Tugging on a window’s title bar

Found atop nearly every desktop window (see examples in Figure 4-2), the title bar usually lists the program name and the file or folder it’s currently displaying. For example, Figure 4-2 shows the title bars from the Windows WordPad (top) and Notepad (bottom) programs. The WordPad title bar lists the file’s name as Document because you haven’t had a chance to save and name the file yet.

Although mild-mannered, the mundane title bar holds hidden powers, described in the following tips:

• Title bars make convenient handles for moving windows around your desktop. Point at a blank part of the title bar, hold down the mouse button, and move the mouse around: The window follows along as you move your mouse. Found the right location? Let go of the mouse button, and the window sets up camp in its new spot.
• Double-click a blank portion of the title bar, and the window leaps to fill the entire desktop. Double-click it again, and the window retreats to its original size.
• See the cluster of little icons in the WordPad program’s top-left corner? Those icons form the Quick Access Toolbar, which is part of what Microsoft calls a Ribbon interface. The icons offer one-click access to common tasks such as saving a file.

• In Windows 10, both programs and apps place three square buttons on the right end of every title bar. From left to right, they let you Minimize, Restore (or Maximize), or Close a window, topics all covered in the “Maneuvering Windows Around the Desktop” section, later in this chapter.

• To find the window you’re currently working on, look at the title bar along the window’s top edge. Specifically, look at the title of the window: One title will be darker than the other. (See how the word WordPad (Figure 4-2, top) is darker than the word Notepad (Figure 4-2, bottom) in the second window?) That color distinguishes that window from windows you aren’t working on. By glancing at all the title bars on the desktop, you can tell which window is awake and accepting anything you type.

Navigating folders with a window’s Address bar

Directly beneath every folder’s title bar or Ribbon lives the Address bar, shown near the top of the folder in Figure 4-3. Web surfers will experience déjà vu: The Windows Address bar is lifted straight from the top edge of web browsers like Internet Explorer and glued atop every folder.

The Address bar’s four main parts, described from left to right in the following list, perform four different duties:

• Backward and Forward buttons: These two arrows track your path as you forage through your PC’s folders. The Backward button backtracks to the folder you just visited. The Forward button brings you back.

• Down arrow button: Click this extraordinarily tiny arrow to see a drop-down list of folders you’ve visited previously. You can click any listed folder for a quick revisit.

• Up Arrow button: Click the Up Arrow button to move up one folder from your current folder. For example, if you’ve been sorting files in your Documents folder’s “Stuff” folder, click the Up arrow to return to your Documents folder.
• Address: Just as a web browser’s Address bar lists a website’s address, the Windows Address bar displays your current folder’s address — its location inside your PC. For example, the Address bar shown in Figure 4-3 shows three words: This PC, Documents, and Stuff. Those words tell you that you’re looking inside the Stuff folder inside the Documents folder on This PC. (That’s your PC, as opposed to somebody else’s PC.) Yes, addresses are complicated enough to warrant an entire chapter: Chapter 5.
• Search box: Every Windows folder sports a Search box. Instead of searching the Internet, though, it rummages through your current folder’s contents. For example, if you type the word carrot into a folder’s Search box, Windows digs through that folder’s contents and retrieves every file or folder mentioning carrot.

In the Address bar, notice the little arrows between the words This PC, Documents, and Stuff. The arrows offer quick trips to other folders. Click any arrow — the one to the right of the word Documents, for example. A little menu drops down from the arrow, letting you jump to any other folder inside your Documents folder.

Finding commands on the Ribbon

The Windows desktop has more menu items than an Asian restaurant. To keep everybody’s minds on computer commands instead of seaweed salad, Windows places menus inside a tab-filled Ribbon that lives atop every folder. (See Figure 4-4.)

The Ribbon’s tabs each offer different options. To reveal the secret options, click any tab — Share, for example. The Ribbon quickly changes, as shown in Figure 4-5, presenting all your options related to sharing a file.

Just as restaurants sometimes run out of specials, a window sometimes isn’t capable of offering all its menu items. Any unavailable options are grayed out, like the Print option in Figure 4-5. (Because you can’t print music files, that option is grayed out.)

If you accidentally click the wrong tab on the Ribbon, causing the wrong commands to leap onto the screen, simply click the tab you really wanted. A forgiving soul, Windows displays your newly chosen tab’s contents instead.

You needn’t know much about the Ribbon because Windows automatically places the correct buttons atop each program. Open your Music folder, for example, and the Ribbon quickly spouts a new Play tab for listening sessions.

