Windows XP Basics

Courseware Training Materials

Foundation / Intermediate level computer training materials for delivering training to your students, staff or clients.  A courseware site licence allows you to train an unlimited number of people, at your training center using these teaching resources

Training Course Outlines 

ANTI-VIRUS ISSUES

• Computer viruses
• How viruses infect computers
• Need for virus checkering
• Virus disinfecting a computer
• Running a virus checker
• Customized virus scans
• Updating your virus checking software

A LITTLE KNOWLEDGE GOES A LONG WAY …

• The easy way or the hard way!
• Which mouse button?
• Select, then manipulate.
• Double clicking
• "Drag and drop" moving.
• "Drag and drop" copying.
• Multiple selection techniques
• The other (right) mouse button

USING THE COMPUTER

• Starting the computer
• Shutting down the computer
• Restarting your computer
• Shutting down a non-responding application

HELP & INFORMATION

• The 'Windows XP Tour'
• Help within the Start Menu
• Searching for Help
• Viewing basic computer information at start up
• Using “System Properties”

CUSTOMIZING THE COMPUTER

• Changing the Time and Date
• Configuring the volume setting
• Customizing the desktop theme
• Customizing the Desktop background picture or color
• Customizing the screen pixel resolution
• Customizing the screen saver
• Adding a keyboard language
• Changing the default keyboard language
• Installing a software application
• Manually installing an application using the Control Panel
• Uninstalling a software application

USING ICONS

• Desktop application icons
• Desktop folder icons
• Desktop drive icons
• Desktop printer icons
• The Recycle Bin
• Disabling Auto Arrange
• Selecting a Desktop icon
• Moving a Desktop icon
• Copying a Desktop icon
• Customizing your Desktop icon alignment
• Creating a Desktop shortcut icon
• Opening a Desktop icon
• Deleting a Desktop icon

WINDOWS XP DESKTOP

• Title Bar
• Menu Bar
• The Toolbar
• The Status Bar
• The Scroll Bar
• Moving up and down within a window (using the scroll bar)
• Scrolling through a window at speed
• The Maximize, Minimize, Restore and Close buttons
• Minimizing a window
• Maximizing a window
• Restoring a maximized object to run in a window
• Restoring a window from the Task Bar
• Making a Desktop window taller or shorter
• Making a Desktop window narrower or wider
• Resizing a Desktop window in two directions at once
• Moving a window
• Closing a program using the Close button
• Closing a window using the keyboard
• Switching between programs (using the Task Bar)
• Switching between programs (using a keyboard shortcut)

FILE MANAGEMENT BASICS

• Data storage devices
• Hard Disks
• Diskettes
• CDs / DVDs
• USB flash drives
• Network Drives
• Disk storage capacity
• Drives, Folders and Files
• The Windows Explorer Window
• Displaying the contents of a particular folder
• The Windows Explorer Views
• Viewing the contents of a folder (displayed on right)
• Expanding and collapsing folder views
• Expanding and collapsing disk drive views
• Opening all folders on a disk
• Closing all the folders within the Windows Explorer
• Switching between drives
• Off-site storage for your backups
• Why do you need to backup your computer?
• Organizing your computer for more efficient backups
• Complete vs. incremental backups
• Benefits of online file storage

FILES AND FOLDERS

• File types
• Opening a file
• Creating a new folder using the Windows Explorer
• Renaming folders within the Windows Explorer
• Creating folders within folders
• Viewing file or folder details
• Viewing file properties
• Determining file type
• Starting WordPad
• Entering text into WordPad
• Saving a WordPad file
• Creating a new document within WordPad
• Opening an existing WordPad file
• Saving a file to a specific folder
• Creating a new folder in which to save your document
• Closing an editing application
• Viewing file properties
• Protecting a file against being overwritten within an application
• Sorting your Windows Explorer file listing
• File naming issues
• Renaming files or folders using the Windows Explorer
• File name extensions
• Viewing file name extensions using the Windows Explorer

FILE COMPRESSION

• File compression
• Compressing files using WinZip
• Extracting files using WinZip

MANIPULATING FILES & FOLDERS

• Selecting a file
• Selecting a continuous block of files
• Selecting multiple files which are not in a continuous block
• Copying files (the hard way) using the Windows Explorer
• Copying files (the easy way) using the Windows Explorer
• Using “Cut and Paste” to move files from one folder to another
• Copying or moving files or folders between drives
• Deleting a file or folder
• Restoring deleted files or folders
• Emptying the Recycle Bin

SEARCH TECHNIQUES

• Searching for a file, or folder, by name
• Searching for a file using wildcards instead of the full name
• Searching for a file containing a specific word or phrase
• Searching for files by file modification date
• Searching for files of a particular type
• Searching files by size
• Viewing recently used files

PRINT SCREEN

• Using the Print Screen facility
• Using the Print Screen facility to copy just the active window

PRINTER OPTIONS

• Changing the default printer
• Installing a new printer driver
• Printing from an application
• Printing to a file
• Viewing print jobs
• Controlling print jobs using the Print Manager