2. Getting Around the Start Menu
The Start button is the gateway to your computer’s menu
system. Clicking the Start button displays the Start menu. You can also
display the Start menu by pressing Control-Esc or the Windows logo key on
your keyboard.
The Start menu allows you to run programs, open folders, search
your computer, get help, and more. As you can see in Figure 3, the Start menu in Windows 7 is
organized differently than in Windows XP.
The Start menu has four key areas:
Programs list
The programs list in the left pane displays recently
used programs and programs that have been pinned to the Start
menu. Click All Programs to see all the programs available to you,
sorted in alphabetic order.
- Search box
The Search box in the lower portion of the left pane
allows you to search your entire computer for files, folders, or
programs.
- Common folders and features
The common folders and features (your username at
the top, followed by Documents, Pictures, etc.) in the right pane
provide quick access to the folders and features needed most
often.
- Shut down
The Shut Down button is located in the lower portion
of the right pane. Click the arrow to the right to access a menu
with options to control the state of the computer (Switch user,
Log off, Lock, Restart, Sleep, and Hibernate).
I discuss these Start menu
features in the following sections.
2.1. Navigating and customizing the programs list
The Start menu’s left pane displays recently used programs and
programs that have been pinned to the Start menu. You can customize
the programs list by pinning items to the Start menu and by changing
the number of recently used programs to display.
Programs pinned to the Start menu are listed in the uppermost
section of the programs list. Pinning programs to the Start menu
provides quick access to your favorite programs. You can pin a program
to the Start menu by following these steps:
Click All Programs and locate the program’s menu
entry.
Right-click the program’s menu entry.
On the shortcut menu, select Pin to Start Menu.
If you no longer want a program to be pinned to the Start menu,
you can unpin it by following these steps:
Right-click the program on the Start menu.
Select Unpin from Start Menu.
On the Start menu, recently used programs are listed in
the lower portion of the programs list. You can remove a program from
the recently used list by right-clicking it and then selecting “Remove
from this list.” This won’t, however, prevent the program from being
added to the list in the future.
You can customize the programs list by completing the following
steps:
Right-click the Start button and then select
Properties.
In the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box, the
Start Menu tab is selected by default. Click Customize. Set the
“Number of recent programs to display” option to the desired
value.
Using small icons instead of large icons, you can
display more programs on the list. Scroll down the list of options
and clear Use Large Icons.
2.2. Navigating common folders and customizing the listed
features
The Start menu’s right pane provides access to commonly
used folders and features. Though at first glance it may seem that
this part of the Start menu is similar to the Start menu in Windows
XP, this is deceiving, because there are major changes in the
locations accessed by these buttons.
In Windows XP, your documents are stored by default in personal
folders under %SystemDrive%\Documents and
Settings\%UserName%. Your personal folder contains a
My Documents folder, which in
turn contains other folders, such as My
Pictures and My Music.
Windows XP also has additional folders, such as Cookies, Local
Settings, NetHood, and
Printhood.
NOTE
Windows 7 has many environment variables, which are
used to refer to user-specific and system-specific values. %SystemDrive% and %UserName% refer to the SystemDrive and UserName environment variables,
respectively. Often, I’ll refer to environment variables using this
syntax: %VariableName%. If you’d like to view the current value
of any of these variables, click the Start menu, choose All
Programs→Accessories→ Command Prompt. Then type echo %VariableName%, such as
echo
%SystemDrive%, and then press Enter
to see the value.
In Windows 7, some of these familiar folders don’t exist. They
are implemented as symbolic links that act as reparse points to
another directory on the computer. Essentially, these symbolic links
redirect programs from locations where these folders were stored in
Windows XP and earlier versions of Windows to where the folders are
stored currently. If you’re ever curious about exactly how they work,
open a command prompt and type dir
/al. As the default directory for the command prompt is
your user profile directory, you’ll then see a list of the hidden
symbolic links in your user profile directory. With the dir command, the /A option displays files and folders with
specified attributes and the l
specifies that you want to display symbolic links. Other names for
symbolic links are reparse points and junctions.
In Windows 7, your documents are stored by default in
personal folders under %HomeDrive%\%HomePath%. As Figure 4 shows, your personal
folder contains the following folders:
- AppData
A hidden system folder for storing your application
data
- Contacts
Contains your contacts for use in your mail
programs
- Desktop
Contains your desktop configuration settings
- Downloads
Contains programs and data you’ve downloaded from the
Internet
- Favorites
Contains your Internet favorites
- Links
Contains your Internet links
- My Documents
Contains your word processing documents
- My Music
Contains your music files
- My Pictures
Contains your pictures and digital images
- My Videos
Contains your video files
- Saved Games
Contains saved game data
- Searches
Contains your saved searches
NOTE
If you examine some of these folders from the Command Prompt,
you’ll see that they appear without the “My” prefix. For example,
your My Documents folder is
%HomeDrive%\%HomePath%\Documents.
