Most computers run Windows, invented by Microsoft.

Microsoft has improved Windows.

This chapter explains all those modern versions.

Windows 98 requires 16M of RAM to run at all, 32M to run okay, 64M to run well.

Windows Me requires 32M of RAM to run at all, 64M to run okay, 128M to run well.

Windows XP requires 64M of RAM to run at all, 128M of RAM to run okay, 256M of RAM to run well. Windows XP comes in 3 editions:

My explanation of Windows XP emphasizes XP Home Edition and XP Media Center edition; XP Professional is similar. Microsoft has corrected Windows XP’s errors.

Windows Vista comes in 6 editions:

If you have Windows XP, you can upgrade to Vista Home Basic for just $99, Vista Home Premium for $159, Vista Business for $199, and Vista Ultimate for $259. Before buying Windows Vista, make sure you have enough RAM:

My explanation of Windows Vista emphasizes Vista Home Premium; other Vista editions are similar.

Instead of using Windows 98, Me, XP, or Vista, some people use versions of Windows that are ancient.

 

Here’s how to start using Windows. (If you have difficulty, phone me anytime for free help at 603-666-6644.)

Unpack the computer

When you buy a computer system, it typically comes in three cardboard boxes. Open them, and put the contents on your desk.

Here are exceptions:

Into the back of the system unit, plug the cables that come from the monitor, printer, keyboard, mouse and speakers. Into your wall’s electrical socket (or power strip), plug the power cords that come from the monitor, printer, speakers, and system unit. (On some computers, the cabling is different.)

Empty any floppy drives

At the front of the system unit, you might see one or two slots into which you can put floppy disks. Those slots are called the floppy drives. (If your computer’s a laptop, the floppy drives might be in the computer’s right side instead of in the front — or might be missing.)

Remove any disks from the floppy drives, so that the floppy drives are empty and you can start fresh.

Turn on the computer

Flick the computer’s power switch to the ON position.

Can’t find the power switch? Here are some hints:

Turn on the screen

Turn on the computer’s screen (monitor).

After a few seconds, the screen will display some messages. (If you don’t see the messages clearly, make sure the cable from the screen to the system unit is plugged in tightly, and adjust the screen’s contrast and brightness knobs.)

The screen will eventually say “Microsoft Windows 98” or Microsoft Windows Me” or “Microsoft Windows xp” or “Windows Vista”.

Attach any printer

If you have a printer, make sure a cable runs from it to the computer, and turn the printer on.

Examine the keyboard

Test your powers of observation by staring at the keyboard. Try to find the following keys (but don’t press them yet).…

Find the Enter key. That’s the big key on the right side of the keyboard’s main section. It has a bent arrow on it. It’s also called the Return key. Pressing it makes the computer read what you typed and proceed.

Find the Backspace key. It’s above the Enter key and to the right of the + key. It has a left-arrow on it. You press it when you want to erase a mistake.

Find the key that has the letter A on it. When you press the A key, you’ll be typing a small “a”.

Near the keyboard’s bottom left corner, find the Shift key. It has an up-arrow on it. Under the Enter key, you’ll see another Shift key. Press either Shift key when you want to capitalize a letter. For example, to type a capital A, hold down a Shift key; and while you keep holding down the Shift key, tap the A key.

Find the key that looks like this:

┌───┐

│!  │

│1  │

└───┘

It’s near the keyboard’s top left corner. That’s the 1 key. You press it when you want to type the number 1. Press the keys to its right when you want to type the numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 0. If you press the 1 key while holding down a Shift key, you’ll be typing an exclamation point (!). Here’s the rule: if a key shows two symbols (such as ! and 1), and you want to type the top symbol (!), you must typically hold down a Shift key.

Find the key that has the letter U on it. To the right of that key, you’ll see the letters I and O. Don’t confuse the letter I with the number 1; don’t confuse the letter O with the number 0.

In the keyboard’s bottom row, find the wide key that has nothing written on it. That’s the Space bar. Press it whenever you want to leave a blank space.

Check Num Lock

If you have a desktop computer (instead of a notebook computer), be careful about this:

Try moving the mouse

The typical computer has a mouse. (If your computer does not have a mouse, buy a mouse: a mouse is much easier to use than a touchpad!)

Look at the computer’s mouse. The traditional mouse has a tail (a cable that runs from the mouse to the computer); if your mouse is ultra-modern, it communicates with the computer wirelessly instead. The area where a tail meets the mouse is called the mouse’s ass.

The mouse’s underside — its belly — has a hole in it, and a ball (or ray of light) in the hole.

Put the mouse on your desk and directly in front of your right arm. Make the mouse lie flat (so its ball rubs against the desk or its light ray shines on the desk). Make the mouse face you so you don’t see its ass.

Move the mouse across your desk. As you move the mouse, remember to keep it flat and facing you.

On the screen, you’ll see an arrow, which is called the
mouse pointer. As you move the mouse, the arrow moves also.

Practice moving the arrow by moving the mouse. Remember to keep the mouse facing you at all times.

If you want to move the arrow far and your desk is small, move the mouse until it reaches the desk’s edge; then lift the mouse off the desk, lay the mouse gently on the middle of the desk, and rub the mouse across the desk in the same direction as before.

Finish installing Windows

If the computer says “Select your country” or “Welcome to Windows,” you must finish installing Windows onto your computer. To do that, practice using the mouse, keyboard, and Windows on a different computer; then finish installing Windows onto your computer by getting help from the company that sold you the computer or from me at 603-666-6644.

If the computer says “Add New Hardware Wizard” (for example, because it detected that you attached a new printer), press the Enter key several times (typically 5 times) until the computer stops saying “Add New Hardware Wizard.”

Click Start

Eventually, the screen’s bottom left corner shows the
Start button:

The most important part of the mouse’s arrow is its tip, which is called the hot spot. Move the arrow so its hot spot (tip) is in the middle of the Start button. When you do that, you’re pointing at the Start button.

On the top of the mouse, you’ll see 2 or 3 rectangular buttons you can press. The main button is the one on the left. Tapping it is called clicking. So to click, tap the left button.

While you’re pointing at the Start button, click (by tapping the left button). That’s called clicking Start.

When you click Start, you see the Start menu, which is your starting list of choices. Which choices does the menu offer you? That depends on which version of Windows you have:

Your computer might offer some extra choices also! If your Windows XP is outdated (before SP2) or weird or not completely set up, it might omit “Set Program Access and Defaults” and “Connect To.”

Shut Down

When you finish using the computer, do this:

Then wait while the computer tidies the info on your hard disk.

Finally, if your computer is modern, it will turn its own power off. If your computer is older, the computer will say “It’s now safe to turn off your computer” and wait for you to turn it off.

Programs menu

Make the Start menu appear on the screen.

In that menu, the word “Programs” has the symbol “₄” next to it. That symbol means that if you choose “Programs” from the Start menu, you’ll see another menu.

Try it: point at the word “Programs”. Then you see this Programs menu:

If you bought extra programs, the menu mentions them too.

If Windows Vista shows just part of the Programs menu, see the rest by using one of these methods.…

If your Windows XP is outdated (before SP2), it might say “StartUp” instead of “Startup,” say “MSN Explorer” instead of “MSN,” omit “Set Program Access and Defaults,” and omit “Windows Movie Maker”.

Accessories menu

From the Programs menu, choose “Accessories”, by pointing at it. Then you see this Accessories menu:

The Accessories menu includes a “Calculator”. To use the calculator, get the accessories menu onto the screen (by clicking Start then “Programs” then “Accessories”) and then click “Calculator”. You’ll see the Calculator window, containing a picture of a pocket calculator.

How to calculate

To compute 42+5, click the calculator’s 4 button (by using the mouse to point at the 4 button and then clicking), then click 2, then +, then 5, then =. The calculator will show the answer, 47.

Instead of using the mouse, you can do that calculation a different way, by using the computer’s keyboard. Try this:

Try fancier calculations, by pressing these calculator buttons:

Standard versus scientific

You can choose two kinds of calculators. A standard calculator is small and cute: it does just arithmetic. A scientific calculator is big and imposing: it includes extra buttons, so you can do advanced math.

