A FIRST LOOK AT WINDOWS VISTA ( win. Vista & 7 )

Vista – Different versions
• There are a number of different versions of Microsoft Windows Vista that you can buy.  Windows Vista Ultimate. This version has everything it in.  Ideal for business.  Great for playing.  Windows Vista Home Premium. Designed for home use.  Windows Vista Home Basic. A cut down version designed for home use.  Windows Vista Business. Designed specifically for small business.   Windows Vista Enterprise. Designed for large organisations.

Starting Vista

• When you start Windows Vista you may have to supply a login password.  If so enter your password and the opening screen will look something like this. 

• Displayed within the centre of the screen is the Welcome Center window.   

• We can use the Welcome Center window to practice basic Windows Vista skills.  

Moving a window

• Move the mouse pointer to an empty area towards the top of the window.  This area is called the Title Bar.  Press down the left hand mouse button, and while keeping it pressed down, move the mouse pointer on the screen. 

When you release the mouse button, the window will have moved.  Experiment with moving this window a few time until you get the hang of it.

  Drag and drop

• The concept of selecting an item (such as a window's Title Bar), and then moving it while keeping the mouse button pressed is often called ‘dragging’ or ‘Drag and drop’.  It is called this because you drag an item to a new location, and then drop it at the new location.

  Select, then manipulate

• When doing something within Windows Vista, you normally have to select an item (such as the Title Bar within a window) and once selected can you manipulate whatever it was you selected.  This is a very important concept to remember.  You need to select an item to tell Windows Vista what item you are interested in, before you can manipulate it.  This idea is fundamental to using Windows Vista.  For instance, later we will see that if you wish to format your text, you need to select a portion of text and then apply the formatting.   In a different context later on when you want to move a file on your hard disk from one place to another, you need to select the file first, and then move them.

  Single clicking vs. double clicking

• Normally you click on an item to select it.  This is a single click using the left mouse button.  Once selected you can often double click on the selected item to open or run the item that was selected.

  Viewing your ‘computer details’

• Move the mouse pointer to the item within the window called View Computer Details.  Click once using the left hand mouse button.    TIP: Within this manual, from now on when you are asked to click the mouse button, it will always be the left mouse button, unless the right hand button is specifically specified.

• You will see details of your computer displayed within the window.  As illustrated below. 

  This tells you what type of Windows Vista that is installed.  In the example shown Windows Vista Ultimate is installed.  The type of CPU (Central Processing Unit) is an Intel chip running at a speed of 1.86 GHz.  There is 2 GB of RAM (Random Access Memory).  The video type is a 256 MB ATI Radeon X1300PRO.  You may feel you don’t need to know this, but as you have seen, it is easy to get technical information about your computer if you need to!

Resizing a window, narrower or wider

• Move the mouse pointer to the left hand edge of the Welcome Center window.  You will see that the mouse pointer changes shape to become a horizontal line with an arrow on each end. Press down the left hand mouse button and while keeping it pressed, move the mouse pointer left or right. When you release the mouse button the window will be narrower or wider, depending on which direction you move the mouse pointer.  Experiment with resizing the window to make it wider or narrower.  Also experiment using the right edge of the window.  TIP: Remember that this dragging action with the mouse button pressed is called ‘Drag and drop’.

  Resizing a window, taller or shorter

• Move the mouse pointer to the upper edge of the Welcome Center window.  You will see that the mouse pointer changes shape to become a vertical line with an arrow on each end. Press down the left hand mouse button and while keeping it pressed, move the mouse pointer up or down. When you release the mouse button the window will be taller or shorter, depending on which direction you move the mouse pointer.  Experiment with resizing the window to make it taller or shorter.  Also experiment using the bottom edge of the window. 

Resizing a window in two directions at once

• Move the mouse pointer to one of the corner edges of the Welcome Center window.  You will see that the mouse pointer changes shape to become a diagonal line with an arrow on each end. Press down the left hand mouse button and while keeping it pressed, move the mouse pointer up or down and left or right. When you release the mouse button the window will be resized both vertically and horizontally, depending on which direction you move the mouse pointer.  Experiment with resizing the window.  Also experiment using the other corners of the window to resize the window. 

• Before continuing try and resize the Welcome Center window to its approximate original size and position.  You should be able to see other items on the screen behind the window.

Maximising a window

• If you look at the top-right of the Welcome Center window you will see three icons. As illustrated below.   

• Move the mouse pointer over the middle of the three icons and after a short time you will see a popup explaining the function of the middle icon. 

 • As you can see the icon is called the Maximise icon.  Click on the Maximise icon and you will see that the Welcome Center program window maximises, to fill the screen. 

• Move the mouse pointer over the middle icon and wait for the popup to explain the function of the icon (which has changed slightly if you look closely).    TIP: The reason for the middle icon changing its appearance (and its name), is that having already maximised the window to fill the screen, you cannot maximise any further.  Thus you are offered a Restore icon that will restore the program window to its original size.  This is an example of Windows being clever!  Click on the Restore Down icon and you should see that the Welcome

Center window is displayed within a window (i.e. not full screen).  You should find that the window is the same size and position, prior to maximising the window.

Minimising a window

• If you move the mouse pointer over the first of these three buttons, you will see it is called the Minimize icon.

• Click on the Minimise icon and you will see that the window disappears.  It is minimised down to the Windows Taskbar, which is the name of the bar across the bottom of your screen.

• Move the mouse pointer to this minimised icon within the Windows Taskbar and you will see the following popup, which displays a ‘thumbnail’ picture of the minimised program.

• Click on the minimised icon and the program will be displayed within a window once again, on your screen.  NOTE: Minimising a program is not the same as closing a program.  When you minimise a program, it is still running in your computer’s memory, it is simply minimized in size, down to the Windows Taskbar.  Closing a program means that the program is closed and no longer running in memory.

Closing a window

• Move your mouse pointer to the last of the three icons.  After a short delay you will see a popup explaining that this is the Close icon. 

• Click on the Close icon and the program will close.  It is not displayed within the Taskbar as a minimised icon. The program is no longer in your RAM (Random Access Memory).  RAM is where all your active programs are stored when they are running.  If you close a program the program is removed from RAM but you still have a copy of the program stored on your hard disk. To re-run the program you will need to open the program from disk.