SeniorNet
Exploring
Windows
Lesson One: Windows
Welcome! This course on Exploring Windows Vista, comprised of eight lessons, is designed to be followed in an instructor-led classroom setting. You are encouraged to practice each lesson at home after you have taken it in class. A Student CD is provided which holds files you will use in later lessons.
If you are familiar with Windows XP – the predecessor of Vista - many things will be familiar to you and should become comfortable with Vista quite quickly. If your last computer had a version of Windows earlier than XP (such as ME or 98) or if you have limited experience with Windows-based computers, don’t worry; the pace of this course is set to accommodate you as well.
This first lesson covers the basics of
· Start, log on, log off and turn off Windows Vista
· Become familiar with the desktop and the parts of a window
· Control the size of a window, active and inactive windows.
· View your computer’s drives and storage devices
· Locate and start a program
· Understand the file and folder hierarchy
· Use Help and support
Contents Page
Objectives...................................................................................................................................... 1
Windows Vista.............................................................................................................................. 3
Turn on the computer................................................................................................................... 3
Start Windows Vista..................................................................................................................... 3
Log on............................................................................................................................................. 4
The Welcome Screen................................................................................................................... 4
Review the desktop...................................................................................................................... 6
Desktop.......................................................................................................................................... 6
Icons............................................................................................................................................... 6
Background................................................................................................................................... 7
Taskbar and its components....................................................................................................... 7
The sidebar and gadgets.............................................................................................................. 7
Pointer............................................................................................................................................ 8
Desktop management................................................................................................................... 8
Right-click the mouse button...................................................................................................... 8
The start button and menu........................................................................................................... 9
Locate a program using the
start menu...................................................................................... 9
Elements of a program window................................................................................................ 12
Minimize the window................................................................................................................ 13
Maximize the window............................................................................................................... 13
Restore the window.................................................................................................................... 14
Move the window around the
desktop.................................................................................... 14
Resize the window..................................................................................................................... 14
Close the program...................................................................................................................... 16
View your computer’s drives and
storage devices............................................................... 16
Search to find and launch a
program....................................................................................... 17
Folder hierarchy......................................................................................................................... 18
Close Windows Explorer.......................................................................................................... 20
Help and Support Center........................................................................................................... 20
Search for help............................................................................................................................ 21
Close Help................................................................................................................................... 23
Log off Windows........................................................................................................................ 23
Turn off the computer................................................................................................................ 25
Now you can............................................................................................................................... 25
Windows
Windows Vista was introduced by Microsoft in early 2007 and is the successor to Windows XP. Windows Vista is known as an “operating system”. It is the user interface to software programs and hardware that makes up your computer system. Earlier versions of Windows include Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, and Windows XP.
You are taking this course because you want to learn your way around Windows Vista and have either:
a) recently purchased a new Windows Vista-based computer or
b)
upgraded your old computer to run on
If you use the Home Basic version of
Turn on your computer if it isn’t already on. Most desktop computers have a button in front to turn it on. Some have a switch in the back. Notebook computers usually have the power button in the area above the keyboard.
Tip: the
international symbol for the power is 
. Find
the button with this symbol marked on or near it.
1 Push the computer’s Power button On.
2 If the monitor doesn’t turn on automatically, push the On button on your monitor also.
Start Windows
When you turn on the computer, you may see some words or a graphic on the computer screen. Your computer is performing certain self-checks, starting the Windows Vista operating system then launching key start-up programs.
After Windows Vista has loaded, a logon screen will appear similar to that shown in Figure 1.1 (there may be more than one user account icon on your screen).
Figure 1.1
You can set up more than one user account on your computer; for example, you can have two accounts: one for you and one for your spouse. Each user account is assigned a name or logon and may or may not be assigned a password. For each user account, you can modify the settings and appearance of the desktop, menus and programs. As well, each user account stores documents in a separate place so you and your spouse can maintain separate and independent computing environments on a single computer. It is all a matter of who is logged as the active user.
1 Click the icon for the assigned logon name and type the password, if prompted. User settings, adding new users and changing user characteristics such as passwords are set by the computer administrator (that is you on your home machine or the instructor in class) and will be discussed in Lesson Seven.
