ECDL / ICDL SYLLABUS 5.

ECDL Module 2
Using the Computer & Managing Files
Windows Vista Edition – Syllabus Five
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 ECDL Module Tw o - Page 3

ECDL APPROVED COURSEWARE.............................................................................................. 6

TUTOR SE TUP INFORMATION.................................................................................................... 7
A FIRST LOOK AT WINDOWS VISTA .......................................................................................... 8
Vista – Different versions ....................................................................................................... 8
Starting Vista......................................................................................................................... 8
Moving a window................................................................................................................... 9
Drag and drop......................................................................................................................10
Select, then manipulate ........................................................................................................10
Single clicking vs. double clicking ..........................................................................................10
Viewing your ‘computer details’ .............................................................................................10
Resizing a window, narrower or wider....................................................................................11
Resizing a window, taller or shorter .......................................................................................11
Resizing a window in two directions at once...........................................................................12
Maximising a window............................................................................................................12
Minimising a window.............................................................................................................13
Closing a window .................................................................................................................13
The Start button ...................................................................................................................14
The Start menu ....................................................................................................................14
Running a program using the Start menu...............................................................................15
Entering text into a program..................................................................................................17
Saving data..........................................................................................................................18
Opening a file within a program.............................................................................................19
Shutting down Windows........................................................................................................19
Closing an application that is not responding..........................................................................21
THE WINDO WS DESKTOP .........................................................................................................22
What is the Windows Desktop? .............................................................................................22
Desktop icons ......................................................................................................................22
Moving Desktop icons...........................................................................................................22
Windows Taskbar.................................................................................................................23
Taskbar clock.......................................................................................................................23
Customising your Desktop ....................................................................................................24
Customising the Desktop background wallpaper picture..........................................................24
Customising the Desktop background colour..........................................................................26
Setting a screen saver..........................................................................................................27
Setting your screen resolution ...............................................................................................29
Modify the computer date and time ........................................................................................31
Setting the computer keyboard language and other regional settings.......................................33
Setting the computer sound volume .......................................................................................38
The Sidebar and gadgets......................................................................................................39
Reordering gadgets..............................................................................................................40
Closing a gadget ..................................................................................................................40
APPLICATIONS ..........................................................................................................................41
Running more than one program at a time .............................................................................41
Starting WordPad.................................................................................................................41
Using Print Screen within WordPad .......................................................................................43
Identifying the parts of an application window.........................................................................43
Notepad...............................................................................................................................46
Calculator............................................................................................................................47
Welcome Center...................................................................................................................48
Switching between programs.................................................................................................49
The ‘Switch between windows’ icon.......................................................................................49
Using Windows Flip 3D.........................................................................................................50

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Cascading windows..............................................................................................................50
Displaying windows side by side............................................................................................51
Installing programs ...............................................................................................................52
Removing programs .............................................................................................................53
Creating and using a Desktop shortcut...................................................................................54
Deleting a Desktop shortcut ..................................................................................................55
Shutting down an application that has frozen..........................................................................55
Restarting the computer........................................................................................................56
HELP..........................................................................................................................................57
How to get help ....................................................................................................................57
The Help ‘Back’ and ‘Forward’ buttons...................................................................................59
Printing a Help topic..............................................................................................................60
Browsing for Help.................................................................................................................60
Re-displaying the opening help screen...................................................................................62
Demos .................................................................................................................................63
FILES, FOLDERS AND DISKS ....................................................................................................65
What are files?.....................................................................................................................65
What are folders?.................................................................................................................65
Types of drive and drive letters..............................................................................................65
Running the Windows Explorer program................................................................................66
Views within the Windows Explorer........................................................................................67
Using the Windows Explorer scroll bar...................................................................................69
Expanding and contracting drives and folders.........................................................................70
Types of Windows Explorer icons..........................................................................................72
Drives, Folders and Files ......................................................................................................74
Data storage devices............................................................................................................75
File sizes and disk storage capacities ....................................................................................75
Online Storage.....................................................................................................................76
M ANIPULATING FOLD ERS .............................................................................................................76
Navigating to the sample files folder.......................................................................................76
Creating a folder...................................................................................................................78
Creating a subfolder.............................................................................................................79
Good practice when naming files or folders ............................................................................80
Renaming a folder................................................................................................................80
Deleting a folder...................................................................................................................80
Displaying folder details........................................................................................................81
M ANIPULATING FILES ..................................................................................................................84
Viewing file details................................................................................................................84
Sorting the file list within the Windows Explorer......................................................................86
Recognising common file types .............................................................................................88
Selecting multiple files ..........................................................................................................91
Counting the number of files, files of a particular type in a folder..............................................93
Changing file attribute status.................................................................................................94
Renaming files .....................................................................................................................96
Deleting files ........................................................................................................................96
Restoring files and folders from the Recycle Bin.....................................................................97
Emptying the Recycle Bin .....................................................................................................98
COPYING AND MOVING FILES ........................................................................................................98
The Windows Clipboard........................................................................................................98
Moving files between folders .................................................................................................98
Copying files between folders................................................................................................99
Backups...............................................................................................................................99
Online Backups.................................................................................................................. 100
Backing up data to a removable drive .................................................................................. 100
FILE COMPRESSION .................................................................................................................. 101

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What is file compression? ................................................................................................... 101

Extracting compressed files................................................................................................. 101
Compressing files............................................................................................................... 102
Disk formatting................................................................................................................... 102
SEARCHING FOR DATA........................................................................................................... 105
Viewing recently accessed files ........................................................................................... 105
Searching for files on your hard disk.................................................................................... 105
Advanced searching by file size........................................................................................... 108
Advanced searching by date ............................................................................................... 109
Advanced searching by file content...................................................................................... 110
Advanced searching using partial file names and specific locations ....................................... 112
Searching for a file using wildcards instead of the full name .................................................. 115
VIRUSES, SPYWARE AND COOKIES....................................................................................... 116
Computer viruses ............................................................................................................... 116
Spyware ............................................................................................................................ 116
Cookies ............................................................................................................................. 116
Virus checking programs..................................................................................................... 116
Scanning for viruses........................................................................................................... 117
Updating anti-virus programs............................................................................................... 119
PRINTING ISSUES.................................................................................................................... 120
Selecting a printer .............................................................................................................. 120
Changing the default printer................................................................................................ 121
Installing a new printer on the computer............................................................................... 122
Printing from an application................................................................................................. 124
Using the Print Manager..................................................................................................... 125

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ECDL Approved Courseware

ECDL Foundation has approved these training materials developed by Cheltenham
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European Computer Driving Licence, ECDL, International Computer Driving Licence, ICDL, e-Citizen
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 ECDL Module Tw o - Page 7

Tutor Setup Information

 Copy the sample files folder to the Documents folder on the PC .
 At the end of the course, remove all files modified or created during the
course, prior to re-running the course.
 At the end of the course, reset all program and operating system defaults
that may have been modified during the course, prior to re-running the
course.

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A first look at Windows Vista

Vista – Different versions

 There are a number of different versions of Microsoft Windows Vista that you
can buy.

Windows Vista Ultimate.

This version has everything it in. Ideal for business. Great for playing.

Windows Vista Home Premium.

Designed for home use.

Windows Vista Home Basic.

A cut down version designed for home use.

Windows Vista Business.

Designed specifically for small business.

Windows Vista Enterprise.

Designed for large organisations.

Starting Vista
 When you start Windows Vista you may have to supply a login password. If
so enter your password and the opening screen will look something like this.

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 Displayed within the centre of the screen is the Welcome Center window.

 We can use the Welcome Center window to practice basic Windows Vista
skills.

Moving a window
 Move the mouse pointer to an empty area towards the top of the window.
This area is called the Title Bar. Press down the left hand mouse button,
and while keeping it pressed down, move the mouse pointer on the screen.

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When you release the mouse button, the window will have moved.
Experiment with moving this window a few time until you get the hang of it.

Drag and drop

 The concept of selecting an item (such as a window's Title Bar), and then
moving it while keeping the mouse button pressed is often called ‘dragging’
or ‘Drag and drop’. It is called this because you drag an item to a new
location, and then drop it at the new location.

Select, then manipulate

 When doing something within Windows Vista, you normally have to select an
item (such as the Title Bar within a window) and once selected can you
manipulate whatever it was you selected. This is a very important concept to
remember. You need to select an item to tell Windows Vista what item you
are interested in, before you can manipulate it. This idea is fundamental to
using Windows Vista. For instance, later we will see that if you wish to
format your text, you need to select a portion of text and then apply the
formatting. In a different context later on when you want to move a file on
your hard disk from one place to another, you need to select the file first, and
then move them.

