Microsoft Window Vista : learn Vista the quick and easy way

625 Pages·2006·16.732 MB·English

by  Chris Fehily

final spine = 1.2188
B o o k L E v E L
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intermediate
Visual quickstart guide advanced
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Visual quickstart guide
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Visual QuickStart Guide—the quick and easy way to learn!
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n Easy visual approach uses pictures to guide you through Microsoft Windows
Vista and show you what to do.
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q Start Menu • printing • installing programs • security • Internet Explorer • Mail
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having used Windows even before version 1.0, when it was called Interface ic Windows Live Messenger • organizing files • networks • Start Menu • printing
k • installing programs • security • Internet Explorer • Mail • search • Sidebar and
Manager. His other books for Peachpit Press include Visual QuickStart Guides to st Gadgets • MeQdia Pulayiecr • kPho tao Gnalledry • MEoavie sMayke r W• Winadowys !Live Messen-
Windows XP and to the Python and SQL programming languages. a
r ger • organizing files • networks • Start Menu • printing • installing programs
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g Player • Photo Gallery • Movie Maker • Windows Live Messenger • organiz-
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d Internet Explorer • Mail • search • Sidebar and Gadgets • Media Player • Photo
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Gallery • Movie Maker • Windows Live Messenger • organizing files • networks
• Start Menu • printing • installing programs • security • Internet Explorer • Mail
• search • Sidebar and Gadgets • Media Player • Photo Gallery • Movie Maker •
Windows Live Messenger • organizing files • networks • Start Menu • printing
• installing programs • security • Internet Explorer • Mail • search • Sidebar and
Gadgets • Media Player • Photo Gallery • Movie Maker • Windows Live Messen-
ger • organizing files • networks • Start Menu • printing • installing programs
US $21.99 Canada $26.99 uk £15.99 • security • Internet Explorer • Mail • search • Sidebar and Gadgets • Media
Peachpit Press Player • Photo Gallery • Movie Maker • Windows Live Messenger • organiz-
1249 Eighth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710 FEHILY ing files • networks • Start Menu • printing • installing programs • security •
800 283-9444 510 524-2178 fax [phone] Internet Explorer • Mail • search • Sidebar and Gadgets • Media Player • Photo
Find us on the Web at: www.peachpit.com
Gallery • Movie Maker • Windows Live Messenger • organizing files • networks
For CoMPutErS uSInG: Microsoft Windows Vista Home/Business/Enterprise/ultimate Editions • Start Menu • printing • installing pCrogHramRs •I sSecu rFityE • InHterInLet YExp lorer • Mail
CoMPutEr Book SHELF CAtEGory: Windows / Windows Vista • search • Sidebar and Gadgets • Media Player • Photo Gallery • Movie Maker •
Windows Live Messenger • organizing files • networks • Start Menu • printing
434528_windows_vista_vqs.indd 1 12/1/06 4:21:14 PM
Ch0 Vista (i-xii) FM 12/1/06 3:01 PM Page i
VISUAL QUICKSTART GUIDE
Microsoft
W V
INDOWS ISTA
Chris Fehily
Peachpit Press
Ch0 Vista (i-xii) FM 12/1/06 3:01 PM Page ii
Visual QuickStart Guide
Microsoft Windows Vista
Chris Fehily
Peachpit Press
1249 Eighth Street
Berkeley, CA94710
510/524-2178
800/283-9444
510/524-2221 (fax)
Find us on the Web at: www.peachpit.com
To report errors, please send a note to [email protected]
Peachpit Press is a division of Pearson Education
Copyright © 2007 by Chris Fehily
Managing editor: Clifford Colby
Editor: Kathy Simpson
Production editor: Andrei Pasternak
Compositor: Owen Wolfson
Indexer: Rebecca Plunkett
Cover design: The Visual Group
Notice of Rights
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher. For information on getting permission for reprints and excerpts,
contact [email protected].
Notice of Liability
The information in this book is distributed on an "As Is" basis without warranty. While every
precaution has been taken in the preparation of the book, neither the author nor Peachpit shall
have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to
be caused directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in this book or by the computer
software and hardware products described in it.
Trademarks
Visual QuickStart Guide is a registered trademark of Peachpit Press, a division of Pearson
Education.
Throughout this book, trademarks are used. Rather than put a trademark symbol in every
occurrence of a trademarked name, we state that we are using the names in an editorial fashion
only and to the benefit of the trademark owner with no intention of infringement of the
trademark.
ISBN 0-321-43452-8
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed and bound in the United States of America
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For Brian, Ken, Steve,
Stu, Cliff, and Darren
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Special Thanks to…
Kathy Simpson for staying ahead of me
Cliff Colby for working backstage
Andrei Pasternak for coordinating
Owen Wolfson for squashing
Rebecca Plunkett for rotating terms
Ch0 Vista (i-xii) FM 12/1/06 3:01 PM Page v
Contents at a Glance
Introduction xiii
Chapter 1: Getting Started 1
Chapter 2: The Desktop 55
Chapter 3: Getting Help 103
Chapter 4: Personalizing Your Work Environment 117
Chapter 5: Organizing Files and Folders 181
C
Chapter 6: Installing and Running Programs 251 o
n
t
e
Chapter 7: Printing, Scanning, and Faxing 285 n
t
s
Chapter 8: Setting up Hardware 313 a
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Chapter 9: Digital Photos 331 a
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Chapter 10: Windows Media Player 357 a
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Chapter 11: Windows Movie Maker 391 e
Chapter 12: Connecting to the Internet 411
Chapter 13: Security and Privacy 421
Chapter 14: Internet Explorer 445
Chapter 15: Email, Contacts, and Calendars 471
Chapter 16: Windows Live Messenger 497
Chapter 17: Managing User Accounts 509
Chapter 18: Setting up a Small Network 519
Chapter 19: Working Remotely 539
Chapter 20: Maintenance & Troubleshooting 551
Appendix: Installing Windows Vista 571
Index 581
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Table of Contents
Introduction xiii
What Windows Does. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv
The Editions of Windows Vista. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
What’s New in Windows Vista. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvi
Upgrading to Windows Vista. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviii
About This Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
s Chapter 1: Getting Started 1
t
n
e Logging On and Logging Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
t
n Using Welcome Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
o
Exploring the Windows Interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
C
f The Mouse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
o
e The Keyboard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
l Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
b
a Toolbars. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
T
Icons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Windows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Dialog Boxes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Transferring Data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Chapter 2: The Desktop 55
Exploring the Start Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Using the Start Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Customizing the Start Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Exploring the Taskbar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Managing Windows by Using the Taskbar. . . . . . 74
Customizing the Taskbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Using the Notification Area. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Adding Toolbars to the Taskbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Using the Quick Launch Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Using the Sidebar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Managing Shortcuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Tidying Your Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
