HOW TO USE M$ WINDOWS
Introduction
You can regard this document as a mini private course on how to use a PC. Some of the information you might already know well, other parts may be new to you.
All computers use some form of Operating System (OS) (Windows, Apple OS, Linux, Android) which then uses files and programs to carry out tasks.
M$ Windows is the most commonly used operating system in the world and probably the most widely used of its versions was Windows XP. Since XP is now over 16 years old I no longer include any reference in this document). Then cameWindows Vista (a failure), quickly superseded by Windows 7.Then they released Win 8,8.1& 8.2 all of which were failures.In September 2015 they released Win10, which corrected the problems of Win 8 and runs somewhat like Win7.Although some of the names or layout have changed, all the versions use the same principles of program and file control.
The operating system runs the computer; on top of that you need lots of programs to do all the specialised tasks you wish to perform - create written documents, send emails, access the internet, view pictures, play music, etc.
For those who use Apple-Macs the principles enunciated here are basically the same. Names, menu details, and location of items may differ but the method of operation will be the same.
At this point I will just mention that Windows is neither the only nor the best operating system for computers. The Apple-Macintosh system I believe was superior. But even more interesting is all the OSS (Open Source Software) that exists; theLinux operating systems look and operate like Windows but are better than Windows, are FREE, never get viruses, and are not susceptible to all these intruder attacks and Worm viruses. The most widely used version I believe, is Ubuntu and a sub-version is “Mint”. However, for an inexperienced beginner, installing and configuring these systems would be a challenge.
I will deal with the subject for more or less total beginners; but I will assume you know how to use a keyboard, what the Fn (function) keys are, where the "Tab" key is, what the numeric pad is, where and what the "arrows" are, and how to use a mouse - left, right, and double-clicks, and "drag". When I say simply "click" it always means a single, left click. If any other click is required I will specify that. There are two keys each for Enter, CTRL and ALT; it doesn't matter which one you use. If you have a “touch-screen” version then generally a tap on the screen is the same as a click with the mouse.
When Windows opens you are presented with a screen with several icons on it and a blue,grey, or transparent bar across the bottom with the START button and a clock. The bar is called the Taskbar; the little area near the clock is called the System tray (over which you have limited control). In the latest versions icons can be “pinned” to the taskbar. The screen itself is called the "Desktop" and the picture on the background is called the "Wallpaper".
The icons on the Desktop are basically shortcuts to various programs; to activate them you double-click the icon. Another way to activate any item is to click it once (it goes blue and is now "selected") and then hit the Enter key. You have complete control over which icons are shown on the Desktop; I suggest that you use as few as possible. It is easier to pin programs to the Taskbar and/or the Start menu. This avoids having a cluttered/crowded screen.
Gettingstarted
Okay, you have a computer, Windows is open, now what do you do? Usually you would now start a program and the commonest method to do so is to click the Start button, click or hover on "All Programs" and you have a list of all the programs available in your PC. Some of the items listed are Folders with a sub-choice of programs listed within; if you hover on the folder name the secondary list is displayed. You can click on any program name to activate it. It might be Word, Edge, Chrome, Games, Windows Media Player, etc. If you repeat the process you can have several programs all open at once, but the last one is the one you will see and the others will be hidden behind it. However, each program will now have an icon down on the Taskbar.If you click any one of the icons, that program becomes the front, visible one - sometimes called the one "in focus". You do not have to close any program to access another program.
At the top of every program which you open there is a coloured or transparent bar with the program name, the file name and, on the right hand side, three buttons showing a "minus", a square, and an "X".These are common to every program you will use.
The "minus" minimises or reduces the program down into the icon on the Taskbar; the "X" closes the program or file; the single or double square takes the program between a part-screen and full-screen window. While in "part-screen" you can resize the window and move it around the screen. Click on the top blue bar and hold the click; you can now move the window around by dragging the mouse. This is called "click and drag". If you place your cursor carefully on a corner point, it changes to a black, double-headed arrow; you can now click and drag the corner to resize the window. The same thing can be done on any side of the window but you can then resize only in one direction.
