Facebook (1

How it Came to be Facebook

The explosive phenomenon known as Facebook is not the product of some huge software company. In fact, it was created by a college student! In 2004, Harvard student Mark Zuckerburg had an idea to start a website based upon the paper "face book" that professors receive at the beginning of the year to help them identify new students. Zuckerburg created an online version of this, added various ways for users to communicate, and before he knew it almost the entire Harvard student body had joined what he named Thefacebook.com.

In its formative years, it was very popular with universities and in 2005 became Facebook. With the increase in popularity, Mark and a friend decided to drop out of school in order to work on Facebook full time. They opened the site up to high schools, and then later to several companies. By 2006, it was available to anyone over the age of 13 with a valid email address. As of 2009 it is considered the most popular social networking site in the world.

Interesting Facts

• If there were a Facebook nation, it would be the world's 6th largest country!
• Everyday half a million people join Facebook.
• The fastest growing group on Facebook is people over the age of 30.
• Facebook is the #1 photo sharing site in the world.

Leraning Facebook

What is Facebook?

Facebook is a hugely popular social networking site that allows you to make connections, share interests and join groups. As you may have heard, Facebook is becoming more open and social and impacting our experience of the web in ways we had not dreamed of.

Facebook is the largest social networking site in the world with over 400 million users, 70% of which reside outside of the USA. The average user interacts with approximately 130 Friends on their page. So what makes so many people join? We'll leave that up to you to decide after you explore the basics of what Facebook is all about.

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Conclusion

Security and maintenance are ongoing processes, so you should revisit these tools from time to time. Try to deal with Action Center messages as quickly as possible, and even if you don't have any messages you can always explore the troubleshooters if your computer is running slowly or if something isn't right. Spending a little bit of time on security and maintenance can help you get the most out of your computer, and it can even save you time in the long run by helping to prevent serious problems.

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Recovering your Computer's Settings with System Restore

What is System Restore?

Programs that you install can make changes to your system settings, and occasionally this can cause problems with your computer. System Restore is often the easiest way to fix these problems. System Restore allows you to "rewind" your system settings to an earlier point in time, called a restore point. Keep in mind, this will not erase your recent documents, and it cannot be used to recover lost documents or other files. However, it may uninstall recent programs and drivers.

Running System Restore

1. Click Recovery at the bottom of the Action Center.

Access Recovery
2. Click Open System Restore.
3. Follow the instructions on the screen.
4. You will be asked to select a restore point. If you've just installed a program that seems to be causing problems, you will probably want to restore your system to the point just before that program was installed.
Choose a system restore point

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Windows 7 Troubleshooting

Not all computer problems will be shown in the Action Center. For example, you may be having trouble with a particular program or device, or with connecting to the internet. For these types of problems, you will want to view the Troubleshooting options.

• To get there, click Troubleshooting at the bottom of the Action Center pane.

Access Troubleshooting

In the Troubleshooting pane you will see a number of programs called troubleshooters, which help you identify and fix problems with your software and hardware.

Use the interactive below to see information about some useful troubleshooters. Note that your computer may have a slightly different list of troubleshooters.

Windows 7 Troubleshooting

Not all computer problems will be shown in the Action Center. For example, you may be having trouble with a particular program or device, or with connecting to the internet. For these types of problems, you will want to view the Troubleshooting options.

• To get there, click Troubleshooting at the bottom of the Action Center pane.

Access Troubleshooting

In the Troubleshooting pane you will see a number of programs called troubleshooters, which help you identify and fix problems with your software and hardware.

Use the interactive below to see information about some useful troubleshooters. Note that your computer may have a slightly different list of troubleshooters.

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Changing Your User Account Control Settings

What is User Account Control?

User Account Control warns you when a program or user is trying to change your computer's settings. It puts a temporary lock on your computer until you confirm that you want to allow the changes. This helps to protect your computer from malicious software. When it was introduced in Windows Vista, many users found that it generated too many disruptive pop-up warnings. Windows 7 now lets the user decide how often they will receive those warnings.

