Tutorial: Windows 2000-98-95-NT
Dr.
Thomas E. Hicks
Computer Science
Department
Trinity University
Tutorial: Windows 2000-98-95-NT
Dr.
Thomas E. Hicks
Computer Science
Department
Trinity University
The Operating System is the a software program
that controls the event management (processing) and hardware associated
with a computer.
The operating system is the first piece of software loaded
into memory when a computer starts. It is the operating system that launches/starts
other software programs such as word processors, spreadsheets, databases,
paint programs, web browsers, etc. The operating system manages all of
the resources on the computer; it controls the mouse, the monitor, the
printer, the drives, the scanner, the modem, the joystick, etc.
On Intel/IBM compatible computers, possible operating
systems include DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0,
OS2, and Linux.
Windows 3.1 (late 80's) was Microsoft's
first attempt at a Macintosh-like Graphical User Interface (GUI);
this interface allowed (1) programs to be launched by double-clicking icons
with a mouse, (2) files to be copied by drag and drop, and (3) much easier
copy & paste. The Windows 3.1 operating system was a 16 bit operating
system.
Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows
NT (4.0), and Window 2000 are the current state-of-the-art 32 bit operating systems.
They have greatly enhanced the GUI and have proven to be both significantly
more powerful and significantly more reliable than the Windows 3.1 operating
system.
OS2 is began as a joint venture between
IBM and Microsoft. IBM finished and marketed this operating system. It
is not used extensively today. There are a few business applications still
running on this operating system.
Linux is a freely distributed UNIX
operating system for the Intel architecture. Linux has all of the utilities
to provide printer service, ftp service, network file service, web page
service, mail service, and internet service to a host of computers. The
current version of Linux is Red Hat Linux.
Most of the university and student computer systems use
Windows
95, Windows 98 or Windows NT on the Intel hardware; the
interface and functionality of these three operating systems are so similar
that users often don't notice the difference between the three.DOS is an old (early 80's) command line
operating system which requires the user to memorize and enter all commands
from a command prompt.
Most Macintosh computer uses an operating system called MacOS.
There is also a freely distributed version of Linux available for the Macintosh
computer.
The operating system on our HP workstations, our Silicon
Graphic workstations, and our Sun workstations is UNIX.
A] There are a several ways to start the notepad
text editor. Using the mouse, hold down the Start Button and select
the Run Option (See Below)
Start->
Run
B] Enter notepad and
C] Press the OK Button (See Below)
b] Using the mouse, in the save in Drive pull down at the top of the dialog box, select Floppy A... (See Below)
c] Using the keyboard, enter MyName.txt in the Save As box of the dialog window. (See Below)
The process above, if done correctly, has used the NotePad text editor to create a text file, called MyName.txt and save it on the floppy disk in drive A.
Start-> Programs-> Accessories-> NotepadUnless someone has altered the the initial windows configuration, you will also be able to launch NotePad by Using the mouse to hold down the Start Button and Selecting Programs and selecting Accessories and selecting Notepad as illustrated below.
The taskbar is located at the bottom of the screen. This bar can be hidden (auto hide); if so, move the mouse to the bottom of the screen and it will appear. The Start button is on the left; it provides a short-cut opportunity to launch applications.
Windows 95, Windows 98, & Windows NT are true muli-tasking operating systems; this means that two or more programs can run at the same time. Examination of the task bar below shows that Paint Shop Pro (graphic program) and Netscape (WWW browser) are running. Pressing the Netscape button will bring this program to the forefront. Pressing the Paint Shop Pro button will bring it to the forefront.
The time will often be displayed in the bottom right corner
of the taskbar; the form may be altered in the control panel.
As one might guess, the Graphical User Interface (GUI) of Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT is oriented around movable windows that can be opened, closed, maximized, minimized, moved, and re-sized on the desktop. The Netscape communicator window below is just one example of many windows.
Minimize Button : Push this button to minimize the Netscape window.
This closes the window, but does not stop the application. The window may
be re-opened on the desktop by pressing the Netscape button on the taskbar
(see below).
FullScreen Button : Push this toggle button to expand the Netscape
window to full screen.
Terminate
Program Button : Push this button to terminate the Netscape application.
Many application windows contain a re-size button in the bottom right corner; below is the bottom window bar of the Netscape application.
Re-size
Button : Drag this button to make the window larger or smaller.
A window can be moved around the screen by placing the
mouse in the middle of the top window bar and dragging it to the desired
location (see above).
When the information within a window can not be fully
seen, appropriate scroll bars are generally created. The window to the
left has an up/down scroll bar on the right side of the window; the view
may be shifted up and down by dragging this the right-side scroll button
up & down respectively. The window to the left has an left/right scroll
bar on the bottom of the window; the view may be shifted left and right
by dragging this the bottom scroll button left and right respectively.