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Table of Contents
Chapter 3: Getting Help 103
Starting Help and Support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Browsing Help and Support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Searching Help and Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Getting Help on the Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Capturing Screen Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Allowing Others to Connect to Your
Computer Remotely. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Chapter 4: Personalizing Your
Work Environment 117
Using Control Panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Setting the Window Color and Color Scheme. . 121
Setting the Desktop Background. . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Setting the Screen Saver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Setting the Desktop Theme. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
T
Configuring the Monitor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 a
b
Configuring the Mouse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 l
e
Configuring the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 o
f
Configuring Sound and Audio Devices. . . . . . . . 140 C
Setting the Date and Time. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 o
n
Localizing Your System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 t
e
Accommodating Disabled Users. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 n
t
Using Speech Recognition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 s
Using Alternative Mouse Behavior. . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Conserving Power. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Managing Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Managing Visual Effects and Performance . . . . 175
Restoring the Old Windows Look . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Getting General System Information. . . . . . . . . . 179
Chapter 5: Organizing Files and Folders 181
Exploring Your Computer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Storing Stuff in Your Personal Folder. . . . . . . . . . 185
Using Windows Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Navigating in Windows Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Tagging Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Filtering, Sorting, Stacking, and
Grouping Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Customizing a Folder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Setting Folder Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Creating Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Naming Files and Folders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
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Table of Contents
Moving and Copying Files and Folders. . . . . . . . 212
Sending Files and Folders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Deleting Files and Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Compressing Files and Folders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Searching for Files and Folders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Saving Searches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Burning CDs and DVDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Using Keyboard Shortcuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Chapter 6: Installing and Running Programs 251
Installing Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Removing Programs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Turning Windows Features On or Off. . . . . . . . . 259
Launching Programs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
Launching Programs Automatically . . . . . . . . . . 262
Running Older Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
s Switching Programs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
t
n Exiting Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
e
t Killing Unresponsive Programs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
n
o Using the Free Utility Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
C
f Saving Documents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
o Opening Documents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
e
l Associating Documents with Programs. . . . . . . 281
b
a
T Chapter 7: Printing, Scanning, and Faxing 285
Installing a Printer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Sharing a Network Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Setting Printer Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Printing Documents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Controlling Printouts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Scanning and Faxing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
Chapter 8: Setting up Hardware 313
Connecting Devices to Your Computer. . . . . . . . 314
Installing a New Device. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
Setting up Bluetooth Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
Managing Device Drivers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
Chapter 9: Digital Photos 331
Importing Photos to Your Computer. . . . . . . . . . 332
Getting Started with Windows Photo Gallery. . 338
Viewing Photos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Finding Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
Touching up Photos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Printing Photos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
viii
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Table of Contents
Ordering Prints Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Emailing Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Using Keyboard Shortcuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
Chapter 10: Windows Media Player 357
Getting Started with Media Player. . . . . . . . . . . . 358
Playing Music CDs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Customizing the Now Playing Tab. . . . . . . . . . . . 364
Viewing Visualizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
Changing Player Appearance with Skins . . . . . . 367
Shopping Online. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
Listening to Radio Stations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Ripping CDs to Your Hard Drive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
Organizing Your Library. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
Working with Playlists. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
Burning Music CDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
Playing DVDs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388 T
a
Using Keyboard Shortcuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390 b
l
e
Chapter 11: Windows Movie Maker 391 o
f
Getting Started with Movie Maker. . . . . . . . . . . . 392 C
o
Importing Content. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
n
Organizing Your Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398 t
e
Creating a Project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399 n
t
Editing a Project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400 s
Editing Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
Adding Visual Content. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
Adding Audio Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
Publishing a Movie. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
Chapter 12: Connecting to the Internet 411
Understanding Connection Types. . . . . . . . . . . . 412
Connecting to the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
Chapter 13: Security and Privacy 421
Checking Your Security Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422
Using a Firewall. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
Updating Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
Defending Against Viruses and Spyware . . . . . . 434
Setting Parental Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440
Encrypting Data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
ix