Introduction to Windows

XP

Technology Training Week

Steve Schwarz
Operating System Software
 System software that controls your
application software and manages how
your hardware devices work together.
• Windows
• Linux
• Unix
• Mac OS
Personal Operating Systems
Microsoft
 Microsoft has been making OS software
utilizing graphical user interfaces since around
1985.
• Windows 3.1
• Windows 95
• Windows 98
• Windows ME
• Windows XP
• Windows 2000 and Windows XP Professional are
personal operating systems when used as stand alone
machines but can be considered network operating
systems when connected to a network. They can even
run on servers.
Toolbars
 Contain icons that execute tasks when
clicked.
 In Microsoft Office, you have to click the
double down arrows to show each
toolbar on its own row.
 You can also right click on a toolbar to
hide it or to show additional toolbars.
Menu Bars
 Hierarchical lists of commands. If you
click a menu bar in Office, you won’t see
the full list of commands unless you wait
a few seconds or click the double down
arrows at the bottom of the menu bar.
 Options that aren’t currently available are
grayed out.
Title Bars
 On the far right of the title bar there are three buttons
found in most Windows applications:
• Minimize
• Eliminate the window, but leave the program open. The
program icon will still appear on the task bar.
• Restore down or maximize
• If the window is as large as possible, meaning it is maximized,
the restore down button will be visible. Clicking the restore
down button will return the window to the size it was before it
was maximized. The size it returns to might have been set in a
previous Windows session. If the Window is not maximized,
the maximize button will appear instead
• Close
• End application and remove from memory.
• You may be prompted to save files before closing.
Required Mouse Skills
 Pointing