Single clicking vs. double clicking

 Normally you click on an item to select it. This is a single click using the left
mouse button. Once selected you can often double click on the selected item
to open or run the item that was selected.

Viewing your ‘computer details’

 Move the mouse pointer to the item within the window called View
Computer Details. Click once using the left hand mouse button.

TIP: Within this manual, from now on when you are asked to click the mouse
button, it will always be the left mouse button, unless the right hand button
is specifically specified.

 You will see details of your computer displayed within the window. As
illustrated below.

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This tells you what type of Windows Vista that is installed. In the example
shown Windows Vista Ultimate is installed. The type of CPU (C entral
Processing Unit) is an Intel chip running at a speed of 1.86 GHz. There is 2
GB of RAM (Random Access Memory). The video type is a 256 MB ATI
Radeon X1300PRO.

You may feel you don’t need to know this, but as you have seen, it is easy to
get technical information about your computer if you need to!

Resizing a window, narrower or wider

 Move the mouse pointer to the left hand edge of the Welcome C enter
window. You will see that the mouse pointer changes shape to become a
horizontal line with an arrow on each end. Press down the left hand mouse
button and while keeping it pressed, move the mouse pointer left or right.
When you release the mouse button the window will be narrower or wider,
depending on which direction you move the mouse pointer. Experiment with
resizing the window to make it wider or narrower.

Also experiment using the right edge of the window.

TIP: Remember that this dragging action with the mouse button pressed is
called ‘Drag and drop’.

Resizing a window, taller or shorter

 Move the mouse pointer to the upper edge of the Welcome Center window.
You will see that the mouse pointer changes shape to become a vertical line
with an arrow on each end. Press down the left hand mouse button and while
keeping it pressed, move the mouse pointer up or down. When you release
the mouse button the window will be taller or shorter, depending on which
direction you move the mouse pointer. Experiment with resizing the window
to make it taller or shorter.

Also experiment using the bottom edge of the window.

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Resizing a window in two directions at once

 Move the mouse pointer to one of the corner edges of the Welcome Center
window. You will see that the mouse pointer changes shape to become a
diagonal line with an arrow on each end. Press down the left hand mouse
button and while keeping it pressed, move the mouse pointer up or down and
left or right. When you release the mouse button the window will be resized
both vertically and horizontally, depending on which direction you move the
mouse pointer. Experiment with resizing the window.

Also experiment using the other corners of the window to resize the window.

 Before continuing try and resize the Welcome Center window to its
approximate original size and position. You should be able to see other items
on the screen behind the window.

Maximising a window
 If you look at the top-right of the Welcome C enter window you will see three
icons. As illustrated below.

 Move the mouse pointer over the middle of the three icons and after a short
time you will see a popup explaining the function of the middle icon.

 As you can see the icon is called the Maximise icon. C lick on the Maximise
icon and you will see that the Welcome Center program window maximises,
to fill the screen.

 Move the mouse pointer over the middle icon and wait for the popup to
explain the function of the icon (which has changed slightly if you look
closely).

TIP: The reason for the middle icon changing its appearance (and its name),
is that having already maximised the window to fill the screen, you cannot
maximise any further. Thus you are offered a Restore icon that will restore
the program window to its original size. This is an example of Windows being
clever!

C lick on the Restore Down icon and you should see that the Welcome

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Center window is displayed within a window (i.e. not full screen). You should
find that the window is the same size and position, prior to maximising the
window.

Minimising a window
 If you move the mouse pointer over the first of these three buttons, you will
see it is called the Minimize icon.

 C lick on the Minimise icon and you will see that the window disappears. It is
minimised down to the Windows Taskbar, which is the name of the bar
across the bottom of your screen.

 Move the mouse pointer to this minimised icon within the Windows Taskbar
and you will see the following popup, which displays a ‘thumbnail’ picture of
the minimised program.

 C lick on the minimised icon and the program will be displayed within a
window once again, on your screen.

NOTE: Minimising a program is not the same as closing a program. When

you minimise a program, it is still running in your computer’s memory, it is
simply minimized in size, down to the Windows Taskbar. C losing a program
means that the program is closed and no longer running in memory.

Closing a window
 Move your mouse pointer to the last of the three icons. After a short delay
you will see a popup explaining that this is the Close icon.

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 C lick on the Close icon and the program will close. It is not displayed within
the Taskbar as a minimised icon. The program is no longer in your RAM
(Random Access Memory). RAM is where all your active programs are stored
when they are running. If you close a program the program is removed from
RAM but you still have a copy of the program stored on your hard disk. To re-
run the program you will need to open the program from disk.

The Start button

 At the bottom-left of your screen you will see a circular button. Move the
mouse pointer over this button and after a short time you will see a popup
explaining that this button is called the Start button.

TIP: Get into the habit of pointing to items within Windows and leaving the
mouse pointer over the item. In many cases, as you are beginning to see,
you will get a popup message explaining the function of the item you are
pointing at.

The Start menu

 C lick on the Start button and you will see the Start Menu displayed as
illustrated. This menu contains a list of all the programs that you can run,
such as your word processor, spreadsheet and database programs. It also
allows you to play music, movies and any other programs that are installed
on your computer.

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TIP: To display the Start Menu, press the special Windows key on your
keyboard. Not all keyboards have this key, but most do.

Running a program using the Start menu

 Once the Start Menu is displayed, click on All Programs.

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 This will display a menu similar to that shown below.

 Look for the word Accessories in the list and click on this. The menu will
change as illustrated.

 C lick on a program called Notepad, as illustrated.

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 C licking on this program will run a program called Notepad. This will open in
a window, as illustrated.

Entering text into a program

 C lick within the Notepad window and type in your name.

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Saving data
 Within the Notepad program, you will see a number of commands. This is
called a drop down menu list.

 C lick on the File command and you will see the following drop down menu
list. C lick on the Save command, as illustrated.

 This will display the Save As dialog box.

 C lick within the File name section of the dialog box and enter the name My
First File. This is the file name that will be used to store the Notepad file on

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your hard disk. Click on the Save button within the dialog box. The dialog
box will close and the file will be saved to disk.

 C lick on the Notepad Close icon (top-right of the window). The program will
close.

Opening a file within a program

 Use the Start menu to re-open the Notepad program. We previously saved a
file to disk and called the file My First File. We shall now re-open this file
within the Notepad program. To do this click on the File drop down menu
and click on the Open command. This will display the Open dialog box.
Select the file called My First File.

TIP: You may need to click on the vertical scroll bar displayed down the right
of the Open window.

 C lick on the Open button. The file will open within the Notepad program.
Type in a new line of text (just make something up). Resave the file and
close the Notepad program.

Shutting down Windows

 C lick on the Start button and you will see the Start menu displayed.

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 C lick on the small right pointing arrow at the bottom-right of the Start
menu. You will see a new submenu displayed. C lick on the Shutdown
command.

 Your computer will shutdown.

TIP: if you were running any programs, such as a word processor and had
not saved your changes, you would be prompted to save or discard any
changes to your data.

TIP: You should never just switch off your computer. To shut down your

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computer you must always use the Shutdown command. Simply switching
off a computer may result in you losing data!

Closing an application that is not responding

 Occasionally when you are running Windows Vista, you may find that you are
unable to close an application that has ‘crashed’. If this happens, you need
to press the Ctrl+Alt+Del keys simultaneously. A list of options will be
displayed. Select the Start Task Manager option. This will display the Task
Manager dialog box.

 In the example illustrated, all the programs are running normally. If a

program was no longer responding you would see a message in the Status
column such as Not Responding. In this case you would select the non-
responding application from the list displayed and then click on the End Task
button.

TIP: It is a good idea to completely close down Windows and then restart
Windows after a program has crashed.

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The Windows Desktop

What is the Windows Desktop?

 Start your computer. You will see the Welcome Center window displayed,
once Windows has finished loading. C lick on the Minimise button within the
Welcome Center window (top-right of the window). You will now be able to
see the icons displayed on your Desktop.

The Windows Desktop is the area of the screen that you are now looking at.
It contains icons and other screen elements.

Desktop icons
 The icons you see on the Windows Desktop will vary from one computer to
another, depending on who installed and customised the Windows
installation. As a user of Windows, you can add, remove and move icons on
the Desktop. Typically the Desktop will look something like this.

Moving Desktop icons

 C lick once on the Recycle Bin icon, to select it.

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 Make sure that the mouse pointer is pointing to the Recycle Bin icon. Press
down the mouse button and while keeping it pressed move the mouse pointer
to a different position on the Desktop. When you release the mouse button,
the icon will have moved.

You would use exactly the same technique to move any other icons that are
displayed on your Desktop.

TIP: The Recycle Bin is used as a temporary store for files that you delete.
More about all this later!

