Part 1 The Vista User Experience CO PY RI GH TE D MA TE RI AL If such a thing as a beautiful user interface for a personal computer operating system exists, Microsoft’s Windows Vista, shown in the following figure, is surely at the top of this list. However, as you find out in this part, the Windows Vista desktop is much more than just a pretty face.
Part 1: The Vista User Experience Aero Glass Interface In Windows Vista, A is for Aero Glass, the name given to the operating system’s graphical user interface (GUI). The name is a combination of the acronym AERO — Authentic, Energetic, Reflective, and Open — which describes the original design goals for the new operating system, and glass (the stuff of which actual windows are made), this stunning new user interface is all about clarity, in the sense of both brightness and simplicity.
Aero Glass Interface 3 The second thing to notice is the relative transparency and high degree of reflectiveness displayed by the various Vista screen elements, especially the taskbar, Start menu, and title bars of open windows (depending upon the graphics capability of your computer). You notice the transparency most in the title bars of windows and in the right column of the Start menu (especially when the menu is on top of another open window, as in Figure 1-2).
Part 1: The Vista User Experience The live visual previews in Vista show up in several really cool desktop features: live taskbar thumbnails, Flip, and Flip 3D, which are used to switch between open windows. The live taskbar thumbnails feature enables you to see a thumbnail version and name of any window that is currently minimized on the Vista taskbar simply by positioning the mouse pointer over its icon.
Aero Glass Interface Figure 1-4 Figure 1-5 5
Part 1: The Vista User Experience Ah, That’s What They Did with It! If you’re coming to Windows Vista as a user of Windows XP who was completely comfortable with its tried and true ways of doing business, the new Windows Aero Glass desktop may appear to you initially as less open and simple than originally promised.
Ah, That’s What They Did with It! 7 Figure 1-6 Start Power Lock This Computer Shut Down Options ⻬ Shut Down Options button to open a pop-up menu containing the follow- ing options: Switch User to enable you to log onto the computer with a different user account, Log Off to close down your work session and select a different user account, Lock to lock your computer (see the previous bullet “Lock This Computer”), Restart to completely reboot the computer, Sleep to put the computer into a low-power state
Part 1: The Vista User Experience Documents, Pictures, Music, Computer, and Network on the Windows Vista Start menu respectively take the place of My Documents, My Pictures, My Music, My Computer, and My Network Places on the Windows XP Start menu. Using the All Programs item The All Programs item on the Windows Vista Start menu performs the exact same function as it did in Windows XP — opening menus that you can use to launch Windows utilities and applications programs installed on your computer.
Ah, That’s What They Did with It! 9 their names) above the Start Search text box in the left-hand column of the Start menu (see Figure 1-7). Then all I have to do is click this Microsoft Office Word 2007 link to launch this application in its own program window. (Note that to display the link for launching Excel, I only have to type e, which also gives me access to Windows and Internet Explorer.
Part 1: The Vista User Experience Looking at virtual folders with Windows Explorer Windows Vista, like all versions of Windows before it, relies on a structure of Explorer windows that display all the document files and subfolders stored within it. The big difference in Windows Vista is the appearance of an entirely new type of folder called a virtual folder that can appear in these windows.
Ah, That’s What They Did with It! 11 Finally, in Vista, Windows Explorer contains a fourth pane, the Details pane, that appears at the very bottom of the window. Pressing the Alt key when one of these windows is open acts like a toggle switch: The first time you press it, Vista displays the menu bar; the second time you press it, Vista hides the menu bar display.
Part 1: The Vista User Experience Figure 1-8 The standard buttons on the toolbar When you open Windows Explorer either by clicking the Windows Explorer or Documents link on the Start menu, the toolbar may contain a variety of buttons, depending on whether you’ve selected individual folder or file icons that are displayed in the open Windows Explorer window.
Ah, That’s What They Did with It! 13 ⻬ E-mail button to open a new mail message in the default e-mail program with the selected file or files (if a folder icon is selected) as attachments to the new message. ⻬ Share button to open the File Sharing dialog box, where you can designate the people on the network with whom you want to share the computer’s files. ⻬ Burn button to copy the items selected in the Explorer to a temporary folder from which you can then burn them to a CD or DVD disc.
Part 1: The Vista User Experience ⻬ Eject This Disk button to have Vista open the CD or DVD disc drive so that you can either remove the current disc or insert a new disc to play or record to. ⻬ Burn to Disc button to open the Burn to Disc Wizard, which takes you through the steps of burning selected folders and files to the CD or DVD disc.
Ah, That’s What They Did with It! 15 only line up with these column headings). To reorder the icons, click the column heading or field. Click one time to sort the folders and files in ascending order (from A to Z alphabetically, smallest to largest, or least recent to most recent) and a second time to sort them in descending order (Z to A, largest to smallest, or most recent to least recent).
Part 1: The Vista User Experience select the paths of previously opened folders from a drop-down menu. Surprise of surprises, clicking this drop-down button immediately converts the Vista path separated by black triangles into the old backslash-separated and mushedtogether pathname of Windows XP.
