Welcome to the Video Professor series of Computer Learning Tapes, the nation's number
one computer trainer. We'll take you step-by-step through learning to use your computer software.
On the screen now are some other tapes available in our series. When using these tapes, we
suggest you watch them in their entirety, then go back with your computer and practice
each step. In keeping with the Video Professor's dedication to giving you the best lesson possible,
we have packed these tapes with information and sometimes move at a pace that is faster
than you will be able to follow along with as you are working with your computer. Remember,
you can always pause or rewind the tape to learn each part. Now let's get started.
And welcome to my lesson on Windows 95, the new graphical operating system from Microsoft.
Windows 95 is an operating system and a user interface for running all your computer applications.
As an operating system, Windows 95 manages all the operations of your computer system.
As a user interface, it allows you to effectively communicate with many software applications at
one time. In this lesson, you will learn how to install Windows 95 on your computer. From
there, you'll learn how to interpret the Windows 95 desktop, its screen icons and controls. You'll
also learn how to customize your system, including the screen display, sounds, and program shortcuts.
In addition to those skills, you'll learn how to use the Explorer to perform file operations such
as finding, copying, moving, and deleting files. Plus, you'll learn how to recover deleted files
using the recycle bin. We'll also look at the Windows 95 options that control your multimedia
devices. And as we're learning these skills together, we'll look at the new ways Windows
95 performs familiar Windows commands. Viewers, to effectively comprehend the subjects in this
lesson, you should have a clear understanding of how the various components of your system function
together. You should also be familiar with basic computer operations such as using a mouse and
keyboard to select options within pull-down menus and dialog boxes, as well as basic file structure
and a firm grasp of starting and exiting applications. If you need a review of these
skills, see my tape on learning Windows 3.1. Now, before we start the lesson, I'd like to
introduce my student assistant, Suzanne. Just follow along with her and you'll be using this
program in no time at all. So, let's get started. If you haven't turned on your CPU and monitor,
do so now. For those of you who have Windows 95 already installed on your system, you're ready
to go. However, if Windows 95 is not already installed on your computer, you'll need to
complete that task before continuing with this lesson. The installation procedure is pretty
simple. I'll give you a few pointers here, then I'm sure you'll want to stop the tape to complete
the installation. It may take between 30 to 60 minutes or more to complete the installation,
depending on your computer type, or if you're installing from floppy disk instead of CD-ROM.
For this lesson, I'm going to assume you have an earlier version of Windows installed on your
computer, and are now installing Windows 95 as an upgrade. The first thing we'll look at are the
system requirements. You'll need a 386 DX or higher based computer with at least four megabytes of
system RAM. A standard VGA monitor is required, along with a three and a half inch floppy disk
drive. A CD-ROM disk drive is recommended, but not essential. You also need approximately 30
megabytes of hard disk space for a minimum installation. These are minimum system requirements.
You will obviously get much better performance if you have a faster processor, like a 486,
and more onboard memory, such as eight megabytes or more. Now back to basic requirements. You'll
need a keyboard and a mouse to operate in this powerful Windows environment. Suzanne will be
using a two-button mouse in this lesson. Although a modem is not required to operate Windows 95,
you will miss some very exciting features if you do not have one. If you have a printer,
it should be connected to your computer before starting installation. We won't be printing any
documents during this lesson, but as part of the installation process, the operating system reads
the system components and installs proper drivers so they'll function correctly. A component such
as a monitor, printer, external CD-ROM player, or a scanner must be connected to the system to be
recognized and properly configured by the Windows 95 installation program. Although it isn't a
system requirement, you will need one formatted floppy disk for this lesson. Viewers, before
installing a new operating system, it is a good idea to backup all essential files on your computer,
including your current operating system. If the new operating system fails, you'll need your backups
to recover. With that said, let's install Windows 95. The existing Windows program must be open,
and its program manager window active. Close any other programs at this time to give maximum
memory to the installation routines and avoid problems with any open files. If you are running
a virus protection utility, you should also turn that off while installing this new operating system.
