Welcome back. In this final lesson, you'll take a look at some of the exciting multimedia and family-friendly features in Windows Vista Home Premium. You'll see how Windows makes it easy to manage your photos, music, and video clips, and to protect your household data and organize activities and schedules.

Windows Media Player 11 comes with Windows Vista -- on all versions except those sold in some parts of Europe. Windows Media Player enables you to play music CDs, rip music (copy music from audio CDs to your PC), burn CDs (copy music from your PC to audio CDs), and synchronize music with portable music players. With Windows Media Player, you can also play DVD movies and video clips in a variety of formats, and download licensed content from online music and video stores.

To start Windows Media Player, select Start > All Programs > Windows Media Player. Windows Media Player 11 has two sets of menus: the standard set (black text on gray bar) and the navigation bar (white text on black bar). In earlier versions of Windows Media Player, the items on the navigation bar were tabs; the navigation bar is simply a variation on that theme. Each tab is also a button that opens a menu, as shown in Figure 4-1.

Figure 4-1: The Windows Media Player 11 interface.

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From Windows Media Player, you can do the following:

• Play an audio CD: Insert an audio CD, and the AutoPlay dialog box opens, as shown in Figure 4-2. Click Play audio CD using Windows Media Player. It starts playing automatically. On the Now Playing tab in Windows Media Player, you can see the tracks on the CD and double-click one to jump to it.

If you have other players installed, they also appear in the AutoPlay dialog box list. For example, in Figure 4-2, you could also play the CD using Windows Media Center or Musicmatch Jukebox. Windows Media Center is covered later in this lesson.

Figure 4-2: When you insert an audio CD, AutoPlay asks you what to do with it.

• Rip a CD: Insert an audio CD, and in the AutoPlay dialog box, click Rip music from CD using Windows Media Player.
• Play digital music clips: Clips already ripped to your PC can be played from the Library tab. Just double-click the clip you want to play, or create a playlist.
• Play a DVD movie: Insert the DVD. If Windows Media Player is set up to be the default player for DVDs, it starts playing there automatically. If not, select the Play menu, and then select DVD,VCD, or CD Audio.
• Burn an audio CD: Insert a blank audio CD, click the Burn tab, and then drag-and-drop files from your library to the blank CD.
• Synchronize with a portable digital music player: Connect your player to your PC, and then click the Sync tab and follow the prompts there.

Next, learn how to use Windows Media Center.

Windows Media Center is a multimedia utility that provides a single point of entry for viewing photos, recording TV shows (if you have a TV tuner card in your PC), watching DVD movies, and more. It has some features in common with Windows Media Player; however, it is in some ways more full-featured. For example, it also supports photo viewing, which Media Player does not.

To start Windows Media Center, select Start > All Programs > Windows Media Center. The first time you run it, a Welcome screen walks you through a guided setup. After you've been through that process once, the main Windows Media Center screen appears, similar to Figure 4-3.

Figure 4-3: Windows Media Center provides a user-friendly interface for several types of content.

The Windows Media Center interface is different from that of most Windows programs, and you might need some extra time to get used to it. After you select an action, the screen changes and includes some common elements, regardless of whether you chose to play a CD or DVD, record a TV program, and so on. As you look at the interface, the left-pointing arrow button takes you back to the previous screen, and the green Start button in the upper-left corner returns you to the main window, from which you select a type of content to work with. To exit Windows Media Center, click the Close (X) button in the upper-right corner.

If you have a TV tuner card, you can set up Windows Media Center to work as a digital video recorder, much like a TiVo. Windows Media Center can record programs that you can then watch later on your PC monitor. Or, if your TV tuner card has a TV Out port on it, you can connect an actual television to it and watch the recorded programs there.

Windows Media Center also accesses the same music library as with Windows Media Player, and you can browse and play your music collection from there.

You can also browse your photo collections (stored in the Pictures folder and elsewhere) via the Windows Media Center. As shown in Figure 4-4, you can browse the photos by thumbnail, or you can click play slide show to see all the photos in a certain location one by one.

Figure 4-4: Browsing and displaying photos.

To modify or print a picture, right-click a picture and then select Picture Details from the shortcut menu. The picture details screen appears, as shown in Figure 4-5. Here you can rotate the picture, apply a touch-up modification to it (like increasing the contrast), or print it.

Figure 4-5: You can work with individual photos on the picture details screen.

There's much more you can do with Windows Media Center. Take some time to explore the menus and options to learn all about this exciting entertainment command center. Next, learn how to organize and manage your photos and video clips.

For many families, one of the primary reasons to have a PC is to manage and organize their collection of digital "memories" -- that is, digital photos and home video clips. Windows Vista provides several tools for working with your family's unique digital content.

