Getting Started

An introduction to the Windows 7 desktop, and brief discussion of what is the same and what has changed, as well as the new features in Windows 7.  Microsoft’s goal with this new operating system was to deliver a better user experience, and they’ve made great strides in that direction with Windows 7. 

The goal of our series is to provide a thorough understanding  of Windows 7 and help you get the most out of your PC.

In this video we will review the following:

• The Desktop
• The Start Orb
• The Start Menu
• Gadgets
• The Getting Started Center

Working with Desktop Gadgets

This lesson introduces you to Desktop Gadgets, mini applications that you can place on your desktop to provide you with information or amusement. Some standard Gadgets include:

• Analog Clock
• Calendar
• Slide Show
• Weather
• Currency Exchange Calculator (and more)
  

The Value of Shortcut Keys

This lesson will discuss using keyboard shortcuts. Even though you may love using your mouse, there are many benefits to using the keyboard shortcuts available in Windows 7.

New Taskbar Features

Making Changes to the Taskbar

This Lesson will demonstrate how to make changes to your Taskbar to personalize it to your liking.  We’ll discuss:

• Navigating to the Taskbar Properties
• Taskbar Appearance options
• The Notification Area
• Desktop Preview
• Taskbar Toolbars
• Drag and Drop onto the Taskbar

Making Changes to the Start Menu

Changing Your Date and Time

The date and time are displayed in the system tray, to the right of your Taskbar.  Displaying the date here as well is new in Windows 7. 

By right-clicking the time you can select Adjust Date/Time and you will be in the Date and Time Properties dialog.  Here you can change the Date and Time, the Time Zone and choose an Internet time server.  You can also configure two additional clocks to display different time zones.

Altering Your Personalization Settings

You can personalize the many aspects of your operating system to make it your own.  To make these kind of changes, go to the Control Panel and enter the Appearance and Personalization section.  You can also reach the same controls by right-clicking on your desktop and selecting “Personalize”.  Topics include:

• Applying and changing themes
• Customizing themes

Display Configuration Options

To modify your Display Configuration Options, go to the Control Panel and to the Appearance & Personalization sections.  Then choose the options for Adjust Screen Resolution.  You’ll find controls to help you adjust single or multiple monitors, screen resolutions, font and window sizing, as well as color and font quality.

Jump Lists Help You Work Faster

Windows 7 introduces a new feature called Jump Lists that can be accessed from each Taskbar icon, as well as the Start Menu. Jump lists give you quick access to common tasks and functions for an applicaton, as well as frequently or recently opened sites or documents. You can also pin sites or documents to the application jump lists to allow you to quickly find and open them. 

Working with Windows Explorer

• The Address Bar
• The  Navigation Pane
• The Library Pane
• The Details Pane
• The Preview Pane
• Creating a New Folder    
  

Working with Libraries

In this lesson, we’ll discuss the new Libraries feature in Windows 7.  Libraries provide an added level of organization to your file management.  It does not replace your windows folders, but allows you to group files together from various locations so that they can be viewed together. 

Default libraries are created for Documents, Music, Pictures, and Video, but you can create your own folders and customize anyone to add additional locations.

Searching in Windows 7

Windows 7 gives provides expanded search capabilities to allow you to work find things faster and easier.  We’ll demonstrate searching from the start menu, as well as searching from within windows and folders, and also how to use the search dialog and filter to narrow your findings.

Federated Search

The Federated Search feature brings expands the Windows Explorer search ability to reach beyond your PC and search any available repository of information.  Federated Search is based on OpenSearch and the RSS format. So, any service that offers a searchable RSS Feed can be searched from within Windows Explorer.  This means you can download search connectors for Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Google Search, Yahoo News, Ebay, and others, and search for information on them without having to go to the sites. 

We’ll demonstrate how to use a search connector, and how to download and install one.

Shutting Your System Down

This lesson will discuss the options available for your power button and the benefits of each, as well as how to set your Power Button default action.  To shut down your system, click on the Start Orb, and click on the Power Button or choose an option by clicking on the menu arrow.

Notepad and Wordpad

Paint

New Calculator Features

The Calculator has always been a staple in Windows, but Windows 7 has added additional functionality to make it even more of useful and functional tool. Topics include:

• Standard View
• Scientific View
• Programmer View
• Statistics View

Options for Unit Conversion and Date Calculation are also available, as well as a set of four worksheets to assist you with mortgage calculations, determining vehicle lease costs, and calculating fuel economy.

