Computer Basics

All About Windows Specific Information

Contents-Windows Page

Power, Anyone?
That Login Box
Mouse Matters-All Those Buttons
The Windows 95/98 Desktop
Windows Iconography
Windows on Windows
The Three Kinds of Windows
The three states of a window
Specialized Menus in Windows 95 & 98
Windows Modifier Keys
Windows: Creating an Shortcut
Windows: How can you tell if it's an Shortcut?
Creating Folders on Windows
Saving a file
Using the Start menu to open a program
Switching between programs
Text editing in Windows

Controlling where you type
Selecting Text

How to shutdown a Windows computer
Recovering from a Windows Crash / Freeze
Finding files on Windows
The online help on Windows

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Power, Anyone?

Turning it on

• If it's a recent Windows computer it'll have a button on the front with the Universal Symbol for power
• If it's an older model, look on the front for a power button of some kind

The Universal Symbol for On-Off Power Switches

Don't be surprised if this is a surprise to you! All international standard symbols are a mystery until explained!

Turning it off

• Do not just turn the machine off
• Unless it's crashed and then you have to
• Use the Start button to go to Shutdown, click Shutdown and then OK.

Then wait. If it's a recent PC it will power itself off. If it's an older model you'll see a message saying it's OK to turn off the power.

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That Login Box

Once you have WAITED until Windows comes up (a.k.a.: Boots) you get a dialog box asking you to log in. It looks like this:

If you're using Windows v95 or v98 this dialog is a lie. Just click Cancel and it goes away!

• Note, however, that any version of Windows can be set to require a login. If you see this and click Cancel and it does not go away, contact your systems administrator or technical support staff. You might have a Windows computer with the security turned on. They'll have to give you a login and password that will work for your Windows computer.
• Note also that Macintosh computers may have security (either added in or as part of they system). But on Macs you have to take a step to make it show up. It is not, by default, on and meaningless.

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Mouse Matters-All Those Buttons

Windows "mice" have two buttons

• Some models may have more or rollers

The Left Click

• This is what we usually mean when we say "Click"

The Right Click

• Use the mouse button on the right (as you look toward the cord)
• This pulls up a "context-sensitive" menu of choices

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The Windows 95/98 Desktop

Here is what the windows 95, 98 and NT v4 desktops look like.

Note that your mileage may vary. Different people can set up desktops to look different: other or additional icons on the desktop, different colors, patterns or even pictures as a background. We mean these screen shots to give you the lay of the land.

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Windows Iconography

Here are what the four kinds of icons look like on Windows OS computers:

Where files live

You can get to these volume icons by opening the My Computer icon on the desktop.

These can be hard disk(s), CDs, floppy disks, folders / directories you gain access to over the network, etc.

Folder icons

We use folders (also known as Directories or Sub Directories) to sort and order files.

Application (also known as programs) allow us to create and edit documents.

The stuff we care about!

These icons represent the information we create and edit within application programs: letters to mom, that annual report, etc.

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Windows on Windows

(Confusing, ain't it?)

Below is an smaller version of a directory window of the Windows OS. Please click on the image to open a new browser window with the full size (55k) image. When you're done looking at that image you can close that browser window and be right back here at this window!

(The instructions in the window will show you how to close a window if you're not sure how that works.)

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The Three Kinds of Windows

The MS Windows OS has three different kinds of windows:

Directory / Sub-Directory / Folder Window

• If you open a folder you get this kind of window

Application Window

• If you launch an application you get an application window

Document Window

• Almost all applications may have one (or more) document windows within their window.

You use document windows within application windows in order to create or edit documents. Here's an example of a Document Window (contained in the Word
application program window):

In the Windows OS, you can individually manipulate each document window within an application window.

Note: The Mac doesn't work this way.

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The three states of a window

Each directory window or application window can have three states in Windows 95 and 98. Explanations and illustrations follow.

NOTE: If you'd like to see the full size image, click on each of these images. Clicking on these links will open a new browser window. When you're done with that image you can close that browser window and you're right back here!

A button on the Task Bar

• All folder and application windows get a button on the Task Bar along the bottom of the screen
• Document windows do not get their own buttons
• You can click on the buttons on the Task Bar to switch between the different windows

A window that shares the screen

• You can set a window so that you can see more than one window at a time

A window that takes over all the screen

• You can set a window so that it takes over the screen

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Specialized Menus in Windows 95 & 98

Windows has a Start button in the lower left of the screen. This is similar to the Apple menu on a Macintosh: certain standard features at are always available through the Start menu no matter what else is going on with your Windows OS computer.

Like all menus, click there and explore!

From the lower left--the sign of Windows 95 or 98 OS.

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Windows Modifier Keys

Windows computers have three or four modifier keys depending on the vintage of the keyboard. They will at least have keys labeled ALT (for Alternative) and CTRL (for Control). (Later keyboards may have keys with things that look like a menu and / or the icon for Windows.)

