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Task Sheet: Basic Computer Operations

Objective: The following task sheet will help you understand some basic computer operations which may prove useful in designing or implementing your place study.

q Task 1: Assembling Computer Hardware. Out of the box, the monitor, keyboard and mouse need to be connected to the CPU or ‘main box’. Each of these connect to unique ports on the back of the CPU, which are usually labeled accordingly. Once each of these are connected, you will need to supply power to the monitor and the CPU, using the black power cables that are supplied with these units. Please remember that all power should be supplied to computer hardware through a certified surge protector to safeguard again electrical damage. Once all of the components are connected and power is supplied, the computer is ready to be started. (**Note: All computers now ship with easy to follow, step-by-step instructions detailing how to connect all of the components that ship with it. Please refer to these instructions, if needed)

q Task 2: Starting the Computer. Once the computer is connected to all of the mentioned components, flip the switch on the surge protector to ‘on’. Most computers are made with a on/off switch on the back of the CPU and a push button on/off switch on the front of the CPU. Find the switch on the back and make sure that it is on. If this does not cause the computer to start up (you will hear the CPU fan when it starts), find the push button switch on the front and push it to supply power to the computer. Every monitor is different, but most have a push button on the front that allows you to turn it on and off.

Once all the components are powered up, you will see a series of start-up screens that signify that the Windows 98 software is booting up. Be patient and wait for the familiar desktop view to appear and the hourglass cursor to change to a pointer.

q Task 3: Locating Disk Drives. Disk drives are the storage units that house the programs your run or install and the files that you open, create and save. The most important storage device on your computer is the hard drive. This houses the programs that you run on your computer and offers long-term storage for your files. To access your hard drive (to move, view or retrieve information, for example), double click on the desktop icon, My Computer. This will open a folder that shows all of the disk drives that are connected to your computer. The primary hard drive is usually labeled C:. You will also notice that you have icons for several other drives including your floppy drive (usually A:), a CD-ROM drive (often D: or E:) and possibly a zip disk drive (often E: or F:). In the example that follows, you will be accessing information on your hard drive, though it is important to understand that the process is the same regardless of the disk drive you are accessing information from.

Double click on the hard drive, labeled C: and notice that another window opens displaying all the folders and files that are found on the hard drive. As an exercise to demonstrate that you can ‘navigate’ your hard drive, find the following file by opening each new folder designated by the ‘\’ symbol in this ‘path’:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Excel.exe

This ‘path’ refers to the route one must travel(folder you will open) to reach the destination file, in this case Excel.exe. This file is found by first opening the C: hard drive in My Computer, then the Program Files folder, and so on until you are able to locate the Excel.exe file in the Office folder. Double click on the Excel.exe file and note how this opens the Microsoft Excel program. Once you have found and opened this file, close the Excel program and all of the windows that you opened in reaching this file so that the desktop is once again visible.

q Task 4: Locating Programs and Accessories (i.e. calculator). Locate the ‘Start’ button in the lower left corner of the desktop view. The start button provides easy access to programs, documents and setting that you will commonly use. Click on the start button and move the highlighted box up to the Programs file. You will notice that a second window pops up, listing most of the programs that are installed on your computer. Notice that the Microsoft Excel icon appears in this list and, by highlighting and clicking this icon, the Excel program is again launched. This is a bit easier than following the path as described in the previous task. Close the Excel program and return to the desktop view.

Click on the start button again, moving the highlighted box up to the programs file. This time, find the Accessories file in the pop up menu and highlight it. A third pop up menu will result and you will find some very useful tools in this area, including the calculator, notepad and imaging programs that are a part of Windows 98. Take some time to explore the other programs and files that are accessed from the start button.

q Task 5: Using the ‘Find’ Command. The find command is an extremely powerful Windows 98 tool. This allows you to search your disk drives for a file if you cannot remember the path to it, or have otherwise misplaced it. You access the find feature by clicking on the start menu and highlighting ‘Find’. You will then see a pop up menu with several choices, the top-most which is “…files and folders”. Highlight this choice and click. A box will appear asking for the ‘Name’ of the file or folder you are looking for. Below that is a box that is labeled “Look in” for you to define which drives to involve in the search. For example, run a search for the file Excel.exe on drive c:, your hard drive. After you click the ‘Find it’ button, the program will return the results of your search providing you information about this file, including the path to it. Also, you can double click on the Excel.exe file to open the program right from this find box! Now you know three ways to open Microsoft Excel, or any program, for that matter. Close all programs and windows to return to the desktop view once again.

