This manual is aimed at the person who:
Computers share similarities but are not identical. This manual is targeted at users of PC computers running Windows. If you are not in this category, you may still benefit, but your time would probably be better spent reading something else.
Keep in mind that Windows and other software programs can be customized, so your screen may look different from someone else’s even though you both run the same software. Everything will be there somewhere, but you might have to search for it. I will tell you where, in general, to look.
There is much more to PC’s than most users need to know. There are always more tricks to learn, and doubtless you will pick up many over time. My goal is your self-sufficiency.
I chose topics to help you avoid some common pitfalls and have enough information to perform basic tasks with a minimum of frustration, in most any software application. At the same time, I tried to keep this comfortably short. There are plenty of books already that cover these topics in greater depth.
To help you find additional information when you need it, this document tells you how to access the Windows and application-specific help menus. I also list some websites that provide a wealth of information and tell you how to use an Internet search engine to best advantage.
Some features covered here may seem obvious, but I include them because some users survive for years by figuring out ways around them or omitting them entirely. ”Backup” is perhaps the best example of something that most people at least understand in principle but often put off learning or applying, to their own eventual detriment. Another example is changing your display settings. If you did not know you had that option, you could still use your computer just fine, but perhaps less comfortably, due to unnecessary eye stress. If you use this little book as a reference, you will save yourself a good deal of time in the long run and/or you will make your computer more pleasant to use.
Browse the Table of Contents so you will be familiar with the topics we cover. If you are using this in e-book format, you can click on a topic to go directly to it. Then you can click the button (usually an arrow pointing to the left) to return to where you were in the Table of Contents so you can jump to another topic.
Although you can read it from beginning to end, this guide will probably be more useful if you pick a topic or two at a time according to your immediate need or interest. Keep it handy and review the Table of Contents occasionally to remind yourself of what else you ought to learn to keep your system running smoothly and increase your own efficiency.
If you have a basic question that the guide overlooks, please let us know. If it is likely to affect other nontechnical users, we would be happy to help you (as time permits). It will help us to improve the next edition!
This is a draft, and I have not put all of the formatting in yet. Sorry. The paragraph below will be true eventually, but is not always the case right now.
When you see text in it is a menu choice or toolbar button. To represent several menu choices in sequence, an arrow is shown between them. For example: . If it is brown, like this, it is a folder or an icon on your desktop. Italicized text in purple, like this, is the name of a key on your keyboard. A plus sign (+) between two keys means you press the first down and keep it down while you press the second, like the way you use the Shift key on a typewriter. (For example, Ctrl+Alt+Esc means hold down the Ctrl key, hold down the Alt key, and finally push the Esc key. Then let them go all at once, unless instructed otherwise.) Finally, text you need to type is in bold and a different font style (Courier New), like this
and usually indented, like this.
It is possible to change the mouse buttons for left-handed users. See ”Mouse” under the section, “Take Control of your Settings” (subheading, ”Settings Reached via the Control Panel.”). This document assumes the default configuration. If someone switched the buttons, click the other one instead, of course.
Before we discuss solid definitions, let us ponder the correct name for the box that everything else plugs into, the box with the metallic brain. Inside this box are the motherboard and attached cards, all of which have a whole bunch of little circuits and other strange metal things on them. Easier to say what it is not: not the keyboard, monitor, speakers, mouse, printer, external drive, scanner, etc.
Back in the 1980’s, I was sure it was called the “CPU,” the acronym for ”central processing unit.” Technically, the CPU is a piece of hardware plugged into the motherboard. Its job is to process machine instructions. But now what will we call the box?
You will notice that advertisers often call the box the “computer.” The price looks really good until you read in the fine print, ”monitor not included.” So the term “computer” does not necessarily include the monitor. Sellers usually do include a keyboard, mouse and cheap speakers, however.
Another alternative is ”system unit.” This strikes me as equally unsatisfactory. If I say, “Plug the phone cord into the back of the computer,” most people will look for the receptacle on this box we are here pondering instead of looking on the monitor. If I say, ”Plug it into the system unit,” many will wonder what I am talking about. For most purposes, we can avoid a special label for the brainy box, but I will occasionally call it the “system unit” for lack of a better term.
Humor the brand new computer owner who is afraid to take that computer out of the box. He or she will be embarrassed to have to ask, ”How do you turn it on?” I have been asked enough that I think it worth including, and the rest of you should not snigger.
Simply put, the computer is plugged in and you turn it on by pressing the power switch on the front of the system unit (often conveniently labeled “POWER,” though it may simply have the symbol of a circle around a vertical line). (Macintosh users may be used to having the power switch on the keyboard instead.) Since the monitor is almost never plugged into the back of the system unit anymore, you also need to turn on the monitor. In fact, you should turn the monitor on first (at the same time is OK, too) because that enables the rest of the computer to recognize it and use the right settings for optimal screen clarity. If the ”on” indicator light on the front of the monitor is lit, the monitor is already on, though it may be in “standby” mode and otherwise look off.
After using computers for twenty years, I still find them mysterious. Like the automobile, however, the more technical details do not have to be understood in order to use it effectively. As you get used to its normal screen displays and sounds, just as you got used to the normal sounds and dial readings of your car, you will know when something is amiss.
You will notice that when you turn it on, the computer takes longer to get ready than your TV does. Why? Because it performs a lot of diagnostic self-testing and also starts up software in the background, such as the Windows operating system and electives like virus scanning software. As computers have been made faster, software has been made to do more, so sometimes it may seem that your ”fast” computer is not so much faster than the old one. Perhaps it is still running in circles, but if so, it travels many more of them than it used to.
Most of the time, you want the computer to run the Windows operating system and other programs and files off your hard drive (usually located inside where you cannot see it). When you buy a new computer system, often the operating system and many other programs will already have been copied to the hard drive that comes with it. But what if the hard drive stops working? You cannot simply install a new, blank hard drive and expect the system to work, because the software will not be there. The software must be copied or “installed,” either from another (working) hard drive, a CD-ROM drive, a tape, or (rarely, these days) a (”floppy”) diskette drive.
Many computers are set up to look for the operating system first on the CD-ROM and diskette drives and last on the hard drive. (This may be under your control if you know how to change the boot drive in your CMOS settings, a later topic.) The assumption is that if removable media is present, you want the computer to run the operating system off that diskette or CD-ROM. However, if a CD or diskette is present but does not have the operating system on it, the computer will stop and give you the message that you should replace that diskette or CD with one containing the operating system.
Most of the time, you really meant to boot up from the hard drive, and the simplest solution is to remove the removable media and press the Enter key or click . Then the computer will discover the operating system on the hard drive and continue.
It is safest to wait until the computer has stopped doing its thing before you start clicking on icons or typing. Soon you will recognize what happens after you turn on the computer (even if you don’t understand it) and you will know when it has finished. I rarely wait myself, and usually everything is fine. But occasionally I manage to hang the system and have to start all over.
