Microsoft Windows 7 Level 1

Table of Contents

What is Windows?

The simple answer to this question is it’s an operating system. Now what the heck is an operating system? An operating system is a program that lets us communicate with our computer and devices (printers, monitors, keyboard, mouse etc.) without it the computer would be more or less useless. Windows is not the only Operating System out there, there’s UNIX which goes back a ways, there’s also Linux a spinoff of UNIX, IOS for different Apple devices and there are still more. Microsoft came out with their first Operating System named DOS back in the early 80’, which was licensed out to IBM to use on all their computers. Later on Microsoft came out with Windows which is a Graphical User Interface (GUI) type of Operating System (OS). What this means is there’s a graphic representation, unlike DOS which was a black screen with white text on it and everything you did was driven by word commands like CD for change directory instead of just clicking on a folder like we do today. This reduced the learning curve of how one could use the computer because now they could have a visual idea of what they were doing instead of having to know several commands and how they each function. Windows became a household name in 1995 with the launch of Windows 95, most notably because of the money paid for the use of The Rolling Stones song Start Me Up, if you hadn’t seen the commercial then you might have heard about it on the news or the countless of shows on television and radio talking about it as well. The money was well spent and was also rumoured to be a lot more than it actually was, pure marketing genius.

The success of windows has made it the Number 1 operating system, roughly 80{463c70c279fb908728b910a090d44fbe4ae7aabcd875de9c1a518a8c8e2be8bd} of desktop computers are running one version or another and it’s dominant in the business world as well. With this success comes a target that’s painted on its back though, meaning if you were a hacker or someone creating viruses etc. then why not create them for a program that’s used on most computers, it increases the odds of the program running successfully. Today it doesn’t matter what Operating System you are running without being at risk of some maliciousness happening, there is no solution to this that’s 100{463c70c279fb908728b910a090d44fbe4ae7aabcd875de9c1a518a8c8e2be8bd} effective because if you are connected to the internet you remain vulnerable, even when you’re not surfing it yourself. This is why proper network security and add-on software like anti-virus is very important.

Anti-Virus and Network Security

Two effective ways to help prevent someone from gaining control of your computer, seeing your private information or even just ruining your computer. One of them is anti-virus software which today usually comes bundled in a suite that offers more protection than just virus. This includes a back-up method, OS optimizing software, identity security and firewall protection which is a key component to network security. Anti-virus is effective but only to a point, new viruses are created daily and in huge numbers trying to keep up with the constant attacks and types is nearly impossible but companies like Norton do a fairly good job of it. As they discover viruses they add their information to the program so it can not only find them on your computer but deal with them as well. Some do sneak through but are usually caught, some might not get caught at all until you possibly report it. Without a firewall in place your computer is exposed to the internet, computers use software and network cards to connect to them and they function in two ways one is to send information out and typically receive information that you ask for which comes inwards but someone can push their way in as well, with a firewall in place this will hopefully prevent them. Both these subjects are worth knowing about and we’ll have courses that’ll talk more about each for now let’s get back to Windows which for your information has its own firewall and anti-virus available for free and possibly already installed.

Why Windows 7?

If you’re wondering why we’re teaching Windows 7 instead of 8 right now it’s because of my experience with the Microsoft world and also a bit about the lack of luster Windows 8 has demonstrated in its sales not to mention the complaints it’s received, enough to prompt them to rush a new release to settle down the users. If you’ve been around Windows for as long as I have you’ll notice a trend with Microsoft of hyping up the Operating System before their release, then it’s the same story afterwards, the complaints like we’re seeing with Windows 8. Except it’s not usually as bad and usually get resolved with the countless patches that come afterwards (code you download that correct problems they found), typically I give any of the new operating systems several years to become stable before I jump onboard and as long as the one I currently own does the job, isn’t too slow and unsecure because it’s not being patched anymore. With previous flops like Millennium, Vista and now 8, I feel I’ve made the right moves and have never had any serious problems because of it.

