Windows 2000 Pro: The Missing Manual

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Way back in the computer Pleistocene era (that is, about ten years ago), PCs were unimpressive creatures, to be sure. Their capacity was limited, their processing was slow, and their interface was all text. Nevertheless, they were great at tasks that were difficult, time-consuming, and boring for humans. In most businesses, PCs rapidly took over the data manipulation, calculation, and word-processing chores that people hated doing. And the more the PC could do, the more was demanded of it. Hardware and software both had to improve rapidly to meet that demand.

In those early and dark ages, the PC's basic operating system was some version of DOS (Disk Operating System). Like all other operating systems, DOS is software that acts as an internal traffic cop—allotting memory, disk space, and central processing unit (CPU) time to applications, networking software, or peripheral (add-on) equipment. The operating system also keeps track of your files and does all the other behind-the-scenes chores necessary to keep a complicated piece of machinery running.

DOS had weaknesses, including a very limited memory space and a remarkable single-mindedness: Only one small application could run at a time. An early attempt to make the PC friendlier was Microsoft Windows. The less said about the early versions, the better, but Microsoft stuck with it. Windows 3.1 actually worked—most of the time—though at heart, it was still just a dressed-up version of DOS. Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me were additional steps toward transcending DOS restrictions.

Right about the time of Windows 3.1, Microsoft embarked on a parallel path to develop an operating system suitable for the more demanding corporate environment: Windows NT. The first version of NT (version 3.1) was also pretty feeble. Few businesses adopted Windows NT until version 3.5, and Windows NT 4 was the first version to be adopted in large numbers for corporate networks.

Microsoft's operating-system efforts have proceeded along two parallel tracks, because each Windows series is built on a different base of computer code. The tracks can work together and communicate with each other, but their basic kernels are not the same.

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Windows 2000 comes in four versions, three of which are designed for use on network servers (central computers that provide services for the ordinary PCs—the workstations—in the company). These more expensive Windows 2000 editions (called Windows 2000 Server, Advanced Server, and Datacenter Server) look almost exactly like Windows 2000 Professional. In fact, you might not even be able to tell the difference when running your favorite programs. However, the Windows 2000 server editions include a large collection of networking features that generally require a professional network administrator to understand, install, set up, and maintain.

The fourth version, Windows 2000 Professional, is the subject of this book. Windows 2000 Pro's primary role is to operate a workstation on a network—preferably a network served by computers running Windows 2000 Server. Windows 2000 Pro, in other words, is the software that drives the PCs on most employees' desks.

Windows 2000 Professional also works very well on workstations in a peer-to-peer workgroup (a less complex network that you can set up yourself, without buying a server computer; see Chapter 15). Some people, welcoming its stability, even use Windows 2000 Pro on standalone (non-networked) computers at home or in a business, although the heavy-duty security features of Windows 2000 Pro aren't usually necessary in a home setting.

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To get the most out of Windows with the least frustration, it helps to become familiar with the following concepts and terms. You'll encounter these words and phrases over and over again—in the built-in Windows help, in computer magazines, and in this book. For example:

One of the most important features of Windows isn't on the screen—it's under your hand. The standard mouse has two mouse buttons. You use the left one to click onscreen buttons, highlight text, and drag things around on the screen.

When you click the right button, however, a shortcut menu appears on the screen, like the ones shown in Figure 1-1. Get into the habit of right-clicking things—icons, folders, disks, text in your word processor, buttons on your menu bar, pictures on a Web page, and so on. The commands that appear on the shortcut menu will make you much more productive and lead you to discover handy functions whose existence you may never even have suspected.

Figure 1-1: Shortcut menus (also called context menus) sometimes list commands that aren't in the menus at the top of the window. Here, for example, are the commands that appear when you right-click a disk icon (left), a document (middle), and a date square in a calendar program (right). Once the shortcut menu has appeared, left-click the command you want.

If you're left-handed, you can swap the functions of the right and left mouse buttons easily enough. Click Start→Settings→Control Panel. Then double-click the Mouse icon.

When the Mouse Properties dialog box opens, click the Basics tab, and where it says "Select the mouse button you want to use for most tasks," click Right, then click OK. Windows automatically assumes that you therefore want to use the left mouse button as the one that produces shortcut menus.