Prudent users walk away from the computer immediately after turning it on to avoid both temptation and frustration. Make your cup of coffee after you press the power switch, then come back and sit down.
Some people recommend that you leave your computer running all the time. This is because powering up puts more stress on your hardware than most anything else you might do. However, some of us don’t want to listen to the fan inside the computer box all night long. Also, if you will not be using the computer for a few days, you are subject to frequent power outages, there is a lightning storm raging nearby, or you need to suffocate it with plastic because the roof leaks or winged critters have entered the building, you will definitely want to turn it off.
The graceful way to instill sweet dreams in your system:
If you do not follow the above procedure, you will regret it next time you turn on the computer. Windows will chastise you with a message telling you it must scan files because you did not shut down properly. If you left files open, you could have lost your most recent changes. Sometimes the system hanged or you kicked the plug out of the wall by mistake (see below), but guilty or not, you will have to wait while the system cleans itself up.
When power is cut off, it is like pushing the power switch, except that the power may not cut off gracefully - you know how the lights flicker sometimes before they finally die? When the computer is fed juice again (no, never pour liquids into your computer), it can be like turning the power switch on; the computer may start booting up. Normally, you should let the computer come all the way up before you turn it off again. However, if the power is going haywire, it is best to unplug the computer. Repeatedly going off and on is bad for your hard drive in particular.
When you boot up again, expect Windows to scold you for failing to shut down properly. Don’t take it personally. Just be calm and let Windows work it out. Usually everything is fine. Sometimes you lose your most recent changes to the file you were working on, but you will learn how to avoid most of that by reading the backup section of this booklet.
It is common, when installing new software or upgrades, to receive a message at the end telling you that you need to restart the computer. It will typically give you the choice to restart it immediately or to skip it for now. Either way, you should not - and may not be able to - use the new software until you reboot the system.
You can delay restarting the system if you have other things you want to do first. Then, when you are ready:
Another reason to restart the system is that you are having trouble getting something to work right. Sometimes restarting the system will resolve problems like the printer or another device not responding or software misbehaving.
If you are finished with the computer, you do not have to restart it. Just shut it down completely and then turn the system back on later, following the procedures in “Normal Power Down,” above.
You are working merrily along, when all of a sudden, neither the keyboard nor the mouse seem to work. If you see the hourglass next to or in place of the mouse’s pointer, the system is busy. Wait a little until it finishes.
When you become familiar with the time it takes the computer to do various tasks, you will have a good guess about how long is too long. When you have waited too long, you can assume the computer is ”hung” or “hung up.” If there is no hourglass, yet nothing is working, you do not usually have to wait more than 60 seconds before it is reasonable to assume the computer is hung up.
There are several common reasons your PC might hang. A small power fluctuation or a bad connection from the keyboard can cause it. If it is a bad connection, restarting the computer probably won’t solve the problem. Check all the connections.
You may notice over time that whenever you run certain programs at the same time, the computer hangs more often. In such a case, it is likely that for some reason the two programs are somewhat incompatible, perhaps trying to use the same spot in working memory. Most of the time, such incompatibilities just make the computer hang once in awhile, and, if you like both programs, you decide to put up with it. Check each company’s website periodically for updates; they may fix the problem eventually. (See ”Upgrading and Updating Your Software,” below.) Some incompatibilities are serious enough to warrant uninstalling one of the programs. (See “Uninstalling Software,” below.)
There are three keys which work magic together: Ctrl, Alt and Delete (sometimes labeled Del). Now, the Alt key is special in that, when you press it by itself, it selects the main menu at the top of the page. We will get to that function in “Standard Functions, the Main Menu and Toolbars,” below. Otherwise, it is used in the same manner as the Shift key on any keyboard. The Ctrl key also works this way. You hold it down and keep it down while you press another key. So to use our three magic keys together, it does not matter whether you press Ctrl or Alt first, but keep holding both keys down while you press Delete. (The first two keys are at the bottom of the keyboard. Delete is by the arrow keys.)
This normally brings up a window titled, ”Windows Task Manager” (in Windows XP) or “Close Program,” which has a list of all active programs. In Windows XP, click the tab to see the active programs. If you reach this window successfully, you can skip the next paragraph.
If you cannot get anything to happen by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete together, try it again (that is, hold down Ctrl, keep it down and press Alt, keep those two down and press Delete). If still nothing happens, your only options are to press the reset switch (if you have one - some computers do not) or, failing that, to turn off the power switch, count slowly to ten to give your head a chance to stop spinning (whoops - that’s the disk that spins on your hard drive(s) and CD-ROM and/or DVD drives), and then turn it on again. Windows will give you the usual insult about shutting down properly and perform its restoration.
If you did get to the ”Task Manager” or “Close Program” window, you will usually see that the top program is highlighted, though it may be one further down the list. It also may say, ”(Not Responding)” after it. Usually, though not always, if you click the (in XP) or button to close the program, it will free up your system.
Sometimes you need to close several programs before everything works again. Sometimes you will be unable to close a program. Sometimes closing other programs first will solve the problem, giving you a clue about which program was in conflict with the nonresponsive one. If all else fails, you need to restart or shut down the computer (which is often a good idea anyway, just to clear the computer's memory and start fresh). is a Task Manager menu option in XP and a button at the bottom of the “Close Program” window in older versions. You can also usually restart the computer by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete a second time.
Once your system is freed up, most of the time you can reopen whatever you were using and continue working without further trouble. If you continue to have problems, restart your system yet again. Usually twice is enough. After three times, suspect something more serious.
There are five things you can do with a basic mouse: point, (left) click, double click (with the left button), right click, and drag and drop. (Some mouses have middle buttons and you can often assign a function to that extra button, but we won’t go into that here.)
Drag and drop is actually a combination of actions: First you select what you want (and how you highlight it to select it depends on what it is), then you put the mouse pointer over it and hold the left mouse button down while you move the mouse pointer to where you want it to end up, and finally you release the left mouse button to ”drop” it to its new location. If you hold the Ctrl key down while you drag and drop, you will create a copy in the new location instead of actually moving the original. You can drag and drop icons, text, files, folders, and windows, among other things.
Normally, when you are told to click on something, what is meant is that you push down and then release the left mouse button. You may have discovered that when you click the right button instead, you get a little menu, technically called “the shortcut menu.” What is on the menu depends on where your mouse pointer is when you click it. Try the right mouse button inside windows and boxes, on icons, and on toolbars. You will find useful shortcuts.
Sometimes clicking is not enough; you must ”double-click.” The timing for this can be tricky. Fortunately, it can be changed, even to require only a single click if you prefer. If you are left-handed, you may wish to switch the roles of the left and right mouse buttons. Or maybe the mouse pointer moves too fast or too slowly for you. To learn how to train your mouse, see “Take Control of your Settings” and the subheading, ”Settings Reached via the Control Panel.”
