The purpose of this document is to serve as a general introdcution to the Windows 2000 environment and is targeted for the new user who needs to know Windows 2000 basics and file management. It is created with the intent that as users get a better understanding of how their computer works and can maneuver better within the Windows 2000 environment, they will accomplish their tasks more efficiently and with less frustration.
When you first boot up your Windows 2000 computer, you will be prompted for your username and password. Remember that your username and password are case sensitive. If you are on a local area network (LAN), you will need to enter a valid password for your network user account to gain access to network resources such as network printers.
You MUST shut down your Windows 2000 computer before turning off the power. To shut down your Windows 2000 computer, you select Start on the taskbar, then Shut Down. Make sure Shut down the computer is selected, then click on Yes. Your computer will ask you to "please wait" while Windows 2000 does some housekeeping. You will be told that it is okay to turn off your computer (unless you have power management enabled).
The typical Windows 2000 desktop includes the taskbar, objects for browsing local (My Computer) and networked computers (Network Neighborhood), the Recycle Bin, shortcuts for launching applications, documents, and folders.
The Taskbar is usually located on the bottom of the screen. It houses the Start button, clock, and a task button for each active program currently running and each open folder. If you place your cursor in the shaded area of the taskbar without any minimized icons, you can click and drag (see Mouse Techniques for details) the taskbar to any of the four sides of the desktop. You can also change the default settings of the Taskbar by right-clicking (see Mouse Techniques) in the shaded area of the taskbar without any minimized icons, selecting Properties and checking off the setting you want, e.g. auto hide which makes your Taskbar disappear until you move your mouse cursor over it.
You can launch most of your applications via the Start button and Start Menu. Most of your applications can be launched by selecting Start, Programs, then any program name, e.g. Microsoft Word. If an application is saved within a folder, you would launch it by selecting Start, Programs, folder name (e.g. Accessories), then program name (e.g. Paint).
You can switch between running applications by clicking on them in the Taskbar or holding down the Alt key, then depressing and releasing the Tab key. If you inadvertently launch multiple copies of the same program, you will find multiple minimized icons on the Taskbar. It's best to close duplicate copies of the same program to free up memory resources.
Some applications are automatically loaded into memory every time you start Windows 2000. You will usually find tiny icons for these applications near the lower right hand corner of the Taskbar (if your Taskbar is on the bottom of your screen). You can unload or close these applications by right clicking on the minimized icon and selecting Close or Disable.
Note: the following definitions are for a right-handed mouse. The functionality of the right and left mouse buttons may be switched via the Control Panel, Mouse.
The right mouse button is a valuable tool in Windows 2000. It's used to get more information about the selected item or to change some of the features (or Properties) of an item. For example, to find out how much hard disk space you are using and how much disk space is free, double click on My Computer, right click on the C: drive, and click on Properties.
Function
Description
Purpose
Click
One fast depression of the left mouse button
To select an item
Double-click
Two fast clicks of the left mouse button
To launch an application or perform the default action on an item
Right-click
One fast depression of the right mouse button
To display a menu of common actions for an item
No click
Point cursor at an item
To open a sub-menu
Click and drag
Hold down the left mouse button and move the cursor to another location
Select multiple items; to move a selected item to another location
Windows 2000 comes with a very good built-in help application. To access this help resource, Click on the Start button, then click on Help. You can view help topics by Content, Index, or click on the Search tab to find help on a specific question you have.
A useful search for new users to Windows 2000 is a listing of Tips for new users. To locate this, click on the Search tab on the left side of the help window. In the search field, type in the word tips and then click on the List Topics button. The search results will be displayed on the left bottom of the help window. Click on the Tips for new users result to seee a list of helpful topics for new users. This list will be displayed on the right side of the help window.
A drive is a device such as your computer's local hard drive (typically drive c:), the diskette drive (drive a: or b:), your CD-ROM drive (typically drive d: or e:) and networked drives (typically drive f: through z:).
