Windows Vista: The Missing Manual

3.6. Life with Icons: All Versions

Windows Explorer, the program that runs automatically when you turn on your PC, has only one purpose in life: to help you manage your file, folder, and disk icons . You could spend your entire workday just mastering the techniques of naming, copying, moving, and deleting these iconsand plenty of people do.

Here's the crash course.

3.6.1. Renaming Your Icons

To rename a file, folder, printer, or disk icon, you need to open up its "renaming rectangle." You can do so with any of the following methods :

• Highlight the icon and then press the F2 key at the top of your keyboard.

• Click carefully , just once, on a previously highlighted icon's name .

• Right-click the icon and choose Rename from the shortcut menu.

In any case, once the renaming rectangle has appeared around the current name, simply type the new name you want, and then press Enter. Feel free to use all the standard text-editing tricks while you're typing: Press Backspace to fix a typo, press the left and right arrow keys to position the insertion point, and so on. When you're finished editing the name, press Enter to make it stick. (If another icon in the folder has the same name, Windows beeps and makes you choose another name.)

A folder or file name can technically be up to 260 characters long. In practice, though, you won't be able to produces filenames that long; that's because that maximum must also include the file extension (the three-letter suffix that identifies the file type) and even the file's folder path (like C:\Users\Casey\Pictures).

Note, too, that because they're reserved for behind-the-scenes use, Windows doesn't let you use any of these symbols in a Windows file name: \ / : * ? " < >

You can give more than one file or folder the same name, as long as they're not in the same folder.

3.6.2. Icon Properties

Properties are a big deal in Windows. Properties are preference settings that you can change independently for every icon on your machine.

To view the properties for an icon, choose from these techniquesthe first three open the Properties dialog box:

• Right-click the icon; choose Properties from the shortcut menu.

• While pressing Alt, double-click the icon.

• Highlight the icon; press Alt+Enter.

• Open the Details pane (page 64), and then click an icon.

These settings aren't the same for every kind of icon, however. Here's what you can expect when opening the Properties dialog boxes of various icons (Figure 3-11).

3.6.2.1. Computer

There are about 500 different ways to open the Properties dialog box for your Computer icon. The quickest is to right-click Computer in the Start menu . Another is to open the System applet in the Control Panel (Chapter 8).

Either way, the System Properties window is packed with useful information about your machine: what kind of processor is inside, how much memory (RAM) your PC has, its overall "Experience Index" (horsepower score), and what version of Windows you've got.

The panel at the left side of the window (shown in Figure 3-11) includes some useful linksDevice Manager, Remote settings, System protection, and Advanced system settingsall of which are described in the appropriate chapters of this book.

Note, however, that all of them work by opening the old System Properties Control Panel, also shown in Figure 3-11. Its tabs give a terser, but more complete, look at the tech specs and features of your PC. These, too, are described in the relevant parts of this bookall except Computer Name . Here, you can type a plain-English name for your computer ("Casey's Laptop," for example). That's how it will appear to other people on the network, if you have one.

3.6.2.2. Disks

In a disk's Properties dialog box, you can see all kinds of information about the disk itself, like its name (which you can change), its capacity (which you can't change), and how much of it is full.

This dialog box's various tabs are also gateways to a host of maintenance and backup features, including Disk Cleanup, Error-checking, Defrag, Backup, and Quotas; all of these are described in Chapters 20 and 21.

3.6.2.3. Data files

The Properties for a plain old document depend on what kind of document it is. You always see a General tab, but other tabs may also appear ( especially for Microsoft Office files).

• General . This screen offers all the obvious information about the documentlocation, size, modification date, and so on. The read-only checkbox locks the document. In the read-only state, you can open the document and read it, but you can't make any changes to it.

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  Note: If you make a folder read-only, it affects only the files that are already inside. If you add additional files later, they remain editable.

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  Hidden turns the icon invisible. It's a great way to prevent something from being deleted, but because the icon becomes invisible, you may find it a bit difficult to open yourself .

  The Advanced button offers a few additional options. File is ready for archiving means, "Back me up." This message is intended for the Windows Backup program described in Chapter 22, and indicates that this document has been changed since the last time it was backed up (or that it's never been backed up). Index this file for faster searching lets you indicate that this file should, or should not, be part of the quick-search index described earlier in this chapter.

