Computer Proficiency License (CS-001) Lecture 10 Computer Environment 1.

Objectives
The objective of this lecture is to provide information about: How to start, turn off and restart computer? Basic windows structure and properties View computers information

2. Starting the computer

Press the power button on system unit to start the computer. The area you will see on the monitor screen, after computer a start is called desktop. It is called desktop because you can use it like the top of the desk to place the icon or shortcut to your favorite programs or soft wares. Window is software developed by Microsoft which is usually called Microsoft windows. Window has different versions like window 95, window NT, window 2000, window XP etc. Although these versions are similar to each other but every new version is better than the previous with and provides new features as well. ICON is a graphical representation of files, folders, disk drives, toolbar buttons etc. Name of the icon, file, folder etc is written just below it. The word icon came from the Greek word eikon which means image. Still religious pictures are called Eikon in Greek. In windows, these icons are links to software to open it with double click of the mouse. You can design such icons yourself as well. Taskbar is the bar at the bottom area of desktop (monitor screen). Icons of our tasks and software being used will appear here. It is called taskbar because it shows the tasks being carried out in computer. Start button reside at the left side of the task bar. At the right side of this button, quick launch bar exist. Icons reside here open their respective programs with single click. System tray exist at the right side of the task bar, which may contains some icons like antivirus programs, firewall software etc. Icons in system tray represent programs which work in background. For example an antivirus program works consistently in the background to protect your pc from viruses and only icon display here. In the same system tray, there is a clock indicating the system time. It is called system clock.

3. How to shut down the computer?

Click on start (located at the bottom left side of the task bar on monitor screen). A list of program names and commands will appear. Click on the option Shut down. A dialogue box of shut down will appear in front of desktop. Desktop will turn into gray color. In a drop down menu there, you can see the options like Log off, Restart, Shutdown, and Standby by clicking at the arrow on the right side. There are three buttons Ok, Cancel, and Help at in the dialogue box. Clicking on OK button will shutdown your PC. Old computers show shutdown message on screen that It is now safe to turn off your computer Turning off your computer during work may damage your pc and all data will be lost.

4. How to restart computer?

You may need to restart the computer. Why we restart computer?

There can be several reasons for restarting computer. Like new installation of any software can ask for restart, or computer suddenly stop working (halt). To restart your computer, click on start button at the taskbar. Click on shutdown to open the shutdown dialogue box and select restart from the dropdown menu. It will shutdown the computer and starts it again.

5. Window and its structure

Basic windows properties If you are using windows XP for the first time, you will see only one icon Recycle bin at the desktop. Right click on the start button and select properties. Choose classic start menu option. New icons will appear on the desktop. Click on My Computer icon. A new screen will open. It is called window. Title bar A bar at the top of the window is called title bar. It has 1- Current windows name 2- Buttons to restore down Maximize/Minimize and Close the window. Desktop cant be seen when any window is maximized. Icon for closed windows does not appear at the task bar. Menu bar This bar resides below the title bar. It has few words like File, Edit etc, when you click at any of these, a list/menu will open. Standard bar It contains buttons to facilitate us during work. Due to their utility, these are called standard tools. Status bar It resides at the bottom of the window. It provides some information related to that window. You will come across so many other windows while working with your computer. Every window will perform a new task for you.

12. Summary
In this lecture we learnt about the basic system properties

13. Exercise
Task 1: Look at the front panel of your system unit. There is a small button other than the power button. Find out what is the use of this button. Task 2: Click on the Start button and then choose Shut Down. Find out what is the use of the option Stand by. Task 3: Using the help feature of Windows XP, find out what is the use of Hibernate option and how to enable it on your system. Task 4: Open My Computer window and press Alt + Spacebar keys. Observe what happens. Can you see some useful change in the window