Windows Mobility Center is a component of Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

, introduced in Windows Vista

Windows Vista

Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...

, that centralizes the most relevant information to mobile computing.

Overview

The Windows Mobility Center user interface

User interface

The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine interaction, is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the...

 presents a series of square tiles that each contain one piece of information about a component of the system, as well as action items related to that component. The tiles that appear depend on the system. Windows Vista includes the following tiles:

• Brightness adjustment
• Sound adjustment / mute
• Battery level / power scheme selection
• Wireless network status
• Screen orientation (portrait or landscape)
• External displays
• Synchronization to other machines
• Presentation settings

Additional panes can be added by individual mobile computer manufacturers wanting to reveal functionality unique to their products.

Windows Mobility Center is located in the Control Panel

Control Panel (Windows)

The Control Panel is a part of the Microsoft Windows graphical user interface which allows users to view and manipulate basic system settings and controls via applets, such as adding hardware, adding and removing software, controlling user accounts, and changing accessibility options...

, and can also be launched by pressing the Windows key

Windows key

The Windows logo key—also known as the Windows key, the home key, the meta key, the start key, MOD4, or the flag key —is a keyboard key which was originally introduced on the Microsoft Natural keyboard before the release of Windows 95. This key became a standard key on PC keyboards...

 + X. It is inaccessible on non-mobile computers, however it is possible to enable Mobility Center on desktop systems using a registry hack.

Windows Mobility Center is included with the Home Basic (although a Windows Vista help topic misinformed that Mobility Center is not available there), Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista.

Customization

Windows Mobility Center can be customized by adding extensions, called "tile"s. This customization is OEM

OEM

OEM means the original manufacturer of a component for a product, which may be resold by another company.OEM may also refer to:-Computing:* OEM font, or OEM-US, the original character set of the IBM PC, circa 1981...

-specific, according to Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

whitepaper; but there are several extensions available on the net from non-OEM origin.

External links

• Using Windows Mobility Center from Windows Help and Support