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Start Menu Customization While the Windows Vista Start Menu is a big improvement over its predecessor, you will likely want to customize it to match your needs. We’ve already discussed how you access this functionality: Right-click the Start button, choose Properties, and then click the Customize button. Table 4-3 summarizes the options that are available to you. Table 4-3: Start Menu Customization Options Start Menu What It Does Default Option Value Computer Determines whether the Computer item appears as a link Display as or menu, or is not displayed. This was called My Computer a link in Windows XP. Connect To Determines whether the Connect To item appears. If you have Enabled a wireless network adapter, this item will trigger a submenu. Control Panel Determines whether the Control Panel item appears as a link Display as or menu, or is not displayed. a link Default Determines whether the Default Program item appears. This Enabled Programs item was called Set Program Access and Defaults in Windows XP with Service Pack 2. In Windows Vista, it launches the new Default Programs control panel. Documents Determines whether the Documents item appears as a link or Display as menu, or is not displayed. This was called My Documents in a link Windows XP. Enable dragging Determines whether you can drag and drop icons around the Enabled and dropping Start Menu in order to change the way they are displayed. Favorites menu Determines whether the Favorites menu item appears. Disabled Games Determines whether the Games item appears as a link or menu, Enabled or is not displayed. Help Determines whether the Help item appears. This item launches Enabled Help and Support. Highlight Determines whether newly installed applications are highlighted Enabled newly installed so you can find them easier. programs Local User Determines whether the User Name item appears as a link or Enabled Storage menu, or is not displayed. Music Determines whether the Music item appears as a link or menu, Enabled or is not displayed. This was called My Music in Windows XP. Network Determines whether the Network item appears as a link or Enabled menu, or is not displayed. This was called My Network Places in Windows XP. ࡗ 112 Part II: Understanding the Windows Vista User Experience ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ 10_577048 ch04.qxp 11/29/06 8:13 PM Page 112 Start Menu What It Does Default Option Value Open submenus Determines whether mousing over a submenu (like All Enabled when I pause on Programs) will cause that submenu to open (or expand). them with the mouse pointer Pictures Determines whether the Pictures item appears as a link or Enabled menu, or is not displayed. Printers Determines whether the Printers menu item appears. Disabled Run command Determines whether the Run command item appears. Disabled Search Determines whether the Search item appears. This item Enabled launches a Windows Explorer search window. Search box Determines whether the Start Menu’s integrated search Enabled box appears. Search Determines whether the Start Menu’s integrated search box Enabled Communications searches for communications (e-mail, contacts, instant messaging messages). Search Files Determines whether the Start Menu’s integrated search box Enabled searches for files and, if so, whether to search all files or just the current user’s files. Search Determines whether the Start Menu’s integrated search box Enabled Programs searches for applications. Sort All Programs Determines whether the All Programs submenu is organized Enabled menu by name alphabetically. System Determines whether the System Administrative Tools item Disabled Administrative appears on the All Programs menu, on the All Programs menu Tools and the Start Menu, or is not displayed. Use large icons Determines whether the left side of the Start Menu renders Enabled large icons. Otherwise, small icons will be used. Advanced Start Menu Customization One of the features of the Start Menu that’s not immediately obvious is that it is composed of items from the following two different locations, both of which are hidden by default: ࡗ Within your user profile: By default, C:\Users\Your User Name\AppData\ Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu ࡗ Inside the profile for the Public user account that is common (or public) to all users: Typically, C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu If you navigate to these locations with Windows Explorer, you can drill down into the folder structures and shortcuts that make up your own Start Menu. What’s odd is that these two locations are combined, or aggregated, to form the Start Menu you access every day. ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ Chapter 4: What’s New in the Windows Vista User Interface ࡗ 113 10_577048 ch04.qxp 11/29/06 8:13 PM Page 113 You can also access these folders by right-clicking on the Start button. To access your own private portion of the Start Menu, choose Open from the right-click menu. To access the Public portion of the Start Menu, choose Open All Users. So why would you want to access these locations? Although it’s possible to customize the Start Menu by dragging and dropping shortcuts like you might have done with Windows XP, that can get tedious. Instead, you could simply access these folders directly, move things around as you see fit, all while opening the Start Menu occasionally to make sure you’re getting the results you expect. For example, you might want to create handy subfolders such as Digital Media, Internet, and Utilities, rather than accept the default structure. tip ࡗ 114 Part II: Understanding the Windows Vista User Experience ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ Be careful when you customize the Start Menu this way. Any changes you make to the Public Start Menu structure will affect any other users that log on to your PC as well. Secret Desktop At first glance, the Windows Vista desktop looks very similar to that of Windows XP. Well, looks can be deceiving. In fact, Microsoft has made some much-overdue and quite wel- come changes to the Windows desktop, although of course with these changes comes a new set of skills to master. For the most part, you access desktop options through the pop-up menu that appears when you right-click an empty part of the Windows desktop. In Windows XP, this menu had options such as Arrange Icons By, Refresh, Paste, Paste Shortcut, Undo, New, and Properties. In Windows Vista, naturally, this has all changed. At the top of the right-click menu is a new submenu, called View, which is shown in Figure 4-14. This submenu enables you to configure features Windows users have been asking about for years: You can now switch between Large Icons, Medium Icons, and Classic Icons. You can also select auto-arrange and alignment options, and hide the desk- top icons all together, as you could in XP. Figure 4-14: Something old, something new: Microsoft changes menus arbitrarily again, but this time at least we get some new functionality. 10_577048 ch04.qxp 11/29/06 8:13 PM Page 114 The Sort submenu is similar to the top part of the Windows XP Arrange Icons By sub- menu. Here, we get sorting options for Name, Size, File extension (previously called Type) and Date modified. The Refresh, Paste, Paste Shortcut, Undo, and New items all carry over from XP as well. At the bottom of the right-click menu, however, is another new option, dubbed Personalize. This replaces the Properties option from XP and now displays the Control Panel’s Personalization section when selected. From here, you can access a wide range of personalization options, only some of which have anything to do with the desktop. ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ Chapter 4: What’s New in the Windows Vista User Interface ࡗ 115 One of the big questions you likely have, of course, is what the heck happened to the familiar Display Properties dialog box that’s graced every version of Windows from Windows 95 to Windows XP? Sadly, that dialog box is gone, but pieces of it can be found throughout the Personalization control panel if you know where to look. In Table 4-4, we’ll show you how to find the different sections, or tabs, of the old Display Properties dialog box, which have been effectively scattered to the winds. It’s unclear whether Windows Vista’s approach is better, but if you’re looking for XP Display Properties features, you really have to know where to look. Secret Table 4-4: Where to Find Old Display Properties Tabs in Windows Vista Display Properties Tab Where It Is in Windows Vista Themes Control Panel, Personalization, Themes Desktop Replaced by the new Desktop Background window, found at Control Panel, Personalization, Desktop Background Screen Saver Control Panel, Personalization, Screen Saver Appearance Control Panel, Personalization, Visual Appearance, Open classic appearance properties Settings Control Panel, Personalization, Display Settings The Desktop tab of the Display Properties dialog box in Windows XP had a Customize Desktop button that launched a Desktop Items dialog box from which you could configure which icons appeared on the desktop and other related options. But in Windows Vista, the Desktop tab has been replaced with the new Desktop Background window, which does not provide a link to this functionality. To access the Desktop Icon Properties dialog box, as it’s now known, you must open Control Panel, choose Appearance and Personalization, Personalization, and then choose Change desktop icons from the Tasks list on the left. Some functionality, however, is missing. You can no longer run the Desktop Cleanup Wizard or place Web items on your desktop, as you could in XP. Secret 10_577048 ch04.qxp 11/29/06 8:13 PM Page 115 Taskbar In Windows Vista, the system taskbar works similarly to the way it did in Windows XP. Every time you open an application or Explorer window, you will see a new button appear in the taskbar. When you click one these buttons, the selected window comes to the fore- front. If that window was already at the forefront, it will be minimized. If you have numer- ous open windows from the same application — like you might with Internet Explorer — the taskbar will group these buttons into a pop-up list, just like it did in Windows XP. And when you right-click a taskbar button, you see a menu that is identical to that in XP. Other features carry over from XP as well. When you right-click a blank area of the taskbar, you get a pop-up menu with links to enable toolbars, arrange desktop windows in various ways, show the desktop, access the Task Manager, toggle taskbar locking, and access the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box, from which you can configure various taskbar options. This dialog box is shown