Mouse Clicking

There are several types of mouse clicks, understanding the difference is important. The left mouse click is used to select or highlight an object by moving over it and clicking and releasing the left mouse button. Typically to activate an object a double click is needed, this is the left mouse button again and involves selecting and then clicking the left mouse button twice with almost no pause in between. To drag an object or highlight content we use the left mouse button again except this time we hold the button down while we do that. By clicking the right mouse button over an object we usually get a menu of options available for that object. With some mice there is a scroll wheel or a middle mouse button, the function of this button depends on the program you’re using it with, just know that it’s there and does exist. If you don’t have one then some of the functions can be used while holding down the CTRL key and clicking on the left mouse button, again depends on the program you’re using.

Bits and Bytes

Before continuing I’d like to take a second to explain bits to you a bit is a 1 or a 0 in the computer world, it’s the way computers communicate by adding bits together we create things like numbers, letters, pictures, music and anything else the computer can do. For example ASCII a way of identifying keyboard characters uses 8 bits to do this which is called a Byte. Inside a byte each bit represents a decimal number the last one represents 0 and 1 so if it’s set to 0 it’s a 0 and if it’s a 1 then it’s a 1 but how do you get 2 from 1’s and 0’s. Well that’s where the second last number comes in to play it represents the value of 2 and if it’s value is set to 1 then it adds its value to the rest of the byte so 2 would look like this 00000010 and 3 would look like this 00000011, each number moving toward the left is double of the previous one so the next value is worth 4 and it would look like this 00000100 and 8 would look like this 00001000, 16 is 00010000, 32 is 00100000 and so on, with these combinations we can create enough decimal values to go all the way up to 256 before adding another byte to the chain to create a bigger range of numbers. With combinations of bits, we create bytes which create kilobytes which then create megabytes, gigabytes and then todays familiar hard drive size of terabyte. Other than byte which consists of 8 bits they all move up by 1024, so when you have 1024 bytes you have a kilobyte and when you have 1024 kilobytes you’ll have 1mb and this continues.

Processors, Cores and 32/64 Bit

Now that you understand what a bit is let’s talk about 32 and 64 bit processors and software. Processors operate at a specific speed which is in Hertz and like bits move up in numbers so today’s processor are usually measured by gigahertz. This is a way of saying how fast the processor crunches data but there are other factors which come into play here as well, how many cores are there for example. A core is virtually another processor built inside it, this means that each core can run independently from each other allowing the same processor to work on two separate pieces of information simultaneously, called multi-tasking. Before multi-tasking meant the computer crunching information from one program and then another seconds apart so although it looked like it was working on both but it was actually working on one at a time which meant if a program became unresponsive/frozen then the whole system came down, some of you might remember those days it wasn’t pretty. The processors also calculate a certain amount of information per cycle and this is where the 32 and 64 bit comes in, most of the processors today are of a 64 bit nature so this means they crunch data twice as fast as a 32 bit processor but this also depends on the software being used if the operating system or it’s programs are engineered for a 32 bit processor then the 64 bit processor is not running to its full potential. It might still run it a tad faster than a 32 bit processor of the same speed just not as fast as it could if the proper software was being used, this also depends on the programmers as well since they might only offer a 32 bit version, with Windows the option is there and the good news is that it’s the same price. Even better with Windows 7 if you have a 32 bit programming running on a 64 bit machine, you can use the same key so all you have to do is get your hands on a 64 bit version and install it.

Files, Folders or Directories

If you’re familiar with computers or have taken the basics of computing course we offer then you’ll know information is stored on a hard-drive, this includes the operating system itself and the files you create and download etc. Windows 7 uses a file structure called NTFS, this is just a name given to the way files are organized on the hard drive, typically a file structure includes a TOC (Table Of Contents) on whatever is storing the information, DVD’s, CD’s and hard drives all have them. This is why when you format any of them you lose a part of their capacity which will be used for a TOC. This portion on the hard drive keeps the file names and addresses of these files inside of it which point to other parts on the hard drive where files are actually stored. This information is stored in what’s called a directory the root is what’s known as the top of that directory, from there you have either files or folders listed on it and you can have multiple levels of folders inside of folders with files pretty much everywhere. You can imagine a filing cabinet as being the root directory each one of its drawers can be considered a folder and then there are more folders inside of that which can contain sub-folders and files organized to help you find things quickly and easily. It’s no surprise that the Operating System also resides on the main hard drive as well you’ll see folders like Program Files (x86), Users and Windows off the root of your main drive, these contain your operating system and settings. This doesn’t mean you control settings from here though just where files are stored. Some changes might require fooling around with certain files or even the registry itself.