Windows 95 can be installed from CD-ROM or floppy disk. Installing from CD-ROM is quicker than
floppies, but either way will do the job. Now place the Windows 95 install disk number one,
or CD-ROM, in the appropriate drive. Suzanne, use your mouse to pull down the file menu on the
Windows menu bar, then click on the run option. In the file run dialog box that appears on screen,
type the drive letter for your floppy disk drive or CD-ROM drive, then type a colon and the word
setup on the command line. When you finish, press the enter key or click on the OK button to start
the installation process. The installation process is pretty automatic from here, just follow the
on-screen instructions. And if you are using floppy disks, change the installation disks as
directed by the screen prompts. The installation process includes an automatic review of your
system components. The operating system will then automatically adjust itself for optimal
performance according to the specific features of your computer system. In the course of this
review, the installation process will also scan your hard drive and advise you of any repairs
such as defragmentation that might be needed. After this system review and any necessary repairs,
you may choose from four types of installation. Typical, portable, compact, and custom. Suzanne
will use the typical installation. If you're installing to a laptop computer, you may want
to choose portable or the even smaller compact installation to save disk space. During the setup
process, screen messages will illustrate features of the new program including the start button and
taskbar, explore, plug and play devices, smoother multitasking, and email and fax programs built
into the operating system. Look at most of these new features in this lesson. At the end of this
installation procedure, Windows 95 will prompt you to remove any disk, then we'll proceed to reboot
your computer. After your computer reboots, you will see a dialog box offering a Windows Tour and
information about what's new. No doubt you'll want to review each of these on your own time. For now,
click on the close button so we can get on with the lesson. Normally at this point, I'd ask those
of you who already have Windows 95 installed to click on its application icon. However, once it's
installed, Windows 95 starts automatically whenever you turn on the computer. Remember that Windows
95 is an operating system and must therefore be running before your computer can run any other
programs. Before Windows 95, the operating system was DOS, short for Disk Operating System. All
previous versions of Windows had to operate within DOS. Now DOS runs within the Windows 95 operating
system. Suzanne, let's begin our exploration of this new environment by looking at its core, the
Windows desktop. Suzanne, when Windows 95 opens on your computer, you might notice similarities and
differences from your previous Windows screen. If you have used Windows before, you're already
familiar with the desktop metaphor. The screen is meant to resemble a desk with folders on it that
represent various tasks. Suzanne's desktop is essentially empty since she hasn't any open
windows on screen. Her desktop is very simple. It has three icons and the new taskbar. Viewers,
your screen may differ from Suzanne's due to the type of install you chose and the work that has
been done since that installation. Although Suzanne system has been used since Windows 95 was installed
on her machine, it still has the default display and system settings. We'll use these as the base
for our operations. The icons here are different from what we saw in earlier versions of Windows.
There is no program manager or any group icons. Wait a second, professor. If there's no program
manager, how do I start my programs? Those duties are now handled by the taskbar start button,
which is located at the lower left of the screen. We'll look at that in a moment, but first let's
begin our investigation of the desktop by looking at the My Computer icon. This icon represents your
computer. Double click on it, Suzanne. Within the My Computer window, we can quickly and easily see
everything on our computer. It contains information about all the system components and all the storage
locations on our computer, including the folders and files in these locations. Professor, this
window looks a little different than earlier windows. Does it work the same? You're right,
Suzanne. It does look a little different, but it functions basically the same as those earlier
windows. Let's review the parts of a window and see what's new. First of all, an application window
has six basic elements. The caption, menu and status bars, borders, an area for contents,
and at times scroll bars. The caption is the top bar of the window. In earlier versions,
this section of a window was called the title bar. It shows the name of the open window,
My Computer in this case. To the left of the title is a small computer image. This is the
control icon. Click on the icon with your left mouse button. This control menu gives the familiar
commands for changing the size of a window. Restore, move, minimize, maximize, and close.
These commands can be accessed with the mouse or the keyboard. Suzanne, press your escape key or
just click the mouse in the caption bar to close the control menu. On the right side of the window
caption are three buttons, an underline, a square, and an X. Although these symbols are new, you
should be familiar with the actions of the first two. The underline is your minimize button. Click
that button, Suzanne. The minimize command makes the window disappear but leaves the program active.
Suzanne, do you see the My Computer button on the task bar at the bottom of the screen? That shows
us that the window is still active but not currently open on the desktop. Click the My Computer button,
Suzanne. The window is reopened. Now click on the square button on the caption, Suzanne. This is the
maximize button. It enlarges your window to fill all the space available on your monitor. When the
window is maximized, that button changes to show two little squares. This is called the restore
button and a click of that button returns the window to its previous size. The last button on
the caption is the X, which is a close button. It closes the window and the program running in it.
Click on that button, Suzanne. Since the program is closed, we no longer see it listed on the task
bar below. Experienced Windows users may notice that an icon means something a little different
here than it used to. A minimized window does not show up as an icon on the desktop. It appears on
the task bar with the other active programs. Any icons that appear on the desktop represent
inactive programs available but not currently open and running on the system. Suzanne, click
with your right mouse button on My Computer. This brings up a shortcut menu. The top menu command
now is open. Click on that choice to open the window again. We can open a window by double
clicking on it or by using this shortcut menu. Now let's finish going over the caption. The
caption is a place to point when you want to drag a window to a different location. Point to the
caption, any place except on one of the buttons, Suzanne, and click and hold your mouse button.
Now drag the mouse around. As you do, notice that the window moves in the same direction as
your mouse. When you release the mouse button, the window is dropped in a new location. This
is one example of drag and drop control. We'll see another when we copy some files later in the
lesson. Besides moving the window to a new location on the desktop, we can also resize the window in
order to see more of the contents area. Suzanne, move your mouse pointer to the right edge of the
window until you see the resizing arrow. Now click and drag your mouse to the left to make this
window narrower. Now click and drag the right border to the far right side of the desktop.
There, we've made the window wider. We can use the same method to resize the window vertically.