Windows Taskbar
 The Windows Taskbar is the bar normally displayed across the bottom of your
Windows screen. It contains a number of important items, such as the Start
button, icon representation of running programs and a clock at the right
edge.

Taskbar clock
 Located at the left edge of the Taskbar.

 If you move the mouse pointer over the time display (and wait a short time)
you will see the date displayed, as illustrated.

 C licking on the time display will display a calendar, as illustrated,

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Customising your Desktop

 Right click on an empty part of the Desktop and you will see a popup menu,
as illustrated.

 From the popup menu click on the Personalize command. This will display a
dialog box, as illustrated below.

 You can use this dialog box to customise elements of your computer system.

Customising the Desktop background wallpaper picture

 C lick on the Desktop Background icon.

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 You will see the following dialog box displayed.

 You can select a picture to be displayed on your Desktop background.

TIP: You can use the scroll vertical bars to the right of the picture thumbnails
to scroll up or down and see more pictures, as illustrated.

 Select a picture of your choice.

TIP: You may wish to experiment with specifying how you want the picture

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displayed on your Desktop, using the three controls illustrated below.

 C lick on the OK button to apply the picture of your choice to the Windows
Desktop.

Customising the Desktop background colour

 Display the Personalisation window.
 C lick on the Desktop Background icon.

 You will see the Personalisation dialog box displayed. Click on the down
arrow to the right of the Windows Wallpaper section. You will see a drop
down list displayed. C lick on Solid Colours.

 The dialog box will then change to display a range of colours, rather than
pictures.

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 C lick on a colour to select a colour.

TIP: You can use the scroll vertical bars to the right of the colour pallet to
scroll down and see more colour options.

TIP: When you click on a colour you will see a preview of that colour applied
to your background, as illustrated.

 To confirm the colour click on the OK button.

Setting a screen saver

 Display the Personalisation window.

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 C lick on the Screen Saver icon.

 You will see the Screen Saver Settings dialog box.

 To pick the screen saver type, click on the down arrow in the screen saver
section and click on an item within the list. In this case click on Ribbons.

 Within the Wait section, click on the up or down arrows to set the time
interval of inactivity, before the screen saver kicks in.

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 C lick on the Preview button to preview the effect of the screen saver.

 You will see an interesting ribbon effect.

 C lick on the OK button to apply the effects and close the dialog box.

Setting your screen resolution

 Display the Personalisation window and then click on the Display Settings
icon, which will display the Display Settings dialog box.

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 Before changing anything, make a note of the current screen resolution

setting. In the example illustrated, it is 1280 by 960 pixels.
This number describes the number of points making up your screen. The
higher the screen resolution, the better a picture will look on the screen.

 Use the Resolution slider to change the resolution. When you click on the
OK button, you will see a warning dialog box.

DO NOT CLICK ON THE YES BUTTON.

TIP: C hanging the screen resolution can cause problems, if incorrectly

applied. For this reason even of you do not click on the NO button, then
within a set number of seconds the original screen resolution is reapplied. Do

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not change the screen resolution, just remember how to change it if you ever
need to.

NOTE: The higher the screen resolution the smaller your Desktop icons will
appear on your screen.

 Wait until the original screen resolution settings are restored so that nothing
is changed.

Modify the computer date and time

 C lick on the Start button, from within the Start Menu click on the Control
Panel button. The C ontrol Panel will look like this.

 C lick on the Clock, Language and Region command. You will see the
following.

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 To set the date and time, click on the Date and Time command. This will
display the Date and Time dialog box, allowing you to change the date or
time.

TIP: Once changed, the new date and time will be remembered by the
computer. In most areas of the world Windows will change the time
automatically if the time is moved forward or backward as a result of daylight
saving time adjustments.

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 If still open close the Control Panel.

Setting the computer keyboard language and other regional settings

 C lick on the Start button and from within the Start Menu click on the
Control Panel button. The Control Panel will be displayed. Within the
Clock, Language and Region section, click on the Change display
language link.

 The Region and Languages Options window will be displayed.

 C lick on the Formats tab to see the current default setting.

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If you ever wanted to change these, you would click on the down arrow in the
Current format section and select the required option, as illustrated below.

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 Select the Location tab to set your current location, as illustrated,

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 Select the Keyboards and Language Options tab. C lick on the Change
keyboards button. You can use the dialog box that is displayed to set the
default input language.

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 If you click on the Add button you will see a list of available languages.

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NOTE: Do not actually change any settings. Remember how you would
change these setting if you ever wanted to.

 C lose all open Control Panel windows.

Setting the computer sound volume

 C lick on the Start button and from within the Start Menu click on the
Control Panel button. The Control Panel is displayed. Click on the
Hardware and Sound icon.

 Within the Sound section, click on the Adjust system volume link.

 You will see a slider control displayed, allowing you to modify the computer
volume.

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 C lose all open Control Panel windows.

The Sidebar and gadgets

 This is displayed down the right side of the screen and contains ‘gadgets’. A
gadget has more in common with a web page than a program and can be
used to display all sorts of information.

TIP: If the Sidebar has been closed on your computer and you cannot see it,
try pressing the Microsoft logo key and the Spacebar keys simultaneously.

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 If you see the Slide Show gadget display move the mouse pointer over it
and you will see slide navigation controls displayed on it. Try clicking on the
Next Slide button to move the slide show forward.

 Try clicking the View control to display the picture within the Windows
Photo Gallery. Then close the Windows Photo Gallery window.

Reordering gadgets
 You can easily reposition gadgets within the Sidebar. To do this click on a
gadget to select it. Press down the mouse button and then drag the gadget
to a new position within the Sidebar. Release the mouse button and the
gadget will have moved.

Closing a gadget
 To close a gadget, click on it to select it. You will then see a small close icon
displayed to the right of the gadget. C lick on Slide Show gadget and then
click on the Close icon, to close it down.

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Applications

Running more than one program at a time

 Windows Vista is a ‘Multitasking’ operating system. This means that it can
run lots of programs at the same time. For instance you can be receiving
emails, printing and writing a letter, all the same time. You can run lots of
different programs simultaneously, such as a word processor, a spreadsheet,
a database and a picture editing program.

Starting WordPad
 The WordPad program is a very limited word processor program that is
supplied free within Windows Vista. To open the WordPad program, click on
the Start button and then click on the All Programs button.

 C lick on the Accessories group.

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 You should see the WordPad program icon listed under the Accessories
group

 C lick on the WordPad command to run the WordPad program. The program
will open within a window, as illustrated.

 You can type in a line of text and then press the Enter key a few times.

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Using Print Screen within WordPad

 Pressing the Print Screen key takes a picture of your screen and copies it to
a special area of memory called the Windows Clipboard. Press the Print
Screen key now. Nothing appears to have happened, but you now have a
picture of the screen in the Clipboard.

 Press Ctrl+V which is the keyboard shortcut for pasting information from the
C lipboard. You should now see a picture displayed within your WordPad
program.

NOTE: Pressing the Print Screen key copies the entire screen contents to
the C lipboard. If you just want to copy the active window, then after
selecting the active window, press the Alt key while pressing the Print
Screen key. Then release the Alt key.

 C lick on the Save icon to save the data to disk.

A dialog box is displayed. You will need to type in a file name, and then click
on the Save button

 If you have time you might want to investigate the function of some of the
other icons within the program. You will find that if you point to an icon, and
leave the pointer there for a short time, that a popup is displayed explaining
the function of the icon. An example of a popup is illustrated below.

TIP: If you wish to format a portion of text with bold formatting you first
need to select the portion of text. To select text within a program such as
WordPad, click at the start of the text you wish to select and after pressing
down the Shift key click at the end of the portion of text you wish to select.

 Leave the program window open.

Identifying the parts of an application window

 The WordPad window is typical of an application window.

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There are a number of items that you need to be familiar with.

Title bar.
This is the bar running across the top of the application window and normally
displays the title of the program window.

Menu bar.
The Menu bar contains a number of drop down options, often including items
such as File and Edit.

C licking on one of these options displays a list of commands that you can
choose from, as illustrated for the File menu option.

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Toolbar.The Toolbar contains icons or buttons which you can click on to

perform a particular task, such as printing a document.

Status bar. The Status bar is normally displayed along the bottom edge of
the application window. It can display status information, such as the
number of pages contained within a document.

Scroll bar. Scroll bars are normally displayed only when needed. If the data
within a window will not fit within the window you may see horizontal and/or
vertical scroll bars displayed.

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 Office 2007 applications.

When Microsoft introduced Microsoft Office 2007, they gave programs a new
look and introduced the concept of the Ribbon, as illustrated below.

 The ribbon is divided into tabs, such as Home, Insert, Page Layout as
illustrated below.

 Each tab is divided into groups, such as Clipboard, Font and Paragraph, as
illustrated below.

