MS-WINDOWS
Microsoft
developed Microsoft Windows operating system to overcome the limitations of its
on MS-DOS operating system. Windows 3.0 was the first successful version of
this operating system. It was released in 1990. Main features of Microsoft
Windows are as following:
(1)
Its native interface is a GUI. Hence, for a new user it is easier to learn and
use a computer system.
(2)
It is a single-user, multitasking operating system. That is, a user may run more
than one program at a time.
(3)
It allows file names to contain up to 255 characters as well as some
punctuation marks, such as periods, commas, and semicolons.
(4)
Microsoft Windows is not just an operating system, but also a complete
operating environment. That is, all its programs conform to a standard way of
working. For example, a Microsoft Windows word processor works similarly the
way a Microsoft Windows spreadsheet (or any other type of windows program)
works. This means that if a user learns one windows program, this experience is
useful while using any other Microsoft Windows program.
With
these features, Microsoft Windows became an operating system of choice for most
personal computer users after 1990.
Basic Elements of
Opening Screen of Microsoft Windows:
(1) DESKTOP: Desktop is the work area on a windows
screen where you are made to work. It is called the desktop because windows use
your whole screen in a way that is similar to the way you use the top of your
desk. As you work in windows, you move items on the desktop, retrieve and put
away items and perform many other day-to-day tasks.
(2) ICONS AND THEIR
TYPES: An icon is a
graphic object that shows a program or a file on your monitor. The different
types of icons are described below-
System
Icons
System
icons are displayed along left edge of the screen. These objects are created
automatically by windows during its installation. The five system icons are
explained in the following table.
|
System Icon
|
Function
|
|
My
Computer
|
This
icon lets you browse through the resources connected to your computer.
|
|
My
Documents
|
This
icon represents a folder that is used by many programs as a default location
for starting the documents.
|
|
Network
|
This
icon opens a window displaying the names of each server or computer in your own
work group.
|
|
Recycle
Bin
|
This
icon provides temporary storage for files and folders that you delete.
|
|
Control
Panel
|
This
icon provides you to adjust your computer according to your uses. You can
adjust your computer’s settings from this icon.
|
Shortcut
Icons
These
are the icons with small arrows in the lower left corner. A shortcut icon
provides easy access to some objects on your system, such as a program, a
document, or a printer, etc. The shortcut icon only contains information about
the location of the object but not the object itself. Deleting a shortcut icon
does not delete the program from the hard disk for that shortcut.
Program,
Folder and Document Icons
These
are non-system icons without arrows and they represent the actual objects they describe.
Thus, if you delete such an icon you are deleting the object itself, from the
hard disk. So be very careful!
(3) TASKBAR: Different parts of the taskbar are
explained in the following table.
|
Taskbar Elements
|
Function
|
|
Start
Button
|
It
is located at the left end of the taskbar. Clicking the start button brings
up the start menu.
|
|
Toolbars
|
Toolbars
represent a set of related icons. When clicked these button or icons active
certain functions or tasks. For example, the Quick launch toolbar provides icons
for launching Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer, Google Chrome, etc.
|
|
Task
buttons
|
Task
buttons are displayed in the center portion of the taskbar. A button appears
for each program you have started or each document you have opened. You can
click these buttons to move from one open program or folder to another.
|
|
Notification
Area
|
The
right corner of the taskbar has the notification area in which windows
provides information about the status of your system. It displays the date
and time and also contains shortcuts that provide quick access to programs,
such as Volume Control, Network, etc. Other shortcuts can appear temporarily.
For example, the printer icon appears after a document has been sent to the
printer and disappears when printing is complete.
|
(4) ELEMENTS OF A WINDOW:
Most windows have the
following elements-
Borders:
The four edges
that define the perimeter of a window are called borders. Borders also give a
way to change the size of the window.
Title
bar: Top of the
window is the title bar. It displays the name of the program or the document.
It is also used for moving the window.
Close Button: At the right edge of the title bar is
a square containing an x called the close button. Clicking the close button
closes a document or folder, or terminates a program.
