Using Windows Mobility Center in Vista

by Lowell Heddings on

Windows Vista includes an extremely useful utility called Mobility Center, designed for laptop users to give you lightning quick access to all functions that a mobile user would need.

 

Open Mobility Center

Use the hotkey Win+X to quickly launch mobility center. You could also find it in the Start menu.

 

Windows Mobility Center Features

Mobility Center gives you access to features relevant to laptop users. This is a quick overview.

Display Brightness By default Windows Vista dims the screen when on battery mode. You can easily adjust the brightness here.
Volume You can easily change the volume or mute it entirely.
Battery Change the current power management scheme.
Network Center Quickly turn wireless networks on/off.
External Display Change your external display settings. Just click the Connect display button to choose how you want the display.
Screen Rotation If you have a Tablet PC, you can change the rotation of the screen quickly.
Sync settings Sync offline folders or devices quickly.
Presentation Settings Connect to a projector easily.

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Tips

You can use the tab key to navigate through the items, or use the quick access hotkeys. For instance:

Mute Volume Win+X then Alt+M
Change Volume Win+X then 4 Tabs then right/left arrow keys
Change Brightness Win+X then Tab then right/left arrow keys

Enjoy your mobile computing experience!

Lowell Heddings is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of How-To Geek. He spends all his free time making sure this site can bring you fresh geekery on a daily basis, and has been doing so for over eleven years.