 Each section contains the icons or buttons that you can click on, as illustrated
below for the Font group.

Notepad
 To open the Notepad program, click on the Start button and then click on the
All Programs button. C lick on the Accessories group. You should see the
Notepad program icon listed under the Accessories group. C lick on the
Notepad command to run the Notepad program. The program will open
within a window, as illustrated.

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 This is a text-only editor. Unlike a modern word processor, you cannot insert
pictures into the Notepad window. You will notice that unlike the WordPad
program you cannot apply any formatting to the text, such as bold, italic or
underlining.
 Leave the program window open.

Calculator
 To open the Calculator program, click on the Start button and then click on
the All Programs button. C lick on the Accessories group. You should see
the Calculator program icon listed under the Accessories group. C lick on
the Calculator command to run the C alculator program. The program will
open within a window, as illustrated.

 Experiment with using the calculator to add two numbers together.

TIP: If you click on the View drop down menu, you can select the Scientific
calculator.

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This will look like this.

 Leave the program window open.

Welcome Center
 The Welcome Center normally runs automatically each time you start the
computer. If you have closed the Welcome Center window you can always
restart the program by clicking on the Start button and then clicking on the
All Programs button. C lick on the Accessories group. You should see the
Welcome Center program icon listed under the Accessories group. C lick
on the Welcome Center command to run the program.

 Leave the program window open.

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Switching between programs

 You should see a number of programs displayed on the screen, as illustrated.

 To switch from one program to another press down the Alt key (and keep it
pressed). Press the Tab key once and you will see a bar displayed across the
middle of the screen.

 Press the Tab key a few more times and you will sequence around the
programs displayed within the bar. When you release the Alt key the
program that was highlighted within the bar is displayed on your screen and
the other programs are minimised to the Windows Taskbar. Practice this
technique a few time to switch from one program to another,

The ‘Switch between windows’ icon

 C lick on the Switch between windows icon (displayed at the bottom-left of
your screen).

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 The program windows will be displayed as illustrated.

 C lick on the program window you wish to bring to the forefront.

 C lick on the Show Desktop icon before continuing.

Using Windows Flip 3D

 Press the Windows Logo key (and keep it held down). Repeatedly press the
Tab key and you will cycle through the windows displayed on your screen.
Release the Windows Logo key when you see the window you require.

Cascading windows
 If necessary, click on the Show Desktop icon (bottom-left of your screen) so
that all the programs are displayed in their program windows.

 Right click on an empty part of the Windows Taskbar (this is the bar that is
normally displayed across the bottom of the Windows screen). From the
popup menu displayed, click on the Cascade Windows command.

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The program windows will be displayed cascaded across the screen.

Displaying windows side by side

 Right click on an empty part of the Windows Taskbar (this is the bar that is
normally displayed across the bottom of the Windows screen). From the
popup menu displayed, click on the Show Windows Side by Side
command.

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 The program windows will be displayed, tiled side by side, as illustrated

 C lose all the open programs before continuing.

TIP: To close a program click on the Close icon displayed at the top right of
each program window.

Installing programs
 Within large organisations it is normally the IT support staff that installs or
removes programs. In many cases it is a disciplinary offence to install
programs onto computers without specific permission. This is because of the
risk of accidentally infecting a computer with a computer virus or similar
program.

 With small organisations or home use then it may be up to you to install new
programs. Always check so that you do not get yourself in trouble!

 Programs are normally supplied on C D or DVD and these disks, once inserted
into the C D/DVD drive should start automatically and display instructions
onscreen covering the installation procedure. If you need to install software,
read the onscreen instructions VERY carefully at each stage. If help is
available and you get stuck always ask rather than assuming the installation
will be OK. If in doubt ask!

TIP: You can find lots of free programs when surfing the Web. Be VERY
careful about installing programs unless you are absolutely sure that the
programs are supplied by a reliable source.

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Removing programs
 WARNING: This section is just for reference. Do not remove any
programs during this training course.

As with installing programs only do this if you have been given specific
authority within your company to remove a program. If in doubt ask! You
use the Control panel to remove programs.

 C lick on the Start button and from within the Start Menu, click on the
Control Panel button.

 The Control Panel window looks like this.

 Within the Programs section click on the Uninstall a program command.

This will display a list of programs that you can uninstall.

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 C lick on the program that you wish to uninstall. In the example shown, the
Google Desktop program has been selected. Once selected click on the
Uninstall command (displayed above the list). You may see some warning
screens, in which case read them very carefully before deciding whether to
proceed or not. If in doubt, do not remove a program as it can cause
problems if you delete programs that should not be deleted. C lose any open
windows before continuing.

Creating and using a Desktop shortcut

 You have seen how to run program by clicking on the program within the
Start menu. We will now place a ‘Shortcut’ program icon on the Desktop.
This makes it much easier to run programs that you use on a regular basis.
We will now create a Desktop shortcut for the Welcome Center.

 C lick on the Start button and then click on the All Programs button. C lick
on the Accessories group. You should see the Welcome Center program
icon listed under the Accessories group.

 Right click on the Welcome Center program icon. From within the popup
menu displayed Select the Send To command. From the submenu displayed
select the Desktop (create shortcut) command.

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 You will see the following icon displayed on your Desktop.

 Double click on this icon to run the Welcome Center window.

 C lose all open windows before continuing.

Deleting a Desktop shortcut

 Select the Desktop shortcut you created. Press the Del key. You will see a
warning dialog box asking if you are sure you want to send the shortcut to
the Recycle Bin. Click on the Yes button to remove the shortcut icon.

Shutting down an application that has frozen

 Normally you close a program by clicking on its Close icon, displayed at the
top-right of a program window. Sometimes a program will crash or freeze
and you may not be able to close it down in the normal way. In this case, if
possible switch to any programs that are still responding and close them

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down (saving any data if necessary).

 C lick on the arrow to the right of the Start button, and from the popup
menu displayed select the Shutdown command.

 If this does not work physically switch off your computer. In the case of
Desktop computers there is normally a power switch on the front or at the
back of the computer. When using a laptop computer you may have the hold
down the on/off button for a short time in order to switch off the laptop.
Wait for at least 30 seconds and then switch the computer back on. It may
display a different opening screen than normal, in which case follow the on-
screen instructions.

Restarting the computer

 If you need to restart the computer rather than completely close it down,
click on the arrow to the right of the Start button, and from the popup
menu displayed select the Restart command.

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Help

How to get help

 The easy way to display the Windows help feature is to press the F1 key on
your keyboard. This will display the Windows Help and Support dialog
box.

 C lick on the Windows Basics icon.

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You will see the following information displayed.

 You can click on any item to learn more. For instance click on the first item
titled ‘Introduction to computers’.

You will see the following detailed information on this topic.

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The Help ‘Back’ and ‘Forward’ buttons

 You can click on the Back button to move back to the last screen displayed
within the Help dialog box.

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 You can click on the Forward icon to move forward within the pages you
visited.

Printing a Help topic

 You can click on the Print icon to print out the Help displayed on screen.

Browsing for Help

 C lick on the Browse icon

 The dialog box will display the following.

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 You can click on a topic such as Desktop Fundamentals. The dialog box
will then offer a range of help associated with the item you click on, in this
case Desktop Fundamentals, as illustrated.

 C licking on one of these options, for instance ‘The Start menu (overview)’,
will display the following.

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Re-displaying the opening help screen

 C lick on the Help and Support Home icon.

This will once again display the opening Help screen, as illustrated.

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 Take some time to explore some of the other options available within the
Help window.

Demos
 Display the Windows help and Support window. Search using the word
Demos, as illustrated.

 You will see the following screen displayed.

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 You can click on any of these demos and watch a screen presentation on
selected topics. You can run these as many times as you like and get more
expert in the use of various techniques within Windows Vista. C lose any open
windows before continuing.

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Files, Folders and Disks

What are files?

 When you load a program such as a word processor this means that you copy
the files containing the word processor program from your hard disk into your
RAM memory. RAM is short for Random Access Memory and is simply a term
to describe the memory chips contained within your computer. Once the
word processor is loaded into RAM you can use it to create a document.
When you have finished editing the document, you may want to save a copy
of the document to your hard disk as a file.

Basically there are two types of file that you need to concern yourself with,
the program files (such as word processor, spreadsheet, databases etc) and
the data files that you create and save to disk. Once saved to disk you can
later reopen that file and make further changes, or print the data file.

In many ways you can think of data files as physical sheets of paper,
containing your data. You then place these sheets within a folder so that you
keep all similar documents together.

What are folders?

