16 Part 1: The Vista User Experience
select the paths of previously opened folders from a drop-down menu. Surprise
of surprises, clicking this drop-down button immediately converts the Vista path
separated by black triangles into the old backslash-separated and mushed-
together pathname of Windows XP. That’s the way that all the paths to all the
previously opened folders on the drop-down menu appear as well!
However, the moment that you click one of the old-fashioned mushed-together
pathnames on this drop-down menu, Vista immediately converts it back into the
new-fangled path separated by right-pointing black triangles.
For example, suppose earlier in my work session, I opened the Program Files
folder on my computer’s local hard drive, given the designation Local Disk (C:),
and I now want to reopen it in Windows Explorer. When I click the address bar’s
drop-down button, this path appears on the drop-down menu:
C:\Program Files
However, as soon I click the C:\Program Files item on this pull-down menu, Vista
opens this folder and displays the following path on Windows Explorer’s
address bar following an initial folder icon:
Computer Local Disk (C:) Program Files
Note how the new Vista pathname designations with the right-pointing triangles
are more accurate than the old ones in describing the actual process you fol-
lowed to open the current folder. In the previous example, I actually selected the
Computer link on the Start menu followed by double-clicking the Local Disk (C:)
icon in the Computer window and the Program Files folder icon. The older desig-
nations with the backslashes are, however, more accurate in describing the
actual location of the folder in the computer’s hierarchy of directories and files.
Making the most of the Details pane
The Details pane at the bottom of the window gives you extra information about
the folder or file that’s currently selected in the main section of Windows
Explorer. When a folder is selected, the categories of this information can
include the folder name, number of files, and the date the folder was last modi-
fied. When a file is selected, the categories of the information can include the
filename, size, type, date created, date last modified, and date last accessed, as
well as any keywords that you’ve assigned to the file such as title, authors, and
rating. In the case of graphic files and Excel workbook files, Vista also automati-
cally displays a tiny thumbnail of the image or initial worksheet on the left side
of the Details pane (see Figure 1-9).
Sometimes you need to enlarge the size of the window to display all the cate-
gories and information about the file currently selected in the Details pane.
Remember that you can also increase the height of the Details pane by dragging
its top border upward.
Ah, That’s What They Did with It! 17
Figure 1-9
The information displayed in the Details pane can be quite helpful in identifying
a folder or file for use. Moreover, the tags, ratings, and keywords assigned to
particular files can be used in doing searches for the file. (See “Search” later in
this part).
Vista enables you to add tags and edit keywords that you can assign to a file
directly from the Details pane. After clicking the file icon in Windows Explorer to
select it, you then position the mouse pointer over the category in the Details
pane and then, when an outline appears around the current entry and the pointer
becomes an I-beam shape, click the insertion point in the field and type the new
tag or keyword or edit its contents. Depending upon the type of file (text, graphic
image, audio, or video), you are able to edit various fields on this tab.
After you add or edit a tag, you then need to click the Save button that appears
the moment you set the insertion point in one of the fields to save the new data
as part of the file. Click the Cancel button if you decide not to add the tag or
save the editing change.
When you select a music or graphics file, you can give the file a rating between
one and five stars by clicking the star (from left to the right) that represents the
highest star you want to give it.
18 Part 1: The Vista User Experience
Displaying the Search pane and Preview pane
Vista’s version of Windows Explorer offers you the use of two extra panes that
aren’t normally displayed in the window. These are the Search pane (see
“Search” later in this part), which appears immediately beneath the address bar
when displayed (by clicking Organize Layout Search Pane) and the Preview
pane, which appears on the right side of the window when displayed (by click-
ing Organize Layout Preview Pane).
Figure 1-10 shows Windows Explorer with all its auxiliary panes — Navigation,
Search, Details, and Preview — displayed. Because I selected one of the chapter
files created in Microsoft Word in an open folder, the Preview pane in this figure
displays the first part of the actual document text.
Figure 1-10
Note that when you select a Microsoft Excel workbook file, the Preview pane dis-
plays the first part of the initial worksheet. So too, when you select a graphics
file, the Preview pane displays a larger version of the graphic image. When you
select a folder rather than a file icon, the Preview pane displays a large semi-
open folder on its side with its best representation of the types of documents it
contains (assuming the folder’s not empty).