Ah, That’s What They Did with It! 17 Figure 1-9 The information displayed in the Details pane can be quite helpful in identifying a folder or file for use. Moreover, the tags, ratings, and keywords assigned to particular files can be used in doing searches for the file. (See “Search” later in this part). Vista enables you to add tags and edit keywords that you can assign to a file directly from the Details pane.
Part 1: The Vista User Experience Displaying the Search pane and Preview pane Vista’s version of Windows Explorer offers you the use of two extra panes that aren’t normally displayed in the window. These are the Search pane (see “Search” later in this part), which appears immediately beneath the address bar when displayed (by clicking Organize 䉴 Layout 䉴 Search Pane) and the Preview pane, which appears on the right side of the window when displayed (by clicking Organize 䉴 Layout 䉴 Preview Pane).
Ah, That’s What They Did with It! 19 Moreover, when you select a video clip or a movie file (perhaps created with Windows Movie Maker — see Part 7) in Windows Explorer, the Preview pane displays the first frame of the video file with a video controller beneath complete with Stop, Play/Pause, and Switch to Full Mode buttons that you can use to actually preview the video from start to finish if you so desire.
Part 1: The Vista User Experience quite readily to the tried-and-true Start menu of your mother’s Windows. (After all, the Classic Start menu does include a Run option immediately above the old familiar Shut Down option.) To make the switch back, right-click the Start button and then click Properties on its shortcut menu to open the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box with its Start Menu tab selected. On this tab, you click the Classic Start Menu option button and then click OK.
Ah, That’s What They Did with It! 21 Just click the Enable Transparency check box in the Window Color and Appearance Control Panel window to remove its check mark if you’re happy with the default Windows Vista color scheme and only want to get rid of the transparency effects. Adopting a Classic view of the Control Panel Finally, you may find the default look of the Vista Control Panel (which is, fortunately a little less sparse than the Category View of the Windows XP Control Panel) not to your liking.
Part 1: The Vista User Experience ⻬ You can still map folders located on your network to virtual drive letters (up to Z just as long as they don’t duplicate drive letters already assigned to physical devices connected to the machine) that appear each time you log on to the computer — just choose Tools➪Map Network Drive when the Classic menus are displayed in Windows.
Personalize 23 Personalize Vista makes it easy for you to personalize your computer by selecting a new desktop background image, a color scheme for the various Windows elements, a screen saver to use when the computer has been idle for a certain period, as well as the sound effects to play when different events take place.
Part 1: The Vista User Experience Figure 1-12 ⻬ Desktop Background to replace the Personalization window with the Desktop Background window (see Figure 1-13), where you can select a new ready-made wallpaper image, select your own photo image as the wallpaper (with the Browse button), change how the wallpaper image is displayed on the desktop (Fit to Screen, Tile, or Center), or select a new solid color for the background by clicking Solid Colors on the Picture Location drop-down list.
Search 25 ⻬ Theme to open the Theme Settings dialog box, where you can select a new ready-made theme to use or save the changes you’ve made to the color scheme, desktop background, screen saver, and sound effects (as described below) as a new theme to reuse.
Part 1: The Vista User Experience upper-right corner of all the major Explorer windows — Computer, Documents, Network, Control Panel, Pictures, Music, and the like — where it’s labeled Search, and at the bottom of the Start menu, where it’s labeled Start Search. Search immediately starts searching your computer system for matches to any characters you enter into one of its search text boxes the moment you type them.
Search 27 Adding tags for searches Because Search automatically searches the metadata added to your files, you can make these searches much more effective by adding your own tags, including keywords and other types of search data, whenever possible.
Part 1: The Vista User Experience ⻬ Name text box to search for a document by its filename by entering all or part of the filename in this text box — you can use the asterisk (*) to stand for one or more wild-card characters in the filename and a question mark (?) to stand for individual wild-card characters ⻬ Tags text box to search for a document by the tags assigned to it by enter- ing one or more of them into this text box ⻬ Authors text box to search for documents by a particular author whose na
Sidebar and Gadgets 29 To save your search results as search folder, follow these steps: 1. Click the Save Search button on Windows Explorer or Search window’s toolbar. Vista opens a Save As dialog box where you specify the name and description for your new virtual folder. 2. (Optional) Add additional author names to the folder by clicking Authors and entering them, or add tags that identify the search folder and can be used in searching for it by clicking the Add a Tag text in the Tags field. 3.
Part 1: The Vista User Experience Figure 1-16 Changing where and how the Sidebar appears To display the Sidebar on the left side of your computer’s desktop or to make sure that it always appears on the top of other windows you have open on the desktop, you need to open the Windows Sidebar Properties dialog box.
Sidebar and Gadgets 31 Note that when you do elect to have Vista display the Sidebar on the left side of the screen and display the Sidebar on top of all other windows, Vista makes sure that none of its gadgets obscure the Recycle Bin (and any other desktop icons you add) by automatically offsetting such desktop icons to the right, out of the way of the Sidebar.
