Wednesday January 20, 1999

Windows 95

Windows 95 is an example of an operating system.

Recall that an operating system is a program which allows us to start (boot) the computer, provide an interface between us and the computer, coordinate access to devices, and run other programs.

Windows 95 is an operating system which has a GUI (Graphical User Interface). That is, the user may perform almost any task by using small graphical images on the screen.

These small graphical images or small graphical pictures are called icons.

These icons are an integral part of the GUI. In many instances, they allow us to use the mouse instead of the keyboard to tell the computer what to do.

There is a special portion of the screen which is called the taskbar. The taskbar is normally located at the bottom of the screen. The first item which appears in the taskbar is the Start button. Whenever we launch another program through use of the GUI a button is added to the taskbar which is associated with that application. We will talk more about the taskbar later. As the name implies, Windows 95 relies heavily on the concept of windows. Within a window there are objects. Two basic types of objects are files and folders. A file object is represented by an icon and is associated with a particular file. A folder object is represented by a folder icon, and contains other objects.

Let us look at the particular parts of a window.

The Title Bar is the bar at the top of the window. It contains the name of the document and three buttons at the right.

The first of these buttons is the minimize button. If you click once with the left mouse button on the minimize button, then the windows disappears but the button associated with it remains on the taskbar. If we wish to see the window again, then we simply left click on the button associated with the window.

The second of these buttons is the maximize/restore button. When the button acts as the maximize button, it is indicated by a solid rectangle. If you left click on the maximize button, then the window is adjusted so that it fills the available screen. At this point the maximize button turns into the restore button which is indicated by overlapping rectangles. If you left click the restore button, then the window returns to its previous size. Notice that during all of this, the button associated with the window remains in the taskbar. We may also maximize the window by double-clicking the Title Bar.

The third of these buttons is the close button. If you left click this button, then the window and the button in the taskbar associated with the window disappears.

The Menu Bar is at the upper left corner of the window below the Title Bar. Normal menu options include File, Edit, View, and Help.

If there are too many objects to be displayed in the window then scrollbars will be added to the window. Scrollbars can be either horizontal of vertical. Vertical and Horizontal scrollbars are independent, that is we can have vertical and/or horizontal scrollbars.

The Status Bar is located at the bottom of the window and indicates information about the window such as the number of objects contained in the window, and the total size taken up by objects in the window.

Changing the appearance and/or position of the window.

You are free to move the window to any position on the screen which you want. To accomplish this, simply hold the left mouse button down while pointing at the Title Bar of the window and drag the mouse to the desired position.

To change the size of the window, move the mouse pointer to one corner of the window until the mouse pointer turns into a double-sided arrow. Hold down the left mouse button and move the mouse until the window is the size you desire.

The Menu Bar

Let us examine some of the options in the Menu Bar.

Under the File option, you have several options, New, Open, Save, Save As..., etc.

Under Edit, you have options such as cut, copy, and paster.

View allows you to change how objects in the window are displayed. Notice that we can view by large icons, small icons, list, or details.

Help allows us to get help on various topics.

When you turn on the computer or log in, then you see a screen which has several icons. This is called the desktop. Let us look at the common parts of the desktop.

Desktop - a comprehensive view of computer contents/resouces.

Parts of the Desktop
- My Computer - allows us to see all objects contained in the hard drive, floppy drive, or CD-ROM drive.
- Network Neighborhood is used in situations where several machines are connected. If time permits, we will talk more about the Network Neighborhood later.
- Icons - Small pictures that represent objects. Double-clicking on an icon either open the file and its associated application or opens the folder. When the operating system is busy processing a command, an hourglass icon appears. The icons representing the drives on the system are similar but different.
- Taskbar
  - Start Button
    - Programs - contains a menu of all the executable programs on the hard drive. Some of the important programs are applications programs like Microsoft Word or Netscape Communicator, Accessory programs like Notepad, and an MS-DOS Prompt
    - Documents - contains a list of all recenlty opened documents
    - Settings - shortcut to Control Panels, Printers, and Taskbar
    - Find - allows us to search the entire hard drive or any part of the hard drive for certain files. We may use wildcards if we are not sure of the name
    - Help - contains a list of all tutorials on the hard drive, an index of all help topics, and an advanced index
    - Run - allows us to run an application just as we would at an MS-DOS Prompt.
      
      There is another way in which to run programs, and that is by using the GUI. A complete DOS filename is composed of up to 8 letters or numbers followed by a dot followed by up to three letters or numbers. Generally the characters to the left of the dot are referred to as the filename, and the characters to the right of the dot are referred to as the extension. Extensions are associated with executable programs. For instance, suppose we create a file with Notepad. That file is given the extension txt. Any file with that extension is then associated with Notepad, and if we double-click the icon associated with the file, then Notepad is run and the file is loaded. You can see what program an icon is associated with by right clicking while pointing at the icon. You can change file associations by going to the View menu in any window and choosing Options...
    - Shutdown - brings up a menu that allows us to either shut the machine down, restart the machine, restart the machine in MS-DOS mode, or close all programs and log on as a different user. The proper way to shut down a Windows 95 session in a networked environment is to close all programs and log on as a different user.
  - Buttons that represent running or open applications.
  - Allows you to switch back and forth between running applications.
  - The Active window is represented by a highlighted title bar. Notice that also we have a dimmed button on the taskbar for the window in some cases. Only one window is active at a time.
  - We can customize the taskbar can be done through the settings command on the start button.
  - We can also customize the taskbar by right clicking on an open area of the taskbar. We also get the option of Cascase Icons, Tile Horizontally, or Tile Vertically. The Cascade option allows open windows to be placed on top of each other. The tile horizontal and tile vertical make all windows visible simultaneously on the screen.
- Recycle Bin - allows you to throw away files or folders. Recall that once you throw a file in the recycle bin, it is not gone until you empty the recycle bin. When a file or folder is in the recycle bin, it can be recovered.
- When we drag and drop an icon of a file to another folder on the hard drive the file is moved to the other location on the harddrive.
- Dialog boxes - appear after we click an option containing three dots ... called ellipses. Contains several frames that are tabbed. It also contains a What's This? Button and a Close Button. The What's This? Button is symbolized by a question mark. If we click the What's This? Button and move the mouse pointer to an option in the current frame we get a rectangle that describes the option.
- Options that are dimmed means they aren't applicable.
- Screen Saver - protects the computer monitor by displaying a constantly changing image after a certain period of inactivity.
- Windows Explorer - allows us to see all files on any drive and do various things such as copy or delete. A folder with a plus sign means that the folder has additional folders that are not displayed.

Communications - need a modem and communications software to connect to a remote computer. There is a phone dialer application in Windows 95 that requires a modem be installed. Modem speed is measured in bits per second. A fast modem is the best. We can upload and download files. When we download, we leave ourselves at the risk of downloading a computer virus. We can receive e-mail. E-mail is stored on a server. We do not have to be online for someone to send us e-mail. We can retrieve our e-mail when we log onto the server.

Local Area Networks - contains a machine which acts a server or host machine. It allows us to share files and resources. We are usually required to have a password on a network system. We shouldn't choose a password which is too easy to guess. A server may contain data files or program files which can be shared among users.