Ah, That’s What They Did with It! 19
Moreover, when you select a video clip or a movie file (perhaps created with
Windows Movie Maker — see Part 7) in Windows Explorer, the Preview pane
displays the first frame of the video file with a video controller beneath com-
plete with Stop, Play/Pause, and Switch to Full Mode buttons that you can use
to actually preview the video from start to finish if you so desire.
Likewise, when you select an audio file in Windows Explorer, the Preview pane
displays a stock image of a multimedia file (including a music file above the same
controller with its Stop, Play/Pause, and Switch to Full Mode buttons). You can
then use the Play/Pause button to play the selected audio file from the Preview
pane.
Click the Switch to Full Mode button in the Preview pane if you want to listen
to the selected video or audio file in a separate Windows Media Player window.
Doing this gives you access to the full array of playback features of this much-
improved media player application (see “Windows Media Player 11” in Part 7
for details).
Restoring the Classic pull-down menus to Windows Explorer
If you’re anything like me, in your time working with earlier versions of Windows
such as 98, ME, and XP, you’ve come to rely upon the so-called Classic pull-down
menus in the Explorer Window and, to a lesser extent, the ordering and arrange-
ment of items on the Start menu that you now know so well. Fortunately, you
can easily restore some of the good old classic look and feel of bygone Windows
versions to Vista anytime you want to.
By far the most important classic element to know how to restore to Vista is the
display of the Classic pull-down menus (File, Edit, View, Tools, and Help) in the
Windows Explorer windows. To bring back these very valuable (and in rare
cases indispensable) menus to all your Explorer windows, click Organize
Folder and Search Options to open the Folder Options dialog box. There, click
the View tab and then select the Always Show Menus check box at the top of the
Advanced Settings list box before you click OK. After this check box is selected,
these pull-down menus automatically appear on their own row between the
address bar and the toolbar in every Windows Explorer window you open
(including windows opened by clicking the Computer, Network, and Control
Panel links on the Start menu).
You can also restore the Classic pull-down menus to your Explorer windows by
pressing the Alt key one time. Press the Alt key a second time to once again hide
the menus.
Restoring the Classic Windows Start menu
Although I personally do not prefer the rather sloppy cascading submenu
arrangement of the Start menu in older Windows versions, preferring instead
the tidy new self-contained Start menu of Vista, you can, if you want, return
20 Part 1: The Vista User Experience
quite readily to the tried-and-true Start menu of your mother’s Windows. (After
all, the Classic Start menu does include a Run option immediately above the old
familiar Shut Down option.)
To make the switch back, right-click the Start button and then click Properties
on its shortcut menu to open the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box
with its Start Menu tab selected. On this tab, you click the Classic Start Menu
option button and then click OK.
Note, however, that when you first switch back to the Classic Start menu in
Vista, this menu does not resemble so much the Windows XP Start menu as it
hearkens back to an even earlier vintage, more like the Start menu of Windows
98 (now that takes me back a bit).
You can however, customize the look and feel of the Classic Start menu. One way
to do this is to click the Default Programs option that now appears at the very
top of the Start menu and then click the Set Your Default Programs link in the
Default Programs Control Panel window. You can then select the programs such
as Internet Explorer, Windows Mail, and the like that you always want to appear
on the Start menu.
The other way to customize the Classic Start menu is to reopen its Properties
dialog box and then click its Customize button on the Start Menu tab to open the
Customize Classic Start Menu dialog box. There, you can use Add, Remove, and
Sort buttons as well as the check boxes in the Advanced Start Menu Options list
box to customize what items do and don’t appear on the menu and in what order.
Getting rid of the Vista glassiness
Let’s face it: You either love the shiny new Aero Glass look of Windows Vista or
you find it to be totally distracting and a big waste of your precious computer
resources. If you happen to hold the latter opinion, follow these steps to get rid
of the ritzy glassy look and go back to the old clunky opaque view of yesteryear:
1. Right-click anywhere on the Vista desktop and then click the Personalize
item on its shortcut menu.
2. Click the Window Color and Appearance link in the Personalization
Control Panel window.
