Forword
It is important that that you become
acquainted and quite confident with Windows XP, which is a very comprehensive
program. And that is just the purpose with this teach yourself booklet. So welcome.
I think that most people who get
involved with Windows XP are familiar with Windows 95, 98 or Windows Me.
Therefore you are probably familar with the use of menus, tool bars, mouse etc.
So contrary to earlier booklets I chose to gloss over the basic skills. But I
still find it important to explain the thinking behind the design of a
program like Windows XP.
I will primarily cover those areas,
which I think everyone needs to know to be proficient in the use of Windows’
various tools and possibillities. Especially in the file handling area
there are still many users who lack sufficient knowledge – I can see that from
the many questions I ongoing receive from readers.
In this booklet I chose not to cover
the more technical subjects like how to set up a network and Internet. But I
dwell more on the very exciting multimedia programs Media Player and Movie
Maker, since I believe that many people will enjoy those!
The booklet is designed with a
mixture of reviews and excercises. The excercises can be made by anyone with
Windows XP on their pc, and they are (like in any of my booklets) very
important for the review. Try them and you will understand!
· Welcome to
Windows XP. You are about to start a training course in this exciting program
environment.
Chapter 1. Introduction to Windows XP
In
the first chapter I will give a brief introduction to Windows XP. I explain
briefly what an operating system is, and show you the most important elements
in the user interface.
New Windows version
Windows
XP was introduced in November 2001 with a great sales campaign. Compared with
the previous Windows Me there has also been a very extensive updating of
Windows. The main features in the new program are:
· Technologically Windows XP is based on the Windows NT and
Windows 2000 programs (and thus not on Windows 98/me). With this Windows
XP is a genuine 32 bit program.
· Windows XP replaces Windows 2000, Windows NT and Windows
98/Me.
· Windows XP has a new user interface with new buttons,
icons and windows.
· Windows XP is optimized to work with digital pictures,
sound- and video-recordings (with use of the modern pc-plugs USB and FireWire).
All
in all this is a very extensive updating – especially when compared to Windows
98/Me.
Windows is an operating system
To
learn knowing Windows XP, you must understand that it is a operating system.
This means that Windows XP is a collection of programs, which enables the
entire pc to work. Among Windows’ most important tasks I could list:
· Assist in starting the pc.
· Control and handling of all hardware, including RAM, i/o,
cards and controllers.
· Read-in of a graphics user interface with windows, menu
bars etc.
· Forms a platform for the user programs (applications)
like Word, Internet Explorer, Photoshop etc.
· handling of user data in files.
Beyond
the pure operating system tasks Windows XP includes a large collecton of
smaller and larger tools. Among others Windows XP comes with Internet Explorer
and the multimedia player Windows Media Player, which are independent user programs.
Figure
1. Windows XP is both an operating system and a program package.
Graphics user interface
Windows
XP is first of all characterized by a smart graphics user interface that you
need to get acquainted with. The user interface is built basically on the same
model we know from Windows 2000 og 98/Me, but the appearance has changed quite
a bit. There are many features that you need to know; here are some of the most
important:
The Start button, which
covers a wide range of
Menus. It is in the bottom left of the screen and gives access to all
the pc’s programs.
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See
the review on page 6ff and read how you can modify the menu on page 29.
The task bar is normally seen
near[n1]
The
task bar is the daily”cockpit”, from where you control your work. You can modify
the task bar in many ways, which I show later.
Quick start bar
Desk top. That is the large
area you see when Windows XP starts. Compared with earlier Windows editions
there are much fewer default icons on the desk top, which can be modified in
different ways (see among others pages 73ff and 81).
Figure 2. The desk top, which lies "below" all
program windows.
Hyperlinks. The Windows XP
user interface makes extensive use of hyperlinks (previously referred to
as shortcuts). Hyperlinks appear as small icons, and they can be placed in many
places on the Windows XP user interface. Hyperlinks are known from web, where
you can open various home pages by clicking on them. In the same way Windows XP
gives you very easy access to files, home pages, programs and other objects.
You will be working with hyperlinks among other places on pages 24 and 72ff.