Below the window caption is the menu bar. The pull down menus on this bar allow us to access all the
commands available to this program. They operate just as they had before. A single click will pull
down a menu, or pressing the Alt key and the underscored letter in a menu name will open
that menu. Clicking outside the menu or pressing the escape key will close it. Menus in Windows
and Windows compatible applications are standardized so you can anticipate where to look for common
types of commands. You'll always find the file menu in the leftmost menu position and help in
the rightmost position. We'll look a little closer at the menu bar in just a moment. Underneath the
menu bar is the contents area. Within this area we can see icons for disk drives and folders. These
icons allow us to access any drive, folder, or file within this window. The number and type of
icons that appear in the contents area depends on what type of application window is opened. At the
bottom of the window is the status bar. It displays helpful messages about selected menu commands and
the objects within the contents area. Right now it's telling us that there are 10 objects within
this window. Other information will show up in the status bar so remind yourself to check this space
periodically. Also on the right side of this window we have the standard window scroll bar
indicating there may be more information in this window that we can't currently see. In some windows
you will see a vertical and a horizontal scroll bar. These scroll bars work just as they did in
earlier Windows applications. Now let's see what kind of options we have on the menu bar. Open the
view menu Suzanne. This menu also has some codes that we should recognize. The last command options
has an ellipsis which means that a dialog box will open for more information. The top two commands
toolbar and status bar are check off options. A check mark next to an option indicates that option
is active. A click will remove the check mark and make that option inactive. Suzanne let's add a
toolbar to this window. Click on the option name. Now there's a new feature in the window, a row of
icons just below the menu bar. These icons compose the toolbar. Each one represents a specific command.
Although we can find these commands within the pull down menus it is much quicker to access these
command tasks with a single click of the mouse. Suzanne pull down the view menu again. Now click
on the details option. The contents area changes to give us more detailed information about each
icon. Suzanne is given detailed information about her hard drive and CD-ROM drive storage
capabilities plus other information concerning the folders that appear in this window. Suzanne
before we finish our window tour let's look a little closer at the control icon. Move your
mouse on top of the control icon and click your right mouse button. The right button opens a
different set of commands than the left mouse button. Don't click any of these commands until
I finish going over them. The first is self-explanatory. Close will close this window the
same as the X button on the caption. The second opens the file explorer which is similar to the
old file manager. Find is also a file related command used to find a file. We won't be covering
the map network drive and disconnect network drive options since Suzanne's machine isn't
connected to a network but we will see how to create a shortcut later in the lesson. The
properties command at the bottom of the list is an important command to know. Click on the
properties command Suzanne and let's find out what properties are. The first page of this dialog
box gives general information about your system including the chip model and amount of RAM. This
very useful description of your system is known as the system properties. We can see further details
by using the question mark button. Click on that button using the left mouse button. When the mouse
pointer changes shape click on the line that displays your computer type. The help box tells
us that the information we clicked on specifies your processor type and the amount of memory in
your computer. Now click the right hand tab at the top of this window labeled performance. Here are
further details about your system status and a place where you might find suggestions to improve
performance as you add components to the system. Across the bottom of this page are buttons that
will open additional dialog boxes for advanced settings such as hard drive optimization, file
sharing, and other advanced topics which we'll leave alone for now. Click cancel to close the
dialog box. The second icon on the desktop is your recycle bin Suzanne. It's a temporary holding
place for deleted files and is a very handy new feature since you can retrieve a deleted file
from the recycle bin if you decide you really need that file. Double-click the recycle bin
icon. The recycle bin is a lot like a trash can. It's a place to hold stuff you want to throw away.
Retrieving things from this trash can isn't as messy as a real one and a lot easier than
older retrieving methods. Suzanne your recycle bin is empty right now since you haven't thrown
anything away yet. As you work with a computer and delete unneeded files they will be held here in
the recycle bin. The bin is set up to hold up to 10% of your total hard drive space. Once the bin
reaches this limit it starts to empty automatically erasing the oldest files first. The recycle bin is
a real lifesaver. It holds all deleted files even if they were deleted accidentally so you can retrieve
them without using a lot of complicated retrieval procedures. You simply open this window find the
file and move it back into its regular storage location. We'll see this more clearly when we look
at the procedures for deleting moving and copying files later in this lesson. While we have two
windows open Suzanne let's recall one more point about selecting windows. The recycle bin window
is on top of the my computer window right now but you can see some of the edges of my computer
behind it. The caption on recycle is a brighter color indicating that it is the active window.
Now click on the my computer window Suzanne. See how it moves in front of recycle? This is another
example of the desktop metaphor. Windows are like pieces of paper or folders that can be shuffled
on top of each other according to which one you are working with at the time. Now click on the
desktop. Both windows captions go dim indicating that neither one is currently active even though
my computer is still on top. This suggests that the windows 95 desktop itself is an active element
in this working environment. This was not the case in the past. Right click with your pointer on the
desktop Suzanne. This pop-up menu gives us command specific to the desktop. These commands allow us
to arrange the icons in a particular order or to simply line up the icons without changing their
order of appearance. Another properties command appears at the bottom of this menu giving access
to the display properties on your system. We'll take a closer look at this option in a moment.
Let's finish exploring the desktop first. At the bottom of the screen is a new feature of
Windows 95 Suzanne, the taskbar. It has a start button on the left and a clock on the right.
It also displays buttons representing our open windows. Currently we have buttons for my computer
and for the recycle bin on the taskbar. As new windows are open on the desktop additional buttons
representing those windows are added to the taskbar. We can use these buttons to switch
between windows. Suzanne click on the my computer button. Now that window is in front of the recycle
bin window. Now use the taskbar to move the recycle bin to the front. The ability to have
multiple programs running on your system at one time is called multitasking. You had this feature
in earlier window versions however the multitasking in Windows 95 promises to be much smoother and
faster. What does this mean to you? Well it should translate into a more efficient desktop
and enable you to easily switch from one task to another. Now let's look at the start button.