A folder is also known as a directory. It acts similar to a filing cabinet, holding files and programs in one location. Folders are a useful tool for organizing related files in one location. The file structure of your computer is like an upside-down tree with the root being the highest level of your drive. Each drive has a root. The root contains folders or directories similar to drawers in a filing cabinet. Each folder may contain other folders or individual files. The path is the location of a file denoted by the drive, folder, and subfolders. For example, the path "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" shows that the application iexplore.exe is on the c: drive in the Program Files folder in the Internet Explorer subfolder.
A shortcut is a pointer to another object such as an application, folder, document, or printer. You can create a shortcut on the desktop or in any folder. If you delete a shortcut, you are deleting the pointer to an object, not the object itself. If you delete a shortcut to a program, the program's executable file will still remain on the hard drive. You can identify a shortcut by the arrow in the lower left corner of the icon on the desktop. If you right click on a shortcut, select Properties, then select the Shortcut tab, you can see the path that the shortcut is pointing to in the Target box.
To create a shortcut, right-click on the desktop (or in any folder). Select New, then select Shortcut. Next, click on the Browse button to see the contents of your hard drive. The grey icons beneath My Computer represent directories (folders) on your hard drive. Other icons represent programs, files, and folders. To see all files in a particular directory, click on the + (plus sign) next to the directory. In the figure below, My Computer was expanded to show the contents within the My Computer directory. Navigate to the file or application you wish to create a shortcut for. Then click on the name of the file or application once to select it, and then click on the OK button. The filepath showing the location of the file will be displayed. Click on the Next button to continue. This will bring up another window where you may change the name of the shortcut if you wish. The shortcut will now be placed on your desktop. Alternatively, you can navigate to the file/folder/application you wish to create a shortcut for. Then right-click and hold on it and drag it to your desktop. When you release the right mouse button a menu will appear. Select Create shortcut. The shortcut will then be placed on your desktop.
Formatting a 3-1/2" floppy diskette will erase all data currently on the disk. Format a diskette only if it's new, or you wish to permanently delete all data currently on the diskette. Once a diskette is formatted, you will be unable to recover any data that was previously written to it.
To format a disk, insert a floppy disk in your floppy drive. Then double-click on the My Computer icon on your desktop. Then click on the 3-1/2 Floppy (A:) icon once to select it. Then go to the File menu and select Format. Format Options: Quick format erases the files on a previously formatted disk without checking the media. Quick format is faster but it can't be used for brand new, unformatted diskettes. Windows will check for bad sectors on the diskette if you don't specify quick format.
Insert the source diskette into drive a:. Double click on the My Computer icon. Click on the 3-1/2 Floppy (A:) icon. Click on the File menu andselect Copy Disk. Make sure that the source and destination are correct, then click Start to begin the disk copy.
Windows Explorer is a file manager. To run Windows Explorer, right click on the Start button, then click on Explorer. You can also create a shortcut to "C:\Windows\explorer.exe".
The left pane of Windows Explorer shows the drives and folders. The right pane shows the folders and files in the selected folder/disk from the left pane. In the left pane, click on the plus sign to expand the folders to see all the folders within that folder. Click on the minus sign to collapse the folders. Double click on the drives or folders in the left pane to expand them (or collapse them if they are already expanded) and to switch the right pane to the selected folder.
In the left pane of Windows Explorer, click on the drive or folder in which you want the new folder created. In the right pane, right click on an open area, and select New, Folder from the menu that pops up. A new folder will then be created with "New Folder" as its default name. Enter the name you want to call the new folder, and press the Enter key.
In the right pane, click on the file you wish to copy. Right click on the selected file, and drag it to the left pane over the folder in which you want to copy the file. Release the right mouse button. Select Copy Here, Move Here, or Create Shortcut Here from the pop-up menu. If you create a copy of a file in the same folder, Windows gives the copy a default name such as "Copy of readme.doc."