The first time you (or your colleagues) ask for the calculator, the computer shows a standard calculator (small and cute). If you want the calculator to be scientific instead, choose Scientific from the View menu. (To do that, click the word “View”, then click the word “Scientific”.) Then you’ll see extra buttons, such as these:

If you click the 7 button and then say “squared” (by pressing the x^2 button), the computer will multiply 7 by itself and say 49 (which is called “7 squared”). If you click the 7 button and then say “cubed” (by pressing the x^3 button), the computer will do “7 times 7 times 7” and say 343 (which is called “7 cubed”). If you click the 7 button and then say “factorial” (by pressing the n! button), the computer will multiply together all the numbers up to 7 (1 times 2 times 3 times 4 times 5 times 6 times 7) and say 5040 (which is called “7 factorial”). If you click the pi button, the computer will say 3.1415926535897932384626433832795.

After making the calculator scientific, you can make it standard again by choosing Standard from the View menu.

Order of operations The calculator’s answer to “2+3*4=” depends on whether you chose standard or scientific:

Tricky keys

On the standard calculator, these 3 keys are tricky:

Memory buttons

When a number (such as a total) appears on your screen, you can copy that number from your screen to the computer’s memory. The calculator includes 4 memory buttons to help remember the number:

Close

In the Calculator window’s top-right corner, a square button has an X on it. That’s called the X button (or the close button). In Windows 98 & Me, that button is gray with a black X; in Windows XP & Vista, that button is red with a white X.

When you finish using the Calculator window, click that button. It closes the Calculator window, so the Calculator window disappears.

 

When you buy modern Windows, you get a word-processing program free! That word-processing program is called WordPad. It’s one of the Windows accessories. To use it, get the Accessories menu onto the screen (by clicking Start then “Programs” then “Accessories”) and then click “WordPad.” You’ll see the WordPad window.

In the window’s top right corner, you see the X button. Next to the X button is the resize button. Clicking the resize button changes the window’s size.

Try clicking the resize button: see the window’s size change! Try clicking the resize button again: see the window’s size change again!

If the window is small, clicking the resize button makes the window become huge so it consumes the whole screen. If the window is huge and consumes the whole screen, clicking the resize button makes the window become small.

If the window consumes the whole screen, the window is said to be maximized. If the window is smaller, the window is said to be restored to a small size.

Click the resize button if necessary, so that the WordPad window consumes the whole screen (and is maximized).

Now that the WordPad window consumes the whole screen, you can easily do word processing: you can easily type words and sentences. Try it! Type whatever sentences you wish to make up. For example, try typing a memo to your friends, or a story, or a poem. Be creative! Whatever you type is called a document.

Use the keyboard

Read the section called “Examine the keyboard,” which is on page 79. Here are more hints to help you type.…

Capitals To capitalize a letter of the alphabet, type that letter while holding down the Shift key. (One Shift key is next to the Z key; the other Shift key is next to the question-mark key. Each Shift key has an up-arrow on it.)

To capitalize a whole passage, tap the Caps Lock key, then type the passage. The computer will automatically capitalize the passage as you type it. When you finish typing the passage, tap the Caps Lock key again: that tells the computer to stop capitalizing.

Backspace key If you make a mistake, press the Backspace key. That makes the computer erase the last character you typed. (The Backspace key is in the top right corner of the keyboard’s main section. It’s to the right of the + key, and it has a left-arrow on it.)

To erase the last two characters you typed, press the Backspace key twice.

Word wrap If you’re typing near the screen’s right edge, and you type a word that’s too long to fit on the screen, the computer will automatically move the word to the line below. Moving the word to the line below is called word wrap.

If you’re using Windows XP, make word wrap work properly by doing this (unless you or your colleagues did so already):

Enter key When you finish a paragraph, press the Enter key. That makes the computer move to the line underneath so you can start typing the next paragraph.

If you want to double-space between the paragraphs, press the Enter key twice.

Tab key If you want to indent a line (such as the first line of a paragraph), begin the line by pressing the Tab key. The computer will indent the line a half inch.

Nudge a phrase To move a phrase toward the right, press the Tab key several times before typing the phrase. To move a phrase down, press the Enter key several times before typing the phrase.

Ctrl symbols On your keyboard, below the two Shift keys, are two Control keys, which say “Ctrl” on them. You can use them to type special symbols:

Alt symbols You can type these alternative symbols:

For example, here’s how to type the symbol ¢, whose code number is 155. Hold down the Alt key; and while you keep holding down the Alt key, type 155 by using the numeric keypad (the number keys on the far right side of the keyboard). When you finish typing 155, lift your finger from the Alt key, and you’ll see ¢ on your screen! Try it!

That chart skips numbers whose results are unreliable (producing different results on different printers and on different versions of Windows).

Windows copied that chart from DOS. But Windows goes beyond DOS by letting you also use this fancier chart:

For example, here’s how to type the symbol ©, whose code number is 0169: while holding down the Alt key, type 0169 on the numeric keypad.

Scroll arrows

If your document contains too many lines to fit on the screen, the screen will show just part of the document, accompanied by two arrows at the screen’s right edge: a scroll-up arrow and a scroll-down arrow.

Insert characters

To insert extra characters anywhere in your document, click where you want the extra characters to appear (by moving the mouse’s pointer there and then pressing the mouse’s button). Then type the extra characters.

For example, suppose you typed the word “fat” and want to change it to “fault”. Click between the “a” and the “t”, then type “ul”.

(When you’re using Windows, notice that you click between letters, not on letters.)

As you type the extra characters, the screen’s other characters move out of the way to make room for the extra characters.

While you’re inserting the extra characters, you can erase nearby mistakes by pressing the Backspace key or Delete key. The Backspace key erases the character that’s before the mouse’s pointer. The Delete key erases the character that’s after the mouse’s pointer.

Split a paragraph

Here’s how to split a long paragraph in half, to form two short paragraphs.

Decide which word should begin the second short paragraph. Click the left edge of that word’s first letter.

Press the Backspace key (to erase the space before that word), then press the Enter key. Now you’ve split the long paragraph in two!

If you want to double-space between the two short paragraphs, press the Enter key again. If you want to indent the second paragraph, press the Tab key.

Combine paragraphs

After typing two paragraphs, here’s how to combine them, to form a single paragraph that’s longer.

Click at the end of the first paragraph. Press the Delete key several times, to delete unwanted Enters and Tabs. Now you’ve combined the two paragraphs into one!

Then press the Space bar (to insert a space between the two sentences).

Movement keys

To move to different parts of your document, you can use your mouse. To move faster, press these keys instead:

On notebook computers (which have narrow keys), the Page Down key is labeled “Pg Dn” and the Page Up key is labeled “Pg Up”.

Here’s what happens if you press the movement keys while holding down the Ctrl key:

Buttons

Near the screen’s top, you see these buttons:

 

 

 

Here is each button’s name:

      Bold     Italic  Underline  Color  AlignLeft  Center  AlignRight  Bullets

 

 

 

If you forget a button’s name, try this trick: point at the button (by using the mouse but without clicking), then wait a second. Underneath the button, you’ll see the button’s name; and at the screen’s bottom-left corner, you’ll see a short explanation of what the button does.

To use a button, activate it by clicking it with the mouse. Here are the details.…

Underline Here’s how to underline a phrase (like this). Activate the Underline button (which says U on it) by clicking it. Activating the button changes the button’s appearance:

Then type the phrase you want underlined. Then deactivate the Underline button (by clicking it again).

Go ahead: try it now! Practice using the Underline button before you progress to more advanced buttons!

Bold Here’s how to make a phrase be bold (like this). Activate the Bold button (which says B on it) by clicking it. Then type the phrase you want emboldened. Then deactivate the Bold button (by clicking it again).

Here’s how to make a phrase be bold and underlined (like this). Activate the Bold and Underline buttons (by clicking them both). Then type the phrase. Then deactivate those buttons (by clicking them again).

Italic Here’s how to italicize a phrase (like this). Activate the Italic button (which says I on it) by clicking it. Then type the phrase you want italicized. Then deactivate the Italic button (by clicking it again).

Color Here’s how to change a phrase’s color.

Click the Color button. You’ll see a list of 15 colors (plus “White” and “Automatic”). Click the color you want. Then type the phrase you want colorized.

Afterwards, click the Color button again and click “Black”.

Alignment While typing a line, you can click one of these alignment buttons: Center, Align Left, or Align Right.