 Files are stored on a disk in folders. This concept is very familiar to anyone
used to working within an office. Think of a 3-draw filing cabinet. When you
wish to file a document within the filing cabinet you first need to decide in
which draw to file a particular document. When you open a filing cabinet
draw it often contains hanging dividers allowing you to group similar
document together.

Types of drive and drive letters

 When you save a data file you normally save it to your hard disk. This disk is
contained within your computer and you cannot normally see it. By
convention the hard drive is called ‘Drive C’. If you have two hard disks
within a single computer they will normally be described as drive ‘C’ and drive
‘D’.

 There are other types of drive, such as a CD or DVD drive. You can plug
‘removable hard disk’ into the back of your computer. You can plug so called
‘memory sticks’ into the USB sockets on your computer. Don’t worry what
USB stands for (Universal Serial Bus), they are just sockets that allow you to
plug things into your computer. There are many different names for these
USB memory sticks, such as ‘Flash drives’ or ‘USB drives’

 As you add more drives to the computer, Windows assigns a drive letter to
them. The hard disk is usually called drive C . The next disk that is added
(probably the CD/DVD drive) will be called drive D, the next drive would be

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Drive E and so on.

 If you are connected to a network, your network administrator may have set
you up with additional ‘network drives’. These are actually located within a
different computer on your network and can have any free drive letter that
the network administrator thinks is appropriate (such as Drive T).

Running the Windows Explorer program

 Right click on the Start icon. From the popup menu select Explore.

 This will display the Windows Explorer window.

TIP: Do not confuse the Windows Explorer (which is generally used for
exploring your computer, disks, folders and files) with the Internet Explorer
(which is used for exploring the Internet and surfing the Web). They are two
entirely separate programs with very different functions.

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Views within the Windows Explorer

 You will see a number of commands displayed in a bar across the top of the
Windows Explorer window.

 C lick on the down arrow to the right of the Views command. You will see a
popup menu, as illustrated.

 In the example illustrated, we are viewing the contents of the Windows

Explorer in what is called Details view. In details view, illustrated below,
you can see details such as the name of a file or folder, the date it was last
modified, the type of file or folder as well as the size of the file.

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 We will see later how to select a particular file or folder and view details of
that file or folder. In the example shown below, we have selected the
Notepad program file. As you can see this file is an ‘application’ file (i.e. a
program file) and the file size on disk is 148 KB.

 The other common view that is used is one of the icon views.
 C lick on the Medium Icons view.

 Your display will now change as illustrated.

 There are other views but normally you will use Details or one of the Icon
views.

TIP: If you have difficulty seeing the icons you can use the Large or Extra
large icon views.

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 Before continuing set the View type to Details.

Using the Windows Explorer scroll bar

 When you first start the Windows Explorer the screen will look something like
this. In the example shown, the Start Menu folder is selected by default.

 Use the vertical Scroll Bar to scroll up to see the contents at the top of the
left side of the window. You will see something like this.

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Expanding and contracting drives and folders

 Double click on the Drive C icon.

The screen will change as illustrated.

The contents of the C drive (your hard disk) are displayed within the right
side of the window. In the example shown the folders contained on the hard
disk have a folder shaped icon, as below.

 Double click on the drive C : icon again and the folder structure on your hard
disk will expand again, as illustrated.

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 You will notice the folders displayed in the left side of the window are
prefixed with one of the following shapes.

 C lick on one of the dark triangle shapes.

You will see that it then changes to the shape below.

 The shape below indicates that when you click on it, the folder substructure
will expand to display the subfolder(s) contained within the parent folder.

 The shape below indicates that when you click on it, the expanded folder
substructure will contract to just display the parent folder.

 Experiment with clicking on both the expanding and contracting icons and
view the effect on the structure displayed on your screen.

 Before continuing close the Windows Explorer program and then restart it.

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Types of Windows Explorer icons

 Your screen should look like this:

 Scroll up the screen and select the Users folder icon.

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 Double click on the Users folder icon and you will see that the Users folder
collapses, to just display the Users parent icon in the left side of the window.

 C lick on the Windows folder. You will see the Windows parent folder
displayed in the left side of the screen, with the contents of the Windows
folder (i.e. files and subfolders) displayed on the right side of the window.

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 Scroll down the contents within the right side of the window and soon you will
see a variety of different icons representing different types of files.

 You should be able to see the following icon displayed.

This is a program icon. Double click on this and you will run the Windows
Explorer program.

Drives, Folders and Files

 When accessing a hard disk, whether it is local to your machine or perhaps
located on a network, Windows uses a system of drive letters to serve as
logical pointers to the different physical drives you have access to. From each
drive letter it is possible to access all of your files stored on that particular
physical drive.

 If all of the files were held together in one place on each drive, the system
would be very difficult to use because of the sheer number of files involved.
To help organise your files it is possible to create folders (also referred to as
directories) to help divide and even sub-divide the files stored within the
various logical drives available. A system of hierarchical folders within folders
which represent your hard disk are often referred to as the folder (directory)
tree, in the same way the very top of the file system is known as the root
folder (directory).

 Finally, at the very end of this structure are the various files which we use.

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Data storage devices

 Hard Disk: Stores your operating system, application programs and data.
When you save data, it is normally saved to the hard disk.

Diskette (floppy disk): The original IBM PC did not have a hard disk, the
operating system, programs and data had to be contained in one or two
diskettes. Later a hard disk was added, after which point diskettes were used
for supplying programs which could be installed (i.e. copied) to the hard disk,
or you could back up small amounts of data to the diskette. Most modern
PC s are no longer supplied with a diskette drive, due to the fact that diskettes
are unreliable and are easily damaged. They only hold very small amounts of
data.

CD / DVD: These have largely replaced diskettes as a way of supplying

programs. They can hold a lot more data.

USB Flash Drives: These are small, stick-like devices that plug into a USB
port. They can stores Gigabytes of information and are an easy way to
transfer data from one computer to another. There are security
considerations attached to use of these devices as it is easy to copy large
amounts of data to these devices and then take that information out of the
office, for this reason many companies ban the use of these devices. When
using a USB flash drive the drive is listed within the Windows Explorer
program in exactly the same way that your hard disk is. It will have a drive
letter associated with it.

Network Drives: Seen by your computer as a normal drive, but in reality

the network drive is a folder located on another computer which is connected
to the network.

File sizes and disk storage capacities

 Each file stored on a disk is a certain size. Some files such as those that only
contain text are very small while others containing applications or high videos
can be enormous. The capacity of storage disks is often quoted in Gigabytes.
 The basic storage unit is called a bit. The relationship between storage
values is illustrated below:

Bit:
1 or 0 level of storage is called a Bit

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Byte:
Eight bits is called one Byte

KB, Kilobyte:
A Kilobyte (KB) consists of approximately one thousand Bytes

MB, Megabyte:
A Megabyte (MB) is approximately one million Bytes

GB, Gigabyte:
A Gigabyte consists of approximately one thousand Megabytes

TB, Terabyte:
A terabyte (TB) is approximately one thousand Gigabytes

Online Storage
 With the advent of high speed internet connections it is now possible to store
your files online. This allows you to access your files from any computer with
an Internet connection. If you wish you can also give permission for other
people to access your files, for example you could allow family members to
access your digital photo collection.

Manipulating folders

Navigating to the sample files folder

 The sample files and folders have been installed into a folder called
Cheltenham Courseware. The subfolder structure of this sample folder
looks like this.

 To navigate to this sample folder and files, right click on the Start button
(bottom-left of the screen). From the popup menu displayed select the

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Explore command, which will display the Windows Explorer window.

 Use the scroll bars within the left side of the window to scroll up the folder
display. You should now be able to see the folder called Cheltenham
Courseware.

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 Double click on the Cheltenham Courseware folder and you will see the
following displayed.

 The samples for this course are contained within the folder called Vista level
1.

Creating a folder
 Select the folder called Vista Level 1.
 Right click on the Vista Level 1 folder and from the popup menu displayed
click on the New command. A submenu is displayed, click on the Folder
command.

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 You will see a new folder is created and displayed within the left side of the
Windows Explorer window.

 You can type in the new name and press the Enter key. In this case type in
the name My new folder and press the Enter key. Your screen will now look
like this.

Creating a subfolder
 Select the folder called My new folder. Create a new subfolder, under this
folder called My backups. Your screen will now look like this.

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Good practice when naming files or folders

 Use meaningful names for your files and folders. If you do this then when
you access the file or folder at a later date, then just by looking at the file
name you will be able to tell what the file or folder relates to.

 If a file or folder relates to a particular organisation you could include the

name of the organisation within the name. If the file or folder relates to a
particular purpose such as accounts or sales, then again you could include
this information within the name.

 Sometimes it may be useful to include date or year information within a file

name. This is particularly useful when naming files and folders that contain
photographs taken with a digital camera.

