How To Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2000

Delaying Product Activation

2010-01-17T06:30:00.000-08:00

Here’s how to re-arm the Windows 7 product-activation grace period:

1. Open the Start menu, select Search, and type cmd.

2. Right-click the cmd shortcut that appears and choose Run as Administrator from the pop-up menu that appears. Windows 7’s command-line window appears.

3. Type the following text in the command-line window and press Enter when complete: slmgr.vbs -rearm. When the command is run successfully, the Windows Script Host window show popup: “Command completed successfully. Please restart the system for the changes to take effect.”

4. Click OK to close the Windows Script Host window and then restart the PC. When you reboot, reload the System window. The grace period has been reset to 30 days.

How To Install Windows 7

2010-01-17T06:18:00.000-08:00

Step-by-Step: Windows 7 Clean Setup

This section walks you through the entire Windows 7 setup process, using Microsoft’s Setup Wizard. This application was completely overhauled for Windows Vista and then further streamlined for Windows 7, and it’s now much simpler and faster-moving, especially when compared to the version used in Windows XP.

Follows these instructions to install Windows 7:

1. Insert the Windows 7 DVD in your PC’s optical drive and reboot the system. After the BIOS screen fashes by, you may see a message alerting you to press any key to boot from the CD or DVD. If so, press a key. Some systems, however, do not provide this warning and instead boot from the DVD by default. A black screen with a pulsating Windows logo and the text “Starting Windows”will appear.

If your system does not boot from the DVD, you may need to change the system’s boot order so that the optical drive is checked before the frst hard drive. To do this, consult your PC’s documentation (see your mainboard instruction).

2. Eventually, the screen displays a colored background and the initial Setup window appears. Here, you can preconfgure the language, time and currency formats, and keyboard or input method you’ll use during Setup.

3. Click Next. A window titled Install Windows appears. To continue with Interactive Setup, click Install now

This window also provides a way to access Windows 7’s new recovery tools. If you run into a problem with Windows 7 later, such as not being able to boot into Windows for some reason, you can boot your system with the Setup DVD and use these tools to help fx the problem. Choose the link “Repair your computer”
to access these tools.

If for some reason your mouse doesn’t work, you can press Alt plus the related key on your keyboard to select the appropriate action. For example, pressing Alt+R on the keyboard will start the repair process.

4. In the next window, you must agree to the End User License Agreement (EULA).

5. In the next window, select Custom (advanced) as the install type. You don’t need to click the Next button here: just selecting an option will advance the wizard to the next step.

6. In the next window, choose the disk, or partition, to which you will install Windows 7. On a clean install, typically you will be installing Windows 7 to the only disk available.

You can access the Setup routine’s disk confguration tools by clicking the option “Drive options (advanced)” or by tapping Alt+A. These tools enable you to delete, create, and resize partitions if needed.

Note that you may see two or more partitions if your PC is confgured with two or more physical hard disks or a single disk that is divided into two or more partitions.

If you are performing a clean install on a previously used machine, we advise you to format the disk during this step.

In addition to the partition on which Windows 7 is installed—what Microsoft calls the system disk—Setup also creates a second, hidden partition at the root of the drive. This partition, which takes up 100MB of space, is there for two reasons: it provides space for Windows 7’s recovery tools, which, unlike in Vista, are installed to the hard drive by default so they’re always there; and it provides space for BitLocker, an optional disk encryption technology.

7. After you’ve selected the disk and formatted it if necessary, you can walk away from your computer for 10 to 20 minutes, depending on your hardware. During this time, Setup will copy the various fles it needs for installation to the hard drive, expand the Windows 7 image fle from the DVD, install Windows 7 and any included software updates, and complete the installation by attempting to load drivers for your hardware.

8. After a reboot or two, your PC will launch into the second, and fnal, interactive phase of Setup. You’ll know something wonderful is about to happen because you’ll see the screen in Figure 2-9 after Setup reboots for the fnal time.

During reboots, you may see the screen that says “Press any key to boot to the CD or DVD.” Once you’ve started Setup, ignore that or installation will restart.

9. In the frst screen after the reboot, you are prompted for a user name and a computer name.

Unlike Windows XP, Windows 7 does not create a visible administrator account automatically. Nor are you allowed to create up to fve user accounts, as you were during XP Setup. Instead, you can create a single user account during setup. That user account will be given administrator privileges. Subsequent user accounts—created in Windows 7 using the User Accounts Control Panel—are given limited user privileges by default, but that’s easy enough to change.

10. Next, you will be prompted to enter a password and a password hint. Alarmingly, this step is optional.

11. Enter your Windows product key. This is a 25-digit alphanumeric string—in blocks of fve separated by dashes—that you will fnd on a bright yellow product-key sticker somewhere in your Windows 7 packaging. You can also choose to have Windows 7 automatically activate for you.

As it turns out, you do not actually have to enter your product key here. If you don’t, you have 30 days to evaluate Windows 7 before the system forces you to enter the key and activate.

Do not lose your Windows 7 product key or give it away to anyone. Each Windows 7 product key is valid for exactly one PC. After you’ve installed Windows 7 and activated it—which ties the product key to your hardware—you won’t be able to use this number again on another PC, at least not easily. Note, however, that you can reinstall Windows 7 on the same PC using this same product key. If for some reason you are unable to electronically activate Windows later, Windows 7 will provide a phone number so you can do it manually.

12. Next, choose whether to enable Automatic Updates. You should use the recommended settings, in which Windows automatically downloads and installs all updates. Alternately, you can choose to install only importantupdates or be prompted later.

13. Confgure the time zone, date, and time.

Even if you’re not particularly careful about setting the time correctly here, Windows 7 will eventually adjust to the correct time automatically because it is confgured out of the box to synchronize with an Internet time server

14. If you are in range of a wireless network, Windows 7 Setup will prompt you to connect to a wireless network.

15. If you are connected to a wired or wireless network, you’ll see the current location screen shown in Figure. From here, you can choose whether the network you’re accessing is a Home network (and thus private), a Work network (also private), or a Public network (such as a library, coffee shop, or airport). Windows confgures networking appropriately in each case.

16. Next, you are asked to confgure a new Windows 7 feature called HomeGroup. Simply click Skip here. .

17. Now, Windows 7 fnalizes your settings, prepares your desktop.

18. You’re done! Well, not quite.

32-bit Versions of Windows 7

2010-01-17T05:02:00.000-08:00

The differences between 32-bit (x86) versions of Windows 7 and 64-bit (x64) versions are more complex, but here’s the weird bit: though virtually every single PC sold over the past several years was x64 compatible, virtually every single copy of Windows that went out the door before Windows 7 was, in fact, a 32-bit version.

No more. With Windows 7, it’s time to leave the 32-bit world behind for good, and the frst step is to run a 64-bit version of Windows 7. These versions of Windows 7 are fully compatible with most of the 32-bit software that runs on 32-bit versions of the OS, and they are likewise just about as compatible with the wide number of hardware devices that are available on the market.