Clicking the Center button makes the line be centered,

Clicking the Align Right button makes the line be at the right margin,

Clicking the Align Left button makes the line be at the left margin,

Clicking one of those buttons affects not just the line you’re typing but also all other lines in the same paragraph. When you click one of those buttons, you’re activating it. That button deactivates when you click a different alignment button instead.

When you start typing a new document, the computer assumes you want the document to be aligned left, so the computer activates the Align Left button. If you want a different alignment, click a different alignment button instead.

Clicking an alignment button affects the entire paragraph you’re typing, but the paragraphs you typed earlier remain unaffected, unless you do this:

When you start typing a new paragraph, the computer gives the new paragraph the same alignment as the paragraph above, unless you say differently (by clicking one of the alignment buttons).

Here’s how to create a centered title. Press the Enter key twice (to leave a big blank space above the title). Then click the Center button (so the title will be centered) and the Bold button (so the title will be bold), type the words you want to be in the title, and press the Enter key afterwards. Congratulations: you’ve created a centered title! Next, make the paragraph underneath the title be normal: make that paragraph be uncentered (click the Align Left button) and make it be unbolded (deactivate the Bold button, by clicking it).

Bullets While you’re typing a paragraph, you can activate the Bullets button (by clicking it). That makes the computer indent the entire paragraph and also put a bullet (the symbol ·) to the left of the paragraph’s first line. That’s called a
bulleted paragraph.

After you’ve typed a bulleted paragraph, any new paragraphs you type underneath will be bulleted also — until you request an unbulleted paragraph (by deactivating the Bullets button).

Font Size

Left of the Bold button, the screen also shows a box containing the number 10. That’s called the Font Size box. The 10 in it means the characters you’re typing are 10 points high.

If you change that number to 20, the characters will be twice as high (and also twice as wide). To change the number to 20, click in the Font Size box, then type 20 and press Enter. Try it! Any new characters you type afterwards will be the size you chose. (Characters typed earlier don’t change size.)

You can make the font size be 10 or 20 or any other size you like. For best results, pick a number from 8 to 72. (If you pick a number smaller than 8 or bigger than 72, the result is ugly.) The number can end in .5; for example, you can pick 8 or 8.5 or 9 or 9.5 or 10.

Font

At the screen’s left edge, you see a box saying “Times New Roman”. (In Windows XP & Vista, that box says “Arial” instead.) That’s called the Font box.

Next to that box is the symbol ₆. Click it.

You’ll see the Font menu, which is a list of fonts in alphabetical order. (To see the rest of the list, press the up-arrow or down-arrow keys.)

Click whichever font you want. To avoid hassles, choose a font that has “TT” or “O” in front of it. (The “TT” means it’s a TrueType font. The “O” means it’s an OpenType font, which is even better and available just in Windows XP & Vista.) For most purposes the best fonts are:

All delete

Here’s how to delete the entire document, so you can start over. While holding down the Ctrl key, press the A key (which means “all”). All of the document gets highlighted. (Its white background turns black in Window 98 & Me, blue in Windows XP & Vista.) Then press the Delete key. All of the document disappears, so you can start over!

Select

Here’s how to change a phrase you typed previously.

Point at the phrase’s beginning. Then hold down the mouse’s left button; and while you keep holding down that button, move to the phrase’s end.

(Moving the mouse while holding down the left button is called dragging. You’re dragging from the phrase’s beginning to the phrase’s end.)

The phrase that you dragged across gets highlighted. (Its white background turns black in Windows 98 & Me, blue in Windows XP & Vista.) Highlighting the phrase that way is called selecting the phrase.

Then say what to do to the phrase. For example, choose one of these activities:

To move a phrase to a new location, just “select the phrase, and then drag from the phrase’s middle to the new location.” Here are the details:

In that procedure, you drag the phrase to a new location then drop it there. That procedure is called drag & drop.

Extra buttons

Near the screen’s top-left corner, you see these extra buttons:

   New     Open     Save          Print   PrintPreview

 

 

 

Here’s how to use them.…

Save Here’s how to save the document (copy it onto the hard disk). Click the Save button. Then invent a name for the document. The name can be short (such as “Joe”) or long (such as “Stupidest Memo of 2007”). At the name’s end, press the Enter key. Then the computer will copy the document onto the disk.

If you change your mind afterwards, edit the document some more: when you finish that editing, save it by clicking the Save button again. If you’re typing a long document, click the Save button about every 10 minutes, so that if an accident happens you’ll lose at most 10 minutes of work.

Print To print the document onto paper, click the Print button.

Print Preview If you’re wondering what a page will look like but don’t want to waste a sheet of paper to find out, click the Print Preview button. The computer will show you a mock-up of what the entire page will look like: you’ll see the whole page, shrunk to fit on the screen, so the characters on the page appear very tiny. Those characters are too tiny to read, but you’ll see the page’s overall appearance: how much of the page is filled up, which parts of the page are blank, and whether the info on the page is centered. When you finish admiring that mock-up, click the word “Close”.

Finishing When you finish working on a document, you can click the New button or the Open button. If you click the New button and then press Enter, the computer will let you start typing a new document. If instead you click the Open button, here’s what happens:

When you finish using WordPad, click the X button (at the screen’s top right corner). That closes the WordPad window, so the WordPad window disappears.

Before the computer obeys the New button, Open button, or X button, the computer checks whether you saved your document. If you didn’t save your document, here’s the consequence in Windows 98, Me, and XP:

Here’s the consequence in Windows Vista:

 

To paint pictures, get the accessories menu onto the screen (by clicking Start then “Programs” then “Accessories”) and then click “Paint”. You’ll see the Paint window.

Make sure the Paint window consumes the whole screen. (If it doesn’t consume the whole screen yet, maximize the window by clicking the resize button, which is next to the X button.)

Move the mouse pointer to the screen’s middle. Then drag (move the mouse while holding down the mouse’s left button). As you drag, you’ll be drawing a squiggle.

For example, try drawing a smile:

When you draw, you’re normally drawing in black. At the screen’s bottom (in Windows 98, Me, and XP) or the screen’s top (in Windows Vista), you see 28 colors: red, yellow, green, etc. To draw in one of those colors instead of in black, click the color you want.

Near the screen’s top-left corner, you see these buttons:

 

                 Free-Form Select                      Select

 

                                   Eraser                      Fill With Color

 

                            Pick Color                      Magnifier

 

                                    Pencil                      Brush

 

                              Airbrush                      Text

 

                                       Line                      Curve

 

                             Rectangle                      Polygon

 

                                   Ellipse                      Rounded Rectangle

 

To use a button, activate it by clicking it.

When you start using Paint, the computer assumes you want to use the Pencil, so it activates the Pencil button. If you want to use a different tool, click a different button instead. Let’s start with the most popular choices.…

Brush

To draw a fatter squiggle, click the Brush button. Then put the mouse pointer in the screen’s middle, where you want the squiggle to begin, and drag! Try it now!

Eraser

To erase a mistake, click the Eraser button. Then drag across the part of your drawing you want to erase. The part you drag across will become white.

Airbrush

To vandalize your drawing by using a can of spray paint, click the Airbrush button. Then put the mouse pointer where you want to begin spraying, and drag!

Line

To draw a line that’s exactly straight, click the Line button. Then put the mouse pointer where you want the line to begin, and drag to where you want the line to end. While dragging, if you hold down the Shift key, you’ll force the line to be perfectly simple (perfectly vertical, perfectly horizontal, or at a perfect 45-degree angle).

Ctrl key

While holding down the Ctrl key, you can tap the Z, S, P, N, or O key. Here are the details:

X button

When you finish using Paint, click the X button (at the screen’s top right corner). That closes the Paint window, so the Paint window disappears.

Did you save?

Before the computer obeys Ctrl N, Ctrl O, or the X button, the computer checks whether you saved your painting. If you didn’t save your painting, here’s the consequence in Windows 98, Me, and XP:

Here’s the consequence in Windows Vista:

Advanced buttons

You’ve learned how to use the easy buttons (pencil, brush, eraser, airbrush, and line). Here’s how to use the other buttons, which are more advanced.

Rectangle To draw a rectangle whose sides are exactly straight, click the Rectangle button. Then put the mouse pointer where you want the rectangle’s top left corner to be, and drag to where you want the rectangle’s opposite corner. While dragging, if you hold down the Shift key, you’ll force the rectangle to be a perfect square.

