Session 2: User Productivity Enhancements in Windows Vista 29 Features for Mobile Computers Introduction Windows Vista makes it easier for mobile users to use computers and networks. Connecting your computer to a variety of hardware and networks is faster, easier, and more secure than before, and synchronizing data between computers and devices is simple. Windows Vista incorporates many new features that are designed specifically for the mobile user. Objectives After completing this section, you will be able to: • Describe Windows Mobility Center. • Understand presentation settings. • List the new features for Tablet PCs. • Describe Sync Center. • Understand how Sync Center can be used. 30 Session 2: User Productivity Enhancements in Windows Vista What Is Windows Mobility Center? Windows Mobility Center contains key mobility-related system settings in one easy-to- find place. As you change locations, networks, and activities, you can quickly configure your mobile PC to fit the situation. Computer manufacturers can customize the Windows Mobility Center to include additional hardware-specific settings. Depending on your system, you may have one or more areas in addition to the following area: • Brightness. Use the slider to adjust the brightness of your display. • Volume. Use the slider to adjust the speaker volume of your mobile PC or select the Mute check box. • Battery Status. View your battery status or select a power plan from the list of available plans. • Wireless Network. View the status of your wireless network connection, or enable or disable your connection. • External Display. Set up a secondary display to give a presentation. • Sync Center. View the status of a file sync or start a new sync. Session 2: User Productivity Enhancements in Windows Vista 31 • Presentation Settings. Adjust settings, such as the speaker volume level and desktop background image, for giving a presentation. • Screen Rotation. Change the orientation for your Tablet PC screen from portrait to landscape or vice versa (Tablet PCs only). The Windows Mobility Center is only available if Windows Vista detects the presence of a battery to indicate that this is a mobile PC. 32 Session 2: User Productivity Enhancements in Windows Vista What Are Presentation Settings? Presentation settings are a set of options that you can apply to your mobile PC specifically when you are giving a presentation. This allows you to have computer configured one way when working normally, but another when giving presentations. Many times when users are giving a presentation, their portable computer will perform inappropriate tasks. For example, during a class discussion, the screen saver might come on. With presentation settings, you can ensure that a portable computer behaves appropriately during a presentation. Options that can be set as part of presentation settings: • Sleep mode is disabled. • System notifications are turned off. • The screen saver can be turned off. • The volume level can be configured. • The desktop background image can be changed. Session 2: User Productivity Enhancements in Windows Vista 33 What Are the New Features for Tablet PCs? Windows Vista includes new features to make working with Tablet PCs easier. Tablet PCs can use the Windows Mobility Center just like portable computers. Additional new features for Tablet PCs include: • Additional Input Panel features. The Input Panel has been enhanced with AutoComplete, a tab to open and position the Input Panel, support for back of pen erase, easier to use scratch-out gestures, and password security settings. • Personalization of handwriting recognition. You can now teach the handwriting recognizer how you write by providing samples. In addition, you can also enable automatic learning so that the handwriting recognizer gathers information about how your write over time. • Error reporting for handwriting recognition. You can now send Microsoft information about handwriting recognition errors. Microsoft then uses this information to improve handwriting recognition. • Pen cursors. The pen cursors now provide visual feedback for pen actions such as single-tap or double-tap. 34 Session 2: User Productivity Enhancements in Windows Vista • Snipping Tool. The snipping tool allows you to capture an area of the screen as a graphic and write on it using your tablet pen. The graphic can then be placed in any application. • Pen flicks. A pen flick is a gesture you make with your tablet pen to quickly perform tasks such as copy, paste, undo, or navigate in a browser. • Touch input. For Tablet PCs with support for touch screens, you can now use your finger on the touch screen instead of the tablet pen. Session 2: User Productivity Enhancements in Windows Vista 35 What Is Sync Center? Sync Center is a new feature in Windows Vista that allows you to synchronize files between your computer and mobile devices or a network server. To synchronize with a mobile device, the device must be able to communicate with your computer over a wireless network or be directly connected to your computer. Files and folders synchronized with a network server are called offline files. In an early beta version of Windows Vista, PC-to-PC sync was included as part of Sync Center. PC-to-PC sync has been removed in later versions. Each time you sync files between two or more locations, Sync Center compares the files in each location to see if they have changed. If a file has changed, Sync Center copies the new version of the file over older versions of the file. If a file is new, it is also copied. If a file has been changed in multiple locations, a sync conflict occurs. When a sync conflict occurs, it is not possible for Sync Center to determine which version of the file you want to keep. To ensure the appropriate file version is kept, Sync Center will ask which file version should be kept. You can also choose to keep both file versions so that you can figure out the changes later. The ability to sync with network servers is not included with Windows Vista Starter, Windows Vista Home Basic, and Windows Vista Home Premium. 