Part 1: The Vista User Experience To add gadgets to the Sidebar from among those that are included with Windows Vista, follow these steps: 1. Click the plus sign (+) that appears at the top of the Sidebar or right-click somewhere on the Sidebar outside of any gadgets, and then click Add Gadgets on the shortcut menu. Vista opens the Gadget Gallery window that displays all the gadgets on your computer similar to the one shown in Figure 1-16. 2.
Sidebar and Gadgets 33 To customize the contents of a gadget, position the mouse pointer in the upperright corner of the gadget and then click the wrench icon that appears immediately beneath the X. Alternatively, you can also right-click its icon on the Sidebar and then click Options on the gadget’s shortcut menu. Vista then opens a dialog box specific to the gadget that enables you to customize its display.
Part 1: The Vista User Experience If you decide you no longer want a gadget to be free-floating on the desktop, you can easily reattach it to the Sidebar by dragging it to the Sidebar and then dropping it into the position where you want it to appear. Note that if you add a new gadget when the Sidebar is hidden, Vista automatically adds it as a detached gadget that you can immediately drag to the desired position on the desktop.
Vista Desktop 35 To add any or all of these desktop icons, follow these steps: 1. Right-click somewhere on the desktop background (outside of any icon) and then click Personalize on the shortcut menu. 2. Click the Change Desktop Icons link in the Navigation pane of the Personalization window to open the Desktop Icon Settings dialog box. 3. Click the check boxes for all the desktop icons (Computer through Control Panel) you want to appear on the Vista desktop. 4.
Part 1: The Vista User Experience the Browse button and locating the item in the Browse for Files or Folders dialog box before you click OK. 3. Click the Next button and then, if you want, edit the name for the shortcut in the Type a Name for This Shortcut text box before you click Finish.
Vista Taskbar 37 The Start menu The Start button that opens the Start menu (shown in the left margin) always appears as the first button on the taskbar. The Start menu is the most basic menu in Windows, giving you access to all the stuff on your computer. To open the Start menu, simply click the Start button icon in the lower-left corner of the taskbar or press Ctrl+Esc or press the Windows button on your keyboard (if your keyboard has this button).
Part 1: The Vista User Experience Customizing the taskbar The Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box enables you to customize the settings for the taskbar and the Start menu. To open this dialog box, right-click the Start button or any open area (with no buttons) on the taskbar and then click Properties on the taskbar shortcut menu. Click the Taskbar tab in the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box that appears.
Vista Taskbar 39 Figure 1-17 Use the check boxes in the list box of this dialog box to control which items appear in the right-hand column of the Start menu. For example, to add a Printers item that opens the Printers window (where you can add new printers), click the Printers check box to put a check mark in it.
Part 1: The Vista User Experience By default, at the top of the Start menu, Vista displays the Internet Explorer as the Internet link and Windows Mail as the e-mail link. If you have another Web browser and e-mail program installed on your computer and you want to use them, you can change these Start menu links by selecting the desired browser and e-mail program in the Internet Link and E-mail Link drop-down list boxes, respectively, that appear near the bottom of the Customize Start Menu dialog box.
Vista Taskbar 41 Adding other toolbars to the taskbar Vista also includes the following toolbars that you can display on the taskbar: ⻬ Address toolbar where you can directly enter pathnames for folders and files you want to open or URL addresses for Web pages you want to visit. ⻬ Windows Media Player to display the Windows Media Player as a button on the taskbar when you minimize its window.
Part 1: The Vista User Experience 3. Click the Select Folder button to close the New Toolbar dialog box. As soon as you close the New Toolbar dialog box, Windows adds the new toolbar, indicated by the folder’s name followed by a continuation button (>>). When you click this continuation button, Vista displays a pop-up menu showing all the subfolders and documents that it contains.
Vista Taskbar 43 By default, all the system icons and Hide Inactive Icons check boxes are selected. To remove a system icon from the Notification area, click its check box to remove the check mark. To display all the Notification icons, even when the processes they represent are inactive, click the Hide Inactive Icons check box to remove the check mark.
Part 1: The Vista User Experience ⻬ Show Windows Side by Side to place the windows horizontally side by side ⻬ Show the Desktop to reduce all the windows open on the desktop to mini- mized buttons on the taskbar Using the Task Manager Windows Task Manager keeps tabs on your system and how it’s running. You can use Task Manager to get an overview of what programs and processes are running on your computer.
Welcome Center 45 The status bar of Windows Task Manager shows you statistics on the number of processes running under the program, the percentage of the CPU (Central Processing Unit, the big chip at the heart of the computer), and the memory usage of the program.
Part 1: The Vista User Experience The center section of the Welcome Center window (Getting Started with Windows) displays icons that enable you to become more familiar with Windows Vista as well as customize your computer. (To display a complete list of icons, click the Show All 14 Items link in this section.
Windows Help and Support 47 Figure 1-20 In addition to these links, the Windows Help and Support window contains a Search Help text box that you can use to search for particular topics. This text box works just like any other Search text box in Windows Vista: Simply type the name of the feature you need help on (such as printing or searching files) and then click the Search Help button (the one with the magnifying glass icon) to display links to all related topics in the Windows Help and Support window.
Part 1: The Vista User Experience