Rectangle variants Instead of clicking the Rectangle button, try clicking these variants:

Polygon To draw a polygon (a shape that has many straight sides and corners), click the Polygon button. Then put the mouse pointer where you want the polygon’s first corner to be, and drag to where you want the second corner. Click where you want the third corner, click where you want the fourth corner, click where you want the fifth corner, etc.

At the last corner, double-click instead of click. The double-clicking makes the computer complete the polygon: it makes the computer draw the final side back to the first corner.

Curve To draw a curve, click the Curve button. Then put the mouse pointer where you want the curve to begin, and drag to where you want the curve to end. Then take your finger off the mouse’s button.

You temporarily see a straight line. To turn that line into a curve, bend the line’s middle, by pointing at the line’s middle and dragging that midpoint in the direction you want to bend it. (While doing that dragging, try wiggling the mouse in all four directions, until the line bends close to the way you want.) Then take your finger off the mouse’s button.

To bend the line more, and even create a second bend (arc) in the line, drag again. (You get just two chances to bend the line.)

Fill With Color After you’ve drawn a closed shape (a rectangle, square, rounded rectangle, rounded square, ellipse, circle, or polygon, or “a squiggle that forms a loop so it ends where it started”), here’s how to fill in the shape’s interior (middle), so the interior becomes colored instead of white:

If you click outside the shape instead of inside, you’ll be coloring the shape’s exterior.

Pick Color Look at what you’ve drawn. In that drawing, if you see a color you’ve used and like, here’s how to use it again:

Select Here’s how to alter part of your drawing.

First, say which part of your drawing to alter, by using one of these methods.…

Then say what to do to that part of your drawing. You have these choices:

 

Windows Me, XP, and Vista include a ball game. Here’s how to play. (If you have Windows 98, skip ahead to the next topic, called “Taskbar”.)

Windows Vista

In Windows Vista, the ball game is InkBall. You can access it in two ways.

Goal You see a blue ball and an orange ball, bouncing around, like billiard balls on a billiard table. To win, coax the blue ball into the blue hole, and coax the orange ball into the orange hole. (If the blue ball accidentally falls the orange hole — or the orange ball accidentally falls into the blue hole — you lose.)

Strategy To change the direction in which a ball moves, use your mouse to draw a black squiggle (by dragging, as if you were using Paint). The squiggle acts as a barrier: when a ball hits the barrier, the ball bounces off the barrier, and the barrier disappears.

For example, if the blue ball is getting too close to the orange hole, draw a barrier between the blue ball and the orange hole. If the blue ball is getting wonderfully close to the blue hole, nudge the blue ball into the blue hole by drawing a loop that contains the blue ball and the blue hole.

Speed You must be reasonably fast: the game has a 2-minute time limit. If you take more than 2 minutes, you lose. The window’s red box shows how many seconds are left.

Game over If a ball falls into the wrong hole or you take more than 2 minutes, the computer says “Game over!” To react, press the Enter key; then the game will restart.

Winning If you get a ball into the correct hole, you get points. Your point total is written in white, in a black box. If you get both balls into the correct holes, you proceed to a more difficult round of the game, where you might encounter differently colored balls and differently colored holes. Gray holes are neutral: when a ball falls into a gray hole, you get no penalty but also no points.

How many points? When you correctly sink a ball into a hole, you get 200 points if the ball is orange, 400 if blue, 800 if green, 1600 if gold. When you successfully finish a round (by sinking both balls within 2 minutes), the computer notices how many seconds were remaining: those unused seconds are given to you as bonus points.

Close When you finish using InkBall, close its window (by clicking its X button).

Windows Me & XP

In Windows Me & XP, the ball game is Pinball. To access it, click Start then “Programs” then “Games” then “Pinball”.

The computer will say “3D Pinball”. After a few seconds, you see a fancy pinball machine with flashing lights and hear sounds of the machine reloading. It’s much fancier than the pinball machines you see in video arcades and bars!

At the machine’s bottom right corner, you see a ball (round bullet), and the computer says “Awaiting Deployment”, which means the computer is waiting for you to fire the ball.

How to play Fire the ball, as follows:

Then the ball goes zooming through the machine. Each time the ball bangs into something, you hear wild noises and get points.

Your goal is to keep the ball in play as long as possible, without letting the ball fall to the screen’s bottom. To keep the ball in play, hit it up by using the flippers, which are near the screen’s bottom.

You get 3 chances to do all that (fire the ball and keep it in play). If the computer sympathizes with you (because you’re amazingly good or pathetically bad), the computer gives you free replays, so you get more than 3 chances.

As you play, you see your score rise. When all your chances are used up, the computer says “GAME OVER”.

High scores The computer keeps track of the 5 highest scores. If you have one of the 5 highest scores, you see the High Scores window: it’s a chart showing the top 5 scores so far and who got them. Your score is temporarily called credited to “Player 1”, because you haven’t told the computer your name yet. Type your name and press Enter.

Play again If you (or a friend) want to play again, press the F2 key.

Bigger machine If you want to want the pinball machine to look bigger and fill the whole screen, press the F4 key. Unfortunately, that makes the menus disappear. Press the F4 key again to return to normal size and see the menus.

Pause If you want to pause (so you can go to the bathroom, wipe the sweat off your brow, catch your breath, order a pizza, tell your Mom you’re doing your homework, or tell the boss you’re doing accounting), press the F3 key. That makes the ball immediately stop rolling. As in a sci-fi movie, you’ve put the ball into a state of suspended animation!

When you’re ready to resume, press the F3 key again, and the ball will come flying at you as fast as when you left off.

Close When you finish using Pinball, make sure the pinball machine is normal size, then close its window (by clicking its X button).

The screen’s bottom-right corner shows the time, like this:

If you move the mouse’s arrow there, the date will flash on the screen briefly.

Here’s how to get more details about the time and date.…

Windows 98, Me, and XP

Double-click the time. The computer will show you a calendar for the entire month, with today’s date highlighted in blue. You’ll also see the face of a traditional clock, with an hour hand, minute hand, and second hand that all move. You’ll see the time zone, such as “Eastern Daylight Time”.

Reset If the calendar, clock, or time zone is wrong, here’s how to reset it.

To change the year, click the 5 (or ₆) symbol that’s next to the year. To change the month, click the ₆ symbol that’s next to the month, then click the correct month. To change the date, click the correct date.

To change the time, click the part of the time that you want to change (the hours, minutes, seconds, or AM/PM), then click the 5 or ₆ symbol nearby. To change the time zone, do this:

To see immediately the results of changing the time or the time zone, click “Apply”.

Finish When you finish using that clock/calendar window, click “OK”.

Windows Vista

Click the time. Then the computer writes today’s date, such as:

Below that, you see a calendar for this month, with today’s date highlighted in blue. (The calendar also shows the end of last month and the beginning of next month. If you want to see a calendar for all of next month, click the right-arrow.) You also see the face of a traditional clock, with an hour hand, minute hand, and second hand that all move.

Date and Time window If you click “Change date and time settings”, you see a bigger window, called the “Date and Time” window. It shows the traditional clock, the time zone (such as “Eastern Time”), and when Daylight Savings Time will begin or end. If you want to change the date and time, do this:

If you want to change the time zone, do this:

When you finish using the “Date and Time” window, click “OK”.

At the screen’s bottom left corner, you see the “Start” button. At the screen’s bottom right corner, you see the time. Across the screen’s bottom, running from the “Start” button to the time, you see a box that’s very wide (as wide as the screen) and about half an inch tall. In Windows 98, Me, and Vista, that box is gray; in Windows XP, that box is blue. That box is called the taskbar. It includes the “Start” button (at the screen’s bottom-left corner), the time (at the screen’s bottom-right corner), and everything between them.

When you’re running a task (program), the taskbar usually shows a button for that task. For example, while you’re running WordPad, you see a WordPad button on the taskbar. While you’re running Paint, you see a Paint button on the taskbar.

Experiment

Try this experiment!

Start running WordPad (by clicking Start then Programs then Accessories then WordPad). Now the taskbar includes a WordPad button. Since WordPad is a word-processing program, type a few words, so you’ve created a short document on your screen.

While WordPad is still on your screen, start running Paint (by clicking Start then Programs then Accessories then Paint). Now the taskbar includes a WordPad button and a Paint button, because WordPad and Paint are both running simultaneously: they’re both in the computer’s RAM memory chips. Paint is blocking your view of WordPad, but WordPad is still running also.

