Alan Simpson's Windows Vista Bible, Desktop Edition

890 Pages·2007·23.28 MB·English

by  Alan Simpson

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Alan Simpson’s
Windows Vista™
Bible Desktop
Edition
Alan Simpson & Bradley L. Jones
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Alan Simpson’s
Windows Vista™ Bible
Desktop Edition
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Alan Simpson’s
Windows Vista™
Bible Desktop
Edition
Alan Simpson & Bradley L. Jones
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Alan Simpson’s Windows Vista™Bible, Desktop Edition
Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
10475 Crosspoint Boulevard
Indianapolis, IN 46256
www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2007 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
ISBN: 978-0-470-04640-1
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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
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TICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PRO-
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trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and/or its affiliates, in the United States and other
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From Alan Simpson
To my “Introduction to Windows XP” students,
who taught me how to explain this stuff.
From Bradley L. Jones
To the girls in my life—my wonderful twin daughters,
Aubrey and Lilian (“Lili”) and my glorious wife, Melissa.
About the Authors
Alan Simpsonis the author of more than 90 computer books, on topics rang-
ing from Windows to word processing and Web-page design to databases. His
books have been translated into more than a dozen languages and have sold
millions of copies throughout the world. Prior to becoming a full-time author,
Alan taught computer science at the college level and served as a computerized-
training consultant to the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy.
Bradley L. Jonesis an international bestselling author with more than a dozen
books ranging from fixing PCs to Windows to learning how to use various pro-
gramming languages. He is also the site manager of a number of high-profile
web sites and discussion forums for Jupitermedia. Sites include
Developer.com, JavaScripts.com, DevX, and many more.
In addition to his books, articles, and site work, he is also active in the commu-
nity as a leader with local user groups. In addition to his many credits, he has
also been recognized as a most valuable professional (MVP) by Microsoft
Corporation.
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Credits
Acquisitions Editor Vice President and Executive
Katie Mohr Publisher
Joseph B. Wikert
Development Editor
Kelly Dobbs Henthorne Project Coordinator
Heather Kolter
Technical Editor
Dan DiNicolo Graphics and Production Specialists
Carrie Foster
Production Editor Denny Hager
Felicia Robinson Jennifer Mayberry
Barbara Moore
Editorial Manager Amanda Spagnuolo
Mary Beth Wakefield
Quality Control Technicians
Production Manager Laura Albert
Tim Tate John Greenough
Vice President and Executive Group Proofreading and Indexing
Publisher Aptara
Richard Swadley
Anniversary Logo Design
Richard Pacifico
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Contents
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiii
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiv
Part I: Beginner’s Crash Course 1
Chapter 1: Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Getting to Know Your Computer’s Hardware. . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Using Your Mouse or Touchpad. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Using Your Keyboard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Typing Those key1+ key2Things. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Getting to Know Your Computer’s Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
What Is Windows Vista? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Why Learn Windows Vista? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Starting Windows Vista. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
The Windows Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
The Taskbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
The Notification Area. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Using Icons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Working Common Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Using Scroll Bars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Hiding and Showing Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Using Dragging Handles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
About Disabled (Dimmed) Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
The Right Way to Turn Off Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Chapter 2: Workin’ It. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Understanding Objects and Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Introducing Control Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Control Panel Home View and Classic View . . . . . . . . . 30
Using Dialog Boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Using Tabs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Using Option Buttons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Using Check Boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Using Spin Boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35