Introduction to Computers and the Windows Operating System

Part I

Instructor: Shayna Keces 236-0302, ext. 441

October 2003

Agenda
What is a computer? What is an operating system? The Windows Screen Starting and shutting down your computer The mouse according to Windows Opening and closing programs Menu bars and Tool Bars Cut/Copy and Paste Further study

What is a personal computer

Screen Box, tower, etc. motherboard hard drive floppy drive CD-ROM/DVD Keyboard and mouse Peripherals

Operating system
Program used to control computer, link between user and internal working of computer and programs Windows vs. Mac vs. Linux

Windows
Windows 95, 98, 2000, ME, NT, XP? Desktop and icons Task bar Start button Programs

Starting your computer

Before starting your computer make sure you do not have a diskette in your A drive To start your computer just turn on the power switch or power bar (the computer will take a few minutes to go through its initialization procedure and you will eventually see your desktop and icons) If this does not happen check that your monitor (i.e. screen ) is on.

Starting your computer, cont.

If computer was shut improperly, you may see a screen saying Windows would like to check your files for errors. It may then say it has found an error and ask if it should fix the error. You will probably want to tell it to fix the error and skip the undo disk and next time try to do a proper shutdown

Shutting down your computer

Windows is very finicky about being shut down properly (do not just shut the power off) Move your cursor to start button and click Click on the radio button beside Shut down Click on OK button WAIT (Windows will go through an elaborate process of making sure all programs are shut down. You will then see a Windows screen and eventually a black screen with the words Its now safe to turn off your computer)

Shutting down your computer, cont.

You may now turn off the power button/bar. In some cases when Windows cannot finish its shutdown sequence, your may have to shut down by restarting or shutting off the power before Windows is ready.

Restarting your computer

Sometimes your computer will start doing funny things or your mouse will stop working Try ALT + CTL + DELETE If you see a program is not responding, you can try to highlight that program and press the End Task button. If nothing happens try ALT + CTL + DELETE again. This will restart your computer

Restarting your computer, cont.

If your mouse is working you can click on Start button, click on Shutdown but click on the radio button beside Restart and your computer will restart Useful if your modem stops functioning.

Mouse
Pointing device that moves pointer or cursor Point and click (tip of the arrow is the point) Left and right buttons Start programs - 1 click vs 2 clicks Highlight text (click and drag) Practice makes perfect

Cursor Types
Arrow Busy Text Double arrow Hand

Scrolling pages
Mouse
Click on up and down arrows or Click on top of and below that darker box without touching the box or Click and drag the darker box

Keyboard (make sure cursor is on page by clicking on empty space)

Use arrow keys Use page up, page down, home and end

Opening Programs
If on desktop as icon, double click on icon. If does not open press Enter key. Click on Start button, Move cursor up to Programs. After menu on the right appears move cursor over to menu and up or down to required program. Click on program If program has been minimized and appears on task bar, click on square representing program.

Closing programs
Click on the X icon in the top right hand corner of the window or Put your cursor on File in menu bar and click, then move cursor down the drop-down menu to the bottom to word Quit or Exit or Close. Click on the word or Hold down the Alt key and press F4.

Enlarge Screen Minimize window

Close Program

Title bar Menu bar Tool bar

Format bar

Status bar

Task bar

Start button

Using Menu Bars

All Windows programs have a menu bar and everything you can do with that program will be available from one of the drop-down menus Place tip of the cursor on the word in Menu bar and click. Move cursor down drop-down menu to action you want to perform and click. If item has an arrow pointing to the right move cursor to the right to see the submenu.

Menu items common to most Windows programs

File (includes New file, open file, save and print functions) Edit (includes Find and Cut, Copy and Paste) View (allows you to change the look of screen by adding and subtracting bars like tool bar) Tools (most programs but program specific) Window (allows you arrange windows and choose between different files) Help used to give help in programs functions and gives version no. for troubleshooting purposes

Cut/Copy and Paste

Place your cursor at the beginning of the text you would like to cut or copy, click with lefthand button keeping the button down. Move the cursor to right to highlight the section or words you want to copy (move cursor down to get whole paragraph or page) When the text you wanted to copy or move is highlighted, let go of the mouse button If you highlight too much text, do not let go of the button but adjust the cursor until you have the right amount of text. If you let go, start over by clicking anywhere that is not a link and start over.

Cut/Copy and Paste, cont.

Move cursor to Edit in Menu bar and move down the drop down menu until you reach Cut or Copy and click (Cut will remove the text and Copy will leave it where it is) Move the cursor to the area of the document or file where you would like to put the text and click making sure the blinking cursor is where you want the text to be Move cursor to Edit in Menu bar and move down drop down menu until you reach Paste and click

Using Tool Bars

Icons which represent frequently used actions Place tip of cursor in middle of icon and click Opening files, printing, and saving files are common in tool bars If you do not know what an icon signifies, move cursor over the icon and wait for a couple of seconds and a brief description will appear. If do not need tool bar (all actions available from Menu bar) can get rid of tool bar by clicking on View in Menu bar

Further study - Books

Stokes, Abby. Its never too late to love a computer. 004.16 S874 Kraynak, Joe. The complete idiots guide to computer basics. 004.16 Kra Russ, Walter. The secret guide to computers : the world's top-rated computer tutorial 004.16 W233 2001 Gookin, Dan. PCs for dummies quick reference 004.16 G659 [Maran, Ruth, Paul Whitehead]. Computers simplified 004.16 M311 2000

Further study - Videos

Beginning computers for seniors [videorecording] : and kids of all ages
V004.16 B417

Microsoft Windows 98 video tutorial [videorecording]

V005.4469 W5n

Learning Microsoft Windows 98 [videorecording]

V005.4469 W5Lp

Teach yourself Windows 95/98 [videorecording]

V005.4469 W5vi

Further study Internet sites

Computer training tutorials http://www.ckls.org/~crippel/computerlab/tutorial s/index.html Using computers http://www.elmlane.com/usingcomputers/index.as p Introduction to using computers http://tilt.lib.utsystem.edu/ Learning Windows http://plugandwork.com/winhelp.htm http://www.eiu.edu/~mediasrv/win95_tut/win95me nu.htm