If a button’s meaning isn’t immediately obvious, hover your mouse pointer over it; a little message explains the button’s raison d’être. My own translations for the most common tabs and buttons are in the following list:

• File: Found along every Ribbon’s left edge, this tab offers little in rewards: It gives you options for opening new windows; returning to popular locations; and, oddly enough, deleting evidence of folders you’ve peeked inside.
• Home: Found on every folder’s Ribbon, the Home tab usually brings pay dirt, so every folder opens showing this tab’s options. The Home tab offers tools to select, cut, copy, paste, move, delete, or rename a folder’s items.
• Share: As the name implies, this tab offers ways to let you share a folder’s contents with other people, whether by burning the contents to a CD, e-mailing them, or sharing them on a network. (I cover network sharing in Chapter 14.)
• View: Click here to change how files appear in the window. In your Pictures folder, for example, choose Extra Large Icons to see larger thumbnails of your photos.
• Manage: Found only on special folders, this general-purpose tab shows customized ways to handle your folder’s items. Atop a folder full of pictures, for example, the Manage tab offers a Slide Show button, as well as buttons to rotate skewed photos or turn them into desktop backgrounds.

Don’t like that thick Ribbon hogging an inch of space atop your window? If you’re pressed for space, axe the Ribbon by clicking the little upward-pointing arrow next to the blue question mark icon in the Ribbon’s upper-right corner. Click it again to bring back the Ribbon.

Quick shortcuts with the Navigation Pane

Look at most “real” desktops, and you’ll see the most-used items sitting within arm’s reach: the coffee cup, the stapler, and perhaps a few crumbs from the coffee room snacks. Similarly, Windows gathers your PC’s most frequently used items and places them in the Navigation Pane, shown in Figure 4-6.

Found along the left edge of every folder, the Navigation Pane contains several main sections: Quick Access, OneDrive, and This PC. (On PCs connected through a network, you’ll also see entries for Network and Homegroup.) Click any of those sections — Quick Access, for example — and the window’s right side quickly shows you the contents of what you’ve clicked.

Here’s a more detailed description of each part of the Navigation Pane:

• Quick Access: Formerly called Favorites, these locations serve as clickable shortcuts to your most frequently accessed locations in Windows.
  • Desktop: Your Windows desktop, believe it or not, is actually a folder that’s always spread open across your screen. Clicking Desktop quickly shows you the contents of your desktop.
  • Downloads: Click this shortcut to find the files you’ve downloaded with Internet Explorer while browsing the Internet. Ah, that’s where they ended up!
  • Documents: A perineal favorite, this folder stores most of your work: spreadsheets, reports, letters, and other things you’ve created.
  • Pictures: Another popular destination, this takes you to photos you’ve shot yourself or saved from the Internet.
• OneDrive: This free online storage space was handed to you by Microsoft when you created a Microsoft account. Because it’s password-protected and online, it’s tempting to fill it with favorite files for access from any PC. When your stored files amount to more than 15GB, Microsoft asks for your credit card to raise your storage limit. Tip: Look for special offers to increase your free storage. For example, tell your smartphone to store its photos on OneDrive to receive extra storage space.
• This PC: This section lets you browse through your PC’s folders and hard drives. (Many of these commonly used storage areas also live in the Navigation Pane’s Quick Access area, as well.) The This PC section holds these areas:
  • Desktop: Click this to see the files and folders stored on your desktop. (Or, you can just close the folder and see your desktop in person.)
  • Documents: This opens the Documents folder, a convenient repository for letters, forms, and reports.
  • Downloads: Downloaded a file from Internet Explorer? Then look in here to be reintroduced.
  • Music: Yep, this shortcut jumps straight to your Music folder, where a double-click on a song starts it playing through your PC’s speakers.
  • Pictures: This shortcut opens your Pictures folder, the living quarters for all your digital photos.
  • Videos: Click here to visit your Videos folder, where a double-click on a video opens it for immediate viewing.

  • Local Disk (C:): A holdover for old techies, this entry lets you crawl through any folder on your PC. Unless you know specifically what item you’re seeking, though, you probably won’t find it. Stick with the other destinations, instead.

  • Disc Drives: If your PC includes extra disc drives, icons for those appear here, as well. Insert a flash drive into your USB port, and its icon appears here, as well.
• Network: Although Homegroups simplify file sharing, old-school networks still work, and any networked PCs — including your Homegroup buddies — appear here.
• Homegroup: A convenient way of sharing information among several household computers, Homegroups are two or more PCs that share information through a simple network. Click Homegroup in the Navigation Pane to see folders shared by other networked PCs in your Homegroup. (I cover Homegroups and other networks in Chapter 15.)