In Windows 7, shared public documents are stored by default in public
folders under %Public%. As Figure 5 shows, the public folder
contains the following folders:
- Desktop
Contains the shared desktop configuration. Any public
desktop items show up on all user desktops.
- Downloads
Contains shared, public programs and data downloaded from
the Internet
- Favorites
Contains shared, public Internet favorites
- Libraries
Contains shared, public libraries
- Public Documents
Contains shared, public word processing documents
- Public Music
Contains shared, public music files
- Public Pictures
Contains shared, public pictures
- Public Recorded
TV
Contains shared, public recorded television files
- Public Videos
Contains shared, public video files
In addition to personal and public folders, Windows 7 uses libraries. As Figure 6 shows, a library is a combination of
personal and public data grouped together and presented through a
common view. The standard libraries include:
- Documents
Collects a user’s My Documents data as well as Public
Documents data
- Music
Collects a user’s My Music data as well as Public Music
data
- Pictures
Collects a user’s My Pictures data as well as Public
Pictures data
- Videos
Collects a user’s My Videos data as well as Public Videos
data
When you work with libraries, it is important to remember that
they are only representations of collected data. Windows 7 creates
merged views of files and folders that you add to libraries. As the
libraries themselves do not contain any actual data, any action you
take on a file or folder within a library is performed on the source
file or folder. You can create new libraries to act as views to
various collections of data as needed by right-clicking the
Libraries node in Windows Explorer, pointing to New and then
selecting Library. If you’re ever curious about how libraries really work, access
the %HomeDrive%\%HomePath%\AppData\Roaming\Micrdosoft\Windows\Libraries
folder. In this folder, you’ll find the library definition files for
your user profile. Each library definition file ends with the
.library-msglobally unique identifiers (GUIDs) and the serialized
contents of a particular location are encrypted. Some properties of
libraries are tracked in the registry, but these are primarily used
only when you want to restore the original libraries, which you can do in Windows
Explorer by right-clicking the Libraries node and selecting Restore
Default Libraries. extension and is
formatted as an XML file that follows Microsoft’s Library naming
schema. If you view a library definition file, you’ll find that it
uses simple locations to define where contents in the library
originate from. Folder and files are referenced by Note also that the %Public%\Libraries folder also may have
library definition files. For example, Windows Media Player and
Windows Media Center both make use of the Recorded-TV library. As
this library isn’t a standard library in your user profile, it is
represented in the %Public%\Libraries folder by the
Recorded-TV.library-ms
file. |
Knowing this, you can put the Start menu’s common folder options into perspective.
From top to bottom, the option buttons are as follows:
- Current User
Displayed as your logon name. Clicking this option opens
your personal folder.
- Documents
Opens the Documents library, which contains the My Documents folder from your
personal folder and the Public
Documents folder.
- Pictures
Opens the Pictures library, which contains the My Pictures folder from your personal
folder and the Public
Pictures folder.
- Music
Opens the Music library, which contains the My Music folder from your personal
folder and the Public Music
folder.
- Games
Opens the Microsoft
Games folder in Windows Explorer.
- Computer
Opens the Computer view in Windows Explorer. This allows
you to access hard disk drives and devices with removable
storage.
- Control Panel
Opens the Control Panel, which provides access to system
configuration and management tools.
- Devices and Printers
Opens the Devices and Printers page in Control Panel,
which provides access to devices, printers, and faxes you’ve
configured for use.
- Default Programs
Displays the Default Programs page in the Control Panel.
This lets you choose the programs that Windows 7 uses by default
for documents, pictures, and more.
- Help and Support
Displays the Help and Support console. This lets you
browse or search help topics.
You can add features to the Start menu’s right pane using the
Customize Start Menu dialog box. Right-click the Start
button and then select Properties. In the Taskbar and Start Menu
Properties dialog box, click the Customize button on the Start Menu
tab. In the Customize Start Menu dialog box, select or clear options
as appropriate and then click OK twice.
Features you can add include:
- Administrative Tools
Displays the Administrative Tools menu or window. This
lets you access your computer’s administrative tools.
- Connect To
Opens the Network and Sharing Center notification window.
You also can open this window by clicking one of your network
icons in the notification area.
- Downloads
Opens the Downloads
folder in Windows Explorer.
- Favorites
Displays your favorite links as a menu. This lets you
quickly access favorite locations.
- Homegroup
Opens the Homegroup
folder in Windows Explorer so you can view files from other
people on the network (as long as they’ve joined the
homegroup).
