Welcome to WinStrux Learn, Windows 95 getting started,
the easiest way to learn Windows 95.
Hi, I'm Anne Christensen,
and it's my pleasure to help you explore and understand
the many new features and capabilities of Windows 95.
With me today are the software guys from WinStrux,
Keith White and Tom Jaffe.
Keith and Tom are former Microsoft Windows product managers.
Combined, they spent 12 years at Microsoft marketing
Windows 3.0, Windows 3.1,
Windows 4 work groups, and Windows 95.
They've traveled the world teaching Windows to
the Microsoft sales force and to
over 100,000 Microsoft customers of all skill levels.
Hey, they taught me.
Today, Keith is working with Windows 95 out of the office,
and Tom is using Windows 95 at home.
We'll hear from both of them as we take you through
Learn Windows 95 getting started.
Now, this videotape is organized into
10 modules that correspond to the 10 chapters in
the quick reference booklet included with your video.
You can watch the entire tape in one sitting,
or you can stop after any of
the modules and follow the simple steps in
your booklet to reinforce what you've learned.
Now, each module in the booklet is color-coded.
The beginning of each module on this tape is also color-coded,
so you can quickly fast forward through
the tape to find the topic that you want to review.
Okay. Are you ready? Let's get started.
Okay, guys. I see a lot of
new icons and buttons in the Windows 95 user interface.
Can you tell me what these things do?
Sure, Anne. At the top of the screen,
you're going to see an icon labeled My Computer.
Now, when you double-click on it,
it opens to show you all the disk drives on your system.
With My Computer, you can browse and start
files that may be located on a floppy disk,
a hard drive, or a CD-ROM drive.
Now, if you're also connected to
any other computers on a network,
they're going to appear in My Computer as well.
Next, you'll see the network neighborhood.
The network neighborhood allows you to locate and
connect to other computers and printers on your network.
You'll see this icon only if
your PC is connected to a local area network.
So don't worry if you don't see
this network neighborhood icon on your PC.
Now, the next thing you'll see is the inbox.
This is Microsoft's combination
electronic mail and fax program.
Now, Microsoft Exchange,
which is the email piece of it,
lets you send and receive email from
all different types of sources
including CompuServe or the Internet.
Now, Microsoft fax is the fax piece of it.
It allows you to send and receive
faxes straight from your computer.
Now, the great thing about this universal inbox idea
is that it lets you send and receive
all different types of information in one place, the inbox.
Now, being environmentally conscious and politically correct,
Microsoft created a recycle bin rather than
a trash can to discard the files that you don't want anymore.
So whenever you delete a file,
it's not actually erased from your hard drive,
but it's moved over to the recycle bin.
Now, if you need to retrieve the deleted file,
just open the recycle bin with a click of
the mouse and easily retrieve it.
Now, you've probably heard about online services,
such as CompuServe, Prodigy, or America Online.
Microsoft has a similar online service called
the Microsoft Network.
Now, through the Microsoft Network,
you can do tons of stuff.
You can send and receive email over the Internet,
through the inbox, you can get the latest news,
travel, and Microsoft product information,
or you can browse catalogs and purchase products
right from your computer.
So basically, the Microsoft Network is an electronic
shopping mall of information as well as products.
Exactly, it's a lot of fun to shop around
the Microsoft Network.
And we'll show you how to use the Microsoft Network
and the inbox in much more detail
in our Windows 95 Advanced video tape.
So while you two are shopping,
I'd like to introduce you to the most significant change
in the Windows 95 user interface,
and that is the Start button and the Taskbar.
The Start button replaces the Windows 3.1 Program Manager
and makes it much easier to find and start your programs,
open your documents, and customize your system.
The Taskbar shows you which programs
are running on your desktop,
and it makes it very easy to switch between them.
Okay, that was a quick overview
of the Windows 95 user interface and desktop.
So to review from top to bottom,
my computer, where you can access all the disk drives
and other network PCs your computer's connected to,
network neighborhood, your gateway to other computers
connected to your network, the inbox,
your mailbox on the desktop where you can send, receive,
and read all kinds of electronic mail and faxes,
the recycle bin, which holds your deleted files
ready for retrieval if you need them,
the Microsoft Network, which gives you access
to Microsoft's own online service,
the Start button that, as its name suggests,
is the place to start doing just about anything
you want to do on your computer,
and the Taskbar, where you can see all of the programs
you're running and switch between them
with a click of the mouse.
