The size of the window has been extended to show the full amount of menu items under Hardware and Sound, you would usually not see a window as long as this, although if your resolution is high enough, you can extend the control panel window as with most windows in Vista in order to display more information. You would see a scrollbar to the right of the Hardware and Sound window usually. As you can see, there are many options to choose from such as Printers, Autoplay, Sound, Mouse, Power Options, Personalization, Scanners and Cameras, Keyboard, Device Manager, Phone and Modem Options, Game Controllers, Windows SlideShow, Pen and Input Devices, Color Management, Windows Mobile Device Center and also Tablet PC Settings.
Printers: Add a printer opens up a small window to add a printer, either a local one - directly connected to your pc or a network printer - a printer located through the network (connected to another pc located on your network or a specific network printer). Change default printer and Remove a printer opens up the printers window showing you printer already installed onto the machine (you may see more than one printer even though you only have one print device connected up to the pc - this is because Windows refers to printers being the software that enables your applications and documents to print to the print device and you may have more than one due to the different options the printer gives you for printing, such as print queues and printing priorities). Remove a printer brings up the same window - to actually remove the printer you can right click on a printer and choose Delete. There are other options also when you right click on a printer including renaming, sharing, changing printing preferences as well as many more options when you select properties. The advanced options referring to locations, security, print priority and more are discussed in more advanced topics on Vista referring directly to Security and Printers.
Autoplay: The Autoplay settings allows you to choose what actions for Windows to take whenever you enter in media (cd-rom, dvd-rom, usb flash) into your computer or other devices. You do not have to set these from the settings menus, however it can be a good idea if you want to have a standard action that Windows should take for certain media types. You can set up autoplay options when you insert the media, so if you have inserted a cd-rom, you will be prompted with a window with actions to take such as opening the cd for browsing in Windows Explorer. You can select the actions to be the default action, however if you wish to change this action you will need to enter the autoplay options under control panel. You can also choose to reset all options if you would like Windows to revert back to the default actions and you can also disable autoplaying any types or all types of media. There is a large section on Autoplay options under the Default Programs section.
Sound: the Windows sound options has a few options to change the volume, select which soundcard Windows should use and also you can choose the type os sound scheme for Windows to use for events. You can view which devices to use for playback that are connected to your pc, you can also select which device to use as the default player by clicking the device and selecting Set Default. You can also configure the device by clicking on the configure option, which allows you to perform a test of that device/speaker. You can also view the properties of each individual device by clicking on Properties, which has other equalizer settings a sound level settings. The Recording tab has all the recording devices connectd to the pc such as microphones, you can also choose sound level options for recording here. The Sounds tab has the Windows sounds options that can also be seen in greater detail at the top of this page.
Mouse: With this settings you can select how fast you can double click as well as to switch the primary and secondary buttons. You can also select pointer schemes as discussed at the begining of this page. You can select pointer options such as how fast you can move the mouse and whether the pointer should leave pointer trails to make it easier to locate where the mouse is moving to and from. You can also select the speed at which the scrollwheel should move at as well as horizontal scrolling which is done by tilting the wheel to the left or the right if your scroll wheel supports that.
Power Options: The power options allows you to control how much power your computer will use up by setting times for turning off the monitor after being idle or going into sleep mode that only uses up minimal power and saves the user data onto memory to enable you to quickly restore the session on Windows that you had open and continue working with the same documents or programs much quicker than if you were to shut down the computer and then switch it on again afterwards. There is also another option which is similar to that in XP called hibernation mode, which is where Windows will save the data onto memory similar to sleep mode except it switches of the computer and therefore does not use up even minimal power. It therefore will take longer to boot up if you have used hibernation mode, although it is still faster and you user session is saved. Power plan options are very useful on laptops where the battery usually can only last for a few hours if left on. There are some power plans that come preconfigured on Vista such as Balanced, Power Saver and High Performance.
Balanced - default settings - turn off display after 20 minutes, put the computer to sleep after 1 hour on desktop or laptop plugged into mains.
Power saver - Turn off display after 20 minutes, put the computer to sleep after 1 hour on desktop or laptop plugged into mains.
High Performance - Turn off display after 20 minutes, put the computer to sleep never, or desktop or laptop plugged into mains.
You also have the option to change what the power button does, as by default the power button enters the computer into sleep mode, you can change this to Shut down instead like in XP. You can also select a password that you must enter when the computer wakes up from sleep mode. The last feature is that you can create a power mode option yourself with your own times for the computer turning off the monitor or entering sleep mode.
Personalization: this topic is covered in depth at the begining of this page, this is mainly a link to the other section on Personalization, however it deals with the refresh rate and resolution, which are closely linked with monitor and graphics card hardware so it appears under tha Hardware and Sound subsection, for more details scroll up to the top of the page.
Scanners and Cameras: With this setting you have the option of being able to see your various camera and scanner devices connected up to the pc as well as being able to add a new device, choose specific profiles for your scanner called Scan Profiles and also configure various properties for each device linked up to the computer. As most scanners and cameras are connected up to the pc with a usb cable, Vista should be able to detect the correct drivers for these devices automatically and when you open up the Scanners and Cameras settings window you should automatically see those devices appearing in the list. If you do not see the devices you may want to install them from the cd that came with the device. If you may not have a cd or the installation via cd does not work, you can select Add Device.. and select your own locations for where the device drivers can be found.