q Task 6: Restarting the Computer. It is often necessary to restart your computer allowing changes you have made to Windows 98 or other programs to take affect. If you click on the start button you will notice the ‘Shut Down’ option near the bottom of the pop up menu. When you select this and click, a box appears on your screen with a number of options. Click the button next to the ‘restart’ option and then click ‘OK’. This will restart or reboot your computer. (**Note: you must remove floppy disks from the floppy drive in order for restart)

q Task 7: Shutting down the Computer. In order to shut down the computer, click on the start menu and select ‘Shut Down’ once again. This time, select the ‘Shut Down’ option from the menu and click OK.

q Task 8: Installing the Printer and Scanner. Each printer and/or scanner brand and model has individual instructions that detail exactly how to install the hardware and accompanying software. The tasks above should provide you with the tools you need to install these hardware and software, should you need to do this. Locate the set-up instructions for the computer, printer, scanner and all other hardware devices and keep them in a single file folder for quick reference.

q Task 9: Creating Shortcuts to the Desktop. If you remember our ‘path’ analogy in Task 3 above as a means to navigate to a destination file, then the concept of a ‘shortcut’ might be a natural progression. A shortcut is an icon that allows the user to start a program without having to navigate to it by opening the folders in its path. For those programs that you often use, it makes sense to create a series of shortcuts on the desktop that would allow almost instant access to these programs. We will revisit the Microsoft Excel program in the following example as we create a shortcut to this program on our desktop.

Right click on the desktop background to bring up the pop-up menu. Select ‘new’ and then ‘shortcut’ from these menus. This brings up the shortcut creation wizard.
The wizard first asks for the pathway to the program that you are creating the shortcut for. If you know this (and we do since it is given in task 3) you can type the pathway and then click ‘Next’. However, if you do not know the pathway you will have to click on the ‘Browse’ button and open the series of folders that lead to the file you want a shortcut for.
Once you have input the pathway to the file and clicked on next, the wizard asks you to name the shortcut that is being created. It usually suggests a name, though you can change this if you prefer. Click finish when the name has been chosen and you will notice that the icon has been created.
Repeat this process to create icons on your desktop to Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Publisher. (Hint: These programs are found in the same folder as Excel)

q Task 10: Altering background image, screensaver and video settings.

The user performs these three tasks by accessing the control panel folder. Begin by clicking on the start button, moving the cursor up to the settings folder and selecting control panel. This opens a new window that provides entry to the ‘inner workings’ of the computer.

All three of these tasks are completed by accessing the display icon in the control panel.

Double click on the display icon in control panel. This will open a new window called ‘display properties’ which has a number of tabs, each of which controls a unique aspect of your computers interaction with you monitor. The information you see upon opening pertains to your computers background image.
To alter your background image, select an image from the list to preview or select the ‘browse’ option. The ‘browse’ option will allow you to find an image that is located outside of your Windows folder on your hard drive. Practice this process by taking a digital photo, saving it to your hard drive and setting it as your background image using the ‘browse’ option. When you have selected your background image of choice, click OK for the change to take affect.
Double click on the display icon to reopen the display properties window, if it is not already open. At the top of this window, click on the ‘screen saver’ tab to view your options. In this window, there is a drop-down box labeled ‘screen saver’. If you click on the down arrow to the right of this drop-down box, you will see a list of screen savers to preview and choose from. Select one and click the preview button to the right to test this screensaver. When you have found one to your liking, again select OK at the bottom of the window to see the changes take affect.
Working from the display properties window again, select the settings tab. Some very important aspects of your display are altered here including the number of colors that will be used in running your programs and displaying data and the screen size which controls your resolution. Changing these variables can have an impact on some programs that you wish to run on your computer, particularly older ones. When troubleshooting display difficulties after installing a new program, this is where you will want to begin, altering the number of colors and screen area to match recommendations for the newly installed program.
Click on the down arrow to the right of the colors drop-down box. A list of color settings are provided and can be selected for use. Similarly, the screen area can be altered by clicking on the screen area marker and dragging it to increase or decrease the area displayed. After making a new color or screen area selection, click on the apply button in order to ‘test’ the new settings. After a 10 second test, windows will ask if you would like to keep the new settings or cancel them depending upon what you saw during the test. If the new settings meet with your approval, select OK and the new settings take affect. Generally speaking, you should keep your computer set to 256 colors as it will be the most compatible with a wide range of applications. However, some graphically intensive programs may request that you change this setting. Feel free to adjust the screen area to your liking.

There are other tabs in the display settings window which were not discussed here, but may be of use. Take a few moments to click on the other tabs and see what aspect of the display they control.

Another icon of interest in the control panel folder which may prove useful would be the ‘sounds’ icon which allows you to customize and change the sounds that you hear when your computer sends alerts to the user. Feel free to open the sounds folder and alter your current settings.