Windows Explorer and My Computer. Windows Explorer is really
your tool to work with files, folders, programs, hyperlinks, Control panel and
much more. The starting point for work with Windows Explorer is often My
Computer. That is a system folder that shows and gives access to most of
the pc’s resources. You will work a lot with Windows Explorer in the exercises
in this booklet.
Figure
3. "This computer" is a very important folder, which opens access to
the pc’s drives, folders and files.
The control panel is the
entry to the pc’s various settings such as controlling hardware units
through the so-called drivers (as I illustrate on page 81).
Figure 4. The control panel has a new
look in Windows XP.
The
three central and well known components Windows Explorer, My Computer and the
Control panel are all substantially revised in Windows XP. There are many new
feaures added and overall a greatly improved and more flexible handling, which
can be recognized from one situation to another. That is good news!
· Chapter 2. Start Windows XP
Now
you are going to do the practical work with Windows XP. If you have not done so
already, turn on your pc now.
THE START
All
programs have to be started; Windows XP is no exception, but it happens
automatically. When you turn on power to the pc, it boots, the pc gets
ready, and the operating system and its various programs are read in.
Microsoft
has done much to optimize the start-up, so ordinarlly Windows XP willl be ready
run in 30 seconds after you turn on power. That is a substantial improvement –
especially when compared to Windows 2000 and NT, which could demonstrate a very
slow start-up.
After
start-up You usually have to click on a user name, since other users may use
the same pc (see the description on page 61). To select a user is really called
”log on”. See Figure 5.
Once
you have logged on, you will get to Windows XP itself. This picture may look
slightly different from pc to pc.
The Start button
First
we will look at the Start button, which most people are familiar with.
The
only change in Windows XP is that the button is now green and got a rounded
appearance ...
The
start button is your main entry to the pc. A single click on that opens the
Start menu, which I will describe here. You can also activate it with the
Windows key – I use that often:
Figure
6. The Windows key activates the Start menu directly.
You
can actually operate the Start button in yet other ways. Try to press
Control+Escape. Hold the Control key and press the Escape key simultaneously,
then the Start menu opens.
The Start menu
The
Start menu (Figure 7) has a rather new look in Windows XP, but the structure is
about the same as before. You find:
· A number of
hyperlinks to various programs and functions.
· An item that opens
the sub menu
All programs.
All programs.
· Two buttons in the
bottom of the menu, which can be used to change user (Log off) and to
close the computer respectively.
Figure 7. The Start menu, which opens when you press the Start
button. The menu is divided in two lists.
The left program list
In
the left half of the menu you see a list with hyperlinks to selected programs.
This list actually consists of two sections. On top are hyperlinks to important
programs (Internet and E-mail in Figure 8). Here you can add and rmove
hyperlinks. If I right click on the Internet hyperlink, I could choose
the menu item ”Delete from this list”:
Correspondingly
I can add hyperlinks to the list. That would typically be a menu item
that I find elsewhere in the menu structure, and which I want to emphasize with
a fixed position in the left program list. I select the appropriate menu item
and right click on that. Then I choose ”Attach[n2]
The
bottom section in the left program list is automatically updated with
hyperlinks to the most recently used programs. Here we are talking about programs,
which you open with the menus Start à All programs. They are automatically emphasized with a
hyperlink in the left list, when you have used them.
In
Figure 8 you see six hyperlinks (Noteblock, Paint etc.). Those are hyperlinks
that are installed in my list, beyond my control. That happened because I have
used or installed the listed programs.
I
can remove these hyperlinks from the list if I do not want to see them, but I
don’t have to worry about that. If I don’t use them, they will automatically be
replaced with hyperlinks to the programs I use:
The six hyperlinks in the bottom of the left list are
thus ”dynamic”; they change with your work. The right list in the Start menu
(see Figure 7) has 9-11 fixed
hyperlinks, which can activate a number of central Windows functions. But you
can change those also, see page 28.
All programs
The
start menu thus contains a number of hyperlinks. But the most important is
probably the access to the pc’s programs. You find that in the menu item All
programs, which can be opened by pressing letter a. You can see that by the underlining
of the first letter:
That
menu item opens access to a list of varous programs. Some of those are
installed with Windows XP, you have installed others yourself. Here is my list:
Figure 9.
The list with All programs is seen to the right.
If
you examine the list, you can find two types of menu items:
· Hyperlinks, which
give direct access to specified programs such as Windows Update, remote
support, Internet Explorer etc.