Now that you know your way around the desktop,
you're ready to get started with the Start button.
Okay, let's first take a quick look
at what's on the Start menu,
then we'll review each item in more detail.
The first item we'll see on the Start menu is Programs.
Programs allows you to view your program groups,
such as Microsoft Office, and select the program
you want to launch, such as Microsoft Word.
The next item on the Start menu is Documents.
Now Windows 95 will remember the last 15 documents you used
so that you can quickly find them here and load them.
Settings, this is where you'll access
the Control Panel, Printers, and Taskbar
to make it easy to set up your PC
to work the way you want it to work.
Find is a new tool that makes it really easy
to find a file on your computer,
or it'll even find information out on the Microsoft network.
Doesn't matter where that information is.
And Help, this is significantly improved in Windows 95,
and it'll answer just about any question that you may have.
Next you'll see Run.
Now this lets you start programs and open files
by just typing in the name
of whatever it is you want to run.
Finally there's Shutdown, and this is what you'll use
to exit Windows 95 to make sure
you don't lose important information.
All right, now that we're acquainted with each item
on the Start menu, we'll look at each icon again
to show you how to use them
and how to customize your own Start menu
so that you can get Windows 95
to do everything you want it to do.
Not just the easiest way, but also the fastest way.
So the first thing you want to do is launch a program.
So let's open Word for Windows.
To do this I click on the Start menu
and go up and choose Programs.
Notice a number of groups and programs appear on the right.
Now you'll also notice that these are the same groups
that you had in Windows 3.1.
We'll select the group that contains Word,
which in this case is the Microsoft Office group,
and then select the Microsoft Word icon.
No double clicking and just one click
of the mouse to start Word.
Okay, since we've just started Word,
let's take a look at the program's appearance.
In the upper right hand corner
of any program running under Windows 95,
you'll see three buttons, Minimize, Maximize or Restore,
and Close.
The Minimize button on the left
shows a line at the bottom of a box.
The box represents your screen
and the line is your taskbar.
So when you click on the Minimize button,
the open window minimizes into the taskbar.
Let's do that again.
This time notice the animation
when you click on the Minimize button
showing the window moving into the taskbar.
Now when a program is minimized in Windows 95,
its window is just shrunk down
into a tiny rectangle in the taskbar
to make room for other windows to run on your desktop.
But it's still running.
For example, if we were running a fax program
and we minimized it into the taskbar,
we'd still be able to receive faxes
because the program is still running in the background.
It's not closed.
Now with a single click,
you can bring the program back up in a window.
The middle button shows a picture
of two windows open at the same time.
Now this means that if you click this button,
it will reduce the window down to its previous size
so you can see and access the desktop
or other programs at the same time.
Notice now that the picture on that button
shows one big window.
So to maximize your program
so that it covers the entire screen,
just click that button one more time.
The button with the X in the upper right hand corner
is the close button.
This button lets you quickly close a window
or exit a program with a single click.
Now as you can see by this dialog box,
you don't have to worry about accidentally
clicking on the close button.
If you haven't saved your work,
Windows 95 will ask you if you want to do so
so you won't lose any work.
Now it's important to note
that when you minimize a program,
it's still running and you can see it on the task bar.
But when you close a program,
it's removed from your desktop and from the task bar
because it's no longer running on your system.
And for those of you who are used to working
with Windows 3.1,
you can still close documents and programs
by double clicking in the control menus
in the upper left hand corner of the program.
Now Windows 95 automatically changes
the look of these two buttons as well
to represent the document icon and the program icon.
Now the documents function on the start menu
is also new to Windows 95.
Let's say you've been working on a memo or a spreadsheet
and the next time you want to continue
working on that document,
wouldn't it be nice to go directly to it
rather than having to remember what program you're using
and where you stored the file?
Now to reopen the document,
just click on the start button,
go up and select documents,
and from the list the file you'd like to work on
is right there.
Notice that the one I've selected
even has a word for Windows icon next to it
to make it easier to find.
The documents item keeps track
of your 15 most recently used documents.
One thing that you might find confusing
about the documents list is that sometimes
a document that you've used
will not be registered on the list.
That's because older pre-Windows 95 programs
don't know how to report this information to Windows 95.
