Section 1.13. StartComputer: All Versions

1.13. Start Computer: All Versions

The Computer command is the trunk lid, the doorway to every single shred of software on your machine. When you choose this command, a window opens to reveal icons that represent each disk drive (or drive partition) in your machine, as shown in Figure 1-7.

Figure 1-7. The Computer window lists your PC's driveshard drives, CD drives, USB flash drives, and so on; you may see networked drives listed here, too. This computer has two hard drives , a USB flash drive, and a CD-ROM drive. (If there's a disk in the CD drive, you see its name , not just its drive letter.) When you select a disk icon, the Details pane (if visible) shows its capacity and amount of free space (bottom) .

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Restoring the Traditional Folder Listings

Some of the commands that populated the Start menus of previous Windows versions no longer appear in the Start menu of Vista. Microsoft is trying to make its new operating system look less overwhelming.

But if you miss some of the old foldersFavorites, Printers, and the Run command, for exampleit's easy enough to put them back.

Right-click the Start menu. From the shortcut menu, choose Properties. Now the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box appears; click the Customize button.

In the scrolling list, you'll find checkboxes and buttons that hide or show all kinds of things that can appear in the right column of the Start menu: Computer, Connect To, Control Panel, Default Programs, Documents, Favorites, Games, Help, Music, Network, Pictures, Printers, Run, Search, and System Administrative Tools (a set of utilities described in Chapter 20).

Click OK twice to return to the desktop and try out your changes.

For example, by double-clicking 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 Computer icon no longer appears on the desktopunless you put it there, as described on page 22.)