The biggest reason to go 64-bit is RAM: after all, 64-bit versions of Windows 7 can access far more RAM than 32-bit versions (up to 192GB, depending on which version of Windows 7 you’re talking about, compared to less than 4GB of RAM in 32-bit versions). Folks, with one minor exception, it’s time to say good-bye to 32-bit versions of Windows. So with Windows 7, almost universally, we recommend that you seek out 64-bit (x64) versions instead.

What is the one exception? Many netbook computers come with a version of Intel’s Atom microprocessor that is incompatible with the x64 instruction set, and thus with x64 versions of Windows 7. On such a PC, you will need to use a 32-bit version of Windows 7 instead. And that’s just fne: given the limited usage scenarios for these computing lightweights, that’s perfectly acceptable. It’s also the exception to the rule.

Though 32-bit versions of Windows 7 “support” 4GB of RAM, they can only access about 3.1GB of RAM, even when a full 4GB of RAM is installed in the PC. This is because of a limitation in the way that 32-bit versions of Windows handle memory access. If you were to install an x64 version of Windows 7 on the same system, you would have access to the entire 4GB of RAM. The 64-bit Windows 7 versions have dramatically improved memory capacity, as noted in the preceding tables.

Contrary to the conventional wisdom, 64-bit software isn’t magically faster than 32-bit software. That said, 64-bit PCs running a 64-bit version of Windows 7 and native 64-bit software can often outperform 32-bit alternatives. But that’s because you can stick far more RAM in the 64-bit machine: systems with massive amounts of memory just aren’t as constrained and can operate to their full potential.

Install Windows 7

2009-11-11T09:49:00.000-08:00

Installing Windows 7 on a New System

If you’ve just built a new computer from scratch, or if you’ve replaced your old drive C: with a new hard drive, you will have to do a clean install of Windows 7. From a purely technological standpoint, this is really your best option. You don’t have to bring any of the old ‘‘baggage’’ with you, but there in lies an issue.

You can opt to do a clean install even if you already have a version of Windows installed on the hard drive; however, you must realize that doing so is very serious business. When you do a clean install, you wipe out everything on your hard drive. And I do mean everything — all programs, documents, settings, Internet account information — everything. There’s no getting any of that stuff back, either.

Gearing Up for a Clean Install

Most experts prefer to do a clean install when they upgrade to a new version of Windows, largely because it gets everything off to a clean start. Besides, it’s a great excuse for upgrading to a bigger and faster hard drive. You can use your original hard drive as a second hard drive and easily transfer documents from that drive to the new drive after you’ve installed Windows 7 on the new drive. However, you’ll still need to reinstall all your programs and redo all your settings after you complete the installation.

Back up all your data

If you intend to keep your existing C: as the C: drive after the clean install, it’s important that you understand that you will permanently lose everything on that drive during the clean install. Therefore, you should:

- Write down all of your Internet connection data so that you can reestablish your account after the clean install.

- Back up or export all your e-mail messages, names and addresses, Favorites, and anything else you’ll want after the clean install so that you can recover them. Remember, whatever you don’t save will be lost forever. However, this does not apply for Web-based e-mail accounts that do not store messages on your computer.

- Back up all your documents, because each and every one of them will be wiped out along with
Windows and all your programs.

A clean install permanently erases everything on your hard drive, which is basically everything that’s ‘‘in your computer.’’ Users who do not fully understand the ramifications of this should not attempt to do a clean install of Windows 7 or any other operating system. It’s extremely difficult to recover data from an erased drive, but if you need that kind of help, you can turn to a data recovery service such as Driver Savers.

If Windows is currently installed on the C: drive you intend to reuse, you can use the Windows Easy Transfer to back up all your documents and settings. Ideally, you want to back up the data to another computer in the network. Windows Easy Transfer allows you to transfer files and folders, e-mail settings, and many other personal items from your existing computer to the new computer or hard drive. You can do this by using a USB Easy Transfer cable, the network, DVDs or CDs, or other external USB devices.

Given that hard drives are so inexpensive these days, it almost seems a shame not to start the clean install from a new hard drive. You don’t have to worry about losing any data from the old drive if you do a clean install of Windows 7 to a new drive.

Make sure that you can boot from your CD or DVD

By far, the easiest way to do a clean install on a new drive is to boot from the Windows 7 disc. You’ll want to make sure that you can do this before you do anything inside the computer. Most discs aren’t bootable, so you need to insert the Windows disc into the drive and restart the computer. Watch for the Press any key to boot from CD or DVD countdown message, and tap the spacebar before the countdown runs out. (In case you’re curious, it’s five seconds.)

If you see the Windows is loading files message, you know you can boot from a disc. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to reboot before setup actually starts, and remove the disc from the drive while the system is rebooting. Then, shut down the PC altogether. If you can’t boot the system from the Windows disc, you need to adjust your BIOS settings. Again, this isn’t something I can tell you how to do specifically, because it depends on your system’s BIOS.

But the usual scenario is to press F2 or Del as the computer is starting up to get to your BIOS setup. After you get into the BIOS settings, make sure that booting from the disc drive is enabled and that the disc drive has a higher priority than the hard drive.

If you’d rather not adjust your BIOS settings, many computers have the option of allowing you to select the boot device. Pressing a key during the startup process tells the BIOS that you want to select your boot device this one time. It can be the F10, F11, or F12 key, but you’ll want to check your computer’s documentation to find out which key it actually is.

If you do opt to change the BIOS settings, put the Windowsdiscbackintothediscdrive,saveyour BIOS settings, and exit so that the computer reboots again. If you got it right, you should see the Windows is loading files message again on restart, indicating that you’ve successfully booted from the disc. Cancel that startup as well, by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del, and remove the disc from the drive before the computer gets another chance to boot from the disc.

Installing a new C: drive

If you’re upgrading your C: drive along with your version of Windows, Step 1 is to hide existing hard drives from the system altogether so that to the BIOS, the new drive appears to be the only hard drive in the system. Simply disconnecting the power and interface plugs from the backs of the drives will do the trick. Never do anything inside your system case while the computer is turned on or even plugged into a power outlet. Wear an antistatic wrist strap to prevent static discharge from wiping out components and the warranties that go with them!

The next step involves getting the new drive installed to the point at which it’s at least recognized by the BIOS. I can’t tell you how to do that because the procedure varies from one drive manufacturer to the next. You must follow the instructions that came with the drive, or the instructions on the drive manufacturer’s Web site, to get to the point at which the system recognizes that drive at startup. Chances are, the drive manufacturer’s instructions will include steps to partition and format the drive. You should probably do so even if you intend to repartition and reformat the drive during the Windows 7 clean installation. You still won’t be able to boot from the drive, but at least the drive will be recognized as C during the Windows installation.

It’s also important to note which connection architecture your system uses, which determines how the
drive plugs into the motherboard. The vast majority of new systems today use Serial ATA (or SATA)
interface. Systems from a couple of years ago used both SATA and the older Parallel ATA (or PATA).
SATA cables are thin and have plastic connector tips, somewhat like USB. PATA cables are wide and
fiat and the connector blocks have two rows of holes.