· Access to sub
menus, which are associated with specific program groups. They are recognized
by the small arrow to the far right. In Figure 9 you thus see the
program groups CloneCD, JetAdminV3.4 and Macromedia Fireworks 4.
Some
of the sub menus are installed by Windows XP. Those are Play, Start and
Accessories. The others belong to program packages that I have installed on the
pc.
Try for yourself
Some
of the menu items have a built-in help text, which activates when the mouse
cursor rests upon them. Try to place the cursor on the top item, Windows
Update. Then the help text appears in a yellow box:
Try
to find for yourself the other menu items that have help texts.
Now
look at the Accessories sub menu. It covers various small programs, which are
installed with Windows XP:
In
this menu you again find access to new sub menus (there are four of them on top
of the list), but beyond that there is access to 12 small programs:
If
you open the sub menu Entertainment, you get access to three (or possibly more)
small programs:
This
means that if you want to activate the SoundRecorder program, You need to
navigate through the following menu structure:
The
start menu à All
programs à Accessories --> Entertainment à
SoundRecorder
This
entire operation can be done with the mouse, but you can actually also use the
keyboard. Nearly all Windows programs have menus, which can be operated from
the keyboard. Try for yourself to press the following sequence:
Windows-key,
a, t, u, Enter
Then
one menu layer after another opens, and finally the SoundRecorder program (if
it is placed on top of the list). If you check while you press the letters a
and e, you will see that the letters match the first letter in Accessories and
Entertainment.
You
can probably not use the program Soundrecorder for anything just now, so close
it with menu items File --> Exit:
Test the menu structure
So
you see that there is a multi layer hieratic menu structure. Try the following
exercise for yourself, where you move around in the menu structure just using
the keyboard:
1.
Open the start menu by pressing the Windows key.
2.
Press a[n3]
3.
Press ArrowDown a couple of times until you reach the menu item games.
4.
Press ArrowRight to open the sub menu Games. There are 11 games included in
Windows XP. Use the ArrowDown key to move down though them. Read the help text
at each game[n4]
5.
After you have looked at each game, press ArrowLeft. That closes the games sub
menu. Then press ArrowDown a couple of times until you reach the menu item
accessories. Open that with ArrowRight.
6.
Press ArrowDown, ArrowDown, ArrowRight to reach the system tools submenu. Try
also here to look at each individual menu item.
7.
Now you can close the menus by pressing the Escape key four times. For each
press one menu layer closes.
Other programs
When
you install new programs, they are usually placed in the menu system All
programs. Windows XP actually tells you (with a small ”speech bubble”) when new
programs are installed:
The
menu structure in All programs is expanded as time goes by. Fortunately
you are free to change the structure; you can add and delete elements as
needed. We will get to that later in the booklet (on page 76).
Chapter 3. Save a couple of documents
Besides
the Start button the task bar is probably the most important element in
the Windows XP user interface. The task bar shows at all times which programs
are active (open).
In
this section you will see the task bar in operation; you wil open two programs:
the drawing program Paint and the small text editor Notepad. Both programs
come with Windows XP, so you just need to find them. In the meantime just
”play” with windows and try to save a couple of files. Finally you test Windows
XP in Stand by mode.
Find Paint and test it
We
start by looking at the drawing program Paint. It is a small program, which you
would enjoy knowing:
1.
Activate the Start button and open All P
2.
Now you can draw some by holding the left mouse button down and drag inside the
white work area. Choose the Brush tool and draw a couple of curleycues:
Figure
10. Paint is a small drawing program, which comes with Windows XP.
Minimize Paint
Now you have a
program running: Paint is open. You can see that in in a window on your
screen.
1.
Look in the upper right corner of the Paint window; there are three small
buttons that control the window.
2.
Click once on the left button[n5]
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3.
Paint is minimized. This means that the program disappears from the
screen.
4.
Notice the task bar in the bottom of the screen. Suddenly a button was added to
the right of the Start button:
5. The button
is named “unnamed - Paint”. It tells that the drawing is not yet saved under a
file name, and gives the name of the current program.
6.
The window with Paint was thus minimized. Click on the button in the
task bar. Then Paint appears again.
7.