in Figure 4-15. Figure 4-15: From here, you can customize certain taskbar features. What’s new is that you can get Live Thumbnail Previews when you mouse over taskbar buttons, which was shown back in Figure 4-8. To enable this feature, the option Show Thumbnails must be enabled, which it is by default. Note, too, that the Notification area options have been moved to a new tab of this dialog in Windows Vista. Not coincidentally, we’ll look at this feature next. ࡗ 116 Part II: Understanding the Windows Vista User Experience ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ Though the taskbar sits on the bottom of the Windows desktop by default, you can actually drag it to any of the other three screen borders should you so desire. To do so, right-click the taskbar and uncheck Lock the Taskbar. Then, simply use your well- honed drag-and-drop skills to drag the taskbar to a screen edge — you can also resize it as you see fit, so that it occupies multiple lines vertically, or is whatever width you like horizontally. Recheck the Lock the Taskbar option to ensure that you don’t acci- dentally move it again. Secret 10_577048 ch04.qxp 11/29/06 8:13 PM Page 116 Notification Area and System Clock Way back in Windows 95, Microsoft introduced a number of user interface conventions that still exist in Windows Vista. These include, among others, the Start button and Start Menu, the taskbar, the Windows Explorer windows, and the notification area, which sits at the right end of the taskbar by default. You’ll typically see two types of items here: The system clock and various notification icons. Some of these icons are installed by default with Windows, such as the volume control, the network icon, Safely Remove Hardware, and others. Other icons can be installed by third-party applications. For example, Apple’s QuickTime Player and many security applications install tray icons. As the name suggests, the tray is designed for notifications and shouldn’t be used as a taskbar replacement although some developers try to use it that way for some reason (some applications inexplicably minimize to the tray rather than to the taskbar as they should). Applications like Windows Live Messenger and Microsoft Outlook, which need to alert the user to new instant messages, e-mails, or online contacts, also use the tray, and display small pop-up notification windows nearby. Despite early plans to remove the notification area and replace it with a Sidebar panel, Microsoft has pretty much left this feature intact in Windows Vista. Not much has changed: You can now configure various notification area features — such as which system icons are displayed by default, and the display behavior of any notification icon on your system — from a new Notification Area tab in the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box. But that’s about it. One thing that has changed demonstrably is the system clock. In Windows Vista, this fea- ture is now dramatically better than its XP relation. At first glance, it’s not obvious what’s changed. The clock displays the time, as you’d expect. And if you mouse over the time display, a yellow balloon tip window appears, providing you with the day and date. In Windows XP, you could access the system’s Date and Time Properties dialog box by double-clicking the clock. This doesn’t work in Windows Vista. Instead, you can single- click the clock to display a new pop-up window, shown in Figure 4-16, which provides a professionally formatted calendar and analog clock. And there’s an option to display the new Date and Time Properties window. Figure 4-16: Windows Vista includes a nice looking calendar and clock display that doesn’t require you to open a dialog box. When you click Date and Time Settings, you’ll see the new Date and Time Properties win- dow, as shown in Figure 4-17. Here, you can configure options you’d expect, such as date, time, and time zone. But you can also configure additional clock displays, which is an excellent feature for travelers or those who frequently need to communicate with people in different time zones. ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ Chapter 4: What’s New in the Windows Vista User Interface ࡗ 117 10_577048 ch04.qxp 11/29/06 8:13 PM Page 117 Figure 4-17: The Date and Time Properties dialog box has been completely overhauled. From the Additional Clocks tab of this dialog box, you can add up to two more clocks. Each clock gets its own time zone and optional display name. What’s cool about this fea- ture is the way it changes the clock displays. Now, when you mouse over the clock, you’ll see a pop-up that lists data from all of your clocks, as shown in Figure 4-18. Figure 4-18: You can configure up to three clocks in Windows Vista. And when you click the clock, you’ll see the nice display shown in Figure 4-19. Figure 4-19: This handy and speedy time and date display can also handle up to three clocks. ࡗ 118 Part II: Understanding the Windows Vista User Experience ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ 10_577048 ch04.qxp 11/29/06 8:13 PM Page 118 Windows Vista Explorers No discussion of the Windows Vista user experience would be complete without a look at the ways in which Microsoft has evolved Windows Explorer in this release. Windows Explorer first appeared in Windows 95, replacing the many horrible manager programs (File Manager, Program Manager, and so on) that plagued