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Starting and shutting down a computer running Windows 2000 Professional is not simply a matter of turning the machine on and off. If your computer is part of a network, you must log on and log off. Even if your computer isn't part of a network, there's more to shutting it down properly than just cutting the power.

When you log on to a Windows 2000 PC, you introduce yourself with a name and password.

What separates Windows 2000 (and Windows NT) from all the other versions of Windows (95, 98, Me) is the element of security. Because Windows 2000 is designed primarily for the business market, you can configure its security to be very tight.

A basic element of network security is the ability to keep out anyone who doesn't belong. Also important is the ability to control who gets to see what folders and files are on the network and who gets to access them. For example, in most companies, the payroll records, profit and loss statements, and customer list are not available for inspection by just anyone on the network.

One way to control access is through the use of user accounts. When you log on with a password, Windows 2000 checks your name and password against a user database, either on your PC or a network server, to see if you have an authorized account. Your account specifies what you can do and see on the network.

On many networks, this log-on-to-your-account system confers a second terrific benefit: You can get at your files from any machine on the network (if you've set up your files to be shared in this way). You can sit down at the Micron in Manufacturing or the Dell in Design, and still open, and work with, all of the files and folders that are, technically speaking, sitting on your Compaq in Communications. (More on networking in Chapter 13, and user accounts in Chapter 17.)

The logging-on system has the additional effect of making it possible for a central administrator to track everything you do on the network, including which programs you're using and which Web sites you're visiting. This power is mostly used for benign purposes—to track errors and network traffic patterns—but it's something to be aware of. As long as you're logged on, you are on the network (even if you're not sitting at your own computer).

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When you log on to a Windows 2000 PC, you introduce yourself with a name and password.

What separates Windows 2000 (and Windows NT) from all the other versions of Windows (95, 98, Me) is the element of security. Because Windows 2000 is designed primarily for the business market, you can configure its security to be very tight.

A basic element of network security is the ability to keep out anyone who doesn't belong. Also important is the ability to control who gets to see what folders and files are on the network and who gets to access them. For example, in most companies, the payroll records, profit and loss statements, and customer list are not available for inspection by just anyone on the network.

One way to control access is through the use of user accounts. When you log on with a password, Windows 2000 checks your name and password against a user database, either on your PC or a network server, to see if you have an authorized account. Your account specifies what you can do and see on the network.

On many networks, this log-on-to-your-account system confers a second terrific benefit: You can get at your files from any machine on the network (if you've set up your files to be shared in this way). You can sit down at the Micron in Manufacturing or the Dell in Design, and still open, and work with, all of the files and folders that are, technically speaking, sitting on your Compaq in Communications. (More on networking in Chapter 13, and user accounts in Chapter 17.)

The logging-on system has the additional effect of making it possible for a central administrator to track everything you do on the network, including which programs you're using and which Web sites you're visiting. This power is mostly used for benign purposes—to track errors and network traffic patterns—but it's something to be aware of. As long as you're logged on, you are on the network (even if you're not sitting at your own computer).

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When it's time to bid farewell to your computer for some time, it's advisable to logoff to secure your computer against unauthorized access.

On a network driven by Windows 2000 Server, the various Windows 2000 network entities, such as domains, trees, and forests, are listed, organized, and maintained in a centralized database on your network called the Active Directory. The average Windows 2000 Professional user may not even be aware of Active Directory, but it's the single most important new feature of Windows 2000 Server. It's a directory service, a database of the hardware, software, and people on a network.

On a network that uses Active Directory, every computer, printer, and user is represented by an object in the database. Each object is composed of attributes (properties) that describe it. For example, a user object's attributes specify her name, location, telephone number, email address, and other more technical elements.

Active Directory enables network administrators to create, troubleshoot, and maintain an enormous hierarchy of computers, if necessary, encompassing virtually any number of users, computers, and domains. Windows 2000 Server configures relationships between the domains automatically. A multinational corporation with tens of thousands of users in offices all over the world can all be part of one Active Directory, consisting of servers distributed in hundreds of locations, all connected by wide-area networking links.