Now press on the middle of the three buttons in the upper right corner:
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8.
Then the program window changes from a reduced size to fill the whole screen
(becomes maximized). Click on the same button a couple of times. Finish
by having the ”smaller” program window on the screen.
9. When a program window is not maximized, you can change its
size. Try that. Place the mouse over the lower right corner of the window,
where there us kind of a handle:
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10.When
you touch the corner, the mouse cursor changes to a double arrow. That is a
signal
that you can
drag in the window frame, to increase or decrease the window size. Try that!
|
But
you can drag in all corners and edges of the window. This window gymnastics was
available in all versions of Windows; however many pc users still do not know
and understand the system. That is a shame, since it can be very convenient to
adjust the window size when you as an example work with more than one program
open.
Figure
11. The task bar here shows four open programs each with its own button. You
recognize the active program by its highlighted button. Here Microsoft Word is
active.
Draw and save
You
have the drawing program Paint open. Now use that to make a couple of files:
1.
Finish your curleycue drawing first. Use the color selector in the bottom of
the window to change color.
2.
If you regret an action, you can press Control+z. Hold the Control key down
while you press z, then the last line, or whatever you want to regret, is
deleted.
3.
You can use the Airbrush tool to fill areas with color:
4.
When the drawing is ready, you need to save it. Select menu items File à Save As…
5.
Enter the name curleycue in the File name field, then click on the Save
button:
6.
Notice that the program automatically suggests to save the file in a program
called Pictures[n6]
7.
When the drawing is named and saved, you can read its name in the program
window title bar (in the blue field in top of the window):
The
name can be read from the program button in the taskbar.
8.
Then press Control+n, which is the keyboard shortcut to a new drawing. That
opens an empty drawing surface. Try to write youe name with a broad blue brush.
That is not easy, but try it anyawy:
9.
Save this drawing as name01. But this time choose the GIF file format:
10.
That compresses the graphics, so the file occupies less space on the hard disk.
Click yes in the following picture:
11.
Now have saved two graphics files on your hard disk. You can also see a summary
of all Paint’s tools on the home page www.mkdata.dk/wg, if
you click on the link Andet (Andet means other).
12.
Close Paint by pressing the shortcut Alt+F4. That closes all programs.
13.
Look in the Start menu. Now you surely have a hyperlink to Paint in the left
list (maybe in the bottom on your computer):
14. Open Paint again with the hyperlink. Then
minimize Paint by pressing Windows-key + letter d. That is a neat shortcut; it
minimizes all open windows!
Write in Notepad
If
you did the previous exercise, Paint is now minimized in the taskbar. Next
program you need to open is the small editor Notepad.
A text
editor is a program that can create and edit text files. Those are
files that only contain letters and other symbols and nothing else (contrary to
wordprocessing files, which include formatting with fonts and much else).
The
Notepad text editor is usable for many tasks; I will explain that later. Here
we use it to save a couple of text files
1.
Activate the Start button. Then select menu items All p
2.
You just opened Notepad. Then type the text Hello!:
3.
Select menu items Files à Save as …
4.
That opens the dialog box Save As..., which is just like what you
previously have seen in the Paint program. Here the program suggests to save
the text file in the folder My Documents, and that is quite all right
5.
Enter the file name hello and click on the Save button:
6.
Now the file is saved as a text file. This means that the file surname
(or rather its file type name) is txt.
Save again
You
need to make one more text file. This time use only the keyboard to work in
Notepad. That is a good exercise; very often it is fastest and most convenient
to activate the menus from the keyboard!
1.
Keep writing on the next line in the editor:
2.
Now you have to save the file under a new name. First press the Alt key once .
3.
That moves the cursor from the work area up to the menu bar. Nothing much
happens right now, but the work File becomes highlighted:
4.
Then press a
5.
You need to activate the item Save as… So press a
6.
The cursor is in the file name field, where ”hello” is selected. Press
ArrowRight, then the cursor jumps to the end of the file name. Add 2, so the file name appears like here:
7.
Press Enter to save the text file hello2.txt. But you now have both the
original hello.txt and the new hello2.txt on your hard disk.
8.
