We All Have (Windows) Control Issues Quiz

Answer: Programs and Features

You can also install programs and turn Windows features on or off from here. In Windows XP, this option was known as Add/Remove Programs. It also used to allow you the option to install programs through this panel; this option would allow Windows to control modifications or removal of the program better.

Answer: Display

The Display panel allows you to also connect your computer to a projector and adjust brightness and color. You can also set the screen to magnify so that all the items on it are larger and easier to see; in addition, you can use Display options to add a display and set up how multiple displays will behave together.

Answer: Administrative Tools

Other tools included in this category are Event Viewer, Task Scheduler and Performance Monitor. In order to access Active Directory, DNS, or DHCP, you'll need to install add-ins from Microsoft. In the Data Sources Option, you can set up a connection to a database that can then be used by any program on your computer that requires it.

Answer: Sound

You can use this option to add, remove and modify speakers, microphones and headsets. It also allows you to automatically adjust or mute other audio sources if you're using your computer as a telephony device and you get a call.

Answer: Power Options

Power Options allow you to conserve energy - and prevent battery drainage - by turning off parts of your computer when it's not in use. You can also choose how the power button will behave and, if your computer is a laptop, what it will do when you close the lid.

Answer: Speech Recognition

Obviously, you'll need a microphone for this feature to work. You can set up voice recognition to speak commands that the operating system and various applications will recognize, or you can dictate input to a program, such as Microsoft Word or Outlook.

Answer: Ease of Access Center

Options included in the Ease of Access Center allow vision-impaired people to have verbal output from the computer to be "spoken" by the computer or magnified on the screen. Conversely, the hearing-impaired can have sound alerts converted to visual displays on-screen. You can also make various input devices easier to use or replace your mouse and keyboard as input devices entirely.

Answer: Windows Update

There are essentially two ways to access updates from Windows Update, but in Windows 7, they both appear the same on the screen. You can set your computer to get updates from the Microsoft Windows Update website, or you can point your computer to another source - usually, this is a server on your network that downloads updates to a central location and then distributes them to multiple computers throughout your network.

The second option is the more common option in business settings.

Answer: Windows Firewall

Windows Firewall was introduced with Windows XP. It allows you to allow or block access, either inbound to your computer or outbound from your computer, to any other networked resource, including other computers in your internal network or websites on the internet. You can also allow access to a resource for a specific program; for example, if you have a program on your computer that needs to access your bank's website to download data, but you don't want other software on your computer to be able to access that site, Windows Firewall is where you can set that up.

Answer: Network and Sharing Center

Your computer accesses networks via a Network Interface Card (NIC); some cards require you to plug in a network cable, while others allow you work "wirelessly". The Network and Sharing Center is where you can enable or disable these NICs and adjust settings for each. You can also see how much outbound and inbound traffic has been passed through each interface during the current connection session.

Answer: Device Manager

Device Manager allows you to view, update and troubleshoot your hardware devices that are installed in or attached to your computer. Each device in the list has an icon next to it that will display a yellow triangle "Warning" sign if there is an error or other issue. You can then look at the properties for each device to determine the nature of the issue and attempt to resolve it.

Answer: Devices and Printers

Devices and Printers is where you can add a printer, scanner, fax machine or similar device to your computer. From this panel you can also choose to share your device with other computers on your network and adjust specific settings, especially for printers. This option was named Printers and Faxes prior to Windows Vista.

Answer: Biometric Devices

If your computer comes equipped with one of these devices, the Biometric Devices option allows you to link a fingerprint or, less commonly, a retinal scan to an account name and password. This allows you, for example, to simply swipe your fingerprint to log in to your computer instead of typing in a password every time.

Answer: Parental Controls

Generally, you can use this option to set time limits for being on the computer, restrict access to games that are installed on the computer based on their ratings and restrict or prevent access to specific programs on the computer. To use these options, each user must have his/her own account on the computer. Net Nanny, Surf Patrol and Web Watcher are software packages you can buy that allow you to restrict access to the internet for specific computer accounts.

Answer: Windows Defender

Windows Defender doesn't have many fancy features but it does provide a base level of protection against viruses and other harmful software or "malware". Forefront is the name of Microsoft's enterprise-class suite that provides more robust protection against malware and other types of attacks against a computer and/or network.

Answer: Internet Options

Internet Options is where you can change settings for your internet connection to make it more (or less) secure. If your computer is connected to a network that uses a proxy server to regulate access to the internet, Internet Options is where you can tell your computer the name of that proxy server and what port to use to connect to it.

Answer: System

System Properties is also where you can give your computer a name and see general information about your computer such as the type of processor and how much RAM (memory) you have installed. Beginning with Windows Vista (the predecessor to Windows 7), there is also an item in System properties known as the Windows Experience Index; it gives you a numerical value that indicates how smoothly your computer will run the Windows operating system.

Answer: Troubleshooting

The Troubleshooting panel allows you to do things like set specific applications to run as if they were installed on a previous version of Windows. You can also open Troubleshooting Wizards that will take you step-by-step through the process of locating and fixing issues with networking, audio recording and several other functions of your computer.

Answer: Fonts

Fonts are generally installed with Windows or with various applications like Microsoft Office. If you need a font that isn't installed, there are places to get them, but some are copyrighted and you may have to buy them from the owner.

Answer: Folder Options

If you want to open a new window each time you browse to a new folder or subfolder on your computer, Folder Options is where you can change that setting. You can also use this panel to tell the computer to display or hide system files as well as whether or not to display file extensions (for example, for the text file "funtrivia.txt", if you want to see the txt extension, you can uncheck the option "Hide file extensions for known file types.")