Make your visual display work for you. Click the button in the upper right corner of the window (just left of the button) to make a window fill the entire screen . When the window is already maximized, the button appears in place of the button. Click the button (just left of the button) to make the window temporarily disappear without closing the file or application. Make it reappear by clicking the appropriate little rectangle for it in the Windows Taskbar (usually at the very bottom of the entire screen).
The button changes the screen size back to a “normal window,” a rather misleading term, especially since the size of it can be changed. Do the following and you will see how ”normal windows” can be used to great advantage:
You can move and copy more than just text. Open My Computer (or for older Windows) twice, open a different folder in each window, and drag files or folders from one window to the other. To be safe, use files you created just for testing or be sure to drag them back again before you close the windows (unless of course you really want the files in their new locations instead).
Also play with cascading and tiling windows. You can sometimes do this for files open within the same application (as in Excel) by clicking from the main menu and then or something similar, leading ultimately, perhaps, to choices like , , or . Try them and see what happens.
Try arranging windows of various applications together by right clicking a blank area of the Windows Taskbar and selecting or . Then undo the arangement by right clicking the Taskbar and selecting . Note that Windows only attempts to tile windows that are not minimized.
A directory is a name for a group of files and/or subdirectories. ”Folder” on the computer means the same thing. For conceptual purposes, think of your hard (or any other) drive as a filing cabinet. Inside are many folders. In virtual reality, many, many folders can fit inside other folders. Some folders even have magic portals, called “short cuts,” through which you can jump suddenly to another file or folder, but we’ll get to that in a bit.
A path is the name of the main folder or directory and all the subfolders/subdirectories that lead to a given file. There is a strict convention for naming paths. Each level of directory is separated from its subdirectories and/or files by a backslash (\). There is one directory which is like having no filing cabinet at all. It is referred to as the ”root directory.” Files can and do reside there, as do the highest-level folders. The root directory simply has the backslash with no name.
Let me give you an example:
c:\Program Files\MSWorks\Documents\LetterWilliamson.wks
The full pathname in the above example indicates that the file “LetterWilliamson.wks” is located on the ”C” drive in the “Documents” (sub)folder of the ”MSWorks” (sub)folder of the “Program Files” folder.
If a file of the same name were located in the root directory of the same drive, the full pathname would be:
c:\LetterWilliamson.wks
The letter and colon that begin the full path name is the name of the physical drive where the file is found. It could be a hard drive, disk drive, tape drive, CD-ROM drive, DVD-drive, camera, scanner, or anything else. The convention is that the letters ”A” and “B” are used for diskette (or ”floppy disk”) drives, “C” is used for the main hard drive, and other devices are named starting with ”D.” The “D” drive could be a second hard drive, a CD-ROM drive, or anything else. Usually the diskette and hard drives are assigned letter names before other types. (If your hard drive is partitioned, each partition will have its own drive letter - each partition is a ”virtual drive.”)
A full path name starts with the device letter, then a colon, then the directory, a backslash, any subdirectory names in order, each followed by a backslash, and finally the file name.
File names almost always end with a period and then three more characters, called the “extension.” Usually when you give your files a name, you do not include the extension, but the software program you are using tacks it on the end to identify the software used to create it. This extension tells Windows what program to run when you double click on a file to open it. For this reason, it is usually better not to add extensions yourself and let the software program handle it. (The file above was named ”LetterWilliamson” by its creator and Microsoft Works added the “.wks” extension.)
You may not see the extensions for most of the files on your system because Windows is hiding them from you. You can change this. See ”Display File Extensions” under “How to Tell the Computer which Program is Right for the Job.”
Programs sometimes seem to have their own ideas about where to store your file. Usually they have a ”default” directory, the place where they store files unless you tell them otherwise. You will see the name of the directory in a box when you first name the file, but that directory you see may actually be a subdirectory of another directory. If you only access your file from the one program that created it, this is not a problem, because the program will look first in the default directory anyway. But one day you may decide to put some files in another place, or you may wish to access a file from a different program, and you will need to be able to find it. We will discuss finding files under “Finding Your Way Around,” below.
By the way, the trend for some years has been for programs to place your creations in the ”My Documents” folder or a related subfolder, such as “My Music” and ”My Pictures.” The “My Documents” folder itself is often not in the root directory, but rather is a subfolder of another folder or even buried several folders down. If several people use the same computer under different user names, there will probably be a separate ”My Documents” folder for each of them, each located in a separate personal folder. Windows shows you a shortcut directly to “My Documents” in the Start Menu and Windows chooses which ”My Documents” folder to show you based upon your user login name. Many people are not aware of this, and it can cause confusion. You can see exactly where “My Documents” is located by using the Windows ”Search” or “Find” feature, described under ”Finding Your Way Around,”, below.
The file name at the top of your application is usually just the short name, not the full path name. This fact makes it easy to save a file without knowing where it is. Although the “Save As” dialog box will show you the name of the current subdirectory if you know where to look, you still do not see the full path name. You can, however - just click the downward-pointing triangle next to the ”Save in:” box to show a diagram of the folders in which you find yourself and to pick a different folder.
When you lose a file, use the Windows “Search” function (or ”Find” in older Windows versions) to find it. See “Finding Your Way Around,” below.
Any file or directory can have a ”shortcut” created for it. This includes programs, which are files, too. A shortcut is simply an icon with instructions for jumping to the file or directory it represents. Shortcuts are most often found on the desktop (see next section) but are also common in the startup menu and toolbars. They may also simply reside within another directory. You do not have to remember the directory path if you have a shortcut to it; simply double click the icon and you are taken right there.
For how to make your own shortcuts or find out the pathname for an existing shortcut, see “Creating a Shortcut” under ”File Management,” below.
This is the screen Windows shows you when you are not running any other application. Often when you install software, you are asked if you would like an icon for it placed on the Desktop. Some people keep their desktops tidy; others cover them with stuff. Regarding Windows, it often pays to keep things on the Desktop because you can double click it and go immediately to the program, directory, or file it represents.
To find information about the program you are running, click Help on the main menu within the application, and then click About [program name]. It will show you the program name and version number.
There are probably icons on the desktop which lead straight into many programs you want to use. You may also find them by clicking the Start button. This brings up the “Quick Start” menu, which has a section at the top for programs which you want to be able to reach quickly. Most programs, whether or not they have icons on the desktop or entries in the Quick Start menu, can be found by clicking Start Programs. If you don’t see it listed on that submenu, try choosing Start Programs Accessories (at the top of the same submenu).
Regardless of shortcuts and the actual location, often the easiest way to find a lost program is to run a ”find” on its name (next section). Usually programs are stored in subdirectories or files of the same name, but not always. Sometimes they are stored in a directory named after the company that created the software. Fortunately, a “find” will pull up folders or directories as well as files.
Even if you only know part of the name, you can find the location of any file or folder by clicking Start Search All Files or Folders (or Start Find Files or Folders in older versions). Notice the box labeled ”Look in.” If you know it is in a particular directory, entering that in the box will save time because the “find” function will limit itself to that directory. If you do not know, enter the drive you want to search, i.e., ”C:”. (You can click the triangle next to the box or, in older Windows, the Browse… button under it for a selection of drives and directories instead of typing it in.)
