Your Desktop
The most common windows desktop today is Windows XP, but that is rapidly changing with the release of the Windows 7 Operating System. For now most of what we referrer to will be for Windows XP. I will cover Windows 7 in a separate lesson.
Think of your desktop as the top of any desk that you work at. You keep things on your desk that you frequently work with and you arrange them so they are easy for you to get at. Some people might keep a stapler on the right side; others might keep it on the left. It’s all up to you. Your computer desktop has icons on it that represent the things on your desk. You might also like to have picture of your spouce, children or grandchildren on your desktop.
Icons are small graphical images that can represent your computer's programs, files, folders and printers among other things.
To activate the program/file/folder that an icon represents you simply double click (two clicks in quick succession) on it with the left mouse button. This will activate the icon and either start a program or open a file/folder.
The icons on your desktop can be renamed by right clicking on them and selecting rename. They can be deleted by right clicking and selecting delete. Some icons are called shortcuts and deleting them only deletes the shortcut, not the file or folder.
Common icons you will find on your desktop
Recycle Bin
When you delete a file, Windows will place the file into the recycle bin (instead
of deleting it altogether), this allows you to restore the file in case you
deleted it by mistake. There is a way to bypass the recycle bin and perminatley
delete the file.
For example, if you deleted a file by accident you could double click on the recycle bin icon to see its contents. Inside you will see the file/folder that you deleted, to restore the file back to where you deleted it from, right click on it and then select restore from the menu that appears.
My Computer
My Documents
My Music - Links to a folder created by Windows which is used (by default) to store any music files on your hard drive.
My Pictures - Links to a folder, again created by Windows and used by default to store any pictures/images on your hard drive.
Internet Explorer
At the bottom of your desktop you will find the following:
The Windows Start button
The start button is used to open up what is called the start menu. The start
menu is used to access your programs, settings, printers and more. It is also
used to turn off your computer.
The Taskbar
The taskbar (see fig 1.1) is another important part of the Windows XP operating
system. One of its main uses is to switch between any open programs or documents.
The Clock
The clock sits on the taskbar and displays the system time. Hovering the mouse
pointer over the clock will reveal the date.
You can put so much stuff on your desktop and that it becomes hard to find things. Less is better.