In general, the CTRL key allows you to execute commands from the keyboard while the ALT key allows you to exercise options like different characters (e.g., ü--a U with an umlaut). (Example: CTRL-A will usually Select All.)

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Windows: Creating an Shortcut

• Do a right-click press and drag from the original to where you want the shortcut to be
• Let up on the mouse button
• You'll get a menu asking whether you want to create a Shortcut there or cancel and perhaps some other options
• Highlight and then do a left-click on the Create A Shortcut Here menu item

The shortcut appears there.

The Right-click menu looks like this:

The resulting icon looks like this:

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Windows: How can you tell if it's an Shortcut?

The way to tell if an icon in the Windows OS is a Shortcut or not is to look for the little arrow in the lower left corner of the icon. (You may also be able to tell it's a shortcut if the name starts with "Shortcut to" but if someone's renamed the shortcut icon you can't use that measure.)

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Creating Folders on Windows

The easiest way to get a new folder on the desktop is to

1. Put the pointer where you want the folder to be
2. Do a right-click and go to New menu in that appears. That menu "cascades" to a number of options, on of which is New Folder
3. Highlight this menu item and let up on the mouse

This will create a folder on the spot where you started the right-click. Name it as you will and there you go!

This gives you a new folder icon where you right-clicked.

You may now rename, move, etc. this new folder.

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Saving a file

Take these steps to save a file:

1. Create or start a file you want to save. Have that window in front of you
2. Call down the File menu to Save

The Save As Dialog Box appears

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Using the Start menu to open a program

One of the easiest ways to launch / open / run a program on a Windows 95 or 98 machine is to click on the start button, go up to Programs and over to the program you wan to run. Click on that item run that program.

Note that items in this list are installed there by most installers. You may need to open a folder from the Programs list in order to get to the individual program you need.

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Switching between programs

You can use the buttons along the Task Bar to switch between open program application windows and directory windows. All open programs get a button along the task bar as do any open directory windows. Click on any and each to bring that one to the foreground.

Here's what a task bar with two application and two directory windows looks like in Windows 98:

(Please note that I sort of cut this one up so it would fit in a small image here.)

The two buttons named BG Stuff and My D... (short for My Documents) represent directory folder windows. The two buttons named Micros.... and Netscape represent Microsoft Word (hence the "W" as its icon) and Netscape Communicator.

Clicking on each of these buttons will bring each of those programs and directory windows to the foreground. That's how you switch between different program.

NOTE: If you open document window(s) within an application window these document windows do not appear as a separate tab or button on the Task Bar. (Click here for information on the different kinds of windows in Windows.)

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Text editing in Windows

Getting to a text editor

The simplest text editor on a Windows computer is a program called WordPad. It comes free with all copies of Windows. You can get to it by clicking on the Start button and going to programs. This will invoke a cascading sub-menu. On that menu go to Accessories (toward the top), that will cascade another menu and on that menu will be Notepad. Click on that menu item and you'll launch the Notepad program.

Launching this program his will look something like this

Once open, its application and document window looks something like this. (Note: this particular screenshot is of the WordPad application window set to share the screen with other windows. Click here to remind yourself about different states windows can be in.)

Now that you've got all that going, please type a few paragraphs of text so we have something to work with. Don't worry about spelling, grammar or content. Just type away!

Note: WordPad is actually quite a bit more than sophisticated than just a text editor. But we'll only use its text editing aspects for our purposes.

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Controlling where you type

When you're in a text editing mode within any program application you'll often see a blinking line between letters. This is called the Blinking Insertion Point. (Some people may call this a "cursor".) It will look like this, only blinking:

You like this Blinking Insertion Point. Because when you type, your typing "inserts" to the left of that Blinking Point, moving the line to right. So if you want to type at a certain point you need to know how to move the Blinking Insertion Point around. Here's how to do that:

Using the Arrow Keys

All windows computer keyboards have arrow keys. These are usually in the lower right of the keyboard and have, well, little arrows on them! Up, down, right, left. If you're in a text editing environment, you may use those arrows to move the Blinking Insertion Point around.

Try it!

Using the Mouse and I-Beam

Using the arrow keys isn't always efficient. Let's try the mouse!

If you move the mouse so that the pointer is inside a text editing area you'll  notice that the pointer changes shape from the left-leaning arrow to the "I-beam". That looks like this:

(I blew this up a little larger so it's easier to see.)

There is a connection between the I-Beam and the Blinking Insertion Point. If you put the I-Beam over text and click, the place where you clicked now has the Blinking Insertion Point! You can roll the mouse to get the I-Beam out of the way and type there now.

In fact, you can use the mouse to get the  Blinking Insertion Point in the general area and then use the arrow keys to jockey the Blinking Insertion Point into exactly where you want it to be.