If you put in the part of the name you are sure of, then click Find Now, this feature will find all files containing that string of letters or other characters. The list that results will show the full directory path. If you double click on the name in the list, Windows will open that file or folder.
Besides help accessed within and for an application, there is Windows and system help. Click Start Help and Support (or Start Help). Often this help documentation will not only tell you how to do something but also will offer you a link to take you straight into the function you wish to run. (My favorite entry for searching the help index used to be “maintenance” because I could never remember how to get into that program otherwise. Within the help window was the option: ”Click here to start the Maintenance wizard.”) Microsoft has additional help on the web at http://www.microsoft.com/. Other software companies usually have help at their websites, too, including answers to frequently asked questions (FAQ’s), troubleshooting, and contact information.
See how to reach application-level help under the “Help” entry in The Most Common Main Menu Options (under the main heading, Standard Functions, the Main Menu and Toolbars).
The Windows Taskbar contains the all-important Start button, the System Tray, and, depending upon whether they are turned on or off, the Links, Address, Desktop, and Quick Launch toolbars.
Once the Quick Launch toolbar is open, you can drag icons, programs and even files to it so that they are always handy. It is better to drag a shortcut to the toolbar instead of the actual file. That way if you decide to remove it later, you will only be removing a shortcut, not a program file.
Follow the same procedure to turn it off or on again.
First create the shortcut. See ”Creating a Shortcut” under “File Management,” below.
To move a shortcut to the Quick Launch Toolbar on the Taskbar:
Over the years, programmers and companies have more or less standardized on how to reach functions within a software program. With a few exceptions, all functions can be accessed through the main menu, which is usually at the top of the screen. Below the main menu are various toolbars, which contain shortcuts to some of the same functions. The toolbars give you the advantage of quicker access to the most commonly used functions.
When you look at each submenu that appears when you click a main menu item, you may see that some options have a function key or key combination shown on the right side. Use these keyboard shortcuts when your hands are already on the keyboard to save time. Memorize them and astound your friends.
If you see two ”v’s” on the menu (something like this: ), there are options which are hidden because they are not used as often. Simply hold the pointer over these “arrows” (or wait awhile with the menu showing) and the rest of the choices will appear. (Not all applications hide some of the choices in this way.) Toolbars may also have hidden options, and you can find them by clicking the right-pointing arrowheads (sideways ”v’s”) above the downward-pointing triangle, which look something like this:
Personally, I hate hidden options and recommend that you change your settings so that all menu commands show. You can also rearrange your toolbars so that all their icons have room to display at once. See Stop Hiding under Take Control of your Settings, below.
(Yes, there is a way. But I'll have to look it up. Like I said, this is a DRAFT.)
You do not have to use the mouse to select initial options on the main menu. Simply press and release the Alt key and then press the underlined letter for the function.
Note for Windows XP users: You may not see any letters underlined unless you press the Alt key. Fortunately, you can change this. See Show Underlined Letters for Menu Selection under Take Control of your Settings, below.
The list below is by no means complete, but it will give you an idea of how the main menu options tend to be organized. The specifics always depend upon the capabilities and purpose of any given software application.
Applications usually have at least one and often many toolbars. Some may pop up automatically when you are performing a function that might use them. For example, when I am in Microsoft Word and decide to insert a drawing, the drawing toolbar pops up without my intervention. These toolbars contain options for quick selection.
Programs with only one or two toolbars probably display them all the time and do not have options for hiding them. With more complex programs, you can make toolbars appear and disappear by right-clicking a blank area on a toolbar or by clicking on the main menu: View Toolbars. Clicking a toolbar name toggles between checked and not checked, which makes it appear or disappear.
You can drag toolbars around by putting the mouse pointer over the vertical bar at the left end, if the toolbar is horizontal, or the horizontal bar at the top, if the toolbar is vertical. When you drag it to the top, bottom, or a side of the screen, it will ”dock” there and spread itself into a single row or column along that edge. Thus, you can get it out of your way and put it where you like it.
There is more information on toolbars under Take Control of your Settings, specifically: Show all Icons on a Toolbar and Customize your Toolbars.
It is good practice to save your work frequently in case someone trips over your power cord. Some applications save temporary copies so they can restore most of your work after just such a disaster, but your best guarantee is still to save it as a permanent copy any time you can’t stand to loose what you did since the last time you saved it. Besides choosing File Save, you can also simply click the Standard Toolbar icon which looks like a diskette or use the shortcut key combination, Ctrl+S (hold down the Ctrl key while you press the letter S on the keyboard). These shortcuts seem to be universal in applications because saving your work frequently is essential.
Sometimes you will want to save it under a new name, preserving the old version under the old name. In this case, choose File Save As. You might want to do this before you make changes so that you will not pick the wrong Save and copy the new version over the old one.
Some applications have an option for automatically saving a backup copy. (In MS Word, look under Tools Options Save.) This usually means that when you save changes, the previous version is saved under another name, typically right on the same disk (usually the hard drive). It saves you if you make a mistake which you cannot “undo” (see ”Standard Functions and the Main Menu,” above, under “Edit”). For example, you may completely rewrite two paragraphs, only to realize that you left an important sentence out of the latest version. With the backup function on, it is easy to copy the desired sentence from the previous version to the new version. Normally you can only go back one version this way. However, I know of several software programs which can create a sequential backup copy for any files you choose, on any device you specify, every time you save your work. You can then look at many older versions. I discuss this more in ”Backup,” below.
Extremely rarely, a system failure (which could just be a power outage) while you are working may render the file you were working on unusable. The backup copy, however, would be untouched, though it would not have the very last changes. Such file corruptions are unlikely these days, as Windows has become very sophisticated about saving temporary copies while you work and using them to restore your file automatically if a problem occurs.
You will also want to back up your work to another device regularly. See “Backup,” below.
As previously mentioned, choosing File from the main menu has the Print option. If you only want to print a single copy of the whole file, you can also print by clicking on the icon of the printer (usually found near the icon of the diskette for Save, on the same toolbar). Choosing it from the File menu allows you to specify number of copies, which pages, and other options. You can see what the printed page will look like in advance by choosing Print Preview off the File menu before actually printing it (or click the icon that looks like a magnifying glass over a sheet of paper).
Choose Start Printers and Faxes Printers (or in older Windows, Start Settings Printers). Double click on the name of the printer you are using to bring up the status window. There it will show which files are queued for print and which one is currently printing. The Printer option on the status window menu allows you to Pause printing, Purge all files queued to print, or select Properties to go to special options like maintenance and settings. The Document option allows you to Cancel or Pause just one file queued for printing. Other options depend on the features of your printer.
You can make a shortcut to the printer status window by reaching the icon for the printer as above, but then instead of opening its status window, right click on the printer icon to bring up the short menu. Click . The system will respond with the message, ”Windows cannot create a shortcut here. Do you want the shortcut to be placed on the desktop instead?” Click and it will appear on the desktop.