3. Click the Open Classic Appearance Properties for More Color Options link
at the bottom of the Window Color and Appearance Control Panel window.
4. Click the Windows Classic selection in the Color Scheme list box and then
click OK.
And that’s all there is to it: Vista fades to black. When the screen comes back up,
in place of all that glittery, semitransparent taskbar and windows nonsense,
every Vista screen now has a thick-as-mud look and feel that would do Windows
95 proud!
Ah, That’s What They Did with It! 21
Just click the Enable Transparency check box in the Window Color and
Appearance Control Panel window to remove its check mark if you’re happy
with the default Windows Vista color scheme and only want to get rid of the
transparency effects.
Adopting a Classic view of the Control Panel
Finally, you may find the default look of the Vista Control Panel (which is, fortu-
nately a little less sparse than the Category View of the Windows XP Control
Panel) not to your liking. Switching back to the display of rows of individual
Control Panel icons (in alphabetical order from Add Hardware through Windows
Update) is really simple.
Click the Control Panel link on the Start menu and then click the Classic View
link in its Navigation pane immediately beneath Control Panel Home. Just
remember that when the Control Panel is in Classic View, you must double-click
the Control Panel icon whose settings you want to modify in order to open its
dialog box.
Click the Control Panel Home link in the Navigation pane to return to the default
category display.
Things that haven’t changed a bit
Although it may seem as though quite a bit of the user interface is radically dif-
ferent, you’ll be glad to know that many, many of the ways of doing things in
Windows Vista have remained the same. Here’s a short list of such things to give
you an idea of just how much you already know how to do:
You still move a window by dragging it by its title bar (which is a bit easier
given the larger size in Vista) and minimize, maximize, and close windows
with these buttons in the upper-right corner.
You still resize windows by dragging one of their side borders or corners.
All items still have shortcut menus associated with them that are opened
by right-clicking them.
All your common shortcut keystrokes such as Ctrl+C (for Copy), Ctrl+X (for
Cut), Ctrl+V (for Paste), Ctrl+Z (Undo) as well as Alt+← for Back, Alt+→ for
Forward, Alt+F4 for Close Current Window (or shut down Vista if all win-
dows are closed) still work just as before.
You can still modify the desktop by selecting a new desktop background
image, screen saver, as well as add standard desktop icons (such as
Documents, Computer, and Internet Explorer) if you don’t like having
to choose them from the Start menu — right-click the desktop and then
click Personalize on its shortcut menu to open the Personalization Control
Panel window.
22 Part 1: The Vista User Experience
You can still map folders located on your network to virtual drive letters
(up to Z just as long as they don’t duplicate drive letters already assigned
to physical devices connected to the machine) that appear each time you
log on to the computer — just choose Tools➪Map Network Drive when the
Classic menus are displayed in Windows.
You can still add desktop shortcuts for any item (drive, program, folder, or
file) on your computer, network, or the Internet that you can then open by
double-clicking — see “Displaying additional desktop icons” later in this
part for details.
Flip and Flip 3D
When you have many windows open in Vista, the Flip and Flip 3D (also known as
the Window Switcher) features provide you with two quick methods for activat-
ing the window you want to work by displaying it on the top of the others.
To use the Flip feature, hold down Alt+Tab. Vista displays a band in the middle of
the desktop showing thumbnails of each open window in the order in which they
were opened (refer to Figure 1-3). To activate a new window, press Alt+Tab (or
hold down the Alt key as you press → or ←) until the thumbnail of that window
is highlighted and its name appears centered above in the band. Then release the
Alt key along with Tab or the left or right arrow key. To minimize all the open win-
dows as buttons on the Vista taskbar, highlight the Desktop, Windows Explorer
thumbnail that appears as the last image on the right of the group.
To use the Flip 3D feature (refer to Figure 1-4), click the Switch between
Windows button (shown in left margin) on the Quick Launch toolbar. Vista
then dims the background of the desktop and displays all open windows in
3-D cascading arrangement. If your mouse is equipped with a center wheel,
you can then zip (and I mean zip) through the 3-D stack by turning the wheel
(forward to flip backward through the stack and backward to flip forward).
