Vista Tips – Save Time
ByThe Vista OS has grown on me and now feels almost as comfortable as my favorite flannel shirt (yes, I l
ike flannel). When I first started using it a year ago, it seemed like I was ignoring the new and cool features and trying to make the experience feel more like XP. So, this week, I wanted to talk about some things I’ve found helpful and hope you will too.
Modify Your Start Menu
Have the applications you use most appear when you click the ‘start’ button. I like the Vista way of simply scrolling down the list of applications, much less annoying than XP’s cascading windows that collapse just when you’re ready to click! Choose the app you want to pin, then right-click on the icon and select ‘pin to start menu’. To remove, just right-click on the icon and select ‘remove’.
Now, the top two icons on the Start Menu are reserved for Email and your favorite Internet Browser. Mine happens to be Outlook and Firefox. Of course, IE is the default here, so if you want to change that here’s how to do it. Right-click the start button, choose Properties, and then click the Customize button in the Start Menu Properties dialog box. In the Customize Start Menu dialog box, pick the web browser and e-mail app you wish and you’re through.
Keyboard Shortcut for Accessing Start Menu
I like using the keyboard rather than the mouse, so I’m always looking for keyboard shortcuts. Here’s one for accessing your Start Menu without the mouse:
Press your Windows key, or the Ctrl+Esc keyboard shortcut to open the Menu. Then, press the Up Arrow key once to get to the All Programs. From there, you can expand All Programs by hitting Enter, or the Right Arrow key. Then, use your arrow keys to navigate up and down and use Enter to select your program. To close a sub-menu, press the Left Arrow key, or Esc.
Search
Maybe everyone knows about this, but it’s one of my absolute favorites for Vista. I have quite a long list of applications and instead of scrolling around and finding the one I want, I just hit the Start button and type in the name of the program I want and it quickly appears. This is a wonderful time saver. You can also use this feature to find documents, pictures, whatever. If you want to see all the excel documents on your computer, hit the Start button and type in *.xls. It will return not only the excel files in your folders, but excel files in your email as well. You can also save your searches for using later.
