Basics

This section covers some very basic topics for the MSW-OS.

As always:

"Take what you like, and leave the rest."

Most of the information in this section is very basic, fundamental stuff. It is intended to be a reference, and a guide, mostly for novice users... everyone is welcome though.

Expand the "List of Topics" for this section by left-clicking on the "arrow" (triangle) in front of the title for this section... from the menu in the "left frame" of this page.

:-)

While most of this section uses various Windows OS (Operating System) versions as an example, a lot of what is here are basic "user interface" practices, which are commonly used on other OS's like: Mac OS X, and Linux.

Try and learn the "concept" behind an operation (such as navigating through a file selection list), rather than learning by rote the step-by-step process. Being given steps is a good thing in the beginning, but many basic fundamental operations duplicate themselves in other processes (such as navigating through a "File Manager" type program).

If you can successfully write down the steps that you take to do something, then you should be able to follow the steps given in "Help Documentation". We all know that "Help" written in "Geek-Speak" is not that much help... but the sooner you can learn to follow the Software or Hardware Manufacturer's instructions, the sooner you will be on your way to a more stress free computer user life.

Computers and the Internet are here to stay, and they really can be fun... if you relax, and open yourself up to it.

Hummmmmmm...

Try to not get "boxed in" by narrow thinking.

Once you understand the general idea of an operation, it is very easy to adapt to unfamiliar choices in a similar operation. Similar operations effectively do the same thing, it just may be that they are identified differently from one Software or Hardware Developer to another.

Look for the similarities in the things you do everyday on a computer. Once you learn to recognize the similarities, your "learning curve" is going to flatten dramatically.

Try to learn the Concepts first... and focus on the Steps less.

Free Your Mind ... There is No Spoon!

:-)