Scanning Photos with Windows Fax and Scan

If you have photos that aren't in digital format yet, such as photos you took with a film camera, you might want to digitize them (that is, convert them to digital format) using a scanner. A scanner is like a copier; it has a glass bed on which you place the photo you want scanned. You issue a command in the operating system to tell the scanner to scan the glass's content, and then save it to a digital file on your hard disk.

Most scanners come with their own proprietary interface software; however, you might prefer to use Windows Vista's scanning application -- Windows Fax and Scan. To run it, select Start > All Programs > Windows Fax and Scan. In the Windows Fax and Scan window, you can click New Scan to scan a photo from any supported scanner connected to your PC.

Importing Photos from a Digital Camera

When you connect a digital camera to your Windows Vista PC, the AutoPlay dialog box opens. From here you can choose to do the following:

• Import pictures using Windows: This copies the pictures to your Pictures folder automatically and displays them in the Windows Photo Gallery application, as in Figure 4-6. The imported pictures are stored in your Pictures folder, in a subfolder named with today's date and an optional tag (which you're prompted to enter).

Figure 4-6: Windows Photo Gallery shows the imported pictures.

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• View pictures using Windows: This opens the first picture -- or the currently selected picture -- in Windows Photo Gallery and displays it individually, as shown in Figure 4-7. You can click Import to Gallery for that picture, or you can click the Next button (the right-pointing arrow) to move to the next picture without importing.

Figure 4-7: Each picture appears individually in Windows Photo Gallery.

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• View pictures using Windows Media Center: This opens the pictures in Windows Media Center, which was covered previously in this lesson.

The next section provides details for creating your own movies. Read on.

In addition to working with still photos, you can also create your own movies by assembling photos, video clips, sound clips, and more, and then create your own video DVDs that you can watch on any TV -- no computer required.

Creating Movies with Windows Movie Maker

Windows Movie Maker has been around for several versions of Windows; however, it just keeps getting better. The version in Windows Vista is much easier to use and more feature-rich than any version before it. Movie Maker enables you to create your own multimedia shows using your home videos, still photos, music soundtracks, recorded voice clips, and more.

To start Windows Movie Maker, select Start > All Programs > Windows Movie Maker. Click Import Media to start importing the content into the program. After you've imported some content, drag the clip(s) onto the Storyboard area at the bottom of the screen, as shown in Figure 4-8. Test the result by clicking the Play button (blue circle with the right-pointing arrow in it).

Figure 4-8: Windows Movie Maker enables you to assemble video clips, pictures, and sound into your own movie creations.

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When you're satisfied with the result, select File > Publish Movie to save it. A Publish Movie dialog box opens. From there you can publish it to your computer, a DVD (for playback on a noncomputer DVD player, such as one attached to a TV), a recordable CD, an e-mail, or a digital video camera.

Burning Movies and Pictures to DVD with Windows DVD Maker

When you watch a DVD movie on a TV, a friendly menu usually appears from which you can choose among the various content on that DVD. You can create your own TV-compatible DVD discs using Windows Vista's Windows DVD Maker utility, including creating a menu system.

To start the utility, select Start > All Programs > Windows DVD Maker. On the opening screen, click Choose Photos and Videos, and then click Add items to add photos or videos to the DVD layout, as shown in Figure 4-9. Any videos you add will be independent items on the DVD; any photos you add will be part of a slide show.

Figure 4-9: Selecting the content to appear on the DVD you want to create.

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Next, you're prompted to create the menu and burn the disc. You can select among several menu styles, change the menu text, and more, as shown in Figure 4-10. After selecting a menu style, click Burn and then follow the prompts to burn to a blank writeable DVD.

You must have a writeable DVD drive in your system.

Figure 4-10: Creating a menu system for the DVD.

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Next, learn about the gaming features in Vista.

Kids like to play games; that's a fact of life, right? Windows Vista makes it easier than ever for your kids to find and play their games, without interfering with the parents' applications or files. Vista also has utilities for helping you optimize your system's performance for gaming.

Using the Games Folder

The Games submenu on the Start menu (select Start > All Programs > Games) contains shortcuts for the games that come with Vista; however, you can place shortcuts there for other games that you install as well. That way, all the games are in one place, where kids (and you) can easily find them. To make this process even easier, the Games folder also has a shortcut on the top level of the Start menu (select Start > Games). This opens a window that shows the contents of the Games submenu and window, as shown in Figure 4-11.

Figure 4-11: Browse the installed games from the Games folder.

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Optimizing the System for Game Performance

Windows Vista offers system performance ratings that can let you know how well your hardware can run Vista and what you can do to improve it. To see this in action, follow these steps:

1. In the Control Panel, click System and Maintenance.
2. Click Performance Information and Tools.
3. Note the performance information that appears.

