Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hello everyone, and welcome again to our Windows 7, Beginner to Advance Video Training Series.
Today, we will learn about few more desktop customization options of Windows 7.
Chapter 1 – Lesson 6 – Windows 7 Themes This lesson will cover the following topics:
Windows 7 Aero Themes Windows 7 Basic and High Contrast Themes
Let’s check out that what you need to know before you can use Windows 7 Aero Feature.
As discussed earlier in our previous lesson that, Windows 7 Aero feature is only available
in following editions: Windows 7 Home Premium
Professional Ultimate and Enterprise
If you have, Windows 7 Starter and Windows 7 Home Basic installed on your system, than
Aero feature will not be available. Further to enable Aero, your PC must follow
these hardware requirements: Windows Aero require at least 1 Giga Hertz
of 32 or 64 bit of processor 1 Giga Byte Random Access Memory
And 128 Mega Bytes of Graphic Card Moreover your Graphic Card must support:
WDDM Drivers with Pixel Shader 2.0 and
32 Bit Per Pixel Mode If you have a new generation PC or laptop
with latest drivers installed, then you may not need to modify anything, to enable Aero
on your system. So, what makes Windows 7, so unique? It is
the new looks and design of Windows 7, which makes it the prettiest version of Windows,
to date. Windows Aero was first introduced in Windows Vista. Along with other features
of Windows, Microsoft improved many features of Windows Aero, as well.
Features of Aero Desktop are Aero Shake
Aero Peek Aero Snap
Flip 3D Transparency
This was a quick overview of Windows 7 Aero Desktop. Now, let’s learn, how to use each
feature in your daily life? So, before we move further, let’s quickly check, which
version of Windows, you are using. As I have described in my previous chapter that you
can check the version of your Windows, by clicking on Start, Run Command, and then typing
Winver. You can also check your Windows version, by
clicking on Start Button, then right clicking on Computer Icon and choose Properties.
If you are using Windows 7 Starter or Home Basic editions, then do remember that, Aero
feature is not available in both versions. Windows Aero feature is not supported in,
Windows 7 Starter and Windows 7 Home Basic editions.
In Windows Home Basic, if you “Right Click” on an empty area of your desktop, you will
notice that, Personalize command is not available. Also, if you move to Control Panel, Appearance,
and then Display, you will notice that, there is no Themes Customization options are available.
So, let’s start with Windows Aero Feature. If you “Right Click” on an empty area
of your desktop and choose Personalize, the window that will come up, will display you
three sections, which are, My Themes, Aero Themes, and Basic and High Contrast Themes.
If there is no Aero theme section, then it could be the incompatible version of Windows,
are your computer does not meet the minimum requirements, to run Aero.
My default, My Themes section has no theme. My themes section display a modified theme
of yours. You can select any theme from Aero theme section as suited to your preferences.
As soon as, you click on a theme, Windows will immediately apply changes, and will change,
Windows Background Wallpaper, Colors and Sounds. As you can see, as I am switching between
different themes, Windows is changing colors, sounds, and wallpapers.
Now, we have an Aero theme applied on our Desktop, let’s learn all the features of
Aero. The first feature is Aero Shake. If you ever
feel destructed with a busy desktop, and want to minimize all the applications, running
in the background, then just hold down the “Title Bar” of your current window, and
give it a shake. All the applications running in background will get automatically minimized
and you will have a clean Desktop. This saves the time of minimizing each application individually.
For example, you want to access the “Recycle Bin” icon from “Desktop”, then what
you to do is to minimize each application, which is in the way. Instead of doing that,
just shuffle the current window, and you will have, what you want from Desktop. Whenever
you want all the Windows back, just hold the Title Bar and shake it again and all the other
windows will get back to their actual position. Aero Peek was first introduced in Windows
XP as “Show Desktop” icon “Quick Launch” toolbar. The purpose of this button was, if
you want to access something from your desktop, then you don’t have to minimize each application
manually. Just click the button, and all the application will get minimized to Taskbar.
Clicking the button again will restore all the windows to their actual position. But
in Windows 7, Microsoft has improved it a little. First that button has been moved to
the bottom right corner of the taskbar. Secondly, if you just want to see something from your
Desktop, then you do not have to minimize each application. Just move your mouse over
the button, all the open windows will get transparent and you will have a quick view
of your desktop. Move your Mouse Pointer away, and everything will get back. If you click
the button, then all the windows will get minimized. Just click the button again and
everything will be back. Aero Snap is a quick way to resize your open
window, simply by dragging them to the corner of the screen. Using Aero Snap, you can expand
the window vertically, make them full screen, or place them side by side of another window.
Aero snap makes reading, organizing, and comparing windows easy. Say, you want to compare two
open windows side by side. In Windows 7, you can drag the window, by holding them from
Title Bar to the left or right edge of the screen. If you want to make a window full
screen, just drag it up. Using Aero Snap, you can also expand a window vertically, just
in a second. Move your mouse pointer near to the border. When you see a double sided
arrow, just stretch it, and it will get automatically resized, to fit on screen.
When working with multiple applications in Windows, you regularly need to switch between
opened applications. Clicking between Taskbar buttons, to switch between applications, could
be really annoying. In Windows, you can easily switch between open programs using, Alt+TAB
key you’re your keyboard. Hold down the ALT key, and press TAB key, to switch between
running applications, then release the ALT key when you see the application thumbnail
in which you want to work. So, you don’t need to hold down the Mouse every time you
need to switch between applications. In Windows 7, a new function called “Flip
3D” makes switch between open applications more easier and funnier with Live Preview.
In Windows 7, if you ever want to switch between applications, just hold down, the WINDOWS
KEY and Press TAB KEY. This command will Flip the open applications in 3D View. With Live
Preview in Flip 3D, this makes for you more easier to identify the application. This was
a brief overview of Aero Features. In next lesson, we will cover more Desktop Customization
features of Windows 7. Thanks for watching. Keep subscribing to our channel.