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Part I: Getting to Know Windows 7
type the letter s. By the time you type sol, Solitaire is at
the top of the list. Click the Solitaire item to start the
game. See Chapter 11 for information about Solitaire and
other games.
You can perform most actions with the mouse, the
keyboard, or a combination of the two. Another way
to display the Start menu, for example, is to press the
Windows logo key, which is located between the keys
labeled Ctrl (Control) and Alt (Alternate) near the
spacebar — the largest key on the keyboard. The
Windows logo key has the same four-part flag icon as
the Start menu (although not in color). From here
on, I’ll refer to this key as the Win key.
7. Tap and release the Win key to display the Start menu;
tap the Win key a second time to remove the Start menu
from the screen. If you want to run something else, you
can type the name of the program you want and press
Enter or click the program name. This is the easiest way
to start any program you know the name of. You may
need to type only a few letters to run a program.
See Chapter 15 for information on customizing the
items that appear on the Start menu.
Learning keystroke shortcuts is especially valuable if
you don’t like using the mouse or other pointing
device, which is a common complaint laptop users
have about the touchpad.
Get Familiar with the Taskbar
1. The area at the bottom of the screen and to the right of
the Start button is the taskbar, where you see icons for
some programs. Figure 1-7 shows four icons in the
taskbar. The first three icons are for programs that aren’t
running (Microsoft Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer,
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