Device Manager: The Device Manager is used to control the drivers for all of your hardware, including any system devices or hidden devices that may be present on your pc. It is possible to get to device manager through the mmc - by right clicking on Computer and selecting Manage also. Most hardware should be detected automatically, although sometimes when you first install Windows, you may need to have your motherboard CD or other drivers CD handy to install various drivers. You can also use Windows Update to search for drivers in many cases.
Other options are that you can update drivers that are already installed on your computer. This can be useful if you have installed a device a while ago and may wish to search for updates on the internet or if you have received media with the updated on it, just right click on the particular device and select update driver software and then follow the steps to select where to find the update. You can also disable drivers, by right clicking on the device and clicking disable. This can be useful if there are any hardware conflicts or if you do not require the device to be online for the moment, if you were to uninstall the device instead by right clicking and selecting uninstall, you would still see the device installed the next time you booted up Windows as it would automatically get detected and installed again, so disabling a device may sometimes be more useful. You should use the uninstall option if you are completely removing a device from the machine, for example, an old network card being removed may require you to manually uninstall the driver. A final option accessible by right clicking a device is to scan for hardware changes, and this is effectively a refresh command that checks to see whether a new device has been installed and tries to find drivers for any additional devices as well as updates the device manages to reflect any devices that have been uninstalled or removed from the pc.
If you select Properties by right clicking on the device, you will see a window with several tabs at the top for more advanced configuration of individual devices. There are some feature under driver that are similar to the right click menu such as disabling, uninstalling or updating the drivers. You also can see the status of the device on the general tab as well as its location used by the pc. Other tabs include the Advanced tab, Details, Resources and Power Management. The last 4 tabs mentioned contain more advanced optioned that are not going to be mentioned here, except that the power management options can be used to select which device that windows has control over to be able to switch off as well as being able to switch on the pc when in a sleep mode.
Phone and Modem Options: These options are for dial up users or sending faxes over your phone line as well as making calls over your phone line via your pc. most computers have a modem included with them nowadays and alot of people are using their ehternet or wireless card as the primary means of communication from the pc, so you may not ever need to change any settings in this section, but in case you do, heres some information.
When you click on Phone and modem options, you can select which location you are calling from along with which area code, carrier code or whether you need to dial a number to get an outside line. You can also select between tone and pulse dialing. Once you have selected the right options for your location click OK. You will then see a new window with your location and an area code that you specified next to it. You are able to edit that location as well as adding other locations to the window. Through this window you are able to edit some more advanced details for the location such as using calling cards or prefixes and international dialing codes. You are also able to view modems connected to your pc aswell as adding a new modem. This can be done by cliking on the Add button under the modem tab., Your modem would usually show up in this list without you having to add it manually and it may be bext to use the driver cd that you got with your modem if it has not been recognized automatically.
Windows Slideshow: Windows Slideshow allows you to typically use a smaller screen on the outside of a laptop to view information such as your emails, music player or other gadgets that are compatible with slideshow. There are other devices that you can use slideshow with such as slideshow enabled tvs and mobile phones. The smaller screen on a laptop can be very useful as having slideshow uses up minimal power and your slideshow player can be on for many hours more than if you had the whole laptop switched on. When you set up slideshow, you will need to enter a valid PIN number to verify the device.
Pen and Input Devices: This option allows you to define which input device to use for tablet pc computers. You can select the equivalent mouse action for the pen action such as a double tap for a double click. You can also choose to use the pen button as a right click equivalent to make right clicking faster and also to use the top of the pen to erase ink (where available). The next tab has configuration settings for Pointer options, you can select how Windows will display information about when you tap or double tap or perform other pen related actions. The last tab is about Flicks, which are quick flicks of the pen accross parts of the screen to facilitate in erasing or editing information.
Color Management: Color Management is used to control the rendering of color in your computer for all displayed items on your monitor and all documents and pictures that you print on your printer. You can use the color profiles in color management to set a standard for displaying colors in all your programs and pictures as most of the time different programs will display color information is different ways as well as different cameras and scanners. Each device usually has its own color profile that is installed with the device; this color profile can be changed through the color management settings. Color management settings can be changed to add or remove a color profile, associate/change a different color profile for one of your devices (such as a camera, scanner, printer) and also to change your default rendering or default color space.
There are occasions where a device might have more than one profile, such a printer printing to different types of paper or using different types of ink, you can add more profiles by going to the All profiles tab in color management and selecting Add, then browsing for the color profile and selecting Ok. There are 2 types of color profiles supported in Vista: WCS (Windows Color System) and ICC (International Color Consortium). WCS is a more advanced system that has more settings than ICC. If you wish to set a default profile for a device, go to the Devices tab and select the device and then select the profile you want to use, then click Set as Default.
Tablet PC Settings: You can use Tablet PC settings to control how menus are displayed when you open them with your pen, you can also calibrate your tablet pc pen to improve how accurately it targets items on the screen as well as selecting the type of orientation you have on your pc. The next tab is the Handwrititng recognition tab that displays the option to have Windows use your data from the Handwriting Recognition personalization tool and automatic learning to improve your handwriting recognition. You can also select Automatic learning that stores personalization data on your pc. The display tab allows you to select the type of screen orientation to use as well as the sequence that the orientation cycles through when you use your tablet pc pen to change your orientation. The Other tab has a link to set up Pen and Input Devices.