Registry

The registry is an area inside of windows which contains all your settings, it has settings for the machine which are shared by all users and user specific settings as well. This way you and Jill can have different desktops and programs installed on the same computer which is why we log in, besides security it also tells the computer who we are. If there are any changes to be done on your computer the registry would have them but this is not where you should go unless you really know what you’re doing, the wrong change here can result in your operating system not working any more.

Applications, Programs or Software

These terms all refer to the same thing basically, we’ll just stick with programs. Programs are created to run on certain computers. With Microsoft Windows you’ll know a program by its extension which is usually .exe. An extension is the last characters on a file, depending on how you have setup your computer it might be displayed or you might have to change a setting to have it displayed. There are all kinds of extension out there that tell the computer what type of file it is along with which program it’s associated with which can also be multiple, like .mp3 for music for example can be played on a number of different programs, typically you specify a default program for these. An .exe file is an executable file which means it runs inside of Windows and will let windows do whatever it tells it to, which can also be a virus or something destructive so make sure you know where this file came from before opening or at the very least scan it first to be a bit safer. The two file types we’ve mentioned .exe and .mp3 are different as one file is information and relies on a program for it to be used with where the .exe is native to windows and uses windows to run it. If there is a file extension associated with a program, windows will typically display its icon, so if you see .doc extension you might see the Microsoft word symbol on it as this file extension belongs to it. You can override this and choose the program you’d like it to open in and if windows don’t know it, you’ll be prompted for which program you’d like to use. Some research off the internet might be required to find this out. Programs once installed will typically have an .exe extension but most programs require for you to install it first which means running its own executable to do so, usually happens automatically when a disc is inserted but can be done manually as well. The setup process usually involves just pressing the next button and proceeding with default options but you can choose to change settings during an install if given the chance. Typically during an installation you’ll receive several windows asking you to click next, most of these don’t offer options at all but just have some information for you to read, so unless there are choices to be made next is usually good to go. Another thing to watch out for is a lot of installs also install a variety of other programs, most of the time I find they’re unwanted and cause problems so during the installation process read and look for hidden ways of tricking you into saying yes to installing these programs it might just save you a headache.

Drivers

Drivers are programs that are used to tell Windows how to work with other components attached to your computer. If you are connected to the internet this might get detected automatically and installed with your hardware. Otherwise hardware usually comes with a disk that has it on it, along with help files and free extra software to help use the device. Some are required to use it especially the driver. If you lose the drivers or just don’t have one for the hardware you have and it doesn’t get detected you’ll have to surf the net to find it but do so with caution, try to find the driver off of the company’s web page that made the hardware instead of a third party place because you could be downloading a virus from some untrusted source.

Using Windows 7

Logon

When you first fire up the computer and if Windows is already installed on your computer then the first screen you could possibly get will be the logon screen. You can set the computer to bypass this and to log straight into a certain account if you’d like but as much as this is convenient it’s not recommended, anyone can access your computer this way just by turning it on. With that power they could possibly get into anything you run on your computer including things like web mail like Hotmail, getting onto your Facebook account and more. It could even be easier for them if you use your browser to save your passwords from the sites you visit, by going straight there they’ll have complete access to your account possibly changing your password and locking you out even. With Windows you can create multiple users and configure them independently from the programs that are available to them, allowing them certain permissions to only be able to do certain things and even govern their computer usage with things like parent control which can control things like what times your child can use the computer, to what types of programs they can use on it. By clicking on one of the users you’ll be prompted for password information, unless this wasn’t set again I don’t recommend you do that, always have a password set.