Renaming a folder
 Select the folder called My backups and you will see the selected folder
displayed like this:

 Press the F2 key and the folder will now be displayed like this.

NOTE: This is called editing mode. You can edit the file name by typing in a
new name.

 Type in My old backups for the new file name. When you press the Enter
key you will see the following.

TIP: You can use the same technique to rename files.

Deleting a folder
 Select the folder called My old backups.
 Press the Del key. You will see the following dialog box warning you that you
are about to delete the folder.

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 C lick on the Yes button and the folder will be deleted.

TIP: The folder is not actually deleted; it is moved to the Recycle Bin. If you
realise that you have accidentally deleted the wrong file, or if you simply
change your mind, you can normally retrieve the deleted file from the
Recycle Bin.

WARNING: Files are not held in the Recycle Bin forever and in some cases
when you delete a file it may be permanently deleted and not even go to the
Recycle Bin. Be very carefully about deleting files. If in doubt do not delete
a file!

We will see more about the Recycle Bin later.

Displaying folder details

 C lick on the folder called Vista Level 1 (displayed within the left side of the
Windows Explorer), as illustrated.

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 You will see the subfolders contained within the Vista level 1 folder displayed
on the right side of the window. For each subfolder, you can see the folder
name and the date last modified.

 Move the mouse pointer over the folder called Counting files. After a short
delay, you will see the following popup, displaying more details about the
folder, such as the total size of the folder contents. Slowly move the mouse
pointer down the list of folders and you will see details displayed for the other
folders.

 Right click on the folder called Counting files. From the popup menu
displayed select the Properties command.

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This will display even more information about the folder, such as the fact that
the folder contains 15 files. C lick on the OK button to close the dialog box.

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Manipulating files

Viewing file details

 C lick on the Counting files folder (within the left side of the window). You
will see the files within this folder displayed in the right side of the window,
as illustrated. You can view the file name, date modified, file type and file
size.

 Move the mouse pointer over (but do not click on) the file called Dolphin.
You can see from the Type column that this is an image file. After a short
delay you will see a popup displaying more information about the image,
such as the dimensions of the image.

Slowly move the mouse pointer down the list of files and see what additional
information is displayed about other types of files when you point to a file.

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 C lick on the file called Dog. This is an image file and you will see a preview of
the image in the bottom-left section of the window.

 Right click on the selected file and from the popup menu displayed select the
Properties command.

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 This will display the Properties dialog box for the selected file, displaying
even more detailed information about the file. C lick on the OK button to
close the dialog box.

Sorting the file list within the Windows Explorer

 Within the left section of the window, select a folder called Sorting files.

 Move the mouse pointer to the word Name displayed at the top of the first
column of information.

 C lick once. C lick a few more times. Each time you click the list is ordered A-
Z or Z-A, as illustrated.

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 Move the mouse pointer to the words Date Modified displayed at the top of
the second column of information. Repeated clicking on this will reorder the
display in ascending or descending date order.

 Move the mouse pointer to the word Type displayed at the top of the third
column of information. Clicking on this will sort the files by type, as
illustrated.

TIP: In the example illustrated, the Type column is not wide enough to
display the information within it. To make the column wider, move the
mouse pointer to the vertical line separating the top of the Type and Folder
column. You will see the mouse pointer changes to the shape of a small
cross with arrows pointing left and right. Press the mouse button and drag
the column border to the right and when you release the mouse button the
column will be wider. The column will then look like this. You may also have
to make the program window itself wider to display the information!

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 You can use the Size column to sort the files according to their file size.

Recognising common file types

 View the contents of the File types folder.

 This folder contains a range of different file types.

 Common file types include.

Application (executable) files:

These are files that contain programs and which you can ‘run’. If you select
an executable file within the Windows Explorer and double click on it, then

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the file will run the program within it. There are many different types of
executable files. Mostly we will be interested in running application program
files that contain our programs, such as a word processor or a spreadsheet
program. Do not confuse the executable files with the data files. If you look
within the Windows folder on your hard disk you will see a number of
application files, as illustrated below.

As you can see from the illustration above, provided that you view the files
within the Windows Explorer in Details view, then the file type is normally
listed. In the case above you can see it is listed as an Application, i.e.
executable file.

Text Documents:
As the name suggests text documents contain only text. No pictures or
formatting information can be stored in a text-only file.

Bitmap Images:
This is a type of picture format.

GIF Images:
This is a type of picture format.

JPEG Images:
This is a type of picture format.

Microsoft Office Word Documents:

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These are documents created using the Microsoft Word, word processing
program.

Microsoft Office Excel Worksheet:

These are documents created using the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet program.

Microsoft Office PowerPoint Presentation:

These are document created using the Microsoft PowerPoint presentation
program.

Microsoft Office Access Database:

These files are created using the Microsoft Access Database program.

HTML documents:
These are documents formatted for displaying on a Web site.

Zipped (compressed) files:

These are compressed files. You compress files to save disk space or to
make them smaller when you send them via an email attachment.

Adobe Acrobat PDF files:

PDF is short for Portable Document Format. This format was introduced by a
company called Adobe and can be created by a program called Adobe
Acrobat. The idea of PDF files is that you can create file with your own
particular make and version of software, such as a word processor or
spreadsheet and then save the file as a PDF formatted file. This PDF file can
then be viewed by anyone using a free PDF reader, such as the Adobe
Acrobat Reader program. To put it another way, if someone procures some
artwork in a program such as Adobe Photoshop, they can save the file in PDF
format, send it to you and you can then view the file, without the need to
have the Photoshop program installed on your computer. PDF files are a way
of exchanges documents. There are many other products that will create PDF
files for you as well as the full versions of the Adobe Acrobat program. Often
you can create PDF files which have a much smaller files size compared to
the original format. This makes PDF files ideal for storing documents on a
web site, or for attaching as files to emails.

Audio files MP3:

There are files that store sound, normally music or speech. The icon used to
display these files will vary according to what programs you have installed to
play your music files.

Video files: AVI, Video files - MPG & WMV (Windows Media Video)

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These are different types of file formats used to store Video. The icon used to
display these files will vary according to what programs you have installed to
play your video files.

Temporary files:
These files, as the name implies, are normally created as temporary files
which are deleted after use. Both Windows and application programs can
create temporary files which are used to store information on a temporary
basis and which are deleted when they are no longer used. If the computer
crashes you may find that some files which were meant to be temporary are
present as they were not automatically deleted.

Selecting multiple files

 Within the left side of the window, click on the folder called Selecting files.

 This will display the following files.

 C lick on the file called Sales details. This will select that file, as illustrated.

 C lick on another file, such as Charts. The second file will be selected and the
first file de-selected, as illustrated.

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TIP: Selecting multiple files is useful as once you have selected multiple files,
you can manipulate all the files at the same time, rather than one file at a
time, as we will see later.

 To select more than one file you need to use a trick. C lick on the file called
Dog. Then press the Ctrl key (and keep it pressed). Then click on the file
called Sales Details. Finally click on a file called Raft race. Release the
Ctrl key and all three files will remain selected, as illustrated.

 C lick on a different file and the multiple files are no longer selected.

 Sometimes you may wish to select a block of files that are displayed next to
one another. To do this we use a different trick. First list your files in
alphabetical A-Z order by clicking at the top of the Name column. Your files
are listed as illustrated.

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 C lick on the file called Dog. Press the Shift key and keep it pressed. C lick
on the file called River and then release the Shift key. All the files between
the first and second file that you clicked on remain selected, as illustrated.

 C lick on a different file and the multiple files are no longer selected.

TIP: These tricks using the Shift or Control keys also work when selecting
multiple folders.

Counting the number of files, files of a particular type in a folder

 Display the contents of the folder called Counting files.
 First list your files by type by clicking at the top of the Type column.
 Select all the JPEG image files as illustrated.

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 As you can see there are four JPEG image type files. If there were a lot more
you can use a trick to count up the number of selected files. Right click over
the selected files and you will see a popup menu. C lick on the Properties
command which will display a dialog box. Within the dialog box it tells you
how many files you have selected, as illustrated.

 C lose any open dialog boxes.

Changing file attribute status

 Display the contents of the folder called File status.

 C lick on a file called Sales chart. Right click on this file and from the popup
menu displayed select the Properties command. This will display the
Properties dialog box for the selected file.

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 In the Attributes section of the dialog box you can click on the Read-only
check box.

 This will mark the file as read-only. Try it now and then press the OK button
to confirm the action.

NOTE: If you make a file read-only you can still delete the file (by selecting it
and pressing the Del key). However if you were to open the file then the file
would open without any problem, but if you edited the file you would have
the save the file using a different file name as the original file name is
marked read-only.