The Active Directory information is stored on Windows 2000 Server systems that have been designated as domain controllers. A domain controller is a computer that stores all or part of the Active Directory database and keeps track of who is allowed to log on, who is logged on, and what each user is allowed to do on the network. When you log on to the domain, your system communicates with a domain controller, which verifies your credentials and permits (or denies) you access. The domain controllers on a network communicate with each other constantly, in order to keep their information updated. Even a small domain usually has at least two domain controllers, in case one should fail; larger domains can have many more. Even though they look just like Windows 2000 Professional systems, the computers that act as domain controllers usually aren't used as ordinary workstations for everyday work. In fact, they're often secreted away somewhere, such as a server closet or a data center; only administrators have physical access to them.

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Logging off means that you are no longer on the computer, but the computer is still turned on. Before turning the computer off at the power switch, you should run the shutdown procedure, so that Windows has a chance to sort itself out, save changes, quit open programs, and close connections to other computers.

You can shut down by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete (to summon the Windows Security dialog box) and then clicking the Shutdown button. Or you can choose Start→Shut Down. Either way, the Shut Down Windows dialog box (Figure 2-1) appears on your screen.

Figure 2-1: Click the drop-down list button for the shutdown choices. Choose Shut Down to turn the computer off, or Restart to exit Windows and then restart Windows without turning the computer off. You can add "Stand by" and "Hibernate" options, if your PC offers them, using the Power Options control panel (see Section 8.17.2). (These commands are primarily used on laptops.)

If other people on the network require access to files or folders that you've shared on your machine, log off instead of shutting down. That way, your PC's shared files remain available to others on the network, but the machine is still safe from inspection by somebody who sits down at your desk while you're away.

The drop-down menu offers these options:

Log Off [Your Name] leaves the computer on, awaiting the next person who logs on.
Shut Down quits all open programs, offers you the opportunity to save any unsaved documents, and then exits Windows. Most modern PCs then turn off automatically. If yours doesn't, you see a message on the screen telling you it's safe to turn off your computer; only now should you manually flip off the power switch.

If you don't run the shutdown procedure, you won't get any complaints from Windows. In fact, when you turn the power back on, Windows 2000 Pro will start up, usually without a quibble. But shutting off the power without using the Shut Down command can result in lost data, and will cause severe unhappiness to anyone on the network who's connected to your computer.

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The first time you turn on a PC after installing Windows 2000 (or after un-packing a new PC that has Windows 2000 preinstalled), you encounter a Getting Started wizard that offers three choices:

Register Now. Register your copy of Windows 2000 with Microsoft, so that you're eligible for exciting new streams of junk mail.
Discover Windows. Take a quick tour of Windows 2000 features (you'll be asked to insert your installation CD).
Connect to the Internet. Sign up for an Internet account using the Internet Connection Wizard (see Section 11.1.3).

Once you're beyond this big hello, however, you encounter the digital vista shown in Figure 3-1, a screen that greets tens of millions of people every morning: the Windows desktop.

Figure 3-1: Everything you'll ever do on a Windows 2000 Pro computer begins with a click on one of these three elements: a desktop icon, the Start button, or the Taskbar, which is described in Chapter 4. Some people find this default desktop too cluttered already, and promptly delete some of the icons they'll never use. Others place even more icons on the desktop—favorite programs and documents—for quicker access. Let your personality be your guide.

The desktop is the backdrop for all activities in Windows 2000. The desktop is a virtual desk that holds virtual folders and files while you work; depending on your personality type, it can attract lots of junk.

The standard Windows 2000 Pro installation puts these icons on your desktop:

My Documents. The My Documents folder is a handy storage place for your letters, memos, and other work files. Most modern programs propose saving any new files you create into this folder.

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The desktop is the backdrop for all activities in Windows 2000. The desktop is a virtual desk that holds virtual folders and files while you work; depending on your personality type, it can attract lots of junk.

The standard Windows 2000 Pro installation puts these icons on your desktop:

My Documents. The My Documents folder is a handy storage place for your letters, memos, and other work files. Most modern programs propose saving any new files you create into this folder.

On some networks, you may be required to place all your work in this folder, so that your files will be included when the network performs a system-wide backup. On other networks, you may be required to put you files anyplace except My Documents.
My Computer is the trunk lid, the doorway to every single shred of software on your machine. When you double-click My Computer, a window opens to reveal icons that represent each disk drive in your machine, as shown in Figure 3-2. (Note to power users: Technically, My Computer shows a different icon for each hard drive partition.)