To see WordPad better, click WordPad’s button on the toolbar. Then you’ll see WordPad clearly, and WordPad will block your view of Paint.

Here’s the rule: clicking WordPad’s button lets you see WordPad better; clicking Paint’s button lets you see Paint better. Both programs are in RAM simultaneously, until you close them (by clicking their X buttons).

Windows Vista lets you play this trick (if your edition of Windows Vista is at least “Premium”):

Many tasks

You can run several programs simultaneously. For example, you can run WordPad, Paint, and Calculator all simultaneously, so you see all their buttons on the taskbar simultaneously. But if you try to run many programs simultaneously, the computer will tend to get confused and fail (especially if you bought too little RAM or your computer’s been on for many hours in a row or you’re using Windows 98 or Me). To avoid headaches, run no more than two major programs at a time.

To copy data, you can use this 2-step process: first copy the data to the computer’s invisible Clipboard, then stick the clipboard’s data wherever you want it by using Velcro. Here are the details.…

Ctrl with C

You can copy data from one document to another, even if the documents were created by different programs, and even if one “document” is a drawing and the other “document” contains mostly words. (For example, you can copy data that’s a drawing, from Paint to WordPad.) Here’s how:

Print Screen key

If you press the Print Screen key (which is labeled PrtScr or PrtScn or PrtSc), the computer will take a snapshot of your whole screen and put that photo onto the clipboard.

If you want the computer to take a snapshot of just one window, do this:

After something’s on the clipboard, stick it into a WordPad document or Paint document or some other document (by clicking there and then pressing Ctrl with V). Then, if you wish, edit the snapshot and print it on paper.

Snipping Tool

If you want to copy part of the screen to the clipboard, use Windows Vista and do this:

After you’ve done that, stick your clip into a WordPad document or Paint document or some other document (by clicking there and then pressing Ctrl with V).

Before 1980, music came on records or tapes. Nowadays, music comes on compact discs instead.

If you’ve bought a compact disc containing music, you can shove that disk into your computer’s CD-ROM drive (or DVD-ROM drive) while Windows is running. Here’s how.…

Find the drive

Find your computer’s CD-ROM drive (or DVD-ROM drive, which is a souped-up CD-ROM drive). It’s in a desktop computer’s front or a notebook computer’s side.

If you’re lucky, it’s a 5-inch horizontal slit. If you’re unlucky (which is more likely), it’s a 5-inch-wide drawer you must open by pressing an eject button (which is on the drawer, or under the drawer’s right-hand end).

Insert the disk

Grab the CD. Hold that disk horizontally, so its label is on the top surface. Don’t touch its shiny underside.

Put that CD into the CD-ROM drive, as follows:

Finish installing Media Player

If your computer has never played any CDs, it might ask you questions. Here’s how to reply:

Enjoy the music

The computer will play the compact disc as background music, while you continue your work.

Adjust the volume

To adjust the music’s overall volume, turn the master volume knob, which is typically on the front of the right speaker.

(Some old systems put the master volume knob on the computer’s back wall instead, below where the speaker’s cable enters the computer. Some cheap systems have no master volume knob at all!)

If you have a subwoofer (an extra speaker, to produce a booming bass), its front has a bass knob, which you can turn to boost the bass volume as much as you wish.

If you have a 5-speaker system (2 stereo speakers plus 1 subwoofer plus 2 surround-sound speakers), you can boost the surround-sound speaker volume by turning the surround knob (which is next to the master-volume knob on the front right stereo speaker).

On most systems, the screen’s bottom right corner shows a Volume icon (which looks like a blaring loudspeaker and is next to the time).

If you’re using Windows XP but the Volume icon is missing, do this:

That will probably make the Volume icon appear. If it doesn’t appear yet, do this:

If you click the Volume icon, you’ll see a slider. Using the mouse, drag the slider up (to raise the master volume) or down (to lower it).

Control what you hear & see

Here’s how to control what you hear & see.

Windows 98’s second edition & Me & XP & Vista While the music plays, you see the Windows Media Player window. Make sure that window’s top-left corner says “Windows Media Player”. If you don’t see those words, make them appear by doing this.…

Maximize that window by clicking its maximize button (which is next to the X button).

At the window’s bottom, you see several buttons.

Click the ║ button to pause in the middle of a song. To resume, click that button again (which has changed to a big „).

Click n to stop back at the beginning of the current track (song). To begin playing there, click the big „.

Click „| or „„| to skip ahead to the next track (song), |ƒ or |ƒƒ to hop back to the beginning of the previous track. (If you don’t hear any music, click the big „ to remind the computer to play.) To skip to a far-away track, click those buttons repeatedly or double-click the track’s number (or name) at the screen’s right edge. (You see track names instead of numbers just if the CD is in the recording industry’s database and you’re connected to the Internet.)

As a song plays, you see a tiny object slide from left to right:

To fast-forward, use your mouse to drag that object farther to the right immediately. To reverse, drag that object back to the left.

As the music plays, you see the music’s visualization (an animated abstract cartoon that thumps to the music’s beat).

When you tire of listening to that CD, click the eject button (which is the rightmost button on your CD-ROM drive), then remove the CD. If you wish, insert a different CD instead. If you don’t want to listen to any CD now, close the Windows Media Player window (by clicking its X button).

Windows 98’s first edition While the music plays, look at the screen’s bottom. If you see “Windows Media Player”, your version of Windows has been upgraded to resemble Windows Me, so follow the instructions for Windows Me controls. If you see “CD Player” instead, you’re still using an old-fashioned way to handle CD’s. Here’s how it works.…

On the CD Player button, you see which track (song) you’re playing and how many minutes & seconds of that track have elapsed.

To control the music, click the CD Player button. You’ll see the CD Player window. In that window, click the ║ button to pause in the middle of a song, n to stop back at the beginning of track 1, „ to resume playing, „„│ to skip ahead to the next track, │ƒƒ to hop back to the beginning of the current track. Hold down the „„ button awhile to go fast-forward, ƒƒ to reverse. Click � to eject the disk from the drive (so you can insert a different disk instead). When you tire of listening to your CD collection, click eject (�) and click the window’s X button.

 

Videos used to come on videotape. Nowadays, a video come on Digital Versatile Disk (DVD) instead.

If you’ve bought a DVD containing a movie, you can shove that disk into your computer’s DVD-ROM drive while Windows is running. Playing a movie DVD is similar to playing an audio CD. Here’s how to do it in Windows XP & Vista. (Windows 98 & Me are too old to play movies well.)

Find the drive

Find your computer’s DVD-ROM drive. It’s in a desktop computer’s front or a notebook computer’s side.

If you’re lucky, it’s a 5-inch horizontal slit. If you’re unlucky (which is more likely), it’s a 5-inch-wide drawer you must open by pressing an eject button (which is on the drawer, or under the drawer’s right-hand end).

Insert the disk

Grab the DVD. Hold that disk horizontally, so its label is on the top surface. Don’t touch its shiny underside.

Put that DVD into the DVD drive, as follows:

Finish installing Media Player

If your computer has never played any movie DVDs, it might ask you questions. Here’s how to reply:

Enjoy the movie

The computer will start playing the movie. (If the movie begins with a menu giving you a choice such as “play movie”, click “play movie” with your mouse.)

Adjust the volume

To adjust the movie’s overall volume, turn the master volume knob, which is typically on the front of the right speaker.

Control what you see

If you move the mouse, the screen’s bottom will show several buttons temporarily.

Move the mouse’s pointer to the screen’s bottom. That makes the buttons stay on the screen until you move the mouse’s pointer back up.

While the buttons are on the screen, here’s what you can do.…

Click the ║ button to pause the movie. To resume, click that button again (which has changed to a big „).

Click n to stop back at the movie’s beginning. To begin playing there, click the big „.

While the movie plays, click „„| to skip ahead to the next scene, |ƒƒ to hop back to the previous scene.

As the movie plays, you see tiny blue bubble (with a long blue tail) slide from left to right. To fast-forward, use your mouse to drag that object farther to the right immediately. To reverse, drag that object back to the left.

Ending

When you tire of watching that movie, click the eject button (which is the rightmost button on your DVD drive). Then remove the DVD.

If you wish, insert a different DVD instead.

