Series: Getting to Know Windows Vista

I love shortcuts

04/29/2009

~ alexjurek

One of the Biters here in the office is a wizard with the keyboard shortcuts. While I don't think I'll ever top Huntley's speed on a PC, it's nice to know a few shortcuts to add a little speed to my navigation. And of course, with speed comes added productivity.

Below are the descriptions for each of the lessons included in the series:

• Vista Lesson 1: An Overview of Windows Vista

  This clip will take you through logging into Vista for the first time and taking note of some of the newer features like the Windows Sidebar and the Instant Search features that are located off of the new Start orb (which has been called a pearl and a jewel... but we like to call it an orb).

  This lesson is part of a series in the ClipTraining Library. For more information on ClipTraining and how to provide access to your entire company for just pennies a day, please refer to www.cliptraining.com

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• Vista Lesson 2: What is the Welcome Center?

  The first screen you come to when you login to Vista is the Welcome Center. It is designed to help new users locate important settings for their system. It can also provide information quickly such as the version of Vista you are running, some of the hardware features of your particular system and the name of your computer.

  This lesson is part of a series in the ClipTraining Library. For more information on ClipTraining and how to provide access to your entire company for just pennies a day, please refer to www.cliptraining.com

  You can easily turn it off by clicking the checkbox at the bottom of the Welcome Center that says 'Run at startup'

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• Vista Lesson 3: Shortcut Keys to Improve Speed

  We all love finding a quicker way to do something. The key to shortcuts is the Windows Key (literally).

  The Windows Key combined with numbers and letters can save you time. For example, the Windows Key and the letter D will show you the desktop.

  This lesson is part of a series in the ClipTraining Library. For more information on ClipTraining and how to provide access to your entire company for just pennies a day, please refer to www.cliptraining.com

  Using the Windows Key with numbers will help to open applications in your Quick Launch toolbar.

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• Vista Lesson 4: Start Menu Configuration

  You can alter the look of the start menu to meet your personal needs. You can have the new Vista double-pane windows or you can go with a more classic look (single pane with icons on the desktop).

  To alter the Start menu you right-click the Start orb and select Properties. From the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties you choose the Start Menu tab to locate the various options you need to configure.

  Note: There are Privacy options you can turn on or off here as well such as displaying a list of recently opened file or programs.

  This lesson is part of a series in the ClipTraining Library. For more information on ClipTraining and how to provide access to your entire company for just pennies a day, please refer to www.cliptraining.com

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• Vista Lesson 5: Changing Taskbar Properties

  The Taskbar includes everything to the right of your Start orb. This includes the Quick Launch toolbar, your open applications section and the notification area (a.k.a. the System Tray).

  To alter Taskbar properties you right-click the Taskbar and select Properties. Then you can work with the following tabs:
  - Taskbar
  - Start Menu
  - Notification Area
  - Toolbars

  This lesson is part of a series in the ClipTraining Library. For more information on ClipTraining and how to provide access to your entire company for just pennies a day, please refer to www.cliptraining.com

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• Vista Lesson 6: Working with Windows Explorer

  Windows Explorer has a new layout and several different document views you can configure to really work with your file system of documents in a manner that suits you. This lesson will walk you through the changes and the configuration options you can set.

  In addition we will show you how to use the new Address Bar (a.k.a. the Breadcrumb Bar). This provides a nice way to find your way back through the complex maze we call a file structure.

  This lesson is part of a series in the ClipTraining Library. For more information on ClipTraining and how to provide access to your entire company for just pennies a day, please refer to www.cliptraining.com

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• Vista Lesson 7: Learn to Search More Efficiently

  This lesson will walk you through the impressive and useful new search features in Windows Vista. Features discussed include:
  - Filtering
  - Boolean Searches
  - Natural Language Search
  - Advanced Search Options
  - Saving Searches

  This lesson is part of a series in the ClipTraining Library. For more information on ClipTraining and how to provide access to your entire company for just pennies a day, please refer to www.cliptraining.com

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• Vista Lesson 8: Tagging Your Files & Photos

  You want to add metadata to your documents and photos so that they can be easily located later. Metadata is defined as 'data that describes other data'. For example, the author of a document, the artist of a music file, picture tags and so forth.

  Directly within Explorer you can add Titles (for documents), Tags and/or set Ratings for pictures.

  This lesson is part of a series in the ClipTraining Library. For more information on ClipTraining and how to provide access to your entire company for just pennies a day, please refer to www.cliptraining.com

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• Vista Lesson 9: The Windows Sidebar

  The Windows Sidebar provides a mini set of applications (like a clock, calculator, weather report) called gadgets. You can customize the gadgets that exist by default... and you can add/remove gadgets and customize the Sidebar to your specifications.

  You can also enter the properties of the Sidebar to configure the arrangement (such as displaying the Sidebar on the right or left side of the screen).