<== Double-click on
My Computer
to
display disk drives
.
At this instant in time, My Computer has
Let us assume that you purchase a new Dell system with one floppy drive, one hard drive, and a CD rom drive. The floppy drive would be lettered A. The hard drive would be lettered C. The CD rom drive would be lettered D.
Let us assume that you purchase a new multimedia Gateway
system with one floppy drive, two hard drives, and a CD rom drive. The
floppy drive would be lettered A. The hard drives would be lettered C &
D. The CD rom drive would be lettered E.
<== Double Click
any drive or folder to display Files & Folders contained therein!
View Menu-> Select Options
This should be done on each and every computer that you use!
Hide the system files - the system files can be hidden because you should not mess with them until you know what you are doing; erasing, changing, and deleting system files can cause your computer to stop working!
Display full path - this will enable you to know where this folder/directory is located.
Do not hide file extensions for know types - file
extensions are important. They can tell us much about the type of file
that we are using. You need to see the extensions!
View Menu-> Select Folder Options
View->
Large IconsWithin the large icon view, you may be only able to see
a portion of the file name.
View->
Large IconsWithin the small icon view, you can generally see all of the file name.
View->
ListWithin the list view, you get multiple columns of file names and can generally see all of the file name.
View-> Detailed
Within the detailed list view, you can generally see the entire file name, the size, the type of file, the last time the file was modified, and the attributes associated with the file. The mouse may be used to expand each of the columns (if necessary).
If you are unable to see the file extension, then
View-> Options -> Select View Tab -> Uncheck[Hide
File Extensions for known file types]
File->New->Folder ..Type Business
Suppose we wish to copy the file Dr.Hicks.htm from drive D to drive A. Open both drives!
Select the file(s) and/or folers/directories that you wish to copy (DrHicks.htm on Drive D). Drag the selected items to the desired destination (floppy drive A).
Note that the operating system creates an alert window to reflect the copy!
Examination of floppy disk A immediately verifies completion of the copy!
You may select multiple items to copy with this same drag and drop process.
In order to copy files to another location on the same disk drive, it will be necessary to hold down the CTRL-key when you drag and drop!
Many files and folders contain more that 1.4 MB of data.
Since a floppy disk will only hold 1.4 MB of data, there will be times
when this process of copying data will not work. There are shareware programs
available on the internet which can be used to copy a single large file/folder
to multiple floppy disks.
<== Double-click on Network Neighborhoodto
display the network disk drives.
A browser is a software program which is used to render/show
web pages. They transform web pages (HyperText Mark-Up Language - HTML)
into attractive documents. The two major internet browsers are Netscape
(50% of the market) and Microsoft's Internet Explorer (50%
of the market). WWW is an acronym for the World Wide Web.
In an effort to take over the Internet Market, Microsoft
distributes and installs the Internet Explorer with every copy of the Windows
95/98/NT operating system. The Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator
are both free for all to use!
<==
Double-click on
Internet Explorer
Suppose that you wish to create a folder, called Personal, at the root level (top level) of floppy disk A.
Suppose that you wish to create a folder, called Business, inside the Personal folder/directory of floppy disk A. Double-click on the Personal Folder to open it! Within the Personal Window Do
File->New->Folder ..Type Business
<== Double-click on
Recycle Bin
to
open the recycle bin 
Files and folders/directories may be drug to the Recycle Bin for deletion. Selecting a file or folder/directory and pressing the delete key also transfers data to the Recycle Bin. The Recycle Bin is automatically emptied at various intervals. Files and Folders may be drug back from the Recycle Bin to one of the drives.
The Recycle Bin above has two item. It may be emptied by holding down the File Menu and selecting Empty Recycle Bin.
Double-click on
My Computerto
display disk drives.
Select A Drive [C]
File->Properties
Select General TabThe General Tab
Replace Label WIN 98 with Dr Hicks [11 Characters A-Z, 0-9, Blank]
When a drive is selected, the bottom of the window specifies both the capacity and the free space on the drive. In order to calculate the amount of space used, one must subtract the free space from the capacity. Drive D has a capacity of 958 MB. 787 MB of drive D are available; 171 MB have been used on this drive.
Use the mouse to touch anywhere inside the window but not on an icon. The bottom of the window will display the number of objects (folders, files, etc.) and amount of disk space used. There are 27 objects on drive D; the files within this directory use 851 kilobytes of disk space (this does not include files within folders!).
Within the viewable portion of the window above, there is a folder/directory called Resume. It contains a variety of old resumes. In addition to the folder, we see a web page called DrHicks.htm, a graphic called Thicks.jpg, and a Microsoft Word file called Resume.doc. The graphical look of the icon often tells us much about the type of application.
A bit (short for Binary Digit) is either
a 0 or a 1.
A byte is the amount of space necessary
to store one character (8 bits).
A kilobyte (KB) is 1,024 bytes (~1,000
bytes).