Figure 3-2: This computer has one floppy drive, one hard drive, and one CD-ROM drive. For your convenience, you also get a link to the Control Panel folder (see Chapter 8). If you click an icon to select it, Windows politely shows you a description on the left side of the window. If there's a disk in the CD-ROM drive, you get to see its name, not just its drive letter.

By double-clicking, for example, your hard drive icon, and then the various folders on it, you can eventually see the icons for every single file and folder on your computer.

The My Computer window shows you an icon for each disk drive in your machine—floppy drive, Zip drive, CD-ROM drive, and so on—whether or not there's actually a disk in that drive. If you try to double-click one of these icons when the corresponding drive is empty, you'll get nothing but a confusing error message. (It tells you that the drive "isn't ready," which isn't the problem at all.)

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If you're willing to double-click 65 times in succession, opening folder after folder, the disk icons in the My Computer window eventually lead you to every single file in your computer. The vast majority of the files and folders you'll encounter are utterly useless to you personally; they're support files, there for behind-the-scenes use by Windows and your applications.

That's why the Start menu is so important—it lists almost every useful piece of software on your computer, including commands, programs, and files you've been working on recently. You can use the Start menu to open your applications, install new software, configure hardware, get help, find files, and much more.

When you click the Start button, the Start menu pops open, fading into view. Its contents depend on which options you (or your network administrator) selected when installing Windows, but Figure 3-3 shows a representative example.

Figure 3-3: Thin etched lines divide the sections of the Start Menu. In the beginning, the top section holds only Windows Update (a link to Microsoft's software-updates Web page); but you can add your own favorite programs and documents to this list, and such programs as Microsoft Office and Corel Suite also install commands here. The main section contains the items you'll use most. The bottom section is conveniently located for a quick logoff or shutdown.

If you're a keyboard-shortcut lover, you can open the Start menu by pressing the Windows-logo key that's usually on the top or bottom row of your keyboard. (If you're using one of those antique, kerosene-powered keyboards that lack a Windows key, press Ctrl+Esc instead.)

In fact, if your mouse ever stops working, you can always use one of these keyboard methods to get to the Shut Down command on the Start menu. Then press the up or down arrow keys to highlight the Start-menu commands; press Enter to "click" that command.

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The Shut Down menu item is more powerful than its name implies. Choosing it opens a dialog box that offers several variations on "off," as described at the end of the previous chapter.

You can also summon the Shut Down dialog box by clicking the desktop and then pressing Alt+F4, or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete and then clicking Shut Down.

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Use the Run menu item to summon a dialog box containing a command line, as shown in Figure 3-4. A command line is a text-based method of performing a task. You type a command and click OK; something happens as a result. (The Run dialog is the functional equivalent of the Command Prompt, except with a graphical interface that enables you to browse for a particular file, if you like.)

Figure 3-4: Top: The last Run command you entered appears automatically in the Open text box. You can use the drop-down list to see a list of commands you've previously entered. Bottom: The Run command knows the names of all of your folders. As you type, you're shown the best match for the characters you're typing. When the name of the folder you're trying to open appears in the list, click it to avoid having to type the rest of the entry.

Working at the command line is becoming a lost art in the world of Windows, because most people prefer to issue commands by choosing from menus using the mouse. How ever, some old-timers still love the command line, and even mouse-lovers encounter situations where a typed command is the only way to do something.

If you're a PC veteran, your head probably teems with neat Run commands you've picked up over the years. If you're new to this idea, however, here are a few of the useful and timesaving things you can do with the Run box:

Windows is too busy to think of a particular file as "that banjo simulation program in the BlueGrass folder, which is in the Program Files folder on the C: drive." Instead, it uses shorthand to specify each icon's location on your hard drive—a series of disk and folder names separated by backslashes, like this: C:\Program Files\BlueGrass\ banjosim.exe. This method of describing a location is called a path. (Capitalization doesn't matter, even though you may see capital letters in Microsoft's examples.) You encounter file paths when using several important Windows features. The Run dialog box described in this section is one. The Search command is another, as you'll see in the next chapter.

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Choosing Start→Help opens the Windows Help window, which is described in Chapter 6.

Speed fans have an alternative to using the mouse to open the Help window—just click the desktop (to make sure it has the focus) and then press the F1 key.

