Windows Essentials A fresh installation of Windows 7 includes many programs that you can use to manage your Windows computing experience, create things, or communicate. The programs that you are most likely to use are: l Windows Internet Explorer 8 The latest version of Internet Explorer introduces many new features, some of which were borrowed from other popular Web browsers. Internet Explorer still holds the lead in worldwide browser usage, but the popularity of Firefox seems to have encouraged Microsoft to reach higher. The winners in this competition are Internet Explorer users, who can now enjoy an expanded feature set as well as seamless interaction between their Web browser and common information- management programs, such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft OneNote, Windows Live Mail, and Windows Live Writer. See Also For information about using and managing Internet Explorer 8, see Part 2 of this book, “Experiencing the World Wide Web.” l Desktop Gadget Gallery This new feature replaces the Windows Sidebar introduced with Windows Vista. From the Desktop Gadget Gallery, you can place gadgets that display a variety of information directly onto your desktop. You can move the gad- gets to any location on the desktop, and tailor the information each gadget displays to suit your needs—you can even have multiple instances of one gadget, each dis- playing different aspects of the same type of information. You can display the date and time, the current weather in your home town and your current location, as well as a slideshow of your favorite photos. See Also For information about managing desktop gadgets, see “Using and Modifying Desktop Gadgets” later in this chapter. Exploring Windows 7 Programs 351 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. 352 Chapter 11 Work with Programs l Windows Update This essential tool monitors the Microsoft Update site and alerts you to updates available for your operating system, for Microsoft programs installed on your computer, and for device drivers that interact with the devices connected to your computer. See Also For information about Windows Update, see “Updating Windows System Files” in Chapter 1, "Explore Windows 7." Media Management Digital media is now available to the average consumer in somewhat overwhelming quantities. Many devices are available for streaming media from the Internet and for recording, playing, and processing still photos, video and audio clips. l Windows Media Center Originally, Microsoft offered a separate Media Center edition of the Windows operating system for people who wanted to run a dedi- cated in-home media server, but now Media Center is built right into Windows 7 so that anyone with the interest and know-how can take advantage of it. Using Media Center, you can view movies, recorded television programs, and photo slide- shows on your computer screen just as you would by hooking a playback device to your television. If your computer has an internal or external TV tuner, you can stream network television directly from your television service provider to your computer and record your favorite shows. And many televisions available now have built-in computer input ports, so you can play audio and video through that nice new 50-inch, flat-screen TV. You can listen to live radio programs, music from your personal music library, and music from online sources, all on one machine (and watch a slideshow of your vacation photos at the same time). This is not nearly as difficult as it might sound, and with the rapidly dropping price of computers featuring 500 gigabytes (GB) or more of storage space, you can take the opportunity to store all your music and digital media in one place and then enjoy it with ease. l Windows Media Player An easy-to-use program for playing recorded music and videos from your personal library, including content that you access or purchase online. l Windows DVD Maker A simple means by which you can create professional- looking DVDs of your photos, videos, and music, complete with chapters, titles, and special effects. This is a great way to preserve baby photos and videos and share them with family and friends. Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Communication Tools Windows 7 comes with two free word-processing programs and a simple graphics program, as well as several other programs with which you can convey information. l Notepad You can use this simple text editor to edit unformatted documents or HTML files. l WordPad This more sophisticated word-processing program supports rich text formatting and character and paragraph styles. l Paint You can use this simple graphics program to produce drawings in a variety of graphics formats (including .bmp, .gif, .jpg, .png, and .tif) and to save screen images captured by using the Print Screen utility. Tip WordPad and Paint have been updated with a Windows Ribbon command interface similar to the Microsoft Office Fluent Ribbon introduced with many of the Office 2007 programs. l Windows Fax and Scan Using this program, you can send and receive faxes through an analog phone line and a modem, or through a fax server. Received faxes appear in your Inbox in the Windows Fax And Scan window and can be viewed in much the same way as an e-mail message in an e-mail program. If a scanner is connected to your computer, you can also use Windows Fax And Scan to scan text documents and graphics to your computer as digital files that you can then send as faxes or e-mail message attachments. Most modern scanners are plug-and-play devices that you can simply plug into an appropriate port on your computer. XPS Files Like the Portable Document Format (PDF), the XML Paper Specification (XPS) format allows a file to be saved in such a way that it can be viewed but not changed without the use of special software. Windows 7 comes with the XPS Viewer, in which you can view XPS files. Windows 7 also comes with the software required to create XPS files from any program from which you can print. Simply open the file in its originating program, display the Print dialog box, specify the Microsoft XPS Document Writer as the printer, and click Print. When prompted, save the file with the name and in the location you want. Exploring Windows 7 Programs 353 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. 