Once you log on, you may see the Welcome screen as shown in Figure 1.2. This screen appears
when you start Windows Vista unless it is turned off by the system
administrator (in your
Note: To
prevent the Welcome screen from appearing in future, click the box at the
bottom of the window “Run at Startup…” to remove the check mark. Do not do this
in the
Figure 1.2 Welcome Screen
1 Click the X at the top right corner of this window to close the Welcome screen.
The desktop now appears with the settings for that user account applied to the working environment. The layout of your computer’s screen will look similar to the one shown in Figure 1.3 although the background picture could be one of many different scenes or graphics and you could have more icons, scattered on the background. Typically, when you buy a new computer, some “trial-ware” is loaded into the computer with many of the icons on the desktop inviting you to try and or buy various products or services. Many of these can be safely deleted once you decide you do not need them.
Figure 1.3 Typical Windows desktop
1 As you read through the following descriptions, find the corresponding area or item on your computer screen (see Figure 1.3).
The desktop refers the entire work area seen on the screen. It is where you start tasks such as opening an application, checking the status of your computer, changing settings or shutting down the computer.
The graphic objects on the desktop background are called icons. Each icon represents a link to an application program, document file, folder, Internet address, resource (such as a hard drive), or an actual file or folder. It is good practice not to place programs, files or folders directly on your desktop but create a link, called a shortcut, to the program, file or folder saved in the file hierarchy. Creating shortcuts will be covered soon. Some people like to keep the number of icons on their desktop to a minimum while others don’t mind more clutter. You are encouraged to follow the “less is better” approach although as you machine fills up with programs and files, this can become quite a challenge!
Double-clicking an icon initiates an action by your computer that either launches the program, opens the folder, opens the file, opens the resource (like a drive) or goes to a specific web site – depending on what the icon is linked to. Do not click on any of the icons now.
The background of your desktop may be a plain color, an abstract pattern or a picture of your choice. When you first set up the computer and set up the administrator’s account (at home, you are the administrator) you get to choose a background. When you set up a new user account, the background defaults to a standard graphic image. In all cases the background and “look and feel” of the desktop for each user account can be changed by the user. This is covered in Lesson Five.
The taskbar is the bar located along the very bottom of your screen (see Figure 1.3). At the extreme left lies the Start button.
The Quick Launch toolbar just to the right of the Start button is comprised of one or more icons representing commonly used programs that allows you to launch these programs with a single click. If you do not see it on your computer, it has been turned off. Setting up the Quick Launch toolbar is covered in Lesson Four.
The center area of the taskbar holds task buttons which represent any open programs (note: there are none open at this time, so this area is clear).
The Notification area (called the System tray in earlier version of Windows) lies at the extreme right of the taskbar and holds icons that report the status of programs launched on start-up such as your network status, clock and anti-virus program. This is covered in Lesson Four as well.
The Sidebar -
a new feature in
When you first launch
Gadgets can be added or removed, made to float on the desktop away from the Sidebar and their properties changed. The Sidebar can be turned off or made to appear on top of any other open windows (the default is for the Sidebar to be obscured by any open window). Detail discussion of the Sidebar and Gadgets is covered in Lesson Seven.
If you move the pointer with your mouse or other input device such as a touchpad or trackball, it is in the shape of an arrow. In Lesson Five, you will learn how to change the mouse and pointer properties.
How do your organize your desk at home where you pay the bills and keep important documents? In your home office or desk, you (hopefully!) place files and folders in a file cabinet or drawer in an organized manner.
In the computer world, the hard drive is like a large file cabinet holding all your files and folders, saved in an orderly manner: documents in a documents folder, pictures in a pictures folder, music in a music folder and so on. Your computer desktop should be relatively clutter-free with a reasonable (small) number of icons representing links or shortcuts to often used programs, folders or resources. You will be shown in Lesson Four how to create, delete and arrange the desktop icons to maintain a “neat” desktop.
Right-clicking the mouse button opens a menu (list) that is “context sensitive,” i.e., the contents of the menu depends on where the pointer was when you right-clicked. Windows Vista makes extensive use of the right mouse button and you will use right-click frequently throughout this course.
