Copyright 1998 CH-UH Schools Revised 10/31/98 Authored by: Bob Torrelli Jim Harmon Hannah Reid. Technology Specialists, CH-UH Schools

Transcription

1 Copyright 1998 CH-UH Schools Revised 10/31/98 Authored by: Bob Torrelli Jim Harmon Hannah Reid Technology Specialists, CH-UH Schools

2 Resizing and moving the taskbar 1 Taskbar properties 2 Clear documents, add and remove programs 3 Organizing program files 4-5 Display Properties 6-7 Control Panel 8 Accessories & games 9 Paint and Multimedia 10 System Tools 11-12

3 More Windows & Computer Maintenance Taskbar Properties The taskbar and start menu are really the cornerstones of windows 95. The better you understand the details of the taskbar and how to customize it to your needs, the more productive you will work. Resizing and Moving the Taskbar 1. To resize the taskbar, just hold down on the taskbar edge using the left mouse button. When you see the pointer change to two arrows, drag the taskbar edge to the size you desire. resizing taskbar 2. To move the taskbar, just hold down on the taskbar using the left mouse button, and then drag it to the edge of the desktop that is desired. moving taskbar 1

4 Taskbar Properties Menu 1. To get to the taskbar properties menu, left click once on the start button, and slide the mouse down to settings (see figure on cascading menu). Move the mouse over to highlight taskbar and left click once on it to get the to window at the bottom of this page. cascading menu to get to taskbar properties Notice the two tabs at the top: Taskbar Options & Start Menu Programs Taskbar Options 2. The four options include always on top, auto hide, show small icons in start menu, and show clock. Notice what happens if you check or uncheck one of these four choices. 4 taskbar options 2

5 Start Menu Programs 3. Let s first look at the button that reads clear. Do you remember that the start menu has a section that keeps track of the last 15 documents that you created? Well this is the place you come to and empty the contents of documents in the start menu. What is a scenario that might prompt you to do this? Add Programs 4. You may also customize your start menu here by adding items to it. For instance, if we want to add a calendar or calculator program we could click on the add button and type in the path to the program or you could ask me about a neat trick to make this operation simpler. Remove Programs 5. To delete items from the start menu, click on the remove button, highlight the undesired program and click remove again. 3

6 Program Files Getting to & Organizing Programs in the Start Menu 1. To get to Programs, begin where just about everything happens in windows 95; the start button. This time right click on it to get the pop-up menu shown here. Right click on start button, and then left click on open. Highlight and left click on the word Open to obtain the window on the right. Finally, double left click on programs to obtain Programs window below. Left double click on Programs folder to open Program 4

7 Program Files continued 2. To organize Programs, use the file menu to create or delete folders and shortcuts, view properties or rename folders and shortcuts. You can even move files and/or folders to new or existing folders by dragging them. The more organized desktop you create, the more efficient you will work. Remember to create a new folder you must cascade a menu from new. q Is it possible to drag a file from explorer to the programs folders? A Absolutely, and it s a great & handy trick to master. Let s try it. 5

8 Display properties 1. To display Properties, begin by right clicking on an open area of the desktop. When this pop up menu appears, left click on Properties. A window will appear entitled Display Properties with four tabs. 2. The Background tab gives you two scroll windows, one choices for patterns and another for wallpaper. Each are a way to decorate your desktop, and usually people use one or the other. Notice as you make a selection in a scroll window that the selection appears in the sample monitor. 3. The Screen Saver tab enables a background program that executes only during inactivity. The screen saver either blanks your screen or displays moving text and graphics. You may even enable a password so that no one can use your computer while your away from it. 6

9 4. The Appearance tab gives you the option to change the color scheme of the windows displayed within the operating system. If you want to take the time you can change the colors of every item on the windows including dialogue boxes, borders, and title bars. However it s much easier to pick a color scheme from the list of the many choices provided. 5. The Settings tab allows you to change the amount of information displayed on the screen (referred to sometimes as resolution) or change the color palette. Monitors and video cards vary in what displays that they will support. 7

10 Control Panel The Control Panel lets you adjust and manage the way hardware devices are attached to and respond to your computer. From the My Computer window double click the control panel icon and you ll see a window like the one here. In this workshop we really don t want to go through the ins and outs of the control panel, but we will demonstrate one safe use of it so that it will not be foreign to you. Mouse Behavior 1. Double click on the mouse icon, and you ll see the mouse properties window appear. 2. The Buttons tab allows you to change your mouse from right handed to left handed or vice versa. you can also change your double click speed to tailor it to your needs. 3. The Pointers tab allows you to change the appearance of the mouse on your screen. A scrolling list of mouse shapes indicates all the kinds of cursors available when certain events take place. 4. The Motion tab allows you to adjust the speed at which your cursor moves across your screen. 5. Don t mess with the General tab! 8

11 Accessories These are useful programs (some more than others) that Microsoft included with Windows 95. In this workshop we will view Games, Multimedia, Paint, and System Tools in the accessories folder. Games The games provided by Windows 95 are not only fun and addicting for some, but they are good practice for windows basics like dragging, leftclicking, right clicking etc. To demonstrate this point let s take a few minutes to look at a couple of the games. 9

12 Paint The Paint program provides several kinds of drawing tools with which you can draw lines and geometric shapes. Paint supports color filling and outlining also. You can use Paint to edit scanned pictures or other such bitmap files. The best reason to use Paint is because it is fun. Let's explore Paint, and see how Paint helped to create the graphics for this workshop. Multimedia Windows 95 integrates multimedia into the multitasking environment. Windows 95 multimedia capabilities provide for smooth full motion video as well as sensational audio sound. CD Player - The Windows 95 application that lets you play audio CD s. Media Player - The Windows 95 application that lets you play video clips. Sound Recorder - Lets you record audio for your multimedia presentations. (needs a microphone) 10

13 System Tools Periodically, you need to run tune up programs that Windows 95 provides to keep your system running smoothly. Most of the time when a system slows down it is due to the disk drive s mechanical design. Your hard disk can experience trouble as its magnetic surface wears down, and files can get lost as a result. The tools provided by Windows 95 can prevent this problem from happening with a regular maintenance schedule. The two tools we will focus on are ScanDisk and Disk Defragmenter. These two keep your hard drive running smoothly. ScanDisk Windows 95 supplies a program named ScanDisk that checks your disk drive for problems and potential problems so that you can avoid future troubles. ScanDisk contains two levels of disk drive inspection: A standard scan and a thorough scan. The standard scan checks your disk files for errors. The thorough scan checks the files and performs a disk surface test to verify the integrity and safety of disk storage. 11

14 Disk Defragmenter As you add and delete files, the deleted space leaves empty gaps throughout the disk. Over time, your response time will slow down as add or delete files from the hard drive. This is because files are not being saved in one place, but in seperate places on your hard drive and then linked in chunks. Disk Defragmeter is a utility program that reorganizes the files on your hard drive and eliminates all the empty gaps. Let s discuss the three windows on this page to see how to run this useful utility. Figure #1 1. Left click on disk Defragmenter to get figure # Choose the drive you want to defragment and click OK. 3. A window will pop up like figure #2 and display the fragmentation of the selected drive. You can choose to start the defragmentation process if you deem it necessary, select another drive, or exit the program. If you choose to defrag the drive, a window will pop up like figure #3. Figure #2 Q - Can you run other programs while defragmenting. Figure #3 12