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The humble Search command looks no more special than anything else on the Start menu. But in fact, it's a powerhouse, and you'll probably use it often. The Search function (which was called Find in Windows NT, 95, and 98) can quickly find all kinds of computery things: file and folder icons, computers on your network, email addresses and phone numbers, Web sites, and even maps that pinpoint any address in the United States and Canada.

If the Search program looks vaguely familiar, that's because it's actually a component of Internet Explorer, the Web browser. You can read more about Internet Explorer in Chapter 11.

If you save your new files only in the My Documents folder on the desktop, you'll have little need to use the Search function to locate your files. You'll always know where they are—right in that folder.

Every now and then, however, you won't be able to remember where you filed something, or you'll download something from the Internet and not be able to find it again, or you'll install something and not know where to look for it. In those situations, the Search program, shown in Figure 3-6, is just what you need. It lets you look for a particular file or folder based on its description—by its name, size, date stamp, and so on.

Figure 3-6: When you're looking for files, the Search feature is like having a bloodhound available. You can use as much information as you manage to remember to initiate a search, and it doesn't matter if you can't remember the exact name of the file that's gone missing. The Search feature ordinarily finds both folder titles and filenames; to search only for files, add .* to the end of the name you're looking for (for example, memo.*).

Section 3.6.1.1: Setting up the search

A typical search goes like this:

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The Start→Settings command offers four commands: Control Panel (see Chapter 8), Network and Dial-Up connections (Chapters 13, 14, and 15), Printers (Chapter 7), and Taskbar & Start menu (later in this chapter). These last three items are also represented in the Start→Settings→Control Panel window. But most people use them so frequently that Microsoft put them on the Settings submenu to save a step.

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The Documents submenu lists the My Documents folder (which is also represented by an icon on the desktop) and a cascading list of the last 15 documents you've opened. Using the My Documents command can be useful when your other windows cover the My Documents folder icon. And using the list of recent documents can save you time when you want to reopen something you've been working on recently, but you're not in the mood to go burrowing through desktop folders to find its icon.

Note, however, that:

Documents appear on the "recently used" list only if your applications are smart enough to update it. Most modern programs (including all Microsoft programs) perform this administrative task, but not all do.
The Documents list doesn't know when you've deleted a document or moved it to another folder or disk; it continues to list the file even after it's gone. In that event, clicking the document's listing produces an error message.

There's another easy way to open a document you've recently worked on: Start by launching the program you used to create it. Many programs maintain a list of recent documents at the bottom of the File menu; choose one of these names to open the corresponding file.

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For most people, the Start→Programs command is the most important function of the Start menu. It's the master list of every program on your computer. You can jump directly to your word processor, calendar, or favorite game, for example, just by choosing its name from the Start→Programs menu.

When you install a software program, it usually installs either a program item or a program group on the Start→Programs menu, as shown in Figure 3-14.

Figure 3-14: The Start→Program may list the actual application (such as Microsoft Word), which you can click to launch the program. But it may also list a program group, a submenu that lists everything in a particular application folder. Sometimes an application's folder contains commands for launching the software, uninstalling the software, running specific utilities, opening the help files, and so on.

Section 3.9.1.1: Accessories

This folder lists (and lets you open) the free add-on programs that came with Windows 2000. You'll find them described in Chapter 9.

Section 3.9.1.2: Administrative Tools

See page 378 for a summary of these advanced technical tools.

Section 3.9.1.3: Startup

The Start→Programs menu also lists the Startup folder, a folder (program group) of programs that load automatically every time you start Windows 2000. This can be a very useful feature; if you check your email or calendar every morning, you may as well save yourself a few mouse clicks by putting a shortcut (see Section 5.4.3.4) of the corresponding program into the Startup folder.

In fact, what you put into the Startup folder doesn't have to be an application. It can just as well be a certain document you work on every day. It can even be a folder or disk icon whose window you'd like to find open and waiting each time you turn on the

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As millions of Windows users illustrate, it's perfectly possible to live a long and happy life without ever tampering with the Start menu; for many people, the idea of making it look or work differently comes dangerously close to nerd territory. (It's true that listing your favorite files there gives you quicker access to them—but it's even easier to use the Quick Launch toolbar, as described in Section 4.3.2.)

Still, knowing how to manipulate the Start menu listings may come in handy someday. It also provides an interesting glimpse into the way Windows works.