A megabyte (MB) is 1,048,576 bytes (~1,000,000
bytes).
A gigabyte (GB) is 1,073,741,824 bytes
(~1,000,000,000 bytes).
A full page of text with small margins and single spaced generally has 2,000 - 3,000 bytes of information; for the sake of discussion, let us assume that a full page is 3,000 bytes.
A 3.5" floppy disk has 1.4 MB capacity; this is enough for 1,400,000 / 3,000 = 4,666 pages of text.
In order to additional information about drives, especially the floppy
drive, select the drive in My Computer; hold down the File Menu and
select Properties.
When one or more files are selected, the bottom of the window specifies the space used by those files. The Thicks.jpg graphic above uses 34.7 KB of disk space.
The Resume.doc word processing file above uses 13.0 KB of disk space.
The mouse may be used to select more than one file. In
the illustration above, both Thicks.jpg and Resume.doc have been selected;
together they use uses 47.7 KB of disk space.
Suppose we wish to change the name of the file DrHicks.htm
(on the drive A) to be HomePage.htm.
Windows 95/98/NT allow you to create file names that are
quite descriptive; not all of the characters on long file names will appear
in the large icon view.
Select one or more files/folders. Hit the Delete Key!
An alert window pops up to provide you an opportunity to confirm or cancel the deletion; select Yes to confirm! Files deleted from the floppy disk are immediately removed. Files deleted from the hard drive are transferred temporarily into the Recycle Bin.
You may also drag Files and Folders/Directories directly
to the Recycle Bin.
Start->Find
Enter the Name
[Computer.gif]
Select Look in [Select All Drives]
Select Find Now
Suppose we are searching for a graphic image called Computer.gif.
The illustration above searches all of the local drives for a file Computer.gif.
You may specify one specific drive. You may search for a partial name match.
<== The Start Button
button
provides a short-cut opportunity to launch applications
The Start Bar is customized to include easy access to the many application programs used on this specific computer. What you see will vary from computer to computer. Although the customization of this bar exceeds the scope of this tutorial, a few hints might help.
In order to add items to the taskbar,
Start->Settings->Taskbar
In order to shut down the computer,
Start->Shut Down-> Yes
In order to launch the On-line Windows Help System,
Start->Help
In order to quickly find files that you have been recently
using
Start->Documents
In order to run many installed programs,
Start->Program .
You should always log off university lab systems. Failure
to do so may enable others to access your email, your homework assignments,
or private data.
<==
Start->Shut
Down-> Yes
You should always wait until the operating system provides
a message telling you it is ok to turn off the computer. Computers running
Windows 95/98/NT should be shut down properly; this shut down process often
updates files on the hard drive. Simply turning off the computer may force
you to completely re-install the operating system.
<== Start->Help
One of the last items to be standardized on computers is the storage of information on disks. The process of preparing a disk to receive information is called formatting. All disks must be formatted! An IBM disk is formatted differently than a Macintosh disk. A UNIX machine uses still a different format.
Hard disks and floppy disks have a top surface and a bottom surface. Information is generally stored on both surfaces. Concentric circles divide each side of the disk surface into tracks (figure a). The size and number of tracks is machine dependent; this is determined by the blend of installed hardware and software. High density floppy disks have more tracks than low density floppy disks.
Pizza style partitions further partition the disk surface into sectors (figure b). The size and number of sectors is also machine dependent.
The portion of a single track in a single sector is called a block (figure c). The size of the block is also machine dependent.
Information is generally transferred to the disk by read/write heads that physically move across the surface of the disk until the head is above the desired track (d). The time required to move the head to the right track is called the seek time. Once the read/write head moved to the right track, information may not be written to or read from the disk until the spinning disk rotates the desired block beneath the read/write head; this time is referred to as the rotational delay.
The disk operating system automatically keeps track of those blocks that contain good information and those blocks which are available for new files. A small file may be stored within a single block. A large files will span many blocks; suppose that blocks 22, 104, 18, and 37 were used to store an Inventory file. It is the disk operating systems responsibility to maintain a table that enables the user access specific files. File information is continually added, deleted, or altered; these transactions cause the files to increase and decrease in size. These transactions cause the files become fragmented (scattered across many tracks and/or sectors and/or surfaces); this is why the Inventory file above might be scattered on blocks 22, 104, 18, and 37.
If the Inventory file could be placed in contiguous blocks
on the same track, the time required to read the file, copy the file, or
update the file would be reduced. Most computers have commercial programs,
called disk optimizer, that can be purchased and run to group
file blocks for optimal access; a disk optimizer is a program which corrects
disk fragmentation. Disk optimizers are currently being included in some
operating systems.
File->Format... Select 3.5" [1.4 MB]
Select Start
Select OK [Will Erase Everything]
Select OK [Format Complete]
Select Close
