Tutorial on Getting around the desktop

This video shows Getting Started with Windows 7 Used with permission from Microsoft Corporation.

When you use Windows 7 for the first time, you're going to notice several changes and improvements to the Windows desktop. Hi. I'm Andy Sweet, a writer on the Windows team. and for the next five minutes you're going to get a guided tour to some of the biggest changes, including an improved taskbar, jump lists, which are a new way to get to the files you use most often, and some tricks for arranging all of those open windows on your desktop.

Let's start with the taskbar. You'll see that the taskbar buttons are larger now. So the text is turned off for a cleaner look. You might also notice that the old quick launch area is gone. In Windows 7 you can think of the entire taskbar as a quick launch area that you can pin programs to.

Just right-click a program on the start menu and click Pin to Taskbar. Or just drag the program's icon directly to the taskbar. Now, you can click the pinned button to open the program.

You can also move taskbar buttons around now and put them in the exact order you want. And this is a change I know many of you have asked for. To get to your files, you might be looking for the old My Recent Documents or Recent Items List on the start menu.

There's something better now. They're called jump lists. These are short menus that help you quickly get to those files you use the most.

Remember how My Recent Documents in Windows XP showed a jumble of different types of files? Well, Jump lists also show your recent files but now they're organized by program.

Just right click the program's button on the taskbar and then click the file you want to open. You can also open another window for the program, say to open a second Word Pad file, just click the program's name. And when you're done with that program, you can click Close All Windows.

You'll find jump lists over here on the start menu too, for the programs that you've pinned up here at the top, and for programs you've used recently. And note that jump lists aren't just for files either.

You can also open folders from the Windows Explorer button and even go to websites from your Web browser button. But maybe the best thing about jump lists is that you can pin your favorite items to them.

To pin this to do list that I update every day, I'll open the jump list for the program, point to the file under Recent and then click the push pin. Now it's pinned to the top where I can get to it easily.

You can change the order of your pinned items and easily unpin an item. Just click the push pin. And don't worry you didn't delete it, you just removed it from the list. You can right click a recent item to remove it from the list as well.

Now, you've seen how jump lists are an easy way to open your files. Another improvement lets you take quick peeks at those open files. This can help you find the ones you're looking for more easily, especially when you have many files open at once.

So take a look here. I don't even remember all of the files I have open. But I can point to a program on the task bar and now I see previews of all of the files I have open for that program.

If you want a closer look, point to one of the previews and you'll get a quick peek at the file, even if it's buried under other windows, and you can click the preview to bring the window to the front.

Now, to get a quick peek at the desktop, you'll still want to show the desktop button, but, and here's another change, it's over here now, in the corner. So it's an easier target to hit.

You don't have to aim right next to the start button. Just point your mouse all the way to the corner. And did you notice that, there's no need to click any more. Move your mouse away and the files reappear.

You can still click the button, too, just like in Windows XP, to minimize the open files. Now, these little things here on my desktop are gadgets. They're a fun way to get information, like weather updates or news headlines.

Windows Vista users will notice there's no side bar any longer. Now you can put gadgets anywhere. But they're not on by default. Right click the desktop, click gadgets, and then drag them anywhere you like.

You can click here to find more free gadgets on the Windows website. The taskbar and jump lists are among the most noticeable changes. But I want to show you some less obvious improvements.

They're kind of fun, and, as you'll see, useful ways to arrange the open files and folders on your desktop. When you drag open windows to the edge of the desktop, you'll notice something that's a bit surprising at first.

They now snap into place. Try dragging a window to one side or the other. As soon as your mouse cursor touches the side of the desktop the window snaps to half screen.

Drag it again and it goes back to its previous size. This is great for comparing two files side by side, or for moving files between two folders.

You can snap long documents or e-mail messages vertically to make them easier to read, just resize the window towards the top or towards the bottom of the desktop.

And you can maximize windows completely by dragging them to the top of the desktop. When you have too many open windows on your desktop, try this to focus on a single window.

Click the top of a window and then shake it by quickly dragging it back and forth. All of the other open windows then minimize. Shake it again and everything pops back up. If you want to learn more, check out the guide for this video.

It contains a lot of additional information, including step-by-step instructions.