Once you’ve clicked on the user you’d like to login as you simply just enter your password and press the arrow or enter key and if it all checks out you’ll be logged into Windows shortly, depending on how many programs you have installed, which ones have to fire up during login etc. it could take some time, that’s why it’s good practice to keep the system optimized and understand what programs are being installed and what they are doing exactly. It’s also important to understand users and the types of users there are on Windows, by default the user that installed Windows will be the Administrator of that system. They have control over everything inside of Windows from installing software to changing settings etc. They can also go into anyone’s folder or file and override the permissions to take control or view it. They can create other users which can be Administrators as well but there will always be only one root Administrator account. By changing settings you can tailor Windows for any other user to their specific needs, taste and prevent them from doing anything which would defeat the purpose but just to give you an idea you can lock them out so much that all they’ll be able to do is logon.

One other thing you should know about user accounts is that if you are on a domain, chances are if you work in an office then this is you. Your login and account information is not controlled by this computer but on the main server, which authenticates you to login to the network not just the computer. This way you can login to whatever computer is on the network and your preferences and work etc. will be on it as well, you need specific machines to know who you are on a peer-to-peer network which is a network without a server to control it.

Windows Desktop and Parts

Now that we know a bit more about windows let’s identify some of its parts, the one’s explained here will always be available to you, slightly different possibly depending on what you have setup on your computer but the parts will remain the same.

1. Here we have the recycle bin, when deleting stuff in windows typically stuff will end up in the recycling bin. This is a safety measure and if you made a mistake deleting something might still have a chance to recover it, as long as it’s still inside the recycle bin. This still takes up space as it’s still on your hard drive just in a different location until you empty it. This can be done by right clicking and then selecting Empty Recycle Bin or by double clicking on the bin you’ll be presented with a window containing everything inside of it, here you also have an option to empty it with a button but should you want to restore something then this is where you need to go, simply select the object you’d like to restore and either select Restore this item button or right click and select restore. You also have the button to Restore all items when nothing is selected.
2. This is the famous Start button which has now become a windows symbol instead of the Word Start. Here you can access anything you need to through the menu that pops up.
3. Is just pointing to one of the many icons on the taskbar, which is the bar running along the bottom. This program was pinned here using the Pin to taskbar option when right clicking an object. This makes it a shortcut always available at the bottom.
4. You’ll notice this icon has a box around it this means that the program is actually opened and running, by hovering over this you’ll receive a screen shot that pops up, if you hover over that you’ll notice all other windows disappear and that window stand out, this doesn’t mean you selected it but is just brought to your attention, by left clicking the window you’ll make that program the active one.
5. This is the notifications area, any programs running in the background or important messages will be displayed here, by clicking on the up arrow you’ll display all items inside the notifications area. Typically to open up any of these programs you’ll need to right click and select something from the menu but the left click can also do stuff as well.
6. This is the system clock which can be fully adjusted, synchronized over the web and displays multiple clocks for other areas if you’d like, say a relative in Europe. You can fool around with its properties by right clicking then selecting Adjust date/time.

1. To get the Start menu you’ll need to press the Start button (5) by doing so the menu you will present itself like you see here. The first item in our menu Microsoft Word might be what I’m pointing at but it’s not the program I’d like to point out but rather its location. If you find yourself using a program a lot then you can Pin to Start Menu, this will make it available always and puts it at the top. You can rearrange these in what order you’d like simply by dragging them with the left mouse button and letting go once you’ve reached the desired spot.
2. The rest of the area is referring to the most recently used programs which will fill the left hand side, this could be convenient for some time but once you use another program more than one you might really like it could get replaced, that’s why it’s nice to be able to pin it to the menu.
3. All Programs will move your menu sideways and present all the programs windows knows about in a different list, programs themselves will have icons which you can click on to start, folders will open up to present files or more folders that are sub-folders of the parent. This can go as deep as you’d like when organizing things but usually only a few levels.
4. Quick Search was introduced with Vista and is an easy way of locating programs or documents containing certain words etc. Once you start typing Windows will start presenting you with options that meet your criteria, the more you type in this box the narrower or more specific the search will be hopefully ensuring what you’re looking for is the first thing at the top of the results.
5. This is the Start button again just put here to give you a perspective to where the Start menu will appear.
6. This button will allow you to shut down your computer, log off, and put it to sleep or hibernate mode. Basically when you’re done you’ll be visiting this button either while you go to the bathroom to make sure nobody can access your computer by logging off/locking it or when you’re done for the day by powering it off. Hibernate mode means the computer still turns off by it writes everything in memory to your hard drive in a temporary spot so that when you power up again it’ll be back to where you had it before hibernating, all open windows etc. will be there. Sleep mode means there’s still power going through the machine but not everything is consuming electricity and by pressing a key or moving the mouse you’ll fire up the computer back to normal.
7. The right side of the Start menu is useful shortcuts the Microsoft has provided you with they are customizable so you can change what’s being displayed here to a degree, but for now just know that My Documents, Pictures, Music, Downloads and other shortcuts are available here.

