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Rule the Web: How to Do Anything and Everything on the Internet - Better, Faster, Easier

Absolute Beginner's Guide to Computer Basics

Previous:
How to Set Up Your New PC

Next:
How to Use Software on Your PC

How to Turn on Your PC for the First Time

When you turn on a new PC for the first time, Microsoft Windows initiates a setup program. The setup program provides screen prompts to guide you through this setup process. During setup, you’re asked to give your PC a name, specify whether you have an internet connection, and so on.

Exploring Windows

Once setup is complete, you’re ready to begin exploring your computer and its operating system, Microsoft Windows®. The Windows desktop, the main screen from which you run your PC’s software, includes the following features (note: this diagram refers to the Windows Vista® desktop. Earlier versions of Windows, such as XP, look slightly different):

Start Button: Clicking on the Start Button opens up the Start Menu, which lets you access all of the programs on your PC.
Desktop icons: These small visual symbols represent your PC’s programs, files, or folders. Double-clicking an icon opens a window for the program, file, or folder.
Taskbar: The standard taskbar consists of three elements, from left to right: the Start Button, the Quick Launch Bar, and the Notification Area (explained below). Between the Quick Launch Bar and the Notification Area lies an empty region of the taskbar in which icons appear for any open programs or folders.
Quick Launch Bar: This contains Quick Launch icons, which are tiny versions of desktop icons. They’re called “Quick Launch“ icons because they launch programs (or open files, folders, or drives) with just one click.
Notification Area: This contains a group of icons that represent programs that load automatically when your PC starts up and run in the background as you work.
Sidebar: This houses Gadgets (explained below).
Sidebar Gadgets: These are small, stand-alone software applications that typically perform one simple graphical function each, such as showing the time or the weather.
Desktop background photo and color: You can change these settings by right-clicking on the desktop and choosing Personalize.
Open and active windows: Your open windows—the windows of programs or folders that you’re currently using—will all appear on your desktop. The active window is the single window in which you’re actually working. It stays on top of your other open windows.

How Windows Operates

Windows runs dozens of programs and tasks simultaneously, which is why it’s often referred to as multitasking software. Windows multitasks in two ways:

It lets you work with several active programs at once. These programs are displayed in windows (onscreen boxes) that you can move or switch between on the fly.
It runs programs you’re using while simultaneously running various system operations in the background.

How to Use the Keyboard

A PC keyboard contains a standard alphanumeric keyboard plus some extra keys. The most important of these are:

Esc (escape): Use this to exit a program or window.
Enter: Use this to make a “carriage return” in word-processing software or execute various commands in other software applications.
Shift: Use this to type capital letters (e.g., Shift/t=T).
Alt (alternate), Ctrl (control): Use these keys to access secondary functions of other keys through combination keystrokes. For example, use Ctrl+S to save a document in Microsoft Word®.
F keys (function keys): The functions of these keys depend on the software you’re using. For example, you can use the F1 key often, but not always, to open up a program’s Help features. You can also use the function keys in combination with other keys (e.g., Shift+F7).
Up-, down-, left-, and right-arrow keys: Use these keys to navigate around documents.
Page Up, Page Down: Use these to jump from one page of a document to another.
Home, End: Use these to skip to the beginning or end of a document.

Each keyboard layout is slightly different, so take a few minutes to get familiar with yours.

How to Use the Mouse

The mouse that comes with your PC probably has two buttons and a scroll wheel in the center. You control the mouse pointer (cursor) on the screen by moving the mouse. For example, when the mouse moves right, the cursor moves right. The left mouse button is the mouse’s main button.

Clicking: Pressing the left mouse button, called clicking, is used most often to select an option in an open window (also called a dialog box) or position the cursor at a specific place within a document.
Double-clicking: Pressing the left mouse button twice in rapid succession, or double-clicking, is used most often to launch programs from the Windows desktop (by double-clicking on an icon, for instance).
Right-clicking: Clicking the right mouse button, or right-clicking, activates a menu of choices related to the current application. If you right-click the Windows desktop, for instance, you get choices related to customizing the desktop. This feature isn’t available on all mice.
Scrolling: By rolling the scroll wheel, which is usually made of rubber, you can move in all directions throughout a document or other software application.

How to Use and Adjust Windows

Often, one program’s window will obscure the contents of the rest of the desktop. When this happens, you’ll have to click on the application in the task bar or adjust the large active window to make the other windows visible. There are several ways to manipulate windows: you can minimize, restore, resize, maximize, close, and move them. The buttons that allow you to adjust each window are displayed on the right side of a window’s title bar, the bar at the top of a window that contains the window’s title.

Minimize

Purpose: This keeps a program running but reduces it to the task bar.
To do it: Click the Minimize button on the title bar.

Restore

Purpose: This reduces a window so it doesn’t take up the whole screen.
To do it: Click the Restore button on the title bar (displays only when the window is maximized).

Maximize

Purpose: This increases the size of a window so it occupies the whole screen (not including the task bar).
To do it: Click the Maximize button on the title bar (displays only when the window is not maximized).

Close

Purpose: This shuts down a window or application.
To do it: Click the close button on the title bar.

Move

Purpose: This changes the position of a window on the screen.
To do it: When a window is not maximized, click and drag the window’s title bar.

Resize

Purpose: This changes the size of a window.
To do it: When a window is not maximized, click and drag on the window’s borders.

How to Use Microsoft Windows Help

Windows comes with a Help feature that provides a complete set of solutions to problems that new users commonly encounter. To access Help:

Click the Start button.
Click Help and Support.
Click Windows Basics or Customizing Your Computer in the Pick a Help Topic list.
Continue clicking topics on the left until you find the topic you need.

To search for help on a specific topic, enter a term in the search box, then click the Start Searching button or press Enter on the keyboard. Tasks related to your search term display in the Search Results pane. Click on a task to view the instructions.

Acknowledgments & Disclaimer