Windows 7 For Dummies® Quick Reference

Table of Contents

Part 1: The Windows 7 User Experience

Desktop

Displaying additional desktop icons

Creating desktop shortcuts

Flip and Flip 3-D

Gadgets

Adding new gadgets to your desktop

Customizing the contents of a gadget

Changing the opacity of a gadget

Resizing gadgets and repositioning them on the desktop

Getting Started

Help and Support

Taskbar

The Start menu

Customizing the taskbar

Customizing the Start menu

Pinning icons to the taskbar

Adding other toolbars to the taskbar

Creating new toolbars

The notification area

Customizing the notification area

Arranging windows on the desktop

Using the Task Manager

Part 2: Computer Management

Disk Management

Opening folders on drives in the Computer window

Formatting a disk

Mapping a network folder as a local drive

File, Folder, and Library Management

Assigning filenames

Creating new files, folders, and libraries

Customizing a window’s folder options

Changing how you select and open items

Changing how items are displayed in a folder

Creating compressed (zipped) folders

Extracting files from a compressed folder

Selecting files and folders

Copying (and moving) files and folders

Deleting files and folders

Renaming files and folders

Searching for files

Program Management

Removing or repairing a program

Changing the program defaults

Restart, Sleep/Hibernate, Lock, Log Off, and Shut Down

Windows Explorer

Changing the display of an Explorer window

Sorting and filtering items in an Explorer window

Part 3: Networking

Connect to a Network

Change Adapter Settings

Manage Wireless Networks

Modifying the order in which Windows 7 automatically connects to wireless networks

Manually adding a new wireless network

Removing an unused network from the list

Network Access

Turning on File Sharing, Network Discovery, and Public folder sharing

Network and Sharing Center

Network Map

Set Up a New Connection or Network

Part 4: Communications

Internet Explorer 8

Connecting to the Internet

Launching Internet Explorer 8

Adding and changing home pages

Browsing the Web

Bookmarking Web sites as favorites

Opening favorites

Organizing favorites

Using Internet Explorer 8 tabs

Saving Web graphics

Saving Web pages

Printing Web pages

Working offline

Searching from the Bing Search text box

Autosearching from the address bar

Adding a search provider to Internet Explorer 8

No phishing allowed

Pop-ups anyone?

Subscribing to RSS feeds

Speech Recognition

Setting up Speech Recognition

Changing Speech Recognition settings

Modifying the Text to Speech Settings

Windows Fax and Scan

Sending and receiving faxes

Scanning documents

Part 5: System and Security

Backup and Restore

Setting up the backup

Restoring backed up files

Control Panel

System and Security

User Accounts

Hardware and Sound

Devices and Printers

AutoPlay

Sound

Clock, Language, and Region

Ease of Access

Windows Update

Part 6: Entertainment

Games

Media Center

When it’s TV time

Playing your favorite tunes

Playing your movies on DVD

Viewing your preferred photos and videos

Windows DVD Maker

Windows Media Player

Using the Windows Media Player in Library view

Ripping and burning CDs

Synching up with a portable MP3 player

Part 7: Accessories

Calculator

Command Prompt

Notepad

Paint

Run

Snipping Tool

Sound Recorder

Sticky Notes

WordPad

Part 8: Windows Live Essentials

Mail

Creating a new e-mail account

Composing and sending messages

Adding recipients to the Contact List

Reading e-mail

Organizing e-mail

Deleting e-mail

Messenger

Customizing Windows Live Messenger

Adding contacts to Windows Live Messenger

Instant messaging with Windows Live Messenger

Movie Maker

Importing still and video clips into your movie

Arranging the clips in your movie

Adjusting the duration of your clips

Adding special effects to clips

Adding transitions

Adding text to a movie clip

Publishing the final movie

Photo Gallery

Windows® 7 For Dummies® Quick Reference

by Greg Harvey

Windows® 7 For Dummies® Quick Reference

Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
111 River St.
Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774
www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Author

Greg Harvey, the author of a slew of For Dummies books running the gamut from Excel For Dummies to The Origins of Tolkien’s Middle-earth For Dummies, has had a long career of teaching business people the use of IBM PC, Windows, and Macintosh software. From 1983 to 1988, he conducted hands-on computer software training for corporate business users with a variety of training companies (including his own, PC Teach). From 1988 to 1992, he taught university classes in Lotus 1-2-3 and Introduction to Database Management Technology (using dBASE) in the Department of Information Systems at Golden Gate University in San Francisco.

In mid-1993, Greg started a new multimedia publishing venture, Mind over Media, Inc. As a multimedia developer and computer book author, he hopes to enliven his future online computer books by making them into true interactive learning experiences that will vastly enrich and improve the training of users of all skill levels. In 2006, he received his PhD in Comparative Philosophy and Religion with a concentration on Asian Studies from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, California. When he isn’t busy writing, Dr. Greg works as a Healing Harp intern at Marin General Hospital with the Institute for Health and Healing and as a complimentary care volunteer playing harp for patients with the Hospice By The Bay in Larkspur, California.

Dedication

To my alma mater, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, birthplace of NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications) Mosaic, the great-granddaddy of Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.

Thanks for helping me gain the analytical, language, and writing skills that all came into play in the creation of this work.

Author’s Acknowledgments

Special thanks to my business and life partner, Christopher Aiken, at Mind over Media for all his help and support with this revision of Windows Quick Reference.

Also, I want to thank the following people at Wiley Publishing, Inc. who have worked so hard to make this book a reality: Katie Feltman for her consistent and inspiring help in getting this revision off the ground; Paul Levesque for his humor and editorial expertise; and the amazing layout folks in Composition Services. Thanks, too, to Jim Kelly for the technical review.

Last, but never least, I want to acknowledge my indebtedness to Dan Gookin, whose vision, sardonic wit, and (sometimes) good humor produced DOS For Dummies, the “mother” of all For Dummies books. Thanks for the inspiration and the book that made it all possible, Dan.

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development

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Publishing for Consumer Dummies

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Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

Part 1

The Windows 7 User Experience

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).

In this part . . .

Getting Acquainted with the Windows 7 Desktop

Adding Gadgets to Your Desktop

Using the Getting Started Option and Windows Help and Support

Personalizing the Windows 7 Desktop

Using the Windows 7 Taskbar

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.

Figure 1-1

Displaying additional desktop icons

The Windows 7 desktop starts with just a single Recycle Bin desktop icon (where you drop any files, folders, and desktop shortcuts you want deleted from the system). In addition to the Recycle Bin icon, you can add the following icons to your Windows 7 desktop:

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!