354 Chapter 11 Work with Programs Utilities Utilities are handy little tools that you might find yourself using quite frequently. These pro- grams and many others are available from the Accessories folder of the All Programs menu. l Calculator In Windows 7, the Calculator has been transformed into a multi- dimensional tool that can meet a variety of specialized calculating needs. l Math Input Panel Designed for Tablet PC users, Math Input Panel converts simple and complex mathematic equations to text. l Sticky Notes You can use this program to attach electronic notes to your com- puter desktop in the same way you’d stick the paper version of a sticky note to your physical desktop. l Snipping Tool Using this tool, you can capture an image of a screen area and then annotate it with handwritten notes, save it as an .html, .png, .gif, or .jpg file, and send it by e-mail. l Windows Journal Designed for use with a Tablet PC, Journal records your hand- written and typed notes and imports existing notes and pictures. Utilities for Geeks Experienced computer users who want to be able to run programs and manage their computers in traditional ways might find the following utilities useful: l Command Prompt A legacy from the early days of personal computing, this utility allows you to control the computer with MS-DOS commands. (MS-DOS was the first Microsoft operating system.) l Windows PowerShell With a text-based interface similar to that of Command Prompt, Windows PowerShell provides command-line tools for automating administrative tasks that can be leveraged by users who are familiar with operating systems such as Windows, MS-DOS, UNIX, Linux, and Mac OS. l Windows XP Mode A solution for users running programs that are not com- patible with versions of Windows later than Windows XP (such as customized accounting packages), XP Mode creates a virtual machine running Windows XP (with Service Pack 3) within Windows 7. You can then install the programs you want on the virtual machine, and run them, within the virtual machine, directly from your Windows 7 computer. Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Games Finally, we get to the fun stuff. For those who enjoy the distraction of simple computer games, Windows 7 comes with many preinstalled games: Chess Titans, FreeCell, Hearts, Mahjong Titans, Minesweeper, Purble Place, Solitaire, and Spider Solitaire. In addition to these single-player games there are versions of Backgammon, Checkers, and Spades that you can play over the Internet against random players from around the world. There’s also a link for downloading more games from Microsoft. In this exercise, you’ll work with three utilities that you might find useful: the Calculator, Sticky Notes, and the Snipping Tool. You’ll perform a couple of quick calculations, work with different Calculator modes, attach Sticky Notes to your screen to remind yourself about important tasks, and use the Snipping Tool to capture part of a document as a graphics file. SET UP You need the MakeOver document located in your Documents\Microsoft Press\Windows7SBS\Programs folder to complete this exercise. 1. On the Start menu, click Calculator. Troubleshooting If the Calculator does not appear in the left pane of the Start menu, click All Programs, click Accessories, and then click Calculator. 2. In sequence, click the following Calculator buttons: 17.95*6=. The Calculator displays the result of your calculation. You enter formulas in the Calculator by clicking numbers and operators, just as you would on a physical calculator. 3. On the View menu, click Scientific. Exploring Windows 7 Programs 355 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. 356 Chapter 11 Work with Programs The Calculator switches to the selected mode. Scientific mode is one of four Calculator modes. 4. Repeat step 3 to display first Programmer mode, then Statistics mode, and then Standard mode. 5. On the View menu, click Unit Conversion. In the Select the type of unit you want to convert list, click Temperature, and in the From list (below the box dis- playing Enter value), click Degrees Fahrenheit. Finally, type 57 in the From box. The Calculator instantly converts the value you type. With the Calculator, it’s easy to convert temperatures from one scale to another. Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. 6. Explore the other options available on the menus, and then in the upper-right corner of the Calculator window, click the Close button. 7. On the Start menu, click Sticky Notes. Troubleshooting If Sticky Notes does not appear in the left pane of the Start menu, click All Programs, click Accessories, and then click Sticky Notes. A colored square resembling a paper sticky note, with a blinking cursor, appears on your desktop. 8. Without moving the cursor, type Submit expense report. The words you type appear at the cursor in a script font. You can use Sticky Notes to post reminders of important tasks on your desktop. 9. Drag the sticky note by its top bar to the right side of the desktop, below any displayed gadgets. The sticky note remains wherever you drop it; it doesn’t snap to a grid as the desktop gadgets do. 10. In the upper-left corner of the sticky note, click the New Note button. A second sticky note appears on the desktop, to the left of the original note. Tip The notes produced in Sticky Notes look similar to those produced in the Notes gadget on the Windows Vista Sidebar and to those produced in the Microsoft Outlook Notes feature. However, Sticky Notes does not offer as much functionality as either of those products. You can’t change the sticky note color or font, and each sticky note is an individual entity rather than a multipage item like the Sidebar gadget. Sticky notes do show up in Windows search results, however, which makes them quite convenient when you want to save information for later. 11. In the new sticky note, type Reserve conference room. 12. In the upper-right corner of the first note, click the Delete Note button, and then in the Sticky Notes message box, click Yes to confirm the deletion. Exploring Windows 7 Programs 357 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. 358 Chapter 11 Work with Programs 13. In Windows Explorer, navigate to your Documents\Microsoft Press\ Windows7SBS\Programs folder, and double-click the MakeOver document. The document opens in the program designated as the default for working with Word documents, which might be Microsoft Office Word 2007 (or a later version) if it is installed, or might be WordPad, which comes with Windows 7. Troubleshooting If the document opens in WordPad, an Information bar below the WordPad Ribbon informs you that WordPad doesn’t support all the formatting included in this document, which was created with Word 2007. The unsupported formatting won’t have any effect on this exercise, but if you prefer, you can dismiss the Information bar by clicking the Close button at its right end. 14. On the Start menu, click Snipping Tool. Troubleshooting If the Snipping Tool does not appear in the left pane of the Start menu, click All Programs, click Accessories, and then click Snipping Tool. The Snipping Tool window appears on top of the open document, and the pointer changes to a hollow cross. When you start the Snipping Tool, the entire screen is dimmed to show that nothing is currently selected for snipping. 