Printers come with software diskettes or CD’s containing information that your computer will need to access the printer. This information is called the ”driver,” perhaps because it lets the computer “drive” the printer. They also come with instructions, so I will not discuss software installation here. Once the printer is connected somehow to your computer (whether directly, through a network, or through some sort of routing box which allows computers to share printers) and the driver software is installed on your system, you should be able to use it.
When you go to print, look at the ”Name:” box at the top of the print window. If the printer you want to use is not the one in the box, click the downward-pointing triangle to the right of the box. You should see the printer you want (assuming it was correctly installed). Click that one so it moves to the “Name:” box. Now your file will print on that printer.
“My Computer” and its predecessor, ”Windows Explorer,” are file management utilities that list your drives, folders, subfolders, and files. They also have shortcuts to other system information and settings, but in this section we are concerned only with file management. Older versions of Windows often installed with the Windows Explorer icon on the desktop. The latest versions have improved My Computer to take over all the functions of Windows Explorer so that the latter is no longer needed (although you can still find a Start Menu option for it buried several subfolders deep, if you look hard enough).
Window ME and XP show My Computer under the Start Menu, reached via the Start button (lower left corner of the screen unless somebody moved it) or by pressing the Windows key (or Ctrl+Esc if you lack a Windows key). If you cannot find it on the Start Menu, choose Start Programs. If it is not there, try Start Programs Accessories.
Wherever you find it, you can create a shortcut by right clicking the My Computer (or Windows Explorer) icon and selecting , or , or , depending on your version of Windows and where you find it. If your shortcut is not created on the desktop, you may need to click-and-drag it there.
By the way, if you have Windows ME or later, try out the Folders button on the My Computer toolbar. (If you previously used an older version, note that this new Folders window makes My Computer so much like Windows Explorer that the latter is no longer needed.) Whichever you use, you can see a list of folders in the left window at the same time you view folders and files in the other window. This is very useful when copying or moving from one folder to another. Be sure to try clicking on the plus (+) sign next to any folders that have it and then the minus (-) sign that next appears. Clicking on these symbols toggles between showing more and less detail.
As already mentioned under “Saving Your Work,” you can save an open file under a new name without changing the old version by picking File Save As from the main menu within the application. There are other ways to copy a file under a new name without opening it, however. Basically, any time you have a list of files, you can click one with the right mouse key to bring up the ”short menu” and then choose .
If you then right click a blank area of the file window to bring up the short menu again, you can pick . If you moved to a different folder first, the new file will have the same name as the old. If you remained in the original folder, the copy will be called, “Copy of filename,” where filename will be the name of the original file. If ”Copy of filename” is highlighted and the cursor is positioned within it, you can then type a new name and press Enter to rename it. Otherwise, right-click the copy name, choose from the short menu, type in the new name, and press Enter.
I should warn you not to change the file extension - the part of the file name to the right of the period - unless you know what you are doing. See Display File Extensions under How to Tell the Computer which Program is Right for the Job, below.
Another way to copy files is to go into My Computer (or, alternatively, Windows Explorer; see Where did I Leave “My Computer?”, above). From here you can right-click file names as above, or you can single click a file to highlight it and then click on Edit on the main menu to bring up copy, cut and paste options, or click the icons directly on the ”standard buttons” toolbar for copy and paste.
When copying a file to a new location, renaming it is optional. Having two files of the same name is perfectly legitimate as long as they are not in the same location. They may or may not be identical files.
You can tell if two files are different by checking whether or not the revision times and file sizes match. You see these either by clicking View Details in My Computer or by right-clicking the file and selecting Properties off the short menu.
One way to copy a file is simply to use the Save As option within your program as covered in Copying under a New Name, above, but change the directory instead of the name. Click the drop-down arrow next to the “Save in:” box to change directories, or click on the Up One Level or Create New Folder icons, depending on where you want to save it
More often, you will want to copy and move multiple files at once to tidy up your computer, and this is best done from My Computer (or Windows Explorer). However, if you do not know where your file resides, use the Windows ”Search” (or “Find”) function instead. In My Computer, you have icons for Cut, Copy and Paste that work on files the same way these functions work within other applications on text and data. Once you have chosen to cut or copy, go to the directory where you want the files to end up and click Paste.
In Windows Search, you can still cut and copy, but you must go into Windows Explorer or My Computer in order to paste. You will notice, however, that there are no handy icons in Windows Search. Instead - and this works in My Computer and elsewhere also:
You may wish to create a brand new folder, which you can do at the same time you move, copy or create a new file. There are several ways to do this.
Before anything can be written to a diskette, it must be formatted. See below.
Copying to a diskette is otherwise the same as copying to a new directory (above), except that you must pick a directory on the diskette drive. This can be the root directory, the one simply called “(A:)”, ”3-1/2 Floppy (A:)”, or “A:\” (or ”B:\”), or it can have a folder name with or without subfolders following the drive name.
The formatting process checks the diskette for physical problems and then organizes it into sectors and indexes it, a process that allows files to be located quickly once they are added. Many diskettes come preformatted so that you can immediately copy files to them. Even so, you will sometimes want to format one over again to remove old files and start anew.
Diskette drives have long been a standard component of PC’s, although they are now fast growing obsolete. The use of tapes actually predates diskettes, but current tape technology includes drives primarily used for backup that far exceed diskettes in speed and capacity (except that, by their nature as tapes, the computer cannot jump around from one spot to another so easily). CD-ROM and the newer DVD technologies allow a great deal of storage capacity, quick access to files, and ever-increasing speeds with each new model. Please take note: There are read-only drives and read/write drives. You will need a read/write drive to create your own CD’s or DVD’s. As far as I know, all tape drives both read and write.
More notes: DVD-RAM is an entirely different format from DVD-R and DVD-RW. Also, not all DVD-ROM drives can read all media created by DVD-RW drives. The earliest drives probably will not be able to read media created by the newest high-capacity drives, although media created by a DVD+R/+RW drive is likely to be compatible with most DVD-ROM drives.
The bad news is that I cannot tell you exactly how to copy to one of these drives because there are too many variations in the software packages and hardware. You will have to experiment or (if desperate enough) read the “help” and/or other documentation that comes with the hardware and software. (Note that most such hardware comes with software for using it, but you may wish to purchase more advanced software for certain needs.)
In general, though, your computer must format the media before it can copy files to it. My bet is that if you right-click the drive letter in My Computer, you will see an option for formatting a CD or DVD. Some software will automatically format it when you insert unformatted media, so you will not need to take the extra step of instructing the computer to do so.
Some software is designed to ”burn a CD” or DVD by having you select all the files you will want on it first before it copies all of them and indexes the media so standard read-only drives can read it. Other software makes your CD drive look like a diskette drive in that you can drag files one at a time from your hard drive to it. This is called “packet-writing software,” because it writes the data in little chunks rather than as one long, continuous optical ”groove.” In general, read-only drives cannot read data created by packet-writing software until such software takes an extra step to index it specifically for standard read-only drives.