Any Start menu changes apply only to the person that's currently logged on to this computer. When you log on, Windows loads your customized Start menu, as stored in your user profile; when the next person logs on, he'll see his own version of the Start menu.

Microsoft offers a fascinating set of Start menu customization options. It's hard to tell whether these options were selected by a scientific usability study or by a dartboard, but you're likely to find something that suits you.

To view and change the basic options, right-click a blank spot on the Taskbar; choose Properties from the shortcut menu. Alternatively, choose Start→Settings→Taskbar & Start Menu. Either way, the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box opens, as seen in Figure 3-16.

Figure 3-16: Only two of the options on the General tab apply to the Start Menu; the rest are for configuring the Taskbar. The two Start Menu items, "Show small icons in Start menu" and "Use Personalized Menus," have a great deal of influence over the way the Start menu looks and behaves. Because of their importance, you should try changing the settings for each before deciding on a final configuration for the Start menu.

Only two of the checkboxes in this dialog box pertain to the Start menu: "Show small icons in Start menu" and "Use personalized menus."

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Choosing this command connects to the Internet and checks Microsoft's Web site for any Windows 2000 updates. (You can't use this feature unless you have administrative privileges, as described in Section 17.3.)

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Windows got its name from the rectangles on the screen—the windows—in which every computer activity takes place. You look at a Web page in a window, type short stories in a window, read email in a window, and look at the contents of a folder in a window—sometimes all at once.

This overlapping-windows scheme makes using a computer much easier than windowless operating systems like DOS. But it has a downside of its own, as any Windows veteran can tell you: As you create more files, stash them in more folders, and launch more programs, it's easy to wind up paralyzed before a screen awash with cluttered, overlapping rectangles.

Fortunately, Windows is crawling with icons, buttons, and other inventions to help you keep these windows under control.

There are two categories of windows in Windows: desktop windows (which open when you double-click a disk or folder icon) and application windows (which appear when you're working on a document or in a program, such as Word or Internet Explorer). Nonetheless, all of these windows have certain components in common. Figure 4-1 shows a representative example: the window that appears when you double-click the My Documents icon on your desktop.

Title bar. This top strip displays the name of the window. It's also the "handle" that you drag when you want to move the window on the screen.
Minimize button. Click this button to temporarily hide a window; it shrinks down into the form of a button on your Taskbar (see Section 4.3). (You can open it again by clicking that icon.) Keyboard shortcut: Press Alt+Space bar, then N.
Maximize button. Click this button to enlarge the window so that it fills the screen. (Keyboard shortcut: Press Alt+Space bar, then X.) At this point, the Maximize button turns into a Restore button (whose icon shows two overlapping rectangles), which you can click to return the window to its previous size.

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There are two categories of windows in Windows: desktop windows (which open when you double-click a disk or folder icon) and application windows (which appear when you're working on a document or in a program, such as Word or Internet Explorer). Nonetheless, all of these windows have certain components in common. Figure 4-1 shows a representative example: the window that appears when you double-click the My Documents icon on your desktop.

Title bar. This top strip displays the name of the window. It's also the "handle" that you drag when you want to move the window on the screen.
Minimize button. Click this button to temporarily hide a window; it shrinks down into the form of a button on your Taskbar (see Section 4.3). (You can open it again by clicking that icon.) Keyboard shortcut: Press Alt+Space bar, then N.
Maximize button. Click this button to enlarge the window so that it fills the screen. (Keyboard shortcut: Press Alt+Space bar, then X.) At this point, the Maximize button turns into a Restore button (whose icon shows two overlapping rectangles), which you can click to return the window to its previous size.

You can also maximize a window by double-clicking its title bar. Double-clicking the title bar on a maximized window returns it to its previous size.
Close button. Click the X to close the window. Keyboard shortcut: Press Alt+F4; or press Alt+Space bar, then C.
Menu bar. Click one of these words (such as File or Edit) to open a menu, which shows a list of commands available in this window.
Toolbar. Some windows have these special strips that hold one-click shortcut buttons, which are equivalents for menu commands Microsoft thinks you'll use frequently. (More on toolbars at the end of this chapter.)

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Windows windows look just fine as they come from the factory; all the edges are straight, and the text is perfectly legible. Still, if you're going to stare at this computer screen for half of your waking hours, you may as well investigate some of the ways these windows can be enhanced for better looks and greater efficiency. As it turns out, there's no end to the tweaks Microsoft lets you perform.

