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   Windows 101: Getting Started With Windows Tips and Tricks

Windows is the GUI (graphical user interface-you deal with pictures; you don’t type commands usually) based on windows or boxes that can be resized, tiled, moved, and manipulated in many ways. The beginner has to first learn to deal with the desktop and the mouse to get around in Windows, whatever version. Also, starting to use Windows means understanding shortcuts (icons), the Start Menu, the Task Bar, and the Control Panel.
  Also the newbie has to understand the basic concept of Windows Explorer to be able to organize their data (your stuff that you put on your computer).

   Step one to using Windows is understanding mouse usage. Just looking at a mouse, you can’t miss the buttons-2 or 3-the left and right buttons.  Moving the mouse around on the desktop is not hard, but to use the buttons fully one must remember the keywords of the clicks:
   Left click is select  This means you pick something usually. If you left click an icon (the little pictures) on the desktop (the background), you can notice that the icon looks different-a bit darker-showing you have selected this icon.  . If you open your email and you left click the subject of an email, the subject is darkened, showing

you selected it. There are many applications, but still if you keep the keyword in mind, select, you will avoid confusion. There are some cases when a left click can also open.
   The double click-where you click the left button of the mouse twice at varying speeds and the keyword you should remember is open. You can use the doubleclick on icons on your desktop to open them, which would start a program, or open your documents, or open to see Windows Explorer, etc. Double clicking is not always so easy for the beginner so a person can also use left click (select) then hit the enter key and this will also open-the same function as  a doubleclick. 
   Many beginners often forget the third and very important function of the mouse which is the right click. The keyword for right click is menu.  When you right click an icon on the desktop, you will see a menu with words listed. These words would be different depending on what you click-but when you then left click one of the words, these words are mainly commands, or they do something.  An example would be if you right click the My Computer icon. You then see menu with words like Open, Explore, Properties among other words. You need to know what the words do, but there is a lot of redundancy with many menus, so this is not as difficult as it sounds. So open would be yet another way to Open and Explore would also open but the look is different. Properties will lead you to more information. Click the word Properties on My Computer icon, and you can find out what exact operating system you have (ex: Windows 98, second edition), what your processor speed is, how much memory your computer has, and much much more.  
The Mouse Pointer
  When you move the mouse, the pointer moves on the desktop. Normally the pointer is an arrow but that can change. The pointer itself can change and one needs to know what the changes mean.  The beginner first must get to know the more important cursor changes:

The usual arrow suffices for most procedures like selecting and scrolling (moving pages), opening items in Start Menu, etc.

 Then with any text, when the mouse pointer turns to an I-beam, you can left-click at that to insert any new letters or numbers.

Then, frustratingly, the mouse can turn to an hourglass meaning you have to wait until something happens like waiting for an

unresponsive or slowly responding program to open.

When used to resize a Window, you get many variations of arrows.  You can move a picture with a four-sided arrow. A Window or

 picture can be resized  proportionately with a double-arrow at the corner.

 When you browse the Web (When you Open Internet Explorer and put the mouse pointer over a link to another page, it turns to a hand),

the hand pointer is very handy. The arrow changes to a hand and this shows you that this text or image links to another page. When you click, you go to the page.

The Desktop

   Now that you know how to click and use the mouse, what do you click. To answer this, you need to take a moment to understand and study the Windows Desktop.
  Before PCs (personal computers) where used, we organized our stuff on desktops. Think of your desktop as your virtual access to what you need to open to get done what you want to get done.