Leave Notepad open, but minimize the program window. Now you have two open programs,
and you see them with each their button in the taskbar:
Printing
It
is quite easy to print a document, but of course it requires that you have a
printer connected to your pc, and that it is turned on and ready with paper. I
presume that you have done that, so now print the text from before.
1.
Maximize Notepad.
2.
Then select menu items File --> Print…, or use the keyboard
shortcut Control+p; it works in all Windows programs.
3.
You will probably get the Print dialog box (Figure 12).
4.
If you have installed additonal printers, you can select between them in the
same dialog box, since each printer appears with its own icon. One of the
printers will always be the default printer. You can see that by the small
checkmark in a black circle by the icon:
5.
When you have selected a printer, juct click OK, and the printing starts.
Figure 12.The Print dialog box is used to select the
printer, number of copies, etc.
My Documents folder
You
have your work files saved on the hard disk. Those are documents and graphics
files, of which you now have four: two drawings (saved from Paint) and two text
files (saved from Notepad). But where are your files saved?
Windows
XP has a personal folder, which is intended for those documents that you
currently produce. Let us look at that.
1.
Open the Start menu, and select My Documents:
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2.
Now the file handling program Windows Explorer opens. You see the system folder
My Documents. Its content is in the right window below the menu and tool bars:
3.
There are four rather large icons: Two of them are folders (My Pictures and My
Music), the other two are the text files hello and hello2.
4.
Click once on the file hello. Then it becomes selected:
5.
Now you have different options, as you can see in the left panel (the task
window). You can rename, print or delete the file with these menu items:
So
the task window shows diferent operations that are relevant for the selected
file.
6.
Try to click on the button to the right of the text Details. Then you should
get some information about the file:
7.
Now try to double click on the My Pictures folder icon:
|
8.
That opens the folder My pictures. In that you find three icons. There are the
two drawings that you saved earlier from the program Paint, and then there is a
sub folder named Picture examples:
9.
Notice also that the task window in the left side now also offers some
additional options:
10.
You will get to look closer at the options in the Pictures folder later in the
booklet.
11.
Switch to My Documents folder that lies ”above” the Pictures folder, by
clicking on this button (the yellow folder with a green arrow):
12.
Then you are back to the two text documents.
13.
Doubleclick on the hello icon. Then the document is opened in a new Notepad
window. Can you see that you now have two cpies of Notepad open? They each have
their own button in the task bar:
Figure
13. Three open windows with each their own button in the task bar.
Switch between the windows
When
you work in Windows XP, you will often have many windows open at once. You will
have more than one program in use at one time, and it is important that you can
switch between them quickly and easily. That can be done in different ways.
1.
You now have different windows open, including two with Notepad. Try to click
first on one, then on the other Notespad button in the taskbar. In that way you
switch between the two open program windows.
2.
Try also the shortcut Alt+Tab: Hold and keep the Alt key down. Then press once
on the Tab key (still holding the Alt key down).
3.
Then you get a small menu in the center of the screen. It shows with a row of
icons the programs/windows that you have open now. The current window is
selected, and below its icon you can read the name of the program:
4.
For each press on Tab you move to the next icon. In this way you can select
between your open windows. The moment you release the Alt key, the selected
program is activated.
5.
Try that a few times. If you do not use the Alt+Tab shortcut, I strongly
recommend that you get used to it. It is by far the most convenient way to
switch between open programs.
6.
Minimize all windows with the Windows key+d – that is also a good shortcut to
remember.
Set Windows XP to Stand By
In
conclusion of this part you are going to try to set Windows XP to Stand By. The
Stand By function is one of the best improvements compare with earlier Windows
versions; it is quick and incredibly convenient.
1.
Leave all your open programs as open. Then click on the Start button and select
Turn Off Computer:
2.
Now hold the Shift key down, and select the Stand By button:
3.
You could also try to Turn Off and Restart Computer, but try Stand By now. Then
Windows gently saves informations about all your open programs. When that is
done, the pc turns off.
4.
You need to re-start the pc. But this start is very fast:
5.
The pc is ready to run in 10-15 seconds in the same state as before Turn Off,
meaning that all programs and documents that you worked worked with at Turn Off
are read in. Everything is ready to use. The stand-by function is just
excellent!
Figure
14. When you re-start after Stand By, all open programs are ready for immediate
use.
