Windows 7 / Getting Started

---

Defining the Taskbar and Start menu settings

The Taskbar and Start menu options you use are very important because they affect your productivity. Some people prefer what Microsoft now calls the Windows standard menus, while others, like me, prefer the classic menus. There isn't a wrong or right choice - simply the choice that you prefer. To access the settings that control the Taskbar and Start menu settings, right-click the Taskbar and choose Properties from the context menu. You can also open the Taskbar and Start Menu applet in the Control Panel. The Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box, which you use to configure these features.

The Taskbar tab contains the settings that determine how the Taskbar appears on-screen. After you configure the Taskbar as you like it, check Lock the Taskbar so that you don't accidentally change the configuration. In most cases, you want to keep the Taskbar on top of other windows, to ensure that you can always access it. Some people automatically hide the Taskbar so that they regain the screen real estate it uses. The only time you need to group similar buttons is when you use applications, such as Office, that display a window for each document. You can also choose to show the Quick Launch toolbar, which contains icons for applications you commonly use.

Remember: The Show Window Previews (Thumbnails) option is available only when you use the standard menus and have the Desktop Experience feature installed. You can't access this feature when using the classic menus. This particular feature shows a preview of the documents you have open, to make it easier to locate the document you want to edit - it's unlikely to make your experience of working with a server much better unless you also use your server as a workstation.

The Start Menu tab, shows the two main Start menu options you can choose. When you choose a particular Start menu look, click Customize for that option to configure how it looks. For example, you can choose whether you want to see the Administrative Tools folder and determine whether Windows should expand the Control Panel as a set of menu options. Try out the various configuration options to determine which ones work best for your particular needs.

The check boxes in the Privacy group determine whether Windows tracks the applications and documents you use most often. Most administrators will want to clear these check boxes to reduce the amount of information about the server that an outsider can obtain. Although these features can prove useful on a client system, they aren't particularly helpful on a server because there really isn't a pattern for using applications or documents on a server.

The Notification Area tab contains options for configuring the Notification Area of the Taskbar. You can choose which standard icons Windows displays in the Notification Area, such as time and network status. The Hide Inactive Icons option determines whether Windows hides any icons you don't use very often.

The Toolbars tab contains a list of toolbars you can add to the Taskbar. Of course, every toolbar uses up a little more space on the Taskbar, so you need to exercise care. The standard toolbar selections include Address, Links, Desktop, and Quick Launch. In most cases, you find that the Quick Launch toolbar is quite helpful and you may even want the Desktop toolbar when you define a lot of icons on the Desktop. Unless you perform a lot of browsing with your server, you'll probably find that the Address and Links toolbars don't provide much value for the space they consume.

Configuring the Windows performance options

Windows provides a number of performance options, but you find them all over the interface. For example, you previously discovered the Effects dialog box in the "Defining the personalization settings" section of this tutorial. This section discusses another kind of performance option. When you click Settings in the Performance section on the Advanced tab of the System Properties dialog box, you see the Performance Options dialog box.

The Visual Effects tab contains options that can make your display more interesting or usable. When you choose the Let Windows Choose What's Best for My Computer option, Windows enables the Smooth Edges of Screen Fonts and Use Visual Styles on Windows and Buttons options. These two options definitely seem to make the display more usable. You can also choose to adjust the display for best appearance (all of the options) or best performance (none of the options) or a custom setup. Many people prefer a custom setup so that they can create a balance between fancy on-screen features and system performance.

The Advanced tab contains settings that control how Windows works with applications. The default setting for a server is to give background tasks priority so that client requests come first. If you're using the server as a workstation, you may want to choose the Programs option instead. Clicking Change on this tab also displays the Virtual Memory dialog box, where you can determine the size of the paging file that Windows uses for virtual memory. Windows uses virtual memory in place of physical memory, in many cases, to answer all the memory requests that applications make. In most cases, unless you have performance or hard disk concerns, you want to let Windows manage the virtual memory.

The Data Execution Prevention (DEP) tab determines how Windows controls access to application memory. A strict policy (the default in Windows Server 2008) can greatly reduce the potential for damaging virus activity in your system. However, a strict policy can also prevent some applications from running properly.