Microsoft Windows Vista

MICROSOFT

WINDOWS VISTA

Start Menu • printing • installing programs • security • Internet Explorer • Mail

• search • Sidebar and Gadgets • Media Player • Photo Gallery • Movie Maker •

Windows Live Messenger • organizing files • networks • Start Menu • printing

• installing programs • security • Internet Explorer • Mail • search • Sidebar and

Gadgets • Media Player • Photo Gallery • Movie Maker • Windows Live Messen￾ger • organizing files • networks • Start Menu • printing • installing programs

• security • Internet Explorer • Mail • search • Sidebar and Gadgets • Media

Player • Photo Gallery • Movie Maker • Windows Live Messenger • organiz￾ing files • networks • Start Menu • printing • installing programs • security •

Internet Explorer • Mail • search • Sidebar and Gadgets • Media Player • Photo

Gallery • Movie Maker • Windows Live Messenger • organizing files • networks

• Start Menu • printing • installing programs • security • Internet Explorer • Mail

• search • Sidebar and Gadgets • Media Player • Photo Gallery • Movie Maker •

Windows Live Messenger • organizing files • networks • Start Menu • printing

• installing programs • security • Internet Explorer • Mail • search • Sidebar and

Gadgets • Media Player • Photo Gallery • Movie Maker • Windows Live Messen￾ger • organizing files • networks • Start Menu • printing • installing programs

• security • Internet Explorer • Mail • search • Sidebar and Gadgets • Media

Player • Photo Gallery • Movie Maker • Windows Live Messenger • organiz￾ing files • networks • Start Menu • printing • installing programs • security •

Internet Explorer • Mail • search • Sidebar and Gadgets • Media Player • Photo

Gallery • Movie Maker • Windows Live Messenger • organizing files • networks

• Start Menu • printing • installing programs • security • Internet Explorer • Mail

• search • Sidebar and Gadgets • Media Player • Photo Gallery • Movie Maker •

Windows Live Messenger • organizing files • networks • Start Menu • printing

CHRIS FEHILY

Learn Windows Vista the

Quick and Easy Way!

Visual quickstart guide

final spine = 1.2188

Microsoft

Windows Vista

Visual quickstart guide

B o o k le v el

✓ beginning

✓ intermediate

advanced

Visual QuickStart Guide—the quick and easy way to learn!

n Easy visual approach usespictures toguideyouthrough MicrosoftWindows

Vistaandshow you what todo.

n Concise steps and explanations letyougetupandrunningin notime.

n Page for page, the best content and value around.

n Chris Fehilyisa writerandconsultant livingin San Francisco. Headmits to

havingusedWindowseven beforeversion 1.0, when it was calledInterface

Manager. Hisotherbooks forPeachpitPress include Visual QuickStart Guides to

WindowsXPandtothePython andSQLprogramminglanguages.

Peachpit Press

1249 Eighth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710

800 283-9444 510 524-2178 fax 510 524-2221

Findus on theWebat: www.peachpit.com

For Computers Using: MicrosoftWindows Vista Home/Business/Enterprise/Ultimate Editions

Computer Book Shelf Category: Windows /Windows Vista

US $21.99  Canada $26.99  UK £15.99

Visual quickstart guide

FEHILY

M

W

icrosoft

indows Vista

434528_windows_vista_vqs.indd 1 12/1/06 4:21:14 PM

VISUAL QUICKSTART GUIDE

Microsoft

WINDOWS VISTA

Chris Fehily

Peachpit Press

Ch0 Vista (i-xii) FM 12/1/06 3:01 PM Page i

Visual QuickStart Guide

Microsoft Windows Vista

Chris Fehily

Peachpit Press

1249 Eighth Street

Berkeley, CA 94710

510/524-2178

800/283-9444

510/524-2221 (fax)

Find us on the Web at: www.peachpit.com

To report errors, please send a note to [email protected]

Peachpit Press is a division of Pearson Education

Copyright © 2007 by Chris Fehily

Managing editor: Clifford Colby

Editor: Kathy Simpson

Production editor: Andrei Pasternak

Compositor: Owen Wolfson

Indexer: Rebecca Plunkett

Cover design: The Visual Group

Notice of Rights

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any

means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written

permission of the publisher. For information on getting permission for reprints and excerpts,

contact [email protected].