To confuse matters further, the discs themselves come in read/write (CD-RW, DVD-RW) and read-only (CD-R, DVD-R) forms. Once you fill up a CD-R disc, you cannot reuse it. Even it you delete something on a CD-R disk, you have only created a new index without the file in the latest index; the data has not really been deleted, and you cannot put another file in the same place. Read/write discs, on the other hand, can be erased and reused.
Note: See ”UninstallingSoftware” for how best to delete programs you no longer use. Simply deleting a program file may not remove associated files and programs that should be deleted at the same time.
You can delete files from within many different file-list windows very simply:
You can do this on files listed within My Computer or Windows Explorer, as well as from within the Windows “Search” function (see Finding Programs, above) and from the file lists within software.
Other ways, which work in many windows:
Or:
When you “delete” in any of these ways, your files are actually moved to the Recycle Bin. If you double click the Recycle Bin icon, you will see your files. They remain there until you either empty the Recycle Bin, delete individual files from within the Recycle Bin window (using the same delete techniques as above), or you restore a file. Once a file is deleted or emptied from the Recycle Bin, it is permanently deleted (more or less).
To restore a file from the Recycle Bin to its previous location:
(Alternatively you could left click the file to select it and then picked File Restore from the main menu.)
To empty the Recycle Bin (only do if you are sure you won’t want the files back):
Emptying the Recycle Bin can also be one of the tasks performed within Disk Cleanup, below.
For quicker access to a program, a file, or a particular folder, create a shortcut to it. Once created, shortcuts can be copied or moved just like files. One particularly useful place to drag a shortcut is the Quick Launch Toolbar on the Taskbar (see ”The Windows Taskbar,” below).
To create a shortcut:
For additional instructions, pull up Windows Help (Start Help and Support) and type ”shortcut” as the keyword in the window under the Search tab. (See “Help!” below.)
It is nice to have your files organized in some logical fashion. If you have forgotten what you named a file, it may be impossible to find it with a file name search. There are other ways - by date, type or size - but if you know where you stored it, you can simply browse that folder until you find it. Furthermore, keeping all your files in one or a few main folders, with subfolders inside those as needed, makes backing them up and archiving them much simpler. Finally, two or more people sharing a computer will probably want to keep at least some of their files separate.
To get on the Internet, you must connect to an Internet Service Provider. The usual way for individual PC’s to connect is through a normal voice phone line, although that has been changing rapidly with the growing availability of faster connections such as DSL, ISDN, cable (like your TV might use) and even satellite. A good source of information about what options exist in your area is your telephone book’s Yellow Pages under ”Internet Access.” “Dial-up” means traditional phone line ; ”high-speed” usually means something much faster and higher priced. You will probably also find high-speed connection options listed under “Television - Cable, Satellite & Web.”
Your ISP will help you configure your PC properly for connecting. Frequently it is as simple as running a setup CD they will give you. The Internet Settings subsection under Take Control of your Settings tells you how to reach your settings, but I will not attempt to explain what they all do, since that depends upon your ISP.
New computers often come with a utility to set you up with one of the major ISP’s. If so, you will probably see an icon for it on your Desktop. Just double click the icon and follow the instructions. Usually this is a free trial offer. If not, you can always cancel out of the setup program before you commit to paying any money. You or a friend may have also received free CD’s containing trial offers; just put the CD in your drive and it will usually start the setup program automatically.
By the way, don’t take the setup program’s word for it on which numbers are local. Leave the computer in the middle of setting up the ISP if you have to, and call your operator to verify that the number you are about to choose will not add long distance charges to your phone bill.
Another option is the Internet Connection Wizard that came with Windows. To reach it, click Start (All) Programs Accessories Communications New Connection Wizard (or Internet Connection Wizard).
Besides price, consider how many email accounts the ISP provides (especially if you have several family members, although once on the Web you will find plenty of offers for free email accounts ) and whether or not website space is included (usually less than five pages with a lowest-priced account). Having a small website can be a useful way to share pictures or other things with people far away, but, like anything else, you will have to spend some time learning how to use it.
Choosing an Internet Service Provider (ISP) for a dial-up account, in particular, is a relatively small matter. If you decide you have made the wrong choice, you can always cancel and try another. You may loose the money you have paid for a month or less of service, but this should not amount to more than $20 (unless you have a more expensive, high-speed connection).
Be sure to double-check with your telephone company about any dial-up number you will be using to connect. Make sure it is a local number. ISP’s share modem pools in remote locations so that even people in the middle of nowhere have a choice of ISP’s offering at least one local number.
Your computer probably came with Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. These are two programs you can run to interact with the Internet, once connected. They are called ”browsers” because they enable you to browse the Internet. They are not the only two, but they are the most used and can be downloaded for free. You can usually download others on a trial basis, such as Opera and NetCaptor. Their special features may be worth paying for if you browse the ’Net frequently.
A browser sends information from your PC to your ISP’s computer, which is called a “server” because it provides services to many other computers. The ISP’s server then passes the information on to the server hosting the website you requested. That website server sends back pictures, text, and perhaps other information, such as little program modules called ”aplets” that might handle specialized screen displays or logic for handling data you type into the screen. When something is sent back to your PC, your browser decodes it and makes it appear on your screen and/or play through your speakers.
Every computer connected to the Internet has an address. Your own PC’s address is dependent upon your ISP’s address. The Internet servers involved take care of the details, so the only thing you really need to know is something called the URL, which stands for “Uniform Resource Locator.” This is the cross-referenced name for the technical address of the website. It is what you type into the address window at the top of your browser. If you do not know the URL, you can use a search engine to find it.
A search engine is software that searches for files containing the keywords you give it. We are interested in Internet search engines, which, of course, search for files on the Internet. Browsers typically come with links to some major search engines; look for a Search icon at the top of the browser window. You can also type in the URL for the search engine’s web page. For example, typing www.google.com will take you to Google’s home page.
To get email, you do not actually need an email program on your computer. There are many free email offerings on the Internet. However, these emails stay on the Internet, so you cannot manipulate them later when you are no longer connected. You will also see advertising next to your emails. If you do not own a computer, such email accounts are particularly handy, as you can access them from any computer without the computer’s owner ever getting access to them.
Email software residing on your computer has several advantages. It downloads the email from your email server, usually deleting it from the server afterwards, and the email stays on your computer as soon as it is received. You only need to be connected for a relatively short time to receive the email. Then you can read it at your leisure without having to stay connected.
When sending a brand new message or a reply, it will go to your email program’s ”Outbox” and then, if or when you are connected to the Internet, messages from your Outbox will be uploaded to your email server and then passed on to the recipient’s server. Your email program may not send it immediately even if you are connected, as it usually sends and receives mail at set intervals (subject to settings you can control).
