Part 1 AL The Windows 7 User Experience CO PY RI GH TE D MA TE RI When fully utilized, the Windows 7 desktop, as shown in the following figure, offers an extremely rich, visual user experience. However, as you find out in this part, the Windows 7 desktop is much more than just a pretty face. Indeed, Windows 7 is also Microsoft’s most powerful and usable personal computer interface to date (and this statement is coming from someone who really liked Windows XP — and Vista not so much).
Part 1: The Windows 7 User Experience Desktop The Windows 7 desktop (see Figure 1-1) consists of the taskbar (see “Taskbar” later in this part) that normally appears along the bottom of the screen, a background image (or color) that fills the rest of the screen (see “Personalize” later in this part), any gadgets you display on the screen (see “Gadgets” later in this part), and whatever desktop icons and desktop shortcuts you then choose to place on this background.
Desktop 3 ✓ User’s Files: To open your Documents window (same as choosing Start➪Documents from the taskbar), which shows all the document files on your computer. (See “Windows Explorer” in Part 2.) ✓ Network: To open the Network window (same as choosing Start➪Network), which shows all the computers on your local area network. (See Part 3.) ✓ Control Panel: To open the Control Panel (same as Start➪Control Panel), which enables you to customize all sorts of computer settings.
Part 1: The Windows 7 User Experience In the case of a Web page, choose File➪Send➪Shortcut to Desktop in Internet Explorer when the Classic pull-down menus are displayed. Note that to create a desktop shortcut to a drive on your computer system, you must right-click the drive and choose the Create Shortcut item from its shortcut menu (there is no Send To item).
Flip and Flip 3-D 5 down the Alt key until the thumbnail of that window is highlighted and its name appears. Then release the Alt key along with Tab to hide the panel display. Figure 1-2 If you hold the Ctrl key down while you press the Alt and Tab key, Windows 7 opens a panel with thumbnails of all open windows, and this panel remains displayed even after you release these three keys. You can then flip through the panel by pressing the → or ← (to move forward or backward).
Part 1: The Windows 7 User Experience Figure 1-3 Gadgets Gadgets are mini-applications (applets) for the Windows 7 desktop that give you access to frequently changing information, such as the current time, weather, stock quotes, news feeds, computer usage, and the like. Figure 1-4 shows you my desktop with the Gadgets Gallery window displayed. (See “Adding new gadgets to your desktop” later in this part.
Gadgets 7 Larger size Close Close Figure 1-4 Drag Gadget Options Adding new gadgets to your desktop You can easily add gadgets to your Windows desktop. Not only can you select new gadgets from among those that are automatically shipped with the Windows 7 operating system, but you can always download gadgets from an ever-expanding online library.
Part 1: The Windows 7 User Experience 2. Double-click the icon of the gadget you want to add to the desktop or right-click it and then click the Add option on the shortcut menu. Windows adds the gadget to the right side of the Windows desktop. 3. When you finish adding gadgets, click the Close button in the Gadget Gallery window. To download more gadgets from the Internet, open the Gadgets Gallery window as described in Step 1 and then click the Get More Gadgets Online link.
Gadgets 9 Figure 1-5 Changing the opacity of a gadget In addition to customizing what information appears in a gadget (as in the RSS feed headlines shown in the Feed Headlines gadget), you can also customize the overall opacity of a gadget. Any gadget you add to the Windows 7 desktop is automatically displayed at 100-percent opacity (making it as opaque and nonsee-through as possible). You can, however, lighten up any of your gadgets — making them more see-through — by changing the gadget’s opacity.
Part 1: The Windows 7 User Experience Getting Started The Windows 7 comes with a Getting Started window (shown in Figure 1-6), that you can open by clicking the Start button followed by the Getting Started option.
Help and Support 11 the dialog box or window associated with a particular option, double-click its icon in the Getting Started window. You can also access any of the options displayed in the Getting Started window directly from the Windows Start menu. Simply click Start and then position the mouse pointer on the Getting Started option (rather than clicking it) at the top of the Start menu. Windows then displays a submenu with each of the nine getting started options on it.
Part 1: The Windows 7 User Experience Desktop Fundamentals; Programs, Files, and Folders; Internet, E-Mail, and Networking; Pictures and Games; and Help and Support. ✓ Browse Help Topics displays a Contents page with links to topics ranging from Getting Started to Hardware, Devices, and Drivers. Figure 1-7 In addition to these links, the Windows Help and Support window contains a Search Help text box that you can use to search for particular topics.