Most programs (but not all) also require that you open files, as for example when you open the Word program you then can open a text file. The file usually can be closed separately to the program, so may have its own "X" button. Most beginners have some difficulty understanding what a file is. It is not a sheaf of papers which was the meaning before computers. In a computer all the information is stored as chunks of electronic data which is available for the computer to use. The data could be instructions to the computer, text files, lists, schedules, or records of actions taken. But whatever it is, each chunk of data is called a file and has a place where it is stored for use when needed. We will be discussing files more fully as we progress.
Next I want to let you know about the mouse button clicks. Left click is the normal click to select any object; double-click is always to activate something. Right-click has only one purpose: that is to give you a menu. No matter what you put the mouse-arrow on, you can then right-click and get a menu related to that thing, even if it is only the desktop itself. Once the menu is visible you can do the normal left click on any command to select it.
To practise this you could now right-click on some of the icons on your Taskbar and choose "close" (that’s if you have some programs open). Then you could right-click on a blank area on the Taskbar and there are several options you might look at. First, if the "Lock Taskbar" is ticked I suggest that you untick it (this is so that you can manoeuvre the items later). Then repeat the process and hover the cursor over "Toolbars" – if it exists – which displays a sub-list. I recommend that you do not display any other toolbars. However, this is a personal choice and you can have as many bars as you want, but they all take up room on the Taskbar.
Now we will learn about "Dialogue" boxes; these are small windows which open and usually have several "tabs" across the top and each tab will have various options which can be selected. This is having a "dialogue" with the computer. After selecting any option you can select "Apply" or you can change a whole series of options and then select "OK". If you select "Cancel" before clicking "Apply" the action is not taken and the box closes. Clicking the top "X" has the same affect. It is not necessary to click both "Apply" and "OK"; they both apply your choices but the Apply button leaves the box open while OK closes it. Many dialogue boxes come from right-clicking an object and selecting 'properties'. Try it: right-click several items and click ‘properties’.
In Win 7 Right-click the Taskbar (or Start button) and choose "properties";in Win 10 choose “Settings”) to open the dialog box. In Win 7 you get several tabs at the top and some of the options from our earlier right-click menu are repeated here. In Win 10 you get categories down the left and the choices on the right. One option that you can look at is "Combine Taskbar buttons". If this is selected it will not show separate icons if you have several windows of the same program open; there will be only one icon on the taskbar and you will have to click it to change focus or to close one window. If the “combine” option is not selected, then every file or program that is open will have its own icon on the taskbar, with a label.
Desktop
The “start” button in Win 10 just has 4 white squares or windows with no text. Many people find going through Start/All Programs in order to locate their programs is a bit tedious so they like to have "shortcuts" on their desktop. Shortcuts are icons (normally on the desktop) which you double-click to open a program. There are several ways to get these shortcuts but probably the easiest is to get them from the Start menus. Open Start/All Programs and right-click-dragto the Desktop, the small icon for whichever program you wish to create the shortcut. Note that I said to drag with the right mouse button. Drop the icon anywhere on the vacant desktop and you immediately get a small menu. Choose "Copy here". Repeat this for as many programs as you wish.
Now your desktop will be starting to get a bit more crowded and you could have icons scattered all over (I hate this!!). You can drag them into neat columns in any order you wish and you can move them around at any time. You can also delete them and add more. Deleting a shortcut does not affect the program - a shortcut is simply a signpost to the program; it is not the program.
As useful as the above is, I find that once you get more than about 6-10 shortcuts they are not so easy to locate quickly. Apart from that the desktop can look very crowded - I have seen desktops with probably 60 icons scattered all over the place in no apparent order; I wonder how the user can find what they are looking for. In addition, if you have one or two programs open and you wish to access a shortcut, you need to minimise all the programs first because you cannot see the desktop. In Win 7 and aboveyoucan “Pin” items to the Taskbar or the Start Menu, which is tidier than putting icons on the desktop. I have my 8 most-used programs pinned to the Taskbar, and then about 20 others pinned to the Start menu.
There are a few other minor things you could change on your desktop. In Win7 & Win10when you right-click the desktopone of the menu items is ‘personalise’. From there you can change many of the settings for how your desktop behaves.