Chapter 5. My Computer
We
have in previous chapters discussed the Start menu and the taskbar, which are
designed for program execution and as such are employed in daily use. But the
pc also contains data, which can be viewed on a more hardware close level.
With that I mean drives, folders and files.
Windows
XP includes files and programs, folders and hyperlinks, drives and printers as objects.
From the operating system viewpoint they are all objects, and each object is
associated with an icon. In this chapter we will start with the system folder My
Computer, which gives access to almost all of the computers data og
programs.
Open My Computer
You
can open the system folder My Computer from the the Start menu.
The
Windows Explorer program shows the contents of the folder. Try that, and then
look at the contents of the window while you read my explanation.
Figure 24.
The contents of the My Computer folder. Notice the blue task window to the
left.
You
now have Windows Explorer open, and you see the system folder My Computer (see
Figure 24), which shows your various data sources.
You
see a number of objects, which all can contain data. Each object is represented
with an icon plus some text. If you don’t have the same display as in
Figure 24 (if your icons look different), then choose the the display ”Icons
with file information” by clicking in the tool bar on the Display button:
The
system folder My computer is divided in different sections. Let us look closer
at them. In the upper right side are the system folders My Documents – one for
each identified user. Remember that Windows XP is a multi-user system; each
user have their own document folder. If you open your personal folder, you will
find the documents that you have saved previously.
In
the folders section you see a number of sections with drives and other
data sources. First there are Harddisk drive, Units for
movable media and possibly Network drive. You will of course see the
drives that you have on your pc, and those are probably not the same as here:
Figure
25. The drives seeen in the system folder My Computer.
In
the bottom of My Computer you see those cameras and scanners, which might be
connected to your pc. Those are also data sources of sorts, and here you get
direct access to them!
Details and into the folders
If
you select one of the objects, you will get different options to look at in the
task window (the left panel).
1.
You could read a drive’s details like here:
2.
You could try to rename your harddisk drive. Select the C drive like here:
3.
Then press F2. Now the text that describes the object is selected:
4.
Now type Harddisk1 and finish with Enter. Then the drive is renamed. The
harddisk still has the drive letter C, but its descriptive name is changed.
5.
Try to open the folder My Documents by double clicking on it:
6.
In that folder you find the sub folder My Pictures - doubleclick on the icon to
get into that folder so you can move down into folders. But you can also
move up again. Click on the button with the yellow folder and the green arrow
in the toolbar:
7.
Then you move one step up in the folder hierarchy – to the folder My Documents.
8.
Select the text document hello, press F2 and rename it to hello1 like here:
Select view with small icons
When
you use My Computer (and with that Windows Explorer), you can choose between a
number of different views. There is no question in my mind that the Details
is by far the most practical, so select that now:
1.
You have the folder My Documents open. Find the button View and select Details
like here:
2.
Now you get to see folders and files in quite a different way; there are four
columns with informations about each object.
3.
You can adjust the column widths with the mouse by dragging in the border
between the column headings:
4.
The Detail view must apply to all folders. So select the menu item
Functions à Folder
settings:
5.
Click on the View tab, and click on the Apply to all folders button:
6.
Click yes in the following dialog box:
7.
Finally click OK in the dialog box Folder settings, which then closes.
8.
Then use the keyboard shortcut Control+ww to close Windows Explorer.
In
the future the contents windows in Windows Explorer will show all drives,
folders and files in a more detailed and useful layout.
More about Windows Explorer
In
Windows XP Explorer is the central program to display data. You use Windows
Explorer when you see the system folder My Computer; you use it in the control
panel and for many other tasks. Explorer is actually shaped dynamically for
the individual task. This means that both the tool bar and the left window in
explorer can change appearance according to your current task.
In
the daily work with folders and drives it is practical to choose the folder window
in stead of the task window. Try that:
1.
Open the system folder My Computer from the start menu. That opens Win-
dows
Explorer. Click in the tool bar on the button Folders:
2.
Then the contents in the left window changes to folders. Before you saw a list
of tasks associated with selected objects. That is now replaced with a tree
structure, which starts on top with desktop. Below that you see a ”tree”
with lots of ”branches”, which only show drives and folders:
3.
You had the system folder My Computer open when you switched to the folder
window layout; ThereforeMy Computer is now selected in the folder window.