Help and Support 13 elements, a screen saver to use when the computer has been idle for a certain period, as well as the sound effects to play when different events take place. The easiest way to open the Personalization window (see Figure 1-8) for changing these settings is by right-clicking anywhere on the desktop background and then choosing Personalize at the bottom of the shortcut menu that appears.
Part 1: The Windows 7 User Experience ✓ Display: Click here to open the Display window, where you can adjust all sorts of display settings for the monitor or monitors connected to your computer, including the screen’s brightness, text and icon size, screen resolution, and color depth. Note that the range of the resolution and color settings you have to choose from depends on the capabilities of your monitor or monitors.
Taskbar 15 Figure 1-9 Figure 1-10 Taskbar The taskbar is your almost constant companion in Windows 7.
Part 1: The Windows 7 User Experience continue to be displayed along the bottom of the screen (unless you’re using your computer to play a full-screen video or game). That way, you have access to all the neat features contained therein no matter whether you’re writing a letter in your favorite word processor, surfing the Web with Internet Explorer 8, or perusing your favorite graphic images in the Windows Photo Viewer or Media Center. The taskbar forms the base of the Windows desktop.
Taskbar 17 Figure 1-11 Start button Application buttons Internet Media Explorer Player button button Notification area Show Desktop button Windows Explorer button To minimize all open windows and clear the desktop, click the Show Desktop button (the rectangle at the very end of the taskbar, to the immediate right of the notification area), press Q+D or right-click the taskbar and then choose Show the Desktop from the shortcut menu that appears.
Part 1: The Windows 7 User Experience Remember that when you have multiple windows open at the same time on the desktop, you can use the Flip or Flip 3-D feature to bring a particular window to the top of the stack. (See “Flip and Flip 3-D” earlier in this part.) The Start menu The Start button that opens the Start menu (see Figure 1-12) always appears as the first button on the taskbar. The Start menu is the most basic menu in Windows, giving you access to all the stuff on your computer.
Taskbar 19 To run one of the recently used programs, simply click that icon in the left column of the Start menu. To open a Windows Explorer window for a particular Windows component — Documents, for example, or Computer, or Network, or Control Panel — click the component’s button in the right column of the Start menu.
Part 1: The Windows 7 User Experience ✓ Taskbar Location on Screen: Enables you to select the position of the taskbar — Bottom (the default), Left, Right, or Top. ✓ Taskbar Buttons: Enables you to determine how the buttons for minimized documents open in the various Windows components and applications are displayed and whether or not they’re combined so that one type of Quick Launch button appears (with individual thumbnails above) or each appears in individual buttons on the taskbar.
Taskbar 21 Customizing the Start menu To customize the appearance of the Start menu, you need to click the Start Menu tab in the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box. To modify what items automatically appear on the Start menu and how they’re displayed, you then click the Customize button to open the Customize Start Menu dialog box. (See Figure 1-14.) Use the check boxes in the list box of the Customize Start Menu dialog box to control which items appear on the Start menu.
Part 1: The Windows 7 User Experience ✓ Display As a Menu: Select this option when you want Windows 7 to dis- play the item folders and files as menu items on a continuation menu that you can select and open from the Start menu. ✓ Don’t Display This Item: Select this option to remove the display of the fixed item, such as Network Places.
Taskbar 23 ✓ Windows Explorer: Opens the Libraries window in the Windows Explorer so that you can access documents stored on your computer. (See “File, Folder, and Library Management” in Part 2.) ✓ Windows Media Player: Opens Windows Media Player so that you can view photos or play music or video stored on your computer. (See “Windows Media Player” in Part 6.
Part 1: The Windows 7 User Experience Creating new toolbars You can add your own custom toolbars to the Windows 7 taskbar from the folders that you keep on your computer. When you create a custom toolbar from an existing folder, Windows creates buttons for each of the subfolders that the folder may contain. To create a custom toolbar from a folder, follow these steps: 1.
Taskbar 25 to display the pop-up menu and then click the appropriate menu option. For example, to open the Volume Control dialog box to adjust the volume of your speakers, right-click the speaker icon in the notification area and then choose Open Volume Mixer from the pop-up menu that appears.
Part 1: The Windows 7 User Experience that the information you need is displayed onscreen. (The arrangement is especially difficult to manage when copying or moving files and folders between open windows.) To help you organize the windows you have open, Windows 7 offers several arrangement options.
Taskbar 27 Figure 1-15 To end a process or program that has frozen up on you, click it in the list box on the Applications tab and then click the End Task command button. Note that you’ll probably get an alert dialog box indicating that the program has stopped responding. Click the End command button in this dialog box (as many times as you have to) to get Windows 7 to kill the process.
Part 1: The Windows 7 User Experience