  This lesson is part of a series in the ClipTraining Library. For more information on ClipTraining and how to provide access to your entire company for just pennies a day, please refer to www.cliptraining.com

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• Vista Lesson 10: Shutting Your System Down

  This lesson explains some of the differences in the overall Shutdown/Standby/Sleep/Hibernation process between Windows XP and Windows Vista, from both the desktop and laptop perspective.

  This lesson is part of a series in the ClipTraining Library. For more information on ClipTraining and how to provide access to your entire company for just pennies a day, please refer to www.cliptraining.com

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• Vista Lesson 11: Working with the Control Panel

  You can open the Control Panel by selecting the Start orb and selecting Control Panel. You can alter the view to use the Classic View (although the default view is the Control Panel Home).

  Within the Control Panel you find 'applets', which are configuration programs that can help you work with items like your Power Options, Folder Options and other configuration settings.

  Note: From within the Start Menu properties you can configure the Control Panel to open as a menu so that you can locate your applet without opening the Control Panel.

  This lesson is part of a series in the ClipTraining Library. For more information on ClipTraining and how to provide access to your entire company for just pennies a day, please refer to www.cliptraining.com

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• Vista Lesson 12: Personalize Your System

  This lesson will help you perform the following:
  - Change your background and screensaver
  - Fine tune Color and Appearance
  - Alter Sounds, Mouse Pointers and Themes
  - Configure Display Settings

  This lesson is part of a series in the ClipTraining Library. For more information on ClipTraining and how to provide access to your entire company for just pennies a day, please refer to www.cliptraining.com

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• Vista Lesson 13: Creating User Accounts

  If you want to create accounts for your Vista system (home system or a laptop perhaps) so that others can access the system under their own settings.

  Under Control Panel you can select the User Accounts applet or you can use the Search option to locate the user account settings. Select the link that says 'new user account'. Provide the name and determine if you want the account to be a Standard or Administrator account. Once an account is created you make changes to that account, for example providing a password.

  This lesson is part of a series in the ClipTraining Library. For more information on ClipTraining and how to provide access to your entire company for just pennies a day, please refer to www.cliptraining.com

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• Vista Lesson 14: Change Folder Options

  The Folder Options applet contains the following tabs:

  - General: Allows you to configure 'Tasks', 'Browse folders' and 'Click items as follows' settings.
  - View: Here you can configure Advanced Settings like 'Hidden files and folders' and 'Hide extensions for known file types'
  - Search: Here you can configure 'What to search', 'How to search' and 'When searching non-indexed locations' settings.

  Note: Each tab has a Restore Defaults button you can click to restore the default settings quickly.

  This lesson is part of a series in the ClipTraining Library. For more information on ClipTraining and how to provide access to your entire company for just pennies a day, please refer to www.cliptraining.com

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• Vista Lesson 15: Date & Time Settings

  The Date and Time applet has three different tabs. There is the Date and Time tab, the Additional Clocks tab (where you can configure two other clocks with different time zones) and the Internet Time tab.

  This lesson is part of a series in the ClipTraining Library. For more information on ClipTraining and how to provide access to your entire company for just pennies a day, please refer to www.cliptraining.com

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• Vista Lesson 16: Default Programs & Autoplay

  This lesson will discuss the following:
  - Setting your default programs
  - Association of file types with programs (so your files, like your MP3 files, open in the program you choose and play in the player you prefer).
  - Changing your AutoPlay settings

  This lesson is part of a series in the ClipTraining Library. For more information on ClipTraining and how to provide access to your entire company for just pennies a day, please refer to www.cliptraining.com

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• Vista Lesson 17: Parental Controls

  Certainly one of the more important features of Windows Vista. Protecting members of your home or office from harmful content is an essential element to modern administration of an Operating System.

  Parental Controls in Windows Vista provide you the ability to:
  - Enable and view reports as to where users are going on the Internet.
  - Create and enforce web filter settings.
  - Establish scheduling parameters so you can determine when a user can or cannot be on the computer.
  - Determine which games and programs different users on the system can use.

  This lesson is part of a series in the ClipTraining Library. For more information on ClipTraining and how to provide access to your entire company for just pennies a day, please refer to www.cliptraining.com

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• Vista Lesson 18: Regional & Language Options

  This lesson shows you how to work with your Regional and Language Options applet. You will learn how to:
  - Change the display 'Format'
  - Choose a new 'Location'
  - Alter 'Keyboards and Languages'
  - Configure Administrative changes

  This lesson is part of a series in the ClipTraining Library. For more information on ClipTraining and how to provide access to your entire company for just pennies a day, please refer to www.cliptraining.com

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• Vista Lesson 19: WIndows Update

  The Windows Update tool connects into a Microsoft server or an in-house server to provide important security fixes, patches and/or new drivers.

