Instructor: Shayna Keces

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Introduction to Computers and the Windows
Operating System

• Part I

October 2003
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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

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What is a personal computer

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

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Operating system

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

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Windows

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

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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.

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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

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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)

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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Cursor Types

• Arrow
• Busy
• Text
• Double arrow
• Hand

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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

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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.

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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.

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Enlarge Screen
Minimize window
Close Program
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Title bar
Menu bar
Tool bar
Format bar
Status bar
Task bar
Start button
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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.

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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

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Cut/Copy and Paste

• Place your cursor at the beginning of the text
  you would like to cut or copy, click with
  left-hand 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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Further study Internet sites

• Computer training tutorials
• http//www.ckls.org/crippel/computerlab/tutorial
  s/index.html
• Using computers http//www.elmlane.com/usingcomput
  ers/index.asp
• Introduction to using computers
• http//tilt.lib.utsystem.edu/
• Learning Windows
• http//plugandwork.com/winhelp.htm
  http//www.eiu.edu/mediasrv/win95_tut/win95menu.h
  tm