As soon as you’ve brought the image of the window you want to activate to the
front of the 3-D stack, click anywhere on the image. Vista then returns the desk-
top to normal, collapsing the 3-D stack while at the same time activating the
window you clicked by placing it on top. If your mouse doesn’t have a center
wheel, you can still select a window to activate by clicking the part of it that is
exposed in the 3-D stack.
When all the open windows in Vista are minimized as buttons on the taskbar —
as after clicking the Show Desktop button (shown in left margin) on the Quick
Launch toolbar — remember that you only need to position the mouse pointer
over each button to display a thumbnail of its window. Then when you see the
image of the window you want to activate, click its button on the taskbar to dis-
play it on the Vista desktop either full-screen or in its previous position and size.
Personalize 23
Personalize
Vista makes it easy for you to personalize your computer by selecting a new
desktop background image, a color scheme for the various Windows elements,
a screen saver to use when the computer has been idle for a certain period, as
well as the sound effects to play when different events take place.
The easiest way to open the Personalization window (see Figure 1-11) for chang-
ing these settings is by right-clicking anywhere on the desktop background and
then clicking Personalize at the bottom of the desktop’s shortcut menu.
Figure 1-11
Note that you can also open this dialog box through the Control Panel (Start
Control Panel) by first selecting the Appearance and Personalization link fol-
lowed by the Personalization link, but this method requires a whole lot more
steps to do the same thing.
The options for customizing Vista in the Personalization window include
Window Color and Appearance to replace the Personalization window
with the Window Color and Appearance window (see Figure 1-12), where
you can select a new color and the amount of glassiness for the title bars of
windows, the Start menu, and taskbar. To select a Windows XP color
scheme, click the Open Classic Appearance Properties for More Options
link to open the Appearance Settings dialog box, where you then select or
customize one of its ready-made schemes.
24 Part 1: The Vista User Experience
Figure 1-12
Desktop Background to replace the Personalization window with the
Desktop Background window (see Figure 1-13), where you can select a
new ready-made wallpaper image, select your own photo image as the
wallpaper (with the Browse button), change how the wallpaper image is
displayed on the desktop (Fit to Screen, Tile, or Center), or select a new
solid color for the background by clicking Solid Colors on the Picture
Location drop-down list.
Screen Saver to open the Screen Saver Settings dialog box, where you can
select a new screen saver to use, customize the amount of idle time before
the screen saver kicks in, and adjust your monitor and hard drive power
settings (by clicking the Change Power Settings link).
Sounds to open the Sounds dialog box, where you can assign new sounds
to different program events and save your new choices as a custom sound
scheme to reuse.
Mouse Pointers to open the Mouse Properties dialog box with the Pointers
tab selected, where you can select a new mouse pointer scheme (very
helpful if you suffer a vision impairment that makes it difficult to track the
normal mouse pointer), as well as customize what icons are used in vari-
ous pointing situations.
Search 25
Theme to open the Theme Settings dialog box, where you can select a new
ready-made theme to use or save the changes you’ve made to the color
scheme, desktop background, screen saver, and sound effects (as
described below) as a new theme to reuse.
Display Settings to open the Display Settings dialog box, where you can
select a new monitor (if you have more than one connected to your com-
puter) as well as new screen resolution and color-depth settings for the
monitor or monitors you have attached to your computer. Note that the
range of the resolution and color settings you have to choose from
depends on the capabilities of the monitor or monitors you have.
Figure 1-13
Search
The Search feature provides you an extremely efficient way to locate any pro-
gram, folder, or file on your computer system. A Search text box appears in the
26 Part 1: The Vista User Experience
upper-right corner of all the major Explorer windows — Computer, Documents,
Network, Control Panel, Pictures, Music, and the like — where it’s labeled
Search, and at the bottom of the Start menu, where it’s labeled Start Search.
Search immediately starts searching your computer system for matches to any
characters you enter into one of its search text boxes the moment you type
them. The feature not only automatically searches for matches in the names of
programs, drives, folders, files, and so on on your computer, but in the metadata
in files (that is, keywords you assign and statistics such as author, date modi-
fied, and so on that Windows and other programs automatically assign), and
even in text contained in document files.
Keep in mind that Search automatically searches all the indexed files on your
computer system for the characters you type into a search text box. If you only
want to search a particular drive or folder on your computer system, you need
to perform an advanced search by using the Search pane (see “Doing advanced
searches with the Search pane” later in this part).