Click on the start button with your left mouse button Suzanne. This menu is the workhorse of
the taskbar and Windows 95. It is used to start programs, open files, change the system configuration,
get help and shut down the computer. Let's begin our exploration of this menu by looking at one
of the most basic computer operations shutting down your computer. Suzanne click on the shutdown
command in this menu. We are given a confirmation dialog box asking are you sure you want to shut
down the computer. We are also given a variety of shutdown options. It's important to remember this
command Suzanne. Since Windows 95 is our operating system an orderly shutdown is important for
safeguarding files and programs on the system. You should not turn off the computer with Windows
95 or any other program still running. An orderly shutdown process closes active files, clears program
instructions from memory and returns any stray data elements to disk storage where you'll be
able to find them again next time. We don't really want to shut down yet Suzanne so click
no for now. Click on the start menu again to reopen it. Just above shutdown is the run command.
Click to open this dialog box. This is exactly the same as the file run command in the old program
manager. All we need to do here is type in a program's executable file then click on OK to
run that program. This is the basic operation for installing new software. In the lower right hand
corner of this dialog box is the browse button. You use it to help locate the path to a particular
file. This dialog box also has a drop-down list of the last 10 run commands used in Windows 95.
Clicking on a command line will activate that command. We have no need to run a command at
this time so click on the cancel button to close this dialog box. Once again open up the
start menu. The help command is pretty self-explanatory so we'll skip that and we'll
have a better chance to see how the find command works when we look at the explorer. So let's move
on to the next command. Highlight settings Suzanne. This command gives us access to the control panel,
printers and settings for the taskbar. Let's take a look at the taskbar controls. Click on the taskbar
option. On the taskbar options card the check mark for always on top means that no window can
cover the taskbar. Suzanne toggle this option off. As you do notice how the sample window changes
to show that a window now covers part of the taskbar. Toggle the always on top option back
on so we can always have instant access to this feature. We also have commands to auto hide the
taskbar display, make the start menu icons larger or smaller and to display the taskbar clock.
We'll leave the default settings for now. We can change these options anytime during our
Windows operations. We'll also see other options for customizing our display as we continue with
this lesson. For now click on the cancel button to close the taskbar properties dialog box Suzanne.
Open the start menu again and this time highlight documents. Another sub menu opens. Viewers this
one will be different on everyone's computer because it is a list of the most recent documents
that have been opened. If you've just loaded Windows 95 onto your computer it won't have
anything on the list yet. For those of you who do have documents listed here notice that not only
does this menu list document titles but each document has an icon on it. This icon indicates
which application was used to create that particular document. Many of you will recognize this feature
as an association between the parent program and the child document. From this menu you can click
on the document and the application that was used to create it will automatically open. For example
the first item on the list is named big window. The icon for this document indicates that it was
created in Microsoft Paint. Suzanne's list shows the 15 most recently opened documents. The size
of this list can be customized to show as many as 15 or as few as five documents. Move your mouse
up to the programs menu Suzanne. It's at the top of the list because it's the command you'll probably
use most frequently. You can use it quickly to select and start various application programs.
Move your cursor to the top of this menu. Now slowly move the mouse down to highlight some
application names. These application icons and their sub menus replace the old group windows
in application specific icons. Notice that the program folder names which also have an arrow
next to them have sub menus and some of these sub menus have folders which also have sub menus.
Suzanne move back to the top of this menu. Within this sub menu we have access to the
familiar Windows accessories such as the calculator, card file, character map, notepad,
and paint. We also have some new accessories in Windows 95. The hyper terminal command provides
connection to other PCs and online services. At the bottom of the list is wordpad. It replaces
the old write word processor. Suzanne let's take a quick look at the accessories folders. The
Microsoft fax program works just like using your printer but allows you to send and receive faxes
complete with cover pages using your favorite word processor or graphics program. The multimedia
controls allow you to play music CDs or even playback computerized movies on your computer.
You can record and playback sounds from virtually any source. Use system tools to back up your files
or to automatically defragment, compress, and even repair your hard disk. This helps keep your system
running smoothly. Slide your mouse down to highlight startup. This set is empty right now
but as you work with your system you'll put programs into this group that you want to start
automatically whenever Windows 95 opens. You can still get to the MS-DOS prompt with this next
command. Although Windows 95 replaces DOS as the operating system it will still run DOS based
programs and execute DOS commands so your investment in those programs is not lost. We'll take a closer
look at the next item Windows Explorer in just a few minutes. But before we launch any of these
programs Suzanne let's take a closer look at some of the other controls available for the system.