15. In the document window, point to the upper-left corner of the company logo, and then drag diagonally down and to the right, until the selection rectangle contains the logo and the paragraph with the red background. The selected area is no longer dimmed. Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. You can select as much of the screen information as you want. 16. Release the mouse button. The Snipping Tool displays the snippet in a separate window. The snippet is centered within a background document that provides space for markup. Exploring Windows 7 Programs 359 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. 360 Chapter 11 Work with Programs 17. With the Pen button selected on the toolbar, drag to draw a circle around the letter W in the word World, and then draw an arrow pointing to the red para- graph of text. 18. On the toolbar, click the Highlighter button, and then drag across the word Makeover. The snippet reflects your markup. You can mark up a snippet with pens of various shapes and colors, as well as a highlighter. Tip You can remove any markup that you don’t want by using the Eraser tool. (The Snipping Tool utility doesn’t support the standard Undo command.) Other toolbar buttons allow you to copy the snippet so that you can paste it elsewhere and to use an associated e-mail program to send the snippet either embedded in or attached to a message. 19. On the toolbar, click the Save Snip button. Then in the File name box of the Save As dialog box, type MakeOverHeader, and click Save to save the snippet in your Pictures library. Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. [...]... about monitoring and managing computer performance, see Windows 7 Step by Step Deluxe Edition, by Joan Preppernau and Joyce Cox (Microsoft Press, 2010) To turn Windows programs and features on or off: 1 In the left pane of the Programs And Features window of Control Panel, click Turn Windows Features On Or Off The Windows Features window opens In the Windows Features dialog box, you can specify the features... and features that are installed with Windows 7 are not immediately available for use because they are not turned on by default Some are on by default only in specific editions of Windows 7, and some off by default in all editions You can turn Windows programs and features on and off at any time If your computer’s performance seems unsatisfactory, you can turn off Windows programs and features that you... message box and the Windows Features dialog box close Using and Modifying Desktop Gadgets Gadgets provide dynamic, up-to-date information or entertainment on your desktop (In Windows 7, gadgets appear directly on the desktop instead of on the Windows Sidebar that was part of Windows Vista.) Windows 7 provides 10 gadgets in the Desktop Gadget Gallery, and you can find many more online, in the Windows Live... 3-day forecast l Windows Media Center  Provides quick access to the music and pictures in your Windows Media Center catalog If you purchased a new computer with Windows 7 already installed, the manufacturer might have made other gadgets available You can add a gadget from the Desktop Gadget Gallery to your desktop by double-clicking it, by right-clicking it and then clicking Add, or by dragging it onto... www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark Exploring Windows Live Programs and Services   371 l Windows Live Family Safety  Designed to enhance the parental controls included with Windows 7, Windows Live Family Safety provides superior monitoring and control of family online viewing and other activities You can control who can be contacted using Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger, monitor activity and change... that will enhance your Windows 7 user experience You can access Windows Live Online Services from any mobile device with Internet access, not only from your computer When you log on to Windows Live, you can display your Windows Live home page This customizable page provides a central access point to all the Windows Live Online Services you use, which can be any of the following: l Windows Live Calendar ... changes by using a different method SET UP  You need the MusicBox graphic located in your Documents\Microsoft Press\ Windows7 SBS\Programs folder to complete this exercise Open the Programs folder window, and then follow the steps 1 In the Content pane, double-click the MusicBox image file Unless the default program for opening bitmap files has been changed from the Windows 7 default, the image opens in Windows. .. accounts, and Xbox LIVE gaming accounts are automatically registered as Windows Live IDs Tip  If you don’t have a Windows Live ID, you can easily sign up for one at home.live.com So what is Windows Live? It is two collections of programs and services Windows Live Essentials and Windows Live Online Services—that are designed to extend the Windows user experience In this section, we’ll briefly discuss both... remove them entirely Exploring Windows Live Programs and Services If you’ve used earlier versions of Windows, you might have noticed that some familiar programs that came with those earlier versions do not come with Windows 7 You can download current versions of some of these programs, free of charge, from the Windows Live Web site located at home.live.com All you need is a Windows Live ID, which is simply... more information, visit www.windowslive.com/Desktop/Writer/ Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark  372     Chapter 11  Work with Programs Windows Online Services Your Windows Live ID unlocks the door to several services that are available over the Internet from your mobile devices, as well as from your desktop computer You can visit www.windowslive.com/Online/ to . computer performance, see Windows 7 Step by Step Deluxe Edition, by Joan Preppernau and Joyce Cox (Microsoft Press, 2010). To turn Windows programs and features. turned on by default. Some are on by default only in specific editions of Windows 7, and some off by default in all editions. You can turn Windows programs