The Snipping Tool

Windows Live Essentials

Windows Live Essentials is a set of programs that can be downloaded at no cost and installed to enhance your Windows 7 operating system.  They include Windows Mail, Writer, Calendar, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Messenger, Toolbar, and Family Safety.  Some of these applications used to be part of the installed operating system, but in it's effort to build a leaner, meaner Windows 7, Microsoft has now taken them out of the OS to make them standalone applications, and grouped them together under the name “Windows Live Essentials.”  This approach allows users to download and add just the ones they want at no additional cost. 

This lesson will walk through the process of downloading and installing Windows Live Essentials.

Windows Live Mail

Windows Live Photo Gallery

Windows Live Writer

Windows Live Messenger

Windows Live Movie Maker

An Overview of Internet Explorer 8.0

In this lesson will provide an overview look at IE 8.0 and give you a walk through introduction to the interface. If you are familiar with Internet Explorer 7, there are many carry over features that you will recognize, and there are some nice new features that we'll briefly introduce and cover further in later lessons.

We'll review changes to the toolbar and point out the location of familiar browser options, including:

• Zoom Settings
• The Home button
• Quick Tabs
• Favorites/RSS/History
• The Back/Forward buttons
• The Address Bar
• The Tools Options

Some of the new toolbar features we'll touch on include:

• Email & Print Settings
• Page Options
• Safety Options
• Help Options

Tab Navigation Tools

This lesson will review Tab navigation in IE8, and your different options for working with tabs, including>

• Opening a new tab
• Recovering closed tabs
• Scrolling multiple tabs
• The Tab List
• Using Quick Tabs
• Tab Settings

Grouped Favorites and Multiple Home Pages

This lesson demonstrates how you can organize your favorite sites into groups and save time by storing them as Grouped Favorites. We'll also discuss how your home page can be more than page. In fact, you can automatically open a number of pages with IE8 starts up. Topics include:

• The Favorites icon
• Grouped Favorites
• Adding a Favorites Group
• Deleting from a Favorites Group
• Adding to the Favorites Toolbar
• Creating a Home Page Tab Set
• Tab Settings

Accelerators

Accelerators are a new enhancement in IE8, and enable you to do in one click (or a few) what used to require more user action, perhaps including cutting and pasting and so forth. The tasks include:

• mapping locations
• translation of words
• defining words
• search encyclopedias or the web
• post to a blog or email (and more)

To use an accelerator, just select the text you are interested in. A blue icon will appear above and to the left of the text. Click on this and choose the accelerator action you'd like to take. You can choose to find more accelerators online and add them with one click. Accelerators help you do what you want to do faster.

Web Slices

Web Slices are another new feature in Internet Explorer 8. Web slices are a type of "automatic feed update" and must be turned on within your browser to work. Well then isn't that just the same things as an RSS Feed, you might ask? It is similar, but there is an important difference. An RSS Feed lets you subscribe to a site or blog to automatically receive updates of new content as it is published on the site.

A web slice is really a subscription to a specific part of a website and will notifiy you of changes to that part of the website. A great example is a changing auction price on an item you are following, or the current temperature, or stock information. And the web slice checks are made even if IE isn't on. We'll cover:

• Two methods for adding a web slice
• Web Slice Properties
• Deleting a web slice

InPrivate Browsing and InPrivate Filtering

This lesson focuses on two new features in IE8 that protect you when you are browsing the internet - InPrivate Browsing and InPrivate Filtering.

InPrivate Browsing is useful feature for when you are away from home or the office, and working on a public location of PC. InPrivate Browsing allows you to start a session that prevents IE from storing any information about your browsing, keeping your data and history private.

InPrivate Filtering works different. When activated, it prevents websites from collecting any information about you when you visit, so that you can remain anonymous.

SmartScreen Filter

In IE 7, Microsoft introduced a Phishing Filter into the browser to help protect users. The Phishing Filter helps by notifying you if a site is suspicious. It can do this by comparing the site you type in to a list of known phishing sites. If you type in a site that isn’t on that list, but seems suspicious, it will go ahead and check that site automatically, too. Sites are sent to a Microsoft server for confirmation, and these servers are updated constantly with new phishing sites. This global database is compiled from information supplied by service providers and from reports that come in from users who stumble upon sites that appear "phishy."

In IE 8, Microsoft has built upon the feature set of the Phishing Filter and provided something new called the SmartScreen Filter. According to the IE Team at Microsoft, this new filter improves upon the Phishing Filter in a number of ways.

Add-Ons and Pop-Ups

Compatibility View

Internet Explorer 8 has become more standards compliant, but many of the websites on the internet have yet to catch up, and may not display as intended.  To allow the user to view these sites, IE8 includes a Compatibility View feature.  When activated, Compatibility View allows IE8 to fix these pages to display as intended with the former coding. 