Figure 1-14 illustrates this point. This figure shows the results in a Search
Results in Indexed Locations window (opened by clicking Search on the Start
menu) after conducting a search for the term blue. Note that Vista not only finds
all the files whose filenames contain the word blue, but also several Excel work-
book files whose spreadsheets contain references to blueberry muffins. It even
finds a Word document named Hidden Gems of Wisdom whose text contains a
reference to a precious blue gem.
Figure 1-14
Search 27
Adding tags for searches
Because Search automatically searches the metadata added to your files, you can
make these searches much more effective by adding your own tags, including key-
words and other types of search data, whenever possible.
When creating documents with application programs such as Microsoft Word or
Excel, you can add all kind of your own metadata tags including subject, category,
keywords, and comments by opening the document in the program and then
selecting the Summary tab of its Properties dialog box (File➪Properties). In a
program such as Adobe Reader 7, you can add keywords by opening the PDF file
and then selecting the Description tab of the Document Properties dialog box
(File➪Document Properties).
For media files on your computer (music, video, and photos and other graphic
images), Vista actually enables you to add tags in the Preview pane that appears
along the bottom of Music, Videos, and Pictures Explorer windows. To add tags
to one of these media files, all you have to do is select the file in its Explorer
window, and then add the desired tags to the appropriate fields on the Details
tab pane.
Music, video, and graphic media files also enable you to specify other metadata
tags on the Details tab of their Properties dialog boxes such as titles, dates and
time taken, and a rating between one and five stars (by clicking the appropriate
star).
Doing advanced searches with the Search pane
Most of the time, you only need to perform simple searches in order to find the
item you’re looking for. Vista does, however, provide an Advanced Search button
on the right side of the Search pane that you can display in any Windows
Explorer window (Organize Layout Search pane). When you click the
Advanced Search button, Vista expands the Search pane (see Figure 1-15) by
adding the following options you can use in a search:
Location drop-down list box to select a particular drive on your computer
to search
Date drop-down list box to search for documents by the Date Modified,
Date Created, or Date Accessed (selected on the Date drop-down list) that
you specify in its text box, using the criteria you select on its Any drop-
down list box (Is, Is Before, or Is After)
Size (KB) drop-down list box to search for documents by the file size that
you enter in the text box, using the criteria you select on its Any drop-
down list box (Equals, Is Less Than, or Is Greater Than)
28 Part 1: The Vista User Experience
Name text box to search for a document by its filename by entering all or
part of the filename in this text box — you can use the asterisk (*) to stand
for one or more wild-card characters in the filename and a question mark
(?) to stand for individual wild-card characters
Tags text box to search for a document by the tags assigned to it by enter-
ing one or more of them into this text box
Authors text box to search for documents by a particular author whose
name is entered in this text box
Figure 1-15
When creating searches in the Advanced Search pane, keep in mind that all the
conditions you specify with the Location, Date, Size (KB), Filename, Tags, and
Authors options are inclusive so that all their conditions must be met in order
for the types of files you’ve specified to be returned to your Search Results
window.
Saving search results in a search folder
Instead of having to go through the whole rigmarole of reentering the same
search criteria each time you want to find the same types of items on your com-
puter, you can save the results of your search as a search folder. That way, you
have access to the items simply by opening the search folder after selecting the
Searches link in a Windows Explorer window.
Sidebar and Gadgets 29
To save your search results as search folder, follow these steps:
1. Click the Save Search button on Windows Explorer or Search window’s
toolbar.
Vista opens a Save As dialog box where you specify the name and descrip-
tion for your new virtual folder.
2. (Optional) Add additional author names to the folder by clicking Authors
and entering them, or add tags that identify the search folder and can be
used in searching for it by clicking the Add a Tag text in the Tags field.
3. Click the Save button to create your search folder and close the Save As
dialog box.
After saving your search results as a search folder, Vista automatically re-creates
the search criteria, performs the Search, and then displays the same results
each time you select the folder in a Windows Explorer window.
Vista automatically saves your search folder as part of the Searches virtual
folder so that all you have to do to find your search folder and open up it up
again is to click the Searches link near the top of the Navigation pane in your
Windows Explorer window and then double-click its search folder icon.