For example, if we open a document in PowerPoint 4.0,
which is not a Windows 95 program,
such as this file called default,
it will not show up on the documents list.
But if you open that same document
by double clicking on it from the My Computer icon,
it will show up in the list.
Okay, we've now learned about programs and documents.
The two start menu items you'll use most often
and how they'll help you be more efficient.
But in Windows 3.1, I had the programs
that I use most often grouped in a window
that was always open so I could just double click
to start the program I needed.
Is there a way to make the programs
that I use most often easier to access from the start menu?
Sure.
It's easy to customize the Windows 95 start menu
to work the way you prefer to work.
Let's take a look.
Now, Microsoft Excel is a program that I use all the time,
so I like to add it to the start menu
so it's easier for me to access.
To customize the start menu, click on the start button.
Now select settings, select taskbar
because the start menu is on the taskbar,
and this pops up with the taskbar properties dialog.
We'll discuss this later in more detail.
But for now, I wanna choose the start menu programs tab.
Now, I wanna customize my start menu
by adding an item to it.
So I'll click on add.
Now, I can either type in the full name
and path to the program here,
or we can click on browse to search for the program
that I'd like to place on the start menu.
Let's browse for Excel.
I'll click browse, double click on office,
double click on the Excel directory,
select the Excel icon, and then click on open.
Choose next, and we'll tell it where on the start menu
we want the icon to appear.
Notice I could have placed it in any of the groups
or under the program menu.
We'll choose next, and type in the name
as we'd like it to appear.
The name can be anything we like.
Let's type in Microsoft Excel.
And this will put Excel at the very top of the start menu,
which will make it really easy and fast for us to get to it.
Now, let's click on the start button.
We can see that Microsoft Excel
is at the top of the start menu.
To start Excel, we simply select it.
That's a lot easier and faster
than moving through all the menus on the start button.
And you can also add documents or folders to the start menu.
It's not limited to just programs.
Yeah, that's pretty slick.
But you know, too many icons in groups
can make the start menu difficult to manage.
Sometimes when I install a new program,
it adds a bunch of icons that I never use,
like help files to my group.
Is there a way to remove them
so I only see the icons that I care about?
There sure is.
You can remove any of the unnecessary icons
by clicking on the start menu,
going to settings, and choose taskbar.
Now go back up and click on the start menu program tab.
This is the same screen we saw earlier,
but this time we're gonna click remove.
We now see a list of all the groups
and icons in the start menu.
Let's scroll through it to find the items we want to remove.
Let's select the Microsoft office group.
See, there's all those help files we were talking about.
If I don't want them on the start menu,
I just select each of them and choose remove.
It's important to note that we have not actually
deleted these files off the hard disk.
They're just taken off the start menu.
Let's take a minute here, guys,
to explain why you're not deleting files permanently
when you take them off the start menu.
Sure, you see, each program or file
listed in the start menu is only a shortcut
or a pointer that, as the name implies,
points to a file that's on your hard disk.
It's kind of like a road sign that directs you to a city.
Now you can remove the sign,
but the city will still be there.
In the same way, you can remove the pointer,
but the file will still be on your hard disk.
To sum up, the start button lets us launch programs
and open documents with just a click of the mouse,
and we can customize the start button menu
to make it work in a way that's
most comfortable and efficient for you.
Now that was a lot of information,
so if you need to review,
you can follow the steps in your booklet
or rewind the tape and watch us again.
Now in a few moments, the software guys and I
will take you on the next big step
on your exploration of the Windows 95 desktop,
the taskbar.
You know guys, one of the best things about Windows
is that you can run more than one program at a time,
but to be honest, with Windows 3.1,
I rarely ran more than one program
because it was so hard to switch from one to the next.
You're not alone, Anne, only a small fraction
of Windows 3.1 users ran more than one application
at a time.
Well, that's why I think the taskbar is the best
ease of use feature in Windows 95.
Now the taskbar shows you which programs are running,
and it lets you switch programs
with just one click of the mouse.
Let's open Word from the start menu.
We'll go to Programs, Office, and Word.
Notice a button appears on the taskbar
showing Microsoft Word.
Also notice, even though Word is full screen,
the Start button and the taskbar are still visible.
So I can always go back and open a new programmer document
with one click of the mouse.
Let's go back to the Start menu and launch Microsoft Excel.
Notice that when Excel opens, it also adds a new button
to the taskbar.