If you don’t want to watch any more DVDs now, press the Escape key (which is at your keyboard’s top left corner and says “Esc” on it). Then close the Windows Media Player window (by clicking its X button).

 

What’s in your computer? How much hardware and software do you have, and what type? Let’s find out!

System properties

To find out what kind of computer system you have, do this:

You’ll see a message about your computer’s properties. For example, on one of my computers the message says

That means:

On one of my newer computers, the message says —

That means:

On one of my other computers, the message says —

That means:

On one of my newest computers, the message says —

That means:

What message does your computer show? When you finish admiring your computer’s message, do this.…

Custom style

If you’re using Windows 98, do this:

That procedure gives your computer the style used by Windows Me & XP & Vista, so you can follow the instructions in this chapter and in Microsoft’s manuals and tutorials.

Your computer probably came with that procedure done already, but do it again to be sure. If you’re sharing the computer with friends, ask their permission before doing the procedure.

Disk drives

Each disk drive has a letter.

A typical computer has these drive details:

Drive C is the most important: it’s the main part of the main hard drive. Drive C holds Windows itself and the most important programs & documents.

Here’s how the drives are named:

To find out what drives are in your computer and how they’re lettered, do this….

You’ll see the My Computer window. Make sure it consumes the whole screen. (If it doesn’t consume the whole screen yet, maximize the My Computer window by clicking the maximize icon, which is next to the X button.)

You’ll see an icon (little picture) labeled “A:” (for your main floppy-disk drive), an icon labeled “C:” (for the main part of your main hard drive), and icons for your other disk drives also.

In Windows 98, the icons are labeled like this:

In Windows Me, the icons are labeled like this:

In Windows XP & Vista, the icons are labeled like this:

If you’re using Windows XP, do this….

Drive C’s files

To find out about drive C, do this:

To find out even more about your hard disk, double-click the “C:” icon. You’ll see the C window, which lists files that are on disk C.

Make sure the C window consumes the whole screen. (If it doesn’t consume the whole screen yet, maximize the C window by clicking the maximize button, which is next to the X button.)

If disk C contains more files than can fit on the screen, view the remaining files by pressing the ₆ and 5 buttons, which are at the screen’s right edge.

For each file, you see the file’s name and a tiny picture (icon) representing the file.

Your computer can handle 3 kinds of files:

In the C window, you see a folder called “Program Files”, a folder called “Windows” or “WINDOWS”, and a folder called “My Documents” or “Documents and Settings” or “Users”.

Those folders are extremely important. You might also see some extra folders, documents, and application programs.

If you double-click a folder, a new window shows you what files are in the folder.

When you finish examining the new window, either close it (by clicking its X button) or go back to the previous window (by clicking the Back button, which is near the screen’s top-left corner).

If you click a file’s icon, here’s what happens.…

Here’s what happens if you double-click a file’s icon:

Here’s how to find the documents you wrote using WordPad:

Views While you’re viewing icons, here’s how to change their appearance.

For Windows Vista, click the down-arrow to the right of “Views”, then choose one of these 4 views.

Here’s a different way to express your desires: if you click the word “Views” repeatedly, the computer will cycle among those 4 popular choices (from Details to Tiles to Large Icons to List then back to Details).

For Windows 98, Me, and XP, click the word “View”, which gives a View menu. The menu offer these choices:

Usually you’ll be happiest if you choose “List”.

New folder To create a new folder, click “File” (which is at the screen’s top left corner), so you see the File menu. From that menu, choose “New”, then click “Folder”.

A new folder will appear. Type a name for it (and press Enter).

Close the C window When you finish examining the files that are on hard disk C, close the C window by clicking its X button.

CD-ROM files

The CD-ROM drive resembles drive C. (If your computer is modern, that drive can also create CD-R and CD-RW disks and handle DVD disks.)

Grab a CD-ROM disk that contains computer info, and put it in the CD-ROM drive. (To find out how, read “Find the drive” and “Insert the disk” on page 90.)

The computer will analyze that disk.

If it’s a CD that contains music, the computer will automatically start playing the music (as I explained on page 90).

If it’s a CD-ROM disk containing a program called autorun.inf, the computer will automatically start running that program, which typically makes the computer run another program, called setup.exe. If you don’t want to continue running such programs, exit from them by clicking their X buttons or by clicking whatever “Exit” choices they offer you. Then if you want to find out what’s on the disk, right-click the CD-ROM disk’s icon (which is in the My Computer window) and click “Open”.

If it’s a CD-ROM disk that lacks an autorun.inf program, here’s what will happen.…

When you finish examining any files that are on the CD-ROM disk, close the CD-ROM disk’s window by clicking its X button.

Floppy disks

This section explains how to handle floppy disks. (If your computer uses Windows XP or Windows Vista, your computer probably doesn’t have a floppy-disk drive and can’t handle floppy disks, so skip ahead to the next section.)

Drive A (the floppy drive) resembles drive C.

Insert the floppy disk Try this. Grab any standard floppy disk (which is a 3½-inch square). Hold it horizontally, so that disk’s label is on top of the disk.

Find your computer’s floppy-disk drive. It’s a 3½-inch horizontal slit in a tower computer’s front or a notebook computer’s side. On most computers, that slit is easy to see; on weird computers (such as ones built by eMachines), the slit is covered by a door you must unlatch.

Insert the disk into the slit, so the disk’s label stays on top of the disk, and so the disk’s silver metal edge goes into the slit before the other edges.

Analyze the floppy disk Double-click the
“3½ Floppy A:” icon, which is in the My Computer Window. You’ll see the A window, which tries to list all files that are on the floppy disk.

If the disk hasn’t been properly prepared yet (because it wasn’t formatted yet or was intended for a Macintosh computer), the computer says “The disk in drive A is not formatted.” Here’s what happens:

If there are no files on the floppy disk yet, here’s what happens.…

If the floppy disk contains more files than can fit on the screen, view the remaining files by pressing the ₆ and 5 buttons, which are at the screen’s right edge.

For each file, you see the file’s name and an icon representing the file. When you finish examining them, close the A window by clicking its X button.

Eject the floppy disk When you finish using the floppy disk, eject it from the drive by pressing the eject button, which is under the slit’s right-hand end.

Close

When you finish using the My Computer window, close it by clicking its X button.

Find a file’s icon

To manipulate a file, the first step is to get the file’s icon onto the screen.

If the file’s a document you created using WordPad, here’s the easiest way to get the file’s icon onto the screen:

If the file’s a painting you created using Paint, here’s the easiest way to get the file’s icon onto the screen:

If the file’s on disk C, here’s another way to get the file’s icon onto the screen. For Windows Vista, try this:

For Windows 98 & Me & XP, try this:

Another way to get a file’s icon onto the screen is to go to the My Computer window and click icons for drives & files until you find the file you want.

Many programs put documents into a folder called Documents (or My Documents). Here’s how to see what documents are in that folder.…

In Windows Me, XP, and Vista, the Paint program puts paintings into a folder called Pictures (or My Pictures). Here’s how to see what’s in that folder.…

In Windows Me, XP, and Vista, some programs put music into the My Music folder. Here’s how to see what’s in that folder.…

 

Now I’ll explain how to manipulate a file.

If you want to practice this stuff, use a file you don’t mind wrecking. For example, create a WordPad document containing just once sentence (such as “I love you”) and save it as a file called “Love”.

To manipulate a file, find its icon (by using the tricks in the previous section) then do one of these activities.…

Send to CD

Here’s how to copy the file to a CD or DVD disk.

Windows Vista If you see “Burn” (at the top of the window where you saw the file’s icon), click the file’s icon then “Burn”; if you don’t see that choice, right-click the file’s icon then click “Send To” then “DVD RW Drive”.

The computer will open the drive’s door (tray). Put a blank CD or DVD disk onto the tray. Push the tray back in.

Invent a name for the disk. The name must be short (no more than 16 characters). Type the name (and press Enter).

The computer will copy the file to the disk. Then it will say “Files Currently on the Disc”.

If you wish, copy another file to the disk (by clicking the file’s icon then “Burn”).

Press the drive’s button (which is on the system unit below the drive’s tray). The computer says “Preparing to eject”. The computer writes final notes onto the disk then opens the drive’s tray.

Remove the CD. Push the tray back in.

Windows XP Put the CD into the drive. (If the computer asks “What do you want Windows to do?”, click “Take no action” then press Enter.)