To Change Your User Account Control Settings:

1. Open the Action Center.
2. Click Change User Account Control settings.

Change User Account Control Settings
3. Use the slider to choose the level of protection you want from User Account Control. It is recommended that you use one of the top two settings. The other two should only be used in special circumstances. It may be best to choose the highest setting and if you end up getting too many pop-ups, you can always lower it to the second setting.

Adjust how you receive notification messages

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What is the Action Center?

The Action Center is a centralized place to view Security and Maintenance messages, and it also makes it easy to find and fix problems with your computer.

Learn more about how to use the Action Center in this video.

Using the Action Center:

1. To open the Action Center, click on the small flag icon on the taskbar.
2. Review the messages.
3. Click Open Action Center to respond to messages.

If you have any important messages, the flag icon on the taskbar will display a red "X" symbol.

Watch the video (3:02). Need help?

Open the Action Center

Another way to access the Action Center is:

1. Click Start.
2. Go to the Control Panel.
3. Click Review Your Computer's Status under System and Security.

Fixing problems using the Action Center:

Your messages are displayed in the Action Center pane. Important messages will have a red bar, and less important ones will have a yellow bar. If a security or maintenance issue has a solution, there will be a button on the right side of the message.

Some messages are just notifications and do not indicate a problem with your computer. Those messages will not include a solution button, but they may still have important information or instructions.

• To fix a problem, click the (solution) button and follow the directions on the screen. When you are done, the message will disappear from the Action Center.

Respond to messages in the Action Center

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Security and Maintenance With the Action Center

Security and Maintenance are important with any computer, and Windows 7 has made a number of improvements that make it easier than ever to keep your computer in good shape.

In this lesson, you will learn how to use the Action Center, User Account Control Settings, and Troubleshooting to keep your computer running as smoothly as possible. You will also learn how to recover your system settings with System Restore to fix more serious issues.

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Conclusion

This concludes our lesson on Search and Libraries. As previously mentioned, you determine what content goes into your Libraries. You may decide to use the default libraries or create your own. Either way, you will need to take the time to move folders into the Libraries you desire.

You can still continue to access your files in the classic way of sorting through tiered stacks, but you will not be able to take advantage of the convenience of the Search function. It's a new way of accessing your files and may take some customization to work as effectively as you wish. Take some time to reconsider your filing system and how you would like to access your files.

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Setting Up Your Libraries

You decide what folders and content to include in your Libraries.

Create your own Library.

1. Select New Library in the tool bar or right click on Libraries in the Navigation pane.
2. Select New and then Libraries.
   Create a new Library

Customize your Libraries

1. Right click and select Properties.
2. Select Optimize and choose one of the following:
   • General Items, Documents, Music, Pictures, Video.
   Select item type for new Library
3. The new Library will prompt you to add Folders.

Add folders to existing Libraries.

1. Select the Folder from the Navigation pane.
2. Click on the Include in Library menu in the Tool Bar
3. Select the desired Library.

Add files to new Library

You may also copy Folders from the Navigation pane directly into the Libraries pane based on preference.

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A New Approach to Accessing Content

Libraries are collections of content defined by the user. They are the new "entry point" for accessing your files. Therefore, when Saving items, Windows 7 will direct you to Libraries. Libraries have automatic default save folders. Unless specified, your content will be saved in the default folder of the Library it matches.

• You can change the default save folder by selecting Locations in the Tool Bar.

Automatic default save

You are not required to save or access your content through Libraries. The Navigation pane gives you access to Computer where your folders and drives are stored. You may still sort through the tiered stacks of folders in the classic way to save and access content.