Sidebar and Gadgets
Sidebar and gadgets are the names given to a new Vista’s desktop feature that
gives you instant access to volatile information such as the current time,
weather, stock quotes, and the like. The Sidebar is the name of the pane —
appearing either on the right or left side of your computer’s desktop — that con-
tains the gadgets, the name given to the specialized miniapplications that give
you the up-to-date information.
Figure 1-16 shows you my desktop with the Search All Gadgets window dis-
played (see “Adding new gadgets to your Sidebar” later in this part) and the
Sidebar itself appearing on the right side of the computer’s desktop (its default
position). This Sidebar is running the three default gadgets that automatically
install with Windows Vista:
Clock, which shows an analog clock with the current time for any time
zone you select.
Slide Show, which displays a continuous slideshow of the images that you
have stored in your Pictures folder.
Feed Headlines, which shows you headlines for the RSS you select. (See
“Internet Explorer 7” in Part 4 for details on RSS feeds and how to subscribe
to them.)
30 Part 1: The Vista User Experience
Figure 1-16
Changing where and how the Sidebar appears
To display the Sidebar on the left side of your computer’s desktop or to make
sure that it always appears on the top of other windows you have open on the
desktop, you need to open the Windows Sidebar Properties dialog box. The easi-
est way to do this is by right-clicking somewhere in the Sidebar area on the right
side of the screen (but outside any of the gadgets) and then clicking Properties
on the Sidebar’s shortcut menu.
To have Vista display the Sidebar on the left side of the screen, click the Left
option button — just keep in mind that opening of the Start menu may overlap
some of the gadgets when the Sidebar is displayed on the left side of the screen.
To have Vista display the Sidebar on top of all open windows on the desktop, click
the Sidebar is Always on Top of Other Windows check box before clicking OK.
Sidebar and Gadgets 31
Note that when you do elect to have Vista display the Sidebar on the left side of
the screen and display the Sidebar on top of all other windows, Vista makes sure
that none of its gadgets obscure the Recycle Bin (and any other desktop icons
you add) by automatically offsetting such desktop icons to the right, out of the
way of the Sidebar. Vista also ensures that none of its gadgets obscure any items
on the Start menu by always displaying the Start menu on top of the Sidebar
when the Sidebar appears on the left side of the screen.
If you have more than one monitor connected to your computer, you can select
the monitor on which the Sidebar is displayed as well. To switch the Sidebar to a
new monitor, open the Windows Sidebar Properties dialog box and then select the
number of the monitor in the Display Sidebar on Monitor drop-down list box.
If you don’t know the number of the monitor on which you want the Sidebar
displayed, right-click the desktop. On the shortcut menu that appears, click
Personalize, followed by the Display Settings link in the Personalization Control
Panel window to open the Display Settings dialog box. Then click the Identify
Monitors button to find out the number of each monitor connected to your
computer.
Hiding or eliminating the Sidebar
If you want to temporarily hide the Sidebar and all its gadgets, right-click any-
where on the Sidebar outside of its gadgets and then click Close Sidebar on the
shortcut menu.
To redisplay the hidden Sidebar, click the Windows Sidebar icon (the blue icon
that at first glance looks like an old TV set) in the Notification area of the
Windows taskbar.
If you want to get rid of the Sidebar on a more-or-less permanent basis, open the
Windows Sidebar Properties dialog box by right-clicking somewhere on the
Sidebar (outside of the gadgets) and then click Properties on its shortcut menu.
Then click the Start Sidebar When Windows Starts check box to remove its
check mark before you click OK. Doing this prevents Vista from starting up the
hidden Sidebar the next time you boot up your computer.
You can also open the Windows Sidebar Properties dialog box by clicking Start
Control Panel Appearance and Personalization Windows Sidebar Properties.
Adding new gadgets to your Sidebar
You can easily add gadgets to the few that are initially displayed on the Sidebar
when you first install Windows Vista. Not only can you select new gadgets from
among those that are automatically shipped with the Vista operating system
(but just not displayed on the Sidebar), but you can always download gadgets
from an ever-expanding online library.