Note: In these
lessons, “click” means left-click. A right-click will be called out specifically
as “right click”.
1 Right-click in a clear area of the desktop away from any icons.
A pop-up menu
appears. You will use this menu in subsequent lessons.
2 Click anywhere away from the menu to close it.
3 Place the pointer in the middle of the Taskbar away from any icons and right-click.
A different pop-up menu appears. This illustrates that right click menus are context sensitive. The contents of the pop-up menu relates to actions that can be applied to the item or object that was “right-clicked”.
4 Click anywhere away from the menu to close it.
You can use the Start button to start most tasks you’d like to accomplish with your computer. When clicked, the Start button displays a menu (list) of tasks you can initiate and items you can open.
Locate a program using the start menu
Software programs are listed in the All Programs menu. You will complete the following steps to find and launch the WordPad word processor program.
1 Move the pointer to and click the Start button.
The Start menu is displayed (see Figure 1.4). The items shown on the Start menu allow you to begin using your computer. The Start menu is customizable and there may be other entries on Start menu of your computer.
Figure 1.4 Start menu
|
Program list
|
Programs “pinned” to the Start menu for quick access. You can add or remove programs from this list. |
|
Recent
Programs |
You can set the number of recently used programs listed. In the example of Figure 1.4, the last nine programs are listed. |
|
Top Level
folders |
These are the folders where you store data files. The topmost folder, called the personal folder, takes on the name of the active user account. In this case, it is SeniorNet. On your computer it will be something different. |
|
Common tools
and links |
Links to often used tools. |
2 Place the mouse pointer over any entry but do not click. A tool tip is displayed telling you what the command is for.
3 Move the pointer up the Start menu to All Programs.
Once the pointer is positioned on the All Programs entry, its menu opens within a few seconds (see Figure 1.5). Alternately, you can click the All Programs entry and its menu opens immediately in response.
Figure 1.5 All Programs menus
The All Programs list contains individual programs and groups of programs in folders. If a manila folder icon shows to the left of the name, it indicates there is a group of programs or program components in the folder. If there is an icon other than a folder, the item is a software program. For example, in Figure 1.5, “Accessories” is a folder for a group of programs; placing your mouse pointer on Accessories and clicking (once) opens the folder and displays more choices. On the other hand, “Internet Explorer” is a program that is not contained in a folder and clicking it will launch this application. Do not click it now.
4 Move the pointer to click on the Accessories folder (see Figure 1.5).
The Accessories folder opens (see Figure 1.6). Most items are represented by a program icon but others such as Ease of Access and System Tools are represented by a folder icon. That indicates there are files and possible another level of folders within these folders.
Figure 1.6 Accessories folder
5 Move the pointer down to select WordPad and click anywhere in the highlighted bar.
The WordPad application opens showing a blank document (see Figure 1.7).
Figure 1.7 WordPad window
The Document-WordPad task button is added to the taskbar at the bottom of the desktop indicating that the program is open. (Figure 1.8)
Figure 1.8 Taskbar with task button for WordPad program
In the next steps, you will review the elements of a program window and learn how to control its size and position.
The WordPad window you see on your screen (see Figure 1.7) is typical of Windows applications and is made up of several common elements.
1 Locate the following on your WordPad window:
Title bar: The title bar is at the top of the window. It displays the name of the program you are using (WordPad) and the title of the document if it has a title or just “Document” if it is not yet saved with a title.
The three Window control buttons on the right of the title bar are used to remove the window from view, change the window’s size or close the application.
Menu bar: The bar below the title bar is called the menu bar. When you click a command heading on the menu bar, a menu opens to list the choices of things you can do using that command.
Toolbars: The bars below the menu bar are called the toolbars. WordPad has a standard toolbar and a format toolbar. The toolbars contain buttons and drop-down lists for various commands and options that are available in WordPad. When you place the pointer on a toolbar button, a tooltip tells you the function of that button.
Ruler: Word processing programs have rulers you use to set margins and tabs.