Save to another location

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Using Search

1. Locate the Search bar at the top right corner of the Windows Explorer pane.
2. Start typing a file name or keyword.
3. Search will start displaying matching items even before you finish typing.
   How to use the Desktop Search

Search Options and Features

Search and Libraries have a few features that assist with identifying and arranging items. Tags can be added to certain items in order to improve Search results. You can also rate and arrange content, like Pictures and Music, in the same manner. The Tag or Rating options are included in the Details pane as shown below.

Add tags to certain files

Various Search Filters can be applied to assist with finding content or narrowing a Search. Depending on the Library, Search Filters might include Type, Date Modified, Tag, Authors, etc. Below is an example of the Search Filter in the Video Library.

Select a Search filter option

"Date created" Search filter

For even more Search options, click on the Organize button and select Search and folder options.

Searching from the Start Menu

The Windows Explorer pane is not the only place you can access Search and Libraries. You will find a Search bar in the Start Menu, along with one click access to popular Libraries.

Conduct a Search from the Start Menu

Open popular Libraries from the Start Menu

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Windows Explorer Pane

Understanding the Windows Explorer pane will help you navigate through your content and work with your files and folders in an easy manner.

• Open the Windows Explorer icon on the Taskbar to view the pane.

Windows Explorer icon

Instructions: Click on the numbers in the interactive to learn more about the Windows Explorer pane.

• Move through your content by selecting folders, clicking on the Back and Forward buttons or by clicking on headings in the Address bar.
• Preview files by selecting the Show the Preview pane button.

Change the view of the content in your folders.

You have several options for how you may view content in your folders. For example, you may prefer seeing "Details" when viewing file documents and "Extra Large Icons" when viewing pictures.

• To change the view, select the View button and choose your preference.

Change view of items in folders

Change how your content is arranged.

Depending on the Library, you may Arrange content by month, day, rating, etc.

• Select the Arrange by button and choose your preference.

Change how items are arranged

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What are Libraries?

Most users access their files through "My Documents", the "C" drive, or from other locations like a server or back up drive. You are likely accustomed to sorting through tiered stacks of folders to get to your content. This process can be time consuming, especially if you cannot remember where an item is filed. Microsoft wanted to make "finding your stuff" easier, so they developed Libraries.

Libraries are collections of your stored content that can be easily accessed through the Desktop Search function. Libraries do not replace your folders, they simply house them in a single collection. When files are placed in a Library, their properties are indexed by the Search function. This indexing makes accessing files in Search quick and easy.

Learn more about Search and Libraries in this video.

Watch the video (2:50). Need help?

There are four default Libraries in Windows 7: Documents, Pictures, Music and Videos. Later in this lesson, we will also show you how to create Libraries of your own.

Default Libraries

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Finding Your Files in Search and Libraries

At this point, you are likely ready to start organizing and accessing your files and content. Windows 7 has developed Search and Libraries to make it easier to find, maneuver and customize your files.

In this lesson, we will show you how to access your content through Search and Libraries. In addition, we will highlight the features that offer customization and convenience including Tagging, Search Filters, Creating Libraries and more.

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Conclusion

This concludes our lesson on User Accounts and Parental Controls. You can now create new accounts whenever you want, and each user will be able to easily access their files and customize the appearance of Windows 7 while they're logged onto their account.

If you're using Parental Controls, take the time to familiarize yourself with the different controls that are offered. Windows 7 gives you a lot of flexibility when using Parental Controls, so you can apply them with as much or as little detail as you want.

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Changing Your Parental Controls Settings

Time Limits

The Time limits settings allow you to control when your child can use the computer. Click and drag from any box to allow or block a section of time. If you want, you can set different time limits on different days. For example, you may want to allow more computer use on weekends.

Time limits

Games

The Games settings allow you to select which game ratings to allow, and you can also allow or block specific games. First you'll have to click Yes to allow your child to play games, then you can change your Games settings.

Games settings

Here we have selected "Everyone" as the highest rating allowed. That means the child can play games rated "Everyone" OR "Early Childhood."

