For Seniors: Use a Laptop's Windows 7 Start Menu
Use the Windows 7 Start menu on your laptop to access your laptop's settings, files, folders, and software. You can customize the Windows Start menu if you like, to fit the way you like to work on your [more…]
For Seniors: Access a Laptop's Frequently Used Programs
Programs you use often on your laptop can be pinned to the Frequently Used Programs area on the Windows 7 taskbar. After you add frequently used programs to the taskbar, you'll be just one click away from [more…]
For Seniors: Arrange Icons on Your Laptop's Desktop
Program icons on your laptop's Windows 7 desktop can be arranged in a variety of ways. Arrange your desktop icons so you can quickly access the programs and files they represent. Icons can be automatically [more…]
For Seniors: Empty Your Laptop's Recycle Bin
When you delete a file on your laptop, it's placed in the Windows 7 Recycle Bin. Deleted files remain in the Recycle Bin until you empty it. Thus, until you empty your laptop's Recycle Bin or it reaches [more…]
For Seniors: Find Laptop Files with Windows Explorer
Windows Explorer is a great way to look for files on your laptop. Using Windows Explorer, you can locate a file or folder by navigating through an outline of folders and subfolders on your laptop. [more…]
For Seniors: Create Windows 7 Shortcuts on a Laptop
Shortcuts are icons you put on the Windows 7 desktop for quick access to programs or files you use frequently. On a laptop, shortcuts are especially useful for users who may have to get to what they need [more…]
For Seniors: Start a Windows Program on a Laptop
Before you can use a Windows program on your laptop, you have to start it (launch the program). Windows provides several ways to start programs; choose the method you like best. [more…]
For Seniors: Minimize, Maximize, Restore, and Resize Windows
Under Windows 7, application windows can be minimized, maximized, restored, and resized as needed. Maximize a program window to fill the whole screen, restore it to its original size, or minimize it to [more…]
For Seniors: Switch between Programs on a Windows Laptop
Windows 7 allows you to run multiple programs at the same time, and switch between them as you work. Switch from one Windows program to another whenever you like, without closing them down [more…]
For Seniors: Arrange Windows on a Windows Laptop Quickly
Using the Shake, Snap, and Peek features in Windows 7, you can quickly arrange windows on your laptop. You can minimize all windows, align them side-by-side, maximize a window, or take a quick peek at [more…]
For Seniors: Make Your Laptop Touchpad Easier to Use
Laptops come with a touchpad instead of a mouse, and the touchpads take some getting used to. In place of the touchpad, Windows 7 allows you to use the numeric keypad to move the mouse from time to time [more…]
For Seniors: Customize Your Windows Laptop’s Display
Customize your Windows laptop’s display by changing the Windows screen resolution, desktop background, window appearance, or screen saver. Customizing the appearance of your Windows laptop not only makes [more…]
For Seniors: Set Your Windows Screen Resolution
Your Windows screen resolution controls how large and how crisp items appear onscreen. Higher screen resolutions produce smaller, but crisper images. Lower screen resolutions produce larger, but somewhat [more…]
For Seniors: ChangeYour Laptop’s Desktop Background
Windows allows you to change the desktop background on your laptop to a picture or a color that appeals to you. Personalizing the Windows desktop may seem like an inconsequential thing, but it’s the little [more…]
For Seniors: Choose a Windows 7 Theme for Your Laptop
Windows 7 has built-in themes that you can apply to change the appearance of your windows, desktop background, screen saver, and even mouse cursors and system sounds. Windows themes are coordinated settings [more…]
For Seniors: Choose a Screen Saver for Your Laptop
Screen savers are animations that appear after your laptop has remained inactive for a time. Windows 7 comes with several screen savers you can select from and customize as desired. [more…]
For Seniors: Change the Color, Font, or Size of Windows Elements
You can modify the appearance of Windows 7 elements one by one. For example, you can change the color, font, or size of menus, windows, icons, scrollbars, and other Windows elements. [more…]
For Seniors: Improve Visibility on a Windows Laptop
If you're visually challenged, using a laptop's smaller screen is often difficult. Luckily, Windows provides tools to improve usability for those with visual disabilities, such as increasing screen contrast [more…]
For Seniors: Replace Windows Sounds with Visual Cues
Instead of alerting you to events using sounds, the hearing challenged can have Windows 7 provide visual cues. For the hearing impaired, Windows can provide a strong visual cue rather than a ringing or [more…]
For Seniors: Make Text on Your Laptop Larger
With today's high-resolution monitors, images are crisp but text is small. If you have difficulty reading text and other items on your monitor, you can make them larger. If you use an older monitor, or [more…]
For Seniors: Set Up Speech Recognition on a Laptop
If typing is challenging on your laptop, you can set up Windows for speech recognition and speak commands instead. While setting up Speech Recognition on your laptop, you train Windows to understand your [more…]
For Seniors: Make Your Laptop Keyboard Easier to Use
Laptop keyboards are often difficult to type on. Through its Ease of Access Center, Windows 7 lets you modify how you interact with your keyboard, in order to make it easier to avoid problems such as accidental [more…]
For Seniors: Display a Laptop's Onscreen Keyboard
Through its Ease of Access Center, Windows offers an onscreen keyboard you use in place of a laptop's smaller physical keyboard. Click the onscreen keyboard's [more…]
For Seniors: Adjust a Laptop's Keyboard Repeat Rates
Laptop keyboards are often difficult to type on. Windows 7 lets you modify how you interact with your keyboard, making it easier to avoid problems such as accidental or multiple keypresses. If you have [more…]
For Seniors: Connect a Printer to Your Laptop
Connect a printer to your laptop whenever you need to print out a document or photo. To use a printer with your laptop, you have to install software — called a printer driver — and tell your laptop how [more…]