4.
The idea is that you now can navigate between the different drives and folders
by using the left window. I will show you that in the following chapter.
5.
Now close Windows Explorer with Control+w.
You
could also close with Alt+F4, but the shortcut Control+w seems more convenient
to me, and it works in both My Computer, Windows Explorer and Internet
Explorer, so it pays to get used to it.
Figure 26. Windows
Explorer is the real central tool, which automatically adjusts to different
tasks. Here four windows are in use.
|
Chapter 6. Drives, files and Explorer
A
pc contains an incredible amount of data. When you work with user programs like
Word, Excel and Photoshop, you create even more data. This whole mass of data
must be maintained, and much of the work consists of file management.
Let us look at that now. Do all the exercises, they are not particularly
complicated, yet they are important for the understanding of Windows XP.
What are data?
Data
can be programs, documents or something else, but they are all saved in files.
All these files, of which there are thousands, are saved on the hard disk drive
in multiple folders.
The
folders are structures that you create and maintain with the Explorer program.
Drives
|
Whole
hard disks or parts of them (partitions), plus CD-ROMs etc. A drive
typically contains many folders.
|
Folders
|
Containers for files that you can
create yourself. A folder often contains many files.
|
Files
|
The smallest data units that we have
access to. A file can be a whole document or a part of one.
|
Figure
27. Data are saved in files, which are in folders on a drive.
On with Windows Explorer
Now
let us look closer at the computer’s folder and file contents. The file names
are actually in two parts (a first name and a suffix), but
ordinarily only the first names are shown. Now change the view, so the suffix
(or rather the file type name) is shown in Windows Explorer.
1.
Open Windows Explorer with the keyboard shortcut Windows+e.
That opens Windows Explorer directly, where the system folder My Computer is
selected in the folder window.
2.
Select menu items Tools à
folder options.
3.
Click on the View tab. In the Advanced settings you need to remove the
checkmark by ”Hide extensions for known file types” like here:
4.
Click on OK. Now the complete file names are shown for all files in all
folders. Let us see an example. Click on the C-drive in the folder window:
5.
Then you see the contents of the C-drive’s root. That is the ”top” folder
level on the hard disk. You might first get a warning not to make any changes.
Then just click on ”Show the contents of this folder”:
6.
Then click on the Windows folder in the left window. That is also a system
folder (you might have to click again on Show the contents of this folder). It
contains all the data that are in Windows XP.
7.
The Windows-folder contains a vast number of other folders and files, so on the
surface it is difficult to survey. You see the contents of the folder like this:
Figure
28. In Windows Explorer the Windows folder is selected in the left window; the
right window shows its contents (or rather a small part of it).
A folder with many files
You
have opened the folder C:\Windows with Windows Explorer. But the problem is
that it is hard to oversee what data are really in the folder.
1.
It can help a little bit to activate the status bar. Select menu items Show à Status bar like here:
2.
The Status bar is seen in the bottom of the window, and it often gives information
about the current objects.
3.
Right now it tells that there are 123 objects (plus 2 hidden):
4.
In my case (yours may be different) there are 123 folders and files in the
C:\Windows folder. Now you need to sort them according to type. You do
that by clicking with the mouse in the column heading Type like here:
5.
Then select the Summary view:
6.
Now it is easy to review the contents. Here I show an excerpt. Notice all the
folders in the right column:
Figure 29.
Three columns with incidental files and folders fom the Windows folder. Each
file is seen both with suffix and icon. Folders usually have only a first name.
Compare the icons
You
see a row of small icons. Many of them are folders, which each contain
different files, but most of them are files. In many cases there is a
connection between the files suffix and the icon, with which they are shown.
Can you see that?
1.
Try to look at the bmp-files; here are three of them. They have the same
suffix, and they all have a light blue icon:
2.
Similarily you can see the so-called ini-files. Here are four of them with the
same unambiguous icon, which is used for ini-files:
3. Find the exe-files by yourself.
They do not follow the same system, since they do not appear with the same type
icon. I have 16 exe-files, which are shown with nine different icons. How many
do you have?
More about file types
Now
you have been ”down and looking” in the Windows folder. Such a folder filled
with system files is really not particularly interesting for us users. But you
have seen that it contains a great number of file types. There are bmp-,
dll-, exe-, ini-, log- and many other file types.
