By default, when you first start Windows, you’ll see at least one icon on your desktop: the Recycle Bin. Depending on how your computer is configured, after its initial installation, you may have additional desktop icons, including the Control Panel, Internet Explorer, or Computer icon. Of course, depending on your preference, you can add or remove icons. Some people like to have a clean, uncluttered desktop with few or no icons, whereas others like to have their frequently used programs, files, and folders.

To add a shortcut to the desktop, follow these steps:

To add or remove common desktop icons such as Computer, your personal folder (My Documents), Network, the Recycle Bin, Internet Explorer, and Control Panel, follow these steps:

To remove an icon from the desktop, right-click the icon, and then click Delete. If the icon is a shortcut, only the shortcut is removed; the original item is not deleted.

To move a file from a folder to the desktop, follow these steps:

By default, Windows lines up the icons in columns on the left side of the desktop. However, you can move an icon by dragging it to a new place on the desktop.

You can have Windows automatically arrange your icons. Right-click an empty area of the desktop, click View, and then click Auto Arrange. Windows lines up your icons starting in the upper-left corner, locking them into place. To unlock the icons so that you can move them again, click Auto Arrange again, clearing the check mark next to it.

By default, Windows spaces icons evenly on an invisible grid. To place icons closer together or with more precision, turn off the grid. Right-click an empty area of the desktop, click View, and then click Align to Grid to clear the check mark. Repeat these steps to turn the grid back on.

To move or delete a bunch of icons simultaneously, you must first select all of them. Click an empty area of the desktop and drag the mouse to surround the icons with the rectangle that appears. Then release the mouse button. Now you can drag the icons as a group or delete them.

To temporarily hide all of your desktop icons without actually removing them, right-click an empty part of the desktop, click View, and then click Show Desktop Icons to clear the check mark from that option. To get the icons back, click Show Desktop Icons.

Whenever you open a program, file, or folder, it appears on your screen in a box or frame called a window (that’s where the Windows operating system gets its name). Of course, these windows will often partially or completely hide the desktop as the windows are placed on top of the desktop. To see the entire desktop without closing the programs or windows, right-click the taskbar and select the Show the Desktop option. You can also click the Show Desktop button on the Quick Launch toolbar. To restore all the windows, click the Show Desktop button again.

Besides icons, the desktop also includes the taskbar and the Windows Sidebar. The taskbar (similar to Windows XP) is located at the bottom of the screen. It shows which programs are running and allows you to switch between the different programs running. The taskbar also contains the Start button, which opens the Start menu so that you can access programs, folders, and computer settings.

The Windows Sidebar is a pane on the side of the Microsoft Windows Vista desktop where you can keep your gadgets organized and always available. Gadgets are easy-to-use mini programs that give you information at a glance and provide easy access to frequently used tools such as checking the weather, checking the time using a digital clock, or checking e-mail without opening up other programs.

To find things quickly, use the Windows Vista Search box, which is located in the Start menu. It searches programs, all the folders in your personal folder (which includes Documents, Pictures, Music, Desktop, and other common locations), your e-mail messages, saved instant messages, appointments, contacts, your Internet favorites, and Internet history (see Figure 3.4). A program, file, or folder will appear if the item that you are searching for is in the title, the actual contents of the file, or in the properties of the file (such as the author of the document).

Figure 3.4. Using the Search feature in Windows Vista.

To open a folder or file, click it. You can also click See All Results to display the search results in a folder with more advanced options; or you can click Search the Internet to open your web browser and search the Internet for your term. If your search produces no results, you can click Search Everywhere to search your entire computer. To clear the search results and return to the main programs list, click the Clear button (X).

The right pane of the Start menu contains links to parts of Windows that you are likely to use frequently, including the following:

At the bottom of the right pane, you will find the Power button and the Lock button. The Power button is used to turn off the computer; the Lock button is used to lock your computer without turning it off. After it is locked, you need to use your password to unlock it. Clicking the arrow next to the Lock button displays a menu with additional options for switching users, logging off, restarting, or shutting down.

To the immediate right of the Start button is the Quick Launch toolbar. As mentioned earlier, it enables you to launch or start programs with a single click. By default, the Quick Launch toolbar also contains the Show Desktop button (used to temporarily hide all open windows and show the desktop). You can also click the Switch Between Windows button to switch between open windows using Windows Flip 3D.

To add programs to the Quick Launch toolbar, locate the program in the Start menu, right-click it, and then click Add to Quick Launch. You can also drag the program’s icon (and folders) to the Quick Launch toolbar. The program’s icon will then appear in the toolbar. To remove an icon from the Quick Launch toolbar, right-click it, click Delete, and then click Yes.

The notification area, on the far right side of the taskbar, includes a clock and a group of icons that show the status of a program (or they provide access to certain settings). When you move your cursor to a particular icon, you will see that icon’s name or the status of a setting. Double-clicking an icon in the notification area usually opens the program or setting associated with it.

Occasionally, an icon in the notification area will display a small pop-up window (called a notification) to notify you about something. Click the Close button (X) in the upper-right corner of the notification to dismiss it. If you don’t do anything, the notification will fade away on its own after a few seconds.

To reduce clutter, Windows hides icons in the notification area when you haven’t used them for a while. If icons become hidden, click the Show Hidden Icons button to temporarily display the hidden icons.