Now Word is still open and running, and to get to it,
I'll simply click once on the Word button on the taskbar.
To switch back to Excel, I'll click on its button.
It's just like changing channels on your TV set.
So how do I share information between these programs,
like putting an Excel chart inside of a Word document?
Let me show you.
First, we need to go to Excel and select the chart.
To do that, I just click on it, go up to the Edit menu,
and choose Copy.
Let's move over to Word.
Remember, to do this, we just click on the taskbar.
And now I'll click in the place where I want to paste the chart.
Now choose Edit, Paste.
That looks great, Keith.
And you didn't even have to touch the keyboard.
So now what happens to the buttons on the taskbar
if I open more programs?
Well, you can open lots of programs at the same time
under Windows 95.
But as you do, the buttons on the taskbar
get smaller and smaller.
So if you want to see all the buttons on the taskbar more
clearly, you can simply increase the size of the taskbar.
To do this, place your mouse pointer
at the edge of the taskbar until it
turns into a two-headed arrow.
Hold down the mouse button and drag the taskbar up
to the size that you want.
Now if you want to get more vertical screen space,
you can simply move the taskbar to the side of your screen
by pointing and clicking on any open space inside the taskbar
and then dragging it over to the side.
To move it back to the bottom, click again
on any open space on the taskbar.
Now just drag it to the bottom of your screen.
Now I like to have as much screen space as possible
when I'm working on a document.
The taskbar takes up about a half an inch of space
on the bottom of my screen.
Is there any way to remove it?
Let me show you a tip to hide the taskbar
and only bring it up when you need it.
Click on Start, Settings, and Taskbar.
Now I want taskbar to go away when I'm working in a program,
so I'll select Auto Hide.
Now back in my program, the window is full screen
and the taskbar is gone.
But whenever I move the mouse to the original location where
the taskbar was, which in this case
is at the bottom of the screen, the taskbar reappears.
Now you may have noticed some other settings
in that taskbar dialog box that Tom just brought up.
Now I'm the type of user who runs a lot of different programs
and I like to have most of them listed on my Start menu.
So to make room for this list, I need
to select the next item on the taskbar options dialog called
Show Small Icons in Start Menu.
Notice that the Start menu shows smaller icons
and doesn't say Windows 95 along the side.
Since it's smaller, I can now add even more programs
to the Start menu, making them all easier to start.
So let's review.
The taskbar makes it easy to work with several programs
at the same time, and we can customize it in order
to work the way we want to.
Tom, Keith, and I will be right back
to show you how to control your computer using the Control
Panel.
With Windows 3.1, I had to go to a number of different places
to set up and customize my system.
There was the Control Panel, the Window Setup, the Network
Setup.
Is this any easier in Windows 95?
You bet, Anne.
With Windows 95, all this has been
merged into a single Control Panel
that's much easier to use.
Think of the Control Panel kind of as a toolbox,
where you can go to set up or customize your system.
Let's take a quick tour.
To get to the Control Panel, click the Start menu,
then click Settings, then select Control Panel,
and a collection of icons will appear on your screen.
That's a lot of icons, Keith.
Don't worry.
For now, in this Getting Started tape,
we'll just take a look at the items
you're most likely to want to use.
These include adding new hardware
with the Add New Hardware icon, installing or removing
software with the Add Remove Programs icon,
and configuring your mouse settings with the mouse icon.
Great.
So let's take a look at how we can add new hardware
to our computer.
Now, Windows 95 makes it really easy with a technology
called Plug and Play.
Most new hardware devices are compatible with the Plug
and Play technology, which means that Windows 95 will
automatically recognize and install
the right driver for your hardware device.
You don't have to do anything.
That's about as simple as it gets.
But what about for devices that aren't Plug and Play compatible?
Windows 95 makes that easy as well with a technology called
Wizards that steps you through the process of installing
hardware on your system.
Now, the Windows 95 Wizards are like having your own expert
helping you accomplish a task.
Let's take a quick look at how a wizard can help us install
a sound card.
Now, a sound card is a piece of hardware.
The first step is to install it securely into an open slot
inside your PC.
Next, double click on the Add New Hardware
icon in the Control Panel.
The first screen tells us that the wizard
will help us quickly install the new hardware
on the computer.