There are free email programs for your computer. Microsoft’s Outlook Express and Netscape’s Communicator are free and come with those companies’ free browsers. Eudora, Juno, and other companies also have free versions. Many ISP’s will give you a free email program with their setup software, although it may be an outdated version (Check the email company’s website to see if there is a more recent one.)
One advantage of Internet-resident email is that you can access it from different computers because it does not automatically get downloaded and then deleted. However, your PC-based email program probably has an option for leaving the email on the server so that you can view it later from a different machine.
Downloading is as simple as following the instruction, “click here to download.” Just as an Internet server sends you web pages to view in your browser, it can send you files to save on your hard drive.
If the website is reputable, the file you download is probably not a virus. However, it never hurts to scan it with anti-virus software before you open it.
Many files come in a compressed format. Some of these uncompress themselves automatically when you click them. Others require that you have a ”zip” utility to “unzip” it. Windows XP comes with its own zip/unzip utility, but previous versions of Windows do not. If you already have such a utility, it will probably start automatically when you click on the file. Otherwise, Windows will asks you what program to use to open it, a good clue that you probably need to get one. You can find zip utilities available on the Internet for downloading, usually with a limited time, free trial offer. The purchase price is usually not more than $35.
An upgrade has major changes (in the software company’s judgment) from the previous version of the program. An update usually has only minor changes, and most of these are to fix bugs, virus susceptibilities or design oversights. Updates are free and upgrades usually cost money. Update frequently so you will not be burdened with past programming mistakes. Upgrade when you have the money and the new features justify spending it.
Check the version number of your current software by opening the program and clicking Help About ____. (Your program’s name goes in the blank.) Go to the manufacturer’s website and look for information about available updates and upgrades. Compare their version numbers with yours. A difference in numbers to the left of the first period or decimal point represents an upgrade. Even if you do not want an available upgrade, there may still be free updates for the basic version you have.
Updates do not usually require large files, so most people download them directly from the manufacturer’s website. Upgrades are also frequently downloaded, but occasionally you will receive something in the box, such as printed documentation, that you might want, although you may be able to download this as well. Other reasons to buy a boxed version is to get it on CD, which can be useful in case you ever need to reinstall it, or to take advantage of a retailer’s sale price, which may be better than the price you get from the manufacturer.
Please note that you can also reach some of these options by an alternative route, but it is worth browsing the Control Panel to see what is there.
Click Start Control Panel (or, if you don’t see it there, try Start Settings Control Panel or Start My Computer Control Panel or click the My Computer icon from the desktop and then the Control Panel icon.) Here you will find all sorts of system options. If you have Windows XP, click Switch to Classic View from the ”Control Panel” link on the left side of the screen. (This will avoid some confusion in the discussion which follows, and there are not so many choices that grouping them by category is particularly helpful anyway.)
If you want to set the computer’s clock, for example, click on Date and Time (or Date/Time). The next screen is pretty self-explanatory, so I will not go into it. But I will draw your attention to some useful settings, by icon choice below, followed by some special notes on Internet-related settings.
Notice the box in the middle for trying out the new settings. Just click on the box and hold a letter down to see how long it takes it to start repeating and then how fast the duplicate letters appear. When you have speeds set as you want them, click Apply.
At the top of the window, you will see a tab labeled either Hardware or Language. You will not use this unless you have a specialized keyboard.
Click OK.
By the way, there is a shortcut to reaching the ”Display Properties” window: Right-click on a blank area of your Windows Desktop and then click on Properties.
Change what appears in the background behind the icons on the Windows Desktop. I’ll leave it to you to experiment with the options there. I will tell you that Browse (either in the drop-down “Theme:” box or as a separate button) is for locating your own file to use. If you do not have one, it will not do much for you.
This tab did not exist for older versions of windows. Instead, you changed the background of the desktop from the _____ tab. This tab also has options for changing standard Windows icons and removing icons that you do not use.
Note the two tabs within this option - General and Web. The latter was formerly located with the other top-level tabs. See below for more about the Web tab.
Choose the picture that comes on your screen after however many minutes you specify. The original purpose of the screen saver was to keep an image from burning into the monitor because it was left on the same screen for hours on end. Modern monitors do not appear have this problem, but it is nice to give your eyes a break from your work and keep others from reading it when you are not there.
Here you can change the overall color scheme for your windows. I leave it to you to experiment, but make a note of your initial settings before you start. If you are experiencing eyestrain, changing the colors may help. (When you are on the Internet, you can override a website’s color scheme with your own preferences. See “Getting on the Internet: Browsers,” above.)
In newer Windows, you will have an Effects button that leads to the choices previously found under the separate Effects tab, described below.
(Personally, I have found that long hours staring into a predominately-white screen bothers my eyes. It is rather like staring at a light bulb. I currently have my Windows color scheme set to ”plum,” which gives me a light tan-gray background instead of white.)
(This is a button off the Appearance tab in Windows XP.) Choose this to change the icons and their spacing. Again, make a note of the initial settings before you change them, just in case.
In Windows XP, this tab is found by first clicking the Desktop tab. In Windows 98, you need to click on the box beside, “View my active desktop as a web page,” in order to have material from the Internet downloaded to your desktop and updated there automatically. This option is not needed for later versions, so you will not see it. I will skip more details in this manual, but you may wish to research it further via the help function or on the Internet. (Try www.microsoft.com for starters.) Related choices in Windows 98 are under the Folder Options button and include an option for executing programs with a single rather than a double click.
Here you can change the number of colors and resolution used on your screen. Reasons you might go with fewer colors and fewer pixels include accommodating an older program or making your screen match somebody else’s when you are testing something, perhaps a website you are creating. You will find when you set it to more pixels, however, that everything on the screens may appear smaller. There are settings within Windows and many programs to make them larger again, however. Your monitor will handle some choices better than others. Some may make the monitor flicker.
There are several ways to select choices off the main and submenus within programs. One way is to press the underlined letter within the various options. (Now you know why some letters are underlined.) However, you may not see any letters underlined if you did not press the Alt key as the first step to access the menu. I thoroughly disagree with the logic behind this; I often begin with my mouse and then switch to the keyboard in the middle of menu selections, depending upon how far down the list I need to go.
Fortunately, you can fix it. Right click on a blank area of the desktop (or open the Control Panel, click Appearance and Themes - unless in Classic View - and double click the Display icon) and click on Properties, the Appearance tab, and then the Effects button. Click on the box next to ”Hide Underlined Letters for Keyboard Navigation Until I Press the Alt Key” to remove the check mark.
This is a matter of giving the toolbar room to express itself. When two toolbars share a row, there usually is not enough room to show all of the icons for both of them. You have to click on the “more” symbol at the end of the toolbar, which looks like a pair of sideways ”V’s” over a downward pointing triangle, to see the rest. Different options will be showing at different times, depending upon what you have been using. The most-used options will be visible, and you will have to click the “more” symbol to see them.
To show all of the options at once, drag the toolbar to a new location until all of it shows. Dragging toolbars is covered under , above.