The other part of the installation requires knowing how the drive will be powered. If you have a laptop, you need a 1.8-inch or 2.5-inch drive, and it will be bus powered. For desktop drives, you will either have the older Molex (white-tipped) power adapters or the newer, more common black- or red-tipped SATA power tips. Most systems have both Molex and SATA power adapters inside, but you need to pay close attention to the power that the drive needs. Some sATA drives come with Molex power ports, and you can find Molex-to-SATA type adapters online or in certain PC stores.

If you intend to handle the hard drive installation on your own, you need to become familiar with these interfaces and make sure that you get the correct drive to support it.

Doing the Clean Install

When you feel confident that you’ll be able to get back everything you want from your hard drive, you’re ready to start the clean install. Put the Windows disc in the disc drive and shut down the computer. Then, restart the computer and boot from the disc. Your system’s screen will go blank with a progress bar across the bottom of the screen while it copies some setup files. After the copy, the screen will change to a blue and green background, and you’ll be given a mouse pointer. Follow these steps to continue the installation:

1. At the Install Windows dialog box, select the Language, Time, and Currency format and the type of keyboard; then click the Next button.

2. Click the Install now link, and you’ll be prompted for the product key. After entering the product key, click the Next button.

3. If you accept the license terms, select the I Accept the License Terms box and click the Next button.

4. Select the Custom option to continue.

5. The next dialog box lists all the drives and partitions that the installation application sees on your system. Select the partition on which you want to install Windows 7. If you don’t see your drive, the controller your hard drive is connected to might require a special driver that the installation application doesn’t know about. You can click the Load Driver link to load the driver provided by the controller’s manufacturer. Clicking the Drive Options link enables the option to format the drive before installing Windows 7.

6. Select the partition on which Windows 7 will be installed and click the Format link. The installation application will prompt that the data on the drive will be erased and permanently deleted. Click the OK button as long as you are sure that your database has been saved elsewhere.

7. After the drive is formatted, the Total Size and Free Space columns will be almost identical. Don’t worry about any discrepancies. They are a result of how file systems and the formatting process works. Click the Next button to continue. At this point, the installation application will start copying files.

The Rest of the Installation

Copying the files and installing them to your system takes some time. When the installation continues, follow these steps:

1. You are prompted to create a username and password and optionally to choose a picture for your account.

2. Next, you need to create a name for your computer or use the name that the installation application has chosen for you. You can also choose a background image for your desktop.

3. In the Help Protect Windows Automatically dialog box, choosing Use Recommended Settings is usually best.

4. Choose your time zone and set the date and time in the Review Your Time and Date Settings dialog box; then click the Next button.

5. Finally, click the Start button, and the Windows 7 installation is complete.

The installation checks your system’s performance for a short time and then asks you to log in. At this point, Windows 7 has been installed, and you’re ready to start using it.

Upgrade Windows 7

2009-11-11T09:35:00.000-08:00

Upgrading to Windows 7

If you purchased an upgrade version of Windows 7 to replace your current version of Windows and you haven’t yet installed that upgrade, this is the place to be. To tell you the truth, you really don’t have to read this entire appendix to install your upgrade. You really just have to do this:

1. Insert the disc that came with your Windows 7 upgrade into your computer’s disc drive and wait a few seconds.

2. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen to install Windows 7 by upgrading your current version of Windows.

When the installation is complete, remove the new disc from your disc drive, put it someplace safe, and ignore the rest of this appendix. If these two steps don’t quite get the job done, please read on.

There is one point that I need to stress. It’s important that you know that Windows 7 can upgrade only from Windows Vista and no versions of Windows before it. I have run the beta version of the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor and, although the systems tested on were able to support Windows 7, I was required to perform a custom installation on Windows XP machines, which creates a new OS instance rather than an upgrade.

Windows 7 System Requirements

Windows 7 has the same hardware requirements as Windows Vista, but requires a bit more hardware horsepower than versions of Windows prior to Vista. The more hardware capability you have, the better Windows 7 will run. The recommended minimum hardware requirements are as follows:

- 1 GB of RAM for 32-bit (x86) versions; 2 GB of RAM for 64-bit (x64) versions
- A 1.0 Gigahertz (GHz) 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
- At least 16 GB free space available for 32-bit (x86) versions; 20 GB for 64-bit (x64) versions
- DirectX 9 capable GPU with WDDM 1.0 driver or higher (128 MBs of VRAM is required for the Aero theme)

Before upgrading your installation of Windows Vista, it would be a good idea to run the Windows Upgrade Advisor available at www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/upgrade-advisor.aspx as a free download. The tool generates a report that will indicate any shortcomings of your system and what you need to do to upgrade your computer if necessary.

Pre-installation Housekeeping

If you’ve been using your PC for a while with an earlier version of Windows, you’ll want to do some things before you begin your upgrade:

- If your computer has any time-out features, such as the power-down features found on some portable PCs, disable those features now.
- If you have an antivirus program handy, run it now to check for, and delete, dormant viruses that may still be lurking on your hard drive.
- Disable your antivirus software after you’ve run the check. Leave it disabled until after you’ve completed the upgrade.
- Make sure that any external devices (printers, modems, external disk drives, and so on) are connected and turned on so that Windows 7 can detect them during installation.
- If at all possible, back up the entire hard drive at this point. At the very least, jot down all the information you need to connect to your Internet account. Back up all your documents, e-mail messages, names and addresses, and anything else you’ll need after you complete the upgrade.

I realize that few people outside the corporate world have a means of backing up their entire hard drive. But you should be able to at least back up documents, e-mail messages, names and addresses, and so forth. Windows 7 includes Windows Easy Transfer that fills that need.

Installing Windows 7

To upgrade an existing version of Windows Vista, start your computer normally. You’d do well to restart the computer and get to a clean desktop with no open program windows or dialog boxes. Then put the Windows 7 disc in your disc drive and wait for the Welcome screen to open. If nothing appears on the screen within a minute or so, follow these steps:

1. Open My Computer.

2. Open the icon for your disc drive. If the Welcome screen opens, skip the next step.

3. Click (or double-click) the setup (or setup.exe) file on the disc.

By now, you should definitely see on your screen some options for installing Windows 7. To get things rolling:

1. Choose the Install Now option.

2. When the Get Important Updates for Installation window appears, you’re able to go online to get the latest updates for your installation ofWindows 7. If you choose this option, your system
needs to stay connected throughout the installation.

Before clicking Install, you can use the Windows Easy Transfer, an application included with Windows 7, for copying your files and settings to a different computer. See Chapter 12 for more information on Easy Transfer.

The installation procedure will begin. You might notice that the screen goes blank once in a while
during the installation. Don’t be alarmed; that’s normal. If the screen goes blank for a long time, try moving the mouse around a bit to bring it back. From here on out, you can just follow the instructions on the screen.

Installation options

The exact procedure from this point on will vary a bit, depending on what version of Windows 7
you’re installing. Also, the specific hardware that’s connected to your computer will affect the information that the setup procedure requests. Each request is largely self-explanatory, but here’s a summary of the items you’re likely to encounter along the way.