32 Part 1: The Vista User Experience
To add gadgets to the Sidebar from among those that are included with
Windows Vista, follow these steps:
1. Click the plus sign (+) that appears at the top of the Sidebar or right-click
somewhere on the Sidebar outside of any gadgets, and then click Add
Gadgets on the shortcut menu.
Vista opens the Gadget Gallery window that displays all the gadgets on
your computer similar to the one shown in Figure 1-16.
2. Click the Show Details link to expand the dialog box before you click the
thumbnail of the gadget you’re interested in adding to the Sidebar.
The Details pane of the Gadgets Gallery window displays a brief descrip-
tion of the purpose of the gadget whose thumbnail you click.
3. When you locate a gadget you want to add to the Sidebar, drag its thumb-
nail to the Sidebar or double-click its thumbnail or right-click it and then
click Add on its shortcut menu.
When you double-click the thumbnail or right-click and click Add, Vista then
immediately adds the gadget you selected to the top of the Sidebar, moving all
the existing gadgets down one. Note, however, that you can reorder any of the
gadgets displayed on the Sidebar by dragging them to a new position.
To download more gadgets from the Internet, open the Gadgets Gallery window
as outlined in the previous steps and then click the Get More Gadgets Online link.
Vista then opens the Microsoft Gadgets Web page in the Internet Explorer. This
page offers not only gadget news and instructions on how to download new gadg-
ets, but also information how to build your own gadgets, if you’re so inclined.
To remove a gadget from the Sidebar, position the mouse pointer in the upper-
right corner of the gadget you want to remove and then click the X that appears.
Note that removing a gadget from the Sidebar does not delete it from your
computer — to do that, you need to open the Search All Gadgets window, and
then right-click the gadget’s thumbnail and click Uninstall on its shortcut menu.
To restore a gadget that you’ve removed from the Sidebar, just repeat the previ-
ous steps for adding a new gadget.
Customizing the contents of a gadget
Many of the gadgets you add to the Sidebar are generic and need to be cus-
tomized. For example, you can customize the Clock gadget by selecting a new
clock face, giving it a name, and selecting a time zone other than your own (this
analog clock automatically displays the same time as the digital time display in
the Notification area of the Vista taskbar). You also need to customize the Feed
Headlines gadget so that it displays headlines for a particular RSS feed to which
you’ve subscribed (see “Internet Explorer 7” in Part 4 for details on how to sub-
scribe to an RSS feed).
Sidebar and Gadgets 33
To customize the contents of a gadget, position the mouse pointer in the upper-
right corner of the gadget and then click the wrench icon that appears immedi-
ately beneath the X. Alternatively, you can also right-click its icon on the Sidebar
and then click Options on the gadget’s shortcut menu. Vista then opens a dialog
box specific to the gadget that enables you to customize its display.
For example, if you open the settings dialog box for the Clock gadget, you can
then select a new clock face by clicking the button with symbol, and entering
a clock name (such as London or Beijing that then appears on the face of the
clock) in the Clock Name text box. Next, select the appropriate time zone for the
clock in the Time Zone drop-down list box. In addition, this dialog box contains
a Show the Second Hand check box that you select if you want the Clock gadget
to display a moving red second hand.
Changing the opacity of a gadget
In addition to customizing what information appears in the gadget (as in the RSS
feed headlines shown in the Feed Headlines gadget), you can also customize the
overall opacity of the gadget. Any gadget you add to the Sidebar is automatically
displayed at 100% opacity (making it as opaque and non-see-through as possi-
ble). You can, however, lighten up any of your gadgets, thereby making them
more see-through by changing the gadget’s opacity.
To modify the opacity of a gadget, right-click the gadget and then highlight
Opacity on its shortcut menu. Doing this displays a submenu where you click
the new opacity percentage you want to use (20%, 40%, 60%, or 80%). The lower
the percentage, the more transparent the gadget is.
Detaching a gadget from the Sidebar and freely moving it
around the desktop
Finally, Vista enables you to customize any gadget on the Sidebar by completely
detaching it from the Sidebar. This makes it possible for you to then drag the
gadget to any position you want on the entire desktop (to move a detached
gadget, you just drag its icon around the desktop like you would any other desk-
top icon or title bar of any open window).