Here are a few tips for making the most of your Navigation Pane:

• To avoid treks back to the Start menu, add your own favorite places to the Navigation Pane’s Quick Access area: Right-click the folder and choose Pin to Quick Access from the pop-up menu.
• If you’ve connected to a network at home or work, the pane’s This PC section may include those other computers’ music, video, and photos (which are sometimes referred to as media). Click those computers’ icons to access those goodies as if they were stored on your own computer.

• Windows 7 owners may notice that Windows 10 doesn’t show libraries in the Navigation Pane. Libraries still exist, but they’re hidden in the background. To bring them back into view, click a blank portion of the Navigation Pane and choose Show Libraries from the pop-up menu. (You must also manually add the Public folders to each library in order to return them to the glory days of Windows 7.)

Moving inside a window with its scroll bar

The scroll bar, which resembles a cutaway of an elevator shaft (see Figure 4-7), rests along the edge of all overstuffed windows. You can even find a scroll bar along the side of an extra-long Start menu.

Inside the shaft, a little elevator (technically, the scroll box) rides along as you move through the window’s contents. In fact, by glancing at the box’s position in the scroll bar, you can tell whether you’re viewing items in the window’s beginning, middle, or end.

By clicking in various places on the scroll bar, you can quickly view different parts of things. Here’s the dirt:

• Click inside the scroll bar in the direction you want to view. On a vertical scroll bar, for example, click above the scroll box to move your view up one page. Similarly, click below the scroll box to move your view down a page.

• The Start menu’s extreme right edge is a difficult-to-see scroll bar, but it appears when the mouse pointer is nearby. Slide the scroll bar’s box downward to view any shy apps hiding below the screen’s bottom edge.

• Don’t see a scroll bar or a box in the bar? Then you’re already seeing all that the window has to offer; there’s nothing to scroll.

• To move around in a hurry, drag the scroll box inside the scroll bar. As you drag, you see the window’s contents race past. When you see the spot you want, let go of the mouse button to stay at that viewing position.

• Are you using a mouse that has a little wheel embedded in the poor critter’s back? Spin the wheel, and the elevator moves quickly inside the scroll bar, shifting your view accordingly. It’s a handy way to explore a tile-packed Start menu, long documents, and file-filled folders.

Boring borders

A border is that thin edge surrounding a window, including desktop windows containing apps. Compared with a bar, it’s really tiny.

To change a window’s size, drag the border in or out. (When the mouse pointer turns into a two-headed arrow, you’re in the right place to start dragging.) Some windows, oddly enough, don’t have borders. Stuck in limbo, their size can’t be changed — even if they’re an awkward size.

Except for tugging on them with the mouse, you won’t be using borders much.

Moving a window to the top of the pile

Windows says the window atop the pile that’s getting all the attention is called the active window. Being the active window means that it receives any keystrokes you or your cat happen to type.

You can move a window to the top of the pile so that it’s active in any of several ways:

• Move the mouse pointer until it hovers over any portion of your desired window; then click the mouse button. Windows immediately brings the window to the top of the pile.
• On the taskbar along the desktop’s bottom, click the icon for the window you want. Chapter 3 explains what the taskbar can do in more detail.

• Hold down the Alt key while tapping and releasing the Tab key. With each tap of the Tab key, a small window pops up, displaying a thumbnail of each open window on your desktop. (You also see thumbnails of open Start menu apps.) When your press of the Tab key highlights your favorite window, let go of the Alt key, and your window leaps to the forefront.

• A click of the Task View button (shown in the margin), also places miniature views of each window on the screen, even if they’re on different virtual desktops. Click the desired miniature window, and it rises to the top, ready for action. I cover the Task View button and virtual desktops in Chapter 3.

Is your desktop too cluttered for you to work comfortably in your current window? Then hold down your mouse pointer on the window’s title bar and give it a few quick shakes; Windows drops the other windows down to the taskbar, leaving your main window resting alone on an empty desktop.

Moving a window from here to there

Sometimes you want to move a window to a different place on the desktop. Perhaps part of the window hangs off the edge, and you want it centered. Or maybe you want one window closer to another.

In either case, you can move a window by dragging and dropping its title bar, that thick bar along its top. (If you’re not sure how dragging and dropping works, see the sidebar “Dragging, dropping, and running,” earlier in this chapter.) When you drop the window in place, the window not only remains where you’ve dragged and dropped it, but it also stays on top of the pile —until you click another window, that is, which brings that window to the pile’s top.