Right-click the file’s icon; click “Send To” then the CD’s icon. That copies the file to a list called “Files ready to be written to the CD”. Copy more files to that list, if you like.

Then copy that entire list to the CD, as follows:

Windows 98 & Me You must first install a CD burner program. The most popular CD burner programs are DirectCD and Easy CD Creator. They’re published by a company called Roxio, which was formerly part of Adaptec.

When you buy a CD-R or CD-RW drive, you typically get DirectCD and Easy CD Creator at no extra charge. When you buy a computer containing a CD-R or CD-RW drive, it typically includes DirectCD and Easy CD Creator, already installed.

Use either DirectCD or Easy CD Creator, whichever you find more convenient.

How to use DirectCD:

Unfortunately, that procedure works just if the CD has been formatted. If the CD hasn’t been formatted yet, format it by doing this:

How to use Easy CD Creator:

Send to Documents folder

For Windows Vista, here’s how to copy the file to your hard disk’s Documents folder (if the file isn’t there already):

For Windows Me & XP, here’s how to copy the file to your hard disk’s “My Documents” folder (if the file isn’t there already):

For Windows 98, here’s how to copy the file to your hard disk’s “My Documents” folder (if the file isn’t there already):

Send to Desktop

To copy the file to your Desktop (which is the main screen), do this:

To save disk space, that technique copies just the file’s icon to the Desktop. The file itself stays just in its original location.

On the Desktop, the file’s icon’s bottom left corner has a bent arrow, which means the icon is just a shortcut (which points the computer to the original location).

Here’s how that shortcut icon is named:

If you double-click that shortcut icon, the computer will try to find the original file and run it. If the original file was on a floppy disk or CD, that works just if the file’s floppy disk or CD is still in the drive.

Send to floppy

This section explains how to copy to a floppy disk. (If your computer uses Windows XP or Windows Vista, your computer probably doesn’t have a floppy-disk drive and can’t handle floppy disks, so skip ahead to the next section.)

To copy the file to a floppy disk (in the floppy drive), do this:

That works if your computer was set up properly by the manufacturer.

If the “3½ Floppy” choice is missing from the “Send To” menu or generates an error message, teach the computer how to handle “3½ Floppy”, by doing this —

then doing this:

Send to a different location

To copy the file to a different location (such as a folder on your hard drive), do this:

Rename

To change the file’s name, do this:

That works just if the file’s on a hard disk or floppy disk (not on a CD).

Delete

To delete the file, try this procedure:

That procedure works just if the file’s on a hard disk or floppy disk (not on a CD).

If the file’s on a floppy disk, that procedure deletes the file immediately. If the file’s on a hard disk, that procedure moves the file to the Recycle Bin, which holds hard-disk files you said to delete.

Peek in the Recycle Bin To discover what’s in the Recycle Bin, double-click the Recycle Bin icon (which is typically at the screen’s left edge but might have moved elsewhere, such as to the screen’s bottom right corner). You’ll see the Recycle Bin window, which shows a list of hard-disk files you said to delete. (If you don’t see a file list, the Recycle Bin is empty.)

To see lots of info about the files in the Recycle Bin, make sure the Recycle Bin window is maximized (so it consumes the whole screen), and make sure you’re seeing the Details view. (To see that view in Windows 98 & Me & XP, click “View” then “Details”. To see that view in Windows Vista, click the down-arrow that’s to the right of “Views” then click “Details”.)

To see even more details about a certain file, right-click the file’s icon and then click “Properties”. When you finish admiring the details, click “OK”.

If you change your mind and do not want to delete a certain file, right-click the file’s icon and then click “Restore”. That makes the computer pull the file out of the Recycle Bin and put the file back to its original location on the hard disk.

If, on the other hand, you really do want to delete a certain file, click the file’s icon and then press the Delete key; then press Enter. The file will disappear.

To delete all files from the Recycle Bin, do this.…

Then press Enter.

When you finish admiring the Recycle Bin window, click its X button.

Shift Delete You’ve learned that to delete a file, the usual procedure is to click the file’s icon, then tap the Delete key, then tap the Enter key. If the file was on the hard disk, that procedure moves the file into the Recycle Bin. Notice that the procedure involves tapping the Delete key. If instead you tap the Delete key while holding down the Shift key, the computer deletes the file immediately instead of moving it to the Recycle Bin.

Multiple files

To “delete” or “send” several files at once, highlight the files you want to manipulate. Here’s how:

Those methods work best while you’re not running a program. They do not work while you’re running a primitive program (such as WordPad). Those methods sometimes work while you’re running a fancy program (such as Microsoft Word).

After highlighting the files, do this:

You’ll discover that the other files magically “tag along” with the first file, because they’re highlighted also.

Copy entire floppy

If you have a 3½-inch 1.44M floppy disk that contains info, and you have a 3½-inch 1.44M floppy disk that’s blank, here’s how to copy all info from the first disk to the second so the second becomes an exact duplicate of the first:

Erase entire floppy

Here’s how to erase an entire floppy disk:

Erase entire CD-RW

Here’s how to erase an entire CD-RW disk:

These tricks will make you a pro and amaze your friends.

Sample music

Windows comes with free samples of music.

Windows Vista Here’s how to hear several types of music:

Windows XP Here’s how to hear Beethoven or blues:

Here’s how to hear David Byrne sing about what humans do:

Windows Me Here’s how to hear Beck Hanson sing about a “beautiful way to break my heart”:

Windows 98 Insert the CD that Windows came on. Click “Cool Video Clips”. You’ll see a window full of icons; double-click any icon you wish. (Each icon is a video clip, with sound. Unfortunately, each is an ad.)

Recently used

The computer keeps track of what you’ve recently used.

Windows XP & Vista When you click Start, you see a list of the programs you’ve used most often recently. That list appears at the screen’s left edge, above “All Programs” but below the horizontal line under “E-mail”. In Windows XP, that list shows 6 programs; in Windows Vista, that list shows 9 programs.

Windows 98 & Me If you click “Start” then “Documents”, the computer shows you the Documents menu, which is a list of the last 15 documents you used. If your computer is new and you haven’t used 15 documents yet, the list is shorter.

Windows 98’s second edition & Me show the list in alphabetical order. Windows 98’s first edition shows the list in chronological order instead, from oldest to newest.

To use one of those documents, click it. Then the computer runs the program that created the document, and the computer lets you use the document. When you finish using the document, close its window (by clicking its X button).

Suppose you delete one of those 15 documents. (To do that, double-click My Computer then “C:”, then click the document’s icon, then press the Delete key; or double-click the My Documents folder, then click the document’s icon, then press the Delete key). Even though you’ve deleted the document, it remains mentioned in the Documents menu. So although the Documents menu lists the last 15 documents you mentioned, those 15 documents don’t necessarily still exist!

Sleep

When you try to shut down the computer, the computer might take several seconds — or even several minutes — to do so. When you try to turn the computer back on, the computer might take several seconds — or several minutes — to do so. You might get annoyed at waiting for the computer to shut down and turn back on — especially if it’s during your lunch break!

Instead of telling the computer to “shut down” and then “turn back on”, you can tell the computer to “sleep” and then “wake back up”. The computer can go to “sleep” almost instantly and “wake up” almost instantly, so you don’t have to wait.

While the computer sleeps, you can say it is “napping” and is “in standby mode”.

How to make the computer sleep To make the computer sleep, try one of these 4 methods:

Go ahead: try one of those sleep methods! It’s okay to give one of those “sleep” commands anytime — even while you’re running a program whose window is still open and whose work is still unsaved.

What happens during sleep When you give a sleep command, the computer makes a note in its RAM about what you’ve been doing. On most computers, Windows Vista’s sleep command does hybrid sleep (where the computer also copies its RAM to the hard disk, for extra protection).

Then the screen goes black and the computer takes a nap. While the computer is napping, it uses little electricity (about 5 watts) and its power light flashes.

If the computer is a laptop or notebook whose battery is running out and the computer isn’t using hybrid sleep, Windows Vista will realize the emergency, copy the RAM’s information to the hard disk, and put itself into a nearly powerless state called hibernation.

Waking The best way to wake the computer from its nap is to tap the Shift key. Other ways, which usually work, are to tap any other key on the keyboard, or jiggle the mouse (or the table it’s on), or press the mouse’s button. If none of those techniques work, quickly tap the system unit’s power button (which wakes the system unit from sleep and hibernation).

