Windows 7 - Properties and the Right-Click

Ever since Windows 95, a common theme that unites items within Windows is the aspect called properties. Properties are pervasive throughout Windows 9x, NT 4, 2000, XP, Vista, and now Windows 7. The Properties dialog boxes provide a means of making changes to the behavior, appearance, security level, ownership, and other aspects of objects throughout the OS. Object properties apply to everything from individual files to folders, printers, peripherals, screen appearance, the computer itself, or a network or workgroup. All these items have a Properties dialog box that enables you to easily change various settings. For example, you might want to alter whether a printer is the default printer or whether a folder on your hard disk is shared for use by co-workers on the LAN.

Properties dialog boxes are very useful and often serve as shortcuts for modifying settings that otherwise would take you into the Control Panel or through some other circuitous route. With some document files (for example, Word files), you can examine many settings that apply to the file, such as the creation date, author, editing history, and so forth.

Here are some typical uses of right-click context menus:
• Sharing a folder on the network
• Changing the name of your hard disk and checking its free space
• Changing a program’s icon
• Creating a new folder
• Setting the desktop’s colors, background, screen saver, and so on
• Adjusting the date and time of the clock quickly
• Closing an application
• Displaying a font’s technical details
• Renaming an object

As an example of the right-click, simply get to an empty place on the desktop and right-click on it. Right by the cursor, you’ll see a menu. Notice that you can slide your cursor up and down the menu to make choices. Choose Personalize down at the bottom of the list. You’ll see the Personalization settings for your desktop (as well as general video display, screen saver, and other related items). By the way, many menus (Start, menu bar, pop-up, and so on) have commands with a small arrow to one side. If you highlight one of these commands, a submenu flies out—hence, the term flyout menu.

If you want to use Windows most efficiently, make a habit of right-clicking on objects to see what pops up. You might be surprised to see how much time you save with the resulting shortcuts.

Source of Information : QUE Microsoft Windows in Depth (09-2009)