You can view the files and folders in a desktop window in any of several ways: as small icons, as jumbo icons, as a tidy list, and so on. Each window remembers its view settings independently.

To change this view setting for a particular open window, choose one of these commands from its View menu: Large Icons, Small Icons, List, Details, or Thumbnails. (Figure 4-5 illustrates each of these options.)

Figure 4-5: The five ways you can view the contents of a folder window. In Large Icons view (top), a large icon, with its label beneath, represents each file or folder. This is the default view. In Small Icons view (middle left, shown without its left-side panel), a small icon (label to the right) represents each file or folder; the icons are arranged in rows. (The alphabetical progression goes from left to right, rather than top to bottom.) The List view is similar, except the contents are arranged in columns (middle right). Details view (lower left) is the same as List view, except that you get additional columns of information that reveal the size, icon type, and the date and time the object was last modified. (This view, a familiar one to Macintosh fans, is growing in popularity.) Finally, in Thumbnails view (lower right), each icon is enclosed in a tiny picture frame. Graphics files are actually shown in the frame, so this view is really only useful for windows that contain graphics files. (Thumbnails view is not available in the My Computer window).

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Windows 2000 is a multitasking operating system, which in English means that you can run multiple programs at the same time; the computer divides its processing power among them. This makes it easy to work on a letter or spreadsheet while an email program is open and operating, or while downloading a file from the Internet. However, when multiple windows or programs are open, they start to overlap and hide each other, sometimes making it difficult to find the window you want. The Taskbar alleviates this problem (Figure 4-12) by representing all currently open programs or windows as labeled buttons.

Figure 4-12: The Taskbar is usually divided into three chunks, according to its three functions. To identify an icon, point without clicking to view an identifying tooltip.

The Taskbar has several important functions:

It shows you what's happening. The right end of the Taskbar—the Tray—contains little status icons that show you the time, whether or not you're online, whether or not your laptop's plugged in, and so on.
It lists every open window and program. Each time you launch an application or open a desktop window, a new button appears on the Taskbar. A single click makes that window pop to the front—a terrific tool in your fight against window clutter.
It gives you quick access to buried functions. The left end of the Taskbar—the Quick Launch toolbar—lists the icons of programs, folders, disks, and files you use a lot.

This section covers each of these features in turn.

The System Tray is the small area on the far right side of the Taskbar where you see the current time, a speaker icon, and other icons. Windows 2000 and various small programs maintain unobtrusive status displays here, or icons whose shortcut menus can configure the system or a program. Here are some of the icons you may find:

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Windows offers four canned Taskbar toolbars: separate, recessed-looking areas on the Taskbar containing special-function features (see Figure 4-13). You can add icons to any toolbar, and you can also create your own toolbars (see the next section).

Figure 4-13: Toolbars eat into your Taskbar space; use them sparingly. If you've added too many icons to the toolbar, an arrow appears at its right end. Click it to expose a list of the commands or icons that didn't fit.

To make these toolbars appear or disappear, right-click a blank spot on the Taskbar and choose from the list of toolbars that appears. The ones with checkmarks are the ones you're seeing now; choose one with a checkmark to make the toolbar disappear.

For sheer convenience, the Quick Launch toolbar puts the Start menu to shame. Maybe that's why it's the only toolbar that appears on your Taskbar automatically. It contains icons for functions that Microsoft assumes you'll use most often:

Show Desktop, a one-click way to minimize (hide) the windows on your screen to make your desktop visible. Don't forget about this button the next time you need to burrow through some folders, put something in the Recycle Bin, or perform some other activity in your desktop folders. Keyboard shortcut: Windows key+D.
Launch Internet Explorer, for one-click access to the Web browser included with Windows.
Launch Outlook Express, for one-click access to the email program included with Windows (see Chapter 12).

But you should consider those buttons only hints of this toolbar's power. What makes it great is how easy it is to add your own icons, those you use frequently. There's no faster or easier way to get them open, no matter what you're doing on your

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Table of Contents

Section 3.6.1.1: Setting up the search

Section 3.9.1.1: Accessories

Section 3.9.1.2: Administrative Tools

Section 3.9.1.3: Startup