This article provides a drive-by tour of Windows Vista. You’ll turn on your computer, start Windows, and spend a few minutes gawking at Vista’s various neighborhoods: the desktop, the taskbar, the Start menu, and the environmentally correct (and compassionate) Recycle Bin. The programs you’re using hang out on the Windows desktop (a fancy word for the Windows background). The taskbar serves as a head turner, letting you move from one program to another. To invite yet more programs onto the desktop, drop by the Start menu: It’s full of push buttons that let you add other programs to the mix. Want to get rid of something? Dump it into the Recycle Bin, where it either fades away or, if necessary, can be safely revived. Being Welcomed to the World of Windows Vista Starting Windows Vista is as easy as turning on your computer — Windows Vista leaps onto the screen automatically with a futuristic flourish. But before you can start working, Windows Vista may throw you a fastball with its first screen: Windows wants you to log on, by clicking your name. I’ve customized my Welcome screen. Yours will look different. If you don’t see a username listed for you on the Welcome screen, then you have three options:

- If you just bought the computer, use the account named Administrator. Designed to give the owner full power over the computer, the Administrator account user can set up new accounts for new users, install programs, burn CDs, start an Internet connection, and access all the files on the computer — even those of other users. Windows Vista needs at least one person to act as administrator, even if your computer isn’t connected to other computers.

- Use the Guest account. Designed for household visitors, this account lets guests, such as the babysitter or visiting relatives, use the computer temporarily.

- No Guest account and no user? Then find out who owns the computer and beg that person to set up a username for you, where I explain how to set up a user account.) Don’t want to log on at the Welcome screen? These hidden Welcome screen buttons control other options:

- The little blue button in the screen’s bottom-left corner, and the margin, customizes Windows Vista for people with physical challenges in hearing, sight, or manual dexterity, all covered in Article 11. If you push this button by mistake, press Cancel to remove the option menu from your screen without changing any settings.

- To turn off your PC from this sparse opening screen, click the little red button in the screen’s bottom-right corner. (If you’ve accidentally clicked it and turned off your PC, don’t panic. Press your PC’s power button, and your PC will return to this screen.)

- Click the little arrow next to the red button, and Vista will end your session by either going to sleep, turning off your PC, or restarting — options all explained at this article’s end. Windows Vista dashes back to this Welcome screen whenever you haven’t touched your PC for ten minutes. To stop this scurrying, right-click on the desktop and choose Personalize. Choose Screen Saver and remove the check mark next to the On Resume, Display Logon Screen option. Then you’ll have to log on only when you start up Windows — not throughout the day. Fiddling around with user accounts Windows Vista allows several people to work on the same computer, yet it keeps everybody’s work separate. To do that, it needs to know who’s currently sitting in front of the keyboard. When you log on — introduce yourself — by clicking your username , Windows Vista presents your personalized desktop, ready for you to make your own personalized mess. When you’re through working or just feel like taking a break, log off (explained at this article’s end) so that somebody else can use the computer. Later, when you log back on, your messy desktop will be waiting for you. Although you may turn your desktop into a mess, it’s your own mess. When you return to the computer, your letters will be just as you saved them. Jerry hasn’t accidentally deleted your files or folders while playing Widget Squash. Tina’s desktop contains links to her favorite Web sites. And all of Jim’s John Coltrane MP3s stay in his own personalized Music folder.

Of course, the first big question boils down to this: How do you customize the picture next to your username? After you’ve logged on, open the Start menu and click the little picture at the top of the Start menu. Windows conveniently opens a menu where you can choose Change Your Picture. (For ideas, click Browse for More Pictures and look through the digital photos you’ve saved in your Pictures folder. The Start menu’s prime real estate When the Start menu pops up, it always shows you the items listed in the upcoming list, from top to bottom. You’ll use these things constantly in Windows, so if you’re already bored with this Start button section, please feign interest through the following explanations. If you find Start menus exciting, you’ll love the upcoming “Customizing the Start menu” section, which explains how to rearrange your entire Start menu.

Internet Explorer: This option lets you visit the Internet.

E-mail: Choose this command to send or receive e-mail with Vista’s new Windows Mail program.

Recently Used Programs: The Start menu’s left side constantly updates to list your most frequently used programs’ icons for quick launches.

Search box: Conveniently placed directly above the Start button, this area lets you find files by typing a bit of their contents — a few words in an e-mail, a document, a band name, a program’s name, or anything else. Press Enter, and Vista quickly dredges it up for you.

Username: The name of your user account appears at the Start menu’s topright corner. Click here to see a folder containing all your files, as well as your Documents, Pictures, and Music folders.

Documents: This command quickly opens your Documents folder, making it more imperative than ever to always store your work here.

Pictures: Keep your digital pictures in this folder. Each picture’s icon is a tiny thumbnail image of your photo.

Music: Store your digital music in here so that Media Player can find and play it more easily.

Games: Windows Vista offers several new games, including a decent chess game. Finally! Search: The word Search on the Start menu lets you search for files in precise terms — say, all files created in the last two months containing the word “oyster.” Stick with the Search box, along the Start menu’s bottom, when making more general searches.

Recent Items: Viewed a file within the past few hours? Chances are, it will appear here for quick access.

Computer: This option displays your computer’s storage areas: folders, disk drives, CD drives, digital cameras, and other attached goodies.

Network: If your computer connects with other computers through a network, click here to visit them.

Connect To: This area lets you connect to different networks. It’s a quick way for laptoppers to connect to a wireless network, for example, as well as a one-click Internet entrance for people with dialup Internet connections.

Control Panel: This area lets you adjust your computer’s oodles of confusing settings.

Default programs: Click here to control which program steps in when you open a file. Here’s where you tell Windows to let iTunes handle your music instead of Media Player, for example.

Help and Support: Befuddled? Click here for an answer.

Sleep/Power: Clicking here either puts your PC to sleep or turns it off, options explained in this article’s last section.

Lock: This command locks your user account, letting other people log on without accessing your files. I explain how to assign different tasks to the Sleep button, including making it simply turn off your PC. Starting a program from the Start menu This task’s easy. Click the Start button, and the Start menu pops out of the button’s head. If you see an icon for your desired program, click it, and Windows loads the program. If your program isn’t listed, though, click All Programs, near the bottom of the Start menu. Yet another menu pops up, this one listing the names of programs and folders full of programs. Spot your program? Click the name, and Windows kicks that program to the front of the screen. If you still don’t see your program listed, try pointing at the tiny folders listed on the All Programs menu. The menu fills with that folder’s programs. Don’t spot it? Click a different folder and watch as its contents spill out onto the Start menu.