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Selecting Text

"What you select is what you affect." So if you want to affect something (delete it, change it, reformat it) you have to know how to select.

General and application specific selection tactics

We'll tell about selection tactics that are available anywhere, in almost any program. But keep in mind that specific programs offer their own keyboard and mouse selection tactics. Please look at the online help or manual that came with that program to learn more.

Mouse Selection Tactics

Press and Drag

The most common way to select text with the mouse is to press and drag over the items you want to select. This should highlight or select that text.

Be careful not to drift down or up as you go over text. The computer may mistakenly interpret your action as going to the line above or line below. This will make your selection seem to jump around.

Double-Click to select a word

One cool trick is to double-click to select a word. Put the I-Beam pointer over any part of a word and double-click the mouse. This will highlight or select the word. You may then change the formatting, delete, overtype or otherwise modify that selection.

Keyboard Selection Tactics

If you hold down the shift key while using the arrow keys you can select text. Try it!

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How to shutdown a Windows computer

When your Windows computer is working correctly, there are several ways to shut it down. (Here's guidance for shutting down your Windows computer when it's not working correctly.)

Shutdown from the Keyboard

Typing the keys Control+Alt+Delete will generate this dialog box.

Shutdown from the Start Menu

Click on the Start menu and go to Shutdown, the first (i.e.: closest to the Start button itself) menu item on the Start menu.

Using either the keyboard or Shutdown from the Start menu will generate this dialog box asking what you'd like to do:

Select one of the options by clicking on it and then click OK. Here's what these options mean:

Shutdown
See below for a full description of what this means.

Restart
This will shutdown your Windows computer and and immediately start it up again. (See below for all the steps in a shutdown.) Useful after installing software that requires a restart.

Restart in MS-DOS mode
Trust me, you don't want to know! Do this only if directed to do so by trained technical help. Really!

OK
Will make your choice above a reality.

Cancel
This will make this dialog box go away and leave you be.

What Shutdown means

This will cause the system to automatically do these things:

• Quit all program applications
• You don't have to quit them all yourself!
• If you have any document windows open that have changes that haven't been saved, the system will automatically prompt you to save those changes!
• Close all windows
• If you have any directory windows open you don't have to close them. They will reopen when you next start up your PC.
• Shut down the system (software)
• Tell you "It's now safe to turn of the power" (or words to that effect) in which case you have to power flip the power switch.
• A few models of Windows computers will power themselves off.

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Recovering from a Windows Crash / Freeze

Here are the things you should try and do, in order, when you suspect you're in a crashed state. These steps in this order will cause you the least trouble and disruption.

"Close Program"

If you hit the Control-Alt and Delete keys in Windows 95 and 98 you will get a Close Program dialog box. This gives you a list of the processes running on your Windows computer at that moment. (Don't be amazed if some of they look unfamiliar. There's lots of background stuff going on you may not know about.)

That dialog box looks like this:

If you select one of the items in that list and click End Task the system will dump that program out of memory--stop it from running.

This is a useful trick under these circumstances:

• If you crash comes from one of these programs and
• You know which program it comes from and
• Your system is running well enough for this to work (it could be crashed in such a way that the Close Program dialog box doesn't come up at all) and
• Closing the program doesn't cause so much instability that it will really crash you.

Note the large number of conditions? A crashed state is a bad thing. And bad things may very well happen when you're in a crashed state.

Restart

If this doesn't work, restart you computer. Here are the tactics for restarting a Windows computer.

Power it off and restart

If the usual ways of restarting a Windows computer don't work, power it off, count to five and power it back on again. Here are the steps to take to power off / on a Windows computer.

When things continue to go bad....

If the problem you've had continues seek technical help. Anything can happen once but if a pattern develops that you can't figure out then you need help from someone who knows more than you about your computer.

And for heaven sakes, don't blame yourself! Blame the computer!

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Finding files on Windows

To locate files on a Windows computer click on the start button and go up to Find and go over to Find Files and Folders.

This will bring up the Find program which looks like this:

Notes about using Find

• Unless you know what you're doing, make sure Include SubFolders is checked
• Unless you know what you're doing, make sure Look In is set for My Computer (that will search everywhere)

Here is a Results Window for a Find:

Notes on the Results of a Find

• Note that you can double-click on items in the results list to open them
• The In Folder section will show you the path to where the file / folder lives
• If you single click to select an item and then call down the File menu one of the things you can do is Open Containing Folder. This will open the folder that holds that item.
• That menu action looks like this:

 

The Find program has other cool things than that we can't go into here. Use the online help to learn more about these features.

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The online help on Windows

(Online help means help that's built into the computer. Offline help would be hiring a consultant, reading a manual, asking a friend.)

In Windows there's a Help menu at the end of every windows application menu. Pull this down for online (i.e.: in the computer) help.

The Windows system itself offers Help through the Start menu

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