Customizing the Windows 7 User Interface

When you launch Windows Explorer, the default view you will get is always the Libraries (see Figure 8.1).

Though Microsoft thinks that your interaction with files should center around Libraries, not everyone will find it useful. In particular, you may want Computer (where it will display the disk drives available on your computer) to be displayed when you open Windows Explorer.

To display something different, such as Computer, when you open Windows Explorer, you need to undertake some tweaks. Click the Start menu and select All Programs→Accessories. Right-click the Windows Explorer icon and select Properties (see Figure 8.2).

Figure 8.1. The default view of Windows Explorer

Figure 8.2. Locating the Windows Explorer application

In the Properties window, click the Shortcut tab; you should see the Target attribute set to:

%windir%\explorer.exe

Change it to the following (see also Figure 8.3):

%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /root,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

Figure 8.3. Changing the Target attribute so that Computer will be displayed when Windows Explorer is opened

Once this step is performed, whenever you open Windows Explorer, Computer will now be shown (see Figure 8.4).

Figure 8.4. Displaying Computer when Windows Explorer is opened

Note that performing the steps outlined here affects Windows Explorer only in the Accessories folder. That is, if you launch Windows Explorer from the icon pinned to the taskbar, you will still see the Libraries. To fix this, you need to unpin the Windows Explorer icon from the taskbar (see Figure 8.5) and then pin it to the taskbar again.

Figure 8.5. Unpinning Windows Explorer from the taskbar

If you are used to the command line, you will appreciate this tip. In Windows 7, you can use Windows Explorer to navigate to any folder you want and then Shift-right-click a folder and select the “Open command window here” option (see Figure 8.6).

Figure 8.6. Shift-right-click a folder to open a command window

Doing so will open a command window at the selected folder (see Figure 8.7).

Figure 8.7. Opening the command window at the selected folder

When you install Windows 7, you are asked to select your current location. The location that you select will determine the themes that you will see in Control Panel (under the Personalization application).

For example, if you have selected United States for your location, you should see the Aero Themes, as shown in Figure 8.8.

Figure 8.8. The Aero Themes available for your computer

However, if you now change your location to some other place, such as Canada or United Kingdom, your Personalization control panel will now include themes for these additional locations. Figure 8.9 shows the additional themes that were added to the Personalization application when I changed my location to Canada and then the United Kingdom.

Figure 8.9. The additional themes added

Besides changing your location to see the additional themes available, you can also go to a hidden folder (C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT) to locate the additional themes (see Figure 8.10).

Figure 8.10. Additional themes in the hidden folder

As you can see, there are five folders, each representing a location—Australia (MCT-AU), Canada (MCT-CA), United Kingdom (MCT-GB), United States (MCT-US), and South Africa (MCT-ZA). Within each folder are several subfolders, one of which is the Theme folder. Inside the Theme folder, you will see a .theme file. When you double-click the .theme file, the current theme will be changed to the selected theme, and it will also appear in the My Themes section of the Personalization application (see Figure 8.11).

Figure 8.11. Changing to a selected theme

Windows 7 is designed with touchscreen support, and hence some of the UI elements in Windows have implicit support for hand gestures, even if you don’t have hardware support for touch. For example, in IE, you can use your mouse and click and drag down the Address bar. IE will slide the history and favorites list into view as you drag (see Figure 8.12).

Figure 8.12. “Touch” support in IE

The taskbar also supports touch; use your mouse and click an application icon in the taskbar and move upward; it will fade and slide the Jump List into view (see Figure 8.13).

Figure 8.13. Swiping an application icon upward displays the Jump Lists

In Windows 7, you can use the Advanced User Account feature to automatically log in with your user account whenever you boot up your computer.

To use the Advanced User Account feature, click the Start menu, type “netplwiz” in the search box, and press Return. The User Accounts window will appear (see Figure 8.14).

Figure 8.14. The User Accounts window to configure user access to your computer

Select the user to use to auto-login and then uncheck the “Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer” checkbox. You will be asked to enter the password twice.

Now when you start up your computer, you will be automatically logged in.