- Regional, Currency, and Language Options: Choose your preferred location, currency, and
keyboard layout.

- Product Key: Type the product key. You should be able to find it on the sleeve in which the
Windows 7 disc was delivered.

- License Terms: If you agree with the terms and conditions of the license, select the I Accept
the License Terms check box.

- Upgrade or Custom Installation: If you decide that you want to do a fresh installation,
choose the Custom option. This will not keep your personal files and programs. The Upgrade
option will.

- Compatibility Report: The installation application will look at your existing configuration and
indicate whether it finds devices that are incompatible with Windows 7.

- Security Settings: These settings let you determine how you want to protect your system.

- Date and Time Settings: Set the date and current time, choose your time zone, and decide
whether you want Windows to automatically adjust the time for daylight savings changes.

Reenabling old startup programs

You may discover that some of the programs that used to start automatically on your computer don’t do so after you’ve installed Windows 7. You can follow these steps to get those programs to start automatically again in the future:

1. Click Start, type msconfig, and then press Enter. This runs the System Configuration tool, which does not have an icon in the Windows menu.

2. Click the Startup tab.

3. To enable all previous auto-start programs, click the Enable All button. Optionally, select only those programs you want to auto-start.

4. Click OK.

5. Click the Start button, click the arrow to the right of the Power button, and select Restart. Windows 7 should restart with the programs from your previous version of Windows open and running.

How Firewalls Work ?

2009-11-10T10:02:00.000-08:00

To understand what a firewall is, you need to first understand what a network connection is. Even though you have only one skinny set of wires connecting your computer to the Internet (through a phone line or cable outlet), that connection actually consists of 65,535 ports. Each port can simultaneously carry on its own conversation with the outside world. So, theoretically, you could have 65,535 things going on at a time. Of course, nobody ever has that much going on all at one time. A handful of ports is more like it.

The ports are divided into two categories: TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and UDP (User Datagram Protocol). TCP is generally used to send text and pictures (Web pages and e-mail), and includes some error checking to make sure all the information that’s received by a computer matches what the sending computer sent. UDP works more like broadcast TV or radio, where the information is just sent out and there is no error checking. UDP is generally used for real-time communications, such as voice conversations and radio broadcasts sent over the Internet.

Each port has two directions: incoming (or ingress) and outgoing (or egress). The direction is in relation to stuff coming into your computer from the outside: namely the Internet. It’s the stuff coming into your computer that you have to watch out for. But you can’t close all ports to all incoming traffic. If you did, there’d be no way to get the good stuff in. But you don’t want to let everything in, either. You need a way to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak — a way to let in the good stuff while keeping out the bad stuff.

Antispyware and antivirus software are good tools for keeping out viruses and other bad things that are attached to files coming into your computer. But hackers can actually sneak worms and other bad things in through unprotected ports without involving a file in the process. That’s where the firewall comes into play. A stateful firewall, such as the one that comes with Windows 7, keeps track of everything you request. When traffic from the Internet wants to come in through a port, the firewall checks to make sure the traffic is something you requested. If it isn’t, the firewall assumes this is a hacker trying to sneak something in without your knowing it, and therefore prevents the traffic from entering your computer. Picture illustrates how it works.

So, there’s really more to it than just having a port open or closed. It’s also about filtering. About making sure that data coming into an open port is something you requested and not some rogue uninvited traffic sent by some hacker. Many of the worms that infected so many computers in the 1990s did so by sneaking in undetected through unfiltered ports. These days, you really want to make sure you have a firewall up whenever you go online to prevent such things.

What a firewall doesn’t protect against

It’s important to understand that a firewall alone is not sufficient protection against all Internet threats. A firewall is just one component in a larger defense system. Specifically:

- Windows firewall doesn’t protect you from spyware and viruses.

- Windows firewall doesn’t protect you from attacks based on exploits.

- A firewall doesn’t protect you from pop-up ads.

- A firewall doesn’t protect you from phishing scams.

- Windows firewall doesn’t protect you from spam (junk e-mail).

So, a firewall isn’t a complete solution. Rather, it’s an important component of a larger security strategy.

Computer Windows Long Start

2009-11-10T09:40:00.000-08:00

Computer Takes Too Long to Start

When the computer takes much longer to start than it used to, the problem is usually caused by too many programs trying to auto-start. Windows Defender to prevent unnecessary programs from starting automatically. Many things that prevent a computer from starting have nothing to do with Windows 7. It often takes even seasoned pros many hours to diagnose and repair startup problems. But before you resort to the repair shop, here are some other things you can try.

Restore system files to an earlier time

If you can get the computer to start in Safe Mode, try restoring your files to an earlier time. In Safe Mode, click the Start button, type Restore, and then click System Restore on the Start menu. Follow the on-screen instructions to restore system files from a date prior to when the problem began. Choose the most recent date. For example, if the problem started today, restore files from yesterday or the day before.

Repair Install Windows 7

If you have a CD or DVD with Windows 7 on it, you can boot from that disc and do a repair installation. Put that disc in the CD or DVD drive and start the computer. Watch the screen for a message that shows ‘‘Press any key to boot from CD or DVD’’ (or a similar message); then, press Enter or the spacebar.

If the option to boot from the CD or DVD never appears, and the computer won’t boot from that disc, you need to change your BIOS options to start from the CD drive. How you do that varies from one computer to the next. Typically, start the computer and then immediately start pressing the F1, F2, or Del key (perhaps all three, if you don’t know which is required) repeatedly as the computer is starting. This should take you to the BIOS Setup options. There you can configure the computer to try starting from the CD before it tries starting from the hard drive. Close and save the new settings. The computer will restart, and this time you should be able to boot from the CD or DVD. If you’re able to boot from the CD, the first screen you see will likely ask about your language and locale. Make any necessary changes and click Next. On the next page, click Repair Your Computer (not the Install Now option). Then just follow the on-screen instructions to do a repair install of Windows 7.

The instruction manual that came with your computer

Most computer manufacturers provide some means of helping you troubleshoot and repair startup problems. Be sure to look through whatever documentation you have for your computer manufacturer’s recommendations. That could be your best bet, because all computers are unique in some ways. The manual that came with your computer provides information that’s specific to your exact make and model of computer.

Windows Blue Screen

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Screen turns blue during startup and then stops

This is commonly referred to as the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). It doesn’t mean your computer is permanently broken. A frequent cause of this problem is a device driver that doesn’t work with Windows 7.

If you recently connected or installed a new hardware device, disconnect or uninstall it. Then start the computer again. That’s your best bet. If you still get the Blue Screen of Death, you’ll likely have to boot to Safe Mode and disable the device through Device Manager. This is not the sort of thing the average user normally does. This is more the kind of thing that a professional would handle.

If the error persists, look for an error number on the Blue Screen of Death page. It will most likely start with the characters 0x. Jot that number down on a sheet of paper. Then, if you can get online through another computer, go to Microsoft’s sites (http://search.microsoft.com or http://search.microsoft.com) or your favorite online search site (such as Google) and search for that number. You might find a page that offers an exact solution to that problem.