In Figure 4-12, for example, the lowest score is Graphics (Desktop performance for Windows Aero). Gaming graphics has a higher score than the base graphics; however, graphics are still the lowest ratings for this system. This indicates that to achieve better gaming performance, this system could benefit from a better display adapter.

Figure 4-12: Evaluating system performance.

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After installing new hardware, recheck your system to update its score. To do so, click Update my score in the Rate and improve your computer's performance screen and follow the prompts.

Configuring a Game Controller

Game controllers include joysticks, gaming pads, and other input devices specifically designed for gaming. Windows Vista has a special application for configuring them. To launch it, open the Control Panel, click Hardware and Sound, and then click Game Controllers.

Make sure the game controllers are plugged into a USB (universal serial bus) port so Windows can recognize them.

Next, learn how to set parental controls to filter Web content, limit computer usage, and more.

Earlier versions of Windows had rudimentary parental controls via Windows Internet Explorer; however, Windows Vista goes several steps beyond that, offering the following:

• A Web filter that enables you to control what Web sites and downloads can be accessed
• Computer usage limits on a per-user basis, which enables you to let a certain user log on only during certain times
• Game restrictions that prevent certain users from playing certain games
• Program restrictions that allow or block any program on your computer from a certain user
• Activity reporting that enables you to see what a user has been doing on the PC

To configure parental controls, perform the following:

1. Set up a user account for each person for whom you want to specify separate limitations, and then assign passwords to each account. (This prevents one user from accessing another user's account and changing content they shouldn't.) To do this, use the User Accounts and Family Safety section of the Control Panel.
2. From Control Panel Home, under User Accounts and Family Safety, click Set up parental controls for any user.
3. Select the user for who you want to set restrictions. A configuration screen appears for that user, similar to Figure 4-13.

Figure 4-13: Configuring parental controls.

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4. Under Parental Controls, click On, enforce current settings.
5. Under Activity Reporting, click On, collect information about computer usage.
6. For each of the Windows Settings, click the hyperlink and then configure the setting.
7. Click OK.

To view the activity report for a user, repeat steps 1 through 3 in the preceding list, and then click View activity reports. The activity report tells you the top 10 Web sites that the user visited, the most recent 10 Web sites that were blocked from the user, any Web overrides and file downloads, which applications were run, e-mail and instant messaging activities, and more.

The next section covers transferring data from one computer to another and synchronizing music files with a portable music player.

Many households have more than one computer, and moving data between them can become an issue. For example, you might have a desktop PC for the entire family to use, a notebook computer you take to work, and a portable music player you listen to at the gym. Windows Vista enables you to share data easily among them.

Using Windows Easy Transfer to Set Up a New PC

Windows Easy Transfer is a utility that copies the entire collection of your personal data from one PC to another, such as when you get a new PC and you want to move your documents and settings to it. To run it, select Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Windows Easy Transfer. Then, just work through the prompts. (Figure 4-14 shows the opening screen of the process.) This utility copies the needed files to a removable disk or network location; then you run the same utility on the new PC to complete the process.

Figure 4-14: The initial Windows Easy Transfer screen.

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Synching Files with Music Devices

Synchronization (also known as sync) is the process of keeping the contents of two locations matched with each other. The business versions of Windows Vista enable you to synchronize files between PCs via a feature called Offline Files. Windows Vista Home Premium doesn't have that feature; however, it does enable you to synchronize with media devices, such as portable music players.

You can create a synchronization partnership with a device by following these steps:

1. Select Start > All Programs > Accessories > Sync Center.
2. Attach the portable device to your PC and power it on.
3. In the Tasks list on the left side of the Sync Center window, click Set up new sync partnerships.
4. Select the device to add to the list.
5. On the toolbar, click Set Up. This establishes the partnership and performs the first sync, such as launching Windows Media Player to sync song files. A dialog box from that application might prompt you to specify what information to sync. Make your choices, and then click Finish.
6. Click View sync partnerships. You should see the newly listed partnership for the device.

To start syncing immediately, select your device in the list of sync partnerships, and then click Sync on the toolbar.

You can also synchronize via Windows Media Player; a Sync tab appears in that application, and you can use it to specify certain songs to copy over to your player.

Next, learn how to back up data files.

The Backup utility in Windows Vista makes it easy to back up and restore your important data files. If you ever have a system problem that causes you to lose some or all of your data, you can easily restore it from your backup.

Backing up files is not difficult, but it's easy in the hustle and bustle of life to forget to do it. Windows Vista helps by automating the backup process. You go through the setup once, and from then on the backup occurs on a schedule.

