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configuration files, and general look and feel. Here’s some good news: You’ll find the same, or nearly the same, utilities in almost all versions of Windows, and once you master one version—both GUI and command-line interface—you’ll pretty much have them all covered. This section covers the essentials: where to find things, how to maneuver, and what common utilities are available. Where versions of Windows differ in concept or detail, I’ll point that out along the way. You’ll get to the underlying structure of Windows in the subsequent two sections of this chapter. For now, let’s look at the common user interface.

User Interface

Windows offers a set of utilities, or interfaces, that every user should know about—both how and why to access them. And since every user should know about them, certainly every CompTIA A+ certified tech should as well! Let’s take a quick tour of the typical Windows GUI.

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EXAM TIP Odds are pretty good you already know the Windows Interface—but do you know what the CompTIA A+ calls all these parts? Don’t skip this section!

Login

Logging into a Windows computer is something we all do, but few of us take time to appreciate. Your user name and password define what you can do on your computer. Every version of Windows supports multiple users on a single machine, so the starting point for any tour of the Windows user interface starts with the login screen. Figure 4-16 shows the old, ugly, but very functional Windows 2000 login screen.

Figure 4-16 Windows 2000 login screen

Figure 4-17 Windows XP Welcome screen

Microsoft improved the login screen in XP, creating a new type of login called the Welcome screen (Figure 4-17). If you’re using Windows XP Home or Media Center, this is the only login screen you will see. Windows XP Professional also has the Welcome screen. If you’re running a Windows XP Professional system that connects to a Windows domain, however, you go right back to the classic login screen (Figure 4-18).

Figure 4-18 Windows XP domain login screen

Windows Vista dumped the old login screen entirely. All versions of Windows Vista use an improved version of XP’s Welcome screen (Figure 4-19).

Figure 4-19 Windows Vista Welcome screen

Desktop

The Windows desktop is your primary interface to the computer. The desktop is always there, underneath whatever applications you have open. The desktop analogy appeals to most people—we’re used to sitting down at a desk to get work done. Figure 4-20 shows a nice, clean Windows XP desktop; note the icons on the left and the various graphical elements across the bottom. You can add folders and files to the desktop and customize the background to change its color or add a picture. Most people like to do so—certainly, I do! As an example, Figure 4-21 shows the desktop from my home system—a Windows Vista Ultimate PC.

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NOTE Your desktop is actually a folder in your computer. Whatever is in that folder shows up on your desktop. It’s critical that you know how to get to that folder in every version of Windows covered on the CompTIA A+. Read on.

Figure 4-20 Windows XP desktop

Clearly the Vista desktop differs a lot compared to the Windows XP desktop. What you’re seeing is something called the Aero desktop. Aero desktop adds a number of impressive aesthetic features to your desktop that Microsoft claims makes the user experience more enjoyable and productive. I’m not going to get into an argument on the value of the Aero desktop, but it is an important part of the Windows Vista (and Windows 7) interface. Most of the Aero features are overly technical—even for the CompTIA A+ exams—but the end result is a faster, smoother desktop with two interesting features: transparency and Flip 3D. Transparency, as the name implies, gives an adjustable amount of transparency to the edges of your windowed programs, as you can see in Figure 4-22.

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EXAM TIP Vista Home Basic does not support Aero desktop.

Figure 4-21 Mike’s messy desktop

Figure 4-22 Transparency

Flip 3D enables you to view and