South Birmingham College

Computer System
Manual or User Guide

R. H. Shumon
29 December 2010
User Interface:
MAC OS X Snow Leopard: In MAC OS X Snow Leopard, interface for user is
very suitable. User can launch program from a dock underneath the
desktop, can manage the display setting. This version of MAC gives more
priority on performance of hardware rather than the interface. So, it is
almost same as its previous version.

Windows 7: This version of Windows has made many improvements in user

interface. User can pin any programme they use frequently on start bar, can
preview one particular window. In Windows 7, user can easily launch any
program and work in a good environment.

Launching programs:
MAC OS X Snow Leopard: Snow Leopard has, like all the other MAC OS X, a Dock. From Dock user
can launch any program in Snow Leopard. This dock allow user to get a preview of the content of the
particular folder without opening and have a preview of any running program. User can close any
application from dock or using the close button.

Windows 7: On the other hand, Windows 7 have taskbar where user can pin an application and
launch it when ever needed. This taskbar also give a full thumbnail view of an application and when
scroll throw this thumbnail it gives user a preview of the content. The pinned application keep
record of the opened file or most visited links. The taskbar shows each of the tabs of an application
in separate thumbnail.

File management:
MAC OS X Snow Leopard: Snow Leopard has Finder which can search for any file, application etc.
Files can be arranged in dates, name, and amount of data in it etc. File can be moved from one
folder or drive to other very quickly and easily. Snow leopard is very efficient in organizing and
finding any application or file.

Windows 7: To search a file in windows 7, it has almost same feature as Snow leopard. In windows
7, Libraries is a way to view all the content of several folders in one place. This feature is also
available in Snow leopard. Arranging file in Windows 7 is same as Snow leopard.

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Security features:
MAC OS X Snow Leopard: Snow Leopard is written in UNIX, which
has been built and perfected by many developers around the Globe.
As few people use this system there is a very low risk of getting
affected by a virus. Snow leopard has an application called Time
Machine, which keep a back of the entire hard disc time to time and
can be restored very easily. Snow leopard also has a firewall which
keeps it protected when connected to the network.

Windows 7: Windows 7 is built by Microsoft and it is widely used in all over the World, which is
why people tend to create more viruses or malware for version of windows but windows come with
its own anti-virus, anti-spyware, and anti-phishing etc software name Windows Defender. Windows
have its built in firewall to protect user connected to network. Windows Internet Explorer come built
in with anti-phishing software and spyware.

Associated utilities:
MAC OS X Snow Leopard: Snow Leopard has Activity monitor, AirPort Utility, AppleScript editor,
Audio MIDI Setup, Bluetooth File Exchange, ColorSync Utility, Console, DigitalColor Meter, Disk
Utility, Grab, Grapher, Java Preferences and Web Start, Keychain Access, Migration Assistant,
Network Utility, Podcast Capture, RAID Utility, Remote Install Mac OS X, System Profiler, Terminal,
VoiceOver Utility and X11. These utilities can maintain and do most of the work in MAC OS X Snow
Leopard.

Windows 7: Windows 7 have all the feature of previous windows in addition to backup and restore,
Windows XP mode, Appearance and personalization, Family safety, network maintaining utilities,
system and security. These utilities can be use to enhance the performance of Windows 7 according
to user preference.

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Customisation:
MAC OS X Snow Leopard: In Snow Leopard customising any part of the desktop is very easy. Using
it user can change Appearance, Desktop and screensaver.

Windows 7: In Windows 7 user have more option than in Snow Leopard. User can customise colour
scheme, Desktop, Screensaver, toolbar, taskbar, shortcut menu, Icon viewing etc. Windows 7 offer
great option of customisation of every part of its user interface to make suitable for user.

Network potential:
MAC OS X Snow Leopard: Using snow Leopard user can connect to internet and it has firewall to
make sure the session is secure. Snow Leopard is not commercially used by enterprise or
organisation for that reason it does not have any Network structure.

Windows 7: Using windows 7 user can either connect to network using WLAN or LAN. It has more
option to customise the network setting. Windows 7 is mostly used in enterprise as it has its own
Network Structure.

Microsoft Office 2007: Microsoft Office 2007 is a product suit developed by

Microsoft. This suit has different version and each different version have more or
less same applications. In Office suite a user most likely will get Microsoft office
Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote, Access etc. Using each of these applications on
office suit is very easy. Using Microsoft Office Word, which is very powerful word
processors, user can create word documents and also web pages. Using PowerPoint user can create
and share presentation. PowerPoint has many options to make the presentation more enhanced.
Excel can be use to do all kind of calculation and make graph representation of the data. This piece
of application has been used by many of the small business to keep their accounts. Access is
powerful data managing software. In access user can make a database according to their need very
easily and import and export data in other format. In Office 2007 every application can export and
import data between them and also publish them in PDF. Weakness of Office 2007 is minimal to the
effectiveness; its greatest weakness is it may not run on older version of windows and older version
of office will not be able to open new documents formats.

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Microsoft Works 9: Microsoft works suit has a word processor, a spreadsheet and a database
management system. It is like office suit but it has less power comparing to office
suit and that is because it is mainly use in mini laptop and nowadays in
Smartphone. It has the same functionality of office suite. Its weakness is it cannot
be used widely in business like office suit but only in small business. The database
management in Works is non-relational (flat file), which requires a complex
transformation using formulas and only use by novice user who have does not have much
knowledge about Access database management system.

Open office: First thing about open office is it’s free. It has a writer to process
word. Writer can export file in HTML, XML and several version of Microsoft word
files. It can also connect to e-mail client. Open office also have Calc, Impress, Draw,
Base and Math. Calc is spreadsheet and has almost everything Microsoft Excel has.
Calc can open and edit file from Microsoft Excel and save them in Excel format.
Impress is presentations which got every option of Microsoft PowerPoint and save the file in
PowerPoint format and also in other format and SWF (Macromedia Flash). Base is a simple database
which provides option for editing a database. Base can use dBASE, Microsoft Access, MySQL, or
Oracle, or any ODBC, or JDBC compliant database. Ultimately Open Office has fewer disadvantages
but when it comes to support, it does not have any like Microsoft Office. Microsoft Office will give
update or fix for any error encounter by user immediately but for open office it might take many
days before there is a fix or update.

Standard Clerical Procedures: It is essential to follow the safety procedures while using
computers to prevent any data from being lost, stolen or even modified. Companies should
implement electronic data safety procedures to safeguard the electronic data. Such procedure
include proper log off, use of spam detector, use of phishing software, use password protection and
encryption for saving data, and also make backup of the data to make sure that it could be
recovered if lost.

Write Protection: Write protection is use for a file to protect it from getting
erase or modified by any unauthorised user. If a file is write protected it can
be only read by any user but will unable to edit it. Some Operating System
have write protection option to make the data read-only. Write protection can
be applied on CDs, DVDs and some flash drives also have this option.

Passwords:

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Access levels:

Backup & Recovery:

Antivirus software:

Firewalls:

Disaster recovery plans:

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