When we click the Next button, it
asks us if we would like Windows 95 to try to detect
the new hardware automatically, or if we'd
like to select it ourselves from a list.
In this case, we know exactly what we're installing,
so we'll choose to select it ourselves.
Next, we see a hardware list, and we
can choose the type of device we want to install, CD-ROM,
mouse, modem, or printer.
Let's choose Sound, Video, and Game Controllers
to install our new sound card.
Next, the wizard asks us to choose the manufacturer
and type of sound card.
If our sound card isn't listed, you simply
select Have Disk and insert the floppy disk that
came with your new card.
We have a Creative Lab Sound Blaster Pro,
so we'll select Creative Labs on the left and Sound Blaster
Pro on the right.
Now it asks us if we would like to install using
the standard settings, and we can say yes,
and it asks us for the appropriate disks.
Well, that was easy, thanks to the wizard.
Now, what about the same type of thing for software?
I'd like to remove some programs since I'm
running low on disk space.
How do I get the whole program off my hard drive?
Windows 95 thought of this too.
Through the Add Remove Programs icon,
it makes it really easy to uninstall or remove
all of the components of a Windows program
from your hard drive.
But remember, it only works with the new 32-bit programs,
so some of you might not use this feature for a while.
As you can see in the list, whenever
a 32-bit Windows program is installed,
it's required to register itself with Windows.
So when you need to uninstall it,
you can just select it from this list and click Remove.
There's another function in this dialog box
that you might find useful right away, the Windows Setup tab.
Windows 95 includes lots of components,
and it's possible that you didn't set up all the parts
when you first installed Windows.
For example, now that we have a sound card,
we'll want to install the multimedia components that
came with Windows 95.
So let's click on Multimedia, and then we'll
click on Details to see all the components available
and which ones are installed.
To install any of these components,
all you need to do is put a check mark next to the item
by clicking in the box.
Then click OK.
Now, if you're running low on disk space,
you can remove or uninstall some Windows components
you might not need, like the Online Users Guide, which
takes up a lot of disk space.
To remove it, we go to Accessories and choose Details.
Let's scroll for the Online Users Guide.
To remove it, we click on the box to remove the check mark,
then click OK.
Great.
Now we have a new sound card, and we've opened up
some more hard disk space.
What else can we do to customize our system?
Well, with the mouse icon, you can set up
different functions for your mouse under the Pointers tab.
Here's something everyone will enjoy,
a new animated hourglass that flips over when the sand has
all passed to the bottom.
Now, to set this up, click on the Pointers tab, select Busy,
and then click on the Browse button down here.
This will give you a list of pointers
you can associate with your mouse under those file types.
So choose Animated Cursors, then choose Hourglass.
Now, instead of getting a dull static hourglass
when your computer is busy, you can
watch the new hourglass fill up with sand
and flip over when it's done.
Now, another item in the mouse dialog
that those of you who have portable PCs
may find valuable is called Pointer Trails.
On some laptops, you know how it's
hard to see the mouse sometimes when you move it?
Well, this will fix it.
Under the Motion tab, select the Show Pointer Trails button,
and watch how the mouse pointer now has trails following it
as you move it around.
So you'll be able to see the mouse pointer all the time.
Most new PCs come with multimedia capabilities
built in, and Windows 95 can let you really
take advantage of them.
Did you know that if you have a sound card and a CD-ROM drive,
you can play music CDs on your computer,
and your PC can play music CDs at the same time
that you're working on something else?
Now, that's what I call multitasking.
You can set the options for your sound card and CD-ROM drive
in the Multimedia icon in the Control Panel.
Double click on the Multimedia icon,
choose the CD Music tab, and tell it which drive is a CD-ROM
drive.
Now select the Audio tab, and set the volume
at the level you want.
Once you've set it up, when you want to play a music CD,
just go to Start, Program, Accessories, Multimedia,
and select Media Player.
Select Device, and choose CD Audio.
Now click the Play button.
And don't forget, if you play CD music all the time,
you can move Media Player to your Start menu.
Now playing music is fun, but most of us
have to deal with something a little more mundane,
like setting up a printer.
Maybe for you software guys it was easy,
but it seemed like with Windows 3.1,
I struggled with my printer all the time.
In Control Panel, you'll find the Printers icon.
This is the same folder that appears when you select
Settings, and then Printers from the Start menu.
Let's take a look at the Printer Setup Wizard.