Windows 95 offers many different ways to look at your information and ways to do things. Even
simple tasks like closing a window. As you experiment with the program you'll form your
own preferences and employ various techniques in accomplishing different tasks. Now I want to show
you the controls for customizing your screen view and other controls. Your start menu is still open
Suzanne so move your mouse to settings. Select control panel. The icons here are fairly self
explanatory. Some resemble former Windows icons while others are brand new. Let's look first to
see what's changed in one of the familiar choices. Double click the date time icon Suzanne. Here's
another properties dialog box. They're just everywhere and this dialog box is richer in
visual information than earlier versions. If your computer clock is not up to date just use the
pull down menus and the calendar to make the correct date settings. To change the time setting
first select the time unit you need to change. Hour, minute, second or AM PM. Then click the
small up or down arrows to increase or decrease the setting to the correct time. Click apply when
you have it right. There's more. Click the time zone tab. Suzanne is in mountain time which is
seven hours different from Greenwich Mean Time. Isn't that a neat picture? Click the drop down
menu on the bar above the map Suzanne and let's check out the Greenwich baseline time zone. This
time zone includes Dublin, Edinburgh and London. This is fun to play with but back to work Suzanne.
Click the mouse on the time zone bar and drag it back over to mountain time zone and click the
checkbox for daylight savings changes as well since we have to spring forward and fall back
each year. Click OK to close the date time dialog box and save your changes. Right next to the date
time icon is the one for display. Let's do that one next Suzanne. This dialog box format is beginning
to be familiar by now. Tab card titles across the top, action buttons at the bottom. The first card
is for your background, the desktop area of your screen. The sample screen in the middle gives a
preview of the options as you review them. Patterns and wallpaper options were available in earlier
versions of Windows but you didn't have the preview sampler. Patterns are monochrome patterns that
can fill the desktop space. Wallpaper adds pictures and color options. Let's look at a wallpaper
choice Suzanne. Use the scroll bar to find diamonds then click on that wallpaper type. Notice how the
sample screen displays our selection. Try another, how about Argyle? You can have lots of fun testing
options here after the lesson. Let's move on to see what other goodies we can find. Click the screen
saver tab to look at the next card. A screen saver used to be a way to prevent burn-in on monochrome
monitors. It can still do that but now it's often used as a kind of low-level security feature. When
the screen is idle a specified period of time the screen saver kicks in and work on the screen is
hidden from other people. Click the down arrow next to the screen saver text box Suzanne. Let's
see what the options are. Click curves and colors and look at the sample image. That should hypnotize
them till you get back. The checkoff box for password protected allows you to set a password
for clearing the screen saver so it's even more secure if you leave your computer idle for a
while. And the wait setting simply tells how many minutes the screen is idle before the screen saver
comes on. The next tab is appearance Suzanne. This tab allows us to change the appearance of
our desktop windows and their elements. Click the down arrow next to the scheme text box Suzanne.
Here are some preset choices. Let's check a few of these out. Use the scroll bar to find the eggplant
color scheme then click on it. Well maybe we should try a different color. How about lilac?
Once again you can explore the options or design your own. Desktop is showing in the item text box.
Suzanne open this drop-down list so we can see what items we can modify. Each item here can be
modified independently from the others. Scroll up this list and select the active title bar. Now
whatever changes we make in this dialog box will affect only the active title bar and no other
screen element. Suzanne pull down the color list then select that bright red. That should keep you
awake. I'm sure you'll have fun with these controls but let's move along now. Click the
settings tab. This one isn't quite as much fun perhaps but still very useful. The choices here
will depend on the capabilities of your specific monitor. Suzanne click cancel to close the display
properties window. None of your settings will be saved but you can come back later to explore the
options further. One of the new icons in the control panel is the one for sound. Open that
one Suzanne. Sounds are set up to signal events as you work on your computer so the first part
of this dialog box holds a list of events that you can attach sounds to. Viewers if your system
doesn't have a sound card you won't be able to add or play sounds on your computer. For example
click asterisk. The icon indicates that this action has a sound. The name of this sound is
chord and a click of the preview button lets you hear a sample. The schemes at the bottom of this
dialog box are collections of preset sounds that you can choose from much like the color schemes
for the window display. Suzanne you can explore these options on your own time. Click on cancel
to close this window and then on the X button to close the control panel window. We're ready to do
a little exploring. One of the tasks of an operating system is to manage file storage and
retrieval tasks. This was done in the file manager in earlier versions of Windows. In Windows 95 the
Explorer handles these tasks but it works differently from the file manager despite the
initial similarities. Let's take a look. In typical Windows fashion there are several ways
to open the Explorer. We saw this item on the right button menu when we were looking at the
my computer window earlier in this lesson and also on the start programs menu. We'll use the
ladder. Click on the start button and select programs and the Explorer it should be listed
on the far bottom right of the display at the end of your application list. When the Explorer
window appears click on its maximize button. The caption tells us we are exploring the C drive and
the taskbar now has a new button with the same title. The Explorer has several view options.
We're looking at the list view and in this view each item is represented by a symbol plus its name.
Each symbol tells us something about what kind of item we're viewing. For example the icon for my
computer looks like a desktop computer and the icon for the floppy drive looks like a disk drive.
The file folder icons represent collections of files such as you might find in a filing cabinet.
Look at the top of the left window Suzanne and you'll notice something different. At the top of this
tree structure there is an icon for the desktop not the C prompt. This is followed by my computer
and under it we see icons for all the drives on Suzanne's machine including an icon representing
her CD-ROM drive. Viewers your display will differ according to the components of your
particular system. This view is more universal than we could see in earlier Windows displays.