The computer will waken and make its screen show exactly the same image as when you put the computer to sleep, so you can continue your work where you left off. (Exception: if your computer has a password or several different users, the computer might ask you to identify yourself first.)

Is sleep good? Sleep is fun, cute, consumes significantly less electricity than leaving the computer fully on, and happens fast enough to maximize your lunch break. But at night you should turn the computer off completely by giving the usual “Shut Down” command, which erases the computer’s RAM and lets the computer start fresh the next day.

Run

Here’s a different way to tell the computer to run WordPad:

To run Paint instead of WordPad, type “mspaint” instead of “wordpad”. To run the Calculator, type “calc” instead. To play Pinball (which is included in Windows Me & XP), type “pinball” instead.

When you buy a program, it typically comes on a disk (a floppy disk or a CD-ROM disk). The instructions for copying it onto your hard disk might say to run a program called “setup”. To obey such instructions, do this:

For some programs, the instructions say to type “install” instead of “setup”.

Control Panel

To control your computer completely, go to the Control Panel. Here’s how:

Maximize the window. Then you can see these icons:

If your computer is fancy, you can see extra icons also.

Windows Me omits the “Scanners and Cameras” icon if you’ve never attached a scanner or camera.

Windows XP shows you either those icons (which form the classic view) or these categories instead (which form the category view):

To switch between those two views, click (in the screen’s top left corner) “Switch to Classic View” or “Switch to Category View”. If your Windows XP was invented before SP 2, it might omit “Automatic Updates”, “Network Setup Wizard”, “Security Center”, “Windows Firewall”, and “Wireless Network Setup Wizard”.

Windows Vista shows you either those icons (which form the classic view) or these categories instead (which form the home category view):

To switch between those two views, click (in the screen’s top left corner) “Classic View” or “Control Panel Home”. While you look at the home category view, you see some subcategories also.

Pointer trails For your first experiment in Control Panel, play with pointer trails by doing this (on a desktop computer with a mouse):

Then if you put a _a in the “Display pointer trails” box (or “Show pointer trails” box) by clicking it, you’ll see a trail of mouse pointers whenever you move the mouse.

To make the trail be long and obvious, make sure the slider is dragged toward the right, to the “Long” position. (If you don’t see the slider in Windows 98, make it appear by clicking “Settings”.)

The long trail helps you notice the mouse pointer more easily. It’s useful when you’re giving a presentation to a group of people and want to make sure they always notice where the mouse is moving. It’s also useful if you’re on a laptop computer whose screen is “passive matrix”, which is too slow to show mouse motions well.

If you change your mind, stop the trails by clicking the “Display pointer trails” box again, so the check mark disappears.

When you finish experimenting with pointer trails, close the Mouse Properties window by clicking “OK”.

Experimenting You can experiment by double-clicking any of the other icons in the Control Panel window, but be careful! If you tell the computer to use hardware you don’t own, Windows will stop working! Before changing a setting, make a note to yourself of what the setting was, so you can get back to it! Be especially cautious about playing with the Display icon, since if you make a wrong choice your screen will be unreadable!

When you finish playing with the Control Panel window, close it by clicking its X button.

For Windows 98, try this experiment:

Notepad

Notepad is a stripped-down version of WordPad. Notepad is easier but does less.

Like WordPad, Notepad comes free as part of modern Windows.

Since WordPad does more than Notepad, most people prefer WordPad rather than Notepad. But sometimes WordPad is too fancy and too complex, and Notepad’s primitive simplicity is appealing. Notepad is popular for writing “short notes”, “computer programs”, and “pages to put on the Internet”. Notepad will confuse you less often than WordPad, since Notepad does less. It’s retro; it’s cool! Try it! Here’s how.…

To start using Notepad, click Start then “Programs” then “Accessories” then “Notepad”. Make sure the Notepad window consumes the whole screen. (If it doesn’t consume the whole screen yet, maximize the window by clicking the maximize button, which is next to the X button.)

Start typing whatever you wish, as if you were using WordPad. Here are the differences.…

No formatting saved When you save the document (copy it to the hard disk), Notepad saves info about which characters you typed (which letters of the alphabet, digits, and symbols, and where you hit the Space bar, the Enter key, and Tab key); but it saves no info about the document’s appearance. Notepad doesn’t save any info about fonts, boldfacing, italics, underlining, font size, color, centering, justification, margins, or bullets; all those features are missing.

The document that’s saved is called a pure text document, since it contains just text, no formatting.

A stripped-down word-processing program (such as Notepad) that produces just pure text documents (and saves no formatting) is called a pure text editor.

While you stare at your document (in the Notepad window), which font are you seeing? Here’s the answer:

But when you save your document, no font info is saved as part of the document.

Optional word wrap If you type near the screen’s right edge, and you type a word that’s too long to fit on the screen, WordPad automatically moves the word to the line below. Notepad does so just if you request word wrap.

Here’s how to request word wrap:

No buttons Notepad has no buttons.

No drag & drop To move a phrase, WordPad lets you use drag & drop, but Notepad doesn’t understand that; Notepad requires you to use cut & paste instead. So here’s how to move a phrase in Notepad: select the phrase (by dragging across it), then say “cut” (by pressing Ctrl with X), then click where you want the phrase to be, then say “paste Velcro” (by pressing Ctrl with V).

Fewer Alt symbols Page 83’s bottom left corner shows a chart of Alt symbols. That whole chart works in most fonts (such as Times New Roman, Arial, Courier New, and Lucida Console), but Notepad’s Fixedsys font can’t handle the left column (0130 through 0159): the Fixedsys font handles just 0161 through 0255.

Page 83’s top-left corner shows another chart of Alt symbols. The Fixedsys font can’t handle that chart’s 159 and 249.

Keyboard

A traditional keyboard contains 101 keys. If your keyboard is designed especially for modern Windows, it contains 3 extra keys near the Space bar, so you get 104 keys altogether (or more).

Two of those extra keys are the Windows keys: each shows a flying window. If you press either of the Windows keys, the Start menu appears. So pressing either of those keys has the same effect as if your mouse clicked the Start button. You can press either of the Windows keys: those two keys serve the same purpose as each other, except that one is nearer your left hand, the other is nearer your right. Your keyboard has two Shift keys, two Ctrl keys, two Alt keys, and two Windows keys.

The other extra key, called the Menu key, shows an arrow pointing at a menu. If you press the Menu key, a shortcut menu appears. For example, if you click an icon and then press the menu key, that icon’s shortcut menu appears.

Property window Here are 4 ways to make an icon’s property window appear.…

Use whichever method you wish! My favorites are the right-click method (which feels the most natural) and the Alt-double method (which is usually the fastest).

Alt F4 While a window is open, try this experiment: while holding down the Alt key, tap the F4 key. That makes the computer click the window’s X button, so the window closes.

Suppose your mouse stops working (because the mouse is broken or the computer gets too confused to handle the mouse). To get out of that mess, press Alt F4 several times. That starts the process of closing the windows and shutting down the computer. Finish shutting down the computer (as best as you can), then try again to turn the computer on.

Help

For further help in learning how to use Windows, do this:

Windows Vista Click Start then “Help and Support”.

You see the Help and Support window. Maximize it (by clicking its maximize button).

What topic do you want help about? To express your desire, do this —

or do this:

If you want to go back to seeing the previous screenful of help, click the Back button (the white left-arrow at the screen’s top-left corner).

When you finish using help, close the Help and Support window by clicking its X button.

Windows Me & XP Click Start. For Windows Me, click “Help”; for Windows XP, click “Help and Support”.

You see the Help and Support window. Maximize it (by clicking its maximize button).

What topic do you want help about? To express your desire, do this —

or do this —

or do this:

If you want to go back to seeing the previous screenful of help, click the Back button (the white left-arrow at the screen’s top-left corner).

When you finish using help, close the Help and Support window by clicking its X button.

Windows 98 Click “Start” then “Help”.

You see the Windows Help window. Maximize it (by clicking its maximize button).

What topic do you want help about? To express your desire, do this —

or do this:

When you finish using help, close the Windows Help window by clicking its X button. (If you don’t see an X button, click “Exit” and then click “Exit Tour”.)

Dig deeper

To dig deeper into Windows, read the rest of this book!