Under the "Display" option you can change the font size/scale for all icons and dialogue boxes. In Win 7, this can sometimes be further augmented under Settings/Display(bottomleft)/Change-display-settings/.
Musicback to top
You can listen to music on your PC if you have a sound card and speakers. Most PC's nowadays have both, but you need to turn the speakers on (I never turn mine off). The connections on the back of the PC are usually colour-coded as in the picture:
green=speakers;
pink=mic;
blue=line-in (eg stereo player).
Your music/sound can come from USB flash drives, CD's, DVD's, music stored on your PC, or from radio stations throughout the world (so News etc. is also available). By default Windows has its own "Windows Media Player" which is passable. But there are other programs available; I use "Winamp". They have a free version available (but may ask you to buy the commercial version). A good website to get radio stations is Mike's Radio World If you go to his Home page you will get even more choices. Playing music through the PC does not interfere with the operation of other programs - so you can type to Beethoven or the Beatles if you wish.
Task Manager
Task Manager (TM) is a useful help when you have PC problems. If a program should "freeze" you can kill it from TM, and not have to close Windows. If your PC is running slowly you can check which program is using all the resources. To open TM either right-click the taskbar and select TM or hit CTRL+ALT+DEL (hold down CTRL and ALT, then touch DEL).
There are several tabs across the top but only the first two are of interest to us. The first lists programs you have running and if one is frozen it will say "not responding". Select that one and click "End task". It will wait some seconds and then ask if you really want to do that and you say "yes". Win 10 changed the look of TM so some of the next paragraph is not fully applicable.
In the second tab are listed all the PC processes and they have several columns; you can sort the processes by any column just by clicking on the column name. So if you want a particular process sort them by name and it is easier to find. To find which programs are using resources click twice on the CPU column which shows percentage use. It will fluctuate and jump around a bit but you can see one or two programs that are using all the resources. "System Idle Process" is normal, but if some other program is using over 90% you might think of "End Process". But be careful, this is a potentially dangerous area and if you delete an essential process the PC will shut down or not function (till you restart). So if you don't know what the process is, it is best not to stop it. Generally "system" processes are essential. An example: my anti-virus program used to run "RTVSCAN.exe" which is "Real-Time Virus scan" and sometimes it took over to do a background check but used 99% of my resources and if I was trying to type it would take 10 seconds for the letters to appear. So I used to kill that process to let me get on with my work.
My Computer=This PC
A part of the desktop which I use a lot is the icon "This PC" (or “Computer”)– if you have put the icon there. This allows me to know at a glance what the PC has in the way of operating system and hardware. Right-click the icon and select "properties".
The properties dialogue box generally displays as “ControlPanel/System” plus four or more options in the left column. Clicking on these options opens details with additional information. The “Device Manager” lists all physical hardware installed. So you can see quickly what CD drives are installed, what sound card, what monitor, what network card etc. It marks with a yellow (or red) exclamation any hardware that is not functioning properly.
Simply double-clicking Computer opens Windows Explorer(known also as File Manager, – or “Finder” in Apple) - which we'll look at below. But it is a good place to find what hard-drives you have and what free space is available. In Win 7 when you open Computer it shows both left and right panes; the drives are listed as:
A:\ = the floppy drive - if you have one. Most modern computers omit them.
C:\ = the main drive where Windows and your programs are installed.
D:\ = could be a second Hard Disk Drive (HDD) or a CD-Rom drive.
E:\ and F:\. = could be any extra installed drive, either CD or HDD
The CD/DVD drives will have a little picture which looks like a CD. If you right-click on C: (and maybe D:) and choose "Properties" you will get a graphical view of how much of the drive is used and free.
Perhaps I had better explain what a "drive" is: it is simply a storage place. I presume it is so called because in the early days it was the thing which "drove" the computer. First we had only flexible "floppy" drives, then they developed rigid metallic drives so they were called "hard drives" and of course they were always "disks" hence the name HDD. Modern HDD's are a series of stacked disks like CD's enclosed in a sealed metal case and they can hold incredibly large amounts of data - 1000 gigabytes (Gb) is now considered small. The HDD is considered a permanent storage area, while CD's and USB’s are only temporary storage devices since we can remove them from the PC and that data is no longer available.