Notice of Liability

The information in this book is distributed on an "As Is" basis without warranty. While every

precaution has been taken in the preparation of the book, neither the author nor Peachpit shall

have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to

be caused directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in this book or by the computer

software and hardware products described in it.

Trademarks

Visual QuickStart Guide is a registered trademark of Peachpit Press, a division of Pearson

Education.

Throughout this book, trademarks are used. Rather than put a trademark symbol in every

occurrence of a trademarked name, we state that we are using the names in an editorial fashion

only and to the benefit of the trademark owner with no intention of infringement of the

trademark.

ISBN 0-321-43452-8

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed and bound in the United States of America

Ch0 Vista (i-xii) FM 12/1/06 3:01 PM Page ii

For Brian, Ken, Steve,

Stu, Cliff, and Darren

Ch0 Vista (i-xii) FM 12/1/06 3:01 PM Page iii

Special Thanks to…

Kathy Simpson for staying ahead of me

Cliff Colby for working backstage

Andrei Pasternak for coordinating

Owen Wolfson for squashing

Rebecca Plunkett for rotating terms

Ch0 Vista (i-xii) FM 12/1/06 3:01 PM Page iv

Introduction xiii

Chapter 1: Getting Started 1

Chapter 2: The Desktop 55

Chapter 3: Getting Help 103

Chapter 4: Personalizing Your Work Environment 117

Chapter 5: Organizing Files and Folders 181

Chapter 6: Installing and Running Programs 251

Chapter 7: Printing, Scanning, and Faxing 285

Chapter 8: Setting up Hardware 313

Chapter 9: Digital Photos 331

Chapter 10: Windows Media Player 357

Chapter 11: Windows Movie Maker 391

Chapter 12: Connecting to the Internet 411

Chapter 13: Security and Privacy 421

Chapter 14: Internet Explorer 445

Chapter 15: Email, Contacts, and Calendars 471

Chapter 16: Windows Live Messenger 497

Chapter 17: Managing User Accounts 509

Chapter 18: Setting up a Small Network 519

Chapter 19: Working Remotely 539

Chapter 20: Maintenance & Troubleshooting 551

Appendix: Installing Windows Vista 571

Index 581

v

Contents at a Glance

Contents at a Glance

Ch0 Vista (i-xii) FM 12/1/06 3:01 PM Page v

vi

Table of Contents

Introduction xiii

What Windows Does . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv

The Editions of Windows Vista. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv

What’s New in Windows Vista . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvi

Upgrading to Windows Vista . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviii

About This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix

Chapter 1: Getting Started 1

Logging On and Logging Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Using Welcome Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Exploring the Windows Interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

The Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

The Keyboard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Toolbars. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Icons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Dialog Boxes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Transferring Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Chapter 2: The Desktop 55

Exploring the Start Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Using the Start Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Customizing the Start Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Exploring the Taskbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Managing Windows by Using the Taskbar . . . . . . 74

Customizing the Taskbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Using the Notification Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Adding Toolbars to the Taskbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Using the Quick Launch Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Using the Sidebar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Managing Shortcuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Tidying Your Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Table of Contents

Ch0 Vista (i-xii) FM 12/1/06 3:01 PM Page vi

Chapter 3: Getting Help 103

Starting Help and Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Browsing Help and Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Searching Help and Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Getting Help on the Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Capturing Screen Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Allowing Others to Connect to Your

Computer Remotely. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Chapter 4: Personalizing Your

Work Environment 117

Using Control Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Setting the Window Color and Color Scheme. . 121

Setting the Desktop Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Setting the Screen Saver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Setting the Desktop Theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Configuring the Monitor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Configuring the Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Configuring the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Configuring Sound and Audio Devices . . . . . . . . 140

Setting the Date and Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Localizing Your System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Accommodating Disabled Users. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Using Speech Recognition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Using Alternative Mouse Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Conserving Power. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Managing Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Managing Visual Effects and Performance . . . . 175

Restoring the Old Windows Look . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Getting General System Information. . . . . . . . . . 179

Chapter 5: Organizing Files and Folders 181

Exploring Your Computer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Storing Stuff in Your Personal Folder. . . . . . . . . . 185

Using Windows Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Navigating in Windows Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Tagging Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Filtering, Sorting, Stacking, and