Microsoft also maintains a Compatibility List of websites that have reported compatibility issues with IE8, and you can set your browser to check against this list and automatically use Compatibility View when visiting websites included on the list.

Suggested Sites

The Action Center

The Action Center is a one-stop access point for all things having to do with system security and system maintenance.  Working in conjunction with a system tray alert icon, it provides visibility to security and maintenance issues and alerts, and access to make changes to the alerts and notifications you receive from Windows 7 to tailor them to your needs.

The Action Center also includes a Reliability Monitor that allow you to view your systems performance over a timeline, and explore the factors that effected performance at various points to determine what, if any, changes to make. 

User Account Control

User Account Control is a special security mechanism built into the Windows 7 operating system.  It allows you to create users for your PC and assign them one of two types:  Standard or Administrator. 

This lesson will review your options for each type, and discuss the similarities and differences.  In contrast to earlier operation systems, Windows 7 allows the standard user a greater level of control than ever before, while providing administrative restrictions on actions that may risk harm to the system or affect other users. 

Using the UAC Slider

Windows Defender

Windows Defender Tools and Settings

This lesson continues our look at Windows Defender, and focuses on the available Tools and Settings.  We’ll review Automatic Scanning and the default actions that Defender can take when it finds a suspect file, as well as ways to exclude locations or file types from the scan.  Defender also allows membership options for Microsoft’s Spynet, an online user community that shares information on spyware and other harmful programs so that all users can benefit, and Microsoft can test and update it’s definition files.  You can choose not to participate, or choose a basic or advanced membership.

Other topics include:

• Advanced and Administrator options
• Quarantined Items
• Allowed Items

Windows Firewall

This lesson will review the Windows Firewall that is included in Windows 7.  The firewall allows for a flexible configuration that can adapt to changing network conditions on you computer, which is very important for laptops that may move back and forth from home, work, and public internet connections.  The firewall is broken into private and public categories, which allows you more openness and sharing within your private network, while public networks are configured with a stricter set of protection.  Instead of having to modify your firewall settings on the fly when you travel, your system will just adjust to the new network and be more protective based on the settings you put in place for public networks. 

Topics include:

• Turning the Firewall on and off
• Blocking and allowing programs
• Block notification
• Network Profiles

BitLocker Drive Encryption

Parental Controls

Turn Features On and Off

Windows Live Family Safety

Getting to Know the Control Panel

The Control Panel, although considered scary to some, is really just the location of small applications (applets)  that you can use to make configuration changes.  You can access tools that help you to either configure the functionality of your system to better suit your needs, or adjust security and networking options to help the system perform properly. This lesson will give you an overview of the Control Panel, and we'll go into the details of many of the tools it provides in the following clips.  Topics include:

• Control Panel Categories
• Changing your View
• Display as a Menu on the Start Menu

AutoPlay

AutoPlay allows you to control the default action that takes place when you insert or connect any type of media to your PC.  Your action options will vary depending on the type of media, and you can always choose to take no action at all.  AutoPlay is found in the Hardware & Sound Category in the Control Panel.

Credential Manager

Credential Manager enables you to save your credentials (usernames and passwords) for websites you log into and other resources you connect to (like network servers or remote PCs). These credentials are saved in the Windows Vault, and can be backed up and restored, or loaded onto another PC.  We’ll review the three types of credentials:

• Windows Credentials
• Certificate-based Credentials
• Generic Credentials

Default Programs

Device Manager

Device Manager is one of the best tools to use when troubleshooting a hardware issue, because it allows you to quickly view which devices or drivers are not functioning properly.  In this lesson will review it’s features, including:

• Scanning for Hardware Changes
• Adding Legacy Hardware
• Updating and rolling back drivers
• Resource conflicts

Ease of Access Center

In Windows XP, the Ease of Access Center was called Accessibility Options. It now has a new name in Vista and Windows 7, but it’s goal is the same: to enhance the functionality for users with limited vision, hearing, or manual dexterity.  It gives you quick access to four common tools that you can easily use, but there are many other options that can be configured here.  To help understand what features may want to use, you can take a short questionnaire to explain the considerations you need, and the operating system will present you with recommendations.  All options can also be explored individually, and are grouped into seven functional areas:

• Use the computer without a display
• Make the computer easier to see
• Use the computer without a mouse or keyboard
• Make the mouse easier to use
• Make the keyboard easier to use
• Use text or visual alternatives for sound
• Make it easier to focus on tasks

Fonts

All aspects of font management can be accessed in place thanks to the Font applet in Control Panel.  This lesson will review the available options, including:

• New layout and grouped font styles
• Font Preview
• Hiding and Deleting a Font
• Finding a Character
• Increasing Windows display font size