If you can get online through another computer, you might also consider posting a question at the Windows Communities site. Be sure to include the error number in your post. You might find someone who has already experienced and solved that very problem.

Computer Automatic Restart

2009-11-10T09:26:00.000-08:00

Computer keeps trying to start but never gets there

Get to Safe Mode and choose the option to disable automatic restart. If that doesn’t help, get to the
Safe Mode options again and try the Last Known Good Conﬁguration option.

Mouse and Keyboard don’t Work

2009-11-10T09:24:00.001-08:00

Computer starts but mouse and keyboard don’t work

If the computer starts, but doesn’t respond to the mouse and keyboard, turn off the computer. Unplug both the mouse and keyboard from the computer. If the mouse connects to a round PS/2 port, make sure you plug it in firmly. If the plug is round, make sure you plug it into the PS/2 port for the mouse (usually colored green). Make sure nothing is resting on the keyboard and holding down a key. Then firmly plug in the keyboard. If the plug is round, plug it into the PS/2 port for the keyboard (usually purple in color). Check all cable connections to the computer one more time. Then restart the computer.

Non-System Disk or Disk Error Message

2009-11-10T09:21:00.000-08:00

Non-System Disk or Disk Error message

This message appears when the computer attempts to boot from a disk on which Windows is not installed. If a floppy disk is in the floppy drive, remove it Likewise for any disk in the CD drive or DVD drive, or any drive that’s connected to the computer through a USB port. Press any key to continue startup. If that doesn’t work, press Ctrl+Alt+Del or restart the computer with the main on/off switch.

Computer Won’t Start

2009-11-10T09:18:00.000-08:00

If the computer does absolutely nothing when you first turn it on, your first move is to check all cable connections. Make sure the power plug on every device that plugs into the wall is firmly plugged in. Also, make sure the mouse, keyboard, and all other devices are firmly plugged into their slots. If it’s a desktop computer, look for a 0/1 power switch on the back of the computer and make sure it’s on (flipped to the 1 position). Turn on the computer again and as it’s powering up, push the button on the floppy disk drive (if the computer has one) and the CD or DVD drive. If there is a disk in either drive, remove it. If the computer sounds as though it’s starting up but you don’t see anything on the screen, make sure all plugs to the monitor are firmly seated. If it’s a desktop computer, make sure the monitor’s power cable is firmly attached to the monitor and wall socket, and that the cable connecting the computer to the monitor is firmly attached at both ends of the cable. Make sure the monitor is turned on. Then restart the computer.

Windows Navigating Help

2009-11-10T08:50:00.000-08:00

Windows Navigating Help

Across the top of the Help and Support Center, you see the buttons. (On your own screen, you can point to any button to see its name.)

Here’s what each button offers:

- Back: Takes you back to the help page you just left (if any). Disabled (dimmed) when there’s no page to go back to.

- Forward: Returns to the page you just backed out of. Disabled if you didn’t just back out of a page.

- Help and Support Home: Takes you to the same page that opens when you first open Help and Support.

- Print: Lets you print whatever help information you’re currently viewing.

- Browse Help: Takes you to the Table of Contents.

- Learn about Other Support Options: Takes you to options for getting online help from humans. (But no one is actually sitting there waiting to answer your questions. It’s more complicated than that.)

- Options: Provides the following options:

- Print: Same as clicking the Print button.

- Browse Help: Same as clicking the Browse Help button.

- Text Size: Changes the size of the text in the Help window. (A lifesaver if the text is too small to read!)

- Find (on This Page): Searches the current Help page (only) for a word or phrase you specify.

- Settings: Provides options for enabling or disabling online help and participation in Help Experience Improvement program.

Using the Search box
The Search box at the top of the Help and Support Center window is strictly for searching Help. It searches both the Help that’s in your computer and the more extensive online Help (if you’re online when you use the Search box). Use the Search box as you would the index at the back of a book. It works best if you know the exact term you’re looking for and how to spell that term. But even if you don’t know how to spell
it exactly, the Search feature works pretty well. For example, a search for desk top (wrong spelling) returns roughly the same results as desktop (correct spelling). You can also phrase your search as a question. For example, ‘‘What is a user account?’’ or ‘‘How do I create a user account?’’ Press Enter or click the magnifying glass button after typing your search term or question. The results will be a series of links to pages in Help that are relevant to your search phrase or question.

Online Help and Offline Help
There are really two types of help in Windows 7. There’s ofliine Help, which you can access at any time. There’s also online Help, which you can access only when you’re connected to the Internet. The online Help is more extensive than the ofliine Help. In the Help window’s lower-right corner, you’ll see an indicator that tells you which Help you’re currently accessing. Click that to choose to use Get Offline Help (only), or Online Help (which includes both offliine Help and online Help). To automatically include online Help in your searches, click Options, choose Settings, and then choose Improve My Search Results by Using Online Help (Recommended).

Windows Communities

2009-11-10T08:35:00.000-08:00

Windows Communities

Windows Communities are newsgroups in which other users hang out, ask questions, and answer questions. Nobody gets paid to work on newsgroups. It’s all done voluntarily. So there’s no charge to access the newsgroups.

Newsgroups aren’t an immediate gratification type of help. There isn’t anyone there waiting for your questions and standing ready to answer on the spot. It’s more like group e-mail: People post messages, and other people reply as convenient. This is another resource you can add to your list of resources for information. To get to the newsgroups, first make sure that your computer is online. Then click the Ask button in
Help and Support and click Windows Communities. Your Web browser opens to the home page for the communities. I can’t say exactly how it will look because it’s a Web page, and Web pages change all the time. But you should see a Search For box and some basic instructions.

It’s important to understand that when you type something in the Search For box, you’re not sending your question to an expert to read and answer. There is no live person on the other end to read and respond to your question. Instead, what you get is a list of all the previous newsgroup posts that contain the word or phrase for which you searched. The idea is to scroll through all the messages to see whether one looks as though it might help. Then click its message header (the text in bold) to expand the thread. A thread consists of the original message and all the replies to that message. To read any message in the thread, click its header in the left pane. The message text appears in the right pane.

To post your own question to a group, you need to set up an account. Don’t worry; you don’t have to give up any personal information. Nor will there ever be a charge. You need to set up the account only once, not every time you use the newsgroups. Posting a question starts with clicking Ask a Question. If you haven’t set up an account yet, you’ll be given the opportunity to do so on the next page that opens. Otherwise, if you already have set up an account, you can sign in by entering your username and password. After you do so, you’ll be able to
create a new post. When you’ve set up an account, you might find it easier to use a newsgroup client rather than your Web browser to access the newsgroups. You can use Windows Live Mail as that newsgroup client (even if you don’t use Windows Live Mail for e-mail).

Remote Assistance

2009-11-10T08:30:00.000-08:00

Remote Assistance

Remote Assistance is a technology that allows another person to see what’s on your computer screen and operate your computer with his or her mouse and keyboard. The idea here is to turn control of your computer over to a trusted expert to resolve your problem.