 Use the same technique to mark the file read/write again, and after closing
the properties dialog box, re-open the dialog box to confirm this change.
C lose all open dialog boxes before continuing.

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Renaming files
 Display the contents of the folder called Renaming.
 Select the file called Stock. Press the F2 key and type in a new file name
called Stock Levels. Press the Enter key to confirm the file renaming.

NOTE: Normally you just see the file name without what is called the file
name extension. The file name extension is normally 3 or 4 letters, preceded
by a dot (period). For instance a text-only file has a file name extension of
.TXT.

WARNING: To keep the display simple and uncluttered the file name
extensions are not normally displayed within the Windows Explorer. If you
do see the file name extension displayed, be very careful not to alter the
extension when you are renaming a file.

Windows can use the file name extension to tell what sort of file type a
particular file is. If you change the extension Windows may no longer
understand how to process a particular file!

Deleting files
 Display the contents of the folder called Deleting files.
 Select the file called About computers. Press the Del key to delete the file
and you will see the following.

 C lick on the Yes button to confirm the deletion. The file appears to be
deleted but is actually moved to the Recycle Bin. The Recycle Bin is an area
on your hard disk used to store files that you have deleted.

TIP: If you wish to delete a file completely rather than send it to the Recycle
Bin, press the Shift key while you are deleting the file. Use this trick with
caution as you will NOT be able to recover the file once you have
deleted it!

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Restoring files and folders from the Recycle Bin

 C lick on the Show Desktop icon (displayed at the bottom left of your screen
next to the Start button).

 This will allow you to see the Recycle Bin icon on the Windows Desktop.

 Double click on the Recycle Bin and you will see the following.

TIP: You may see lots more files contained within the Recycle Bin. If so
ignore the other files, just concentrate on the file we have just deleted.

 To restore the About Computers file, first select the file and then click on
the Restore this item command displayed towards the top of the window.

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 The file will no longer be displayed within the Recycle Bin. C lose the Recycle
Bin. C lick on the Show Desktop icon again and you should see the Windows
Explorer window with the file that you deleted once again displayed.

Emptying the Recycle Bin

 Experiment with deleting more files within the Deleting files folder. Open
the Recycle Bin. If you want to permanently remove files from the Recycle
Bin rather than restoring them (i.e. un-deleting them), then click on the
Empty Recycle Bin button displayed within the Recycle Bin.

Copying and moving files

The Windows Clipboard

 The Windows C lipboard is an area of memory used for moving or copying
items from one place to another. There are a number of Clipboard related,
keyboard shortcuts which you should memorise.

Ctrl+X - Moves the selected item to the C lipboard.

Ctrl+C - C opies the selected item to the Clipboard.
Ctrl+V - Pastes the item from the C lipboard.

Moving files between folders

 Display the contents of the folder called Moving files - one.
 Select a file called About computers. Press Ctrl+X. This cuts (i.e. moves)
the selected file to the C lipboard.
 Select the folder called Moving files - two. Press Ctrl+V. This will paste
the contents of the C lipboard to the selected folder.
 Experiment with selecting multiple files and moving them from one folder to
another.

TIP: You can use the same technique for moving entire folders from one
place to another.

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TIP: You can use the same technique for moving a file from a folder on one
disk to a folder on another disk.

Copying files between folders

 Display the contents of the folder called Copying files - one.
 Select a file called About computers. Press Ctrl+C. This copies the
selected file to the C lipboard.
 Select the folder called Copying files - two. Press Ctrl+V. This will paste
the contents of the C lipboard to the selected folder.
 Experiment with selecting multiple files and copying them from one folder to
another.

TIP: You can use the same technique for copying entire folders from one
place to another.

TIP: You can use the same technique for copying a file from a folder on one
disk to a folder on another disk.

Backups
 Within a business environment you will normally use a computer that is
connected to a network. In many cases your important data files will be
automatically backed up for you and stored securely elsewhere on the
network. You need to check with your IT support people that backups are
performed automatically.

 In many small businesses or organisations little or no attention is given to the

need to backup your data, until the day your computer breaks down or gets
stolen, at which point you may have lost years of data.

 If the data you produce is important it is your responsibility to make sure

that it is regularly backed up.

 You can backup across a network or to a removable device attached to your

computer. You can copy your files to a C D or DVD disk and then store these
safely. Alternatively you may have the facility to backup to a tape device.
Many people backup data to so called ‘memory sticks’. Memory sticks are
small devices you can plug into your computer sockets, within the Windows
Explorer they look just like a normal drive and have a drive letter assigned to
them.

 Whatever backup method you use, there are three basic principles when it
comes to backups.

Off site storage: It is no use backing up your data to say a DVD, and
leaving the backup copies next to your computer. If your computer gets
stolen, chances are the backup disks will also get stolen. Always store your
backups offsite.

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Regular backups: Perform separate backups on a regular basis. Even if one

of the backups contains an error, the chances are that the rest will be OK.

Check the backup: Every so often just check that you can restore the
backed up data to a computer. Do not overwrite the latest version of your
data with an earlier version, just simply check that the backup mechanism
has not been corrupted. Also check what has been backed up.

Online Backups
 Many copies now backup data online. This may be over the private Local
Area Network, to an offsite server that is owned by the company. This has
the advantage that backup data is easily access by everyone that needs
access within the company so that backups can be shared when necessary.
 Many companies now have automated backups that back up over the
Internet, on some cases to servers in different countries that are house in
secure bunkers. This makes the backed data almost impossible to lose,
although storing your data in a different country may raise data protection
issues in some countries.

Backing up data to a removable drive

 If you have a memory stick available, insert the memory stick into one of the
‘USB’ sockets on your computer. You will see the AutoPlay window
displayed.

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 C lick on the Open folder to view files option. This will open the Windows
Explorer allowing you to copy files to this device. You can select the files
within one of your sample folders and press Ctrl+C to copy the file to the
C lipboard.
 Select the removable drive and press Ctrl+V to paste the contents of the
C lipboard to the removable drive.

File compression

What is file compression?

 File compression lets you make the size of files smaller. This is useful when
you need to save space on a disk or when you are sending a file as an email
attachment and you want to keep the size of your attachments as small as
possible.

Extracting compressed files

 Display the contents of a folder called Compressed files. This folder
contains a single file called Zipped file, as illustrated.

 Select the file called Zipped file. Double click on this file and the Zipped file
will decompress and display 3 files which were compressed and stored within
the Zip file.

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Compressing files
 Select all the files within the File Types folder. Right click over the selected
files and from the popup menu displayed select the Send To command.
From the submenu, click on the Compressed (zipped) Folder command.

 The selected files will be compressed into a single file. You can type in a new
name for the ZIP file, in this case called i.e. My backups.

Disk formatting
 WARNING: These notes relating to formatting are just for reference.

DO NO FORMAT A DISK UNLESS

SPECIFICALLY DIRECTED TO DO SO
BY YOUR TUTOR.

The hard disk inside your computer is formatted ready for use when you first
purchase your computer. You can think of formatting a disk as printing lines
on a notepad so that you can later write on the notepaper. When PCs were
first introduced they all had floppy disk drives rather than the CD/DVD drives
that we are familiar with today. There are still many PCs with built-in floppy
disk drives and you can insert a removable floppy disk into these drives.
Floppy disks are generally supplied pre-formatted, but sometimes it may
become necessary to reformat the disk.

WARNING: If you format a disk then you will lose any data contained on
that disk. Formatting wipes a disk clean!

 To format a removable disk, first open the Windows Explorer (by right
clicking on the Start button and from the popup menu displayed, selecting
the Explore command).
 Select the removable disk you wish to format, as illustrated.

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 Right click in the disk you want to format and from the popup menu
displayed, select the Format command.

 You will see the Format Removable Disk dialog box, as illustrated.

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 To start the format process click on the Start button, but remember that if
you do this you will lose any data contained on the removable disk. You will
see a warning dialog box.

TIP: Never use the Quick Format option. While this option is very quick,
the results may be unreliable.

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Searching for data

Viewing recently accessed files

 C lick on the Start button and then click on the Recent Items command. You
will see a submenu allowing you to click and open recently opened files.

Searching for files on your hard disk

 C lick on the Start button and then click on the Search command.

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 This will display the Search dialog box.

 To find a file called Password, you would type in the name of the file into
the dialog box, as illustrated. You will see that additional information is now
displayed within the dialog box.

 C lick on the Search in File Contents icon and you will see the following
displayed.

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TIP: You may want to resize the window so that the window is wider. You
may also want to resize the columns so that you can see the Folder location
(i.e. the folder in which the file is stored).

 Double clicking on the file will display the file contents, as illustrated.

 C lose all open windows.

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Advanced searching by file size

 C lick on the Start button and then click on the Search command. You will
see the following dialog box displayed.