  Compress contents to save disk space is described later in this chapter. Finally, Encrypt contents to secure data is described on page 633.

• Custom . As explained below, the Properties window of Office documents includes a Summary tab that lets you look up a document's word count, author, revision number, and many other statistics. But you should by no means feel limited to these 21 propertiesnor to Office documents.

  Using the Custom tab, you can create properties of your ownWorking Title, Panic Level, Privacy Quotient, or whatever you like. Just specify a property type using the Type pop-up menu (Text, Date, Number, Yes/No); type the property name into the Name text box (or choose one of the canned options in its pop-up menu); and then click Add.

  You can then fill in the Value text box for the individual file in question (so that its Panic Level is Red Alert, for example).

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  Note: This is an older form of tagging filesa lot like the tags feature described on page 69, except that you can't use Vista's Search to find them. Especially technical people can, however, perform query-language searches for these values.

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• The Summary tab reveals the sorts of detailstags, categories, authors, and so onthat are searchable by Vista's new search command. You can edit these little tidbits right in the dialog box.

  This box also tells you how many words, lines, and paragraphs are in a particular Word document. For a graphics document, the Summary tab indicates the graphic's dimensions, resolution, and color settings.

• The Previous Versions tab (Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions of Windows only) lets you revert a document or a folder to an earlier version. It's part of the Shadow Copy automatic backup system described on page 654.

3.6.2.4. Folders

The Properties dialog box for a folder offers five tabs:

• General . Here you'll find the same sorts of checkboxes as you do for data files, described above.

• Sharing makes the folder susceptible to invasion by other peopleeither in person, when they log into this PC, or from across your office network (see Chapter 26).

• Security has to do with the technical NTFS permissions of a folder, a technical set of on/off switches that governs who can do what to the contents (page 692).

• Previous Versions lets you rewind a document to an earlier state; see page 655.

• Customize . The first pop-up menu here lets you apply a folder template to any folder: Documents, Pictures and Videos, Music Details, or Music Icons. A template is nothing more than a canned layout, with a predesigned set of task toolbar buttons , icon sizes, and column headings.

  You may already have noticed that your Pictures folder displays a nice big thumbnail icon for each of your photos, and your Music folder presents a tidy Details-view list of all your songs, with task toolbar buttons like "Play All," "Sharing Settings," and "Burn." Here's your chance to apply those same expertly designed templates to folders of your own making.

3.6.2.5. Program files

There's not much here that you can change yourself, but you certainly get a lot to look at. For starters, there are the General and Details tabs described above.

But there's also an important Compatibility tab, which may one day come to save your bacon. As described on page 236, it lets you trick a pre-Vista program into running on Microsoft's latest.

3.6.3. Changing Your Icons' Icons

You can change the actual, inch-tall illustrations that Windows uses to represent the little icons replete in your electronic world. You can't, however, pick a single method to do so; Microsoft has divided up the controls among at least two different locations.

3.6.3.1. Standard Windows icons

First, you can also change the icon for some of the important Windows desktop icons: the Recycle Bin, Documents, and so on. To do so, right-click a blank spot on the desktop. From the shortcut menu, choose Personalize.

In the resulting window, click "Change desktop icons" in the task pane at the left side. You'll see a collection of those important Windows icons. Click one, and then click Change Icon to choose a replacement from a collection Microsoft provides. (You haven't lived until you've made your Recycle Bin look like a green, growing tree!)

3.6.3.2. Folder or shortcut icons

Finally, if you're sneaky, you can replace the icons for individual folder and shortcut icons (but, alas, not document icons). Here's how:

1. Right-click the folder or shortcut whose icon you want to change. From the shortcut menu, choose Properties .

   The Properties dialog box appears.

2. Click the Customize tab (for a folder) or the Shortcut tab (for a shortcut). At the bottom of the dialog box, click the Change Icon button .

   Yet another dialog box, filled with prefab replacement icons, appears. If you see one that suits your fancy, click it; otherwise , continue.

3. Click Browse .

   Windows Vista now lets you hunt for icons on your hard drive. These can be icons that you've downloaded from the Internet, icons embedded inside program files and .dll files, or icons that you've made yourself using a freeware or shareware icon-making program like AX-Icons (available at www.missingmanuals.com, among other places).

4. Click OK twice .

   You return to the desktop, where you should see your new replacement icon happily in place.