To set up recurring automatic file backups, perform the following:

1. Select Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Backup Status and Configuration.
2. Click Set up automatic file backup.

If this option has already been run on your PC, the option won't appear; instead select Change backup settings.

3. Choose where to store the backup, such as:

On a hard disk, CD, or DVD: Click this option and then open the drop-down list and select from the available drives.

You can't back up directly to a tape backup drive using the Vista version of Backup. Earlier versions of Windows had backup programs that did back up to tape.

On a network: Click this option and then click Browse to open the Browse for Folder dialog box. Navigate to the desired folder, click OK, and then click Next.

4. Select which disks to include in the backup. The disk on which Windows resides is automatically chosen; other hard disks are optional. Click Next.
5. Check or clear the checkboxes for the types of files to be backed up, as shown in Figure 4-15.

Figure 4-15: Selecting the types of files to back up.

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6. Specify how often you want the backup to occur, and what day and time.
7. Click Save settings and start backup.

If you're backing up to CD or DVD and backing up more files than will fit on a single disc, you'll be prompted to insert a new blank disc. Therefore, the backup cannot run completely unattended unless the entire backup will fit on one disc, or unless you're backing up to a hard disk or network location with enough space for it.

After you set up the backup and enable it to begin running for the first time, as in the preceding steps, it runs in the background. You can continue working with Windows normally as the backup runs. The Backup Status area in the Backup Status and Configuration window reports that the backup is in progress; you can stop the backup by clicking stop this backup, if needed. For example, if you find that the backup is slowing down system performance to an unacceptable level while completing an important task, stop the backup and start it again later.

Restoring Files

If you need to restore one file from your backup, multiple files, or even all the files, you can easily do so with the Restore Files feature in the Backup Status and Configuration window. Just open the Backup Status and Configuration window, click the Restore icon, and then follow the prompts to select the backup and the folders and files you want to restore.

Next, find out how Windows Calendar and Windows Contacts can help you organize your family's activities.

Family households can be hectic environments, with each person hurrying off to their activities and meetings. There are many applications available for managing schedules and contact information, such as Microsoft Outlook, ACT!, and Lotus Notes, but such programs aren't free, and they contain more features than the average household needs anyway.

Windows Vista comes with two great, family-friendly programs included for managing your schedule and contact information: Windows Calendar and Windows Contacts.

Using Windows Calendar

With Windows Calendar, each person in your family can have his or her own individual calendar, and you can view other people's calendars via your home network. To start the program, select Start > All Programs > Windows Calendar.

Figure 4-16 shows Windows Calendar with a one-hour dog training class set up for 10:00 a.m. Notice that the left pane shows the big-picture month-long calendar, the center pane shows the current date's hour-by-hour schedule, and the right pane shows the details about the selected event.

Figure 4-16: Windows Calendar keeps track of important events and meetings.

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To share your calendar, select Share > Publish. Fill in the information in the Publish Calendar window, as shown in Figure 4-17. The location in which to publish the calendar can be a Web server (if you have access to one), your local hard disk (useful primarily if that location is also accessible to others who might want to see your calendar), or to a folder on your LAN's (local area network's) shared file area.

The C:\Users\Public folder is a good option for publishing a calendar that should be available to everyone who uses the computer.

Figure 4-17: Publish your calendar so that others may access it.

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To see someone else's calendar, subscribe to it with the Share > Subscribe command. You must know the full path and name of the calendar to which to subscribe. For example, Bob saved his calendar to C:\Users\Public. Another user subscribing to his calendar would enter C:\Users\Public\Bob's Calendar.ics. You can also subscribe to calendars on the Internet by entering the URL to the calendar.

Using Windows Contacts

Windows Contacts is not really an application; rather, it's a folder located at C:\Users\username\Contacts, where username is the name of the account that's currently logged on to Windows. To view this folder, select Start > All Programs > Windows Contacts.

This folder contains a separate file, with a .contact extension, for each user, as shown in Figure 4-18.

Figure 4-18: Use Windows Contacts to browse for and view contact information.

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To view a contact's details, double-click the username.contact file. The properties dialog box that opens has multiple tabs, as shown in Figure 4-19. Click each tab to move among them and enter or edit information.

Figure 4-19: You can view and edit a contact's details in the properties dialog box.

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To create a new contact, select File > New > Contact, complete the form that appears, and then click OK. To delete a contact, select it and press Delete, the same as you would with any file.

Moving On

Congratulations on finishing the course! Now you have a good idea of what Windows Vista offers you and your family, and especially the Home Basic and Home Premium editions. Don't forget to do the assignment and take the quiz, and then share final questions and comments with your classmates and instructor on the Message Board. See you there.