Making a window fill the whole desktop

Sooner or later, you’ll grow tired of all this multiwindow mumbo jumbo. Why can’t you just make one window fill the screen? Well, you can.

To make any desktop window grow as large as possible, double-click its title bar, that bar along the window’s topmost edge. The window leaps up to fill the entire desktop, covering up all the other windows.

To reduce the pumped-up window back to its former size, double-click its title bar once again. The window quickly shrinks to its former size, and you can see things that it covered.

• If you’re morally opposed to double-clicking a window’s title bar to expand it, you can click the little Maximize button. Shown in the margin, it’s the middle of the three buttons in the upper-right corner of every window.

• When a window is maximized to fill the desktop, the Maximize button turns into a Restore button, shown in the margin. Click the Restore button, and the window returns to its smaller size.
• Need a brute force method? Then drag a window’s top edge until it butts against the top edge of your desktop. The shadow of the window’s borders will expand to fill the desktop; let go of the mouse button, and the window’s borders fill the desktop. (Yes, simply double-clicking the title bar is faster, but this method impresses any onlookers from neighboring cubicles.)

• Too busy to reach for the mouse? Maximize the current window by holding down the key and pressing the ↑ key. (Hold down the key and press the ↓ key to return to normal size.)

Closing a window

When you’re through working in a window, close it: Click the little X in its upper-right corner. Zap! You’re back to an empty desktop.

If you try to close your window before finishing your work, be it a game of Solitaire or a report for the boss, Windows cautiously asks whether you’d like to save your work. Take it up on its offer by clicking Yes and, if necessary, typing in a filename so that you can find your work later.

Making a window bigger or smaller

Like big lazy dogs, windows tend to flop on top of one another. To space your windows more evenly, you can resize them by dragging and dropping their edges inward or outward. It works like this:

1. Point at any corner with the mouse arrow. When the arrow turns into a two-headed arrow, you can hold down the mouse button and drag the corner in or out to change the window’s size.

2. When you’re happy with the window’s new size, release the mouse button.

   The window settles down into its new position.

Placing two windows side by side

The longer you use Windows, the more likely you are to want to see two windows side by side. For example, you may want to copy things from one window into another or compare two versions of the same file. By spending a few hours with the mouse, you can drag and drop the windows’ corners until they’re in perfect juxtaposition.

If you’re impatient, Windows lets you speed up this handy side-by-side placement several ways:

• For the quickest solution, drag a window’s title bar against one side of your desktop; when your mouse pointer touches the desktop’s edge, let go of the mouse button. Repeat these same steps with the second window, dragging it to the opposite side of the desktop.

• If you drag a window to fill one edge of the screen, Windows immediately shows thumbnails of your minimized windows. Click the thumbnail of the window you’d like to see fill the screen’s other half.

• To place four windows onscreen simultaneously, drag the title bar of each window to a different corner of the screen. Each window resizes itself to grab its own quarter of the screen.

• Right-click on a blank part of the taskbar (even the clock will do) and choose Show Windows Side by Side. The windows align next to each other, like pillars. To align them in horizontal rows, choose Show Windows Stacked. (If you have more than three open windows, Show Windows Stacked tiles them across your desktop, which is handy for seeing just a bit of each one.)

• If you have more than two windows open, click the Minimize button (the leftmost icon in every window’s top-right corner) to minimize the windows you don’t want tiled. Then use the Show Windows Side by Side from the preceding bullet to align the two remaining windows.

• To make the current window fill the desktop’s right half, hold the key and press the → key. To fill the desktop’s left half, hold the key and press the ← key.

Making windows open to the same darn size

Sometimes a window opens to a small square; other times, it opens to fill the entire desktop. But windows rarely open to the exact size you want. Until you discover this trick, that is: When you manually adjust the size and placement of a window, Windows memorizes that size and always reopens the window to that same size. Follow these three steps to see how it works:

1. Open your window.

   The window opens to its usual unwanted size.

2. Drag the window’s corners until the window is the exact size and in the exact location you want. Let go of the mouse to drop the corner into its new position.

   Be sure to resize the window manually by dragging its corners or edges with the mouse. Simply clicking the Maximize button won’t work.

3. Immediately close the window.

   Windows memorizes the size and placement of a window at the time it was last closed. When you open that window again, it should open to the same size you last left it. But the changes you make apply only to the program you made them in. For example, changes made to the Internet Explorer window will be remembered only for Internet Explorer, not for other programs you open.

Most windows follow these sizing rules, but a few renegades from other programs may misbehave, unfortunately.