You
usually do not see the file name suffixes in Windows Explorer. That is because
of the setting you made in item 4 on page 36[n9]
It
is quite a science to understand the individual file types (or formats
as they are also called).
What
are dll- and ini-files used for? You don’t need to be an expert in that subject
(at least not for now). But let me give you a few hints.
1.
You can let the mouse rest on the individual files in Windows Explorer. Then a
help text appears, which often can tell a little about the contents of the
file. Try to rest the mouse cursor on one of the log files like here:
2.
The yellow text box tells you that this is a text document. So that is a file
that contains pure text and nothing else. With that we can understand that
log-files are of the same file type as txt-files. They also have the same icon
in the summary – can you see that?
3.
These file types can be opened in the Notepad program. Try that. Find the
regopt.log file and doubleclick on it:
4.
That opens the Notepad program, and the text file is read in. That appears to
be a file that is created by Windows XP during the installation:
5.
Since the text file is opened in Notepad you can easily change the file
contents and save it, BUT DON’T DO THAT. You must not change the system files
in the Windows folder, that can destroy them.
6.
The Ini-files are also text files, which can be opened in Notepad. Try that
yourself, but be careful not to change their content.
7.
Let us see another file type, that is the bmp-files, wich are a format for
graphics files. Find the file Sæbebobler.bmp (Sæbebobler means soap bubbles),
and doubleclick on that:
8.
Now you would expect that Paint opens, but that is not the case. In stead the
graphics file is shown in a window named Windows picture and fax viewer.
9.
Windows picture and fax viewer is a small program included in Windows XP. It is
designed for viewing graphics files. Here you see the contents of the
file, which appears like a soap bubble like pattern:
10.
This pattern can be used as decoration on Windows Desktop, that is why the file
Sæbebobler.bmp is in the Windows folder. We will get to that later.
11.
Close the viewer for now with Alt+F4. In stead make a right click on the
file, and select the menu item Edit:
12.
Now the the file is opened in Paint! Here you can edit the picture as much as
you want, but don’t do that since this is a system file.
You have now seen
that Windows Explorer can be used to localize individual files on the hard
disk. And you have seen that the files each have a type, which
identifies what they can be used for.
As
mentioned before there are countless numbers of file types, and you will never
get to know them all. But – depending on which programs you work with – it is a
good idea to know the file types that you produce and use. Here are some
examples:
Type
|
Icon
|
Description
|
htm,
html |
HTML-documents. Contain typically
home pages. Can be viewed in a browser like Internet Explorer. Can be edited
in text editors like Notepad.
|
|
doc
|
Word
processing document, which is
handled in Microsoft Word.
|
xls
|
Spread sheet.
Can be opened in programs like Excel. |
|
Graphics files.
Can be opened with Windows Picture- and faxviewer, with Photoshop, Fireworks and many other graphics programs. |
||
mp3
wav wma |
Sound recordings.
Can be played with among others Windows Media Player |
|
avi
mpg wmv |
Movies (video recordings).
Can be created with programs like Movie Maker and be played with Windows Media Player. |
Now
you have dug a little into Windows Explorer and seen examples of folders and
files. We will leave this rather technical subject and now look more at
the”packing” of Windows XP.
Chapter 7. The Screen’s properties
Windows
XP gives (like the other Windows versions) the user great possibilities to make
personal adjustments of screen colors, screen saver etc.
The dialog box Display Properties
There
is one central dialog box, which is used for these adjustments, and it is
called ”Display Properties”. You can activate it in different ways, such as
selecting Control Panel --> Appearance and Themes. But there is another
method, which I often use:
1.
You need to minimize all program windows (try to use the keyboard shortcut
Windows+d), then you have only the empty desktop in front of you.
2.
Point with the mouse somewhere on the desktop, and make a right click.
3.
Then in the bottom of the menu select Properties:
4.
That opens a dialog box with five tabs, where Themes is selected (see Figure
31).
5.
Try to quickly orient yourself about the possibilities by clicking on each tab.
6. Try also to move from tab
to tab by pressing Control+Tab. See how the dialog box contents are changed for
each new tab. You shift in ”reverse” by pressimg Control+Shift+Tab – try that!
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