Microsoft Customer Support

2009-11-10T08:18:00.000-08:00

Microsoft customer support

Clicking the Microsoft Customer Support link takes you to a Web page that provides still more support options. There, you’ll ﬁnd a ton of links to different kinds of support for different kinds of questions. Take a look at all your options and decide what’s best for you.

Troubleshooting

2009-11-10T08:08:00.000-08:00

Troubleshooting computer problems isn’t easy; it involves a host of skills that take a lot of time, education, and experience to build. But you can use some resources to troubleshoot some of the more common problems without being a total computer geek. First, it’s important to understand that troubleshooting comes into play only when you already know how to do something but it’s not working as it should. This is not the same as not knowing how to do something, or not being able to ?gure out how to do something by guessing. It’s an important distinction to make because if you can’t do something because you don’t know how, troubleshooting won’t help.

As to nongeek troubleshooting, there are many resources for that. The first is Windows 7’s automated troubleshooting. Windows 7 can often recognize when something’s gone wrong. When it does, Windows 7 may pop up a message asking whether it’s okay to send information about the problem to Microsoft. You should always choose Yes. No human will receive the message. Nobody will call or pop up on your screen to solve the problem. Instead, another computer will check to see whether it’s a known problem that’s already been solved.

If a solution is available, you’ll (eventually) see a message in your Notification area offering to solve the problem. Just click that message and follow any additional instructions that appear on the screen. Hopefully, the problem will go away without your having to call in the pricey computer nerds. You can also use the Troubleshooting link in the Help and Support Center shown back. Click that link to ?nd solutions to common problems.

I’ve also included a troubleshooting chapter at the end of each part of this book. As with the Troubleshooting you get through the Help and Support Center, these chapters cover only some of the more common problems. There isn’t a book in the world that’s large enough to cover every possibility. Finally, the communities mentioned in the previous section can be a great resource. Just make sure that you explain exactly what the problem is so that people reading your post can determine what’s happening. Chances are, someone who reads your message has already encountered that problem and will offer a solution. Hey, it’s free. So it’s certainly worth a try.

Windows Live - Parental Controls

2009-11-10T08:03:00.000-08:00

Using Parental Controls from Windows Live

The Windows Live Family Safety add-on adds Web filtering and activity reporting to your toolbox of parental controls. To add these controls to your computer, first make sure you have a Windows Live account. If you don’t, you can create one the first time you visit the Web site. Open Internet Explorer, browse to http://home.live.com, and log in with your Windows Live ID (or create one). Then, click More and then click Family Safety Choose your language from the drop-down list and then click the Download button. Follow the displayed download instructions to start and complete the download process.

The Family Safety add-on gives you the following added capabilities:

- Activity reports: View reports of the Web activity and other Internet activity for the selected child.
- Content filtering: Specify the types of Web sites the child can access.
- Contact management: Specify the people the child can communicate with online through Windows Live Messenger, Hotmail, and Spaces on Windows Live. You can also allow the child to manage his or her own contact list.

To access the new Family Safety settings, click Start > All Programs > Windows Live > Windows Live Family Safety to open the Windows Live Family Safety Filter dialog box. Then, click the Go to the Family Safety link to navigate to the Windows Live Family Safety Web site. Through the Family Safety Web site, you can add child and parent accounts, as well as configure settings for each child’s account. To con?gure settings for a child, ?rst add the child’s account. Click the Add Child link, and if you have already created the child’s Windows Live account, click Sign in with This Child’s ID. If not, click Create Child ID.

After the account is created, you see it listed when you browse to the Family Safety Web site. You can
click the link under the Web Filtering, Activity Reporting, or Contact Management columns to set the corresponding setting.

Each Windows account by default uses the Windows Live ID that was used to install the Family Safety add-on. Before you allow a child to browse the Web, you need to log in to the computer with his/her account and log in to Family Safety with his/her Windows Live ID. Here’s how:

1. Log in to the computer using the child’s Windows account.

2. Click Start > All Programs > Windows Live > Windows Live Family Safety.

3. Click Sign Out to switch family members.

4. In the Sign In to Family Safety dialog box, enter the child’s Windows Live credentials. If you don’t want the child to have to enter the credentials each time, select the Remember My Password and Sign Me In Automatically options. Then click Sign In.

Defining Web restrictions
The World Wide Web contains millions of Web sites and billions of Web pages. No one person or company has control over what goes on the Web. It’s very much a public place where anyone can post any content they wish. Obviously, not all that content is suitable for children. (Much of it isn’t particularly appropriate for adults, either.)

To define Web restrictions, navigate to the Family Safety Web site as described previously, and click Add a Child. If the child’s account already exists and is listed, just click the child’s account. In the resulting Web Filtering page, you can choose between the following three options:

- Strict: Block all Web sites except child-friendly sites and sites you’ve explicitly allowed.
- Basic: Block only adult content.
- Custom: Choose from multiple types of sites those you will allow the child to access.

In addition to choosing between these three primary options, you can explicitly add sites to the list of allowed or blocked sites. To add a site, click in the text box under Allow or Block a Website, type the site’s URL, and choose the desired action from the drop-down list, such as Allow for This Account Only. Then, click Add. When you’re satisfied with the settings, click Save.

GetWeb sites working
If you’ve set restrictions on Web sites, you might need to do a little tweaking to get the sites working. Log out of your administrative account (click the Start button, click the arrow next to the lock, and then click Log Off). Then log in to the child’s account. Browse to an allowed Web site. If some content from the site is blocked, you’ll see a warning in the information bar (Infobar). You can click the Infobar to review portions of the site that are blocked. Typically, allowing the child to see the blocked content is perfectly safe because it’s still age-appropriate. But you’ll need to choose Always Allow when prompted to make sure the child can visit the site when you’re away.

You can also use one of the child’s allowed sites as the default home page that appears when the child first opens the Web browser. In Internet Explorer, browse to whatever Web page you want to make the default. Then click the Home button in the toolbar (or press Alt+M) and click Add or Change Home Page. Choose Use this Webpage as Your Only Home Page and click Yes. You might also want to add all the allowed sites to the child’s Favorites. For more information on Internet Explorer, Favorites, and default home pages. When you want to get back to performing parental (administrative) tasks, log out of the child’s account. Then log back into your administrative account. Next, you want to specify exactly what the child can and can’t do with the computer. Your options are described in the sections that follow.

Viewing User Activity Reports - Windows Parental Control

2009-11-07T10:00:00.000-08:00

Viewing User Activity Reports - Windows Parental Control

User activity reports provide a summary of user activity. You can view the report for any user at any time, and you can review a child’s computer activity by following these steps:

1. Navigate to the Windows Live Family Safety Web site as described previously.

2. Log in with your Windows Live account and then click the icon beside the user whose reports you want to view.

3. Click the Activity Reporting link.

4. In the Web activity tab, choose the range of dates you want to view and click Refresh. By default, the site shows the previous seven days of activity.