Click on the Add Printer icon to bring up the Wizard Setup
screen.
Our printer is local.
In other words, it's connected directly to the back of our PC.
Next, we see a list of printer manufacturers
on the left, and their corresponding models
on the right.
We have an HP LaserJet 3 printer,
so I'll select HP on the left, and we'll scroll and click
LaserJet 3 on the right.
Next, we have to choose the port that the printer is connected
to.
Typically, this is LPT 1.
Next, it asks us to name the printer.
The default name is OK with me, and we'll
print a test page just to make sure it's all set.
And that's all there is to it.
Now, we're ready to print from any program inside of Windows.
Now, there are plenty of other things
that you can do in the Control Panel,
like finding all kinds of technical information,
such as how much memory or what kind of processor you have.
We'll go into much more detail on these in the advanced tape,
so don't worry about those now.
Just remember that the Control Panel is sort of your one
stop shopping for all the settings you
need to customize your computer.
Next, after this short color-coded break,
we'll take you on a search for the lost files.
Have you ever saved a file, then a few days, or weeks,
or even months later, needed to call it up again,
and had no clue where you put it?
Uh-huh, been there, done that.
Well, Windows 95 has a great new tool
that I know I'll be using all the time called Find.
This is a great tool.
It's on the Start menu, and it gives me
three ways to find what I want.
You'll see I can search for my files or folders by name,
the date I last saved it, or by the contents
when I can't remember the name or the date.
In addition, I can search not only my own hard drive,
but for other computers on my local or wide area network,
and even for information on the Microsoft network.
Now, about six or eight months ago,
I was thinking about buying a car,
and a friend of mine gave me a file that had
information about cars in it.
I can't really remember where I put it,
but that's not a problem.
If I could remember the name of the file or where I put it,
it'd be pretty easy to find.
I would just enter the name or location here
and start the search.
But the only thing I remember is that it was about cars,
and that I last saved it about eight months ago.
So let's go to the date modified and look for files saved
during the past eight months.
I'll click on the during the previous button
and type in eight for months.
Under the Advanced tab, we'll enter
that the file contains the word cars in it.
The word cards doesn't have to be in the name.
It just has to be in the body of text in that file.
Now, when we click OK, Find starts
searching through all my files on my hard drive.
Since Find in Windows 95 is a 32-bit program,
I can work on something else while Find
is searching behind the scenes.
But Find works pretty quickly, as you can see.
It found three files with the text cars in it
that I'd saved sometime during the last eight months.
Since I'm not sure which file is the one that I want,
I'll click on that magical right mouse button.
Time out.
Did you say right mouse button?
I thought that was just there for left-handed people.
Actually, the right mouse button is one of the key new functions
of Windows 95.
Now, the right mouse button brings up
shortcut menus of the most likely options
that you'll want to choose for the specific item
that you're clicking on.
You'll notice that you can right-click
on just about anything, documents, programs, icons.
And it brings up a menu with the common things
that you'll most likely want to do with that item.
Go ahead, give it a try.
Right mouse click on a few things
and see what it'll do for you.
OK, let's try it with the files I have here
in the Find dialog box.
Now, I'll right mouse click on this file
and select Quick View from the shortcut menu.
Quick View lets me quickly see what's
in the file without starting the whole program up
that created it.
Hey, lucky guess.
This is a file I need.
And to start Word for Windows with this file loaded,
I just click on the Word icon here in the Quick View window.
So when you can't remember where you put a file,
start your search with the Find function on the Start menu,
and Windows will do the work for you.
In our next module, we'll show you
how to get out of just about any bind by using Online Help.
["ONLINE HELP"]
Since the software guys aren't always going to be handy,
it's a good thing that Microsoft has improved the Online Help
in Windows 95.
Online Help covers lots of topics,
and it's written in a concise step-by-step format
telling you how to do whatever it is that you need to do.
To start Help, click on the Start button and choose Help.
The content screen shows you a number of books
that you can open by double clicking on them.
Now, let's say you need help setting up a new printer.
You can find this topic by looking in the How To Book,
then looking in the Set Up Hardware Book,
and finally, selecting Setting Up a Printer.
But what if you can't find a selection
to answer your question?
Another way to search is in the index screen.
Here, you can just type in a word like printers.
This brings up a list of all the topics relating to printers,
and we see one here called Setting Up a Printer.