Grouping Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Customizing a Folder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Setting Folder Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Creating Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Naming Files and Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Table of Contents

vii

Table of Contents

Ch0 Vista (i-xii) FM 12/1/06 3:01 PM Page vii

Moving and Copying Files and Folders . . . . . . . . 212

Sending Files and Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Deleting Files and Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Compressing Files and Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Searching for Files and Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Saving Searches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Burning CDs and DVDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

Using Keyboard Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

Chapter 6: Installing and Running Programs 251

Installing Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

Removing Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Turning Windows Features On or Off . . . . . . . . . 259

Launching Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

Launching Programs Automatically . . . . . . . . . . 262

Running Older Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

Switching Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264

Exiting Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

Killing Unresponsive Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Using the Free Utility Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Saving Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Opening Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

Associating Documents with Programs . . . . . . . 281

Chapter 7: Printing, Scanning, and Faxing 285

Installing a Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

Sharing a Network Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

Setting Printer Properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

Printing Documents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Controlling Printouts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

Scanning and Faxing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

Chapter 8: Setting up Hardware 313

Connecting Devices to Your Computer. . . . . . . . 314

Installing a New Device. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

Setting up Bluetooth Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

Managing Device Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326

Chapter 9: Digital Photos 331

Importing Photos to Your Computer. . . . . . . . . . 332

Getting Started with Windows Photo Gallery . . 338

Viewing Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

Finding Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

Touching up Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Printing Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

Table of Contents

viii

Table of Contents

Ch0 Vista (i-xii) FM 12/1/06 3:01 PM Page viii

Ordering Prints Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

Emailing Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

Using Keyboard Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

Chapter 10: Windows Media Player 357

Getting Started with Media Player . . . . . . . . . . . . 358

Playing Music CDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

Customizing the Now Playing Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Viewing Visualizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366

Changing Player Appearance with Skins . . . . . . 367

Shopping Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368

Listening to Radio Stations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

Ripping CDs to Your Hard Drive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370

Organizing Your Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374

Working with Playlists. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

Burning Music CDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386

Playing DVDs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388

Using Keyboard Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

Chapter 11: Windows Movie Maker 391

Getting Started with Movie Maker. . . . . . . . . . . . 392

Importing Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394

Organizing Your Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398

Creating a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399

Editing a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400

Editing Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403

Adding Visual Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405

Adding Audio Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407

Publishing a Movie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409

Chapter 12: Connecting to the Internet 411

Understanding Connection Types . . . . . . . . . . . . 412

Connecting to the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415

Chapter 13: Security and Privacy 421

Checking Your Security Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422

Using a Firewall. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426

Updating Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431

Defending Against Viruses and Spyware . . . . . . 434

Setting Parental Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440

Encrypting Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442

Table of Contents

ix

Table of Contents

Ch0 Vista (i-xii) FM 12/1/06 3:01 PM Page ix

Chapter 14: Internet Explorer 445

Getting Started with Internet Explorer. . . . . . . . 446

Navigating the Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447

Using Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454

Bookmarking Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457

Blocking Pop-Up Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460

Browsing Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462

Chapter 15: Email, Contacts, and Calendars 471

Getting Started with Windows Mail . . . . . . . . . . 472

Setting up an Email Account. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473

Sending Email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475

Reading Email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480

Receiving Attachments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487

Applying Message Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490

Using Newsgroups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492

Managing Your Contacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494

Creating a Personal Calendar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495

Chapter 16: Windows Live Messenger 497

Setting up Messenger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498

Signing in to Messenger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500

Creating a Contacts List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503

Using Messenger. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504

Chapter 17: Managing User Accounts 509

Setting up User Accounts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510

Using User Account Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517

Managing User Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518

Chapter 18: Setting up a Small Network 519

Understanding Network Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520

Sharing an Internet Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524

Setting up a Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525

Managing a Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530

Sharing Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534

Chapter 19: Working Remotely 539

Dialing Direct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540

Connecting to a Virtual Private

Network Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541

Controlling a Computer with

Remote Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542

Making Network Files and Folders

Available Offline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548

Using Laptop Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550

Table of Contents

x

Table of Contents

Ch0 Vista (i-xii) FM 12/1/06 3:01 PM Page x

Chapter 20: Maintenance & Troubleshooting 551

Getting System Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552

Managing Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553

Cleaning up a Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554

Defragmenting a Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555

Checking for Disk Errors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556

Managing Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557

Scheduling Tasks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558

Editing the Registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560

Reporting and Solving Problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561

Boosting Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562

Restoring Your System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563

Backing up Your Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566

Recovering After a Crash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570

Appendix: Installing Windows Vista 571

Getting Ready to Install Windows Vista. . . . . . . 572

Choosing an Installation Type. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575

Installing Windows Vista . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 576

Activating Windows Vista . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579

Transferring Existing Files and Settings . . . . . . . 580

Index 581

Table of Contents

xi

Table of Contents

Ch0 Vista (i-xii) FM 12/1/06 3:01 PM Page xi

Ch0 Vista (i-xii) FM 12/1/06 3:01 PM Page xii

Windows Vista, the successor to Windows XP,

is the latest Microsoft operating system for PC

users at home, work, and school. Feature for

feature, Vista is better than XP, but to make

people want to upgrade to Vista, Microsoft

put special effort into:

The user interface. The new UI, called Aero,

is slick and lets you find and launch your

stuff instantly no matter how your files and

folders are organized (or disorganized). The

Start menu, the taskbar, Windows Explorer,

and other redesigned controls retain enough

of their old personalities to let you jump in.

Security. Vista protects you against malicious

websites, viruses, spyware, and other online

threats. You also can control what your children

or guests view and play. Vista’s reduced-privilege

mode (turned on by default) defends even

administrators against attacks.

Connectivity. It’s easy to connect quickly

(and wirelessly) to people, data, and devices

that you need to interact with.

Performance. Vista scales to your machine’s

hardware and, provided that you feed it

enough memory, is faster than XP. Vista’s

broad driver support means that your exist￾ing hardware and software will work right

(in most cases).

xiii

Introduction

i

Introduction

Ch00 Vista (xiii-xx) Intro 12/1/06 2:54 PM Page xiii

What Windows Does

Windows—like every operating system,

Microsoft or otherwise—is software that

controls:

The user interface. Windows manages

the appearance, behavior, and interaction

of the windows, buttons, icons, folders,

mouse pointers, cursors, menus, ribbons,

and other visual elements on your computer

screen, either directly or indirectly through

another program.

Storage. Windows’ file system allocates

space for and gives access to files—programs

and documents—stored on disk or in memory.

Other software. Windows is a launching

platform for programs. When you run

Microsoft Word, Adobe Photoshop, The

Sims, or any other Windows program, it

relies on the services and building blocks

that Windows provides for basic operations

such as drawing a user interface, saving files,

and sharing hardware.

Peripheral devices. Windows controls or

syncs with peripheral hardware such as your

mouse, keyboard, monitor, printer, scanner,

USB flash drives, digital camera, PDA, and iPod.

Networks and security. Windows controls

the interaction of a group of computers and

peripheral devices connected by a commu￾nications link such as Ethernet or wireless.

Windows also protects your system and

data from harm or loss.

System resources. Windows handles the

allocation and use of your computer’s low-level

hardware resources such as memory (RAM)

and central processing unit (CPU) time.

Task scheduling. Windows acts like a traffic

cop, setting priorities and allocating time

slices to the processes running on your PC.

xiv

Introduction

What Windows Does

Freeware and Shareware

Many of the third-party (meaning non￾Microsoft) programs that I recommend

in this book are freeware or shareware.

Freeware is software that you can use for

an unlimited time at no cost, whereas

shareware is software that you can use

for a tryout period—usually 30 days—

before you’re expected to pay for it. I say

“expected to” because much shareware

keeps working beyond the trial period, so

you can escape payment. Paying the fee,

however, often gets you a keycode that

unlocks features or turns off nag messages.

If you pass along copies of shareware to

others, they’re expected to pay too.

Freeware and shareware are copyrighted

and have licenses that may impose restric￾tions (“free for personal, noncommercial

use,” for example). Unlike commercial

software, freeware and shareware isn’t

shrink-wrapped or sold in stores but is

downloaded from the internet (or pro￾vided on magazine cover disks). I give the

publisher’s website for each recommended

program, but you also can browse down￾load sites like www.download.com,

www.tucows.com, and www.fileforum.com

or an index like http://dmoz.org/Computers/

Software. http://sourceforge.net has

lots of free high-quality software. Also,

to keep up with the latest releases, try

www.betanews.com, http://freshmeat.net,

and www.microsoft-watch.com.

If a popular free program isn’t labeled

“public domain,” “public license,” or “open

source” (www.opensource.org), you should

check it for spyware. See “Defending Against

Viruses and Spyware” in Chapter13.

Ch00 Vista (xiii-xx) Intro 12/1/06 2:54 PM Page xiv