 Clicking

 Right Clicking
 Double Clicking

 Dragging

 Right Dragging
Dragging
 Dragging involves holding the left mouse
button down while resting over an object
and moving the mouse. Dragging is
finished when the mouse button is
released. This is another difficult skill to
master. Many people will let go of the
mouse while they are dragging. The only
way to master dragging is through
practice.
Right Dragging
 Right dragging means you point to an item,
hold down the right mouse button, drag and
release. When you let go, a shortcut menu
appears containing context specific options. If
you drag with the left mouse button, releasing
will execute the default drag option. To choose
an option, you should right drag. The default
option is highlighted in bold type.
Right Clicking
 Right-clicking was new with Windows 95.
The menu that you see when you right
click will depend upon which program
you are using and where the mouse
pointer is currently located. Right clicking
displays a context sensitive shortcut
menu. Some of the options may be
dimmed. This indicates that they are not
currently available.
Scrolling
 Clicking the scroll arrows--Best for line
by line scrolling
 Clicking the scroll bar--Best for scrolling
one screen at a time
 Clicking between the bar and the
arrows.--Best for long distance scrolling.
Windows Explorer Part One
 Windows Explorer is an application program included with
Windows 2000 that allows you to view the contents of the
computer, the hierarchy of folders on the computer, and the
files and folders in each folder.
 You access Windows Explorer by right clicking over the
desktop's My Computer icon and selecting 'Explore'
 Explorer allows you to copy, move and delete files and folders
from your computer.
 As you can see, you are still using 'My Computer' but the
screen is now split into two different panes. The folders pane is
on the left and the Contents pane is on the right. The top level
of the hierarch is the desktop. A plus sign indicates that there
are sublevels. A minus sign means that sublevels are currently
visible and can be collapsed by clicking the minus sign.
Windows Explorer Part Two
 Single clicking a drive/folder in the folders pane will display the
folder list in the contents pane. Double clicking a drive/folder
will display the drive/folder contents in the folders pane as well.
 Notice that the title bar changes to indicate the currently
selected drive/folder currently selected.
 Hidden files, which are used by software applications, may not
be visible.
 You can copy files from your hard drive to a floppy disk or any
other storage media rather easily. The source drive is the drive
that contains the file/s to be copied. The source folder is the
folder that contains the file/s to be copied. The destination drive
is the drive that the file/s will be copied to. The destination
folder is the folder where the file/s will be copied.
Windows Explorer Part Three
 If you are copying to an external storage media
such as a Zip drive or a floppy, it is best to first
create a folder to store the file/s. To
accomplish this click the destination drive in
the Explorer folders pane. Right click in the
contents area and choose new-->folder.
 The words 'New Folder' will be highlighted.
Change the name of the folder to 'My Files'
and hit the enter key. If you want to change the
name, just click on the folder once and hit the
F2 key.
Windows Explorer Tips
 Holding down the control key will allow you to select
multiple files
 Holding down the shift key will allow you to select
contiguous files
 Hitting control-->A will select all of the files in the contents
pane
 While you are dragging the files from the contents panel
to the drive panel, dimmed versions of the files will follow
the mouse pointer.
 A file's type is indicated by the icon representing it.
 You can easily delete a file by right clicking a file name
and choosing delete from the shortcut menu.
File Management
 Filename – Unique name given to a file.
 Extension – Identifies program used to open a file.
 On Windows a file can be 255 characters. Spaces and
numbers are allowed, and the name is NOT case sensitive.
However, the following characters are not allowed:
• \
• ?
• :
• “
• <
• >
• |
• *
• /
Organizing Your Files
 A device letter is a unique identifier for each
different storage device on a PC. The floppy
disk is drive “A”. The hard drive is usually drive
“C.”
 A directory is a list of the files on a particular
storage device.
 The main directory is the root directory.
 Folders are a special portion of the root
directory. They are hierarchical
Save Vs. Save As
 The first time you save a file there is no
difference between the two.
 Once you’ve saved a file:
• Choosing save automatically saves the current file to
the hard drive.
• Choosing save as allows you to save the file using a
different name and/or change the file’s location
 Two files can’t have the same name and file
type if they’re located in the same folder.
• They can, however share the same name if they are in
subfolders of one another.
Evaluating Storage Capacity
 Byte – One character typed in plain text editor.
• Cookie files and plain text files
 Kilobyte – 1,024 byes.
• Web pages, Office documents
 Megabytes – 1,024 kilobytes
• MP3 files, videos, larger software applications, RAM
 Gigabytes – 1,024 megabytes
• Hard drives, RAM
File Compression
 Allows you to a shrink a file to a smaller
file. The smaller file is compressed.
 Compressed files must be
decompressed before they can be read.
 File compression applications include
Winzip and Pkzip.
Typical Windows Desktop Icons
 My Documents--A storage area for your documents.
Documents that you create can be stored anywhere, but most
programs default to saving in My Documents.
• Folder is located under C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR USER
NAME\My Documents
 My Computer--Allows you to view the computer's contents.
 My Network Places--Allows you to work with other computers
on the same network as you.
 Recycle Bin--Purgatory for deleted files. When you delete a file