The instructions once again tell us to click the Display button,
and up comes the step-by-step instruction window.
Now, notice how the Help window stays visible
so you can continue reading it while you're
carrying out its instructions.
Notice the button with the colored arrow in the Help window.
It's called the Jump button.
The instructions tell us to click on it
to start installing a printer, so let's do that.
And it automatically brings up the Printer Setup Wizard
that will also take you through the task of setting up
your printer step-by-step.
This type of integration with the Help system
extends throughout the Windows 95 product,
so you don't even have to know where to find the functions it
calls out.
Help will take you there automatically.
Now, another great feature of Help
that will make it easier for you to get the information you need
is called the What's This button.
You'll notice this button in many dialog boxes,
such as the Display dialog box.
Now, look for the button with a question mark
in the upper right-hand corner of this box.
Click on the What's This button, then click
on any of the objects in this box,
and Windows 95 Help will explain to you what this object is.
For example, when I click on the Monitor screen,
Help tells us how to preview a wallpaper.
So now we can go to the wallpaper list
and choose the one we want to see
and how it will look on the screen.
Online Help is always available, either through the Start menu
or through a What's This button in a dialog box.
Now that we've explored the Start menu,
it's time to revisit the desktop to show you ways
to work even more productively.
Let's go back to the Windows 95 desktop
and explore the different icons there.
We briefly introduced them before.
Now we're going to find out more about what's behind them
and what they can do for you.
OK, we'll start back at the top of the screen
where we have the My Computer icon.
My Computer makes it easy to search through and organize
your files.
Let's double-click on My Computer to open it up.
We now see pictures representing the floppy drive A
and another picture representing the C or hard drive.
If you have a CD-ROM drive or you're
connected to another computer through your network,
they'll appear here as well.
We also see the Control Panel and Printers folders,
the same folders we found earlier in the Start menu's
Settings command.
And this is just another way to access them.
For this section, we're going to focus on the local hard drive
icon where you can view all your files and organize them.
Now I'm not exactly sure I know what you
mean by organize your files.
It's just like regular paper you'd store in a file cabinet.
You wouldn't just stuff all your papers into a box
because you wouldn't be able to find the information when
you needed it.
Now when you organize a file cabinet,
we usually label the drawers, put some dividers
inside each drawer, then file your papers in Manila folders
inside the dividers.
You should use the same approach when
you're organizing directories, subdirectories, and files
on your hard drive.
My Computer lets you organize your files in the same manner,
by directories, which are like the drawers,
by subdirectories, which are like dividers and folders,
and finally, your files.
Now once you've set this up, you can move files from one
directory to another in order to keep them organized
in just the way you want them.
Right now I want to find my file on cars
and move it to a folder that contains my favorite things.
So next time I'll remember where I put it.
From the search we did earlier, I
remember that the file was in the Word directory.
To find it, I double click on my C drive.
Notice that this opens up another window with the contents
of my C drive in it.
Also notice that a button will appear
on the task bar for each new window I open.
Let's double click on the Win Word directory.
And here's my file.
That does work just like a file cabinet.
It does.
Now let's move my car file to a folder called Favorite Things.
Actually, there's no such folder on my hard drive.
No problem.
Let's create one.
To do this, I'll just click on the task bar
to go back to my C directory.
From the File menu, I'll select New and then Folder.
I'll type in Favorite Things.
Now I'll go back to my Win Word folder, select the car file,
go up to the Edit menu, and choose Cut.
I'll switch back to my C drive via the task bar
and double click on my new Favorite Things folder.
Then choose Paste from the Edit menu.
We're done.
Here's a tip for moving the file by drag and drop.
Just position the window where the file currently resides
so that you can also see the window where
you want the file to go.
Now just click on the file that you want to move
and hold down the mouse while you drag it to the destination
window, and then release the mouse.
So far, we've been looking at my computer
while in the large icon view, which
is similar to the way a Macintosh looks to those of you
who are Mac enthusiasts.
But you can customize my computer
to work the way you feel most comfortable.
Now using the View menu, we can make the icons smaller
if we need to fit more of them on the screen.
To do this, we go to the View menu and choose Small Icons.
Now the files are organized going across the screen.
Or we can choose the List view to get the files and folders
arranged in a list from the top to the bottom.
Now we can even add details which
tell the size and type of each file,
as well as when you last modified the file.