5. Click the Other Internet activity tab to view reports for the child’s other Internet activity.

Technical approaches to online safety, such as parental controls, are a good thing. But they cannot cover all possible risks. Kids like to get involved with instant messaging and chats in which people aren’t always who they claim to be. Children should be taught some basic ground rules. For example, children should never give out personal information, such as where they live or go to school. If anything makes them feel uncomfortable, they should report it to their parents. They should never agree to meet with anyone. As a parent, you have many online resources for sharing your concerns with others and getting advice. You don’t need to be a technical whiz to take advantage of these sites. Here are some you might want to add to your Favorites:

- Safe Kids: www.safekids.com
- Child Safety: www.microsoft.com/athome/security/children
- CyberAngels: www.cyberangels.org/
- GetNetWise: www.getnetwise.org/

Using the Windows Parental Controls

2009-11-07T09:53:00.000-08:00

How to use Windows Parental Controls
Windows 7 provides three options for controlling how your children (or even you) can use the computer. These are as follows:

- Time Limits: Specify the hours during each day that the child can use the computer.
- Games: Specify whether the child can play games on the computer, and set the rating and content types that are allowed.
- Allow and Block Specific Programs: Select which programs the child can run.

Getting to the Parental Controls Page

Fortunately, you don’t need to be a computer guru to set up parental controls. After you’ve set up appropriate user accounts, the rest is easy. Here are the steps:

1. Log in to a user account that has administrative privileges.

2. Do whichever of the following is most convenient for you at the moment:
- Tap WIN key,type par in the search box, and click Parental Controls.
- Click the Start button, choose Control Panel, and click Set Up Parental Controls for Any User.

3. You come to a page that shows the name and picture for each user account you’ve created, as in the example in picture. Click the user account for which you want to set up parental controls.

Now you’re in the parental controls page shown in picture. Any options you choose are applied to the account shown in the page. For example, I’m setting up parental controls for a user named Gene. To activate parental controls for the account, choose On, Enforce Current Settings under the Parental Controls heading. After you turn on parental controls, you can choose which controls to apply for the selected user.

Setting time limits

To specify times when the child is allowed to use the computer, click Time Limits. You see a grid of days and times. Initially, all squares are white, meaning there are no restrictions. You can click any time slot for which the child isn’t allowed to use the computer to turn it blue. Or, drag the mouse pointer through a longer stretch of time to block more time.

Optionally, you can place the mouse pointer in the upper-left corner of the grid and drag down to the lower-right corner to block all times. Then drag the mouse pointer through the times that the child is allowed to use the computer. For example, in Figure 4-3, the child is allowed to use the computer from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm on Sunday, 3:00 to 7:00 on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, 3:00 to 9:00 on Friday, and 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Saturday. Click OK after setting allowable times. You can change those settings at any time by clicking Time Limits again when appropriate. For example, if the child needs a ‘‘time out’’ from the computer, you can block out all the times so that the child can’t use the computer at all!

Sometimes you might want to allow your children to use the computer but not use the Internet. For example, they might need to do homework but you don’t want them on the Web. You can prevent their access to the Internet by blocking Internet Explorer, but I block Internet traffic at the home firewall instead. With a single click in the firewall interface, I can allow or deny traffic to the kids’ computer. Configuring a firewall is outside the scope of this chapter, but I offer this tip to give you another way to control how your children use the computer.

Controlling game play

To control the child’s game play, click Games. Doing so opens the page shown in Picture. If you don’t want the child to use the computer for game play at all, choose No. Otherwise, choose Yes. If you choose Yes, you can block games based on content. Click Set Game Ratings. Your first options will be base don ESRB ratings. ESRB stands for Entertainment Software Rating Board, an independent third party that rates games for age appropriateness and specific content. The ratings are similar to movie ratings (G, PG, R, and so forth), but specific to computer games.

To use a rating system other than ESRB, click the Back button until you get to the first parental controls page that shows user accounts. Then click Select a Games Rating System in the left column.

To prevent the child from playing games that have no ESRB rating, choose Block games with no rating. Then read each rating and click whichever rating is the most appropriate for your child. The child will be able to play games up to, and including, the rating you choose. Then you can scroll down the page and block more games based on content type. To block games based on content, select the type of content you want to block. When you get to the bottom of the list and have blocked all the content that you feel is inappropriate, click OK. Finally, you can click Block or Allow Speci?c Games to allow or block games installed on your computer. For each listed game, you can choose User Rating Setting to block based on the ESRB rating. Or you can choose Always Allow to let the child play the game. Or choose Always Block to prevent the child from playing that game. Click OK after making your selections. Then click OK again to return to the main parental controls page for your child.

Blocking and allowing programs

Clicking Allow and Block Specific Programs takes you to a page that lists all the programs installed on your computer. There you can opt to allow the child to use all programs. Or choose Can Only Use the Programs I Allow. If you choose the second option, you need to select the check box next to each program that the child is allowed to use. Click OK after making your selections.

When you’ve ?nished setting up parental controls for the child, the account name and picture summarize your settings. You can click OK to return to the list of user accounts. From there, you can click another account to which you want to assign parental controls. Or close the window if you’re finished setting up parental controls.

Of course, you can add or change parental controls at any time. Just use any technique described under ‘‘Getting to the Parental Controls Page,’’ earlier in this chapter, to get to the main page. Then click the account for which you want to add or change parental controls.

Windows Parental Controls

2009-11-07T09:27:00.000-08:00

Parental Controls and Family Safety

Keeping kids safe online isn’t always easy for parents. Especially for the parent who hasn’t exactly been riding the crest of the tech wave in recent years. Parental controls are a great ?rst step to keeping children safe online. Better yet, you don’t need to be a computer guru to set parental controls. After you’ve set up standard user accounts for children, the rest is fairly easy. In this chapter, you see just how easy it is to set up parental controls in Windows 7 and how to extend parental controls with Windows Live.

Before You Get Started

For parental controls to work, your computer must be set up with at least one password-protected administrator user account. If you set up multiple user accounts with administrative privileges, make sure that they’re all password-protected. And make sure the kids don’t know the password. Otherwise, the kids can easily go in and change any parental controls you import. Furthermore, each child should have his or her own standard user account. There you can learn everything you need to know about setting up user accounts.

Finally, understand that Windows 7 offers a certain set of features for parental control. You can add other features by downloading the Family Safety add-on from Microsoft Windows Live. The ?rst half of this chapter covers the parental controls that are built into Windows 7, and the second half covers the Windows Live add-ons.

Switch Between Programs

2009-11-07T07:11:00.000-08:00

Switch Between Programs

Whenever you have two or more programs open at the same time, you want to be able to easily switch among them. You have several ways to switch among open programs, as discussed in the sections to follow.

Switching with taskbar buttons

As mentioned, almost every open program has a button on the taskbar. When you have multiple open programs, you have multiple taskbar buttons. To make any one particular program active, click its taskbar button. If you’re not sure which button is which, point to each button. You see the name and a miniature copy of the program that the button represents. You also see a full-size preview of the window, a new feature in Windows 7.

