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Easy Computer Basics, Windows 7 Edition

by: Miller, Michael R.

Easy Computer Basics, Windows 7 Edition

by: Miller, Michael R.

ISBN 13:
9780789742278
ISBN 10:
0789742276
Edition: 1st
Format: Paperback
Copyright: 09/01/2009
Publisher: Que Pub
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Easy Computer Basics, Windows 7 Edition > ISBN13: 9780789742278

Summary

Millions of beginner-to-intermediate-level PC users will be searching for the easiest possible way to master their new Windows 7 computers - and, with Easy Computer Basics, Windows 7 Edition, you'll find exactly what you're looking for. This full-color, utterly simple, step-by-step book has been carefully crafted to provide instant access to the tasks they every novice or casual computer user needs to master.

Like all textbooks in the Easy series, it's designed to teach visually: you never have to work your way through lengthy text explanations. This easy-to-use guide teaches users the fundamentals to help them get the most from their computer hardware and software. Fully illustrated steps with simple instructions guide readers through each task, building the skills they need to perform the most common computer tasks.

Author Biography

Michael Miller is a successful and prolific author with a reputation for practical advice, technical accuracy, and an unerring empathy for the needs of his readers.

Mr. Miller has written more than 90 best-selling books over the past two decades. His books for Que include Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Computer Basics, Absolute Beginner’s Guide to eBay, How Microsoft Windows Vista Works, Speed It Up: A Non-Technical Guide to Speeding Up Slow Computers, Your First Notebook PC, and Googlepedia: The Ultimate Google Resource. He is known for his casual, easy-to-read writing style and his practical, real-world advice–as well as his ability to explain a variety of complex topics to an everyday audience.

CHAPTER 1 Understanding How Your Computer Works.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

The Parts of Your Computer System.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Getting to Know Your Computer.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Connectors.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Memory Card Reader.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Keyboard.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Touchpad.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Hard Disk Drives: Long-Term Storage.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

CD and DVD Drives.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Sound. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Video.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Printers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Scanners.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

CHAPTER 2 Setting Up and Using Your PC .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Typical Desktop PC Connections.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Setting Up a Desktop PC.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Setting Up a Notebook PC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Powering On.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Logging On to Windows 7.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Shutting Down.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Running on Batteries.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Adding New Devices to Your System.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

CHAPTER 3 Using Microsoft Windows 7.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Exploring the Windows 7 Desktop.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Using the Mouse.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Scrolling a Window.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Maximizing, Minimizing, and Closing a Window.. . . . . 32

Using Aero Snaps.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Using the Windows Start Menu.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Opening a Program.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Displaying and Peeking at the Desktop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Switching Between Programs.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Managing the Windows Taskbar.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Working with Gadgets.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Managing Drives with Computer Explorer.. . . . . . . . . . . 42

Using Menus.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Using Toolbars and Ribbons.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Managing Windows with the Control Panel.. . . . . . . . . . 45

Changing Desktop Themes.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Changing the Color Scheme.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Using a Screensaver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Personalizing the Desktop Background.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Creating a Desktop Slideshow.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Setting Up Additional Users.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Downloading Windows Live Applications.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Getting Help in Windows.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

CHAPTER 4 Working with Files and Folders.. . . . . . . . 57

Windows Explorer.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Changing the Way Files Are Displayed.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Sorting Files and Folders.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Navigating Folders.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Navigating with the Navigation Pane.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Creating a New Folder.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Renaming a File or Folder.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Copying a File or Folder.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Moving a File or Folder.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Deleting a File or Folder.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Restoring Deleted Files.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Emptying the Recycle Bin.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Working with Libraries.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Creating a New Library. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Compressing a File.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Extracting Files from a Compressed Folder.. . . . . . . . . . 74

CHAPTER 5 Using Microsoft Word.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

The Word 2007 Workspace.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Navigating Word 2007.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Creating a New Document. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Saving a Document.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Opening an Existing Document.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Entering Text.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Cutting/Copying and Pasting Text.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Formatting Text.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Formatting Paragraphs.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Applying Styles.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Checking Your Spelling.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Printing a Document.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

CHAPTER 6 Connecting to the Internet.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

How the Internet Works.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Connecting a Broadband Modem.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Setting Up a New Home Internet Connection.. . . . . . . 97

Connecting to an Internet WiFi Hotspot.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

CHAPTER 7 Browsing the Web.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Internet Explorer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Surfing the Web with Internet Explorer.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Saving Your Favorite Pages.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Returning to a Favorite Page.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Revisiting History.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Searching the Web with Google.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Finding News and Other Information Online.. . . . . . . . . 111

Shopping for Bargains at Shopping.com.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Bidding for Items on eBay.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Buying Items on craigslist.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Selling Items on craigslist.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Watching Web Videos on YouTube.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Uploading Your Own YouTube Videos.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

CHAPTER 8 Communicating Online. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Gmail.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Setting Up a Gmail Account.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Reading an Email Message.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Replying to an Email Message.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Composing a New Email Message.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Sending a File via Email.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Managing Gmail Messages.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Adding Gmail Contacts.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Downloading AOL Instant Messenger. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Instant Messaging with AOL Instant Messenger.. . 138

Adding Buddies in AOL Instant Messenger. . . . . . . . . . 139

Micro-Blogging with Twitter.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Following Other Twitter Users. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Setting Up a Facebook Account.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Managing Your Facebook Profile Page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

CHAPTER 9 Setting Up a Wireless Home Network.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

How a Wireless Network Works. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Setting Up Your Network’s Main PC.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Connecting Additional PCs to Your Wireless

Network.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Managing Your Network with the Network and

Sharing Center.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Enabling Public Folder and Printer Sharing.. . . . . . . . . . 151

Adding a Computer to a HomeGroup.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Accessing Other Computers on Your Network. . . . 155

Installing a Network Printer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Printing to a Network Printer.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

CHAPTER 10 Playing Mu sic and Movies.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Windows Media Player.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Playing a CD with Windows Media Player.. . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Ripping a CD to Your Hard Disk.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Creating a Playlist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Playing a Playlist.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Burning a Music CD.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Connecting an iPod to Your PC.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Creating iPod Playlists.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Downloading Music from the iTunes Store.. . . . . . . . . . . 175

Playing a DVD.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Creating a Home Movie DVD.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

CHAPTER 11 Working with Digital Photos.. . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Windows Photo Gallery.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Transferring Pictures from a Digital Camera.. . . . . . . 183

Transferring Pictures from a Memory Card.. . . . . . . . . 185

Scanning a Picture.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Viewing Photos with Windows Live Photo Gallery.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Cropping a Photo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Removing Red Eye.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Adjusting Brightness and Contrast.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Adjusting Color and Hue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Printing a Photo.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Ordering Prints Online.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

CHAPTER 12 Protecting Your Computer.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

How a Firewall Works. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Defending Against Computer Attacks with

Windows Firewall.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Removing Spyware with Windows Defender.. . . . . . 207

Protecting Against Computer Viruses.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Protecting Against Phishing Scams.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Reducing Email Spam. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Configuring User Account Control.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

CHAPTER 13 Taking Care of Your Computer.. . . . . . . . 215

Windows Action Center.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Backing Up Important Files.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Restoring Your Computer After a Crash.. . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Deleting Unnecessary Files.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Deleting Unused Programs.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Defragmenting Your Hard Disk.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Checking Your Hard Disk for Errors.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Managing Your Notebook’s Mobility Settings.. . . . . . 227

Keeping Your Computer in Tip-Top Shape.. . . . . . . . . . . 228

G lossary.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

TOC, 8/4/09, 9780789742278

Supplemental Materials

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