Windows Vista Security: Praxisorientierte Sicherheit für Profis

Customizing Your Computer’s Input Devices, Regional Settings, and Date/Time

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Optimizing Your Keyboard Settings

Day in and day out you probably tap away at your keyboard without giving much

thought to the way it works. To get the most out of your computer, however, you

really should take a few minutes to optimize your keyboard settings.

Configuring your computer’s keyboard

You can view and configure your computer’s keyboard settings by completing the

following steps:

1. In the Control Panel, click Hardware and Sound and then click Keyboard. This

displays the Keyboard Properties dialog box shown in Figure 5-13.

2. Use the “Repeat delay” slider to configure the delay for repeating characters

when you hold down a key. There are four repeat delay intervals, with Long pro-

viding the longest repeat delay and Short providing the briefest repeat delay. If

you are a novice typist or a person with a physical disability, you might want to

set the repeat delay to Long to reduce the likelihood of accidentally repeating

keys. If you work in data entry and frequently fill rows with the same character

by pressing and holding a key, you may want to set the repeat delay to Short.

Figure 5-13. Configuring the keyboard settings

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Chapter 5: Customizing Your Computer’s Hardware Devices

3. Use the “Repeat rate” slider to configure how quickly characters repeat when

you hold down a key. The default repeat rate is Fast. If you have a problem with

sticky keys or want to reduce the likelihood of excessively repeated characters,

you can set a slower rate by moving the Repeat Rate slider to the left.

4. Click in the field provided to test the repeat delay and repeat rate you’ve

selected.

5. Use the “Cursor blink rate” slider to configure the rate at which the cursor

blinks. If you find the blinking cursor annoying, set the cursor blink rate to

None. If you sometimes have trouble finding the cursor, you may want to set the

blink rate a little faster than normal to help you see it.

Configuring the device driver for your keyboard

All keyboards have device drivers that you can manage. To view or work with your

keyboard’s drivers, complete the following steps:

1. In the Control Panel, click Hardware and Sound and then click Keyboard.

2. On the Hardware tab, click Properties.

3. In the Keyboard Properties dialog box, click the Driver tab.

4. Using the buttons provided, you can view driver details, update drivers, roll back

drivers, and uninstall drivers as necessary.

Configuring your programmable keyboard

If your computer has a programmable IntelliType keyboard from Microsoft, you’ll

find several additional tabs in the Keyboard Properties dialog box, including Key Set-

tings and Zooming. You can use the options on these tabs to update the type of key-

board, reassign keys, and control zoom settings.

Updating the keyboard type.

To update the type of IntelliType keyboard, complete the

following steps:

1. In the Control Panel, click Hardware and Sound and then click Keyboard.

2. On the Key Settings tab, you’ll see the model name of the keyboard as currently

assigned in bold. Move the mouse pointer over the Update... entry to the right

of the model name to display a clickable Update button.

3. When you click the Update button, the Update Keyboard dialog box is displayed.

4. Flip your keyboard over and read the keyboard model, such as Microsoft Natu-

ral Ergonomic Keyboard 4000.

5. In the Keyboard Model list, select your keyboard model and then click OK twice.