 C lick on the down arrow to the right of the Advanced Search section. This
will display the following options.

 C lick on the down arrow next to the Size section and you will see a drop
down list displayed.

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 Select is less than. In the next box, type in the number 104. This will allow
us to find all files with a file size of less than 104 KB.

 C lick on the Search button and you will see a list of all files under 104 KB.
 C lose the search dialog box.

Advanced searching by date

 C lick on the Start button and then click on the Search command. You will
see the following dialog box displayed.

 Enter the search word ‘Windows’.

 C lick on the Advanced Search button.

 This will display the advanced options including the Date searching options.

 C lick on the down arrow to the right of the date section and you can select
Date Modified or Date Created. In this case select Date Created.

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 C lick on the down arrow to the right of the Any section. In this case
choose ‘is before’.

 C lick on the down arrow to the right of the next box, as illustrated below.
Select a date a few months before today’s date.

 C lick on the Search button. If you look carefully at the search results you
will find that only files with the word ‘Windows’ in the file name and files
that were created before the specified date are listed.
 C lose the search dialog box.

Advanced searching by file content

 You can search for a file if you know the file name. In real life you may
create a document and remember what is in the document, but not
remember where you saved the document, or what the file was. The good
news is that you can search for file content. For instance let’s say you
created a document continuing an unusual word or phrase, such as xyzzy,
then this can be used to find the file.
 C lick on the Start button and then click on the Search command. Type in
the search phrase, in this case, xyzzy, as illustrated.

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 In the left section of the dialog box, click on the Computer icon, as
illustrated.

 In the right section of the dialog box, click on the Hard disk icon, as
illustrated. This is telling Vista that the file is somewhere on your hard disk,
but you don’t know where.

 You may find that you have to retype your search phrase into the search box,
xyzzy, as illustrated.

 Vista will start searching for files. After a short delay you will see the
following.

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 Within the right hand section of the dialog box, click on the in the Search in
File Contents icon. Vista will start the search again. This may take longer,
and you will see a search progress bar, displayed across the top of the
window.

 Eventually, you should see the file containing the specified contents,
displayed in the right hand section of the window.

 As you can see the file is called Mine sweeper. Double click on this file to
open it, and you will see information about a cheat that used to work in the
Windows Mine Sweeper game.
 C lose the Word document and close the Search dialog box before continuing.

Advanced searching using partial file names and specific locations

 Sometimes you may not remember the exact file name. Take an example
were we know the file name starts with the word Swim, but we cannot
remember the rest of the name. Windows will still be able to find the file for
us.
 Right click on the Start button and then click on the Explore command to
open Windows Explorer.

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 In the left side of the dialog box, click on the word Computer.

 The screen will change as illustrated.

 Select the disk you want to search, in this case, the Hard Disk. In the
search box type in the word swim, as illustrated.

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 The search will then find the following file.

 Double click on the file (actually called Swimming in the sea). You will see
the following picture.

 C lose all open windows.

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Searching for a file using wildcards instead of the full name

 In some cases we may only know part of the name, in which case we can use
wild cards.

For example:

To search for all files whose names start with z

we would search for z*

To search for all files whose names start with za

we would search for za*

To search for all files whose names start with za

and contains 5 characters
we would search for za???

To search for all Microsoft Excel files whose names start with za
and contains 5 characters
we would search for za???.xls

 Use this information to search all the subfolders under your samples folder
for any files whose names start with the letters sa.
 C lose the Search dialog box, once the search is complete.

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Viruses, Spyware and Cookies

Computer viruses
 Viruses are small programs written so that they can jump from one computer
to another (via disk or a network), which can cause disruption or damage to
the computer system. Even data files such as a Word document can contain a
virus. As well as causing damage to your data, or in some cases even
destroying your data, viruses can cause other effects, such as using your
email system to email all your email contacts and in the process infect other
people’s computers.
 Basically if you access files which are virus infected, then that virus may be
transmitted to your computer. Never accept diskettes/CD-ROMs/DVDs which
have not been properly virus scanned first by your computer support team.
Never connect to the Internet without an active virus checker program
scanning all the files you download.

Spyware
 Spyware is software that installs itself on your computer and then spies on
your computer activity. Often spyware is used to collect marketing
information but more serious versions can collect sensitive data which could
later be used in a criminal way. If you download and install free software,
then this may have types of spyware hidden within it. There are many
different programs that you can use to detect and remove spyware on your
computer.

Cookies
 Cookies are commonly used to allow visitors to a web site to personalise their
relationship with the web site. For instance a weather web site could use a
cookie to remember that you live within a particular area of the country. The
next time you visit that web site, the weather that will be displayed will relate
to your location. Some cookies are less innocent. Cookies are often
downloaded automatically from a web site when you visit the web site, so
you can acquire them without realising it. Most anti-spyware programs will
also detect cookies for you.

Virus checking programs

 An up to date virus checker should help protect you from losing data due to
virus attacks and you should find that your email system does not get
jammed up due to multiple email viruses.

 You will have less chance of being sued for damages by other organisations
that you accidentally infected with a virus.

 Running a virus checker on a computer which contains a virus is known as

disinfecting the PC as the virus program will detect and then eliminate the

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virus.

 You will save time and money by preventing virus attacks as opposed to
dealing with the effects of an attack.

NOTE: Get all the security updates and patches for your version of Windows
so that Windows itself is less vulnerable to virus attack.

Scanning for viruses

 Many virus checking programs will scan your PC when you first switch on in
the morning and some will even run detailed scans automatically, as well as
automatically updating themselves so that you are protected against new
virus types. In the example shown, we have started the McAfee antivirus
program (via the quick launch toolbar). In this case to scan the computer for
viruses we would simply click on the Scan button.

 This particular program will display a dialog box similar to that shown while
the virus scan is running.

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 At the end of the process you should see a message telling you that your
computer is free of viruses. If a virus is detected during the scan and you
work in a large organisation inform your IT technical support team
immediately. Do not panic! If you are running a computer at home, then
normally, let the virus checking program remove any viruses which it finds.

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Updating anti-virus programs

 As new viruses are constantly emerging, it is vital to update your virus
program on a regular basis. Many programs will do this automatically. You
can also run the update manually to make absolutely sure you have all the
latest updates. In the case of the McAfee example show below, you would
click on the Update button and follow the on-screen instructions.

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Printing Issues

Selecting a printer
 In many larger organisations you may have the choice of printing to more
than one printer. To see which printers are available you can use the C ontrol
Panel. To do this click on the Start button and then click on the Control
Panel.

 You will see the Control Panel displayed, as illustrated.

 Within the Hardware and Sound section click on the Printer link.

 You will see a screen similar to the following.

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 In this example the Lexmark printer is set as the default printer. The
default printer is marked with a tick.

NOTE: You will have different printers installed.

Changing the default printer

 To set a different printer as the default printer, right click on the printer icon
you wish to set as the new default printer. C lick on the Set as Default
Printer command.

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 In this example we have changed the HP printer to become the default

printer.

Installing a new printer on the computer

 C lick on the Start button and then click on the Control Panel. Click on the
Printer link within the Hardware and Sound section. C lick on the Add a
printer button.

 You will see the following dialog box.

 If the printer is attached directly to your computer, click on the Add a local
printer option. If your printer is on a network use the second option. In this
example use the Add a local printer option. You will see the following dialog
box. Select a port or use the default and click on the Next button.

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 The next screen allows you to select a make and model of printer to install.

TIP: You may have to insert a disk to install a printer that Windows does not
know about.

After you have selected a make and model, click on the Next button.

 The next screen allows you to give the printer a name. Accept the name
displayed or type in a new name. Then click on the Next button.

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 The final screen allows you to test that the printer is correctly installed and
connected. C lick on the Print a test page button.

 C lick on the Finish button.

Printing from an application

 Once the printer is correctly connected and installed, you normally print from
within your applications. For instance, if you have written a memo within a
program such as Microsoft Word, you would simply click on the Office
Button and then select the Print command.

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TIP: Within many applications, the keyboard shortcut for printing a

document is Ctrl+P.

Using the Print Manager

 When you print a document the printing is handled by a part of Windows
called the Print Manager. After starting a document printing, you can view
the Print Manager by clicking on the Print Manager icon displayed at the
bottom-right of the screen.

You will see something like this displayed on your screen.

 As printing is a slow process, if you try and print a lot of documents at the
same time you will see the documents queued up within the Print Manger.
You can pause the printing of a document by selecting the document within
the print queue, right clicking and selecting the Pause command. To restart

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the printing select the Restart command.

 To cancel the printing of a particular document right click over the document
and select the Cancel command.

 You will see a warning screen. C lick on the Yes button to confirm that you
wish to cancel.

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