Game ratings

Allow and Block Specific Programs

Allow and block specific programs controls which non-game programs your child can use. By default, your child can use all non-game programs. But there may be some programs you don't want your child to use like a financial or email program. Here's how to block specific programs:

1. Click Will Jr can only use the programs I allow.
2. Click Check All.
3. Uncheck the programs you want to block.

Non-game programs

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Using Parental Controls

Windows 7 offers various Parental Controls to help you control the types of content that your children can access. You can place parental controls on any Standard account, and each account can have different settings. If you have more than one child, each child can have access to different types of content, and you can always change the Parental Controls settings as your child gets older.

Learn more about Parential Controls in this video.

Watch the video (2:34). Need help?

Before You Set Up Parental Controls

You'll need to create an account for your child, if you haven't already. It should be a Standard account; you can't apply Parental Controls to an Administrator account.

When you're setting up Parental Controls, it doesn't matter which account you're logged into, but if you're logged into a Standard account, then you'll need to provide an Administrator password before making any changes.

Make sure that your child does not know your Administrator password, as it would allow them to change or disable Parental Controls for any user account.

Setting up Parental Controls

1. Go to your Control Panel from the Start Menu.
2. Click Set up parental controls for any user.
   Getting to Parental Controls
3. Click on any Standard Account.
   Choose an account
4. Click On to turn Parental Controls on.
   Parental Controls main page
5. Now you can click Time limits, Games or Allow and block specific programs to set the Parental Controls. We'll explore each of these on the next page.

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Changing an Account's Settings

Once you've created a new account, you may want to add a password or make other changes to the account's settings.

Creating a Password

1. From the Manage Accounts pane, click the account name or picture.
   Edit an account
2. Click Create a password.
   Create a password
3. Type a password in the New password field and retype it in the Confirm new password field.
   Type a password and hint
4. If you want, you can type a password hint to help you remember your password.
5. Click Create password.
6. To go back to the Manage Accounts pane, click Manage another account.

Account passwords are case sensitive, which means that capital and lowercase letters are treated as different characters. For example, aBc1 is not the same as abc1.

Changing Your Account Picture

You can also change the picture for any account. This picture appears next to the account name and helps you easily identify the account.

1. From the Manage Accounts pane, click the account name or picture.
2. Click Change the picture.
   Change the picture
3. Select a picture, or click Browse for more pictures to select one of your own.
   Account pictures
4. Click Change Picture

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Setting Up Multiple User Accounts

Why should you have multiple user accounts?

If you wanted to, you could have a single account on your computer that everybody could use. But having multiple accounts has some advantages. If each user has their own account, then they'll have their own desktop where they can organize their own files and folders. They'll also be able to choose their own desktop background, along with other personalization features. In addition, parents will be able to set Parental Controls for each child's account.

Standard vs. Administrator Accounts

Before you start making new user accounts, it's important to understand the two types of accounts:

• Standard: Standard accounts are the basic accounts you use for normal, everyday tasks. As a Standard user, you can do just about anything you would need to do, such as running software or personalizing your desktop. Also, Parental Controls can be placed on Standard accounts.
• Administrator: Administrator accounts are special accounts used for making certain changes to system settings or managing other people's accounts. They have full access to every setting on the computer. Every computer will have at least one Administrator account.

So as you can see, Administrator accounts are more powerful. But for the same reason, Standard accounts are safer, so they are generally better for everyday use. In fact, you can make Administrator-level changes while logged into a Standard account; you will just need to provide an Administrator password when making the changes.

Getting to Your User Accounts

1. Go to your Control Panel from the Start Menu.
2. Click Add or remove user accounts.
   Getting to your user accounts
3. This is the Manage Accounts pane. You will see all of the user accounts here, and you can add more accounts or manage existing ones.
   The Manage Accounts pane

To create a new account:

1. From the Manage Accounts pane, click Create a new account.
2. Type an account name.
   Creating an account
3. Select Standard user or Administrator.
4. Click Create Account.