previous versions. It was a grand idea, but then Microsoft made the mistake of combining Internet Explorer with the Windows shell. Starting with an interim version of Windows 95, the Windows Explorer shell has been based on IE, and since then we’ve suffered through a decade of security vulnerabilities and the resulting patches. In Windows Vista, that integration is a thing of the past. Windows Explorer has been com- pletely overhauled, and although it’s arguably better than the Explorer shell in Windows XP, it’s also quite a bit different. Microsoft has also introduced some new terminology into the mix, just to keep us on our toes. So as My Documents is renamed to Documents in Windows Vista, Microsoft now refers to that window as the Documents Explorer. Likewise with all the other special folders: There are now explorers for Pictures, Music, applica- tions, devices, and other objects. From a usability perspective, much has changed since XP. Let’s examine a typical Explorer window, as seen in Figure 4-20. The menu bar is gone, replaced by a hidden Classic Menu, which can be dynamically triggered by tapping the Alt key. The main tool- bar is also gone, replaced by Back and Forward buttons, the new enhanced Address Bar, and the new integrated search box. Figure 4-20: Like many user interface pieces in Windows Vista, Explorer windows have changed fairly dramatically. Below those controls is a new user interface construct called the command bar, which includes context-sensitive commands, that replaces the old task pane from Windows XP Explorer. On the bottom is a new preview pane. ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ Chapter 4: What’s New in the Windows Vista User Interface ࡗ 119 10_577048 ch04.qxp 11/29/06 8:13 PM Page 119 In the center of the window, you’ll see a Navigation pane with collapsing Folders view, a large icon display area, and, optionally, a Reading pane. Let’s see what all of these fea- tures do. Classic Menu One of the guiding principles in Windows Vista is simplification. In previous Windows versions, virtually every system window and application included a top menu structure. In Windows Vista, however, these menus are typically either nonexistent or are hidden. So the menu system is hidden by default. To display it temporarily, simply tap the Alt key. Or, you can enable it permanently by choosing Folder Options from the Tools menu, navigat- ing to the View tab of the Folder Options dialog box, and enabling the option titled Always show Classic Menus. There’s precious little reason to do this, however. The Classic Menus in Explorer are virtually identical to their XP counterparts. One major exception is that the Favorites menu does not appear in Vista, because IE is no longer integrated with the Windows shell. Enhanced Address Bar For the first time since Windows 95, the address bar gets a major overhaul in Windows Vista. Now, instead of the classic address bar view, the address bar is divided into drop- down menu nodes along the navigation path, making it easier than ever to move through the shell hierarchy. This is referred to as the breadcrumb bar. To see how this works, open the Documents Explorer by clicking the Documents item in the Start Menu and observing the address bar. It is divided into three nodes, a folder, a node representing your user profile (Doris or whatever), and Documents. Each has a small arrow next to it, indicating that you can click there to trigger a drop-down menu. To navigate to a folder that is at the same level in the shell hierarchy as the Documents folder, click the small arrow to the right of your user name. As you can see in Figure 4-21, a drop-down menu appears, showing you all the folders that are available inside of your user account folder. You can click any of these to navigate there immediately. Note that doing this in XP would require two steps. First, you’d have to click the Up toolbar button; then, you’d have to double-click the folder you wanted. To simply move back up a level, click the node that is to the left of the current location. In this example we would click the node that is denoted by your user name. tip ࡗ 120 Part II: Understanding the Windows Vista User Experience ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ To see the classic address bar, simply click a blank area of the enhanced address bar. Secret 10_577048 ch04.qxp 11/29/06 8:13 PM Page 120 Figure 4-21: The new address bar makes it easier to move through the shell hierarchy. Command Bar The new command bar combines the functionality of XP Windows Explorer’s toolbar and task panes in a new, less real estate–intensive place. Like the task pane in XP, portions of the command bar change depending on what items you are viewing or have selected. That is, the command bar is context sensitive. That said, the following portions of the command bar will remain constant regardless of what you’re viewing: ࡗ Organize button: Appears in all Explorer windows and provides you with a drop-down menu from which you can perform common actions like create a new folder; cut, copy, paste, undo, and redo; select all; delete; rename; close; and get properties. ࡗ Layout submenu: Enables you to determine which user interface elements appear in Explorer windows. These elements include Classic Menus (off by default), Search Pane (off by default except in the Search window), Preview Pane (on by default), Reading Pane (off by default), and the Navigation Pane (on by default). ࡗ Views button: Lets you change the icon view style. This option is explored in Chapter 5. The other options you see in the command bar will depend on the view and selection. For example, Figure 4-22 shows how the command bar changes in the Documents window when you select a document file. cross ref ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ Chapter 4: What’s New in the Windows Vista User Interface ࡗ 121 10_577048 ch04.qxp 11/29/06 8:13 PM Page 121 [...]