Power Options

It makes good sense for business reasons and environmental reasons to make sure your computer is running as power-efficiently as possible.  Power Options in the Windows 7 Control Panel allows you to do this, by providing three different power plans to suit your needs.  The standard plans include:

• Balanced
• Power Saver
• High Performance

Programs and Features

If you need to remove or repair an installed program, or turn specific windows features on or off, then you will need to use the Programs and Features applet in the Control Panel.  If you have used Add/Remove Programs in an earlier release of Windows, you will be familiar with Programs and Features.  You can select form a list of applications and choose to uninstall, change, or repair the application.  There is also a link to “Turn Windows features on or off”.  That process is covered in more detail in the Security section of this series.

Region and Language

The Region and Language control panel applet allows you to adjust your PC to the language and data format styles of your region. You can select a language and region, and adjust the format style for dates, times, numbers, and currency.  This lesson will review the options in each of the four tabs:

• Format
• Location
• Keyboards and Languages
• Administrative

Speech Recognition

Windows Speech Recognition has two primary functions. One is to allow you to control the computer by giving specific voice commands, so that you can open, close, and navigate around programs and within documents. The other is to allow you to dictate text (or have text read back to you). These features can help an individual with manual dexterity or vision issues to use the computer effectively.  This lesson will review the available options in the Speech Recognition applet.

Sync Center

Today we have so many devices that we sync to our computers, and Windows 7 provides a control panel applet to help automate and manage our synchronized devices.  Through the Sync Center applet, you can establish “sync partnerships” with devices you use.  The Sync Center maintains a relationship with the device that allows it to track display reports on sync progress, problems, and conflicts.  You can also schedule your syncs to occur automatically, as long as the device is connected. 

User Accounts

The User Account applet in the Control Panel allows you to create multiple user accounts for you PC, with individual logins and permission levels.  You may want to setup separate logins for your children or coworkers, so that each can have their own programs, document, music, and picture folders, and a separate login providing a level of privacy.  This lesson will review the options for creating and managing user accounts in Windows 7.

Windows Cardspaces

Windows CardSpace is a new concept in digital identities, aimed at protecting the user’s personal identity from phishing or identity theft when logging into internet sites and services.  If you do any business, banking, or pay bills online, then you probably have a more than enough different user names and passwords to remember.  And you have to be constantly vigilant not to be tricked into giving your login information away.  Windows CardSpace will provide you with a virtual “wallet” where you can store digital ID cards that can be used to gain access to your sites on the website, and it does it in a quick and secure fashion that does not require you to input a username and password.  You can create personal identities and install managed identities provided by the sites you connect to.  But to use CardSpace ID cards, the site has to be configured to offer information card logins.  As this is a relatively new approach, it is not yet widely utilized, but we anticipate seeing more widespread use in the future.

Windows Update

Windows Update allows you to connect to a Microsoft database to check for software updates, and download and install them.  You can handle updates manually, or you can establish an automatic schedule to keep you system up-to-date.  This lesson will review the configuration options of Windows Update and options for it’s use.

System Properties

The System item provides a variety of different settings you can configure for your system.  Initially when looking at the System item through Control Panel you will be shown basic information about your computer with a variety of different links.  Those links will take you to configuration dialogs that will help you perform tasks like changing your computer name, adjusting remote access settings and much more.

The Sytem Properties dialog has 5 different tabs including:

• Computer Name
• Hardware
• Advanced
• System Protection
• Remote

Changing the Computer Name and Domain Settings

Advanced System Properties: Performance Settings

From the System item in Control Panel you can select a link titled 'Advanced system settings' that will take you into the System Properties, to the Advanced tab.  From here you can configure Performance, User Profiles and Startup and Recovery settings.  In this lesson we will walk you through the Performance Settings, which include the following tabs:

• Visual Effects
• Advanced
• Data Execution Prevention

Advanced System Properties: User Profiles

Advanced System Properties: Startup and Recovery

System Properties: System Restore Points

Enabling Remote Connectivity

Changing Your IP Address

The Network and Sharing Center

Opening an Administratrive Command Prompt

The Windows Experience Index

The Windows Experience Index is designed to show you at a glance how your system's key components are rated according to a Windows system assessment.  The end result is a base score that is provided that will indicate the lowest subscore of your component ratings.

Components that are rated include:  Processor, Memory (RAM), Graphics, Gaming Graphics, and Primary Hard Disk.  These are rated on a scale of 1.0 to 7.9.

Advanced Performance Tool

The Reliability Monitor

The Resource Monitor

The Problem Steps Recorder

The Top 20 Windows 7 Features