figure 1.7 When you’ve “locked” your computer, Windows displays only your user account, together with the word “Locked” to indicate its status. Click your icon to log on, or click the Switch User button if you need to switch to another user account. To lock Windows, press Windows Key+L. Alternatively, click the Start button, and then click the Lock button, as shown here.
46147book.book Page 14 Friday, December 29, 2006 10:54 PM 14 CHAPTER 1 GETTING STARTED WITH WINDOWS VISTA Checking Which User Is Currently Active Normally, when you log on as yourself, you’ll know that you’re using your own user account. But if you’re switching among user accounts for administration or testing, you may lose track of which account you’re using, or you may return to the computer and need to find out whose session is currently connected.
46147book.book Page 15 Friday, December 29, 2006 10:54 PM SEEING WHICH PROGRAMS THE OTHER USERS ARE RUNNING To start Task Manager and display the Processes page, follow these steps: 1. Right-click the Taskbar, and then choose Task Manager from the shortcut menu. Windows displays Task Manager. 2. Click the Processes tab. Windows displays the Processes page, which lists the processes you’re running. 3. Click the Show Processes from All Users button, and then authenticate yourself to User Account Control.
46147book.book Page 16 Friday, December 29, 2006 10:54 PM 16 CHAPTER 1 GETTING STARTED WITH WINDOWS VISTA To start finding out which program corresponds to each executable file, click the Applications tab to display Task Manager’s Applications page. Right-click a program and choose Go to Process from the shortcut menu. Task Manager displays the Processes page and selects the process for that program. That’s easy enough—but you’ll find that there are many more processes running than programs.
46147book.book Page 17 Friday, December 29, 2006 10:54 PM LOGGING OFF ANOTHER USER Figure 1.9 Use the Processes page of Task Manager to see which programs the other users are running. Logging Off Another User If necessary, any Administrator user can log another user off the computer.
46147book.book Page 18 Friday, December 29, 2006 10:54 PM 18 CHAPTER 1 GETTING STARTED WITH WINDOWS VISTA 3. Select the user, and then click the Logoff button. (Alternatively, right-click the user and choose Log Off from the shortcut menu.) Windows displays a confirmation dialog box, as shown here. 4. Click the Log Off User button. The other user’s session is ended, and they lose any data that they hadn’t saved.
46147book.book Page 19 Friday, December 29, 2006 10:54 PM USING THE WINDOWS KEY 5. Click the OK button to send the message. The next time the user logs on to Windows, they receive the message as a screen pop, as shown here. You can send more than one message to the same user, if necessary. When the user logs on, they receive the messages in the order you sent them.
46147book.book Page 20 Friday, December 29, 2006 10:54 PM 20 CHAPTER 1 GETTING STARTED WITH WINDOWS VISTA Table 1.
46147book.book Page 21 Friday, December 29, 2006 10:54 PM SHUTTING DOWN WINDOWS To wake your computer up again, press its power button. Depending on the computer and its configuration, you may also be able to wake it by moving the mouse or pressing a key on the keyboard. When Windows resumes, it displays the Locked screen. Type your password and press Enter (or click the arrow button) to log on.
46147book.book Page 22 Friday, December 29, 2006 10:54 PM 22 CHAPTER 1 GETTING STARTED WITH WINDOWS VISTA You can also shut Windows down from the Welcome screen by clicking the Power button. If any user (including yourself) is logged on, Windows warns you of the problem, as shown here.
46147book.book Page 23 Friday, December 29, 2006 10:54 PM THE BOTTOM LINE Seeing who else is logged on to the computer To see who else is logged on to the computer, switch user to the Welcome screen and look to see which accounts are marked as “Logged on.” Alternatively, open Task Manager, click the Users tab, and then see which users are listed on the Users page.
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