  You can configure your system to Automatically download and install updates (and alter the settings). Or you can decide you want more 'hands-on' control over your updates by allowing the downloads but manually installing (or manually decide to download the updates). You can also tell it 'Never check for updates' which is not recommended.

  This lesson is part of a series in the ClipTraining Library. For more information on ClipTraining and how to provide access to your entire company for just pennies a day, please refer to www.cliptraining.com

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• Vista Lesson 20: Speech Recognition Options

  For obvious reasons there is a need for persons to be able to control their computers through speech, as opposed to touch. When you open the Speech Recognition Options you have the following links:
  - Start Speech Recognition
  - Setup microphone
  - Take Speech Tutorial
  - Train your computer to better understand you
  - Open the Speech Reference Card

  This lesson is part of a series in the ClipTraining Library. For more information on ClipTraining and how to provide access to your entire company for just pennies a day, please refer to www.cliptraining.com

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• Vista Lesson 21: Ease of Access Center

  This provides modification features for your system to allow the OS to assist users in areas they require, for example, if an individual has poor eyesight... you can use magnification tools. If a person is blind, you can use the Narrator feature. If a person cannot use a mouse or keyboard, there are alternative input devices like the On-Screen Keyboard and speech recognition options.

  Microsoft continues to improve these tools in each release of the Windows OS and we very much appreciate their efforts.

  This lesson is part of a series in the ClipTraining Library. For more information on ClipTraining and how to provide access to your entire company for just pennies a day, please refer to www.cliptraining.com

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• Vista Lesson 22: Working With Your Files Offline

  It's not always possible to be work online. You might travel quite a bit and you need to have a way to take your files with you. You might just make a copy of your files. But the Offline Files tools allows you to synchronize the differences between the documents you are working on and those on the network.

  This lesson will walk you through the configuration and use of Offline Files.

  This lesson is part of a series in the ClipTraining Library. For more information on ClipTraining and how to provide access to your entire company for just pennies a day, please refer to www.cliptraining.com

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• Vista Lesson 23: Power Settings

  This lesson discusses Vista Power Options applet. There are 'Power Plans' you can choose, including the following:
  - Balanced
  - Power saver
  - High performance
  Adjusting your power settings can save you or your company money by allowing your system to rest when you aren't working, thus saving on energy use.

  This lesson is part of a series in the ClipTraining Library. For more information on ClipTraining and how to provide access to your entire company for just pennies a day, please refer to www.cliptraining.com

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• Vista Lesson 24: Change Your Computer's Name

  For many reasons you may wish to change the name of your computer. While this may not be possible if you are working on a network... because the Administrator may have those settings under lock... but if you have full control over your system you can alter the name by going to the System applet and under the 'Computer name, domain, and workgroup settings' section you can choose 'Change settings' and click the Change button off the Computer Name tab of System Properties to provide the new name. Keep in mind that you will need to restart your computer for the name change to take effect.

  This lesson is part of a series in the ClipTraining Library. For more information on ClipTraining and how to provide access to your entire company for just pennies a day, please refer to www.cliptraining.com

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• Vista Lesson 25: Join an Active Directory Domain

  Ordinarily a user would not have to join their own system to the domain. A network admin or assistant will usually perform this task for you. However, if you do need to do it yourself, this lesson shows you how easy it is. The key is to have the permission to do it. You need to not only be an Administrator over your local Vista system but you also need to have the permissions to join computers to the domain. If you have both... you can perform this task from with the System applet, as shown in this clip.

  This lesson is part of a series in the ClipTraining Library. For more information on ClipTraining and how to provide access to your entire company for just pennies a day, please refer to www.cliptraining.com.

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• Vista Lesson 26: Log On to a Domain

  On your home computer you might not even have a password much less a login screen. At work however you probably need to log onto the domain by using a user name and password. Providing these will allow the system to generate a token that is designed specifically for your account and with that token you can access (or be denied access) to various resources on the network (like printers, files and so forth).

  This lesson is part of a series in the ClipTraining Library. For more information on ClipTraining and how to provide access to your entire company for just pennies a day, please refer to www.cliptraining.com

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• Vista Lesson 27: Changing a Drive to a Letter

  Drive letters are simply an easy way for us to locate our information. The c:\ drive is very familiar to most of us. Maybe you remember a:\ drives for your floppies (although we don't use those too often anymore) or the d:\ drive for your CD/DVD drive. However, now there is a greater chance you will see more drive letters in Computer. Perhaps a second CD/DVD drive, or an external USB device (hard disk or keychain) and so forth. Well... the letters are assigned automatically but you can change these drive letters if you like.

  To do this you can use the Computer Management console and the Disk Management tool.

  This lesson is part of a series in the ClipTraining Library. For more information on ClipTraining and how to provide access to your entire company for just pennies a day, please refer to www.cliptraining.com

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