Switching with the keyboard

If you prefer the keyboard to the mouse, you can use Alt+Tab to switch among open windows. Hold down the Alt key and then press the Tab key. You see a thumbnail image for each open programm window. Keep the Alt key pressed down and keep pressing Tab until the name of the program you want to switch to appears above the icons. Then release the Alt key.

Switching with Flip 3D
If you’re using the Aero Glass interface in Windows 7, you can use Flip 3D to switch among windows. Hold down the WIN key and press Tab. The desktop darkens, and any program windows you have open appear in the three-dimensional view.

When you see the three-dimensional stack, you can click any window to bring that window to the top of the stack on your desktop. If your mouse has a wheel, you can cycle through windows by spinning the mouse wheel. If you use the keyboard, keep the WIN key held down and press the Tab key until the window you want is at the front of the stack. When you release WIN key, that same window will be on the top of the stack on the desktop. In Windows Vista, Flip 3D was accessible from the Quick Launch taskbar. That taskbar isn’t included in the Windows 7 interface, but you can create a shortcut for Flip 3D and pin it to the taskbar.

Here’s how:

1. Right-click the desktop and choose New -> Shortcut.

2. In the Type the Location of the Item text box, type c:\windows\system32\rundll32.exe DwmApi #105 and then click Next.

3. Name the shortcut Flip 3D and click Finish.

4. Right-click the shortcut and choose Properties.

5. Click the Shortcut tab of the item’s Properties dialog box and then click Change Icon.

6. Click Browse, and in the Windows\System32 folder, locate and select the file imageres.dll; then click Open.

7. Select the Flip 3D icon (or another icon of your choice) and click OK.

8. Click OK to close the Properties dialog box for the shortcut.

9. Drag the shortcut to the taskbar to pin it there. You can then delete the original shortcut from the desktop, if you prefer.

Whenever you want to use Flip 3D, just click the shortcut icon in the taskbar to display the open programs on the desktop, and click the window you want to use. You can also scroll with the mouse to cycle through the windows.

Running Programs

2009-11-07T06:52:00.000-08:00

Running Programs

You can start any program that’s installed on your computer by finding the program’s icon on the All Programs menu and then clicking that icon. You have other ways to start programs as well. For example, if an icon appears on the left side of the Start menu to start the program, just click that instead. If you see an icon for the program in the Quick Launch toolbar, you can click that. If you see a shortcut icon to the program on the desktop, you can click (or double-click) that icon to start the program.

Every time you start a program, an instance of that program opens in a program window. No rule exists that says you can have only one program open at a time. Nor are you limited to having only one copy of any given program open at a time. You can have as many programs open simultaneously as you can cram into your available memory (RAM). Most programs allow you to run multiple instances. The more memory your system has, the more stuff you can have open without much slowdown in performance.

Any item you open on the desktop usually shows its own name somewhere near the top of the program window. Figure 2-13 shows an example in which I have Getting Started open on the desktop. You see its name in the address bar near the top of the window, appearing either by itself or as part of a string of items. Most items that you open also have a taskbar button. The name in the taskbar button matches the name of the item. For example, the taskbar button for the open Getting Started also shows the words Getting Started when you hover the pointer over the icon. You can click the Getting Started taskbar button to make the open window appear and disappear. That’s a good thing to know, because sometimes you want to get something off the screen temporarily so that you can see something else on the screen.

When you have multiple program windows open, they stack up on the desktop the way multiple sheets of paper on your real desktop stack up. When you have multiple sheets of paper in a pile, you can’t see what’s on every page. You can see only what’s on the top page, because all the other pages are covered by that page.

It works the same way with program windows. When you have multiple program windows open, you can see only the one that’s on the top of the stack. We call the program that’s on the top of the stack the active window.

Arranging Desktop Icons

2009-11-07T06:42:00.000-08:00

As you discover, you have many ways to customize the Windows 7 desktop. But if you just want to make some quick, minor changes to your desktop icons, right-click the desktop to view its shortcut menu. Items on the menu that have a little arrow to the right show submenus. For example, if you right-click the desktop and point to View on the menu, you see the View menu, as shown in picture.

The final item on the View menu, Show Desktop Items, needs to be selected (checked) for the icons to show at all. If no checkmark appears next to that item, click that item. The menu closes and the icons appear on the desktop. When you need to see the menu again, just right-click the desktop again. The top three items on the menu, Large Icons, Medium Icons, and Small Icons, control the size of the icons. Click any option to see its effect. If you don’t like the result, right-click the desktop again, choose View, and choose a different size.

The Sort By option on the desktop shortcut menu lets you arrange desktop icons alphabetically by Name, by Size, by Type, or by Date Modi?ed. However, no matter how you choose to sort icons, the built-in icons are sorted separately from those you create. Custom shortcut icons you create yourself are listed after the built-in icons. So if you sort by name, the built-in icons are listed alphabetically first. Then any shortcut icons you created are alphabetized after those. If you sort in reverse order, however (choose Sort, by Name twice), the custom items display first, followed by the built-in icons.

Windows Desktop Icons

2009-11-07T06:34:00.000-08:00

Windows Desktop Icons

Desktop icons are just like the icons on the Start menu. Each icon represents a closed object that you can open by double-clicking the icon. Most desktop icons are shortcuts to files and folders. They’re shortcuts in the sense that they duplicate icons available elsewhere. They just save you the extra clicks required to get to the same icon through the Start menu or All Programs menu.

Rules always have exceptions. When it comes to desktop icons, the Recycle Bin is the exception. The Recycle Bin icon exists only on the desktop, and you won’t find it anywhere else. The role of the Recycle Bin is that of a safety net. Whenever you delete a file or folder from your hard drive, the item is actually just moved to the Recycle Bin. You can restore an accidentally deleted item from the Recycle Bin back to its original location.

In addition to the Recycle Bin, you have other built-in desktop icons from which to choose. If you want to take a shot at adding icons, you have to get to the Personalization page and make some selections. You can use either of the following techniques to get to the Personalization page:

- Click the Start button, type pers, and click Personalization.
- Right-click the desktop and choose Personalize.

The Personalization Control Panel applet opens. In its left column, click Change Desktop Icons. You see a dialog box like the one in picture It’s called a dialog box because you carry on a sort of dialog with it. It shows you options from which you can pick and choose. You make your choices and click OK. You’ll see menu dialog boxes throughout this book.

To make an icon visible on your desktop, select (click to put a checkmark in) the check box next to the icon’s name. To prevent an icon from appearing on the desktop, click the check box to the left of its name to deselect it (remove the checkmark). In the?gure,I’veopted to see all icons except the Network and Control Panel icons. You can choose a different picture for any icon you’ve opted to show on the desktop. Click the icon’s picture in the middle of the dialog box. Then click the Change Icon button. Click the icon you want to show and then click OK. If you change your mind after the fact, click Restore Default. Click OK after making your selections. The dialog box closes and the icons you choose appear on the desktop. However, you might not see them if that part of the desktop is covered by something that’s open. Don’t worry about that. You learn about how you open, close, move, and size things on the desktop a little later in this chapter.

If nothing is covering the desktop, but you still don’t see any desktop icons, they might just be switched off. I cover this topic in the next section.