To detach a gadget, position the mouse pointer in the upper-right corner of the
gadget and then drag the gadget off of the Sidebar to a new position on the desk-
top by using the handle that appears beneath the wrench. (This handle looks
like eight tiny white dots in two columns.)
You can also detach a gadget by right-clicking the gadget and then clicking
Detach from Sidebar on its shortcut menu. Vista then immediately redisplays the
gadget on the desktop off to the side of the Sidebar. You are then free to drag
the gadget to a new position on the desktop.
34 Part 1: The Vista User Experience
If you decide you no longer want a gadget to be free-floating on the desktop, you
can easily reattach it to the Sidebar by dragging it to the Sidebar and then drop-
ping it into the position where you want it to appear.
Note that if you add a new gadget when the Sidebar is hidden, Vista automati-
cally adds it as a detached gadget that you can immediately drag to the desired
position on the desktop.
Vista Desktop
The Vista desktop consists of the taskbar (see “Vista Taskbar” immediately fol-
lowing) that appears along the bottom of the screen, a background image (or
color) that fills the rest of the screen (see “Personalize” earlier in this part), the
Sidebar with its gadgets on the right side of the screen (see “Sidebar and
Gadgets” earlier in this part), and whatever desktop icons and desktop short-
cuts you then choose to place on this background.
In keeping with Vista’s open and spacious Aero Glass design (see “Aero Glass
Interface” earlier in this part), the Windows desktop starts out with just a single
Recycle Bin desktop icon (where you drop any files, folders, and desktop short-
cuts you want delete from the system).
Displaying additional desktop icons
In addition to the Recycle Bin icon, you can add the following icons to your Vista
desktop:
Computer to open your Computer window (same as choosing Start
Computer from the taskbar), which shows all the drives and components
connected to your computer (including virtual drives that you’ve mapped
onto a drive letter).
User’s Files to open your Documents window (same as choosing Start
Documents from the taskbar), which shows all the document files on your
computer. (See “Windows Explorer” in Part 2.)
Network to open the Network window (same as choosing Start Network),
which shows all the computers on your local area network. (See Part 3.)
Internet Explorer to launch the Internet Explorer 7 (same as choosing
Start Internet Explorer), which you use to browse the Web. (See
“Internet Explorer 7” in Part 4.)
Control Panel to open the Control Panel window (same as Start Control
Panel), which enables you to customize all sorts of computer settings. (See
“Control Panel” in Part 5.)
Vista Desktop 35
To add any or all of these desktop icons, follow these steps:
1. Right-click somewhere on the desktop background (outside of any icon)
and then click Personalize on the shortcut menu.
2. Click the Change Desktop Icons link in the Navigation pane of the
Personalization window to open the Desktop Icon Settings dialog box.
3. Click the check boxes for all the desktop icons (Computer through
Control Panel) you want to appear on the Vista desktop.
4. Click OK to close the Desktop Icon Settings dialog box and then click the
Close button in the upper-right corner of the Personalization window.
After adding a desktop icon to the Vista desktop, you can open its window by
double-clicking the icon or right-clicking it and then selecting Open on its short-
cut menu.
Creating desktop shortcuts
You can create desktop shortcuts to launch application programs you’ve
installed as well as to open drives, folders, and documents on your computer
system, and Web pages on the Internet.
To create a desktop shortcut, you need to do just two things:
Locate the icon for the program, drive, folder, or document for which you
want to create the shortcut on the Start menu or in the Computer, Network,
or Documents window. (To create a shortcut to a Web page, open the page in
the Internet Explorer.)
Right-click the program, drive, folder, or document icon and then select
Send To Desktop (Create Shortcut) on the icon’s shortcut menu. (In the
case of a Web page, choose File Send Shortcut to Desktop on the
Internet Explorer’s pull-down menu when the Classic menus are displayed.)
Note that to create a desktop shortcut to a drive on your computer system, you
must choose the Create Shortcut item on its shortcut menu (there is no Send To
item).
You can also use a Wizard to create a desktop shortcut by following these few
steps:
1. Right-click anywhere on the desktop outside of an existing desktop item
and then choose New Shortcut on the shortcut menu.
2. Enter the location of the item to which you want to create the shortcut
either by entering its path and filename or URL (Web) address or by clicking
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