Maximize and Restore
Buttons: Clicking the
maximize button enlarges the window to occupy the whole Desktop. When the
window is maximized, the restore button appears.
Clicking
the restore button causes a window to assume an intermediate size, neither
minimized nor maximized. In this case, maximized button appears.
Minimize Button: Clicking the minimize button reduces
the window to a button on the task bar. Once minimized, the window no longer
takes space on the desktop but the program in it continues to run.
Scroll
Bars, Scroll Boxes and Scroll Buttons: If a window is not long enough to display its contents
completely, vertical scroll bar appears along the right edge. Similarly, if the
window is not wide enough, a horizontal scroll bar appears along the bottom of
the window.
Scroll bars offer an easy way to
navigate through a window with the mouse. They also provide useful information
about the contents of the window.
Scroll bars have small rectangular
boxes called scroll box. The position of this box within the scroll bar tells
you where you are within the window itself. If the scroll box is at the top of
the scroll bar, it means you are at the top of the documents.
Scroll buttons appear along the top
and bottom edges of the vertical scroll bar and along the left and right edges
of the horizontal scroll bar.
Shortcut
Menus: Pressing
the right mouse button brings up a small menu related to the currently selected
object or the one the mouse is pointing to. This menu is at times also referred
to as popup menu. For example, if you right click the taskbar, you get a menu
of commands relating only to the taskbar.
Dialog
Boxes: A Dialog
box will appear when you select a command with an ellipsis(...) after it.
Dialog boxes appear on your screen when windows or its application program you
are using needs more information to execute the command.
File Management in
Windows:
Files
and folders are two of the most fundamental concepts of the windows operating
system. You create and organize files and folders as soon as you save your work
in a PC.
(1) File: A file is any collection of related
information that is given a name and stored on a disk so that it can be read
and manipulated whenever required. A file can contain any kind of information: a
program or application or a document; a part of a document, such as a table or
a graphic; a sound or a piece of music, etc.
(2) Folder: A folder is a special kind of file
that contains a list of other files or subfolders. The files on the list are said
to be in the folder. A folder can be either open or closed. When it is closed,
all you see is its name and the folder icon. When a folder is open, it has its
own window, and the files contained in the folder are shown in the window.
(3) Selecting Files and
Folders: Windows
works on the rule, select and do. It means, you first have to select the file
or folder you want to use.
To select a file or
folder do this:
·
In
web style view, to select a file or folder, move the cursor over its icon, when
the icon appears highlighted, the object is selected.
·
In
classic style, to select an object single click the object that you want.
To select all the items
in a folder do this:
·
Open
a folder, click the organize menu and choose select all. Or press Ctrl+A keys together on the keyboard.
(4) Creating Files and
Folders:
To create a new File/Folder
do this:
·
In
the windows explorer or folder window click the File menu and choose New.
Alternatively, right click an empty area of the desktop and choose New.
·
In
both the cases, a submenu lists the new objects you can create: folders,
shortcuts, and a variety of types of files.
·
Select
an element of the list. Windows creates the selected object.
(5) Naming and Renaming
Files and Folders:
To rename a file or
folder, do this:
·
Select
the file or folder you want to rename. Click the File menu and choose Rename.
Alternatively, right click the file or folder and choose Rename from the context menu or press F2 key.
·
A
box appears around the current name, and the entire name is selected. Type the
new name in the box and press Enter.
(6) Opening Files and
Folders:
To open a file or
folder, do this:
·
Select
the file or folder you want to open. Right click on it then select open option from menu.
·
Select
the file or folder you want to open
then press Enter.
·
You
can also open the file or folder by double clicking on it.
(7) Moving or Copying
Files and Folders:
To move or copy a file
or folder, do this:
·
To
move a file or folder from current location to another location, select the
file or folder. Right click on it then select cut option from menu. Then go to the location where you want to
move and right click on blank area and select paste option from menu. Now your file or folder is moved.
·
Select
the file or folder you want to move, press Ctrl+X
key together, then go to the location where you want to move and press Ctrl+V key together. Now your file or
folder is moved.
·
To
copy a file or folder, select the file or folder. Right click on it then select
copy option from menu. Then go to
the other location where you want to copy and right click on blank area and
select paste option from menu. Now
your file or folder is copied.