Workspace: The main part of the window is usually called the workspace. This is where you write a letter, play a game or make a drawing or whatever the software program enables you to do.
Status bar: Many software programs also have a status bar at the bottom of the window. The WordPad status bar is context sensitive and displays help and tips depending on which function is at work.
You now will use the three window control buttons on the right end of title bar to see how they work (see Figure 1.9).
Figure 1.9 Minimize, Maximize/Restore and Close buttons
The Minimize button (the leftmost button in Figure 1.9) is used to remove an active window from the screen for the time being, make it inactive but not close the program.
1 Click the Minimize button.
The WordPad window no longer appears on the screen and you are returned to the desktop. The task button showing the WordPad icon remains on the taskbar on the bottom of your screen. The WordPad program is still open but the WordPad window is not displayed until you click the WordPad task button on the taskbar to make the window active once more.
2 Click the Document-WordPad task button on the taskbar.
The WordPad window opens.
1 Click the Maximize button (see the middle button in Figure 1.9) to make the window fill the computer screen.
When the Window is maximized to fill the screen, the center window control button is now called the Restore button and shows two small rectangles (see Figure 1.10).
Figure 1.10 Restore button icon
1 Click the Restore button to return the window to something less than a full screen.
Tip:
You can also maximize a Window by double clicking in a blank area of the Title
bar.
Note:
If the Restore button was already showing instead of the Maximize button, it
means the window is already maximized. In this case, do the following step
first.
Move the window around the desktop.
1 Place your pointer in a blank area on the center of the Title bar, hold the mouse down while you drag or reposition the window anywhere on the desktop.
Position the WordPad window centered (approximately) on the desktop.
Note
that as you move the window around, the title bar is semi-transparent and you
can see the underlying background. This feature, known as Aero, is not
supported in The Home Basic version of
1 Place the mouse pointer on left edge of the WordPad window. The pointer changes shape to a double-headed horizontal arrow. Hold the mouse down while you drag the left edge of the window either to the right or left and resize the Window. (Figure 1.11)
Figure 1.11 Resizing along a vertical edge
2 Release the mouse when you are satisfied with the window size. You can try repeating this on the right edge of the window.
3 Place the mouse pointer on the top edge of the window until the pointer changes shape to a double-headed vertical arrow.
Figure 1.12 Resizing along a horizontal edge
4 Hold the mouse down while you drag the top edge of the window either up or down and resize the Window.
5 Release the mouse when you are satisfied with the window size. You can try repeating this on the bottom edge of the Window.
6 Place the mouse pointer on a corner of the window until the pointer changes shape to a 45 degree double-headed arrow.
Figure 1.13 Resizing along the corner of a window
7 Hold the mouse down while you drag the edge of the window at a 45 degree angle in to or away from the window to make it smaller or larger.
8 Release the mouse when you are satisfied with the window size.
9 Finally, click the Maximize button on the Title bar (the center window control button) so that the window fills the screen.
10 Click the Restore button (the center window control button). Now try to resize the window again using the techniques offered above.
Note:
When the Window is maximized and locked to full screen size and cannot be
resized, which is why you need to always click the Restore button before
resizing a Window.
The rightmost of the windows control buttons is represented as an “X” and is used to close a window or close a program.
1 Click the X on the title bar to close the WordPad program.
WordPad closes. Both the window and the task button labeled WordPad on the taskbar disappear from your screen.
Note: Closing a
software program is also referred to as “exiting” a program.
View your computer’s drives and storage devices
There are times when you may want to view the status of the drives and storage devices attached to your computer. This may be needed to review their remaining capacity of your hard drive, or if you want to copy files from one storage device to another. You will now be shown how to view the drives and storage devices attached to your computer.
1 Place the pointer on the Start button and click.
The Start menu opens.
2 Place the pointer on the Computer entry on the right hand side of the menu and click.
A program called Windows Explorer opens with the view set to look at your computer storage devices. (Figure 1.14)
Figure 1.14 Windows Explorer open to view the Computer folder
This Explorer view shows the hard disk drives, removable media drives such as your DVD/CD drive(s), and any storage devices such as USB memory devices (flash or jump drives), external hard drives, or memory card readers that may be attached to your computer.