Your Name, Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos and Downloads

You’ve probably heard of my documents in previous versions of Windows, this was a directory where  users were to save their documents and stuff, it was convenient because Windows would by default point to it when saving a file and provide shortcuts to easily find it. With newer versions of Windows you have what’s called libraries which are the same as My Documents with sub-folders for music, video and pictures inside of it. These can all be customized to point to wherever you’d like, so they don’t have to all be in the same place or under a single folder. For example my music, pictures and videos are all on separate hard drives so I set each one of these to point to its correct drive. This also makes it easy to find files that you’d like to backup before formatting or doing something that might wreck the drive and erase your information kind of thing. Typically windows will have these point to a user file created in your name under the main drive, I recommend a separate hard drive for these and also backing them up on occasion as well, this way if they get ruined or anything you’ll have a backup to restore from.

Favorites

If the favorites is displayed on your Start menu then by clicking it you’ll expand Internet Explorers favorites bar, this is nice little short cut to open up the browser and go to a favorite website all in one shot.

Computer

The Computer button formerly known as My Computer gives you a shortcut to open a window where all your hard drives and networked computers can be accessed. The window will present you with the location you selected, if one was specified while opening or will be at the top level displaying all read/write devices and also gives the opportunity along the left side to click on a number of shortcuts to go to different parts of the hard drive. By right clicking and selecting properties you’ll be taken to the System window where you can view a number of different types of information about your computer like what type of OS you are using, your computers rating, processor, memory, system type (32 or 64 bit), computer name, workgroup name and if your product was activated or not. From here you also have a number of shortcuts to take you to other areas where you control how Windows works.

Control Panel

This button will take you to the Control Panel which has a number of options grouped by buttons or folders. Each of these control the way your Windows OS work, things like what type of monitor, colour settings, speakers and sound, how fast your mouse moves across the screen, how fast you have to double click the mouse button and much more are all controlled here through their various icons.

Devices and Printers

This window will show you what devices and printers are connected to your computer, some printers might not actually be physically connected as they are virtual printers (programs simulating a printer) that allow you to simulate a print job but to a file instead. Here you have a number of options depending on the device you are looking at but basically this is where you could go to change settings on the devices connected to your computer.

Default Programs

This window gives you several options on how Windows will handle certain file types by setting the default program for it to use, or by changing the program associated with that particular extension. You can also tell Windows how you’d like the AutoPlay feature to work on your computer this is what happens when you insert new media which it will recognize, this can be a USB stick for example but typically it’s a CD/DVD when you insert it into your computer. With AutoPlay you’ll get prompted typically asking you if you’d like to open the file with a certain program, execute an executable extension for installing a program or it could just start playing music from a music CD.

Administrative Tools

Administrative tools are a number of tools you can use to maintain your computer, along with a number of

other tools that are fairly advanced, I’d just like you to know they’re here until you know how to use them. This shortcut is not available by default but by right clicking on the taskbar you can use the dialog box to control what appears on the Start Menu along with how you’d like that to function for example, here Administrative Tools has an arrow beside instead of it just being a button it’s also a dropdown menu presenting me with the items found inside the Administrative Tools directory. Another way to find these is through the control panel

Help and Support

If you are stumped in search of some help then this is the best place to come, here you can type in a question or word and have Windows suggest answers to you, some will be very helpful and others might leave you more confused than before but it’s still a good place to start.  Just remember sometimes the Internet can offer more user friendly information on what you are looking for.
 
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