·
Select
the file or folder you want to copy, press Ctrl+C
key together, and then go to the location where you want to copy and press Ctrl+V key together. Now your file or
folder is copied.
(8) Deleting Files and
Folders:
To delete file(s) and
folder(s) do this:
·
Select
the file or folder to be deleted.
·
Press
delete button on the keyboard.
·
Click
Yes in the dialog box.
Alternatively,
you can right click the objects and then choose Delete from the context menu. The dialog box appears, click Yes in the dialog box.
Objects
deleted from your computer go to the recycle bin folder. You can recover them
by double clicking, if desired. For permanent delete the file or folder, empty
the recycle bin folder. Or select the file or folder you want to permanent
delete then press Shift+Delete button
together and click Yes in the dialog
box.
(5) START MENU
Start
menu appears when you click on the start or windows button on the taskbar.
(1) All Programs:
It
displays the programs menu which contains many application programs you can
run.
(2) Recent Items:
It
displays the document menu that contains the list of the documents you have
recently opened. To open the recently used documents, choose it from the list
of this menu.
(3) Control Panel:
It
allows you to install software and changes different settings of windows such
as date, time, keyboard, mouse, password, display, sound, font settings etc.
(4) Devices and
Printers:
It
allows you to see the current status of the devices and printers.
(5) Help and Support:
It
displays online help which is a set of screens of information about windows
itself and the accessories that come with it.
(6) Search:
It
displays a box by which you can find files, folders, programs, songs, movies,
pictures etc.
(7) Shut Down:
Choose
shut down if you are ready to switch off computer. It has some more option such
as switch user, log off, lock, restart, sleep, and hibernate. You can any of
these options as your requirement.
(6) ESSENTIAL WINDOWS
ACCESSORIES
Windows
provides some utility software packages such as System tools, Entertainment,
Calculator, Command Prompt, Run, Notepad, Paint, WordPad etc. in the
accessories group.
Notepad:
The notepad is
one of the products in accessories group. It can be used for writing notes,
e-mail messages, etc. It is useful for editing and storing all textual data.
To start Notepad, do
this:
·
Click
start button, choose all programs, highlight accessories, and then choose Notepad. The note pad window appears.
·
Notepad
can open files with the extensions .BAT,
.SYS, .INT and .TXT as these
files are all in ASCII code.
To close Notepad, do
this:
·
To
close the Notepad application, click the File
menu and choose Exit or press Alt+F4 keys together.
Paint: MS Paint is a graphical program that
can be used for drawing pictures. MS Paint is a bit-mapped program. Its drawing
consists of a series of dots. The computer’s screen is divided into very small
dots called pixels (pels) that can be controlled by you.
To start Paint, do this:
·
Click
start button, choose all programs, highlight accessories, and then choose Paint. The paint window appears.
·
Paint
can open files with the extensions .BMP.
To close Paint, do this:
·
To
close the Paint application, click the File
menu and choose Exit or press Alt+F4 keys together.
WordPad: WordPad is a word processor inbuilt
with Windows. It has less word processing facilities than MS Word. WordPad does
not offer many of the advanced features that you get in MS Word. But all the same
it does offer many of the formatting tools that you need to create a letter,
memo, etc.
To start WordPad, do
this:
·
Click
start button, choose all programs, highlight accessories, and then choose WordPad. The word pad window appears.
To close WordPad, do
this:
·
To
close the WordPad application, click the File
menu and choose Exit or press Alt+F4 keys together.
File Extensions:
Notepad -
.txt
Paint -
.bmp
WordPad -
.rtf
MS Word -
.doc
MS Excel - .xls
MS PowerPoint -
.ppt
Music - .mp3
Video - .mp4, .3gp
Wall paper -
.jpg, .jpeg
Photo shop -
.psd
Corel -
.cdr
How to Open Applications from Rum:
Notepad - notepad
Paint - mspaint
Word pad - wordpad
DOS -
command.com
MS Word - winword
MS Excel - excel
MS PowerPoint -
powerpnt