This course has been designed for the starting or inexperienced computer user. For all of you who aren't comfortable with computers, this will ease you into all of our other courses. This course will teach you how to perform basic tasks that are the building blocks of doing more complex things. You will start by learning what the Desktop is, and proceed to learn more about how to actually use it.

The Desktop, or that opening screen you see when you start your computer, is where you will find, and can put all your most used programs. It allows you to easily access any program on your computer. Start by taking a look at it, you might have changed the background yourself (which we will get to later), or you may have a fairly standard one. The background has no effect on the performance of your computer, and is totally inactive. Clicking on it will do absolutely nothing.

The major thing you will notice about the Desktop is that it contains Icons. Icons are "links" that will start-up a program when clicked twice. Clicking twice is commonly known as a double click, and must be done quite rapidly (If you are having trouble with this, you will learn how to change the speed of the click later.

Most of the icons on the desktop have very self-explanatory names, You can change any of the names that appear by right clicking on the icon (touching the right mouse button and then releasing). This will bring up a menu. If you see the word "rename", left-click the word. If it is not there, the option of renaming it is not available.

Another major thing you need to know if you are using Windows is where it gets its name. Windows is a windowed environment, meaning all programs are enclosed in windows. At the top right corner of every window are three buttons. The left one is a low dash ( _ ). By clicking on this, the window will disappear (also known as minimizing a window). To find it again, look at the bar at the bottom (the star, menu, or windows bar, it's know by many names). You will see all open programs right in the middle of it. To the left, you have the Start button, which we will get to later. You also have the quick start menu. By clicking any icon on the left hand side of this bar, the program will open automatically.

The second button on the top right corner of each window is the restore/maximize button. If the window is at its maximal size, taking up the entire screen, this button will make the window smaller. If the window is not at its minimal size, this button will enlarge it to its fullest.

The third button is in the shape of an X, and will usually only do one thing; it will close whatever program you are currently using. If the program has many open windows, it will either close just that window, or every window in THAT program. 

We will now discuss what each of the basic icons do:

"My Computer"

When clicked, this will allow you to view all files on your computer. Clicking it will open up the My Computer window, and display icons for all the drives and a couple of folders that are on your computer. The C: drive is your hard drive. This holds all permanent information such as all documents, program files, and other things as well.

Just because this hard drive is permanent does not mean that the things put on it are there for good. You can always delete something at any time, which will also be covered later. All this means is that it is not temporary memory, like RAM (random access memory). RAM is memory that your computer uses to remember short amounts of things that it will "forget" as soon as the program is closed.

You will also see the 3 1/2 inch floppy (A:) drive listed, and a cd-rom drive, which can have any letter name. It is fairly standard that the floppy drive be named A and the Hard drive be named C. By clicking this icon, the computer will open a window with the contents of the disk that is in it.

There are a number of folders that you can openm form the My Computer window as well, but these are not needed very often.

"My Documents"

This folder is a nice place to store any of the documents that you would like easy access to, and not have to worry about not being able to find them. Remember, the computer will not forget your information, just like your house will not forget your keys. It's just you misplacing them or putting them in a hard to find location. you can save any type of file to the my documents folder, and it is a good idea to do so.



Go to part II of IV.