Note the drive letter assignments. In the example shown in Figure 1.14, the internal hard drive is partitioned into two drives, C: and D: and the DVD/CD-RW drive is designated as drive E:. As well, there is an USB external hard drive attached which is assigned as a removable disk drive F:.
Your computer it may look slightly different, but your primary internal hard disk drive is always drive C. It then depends on whether this physical drive is partitioned (logically split) into a second drive D. You may have more than one optical (DVD/CD drive), and may have one or more external drives attached (USB flash drive, USB external drive, memory card reader) and so on. Knowing the drive letter for a specific storage device is important. This screen is where you find out this information.
(Note:
as a user option, the drive letters can be suppressed so don’t be concerned if
they do not appear).
The right hand pane provides information on the hard disk drives: the size of the hard drive and the amount of free space available. You should monitor this occasionally to make sure you are not approaching the capacity of your hard drive.
Suggestion:
if there is less than 10% of your hard drive capacity remaining, consider
removing programs or files to free up more space, archive some files on CDs or
DVDs or an external hard drive and remove them from your computer, or upgrade
to a larger hard drive.
3 Click the X at the right side of the title bar to close Windows Explorer and return to the desktop.
Search to find and launch a program
Although the All Programs list is the usual way to launch an application, another way to find and launch a program or a file is to use the basic search feature built into the Start menu.
1 Click the Start button to open the Start menu.
2 Click in the search box at the very bottom of the Start menu (where is says “Start Search” and type cal. (Figure 1.15)
Figure 1.15 Type “cal” into the Search box at the bottom of the Start menu
With only “cal” is typed in, the Programs found include the Calendar and Calculator (and perhaps others on your computer). As well, some files may be found if they have the text string “cal” in their name. Note that the search was done instantaneously and dynamically as you typed in the letters “c, a, l”.
3 Click the Calculator entry in the found programs list to launch the Calculator.
The Calculator program opens.
4 Click the X on the Calculator title bar to close this application and return to the desktop.
5 Click the Start button to open the Start menu and type wordpad into the Search box.
6 As you type the letters in, the search narrow down until the WordPad program is one of few or the only program listed in the results box. Press the Enter key on the keyboard or click the WordPad entry to launch the program.
7 Click the X on the title bar to close WordPad and return to the desktop.
All files are stored in folders on your hard disk. Folders provide a way of organizing the space on a hard disk, DVD, CD, USB flash drive or other storage device into practical categories. A folder can contain any number of files and/or additional folders called sub-folders. The organization of folders and files at various “levels” is referred to as the folder hierarchy.
All your documents, pictures, music, videos and any
other files you generate are stored within a known set of folders and
sub-folders.
You will now examine the sub-folders under the personal folder.
1 Click the Start menu. Click the Personal folder (Seniornet in the example shown here, your user account name on the computer you are working on).
Windows Explorer opens up with a view of the contents of the Personal folder.
2 Maximize this window if not already full screen by clicking the Maximize (center) window control button on the title bar.
The sub-folders under the personal folder are listed in the right hand pane; this main window is called the file list. (Figure 1.16)
Figure 1.16 Folders under the Personal folder (right-hand pane only shown)
The key folders you will likely be using are:
Documents – place your documents such as letters, spreadsheets, and other miscellaneous files here. Create as many sub-folders in the Documents folder as needed to organize the files into logical folders. Creating new folders is covered in Lesson Three. For example, names of sub-folders under Documents might be: “family”, “legal”, “home ownership”, “that great novel”, “investments”, “personal”, and so on. Create a hierarchy of sub-folders as needed to keep your files organized.
Music – all music files should be placed here. Depending on the music player program you use, it will likely create a set of folders under Music to place the music library it is managing.
Pictures – place all you images under this folder, again in sub-folders named by either date, or subject (vacation July 2007, Sara’s wedding June 2006) and so on. Fortunately the Windows Photo Gallery manages the upload of images from your digital camera and creates sub-folders under the Pictures folder to place these images. (Windows Photo Gallery is not covered in these lessons).