The desktop is at the top of the tree indicating that this is the container for all your other
programs and files. All your work takes place on the desktop whether you open files from this
computer or connect to another computer through a network. The indents on this tree structure show
subsets or subdirectories. The floppy drives are indented under my computer to show that they all
fit inside the system and the file folders listed under the C drive all fit within that drive. Make
sure the C drive icon is selected Suzanne. The right side of this window displays the files and
folders of the selected icon in the left side of the window. This display technique works just like
the old file manager. The header above this window section tells us we are looking at the C drive and
the icons below the file folders are file stored at the root level of the C drive. Click the view
menu Suzanne and select details. Now the right side window shows some additional information about
each file. The details view shows the name of the file or folder, the size of each file, and what
type it is and the date and time it was last modified. With these file type descriptions we
can also begin to interpret what the different icons mean. For example Suzanne look at the auto
exec file. It has a small window icon next to it. The file type is MS-DOS batch file. A little further
down the list is another window icon for the command file and the type description is MS-DOS
application. Both of these are executable files so we can see that the window icon means a command
file of some sort. Professor didn't you say that Windows 95 is a new operating system? Why is there
an auto exec DOS file? That was the old operating system. Good eyes Suzanne. Click on the DOS folder
in the left window to see what's inside. There are some familiar old DOS commands. Windows 95 is
indeed a new complete operating system but it will still handle some older programs that were
written to run under DOS. The DOS commands listed here are used by Windows 95 and are still available
to older programs that ran in DOS. These files allow us to run any previous DOS or Windows based
application. Remember that in Windows 95 there are icons for both the computer components,
hardware, and for software, program files as well as document files. As you continue to work with
Windows 95 you can use this details view to interpret what the file icons mean. The file
detail category headers are also quick sort buttons so you can rearrange this list quickly.
Click on the size button Suzanne. Now our list of files are in ascending order according to file
size. Click again and our files are now in descending order. Click on modified and now
the list is sorted by date and time, most recent files first. Click on name to return the list to
its standard alpha sort. Let's look a little more closely at the left side of the window. A new
feature here is that the hardware components have names beginning with my computer. You can
change the names to really personalize your system if you want. C colon is the usual name
of the hard drive but if you want to label it Fort Knox it's easy to do. Click once on the hard
drive symbol Suzanne. Notice that the caption and the taskbar button titles change when you
selected a new location. Now point to the C drive again and click your right mouse button and select
properties. You can also find this command under the file menu. This dialog box gives you some
specific information about the space that's used in free space on your hard drive and it also has
a space to give the hard drive a label to personalize it. What would you like to call it Suzanne?
Oh I don't know professor, how about Rodeo? Viewers type in any name you like. The C colon
designator will always show up in parentheses so you won't get lost among cute drive names and if
your hard drive is divided into partitions you can name those partitions too. Before we leave
this dialog box let's take a look at the other card labeled tools. Here are some utilities for
routine drive maintenance, error checking, backup, and defragmentation. Each one gives a message
about the last time maintenance was done and has a button to handle the task if it's time again.
This makes it pretty easy to keep your computer in tip-top condition Suzanne. We'll skip the
actual task right now and continue our journey through the Explorer. Click OK to keep your new
disk label or click on the close button to close the dialog box without making any changes. Since
you clicked OK Suzanne notice the new label for drive C. Rodeo now appears in the exploring window.
Now let's look at another important task done in the Explorer. Ready Suzanne? Put your floppy disk
into this drive so we can copy some files to it. Viewers if your floppy disk is not already
formatted we'll need to take care of that detail first. Professor how do I format a disk in Windows
95? That used to be in the file manager. Good question Suzanne. That's another change in
Windows 95. Actually the formatting process remains the same but you find it in the my
computer window now. With your floppy disk in the appropriate drive click on the Explorer windows
restore button. Once done click on the my computer caption. Is your disk in the drive? Okay click
once on that drive icon in the my computer window just to select it but not open a window. Now open
the file menu and select format. The dialog box gives you the usual file formatting options including
a space to label the disk. Notice that the quick format option now tells you that it will simply
erase the disk. Windows 95 actually selects this command when the inserted disk is already
formatted. Suzanne your disk is already formatted and empty of any files so we'll leave it as is.
For those of you want to format or reformat your floppy disk do so now by clicking on the desired
format option then on the start button. If you don't want to format your floppy disk just click
on the close button. Before we go any further let's tidy up the screen a little. Can you find a
different way to close some windows we have open right now? Let's do the easy one first. Use the X
button on the caption bar to close the format window for the floppy drive. You can choose close
from the file menu to close the my computer window and here's one I haven't mentioned. Right
button click on the recycle bin button on the taskbar Suzanne and within the pop-up menu select
close. With that done let's take a more extensive trip on the Explorer. Now we're ready to perform
a few basic file management tasks that are managed by the Explorer. We'll start by copying
some files onto the floppy disk. Open up the start menu Suzanne select programs and select
Windows Explorer. We now have two Explorer windows open. It isn't necessary to have two of them open
to perform file tasks. However this method does allow us to see the contents of two open folders
or drives at one time. Suzanne let's rearrange these windows on the desktop. Move your mouse
to the taskbar and click the right mouse button then choose the tile horizontally option. Both
top and bottom windows give us a view of the C drive. We want to see the contents of the floppy
drive. On the left side of the bottom window click on the floppy drive where your disk is located.
