other commands in the column (even the Shut Down button); or type the first initial of something’s name to highlight it. (If there’s more than one command that starts with, say, W, press W repeatedly to cycle through them.) Once you’ve highlighted something, you can press Enter to “click” it (open it), or tap the w key or Esc to close the Start menu and forget the whole thing. Use the Search box This thing is awesome. The instant you pop open the Start menu, your insertion point blinks in the new Start Search box at the bottom of the menu (Figure 1-4). That’s your cue that you can begin typing the name of whatever you want to open. Figure 1-4: As you type, Windows winnows down the list of found items, letter by letter. (You don’t have to type the full search term and then press Enter.) If the list of results is too long to fit the Start menu, click “See more results” below the list. In any case, Windows highlights the first item in the results. If that’s what you want to open, press Enter. If not, you can click what you want to open, or use the arrow keys to walk down the list and then press Enter to open something.
The instant you start to type, you trigger Windows’s very fast, whole-computer search function. This search can find files, folders, programs, email messages, address book entries, calendar appointments, pictures, movies, PDF documents, music files, Web bookmarks, and Microsoft Office documents, among other things. It also finds anything in the Start menu, making it a very quick way to pull up something without having to click through a bunch of submenus.
chapter 1: getting started, desktop, & start menu
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