In any case, you should not delete any of these primary sub-folders of the personal folder. Build your own folder hierarchy under these primary folders and place all your files and documents within. You will be exploring this further in Lessons Two and Three.
1 Click the X on the title bar of Windows Explorer to close it.
Help and
Windows Vista has built-in Help and Support. Since there
is much more to know about
1 Click the Start button and click Help and Support at the bottom of the right column of the Start menu.
A window opens with options for different types of help and support (see Figure 1.17).
Figure 1.17 Help and
2 Various types of help are available in
the Help and
At the top, there is a Search box where you can type a word or words that describe the problem for which you want help. The toolbar at the top of the window has various buttons (see Figure 1.18).
Figure 1.18 Help and Support screen toolbar
From left to right:
Back and Forward - buttons used to navigate within the Help and
Home - takes you to the main window of the Help and
Print - sends the contents of the current window to the local printer.
Browse Help - links to a table of contents of help topics
Ask - links to Microsoft Customer Support or online assistance.
Options - allows you to customize the
1 Click in the Search Help box and type the word taskbar. Click the magnifier icon on the right to start the search.
The results appear in the window (Figure 1.19).
Figure 1.19 Results for help on “taskbar”
2 Click the scroll bar on the right side of the window; hold the mouse button down and drag the scroll bar down to see all the entries.
3 Click on any entry about the taskbar of interest to see a detailed explanation.
4 When done reading the explanation, click the back button on the toolbar to return to the list of topics on the search item “taskbar.” Click the back button once more to return to the previous window.
5 Click the Browse Help icon on the toolbar of the Help and Support window.
A list of help contents appears (Figure 1.20).
Figure 1.20 Browse Help Contents
6 Click one of the suggested topics.
Help for the item appears in the right pane
Read the information but do not follow the instructions or take any further action.
7 Click the Back button in the toolbar at the top to return to the previous Help window.
1 Click the X on right end of the Help title bar to close the window.
Log off Windows
1 Click the Start button on the taskbar.
The Start menu opens. Note the three power control buttons – Power/Sleep, Lock and the right arrow - at the bottom of the right side of the menu. (Figure 1.21)
Figure 1.21 Power Control Options
The power options work as follows:
|
Power/Sleep |
Suspends operations, keeps your session in memory and puts the computer in a low power sleep mode |
|
Lock |
Suspends operations and returns to the logon screen. If a password has been assigned to the user account, it needs to be entered to resume operations. |
|
When the right arrow is clicked, a fly-out menu with additional power options appears: |
|
|
Switch User |
Allows you to switch to another user account (assuming one or more others have been set up). |
|
Log Off |
Log off operation (all applications must be shut down) and returns to the logon screen. |
|
Lock |
Same as Lock above. |
|
Restart |
Powers computer off and restarts it. |
|
Sleep |
Suspends operations and puts the computer in a low power sleep mode. The computer resumes operation within a few seconds when you kit a key or move the mouse. |
|
Hibernate |
Suspends operation of any open applications and writes the status to disk. The computer is then shut down – the power is turned off. When the computer is powered up, it resumes any applications that were left open |
|
Shut Down |
Shuts down the computer. All applications are closed prior to shutdown. |
1 Place the pointer on the fly out menu arrow so that the power option menu appears.
2 Click Shut Down
Your computer turns off.
3 If your monitor turns off separately, push the button to turn off the monitor.
4 At home, click the power/sleep button 
to put your computer in a low power state so
that it can resume operation quickly when turned on next time. Depending on the
specifics of your computer, restarting it may require pushing the power button
on, or simply tapping any key on the keyboard (typical for notebook computers).
If you wish, you can click through to the fly-out menu and click Shut-Down to fully power-off the computer.
· Start, log on, log off and turn off Windows Vista
· Become familiar with the desktop and the parts of a window
· Control the size of a window, active and inactive windows.
· View your computer’s drives and storage devices
· Locate and start a program
· Understand the file and folder hierarchy
· Use Help and support
In the next lesson you will learn how to use Windows Explorer to navigate the file and folder hierarchy and manage files and folders.
Notes: