Chapter 1 Fundamentals of Using Win7

The various versions of Windows I have used dates back to before Windows 95 with Windows 3.0. Even earlier than that I was using MS DOS to run Word Perfect to work from home as a cottage typesetter in the late 1980's. That was my first home computer. It was a huge heavy thing and basically a very expensive word processor without a graphics card.

I fell in love with Microsoft Windows when the company I was working for upgraded from 3.0 to 95. In 1997, I took a home correspondence course to learn all I could about this OS. The course also taught how to open up the computer and install extra memory boards. With this course I was off and running learning everything that I could on my own and also on the job.

Fast forward to Dec. 2010. This is when I migrated from Windows XP to Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit edition with the purchase of a new desktop computer. I absolutely loved XP, but love Windows 7 even more. One of my favorite features of Windows 7 is the Event Viewer. A couple months ago, I developed issues with my hard drive. Event Viewer gave me some very important clues as to what was going on (read errors GALORE). Long story short, I backed up my data and replaced the drive before it was too late.

Now onto Chapter 1 review! The chapter covers the basics of using Windows 7. How to start the OS, log on, display the start menu, expand and close a list, work with gadgets, launch & switch between programs, open/minimize/restore/move/size/scroll/close a window, use the help system, log off and turn off the computer. At this time the only gadget I use that is included with Windows is the weather gadget. I have found the gadget to be accurate but there are times when it will display a sunny day and it's midnight! The gadget usually updates itself to display the correct weather within an hour or so. The other gadget came with Nortons security suite provided free through Comcast, my internet provider. This gadget lets me know that my computer is *secure*.

There are 6 editions of Windows 7, starter, home basic, home premium, professional, enterprise, and ultimate. As I've already stated above, I am running home premium (on 8 gigabytes of RAM).

I also have downloaded Windows Live Essentials and use the Windows Live Mail as my email application. Mostly I love the new app, but it's missing the *select all* command. You can select all by manually shift selecting messages but I prefer the *select all* command, it was easier and faster for me to move a group of messages to a specific folder if I did not have a *rule* set up for doing this automatically. You have to wonder why such a basic command is missing. What was Microsoft thinking?

Windows 7 comes with an improved media player (in my opinion) called Windows Media Player. I use it to view my DVD movies. However, for music videos and music, I use iTunes. It's just easier for me to use iTunes because I purchase most of my music and music videos from the iTunes store.

I also love the improved start menu and the organization is better than previous versions of Windows. You can pin frequently used or favorite applications to the task bar. My pins include Firefox, a favorite game, iTunes, and Windows Live Mail. Below is a screen shot of my Windows 7 desktop.

Desktop

One feature that is really cool in Windows 7 is the Aero Flip 3D to view open programs on the computer. By pressing CTRL+WINDOWS+TAB you will get this result (see screen show below). Pressing the tab key scrolls through the various screens. Point and click on the screen you would like to view and the 3D visual goes away bringing the screen you clicked on to the forefront.

Aero Flip 3D

  

Using Windows Help and Support is easy and makes short work of getting the answers you need to a question you have. The chapter used an example what you need to set up a home network for using the Help and Support application as practice. The chapter describes three methods for using Help and Support: browse for help topics in the Windows Basics section, search for help topics using the Table of Contents, Search Help and Support by using the Search Help text box window. If all else fails you can click the 'more support options' link to see additional methods for receiving help.

I just finished the Chapter 1 activities. This is the first time I've use the snipping tool. I like this tool because it saves time taking screen shots and saving them as .PNG or .JPG files. Usually I take screen shots by pressing ALT and PRTSCN. Then I open up another application to paste the screen shot and save the file. It's a pain to do things this way but at least there is a way to do it. With the snipping tool, you have more options. You can use the rectangle snip to select the exact portion that you want, or use a free form snip to draw around something willy nilly, or the full screen snip to capture everything opened on the desktop. The item you snipped opens in it's own window that allows you to save the file in four different formats.

The final reading for this week is found at the end of the text book on pages APP 1 and APP 2 -- Appendix A. Appendix A is a chart comparing the features of the 6 Windows 7 editions. Pretty handy at a glance to see what features are included in each edition. There IS one feature that I wish I had in my edition and that is the ability to be in Windows XP Mode. I don't know that I would actually use it, but I would like the option to be there.