36 Session 2: User Productivity Enhancements in Windows Vista Sync Center Scenarios Sync Center is not just about synchronizing files. It can also be used to synchronize other data such as music, schedules, or contacts with supported devices. Laptops on the Road Often laptop users want to take copies of network files with them. Using Sync Center makes it easy to ensure that network files are properly synchronized with the laptop before leaving and again when the laptop returns. Synchronizing files with a network server ensures that they are backed up. Pocket PC Devices When you synchronize with a Pocket PC, you can synchronize files, calendars items, and contacts. This allows you to have a mobile office on the road. Synchronizing calendar items ensures that you don’t miss any appointments. Synchronizing contacts allows you to keep one central contact list so both your Pocket PC and desktop PC have up-to-date contact information for customers, suppliers, and colleagues. Session 2: User Productivity Enhancements in Windows Vista 37 Mobile Phones Many mobile phones have calendaring and contact functions that may be able to synchronize by using Sync Center. The benefits are similar to synchronizing with a Pocket PC device. Portable Music Players Sync Center can synchronize a folder on your PC to a portable music player. As you add and remove music files to the folder on your PC, Sync Center adds and removes them from your portable music player. 38 Session 2: User Productivity Enhancements in Windows Vista Demonstration 7: Using Sync Center In this demonstration, you will see how you can: • Synchronize files with a network server. Key Points The key points of this demonstration are: • Sync Center allows you to synchronize files between a PC and network server. [...]... system loader for Windows Vista If Windows Vista is selected from the operating system menu, control is passed to Winload.exe to start Windows Vista It loads the operating system kernel, hardware abstraction layer (HAL), and boot drivers into memory In a multiboot system, each instance of Windows Vista has its own Winload.exe • Winresume.exe This is the resume loader for Windows Vista If Windows Vista hibernates,... (32-bit for x86 versus 64-bit for Itanium) UEFI is present in Windows Vista Beta 2 for “Technical Preview” purposes but will be removed before the release candidates are made available Session 2: User Productivity Enhancements in Windows Vista 41 The components used during the Windows Vista boot process are: • Bootmgr This is the primary application that controls the Windows Vista boot process In a multiboot... modify the Windows Vista boot process • BCDEdit is the most complete tool for editing the Windows Vista boot process Session 2: User Productivity Enhancements in Windows Vista 45 What Is Startup Repair? Startup Repair is a recovery tool that can fix some Windows startup problems For example, if the wrong disk partition is set as active, Startup Repair can detect this and set the correct disk partition... Objectives After completing this section, you will be able to: • Describe the Windows Vista boot process • Understand how to modify the Windows Vista boot process • Describe Startup Repair 40 Session 2: User Productivity Enhancements in Windows Vista What Is the Boot Process in Windows Vista? The boot process for Windows Vista has been completely redesigned to support a new firmware standard The firmware... responsible for restoring windows from hibernation 42 Session 2: User Productivity Enhancements in Windows Vista Modifying the Boot Process in Windows Vista In earlier versions of Windows, you could modify the Boot.ini manually by using Notepad or another text editor Modifying the Boot.ini controlled the boot process In Windows Vista, you must use an appropriate tool to modify the BCD instead You cannot edit... Configuration can also perform other non-BCD-related tasks, such as editing which programs run at system startup • BCDEdit The utility that provides the most complete access to edit the BCD store is BCDEdit By using BCDEdit, you can edit almost all data in the BCD store as well as export and import store contents Session 2: User Productivity Enhancements in Windows Vista • 43 Windows Management Interface...Session 2: User Productivity Enhancements in Windows Vista 39 The Boot Process Introduction Information technology professionals must understand the Windows Vista boot process so that they can repair it when problems occur Quickly fixing problems that render a PC unbootable makes users more productive Windows Vista includes several utilities for managing and repairing the boot process... Processor performance is limited to 50 percent, which makes this option unsuitable for computers that run high-performance applications • Balanced Offers full performance when required and saves power during periods of inactivity This is the default power plan • High performance Maximizes system performance and responsiveness Additional power consumption makes this power plan unsuitable for most portable... 16-bit real mode interface of x86 processors United Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) is the new standard for firmware that is architecture independent and allows for the elimination of the 16-bit real mode interface required by the BIOS This makes the boot process compatible between different hardware architectures such as x86 and Itanium, although each will have it s own UEFI environment (32-bit for. .. power management changes Session 2: User Productivity Enhancements in Windows Vista 47 What Is Power Management? Power management is a system in Windows Vista to conserve the consumption of electricity Windows Vista controls power consumption based on the settings in a power plan Power plans indicate when power can be reduced for system components To control the power used by system components, the . ability to sync with network servers is not included with Windows Vista Starter, Windows Vista Home Basic, and Windows Vista Home Premium. 36 Session 2: User Productivity Enhancements in Windows. reporting for handwriting recognition. You can now send Microsoft information about handwriting recognition errors. Microsoft then uses this information to improve handwriting recognition. •. the Windows Vista boot process. • Describe Startup Repair. 40 Session 2: User Productivity Enhancements in Windows Vista What Is the Boot Process in Windows Vista? The boot process for Windows