In the right pane, click on the file you wish to copy. Hold down the Shift key, and click on the file at the end of the range you wish to copy. Release the Shift key. Right click on the highlighted range of file names, and drag it over to the left pane over the folder you want to copy the files to. The destination folder should become highlighted, then release the mouse button. Select Copy Here or Move Here from the pop-up menu.
To copy or move files in a non-contiguous range, do the same as above except hold down the CONTROL key, and click on each file that you wish to copy or move to the same destination.
There are several ways to rename a file, folder or shortcut. The simplest way is to Right-click on the object. Then select Rename from the pop-up menu that appears. Type in the new name of the object and then press the Enter key.
Another way to rename an object is to click once on the name of the object. A box will then appear around the hilighted object name. Type in the new name and press the Enter key.
Click on the object once to select it, and then press the Delete key on your keyboard. the object will then be moved to the Recycle Bin. The object will remain in the Recycly Bin until you manually empty it. To empty the Recycle Bin, Right-click on it and select Empty Recycle Bin. This will permanently delete the file/folder/shortcut from your computer. Note: objects deleted from a diskette are not saved in the Recycle Bin. They are permanently deleted immediately.
To retrieve a deleted file or folder from the Recycle Bin, double-click on it to open it. Find the file you wish to retrieve and drag it to your desktop (or another desired location). You can only retrieve a deleted file from the Recycle Bin if you did not empty it.
There are alternative methods for manipulating files withing Windows Explorer. For example, you can click on the C: drive, and click on File, New, Folder to create a new folder. Another example is clicking once on a file name to select it, and then clicking on File, Rename to rename a file. An alternative method for copying a file is right-clicking on the file, selecting Send to, and then clicking 3-1/2 (A:) to copy the file to a floppy diskette. You should determine which method works best for you.
Check the Taskbar for the programs that are currently running on your computer. If you load Microsoft Word more than once, there will be multiple instances of it on your Taskbar. You can bring up a minimized application by clicking on its box on the Taskbar. You should close (click on the X at the upper right) all duplicate instances of the same program to free up memory.
If your application should "hang" (keyboard or mouse does not respond), hold down the CONTROL and ALT keys, then depress and release the DELETE key. You will get a menu of the tasks currently loaded in memory. Highlight the application that hung (usually the one that is marked "not responding"), and click on End Task. You can usually unload the application gracefully without having to reboot your computer. Files deleted from your local hard drive will be saved in the Recycle Bin until you empty the Recycle Bin. To empty the Recycle Bin, right click on Recycle Bin, and select Empty Recycle Bin. If you need to recover deleted files from the Recycle Bin, right click on Recycle Bin, and select Explore. You should move the file from the Recycle Bin to another folder on the hard drive (for example, click and drag the file in Recycle Bin, Explore to the desktop). It's best to empty the Recycle Bin from time to time as deleted files saved in the Recycle Bin actually take up more hard disk space than if they were in a regular folder. But remember, once the Recycle Bin is emptied, you can NOT recover the deleted files. Also, files deleted from diskettes are not saved in the Recycle Bin.
If the document was created recently on your computer, launch the application you used to create it, and select File. Windows remembers the last 15 documents you opened.
If you remember the file name or part of the file name but not its location, click on the START button, Search, and Files or Folders. In the Look In box, select (C:) and check Include subfolders. In the Named: box, enter the file name, and click Search Now. Windows will list all instances of the file if it finds any matches. If you know part of the file name, you can enter * for wildcard, e.g. win* for all files starting with the characters "win".
In Microsoft Word, the default location to save your document is the My Documents folder. To save your document in a different folder, click on the yellow folder with the up-arrow to browse one level up, click on the yellow folder with the * to get to your Favorites folders, and click on the third yellow folder to create a new folder. The Save In: box shows the current folder.
Note: If you use Corel WordPerfect, your default folder for saving documents is My Files. You may use either folder but it's best to create a folder for each project and save your documents in their corresponding project folder.