That's A on your computer Suzanne. Viewers use the scroll bar if needed to find the floppy drive
that has your disk then click on it so you can see its contents. Suzanne's disk is empty so there
are no files displayed in the right side of this window. Now click on the top Explorer window and
select the Windows folder. You may need to use the scroll bar to find it. Use the right scroll bar
to bring the FAQ file into view. Everyone should have basically the same files and folders as Suzanne
since these images and routines are part of the Windows program. There it is Suzanne. This file
contains frequently asked questions. Single click on FAQ to select it. Don't double click it or
you'll open it. Now look at the status bar Suzanne. It tells us that this file is 39.5 kilobytes in
size. Your floppy disk has 1.44 megs of storage space so this file will easily fit on it. Drag
and drop copy is really easy. Just drag the file you want, the FAQ file Suzanne, then drag it to its
new location which in this case is the blank floppy disk in drive A. When you release the mouse button
a graphic will appear showing the file flying from one location to the other. If you want to move the
file rather than making a copy hold down the control key while you drag. We don't need to do
this here but I do want to show you a safety feature Suzanne. Drag the FAQ file from the C
drive to the A drive again. When you release the mouse button a warning box appears to make sure
you really intend to copy over an existing file. The last date modified is a good indication as
to which file you want to keep. Here of course they're both the same date so we don't need to
copy over the existing file. Click on no Suzanne. Drag and drop copies are very easy but as usual
in Windows we have several ways to copy or move files. Scroll up and click the right mouse button
on the desktop GRP file located within the Windows folder. Once that file is in view click using your
right mouse button on that file name and within the pop-up menu click on the send to command. Once
the send to dialog box appears on screen simply click on the appropriate drive letter for your
floppy drive. Isn't that easy? We don't need to have two windows open to use the send to command
or to click and drag a file from one directory to another. However it does help us to see the
contents of the destination location. Let's remove the second Explorer window. First pull
down the file menu and select the close option. Once done click the right mouse button on the
exploring taskbar button and choose maximize. Now that we know how to copy files let's create one
of Windows 95's most important organizational tools the folder. As you can see in this window
file folders are the containers that hold groups of files. Let's make our own folder Suzanne then
copy the two files on our floppy drive to it. First click on the C drive icon within this window.
Now pull down the file menu and select new and folder and there's our new folder the title is
highlighted. Now let's rename it something other than new folder. You may have noticed that some
of the file folders have names longer than the old DOS limitation of eight characters. Count them
Suzanne even the default folder title new folder is more than eight characters and it has spaces
as well. Let's call this folder my own stuff. Type that in Suzanne. We can now use file names
and folder names that are long enough to be informative up to 255 characters if you want. Behind
the scenes Windows 95 handles the translation to the shorter less informative eight character files
that are compatible with earlier programs. Now how do you suppose you might put the two files into
the folder Suzanne? Well I'll just drag them to the folder professor. That's all you have to do
Suzanne but let me show you a little shortcut for moving several files at once. First click on the
A drive then click on the desktop file. Now hold the shift key down and click the FAQ file. With
both files selected drag either icon to the folder so both files are copied at once. Good now click
on the my stuff folder so we can see its contents. See how the folder opens? Its contents are displayed
in the right window to reveal the two files we just copied. Moving files between disk like we did
between the hard drive and your floppy disk is pretty much the same kind of drag-and-drop operation
as in earlier versions of Windows Suzanne. The procedure is the same for document files but
there's a new twist for program or command files. This leads us to a new feature called shortcuts.
Let's see how we can use these to cut through our forest of files. When you make a copy of
an executable file that's a program or command file Suzanne within the same disk you get a
shortcut instead of a copy. A shortcut in Windows 95 is simply an alias or a pointer to the original
file location. The pointer is stored in the new location but points to the program files original
hard disk location. The pointer takes much less space than an entire copy of the program so the
shortcut saves disk space. Shortcuts can give you quick access to a program you use frequently
without searching through lots of folders or sub menus. Let's make one Suzanne. Let's create
a shortcut within my own folder to give us quick access to the Solitaire game. There are several
ways to make shortcuts. One way to create a shortcut is to put a folder on the desktop.
Our desktop is covered up right now by the Explorer window so let's click the right mouse
button on the exploring taskbar button and click on restore. Now right click on my own stuff folder
and drag it down onto the desktop. Release your mouse button and look at the choices on this menu.
You can move the file, copy the file, or create a shortcut. Click on create shortcut. Now you
have a shortcut copy of your folder on the desktop and the original file still in its hard drive
location. The little bent arrow in the corner of the file folder icon indicates a shortcut.
Shortcut to my own stuff is a very long file name Suzanne. Perhaps you'd like something a
little shorter. Right click on the shortcut folder and select rename down near the bottom of the
menu. What would you like to call it? How about your name? The blue highlight indicates that the
text is already selected so just start typing to make the change. That was pretty easy wasn't it?
You could rename the shortcut or the folder it accesses anytime you want. Having your own
personal folder comes in handy for many uses such as accessing your favorite word processor,
utility programs, or work files. Of course you'll want to be judicious about putting too many
shortcuts on the desktop. Having a lot of icons on your desktop kind of defeats its purpose don't
you think? Now let's use the explorer to search for an executable or an existing shortcut for the
solitaire game. Pull down the tools menu and move through find to select files or folders Suzanne.