... window It’s there in Windows Vista You just need to know where to click as shown in Figure 4- 23 Figure 4- 23: Yep, the window control button is still there ࡗ 124 Part II: Understanding the Windows Vista User Experience ࡗࡗࡗ Summary Anyone who uses Windows Vista will need to deal with its user interface, which is both brand new in many ways and also extremely familiar to any who has used Windows XP Like its... Working with the Windows Vista file system Understanding virtual folders Finding the documents and files you want Creating and using Search Folders ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ ࡗࡗ ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ 126 Part II: Understanding the Windows Vista User Experience ࡗࡗࡗ W indows Vista includes an updated version of the Explorer file system that appeared in Windows XP Like its predecessor, Windows Vista supports... digital music, and videos However, Vista adds a number of new Explorer constructs, such as virtual folders called Search Folders, which are confusing but powerful when used correctly In this chapter, you will explore the Windows shell and learn how to take advantage of the new features Microsoft added to Windows Vista Understanding Special Shell Folders Most Windows Vista Secrets readers are probably familiar... provides 128×128 icons laid out in a conventional grid Medium Icons A new style that’s unique to Windows Vista, Medium Icons are similar in style to Large Icons, but smaller Small Icons A blast from the past: Small icons appeared in Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, and Windows 2000, but were exorcised from Windows XP for some reason, much to the chagrin of many users Rejoice, it’s back List A columnar... in Windows XP, which grouped tiled icons by Type Interestingly, this is exactly the same in Windows Vista, as well, so open up My Computer now to see how a grouped view can look You can see an example in Figure 5-4 (Note, however, that the types of items displayed in the Windows Vista version of My Computer are a bit different.) ࡗࡗࡗ Chapter 5: Where’s My Stuff? Finding and Organizing Files ࡗ 133 Figure... elements, which might make it hard for you to navigate around the shell in some instances In Table 5 -3, we summarize some of the changes you can expect to see, and how to work around them ࡗ 134 Part II: Understanding the Windows Vista User Experience ࡗࡗࡗ Table 5 -3: Where to Find Common XP Shell Features in Windows Vista My Documents This folder was renamed to Documents My Recent Documents This Start menu item... Business and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista Help and Support Location unchanged from Windows XP Search Location unchanged from Windows XP Run Removed from the default Windows Vista Start Menu To achieve a similar effect, type the name of an application into the Start Menu’s Start Search text box Or, you can customize the Start Menu to include the old Run item Windows Explorer and Folders View Rather... from Windows Vista, but you’d never know it based on the amount of searching technologies that are still built into this system The integrated search functionality in Windows Vista is a huge improvement over Windows XP, with numerous entry points in the OS, including the Start Menu and every Explorer window, and intelligent results based on where the search was instigated Best of all, the Windows Vista. .. client is included in Windows Vista as part of Internet Explorer 7, which we discuss in Chapter 17 In Windows Vista, Active Desktop is finally gone forever But integrated push technology lives on with a brand-new feature called Windows Sidebar Like Active Desktop, Windows Sidebar is available by default and is running when you start up your PC, unless you configure it not to do so But Windows Sidebar solves... Word Document.” And digital photos include the name and the date the picture was taken Figure 5-1: The different view styles in Windows Vista ࡗ 130 Part II: Understanding the Windows Vista User Experience ࡗࡗࡗ You can access these styles in manners that are similar to those in Windows XP, via the Views button in an Explorer window toolbar, via the View submenu on the menu that appears when you right-click . clocks. ࡗ 118 Part II: Understanding the Windows Vista User Experience ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ 10_577048 ch04.qxp 11/29/06 8: 13 PM Page 118 Windows Vista Explorers No discussion of the Windows Vista user experience would. as shown in Figure 4- 23. Figure 4- 23: Yep, the window control button is still there. Secret 10_577048 ch04.qxp 11/29/06 8: 13 PM Page 1 23 Summary Anyone who uses Windows Vista will need to deal. experiences such as Windows Vista Basic and Standard and Windows Aero. ࡗ 124 Part II: Understanding the Windows Vista User Experience ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ 10_577048 ch04.qxp 11/29/06 8: 13 PM Page 124 Where’s