Plug-and-play refers to the capability of a computer system to automatically configure expansion boards and other devices. You should be able to plug in a device and play with it, without worrying about setting DIP switches, jumpers, and other configuration elements. If you connect USB, IEEE 1394, and SCSI devices to a Windows Vista system, Windows Vista will automatically detect these devices. When you connect a PCI or AGP plug-and-play expansion card and turn on the computer, Windows Vista will detect these devices. If Windows Vista does not have a driver available on the device after detection, Windows Vista will prompt you to provide a media or path to the driver.

To ensure reliable drivers, Microsoft implemented signed drivers starting with Windows 2000. A signed driver is a device driver that includes a digital signature, which is an electronic security mark that can indicate the publisher of the software and information that can show whether a driver has been altered. When it is signed by Microsoft, the driver has been thoroughly tested to make sure that the driver will not cause problems with the system’s reliability and not cause a security problem.

By default, if a driver is not signed, signed by a publisher that could not be properly identified, or has been altered since its release, Windows Vista will notify you. Of course, you should install only drivers that are properly signed.

Device drivers that are included on the Windows Vista installation DVD or downloaded from the Microsoft update website include a Microsoft digital signature (making it a signed driver). If you have problems installing a driver or device is not working properly, check with Microsoft’s update website and visit the device manufacturer’s support website to obtain an up-to-date digitally signed driver for your device.

The Device Manager lists all hardware devices on your computer and allows you to change the properties for any device. Using the Device Manager, you can view a list of installed devices (see Figure 3.8). When a device is added to the system, the device list is re-created.

Figure 3.8. Windows Vista Device Manager. The exclamation point indicates a problem with the Mass Storage Controller driver, and the down arrow indicates the Conexant AC-97 audio device is disabled.

To access the Device Manager, you must be logged on to the system as an administrator. To Open Device Manager, click the Start button, click Control Panel, click System and Maintenance, and then click Device Manager. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, enter the password or provide confirmation.

If you locate and double-click a device, you will be able to do the following (see Figure 3.9):

Figure 3.9. If you double-click a device in Device Manager, you can then update the driver, roll back the driver, disable the device, or uninstall the driver.

Screen resolution refers to the clarity of the text and images on your screen. At higher resolutions, items appear sharper because they use more pixels to form the images on the screen. Typically when you use a higher resolution, images will appear smaller, so more items fit on the screen. At lower resolutions, fewer items fit on the screen, but they are larger and easier to see. At very low resolutions, however, images might have jagged edges.

To change the resolution, follow these steps:

To set the color depth (the number of bits that determine the number of possible colors on the screen), follow these steps:

To set the monitor refresh rate (the frequency at which the screen is redrawn), follow these steps:

To change the desktop theme to Windows Vista, follow these steps:

To change the color scheme to Windows Aero, follow these steps:

To turn on window frame transparency, the color scheme must first be set to Windows Aero. Then you must do the following:

If you sometimes have trouble seeing items on your screen, you can adjust the settings to make text and images on the screen appear larger, improve the contrast between items on the screen, and hear onscreen text read aloud. You can adjust these settings on the Make the Computer Easier to See page in the Ease of Access Center:

Windows Aero is the premium visual experience of Windows Vista. It features a transparent glass design with subtle window animations and new window colors. Part of the Windows Aero experience is Windows Flip 3D, which is a way to arrange your open windows in a three-dimensional stack that you can quickly flip through without having to click the taskbar. Aero also includes taskbar previews for your open windows. When you point to a taskbar button, you’ll see a thumbnail-size preview of the window, whether the content of the window is a document, a photo, or even a running video. Beyond the new graphics and visual polish, the Windows Aero desktop experience includes smoother window handling, increased graphics stability, and glitch-free visuals, all of which give you a simple, comfortable, and high-quality experience.

Remember that the following editions of Windows Vista support Aero:

In addition, the display adapter must support the following:

Finally, the system must have the following graphics memory:

You must also configure the display system to the following:

If your system has a built-in graphics adapter based on the Unified Memory Architecture (UMA), you need 1 GB of dual-channel configured system memory, and your system must have 512 MB of RAM available for general system activities after graphics processing.

A theme is a collection of visual elements and sounds for your computer desktop. A theme determines the look of the various visual elements of your desktop, such as windows, icons, fonts, and colors, and it can include sounds. For Aero to work, you must configure Windows Vista to use the Windows Vista theme or a theme created by modifying the Windows Vista theme.

To set the theme, follow these steps:

Windows Aero features windows that are truly translucent. This glass effect enables you to focus on the content of a window, while providing better context for the surrounding elements on your desktop. For added personalization and to get exactly the look and feel you want, you can change the

To configure Windows color and appearance, follow these steps:

If you have a program that is incompatible with the Windows Aero color scheme, one of the following may happen:

Verify that your hardware configuration, screen resolution, theme, color scheme, and color depths have not changed. Another cause could be because your computer does not have enough memory to run all the programs that you have open and also run the Windows Aero color scheme.

In this scenario, close some of the applications and retry the Flip 3D feature. If an application is incompatible with the Windows Aero color scheme, some of the visual elements will be automatically disabled and then reenabled after the incompatible application has been closed.