Click the advanced tab and be sure that the of type selection is all files and folders. Viewers
use the pull down arrow to change your selection if necessary. Now click on the name and location
tab then click in the named block and type soli asterisk. As in DOS the asterisk is a wildcard
character that will select any characters rather than requiring an exact match. The look in block
should show your hard drive. Viewers use the pull down arrow to change the selection if necessary.
I think we're ready Suzanne. Click the find now button. The little magnifying glass moves
around while the system is searching. Well that's pretty fast. The bottom of the find
window tells us that solitaire is somewhere on the start button and that that file is itself
a shortcut. Well now we've found it. Let's make another shortcut in your folder. If the
find window is covering your desktop folder click on its caption and drag the window out of the way.
That's it. Now right click on the solitaire icon in the find window and drag it up until
your desktop folder Suzanne. Release the button and select create shortcut here. You can close
the find window now just click the X and double click on your folder and there are your files
including a shortcut for the solitaire game. If you double click on the solitaire shortcut
icon the solitaire game will open and if you open solitaire close it using the game menus exit
command. Notice that the window caption is the name of your actual folder my own stuff even though
the shortcut icon on the desktop is named Suzanne. Now before you start playing solitaire Suzanne
let's tidy things up a bit. I don't think you really need the desktop or FAQ files in your
folder. Let's throw them away. Click on the desktop icon Suzanne. Open the file menu and
select delete. The confirm file delete dialog box gives one chance to change your mind. Are you
sure? Click yes and there it goes. Did you remember that deleted files go to the recycle bin?
Let's take a look. Move your exploring window out of the way so you can see your recycle bin.
Notice that the recycle bin has some paper sticking out of the top. This tells us that
there are files in the recycle bin. Double click the recycle bin icon Suzanne. There you are the
desktop file is still listed. Viewers you may have other files listed if your computer has
been used before this lesson. Remember the bin holds all deleted files until it gets full then
removes the oldest ones first. If you need to free up some disk base you can empty the recycle bin.
Click the file menu Suzanne. The empty recycle bin command is right on top. Don't use it now
but that's where you find it when you need it. Click close Suzanne to close the recycle bin
window. You can also put files directly into the recycle bin by dragging them just like we did when
we were copying. Do that with the FAQ file Suzanne. Just drag it from your desktop window
over to the recycle bin. Nice work Suzanne. You've seen how to use the Explorer for several kinds of
file operations and you have your own desktop folder to store shortcuts for your favorite
programs. Time to move on I think. Go ahead and close the desktop window. We're ready to look at
controlling multimedia. Multimedia is hot news in computing these days. It refers to the combination
of several different mediums for presenting information. We have the standard text and
graphics plus moving videos and sounds as well. This creates a richer informational environment
where we can use more of our sensors to understand what's going on. Windows 95 has collected controls
for multimedia devices under one icon. Let's check them out. Suzanne we control our multimedia
settings using the options within the control panel. We could exit out of the Explorer and
open up the control panel through the start menu but why waste time? Let's just open up from here.
First maximize the Explorer window. Then scroll down the left side window if you need to until
you can see the control panel folder. Once it is in view click on it. The right hand window now
shows the icons for various components of your computer. We've seen this window before when we
opened it from the start menu settings command. This time we'll explore some additional settings
that relate to new Windows multimedia features. Click the multimedia icon Suzanne. Wow professor
I don't know very much about this multimedia stuff. What do I do with all these settings? I don't
think this lesson is the place to start explaining the details of multimedia Suzanne so for now let's
just examine the tab cards to get a feel for what's included in multimedia. The first card
is for audio controls and even without a lot of technical knowledge you can see that the options
include volume controls and device selections. This is where you can set the volume for your
computer speakers and also for a microphone if you have one connected to your system. The second
tab is video. Click there Suzanne. This controls how video clips will appear in the computer screen.
Click the pull down arrow Suzanne in the show video in menu and select double original size.
The sample view shows you how the change will appear on your screen. Suzanne's view looks a
little ragged because your screen resolution isn't fine enough to smooth out the edges of
the image. Remember that this is not a multimedia authoring program. These just control how
multimedia programs will run in Windows 95. Click the next tab Suzanne. MIDI stands for musical
instrument digital interface. These are instruments like electronic keyboards that work through the
computer. Suzanne's MIDI scheme and configuration commands aren't highlighted because she doesn't
have any MIDI devices connected to her system but we can see once again that these controls manage
the output through the computer. The next tab is CD music. Click that Suzanne. Again this controls
the volume but notice the slider bar for headphones. Yes if you have a jack you can play your music CDs
on the computer and listen with headphones. Click on the final tab advanced Suzanne. This opens a
list of device drivers for additional multimedia devices that might be added to your computer. The
drivers are programs that translate computer commands for the specific characteristics of each
device and interpret input from that device back to the computer. It's a whole new world Suzanne and
lots of new things to learn. This list gives you an idea of the range of devices included in
multimedia and this is the place to start with the controls for your computer. Click cancel to close
this window. Well we've learned a lot about Windows 95 Suzanne. I hope you'll learn more from me the
video professor in future lessons and thanks and we'll see you next time. Happy computing.