it goes to the recycle bin. Files can be restored from the recycle
bin, but once the recycle bin is emptied, the files are gone for
good.
 Internet Explorer--Web browser used extensively by Windows.
You can download and install another browser such as Firefox
The Hard Drive
 This is where every program and file on
your computer is stored. When you start
a program or open a file, that
program/file is copied into memory from
the hard drive. Because all of your
files/programs are located on your hard
drive, you need to have more storage
space than memory. A currently
acceptable drive size is 40 GB or larger.
Random Access Memory (RAM)
 Any data to be processed must be stored in memory
rather than on the hard drive. This makes access much
faster since the RAM can be accessed quicker than the
hard drive. When you start a program, the program is
loaded from the hard drive into memory. When a
computer does not have enough memory, information
must be swapped from RAM to the hard drive, thus
slowing down performance extensively.
 When application software is running in memory, an icon
appears on the task bar. However, system software does
not appear on the task bar.
 You can purchase additional RAM chips to gain more
memory for your PC. A currently acceptable amount of
RAM is 512 MB.
System Software uses RAM
 System software consists of programs to
control the operations of computer equipment.
This includes the operating system, which tells
the computer how to load, store and execute a
program as well as how to transfer data.
Whenever you turn on your computer, your
operating system is loaded into memory.
Programs you wish to run have to compete
with your OS for memory space which is why it
is so important to have sufficient memory
installed on your machine
Fonts
 Stored on your hard drive
 Some fonts come with Windows. Others
are added when you install software.
Central Processing Unit (CPU)
 The“brains” of your computer. If you
have a 1.6 GB CPU, then your processor
can handle 1.6 billion commands a
second.
Fragmentation
 Occurs when your computer places parts of
files over many disk areas or clusters.
 This may cause your computer to run slower
because the hard drive must read from
different locations.
 Defragmentation software reallocates clusters
to decrease fragmentation. Utility suites come
with software but so do most operating
systems.
File Allocation Tables
 The same file can be stored on the hard drive in multiple
locations. This is because the file may have been edited
and the surrounding areas have been used.
 A sector is a single area on a storage device that can
hold a certain number of bytes in a file.
 Sectors are grouped into clusters. Clusters can hold from
512 bytes to 256 KB.
 If a file is 1KB and each cluster is 4KB, one cluster will be
used for the file. None of the remaining space in the
cluster will be written to unless that file is edited.
 Computers use a File Allocation Table (FAT) to track the
location of files on a hard drive.
Where are Your Deleted Files
 When you delete a file its space becomes available.
 However, the file itself is NOT deleted.
 Utility software exists to get the files back as long as
they haven’t been overwritten.
 If you delete a file from your hard drive, you can
usually retrieve it from your recycle bin.
Operating System Tasks
 Common Windows OS tasks can be found in
the control panel.
 Run programs based upon:
• Icon clicked
• Location of the program on the hard drive
 Programs are loaded into memory from the
hard drive
 The CPU is instructed to execute the program.
Personal Operating Systems
Mac OS and LINUX
 Mac OS is the operating system for today’s
Apple Computers. Its GUI is similar to
Windows, but different enough to make you
feel as if you’re learning how to use a
computer AGAIN.
 Linux is an open source operating system. It’s
used mostly with high end workstations and
network servers.
Device Drivers
 Software and information your operating
system uses to communicate with a new
device connected to your PC.
 Usually ship with hardware, but can be
downloaded.
 Plug and Play allows your OS to locate drivers
preinstalled on the computer. If the driver can’t
be located, it must be installed from a disk or
downloaded.
Three Technology Types
 Magnetic (Storage of data on a magnetic
medium)
• Floppy Disk
• Hard Drive
 Optical/Laser
• CDs
 Flash Memory (Stored on a chip)
• Digital Cameras
• USB Drives
• Ipods
• Cell Phones
Magnetic Storage Devices
 Can be internal or external.
 An internal magnetic hard disk (hard
drive) is your primary storage device for
your files, programs, and application
system.
 Made up of one or more thin metal
platters.
 External hard drives are great back up
storage devices. They are also portable.
Optical Storage Media
 CDs can store around 900 MB or enough for
20 minutes of video
 DVDs can store between 90 minutes and 8
hours of video depending on picture quality.
Traditional recordable DVDs can store about
4.7 GB of data.
 HD-DVD players will hit the market in spring
2006. Discs will hold between 15 and 25 GB.
Read Only Optical Storage
Media
 ROM means Read only Memory. Discs
labeled as ROM can only be read.
 CD-ROMs can hold about 700 MB, or
the equivalent of 486 floppies.
CDs
 CD players’ read speed is measured with an X,
or the number of times greater than 150
Kilobytes per second the speed of the first CD
reader. So a 48X reader can read at 150 KB *
48 per second.
 CD-R discs can be written to once. Files
deleted from a CD-R before the disc is
finalized are NOT deleted. They are simply no
longer accessible.
DVDs
 High capacity optical or laser disc.
 Most commercial DVDs are dual layer. Each
layer can be written to. As a result, dual layer
dvds can hold up to 8.5 GB of data, twice as
much as a regular DVD.
 DVD-R can be written to just once.
 There are many dual layer burners on the
market. They require blank dual layer DVD R
discs.
 There are two competing technologies:
DVD+R and DVD-R
Fully Read and Write Optical Storage
Media
 CD-RW and DVD-RW/DVD+RW discs
can be written to more than once.
 Burning is putting information onto a CD
or DVD.