Windows® 7 All-in-One for Dummies®

Chapter II.4. Getting the Basic Stuff Done

In This Chapter

• Burning CDs and DVDs

• Using Windows Experience Index to beef up your machine

• Word processing, calculating, painting, and more

• Sticking sticky notes

• Lots of boring stuff that you need to know anyway

You bought your PC to get things done, right? I guess it depends on what you mean by things. You need to know how to write a letter, even if you don't have Microsoft Office installed on your PC. You should figure out how to use the Windows Calculator, even if the thought of employing a $1,000 tool to solve a two-bit problem leaves you feeling a little green.

Hey, I have to talk about that stuff somewhere.

This chapter also digs into the truly cool Windows 7 support for burning CDs and DVDs, and what you can (and can't!) do to improve your performance rating, er, experience index.

You know. Stuff.

Burning CDs and DVDs

Windows 7 includes simple, one-click (or two- or three-click) support for burning CDs or DVDs — burning, or writing, is the process of putting stuff on a CD or DVD. You can burn music, video, recorded TV shows, photos, and all kinds of data — pyromania on a platter.

You need a CD recorder (a CD-RW drive) or DVD recorder (variously, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD+-RW) to make your own CDs or DVDs, of course, but most PCs these days have optical drives (that's what they're called) with recording capabilities built in. If you don't like the optical drive in your PC and you buy a cheap, dual-layer DVD+-RW drive that attaches to your PC via a ...