The keyboard and mouse are the two most common devices for interacting with Windows 7, and you can customize a number of settings for both. There are a variety of different keyboards you can use with Windows. Some keyboards include extra buttons and switches for accessing programs, the Internet, or devices on your computer. Most of these features are unique to individual keyboards and not to Windows 7. There are, however, a few settings that you can use to customize regardless of your specific keyboard. These settings include the speed at which your keyboard can start repeating a key press and the frequency at which the key is repeated. Additionally, you can set the rate at which the cursor in your windows blinks. To customize these values, use the following steps:
1. Select the Control Panel from the Windows 7 Start menu.
2. Click on the Printers and Other Hardware category.
3. Click on the Keyboard Control Panel icon in the lower part of the Printer and Other Hardware window. Within Windows 7 this presents the Keyboard Properties dialog window.
4. Select the Speed tab in the Keyboard Properties dialog window if it is not already displayed. You should see a new window.
5. Set the amount of time to wait before a key being held down begins to repeat. To do this, adjust the slider control for the Repeat Delay. Moving the slider toward Short decreases the delay between the time the key is pressed and the moment the key value is repeated. Moving the slider toward Long increases the time.
6. Set the speed at which a key’s value will repeat as long as the key continues to be held down. This value is set using the slider control for the Repeat rate. Moving this slider control toward Fast causes the key’s value to be displayed more often in a shorter period of time. Moving this value toward slow causes the key’s value to be displayed less often.
7. Test the settings you’ve selected. You can test your settings by clicking in the entry box located at the center of the Speed tab. You can then press and hold a key to see how long it takes to start repeating and then how many times it repeats. Within the test area, the letter was pressed and held for two seconds. As you can see, the faster settings allowed a much larger number of repeats to occur than the slower repeat rate settings.
8. Change the cursor blink rate. You can do this by adjusting the slide control within the Cursor Blink Rate area. If you move the cursor closer to None, it blinks less often. If you move it toward Fast, it blinks more often.
9. Click the Apply button to apply the selected changes.
10. Click OK to close the dialog window.
Many Windows 7 programs will run automatically when Windows first starts up and you first log in to your account. You can add additional programs to the startup of Windows. For example, you can have Windows 7 automatically open your media player so it is ready to play music. To have programs automatically run when Windows 7 starts, add them to the Startup folder on the Start > All Programs menu. You can do this by using the following steps:
1. Create a shortcut for the program you want to have start up. If the program is listed in the All Programs menu, you can use the existing menu item as the shortcut.
2. Right-click on your shortcut and hold the mouse down. This allows you to drag the shortcut.
3. While continuing to hold the right mouse button down, drag the shortcut over the Start button. The Windows 7 Start menu appears.
4. While continuing to hold the right mouse button down, drag the shortcut over the All Programs item on the Start menu. The All Programs menu appears.
5. While still holding the right mouse button down, drag the shortcut to the Startup item on the All Programs menu. A black line appears above or below the Startup item. Additionally, the Windows 7 submenu for Startup is displayed. If nothing is in the submenu, you will see the word “Empty.”
6. While still holding the right mouse button down, drag the shortcut over onto the submenu. If there are no existing items, a black line appears at the top of the submenu above the word Empty. If there are items in the submenu, a black line still appears; however, you can move the black line by moving your cursor up and down.
7. Release the mouse button. A pop-up menu appears.
8. Select Copy. The shortcut is copied to the location where the black line was. Your program will now run the next time - and every time - Windows 7 starts.
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