As I am under the (perhaps erroneous) belief that only Microsoft Office comes with the active feature to hide your less-used menu commands until you click the double arrows to show them, I cover this in the next section.
Each program has options just for that application. In some software, such as Netscape, you reach the bulk of them by picking, Edit Preferences. In Microsoft programs, you will find most options under Tools Options and a few more under the View submenu. You will be able to figure out most of them simply by pulling up the options to see what is there.
In Microsoft Office, there are so many options that they added multiple tabs to the dialog box which comes up after you pick Tools Options. To add to the confusion, one of these is labeled, ”View,” which will not show you the same options as the View submenu directly off the main menu.
The Customize choice off the Tools submenu leads to the Toolbars and Commands tabs, which you use for customizing toolbars and creating your own. This is part of the great power of Microsoft Office, but similarly sophisticated applications to have a way to do this as well. If your program allows it, I heartily recommend that you learn how, as having toolbars customized to the work you do can save you a good deal of time. Here I will cover how to create and modify a new toolbar in Microsoft Office. It is not intuitively obvious, but it is not difficult, either.
If you do not like the way Microsoft Office 2000, 2002, and perhaps some other programs hide your less-used menu choices, change this setting. The default is unchecked. Microsoft has chosen to hide this option pretty well, too, by putting it where you would not be likely to look for it. Here’s the secret place: Inside your application, pick Tools, Customize to reach, yes, an Options tab. Click the box by “Always show full menus.”
I suppose the logic for putting the option here is that menus are functionally like toolbar icons, and the rest of the Customize window concerns customizing toolbars. Fortunately, once you change this option, you are not likely to ever want to change it back because it is so obnoxious the other way (in my humble opinion [IMHO], of course).
You may get tired of changing the size of the window every time you start up a particular program. You can change the default window size for any program initiated by a shortcut. To take advantage of this, you can also create new shortcuts rather than running the program directly.
I have found that when it is set to “normal window,” it usually comes up smaller than ”maximized,” but not always. “Maximized” means the window will fill the entire screen.
If you select ”minimized,” you will see a button on the task bar appear instead of a window. (The task bar is probably at the bottom of your screen unless you moved it.) This is especially useful for programs you designate to start automatically when Windows starts up (which I am not covering in this guide). When you are ready to enlarge it, just click on its button.
Perhaps you have had one of the following happen:
Why is the computer running the wrong program? Because somebody told it to, of course! The point is, the computer can learn new tricks.
The key to knowing what program will run when you double-click a file is to know what file extension is at the end of the file name. Windows correlates each extension with a default program for opening that file.
Although it is possible to name a file without an extension, most programs will tack on an extension unique to that program. Windows normally is set initially not to display the file extensions for file types it recognizes. Do yourself a favor: Change this setting and get used to seeing the file extensions. This will save you confusion later on.
To show file extensions:
If you have a file type that Windows does not recognize, the system will ask you what program you wish to use. You simply answer the question and go on. However, once the file type has been assigned, changing it is a bit of a trick.
Note: Click once on any you are unsure about to see the extension(s) in the ”File type details” box in the lower half of the window. It is the extension - the characters to the right of the period in a file name - that tell Windows which program should be used with that file.
When you install a new browser, either the setup program or the browser itself, when you run it the first time, will probably ask if you want to make it your default browser. You choose yes or no, and everything is fine until one day you decide you want to change it. The problem comes up every time you click a link from your email program that opens a window in the browser that is no longer your choice.
To change this, force the browser you want to ask you the question again.
To make Internet Explorer your default:
To make Netscape Navigator your default browser:
This is a bit trickier, as you do not do it from within Netscape but instead edit a special Javascript file in the Netscape directory.
If you click on the icon for your email program, of course the one you pick will run. You may still find a different email popping up, however, when your Internet browser decides to start it for you. If you use Internet Explorer, you can change this:
If you are using Netscape Navigator, there is no option there to pick anything other than Netscape Messenger. However, you can send yourself a “BCC” so you can save a copy of the message in your regular mail, as follows:
If you do not have an Internet account with an Internet Service Provider, see the section, Getting on the Internet, above. To change your default email or browser, see the previous section.
Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) will have to tell you what particular settings to use when you connect to the Internet through their system. If you have more than one ISP (or you want to test a different configuration for the same ISP), you will want to set up both configurations. See the next section for how to select one as the default for your browser and email programs.
Here is how you enter, view, or change those settings for all programs that initiate a dial-up connection.
Windows XP and ME:
Older Windows:
Another way to get to the same place:
In Windows XP, you can simply click .
Note that some parameters that relate directly to email or browsers are set from within those programs, discussed below.
You do not have to connect to the Internet before you start your browser or email program. The programs can be set up to make the connection automatically. You can either set this up by using the Internet Connection Wizard or by changing your settings in the individual programs involved.
Modem settings are beyond the scope of this document. However, if you want to see current settings, troubleshooting help and diagnostic information:
Older Windows
Again, the information is too technical for this document, but good references can be found on the Internet if you do a search for ”modem diagnostics” or “modem connection problems.”
You may want or need to change your CMOS settings to boot directly from a particular drive. Old computers will try to boot first from the ”A” drive if it has a disk in it, then the “C” drive. Newer computers search the drives in whatever order is specified in the CMOS settings, which you can change. If the first drive is not working or does not have a disk in it, the system will try to boot from the second boot device instead or, failing that, will boot from the third one specified in the CMOS settings. If the working drive has a disk in it that lacks the operating system, the computer will display an error message telling you to replace the disk with one containing the system files.
See the instructions that came with your computer for how to access the CMOS settings, or look for instructions on your screen immediately upon powering up your PC. You have to be quick about it, or the relevant message will disappear and you will have to reboot and look for it all over again. Once in the CMOS settings, look for something like ”advanced BIOS features.”
Your mouse will not work on these screens. Read the screen to see how you use the arrow, Enter, function (probably F10) and other keys to scroll and select your choices. On the next screen, look for something like “First boot device.” There should be a way to change from one drive to another here. Note that ”HDD-0” is your primary hard drive, not “HDD-1,” which is actually your second hard drive (if you have one). The other drive names should be obvious.
Be sure to keep track of any changes you make, in case you need to change them back later. Read the screen to see how to save your settings. Upon exiting CMOS, the computer will reboot with the new settings in place.
Your system will run better if you keep your hard drive tidy. One way to do this is to remove programs and files you no longer use. Files you may use again, but only rarely, can be archived, as discussed below. See ”UninstallingSoftware” for how best to delete programs you no longer use.
There are also maintenance tasks that are less obvious. These check your hard drive for errors (ScanDisk), remove temporary files that are no longer needed (Disk Cleanup), and rearrange the data on your hard drive so that accessing it is more efficient and quick (Defrag).
How often you need to run these depends upon how much time you use your computer and what you use it for. If you browse the Internet frequently, you will accummulate temporary Internet files, so you might want to run Disk Cleanup once a week. If your s