- Network
Opens the Network Explorer. This allows you to browse the
computers and devices on your network.
- Recent Items
Provides a menu view that lists recently opened
files.
- Run
Displays the Run dialog box. This lets you run
commands.
NOTE
Although you may have used the Run options previously,
you’ll find the Search box to be much easier to work with. Not only
can you use the Search box to open and run commands quicker, but you
can also run commands with fewer clicks.
2.3. Navigating the control buttons and customizing the power
configuration
Below the common folder and feature buttons on the Start menu’s right pane, you’ll find your computer’s
Shut Down button. When you click the Shut Down Options button (the
arrow to the right of “Shut down”), you have the following
options:
- Switch user
Switches users so another user can log on
- Log off
Logs off the computer and ends your user
session
- Lock
Locks the computer so that a logon screen is
displayed
- Restart
Shuts down and then restarts the computer
- Sleep
Puts the computer in sleep mode, if possible given
the system configuration and state
- Hibernate
Puts the computer in hibernate mode, if possible
given the system configuration and state
Windows 7 has three power plans, which you can use to
automatically manage the way your monitor, hard disks, and computer as
a whole enter sleep or hibernation mode. Power plans also control
other power settings. The standard power plans are:
- Balanced
This plan uses a balanced approach to managing
power and is the default.
- High Performance
This plan optimizes the computer for performance
by allowing it to consume as much power as needed.
- Power Saver
This plan optimizes the computer to conserve power
by allowing it to more quickly turn off the monitor, hard disks,
and computer to conserve power.
Power plans have basic settings and advanced settings.
The basic settings control when the display is turned off and when the
computer enters sleep mode. On laptops, basic settings also control
whether and how much the display is dimmed. The advanced settings
control all other power configuration options. You can select a power
plan to use with the Power Options utility in the Control Panel. Click
Start→Control Panel. In the Control Panel, click System and
Security→Power Options. Specify the power plan to use by selecting it
under the Preferred Plans heading. Click “Change plan settings” to
change the basic settings. From the basic settings, click “Change
advanced power settings” to change the advanced settings.
You also can use power configuration settings to control the way
in which the power button, the sleep button, and the “Password
protection on wakeup” feature work. In the default configuration,
pressing a computer’s power button initiates a shutdown (pressing and
holding the power button on most computers will shut the computer down
instantly, which could cause you to lose data). Pressing a portable
computer’s sleep button or closing the lid puts it in sleep mode (on
most modern computers, this puts the computer into a deep sleep in
which it consumes very little power). By default, all power plans use
the “Password protection on wakeup” feature to ensure that when your
computer wakes up from sleep mode, no one can access your computer
without first entering a password to unlock the screen.
You can configure power buttons and “Password protection on
wakeup” options by following these steps:
Click Start→Control Panel.
In the Control Panel, click the System and Security
link→Power Options.
In the left pane, click the “Choose what the power button
does” link. This displays the “Define power buttons” page in the
Control Panel, as shown in Figure 7.
Use the “When I press the power button” list to specify whether the computer
should shut down, sleep, or hibernate when the power button is
pressed. On a laptop, you’ll have separate lists for when your
computer is on battery and when your computer is plugged
in.
Use the “When I press the sleep button” list to specify whether the computer
should shut down, sleep, or hibernate when the sleep button is
pressed. On a laptop, you’ll have separate lists for when your
computer is on battery and when your computer is plugged in.
On a laptop, use the “When I close the lid” list to specify the action to
perform when you close the lid. You’ll have separate lists for
when your computer is on battery and when your computer is plugged
in.
Use the “Password protection on wakeup” options to specify
whether the computer requires a password on wakeup.
2.4. Navigating the Search box
Below the Start menu’s programs list in the left pane,
you’ll find the Search box. The Search box allows you to quickly
search your computer or the Internet. You can work with the Search box
using the following techniques:
To use the Search box, click the Start button and type your
search text (see Figure 8).
Search results are displayed in the left pane of the Start menu.
Click on a result to run a program or open a folder or
file.
To clear the search results and return to the normal view,
click the X button to the right of the Search box or press the
Escape key.
NOTE
You don’t need to click in the Search box before you begin
typing. Just type your search text and you’ll see any matching
results.
Your computer uses the Windows Search service to perform the search. This
service searches the entire computer using the search text you
provided. The Windows Search
service matches the search text to words that appear in the title of
any program, file, or folder and returns any matches found. For
locations you’ve indexed, the Windows Search service also searches the
contents of documents and file properties. You can customize the way
search works by using the Indexing Options utility in the Control
Panel, and by setting indexing options in the Folder Options utility
in the Control Panel.