In this view, we can sort any of the columns
to make it easy to find a file in a long list.
Can you give us an example?
Sure.
To find the newest documents, see this bar
at the top, Title Modified?
It's also a button.
If you click on it, the newer files
rise to the top of the column.
Click on the Name button, and the files
are sorted alphabetically.
Here's another tip from the software, guys.
If you hold down the Control key when you're
clicking on the title bar, it'll sort in reverse order.
Now that we know how to find files,
the next thing you'll need to know
is how to copy, move, and delete files.
To move or copy a file, right click on the file
and notice the menu items, Cut and Copy.
If you want to move the file without making a new copy,
in other words, so there's only one copy of it on your PC
when you're done, then choose Cut.
If you want to copy the file and then
leave the original in place, say as a backup, then choose Copy.
You can always delete the extra file later.
Here's another way to cut, copy, and paste.
My computer has a toolbar at the top with several buttons.
If you don't see the toolbar, just click on the View menu
and choose Toolbar.
Now let's drag out the window so you can see all the buttons.
You can click on the scissors icon to cut,
the icon with two pages to copy, and on the picture
of the clipboard to paste.
Now that we have a copy of the file,
how do we place it where we want it to go?
To place the copy somewhere else in your system,
move the mouse to the toolbar and click the down arrow
to show a list of all the drives on your system.
Now you can scroll up and down this list
to choose the drive where you want to place the file.
So let's choose our 3 and 1 half inch floppy by clicking on it.
Now don't forget to have a disk in your floppy drive.
And now we'll choose Edit, Paste.
But there is an easier way to copy a file to a floppy disk.
If you right mouse click on the file,
notice that the menu that pops up includes a Send To option.
If we select Send To, you'll notice my 3 and 1 half inch
floppy drive is located there.
If I select it, it goes right to the floppy drive.
Now let me review, guys.
Moving or copying a file is a four step process, right?
Step one, click on the file you want to move.
Step two, select Cut or Copy from the toolbar or Edit menu.
Step three, navigate through my computer
and click on the place where you want the file to go.
And step four, select Paste from the toolbar or Edit menu.
But what if you want to move or copy several files
at the same time?
If you want to select a list of files,
just click on the file at the top of the list,
hold down the Shift key, and then click on the file
at the bottom of the list.
And all your files are selected.
Or you can select files anywhere in your list
by holding down the Control key and clicking on the items
that you want.
If you want to delete files, all you have to do
is select all the files that you want to delete,
press the Delete key, and they're
moved to the recycle bin.
Here's another tip.
You can easily move or copy files between folders
by dragging and dropping them rather than using a menu.
Now, drag and drop simply means clicking on a file
and continuing to hold down the mouse button while you move
or drag the file from one folder or drive
to another folder or drive, then release the mouse button
to drop the file into the second folder.
Let's copy my car file from the directory to the floppy disk.
Now, I've already arranged my window
so I can see both the file in its current location
and its destination, the floppy drive A. I
click on the file car, which is on my hard drive.
And again, continuing to hold down the mouse button,
I drag it across to its destination, in this case,
the A or floppy drive.
You can drag and drop a file to the desktop, too.
Why would you want to do that?
Because when a file is on the desktop,
all you have to do to launch it is double click on it.
But beware, because when you drag and drop a file
to the desktop, the default action
is to move the actual file to the desktop.
As you can see, when I move this file to my desktop,
the file disappears from the directory.
Now, if I were to delete the file icon from my desktop,
I would be deleting the actual file itself.
However, if you drag and drop while holding down
the right mouse button, you can choose to move or copy
the file to the desktop.
Or you can create a shortcut like this.
So what's a shortcut, Tom?
Well, a shortcut is like a pointer
that points to the original file.
Now, when you double click on the shortcut item,
it launches the original file or program.
Now, shortcuts are generally your best option
for putting your most often used files or programs
on your desktop, because when you want to clear some
of the clutter from your desktop,
you can just select the shortcut items
that you don't want anymore and hit the Delete key.
Since the shortcut is just a pointer,
you don't have to worry about deleting the actual file.
Well, whether you're using the menus and toolbar
in my computer or drag and drop, Windows 95
lets you get organized.
But our next topic is just as big an improvement,
making Windows 95 easier to use.
You can now create long descriptive file names
with up to 255 characters.
No longer are you limited to eight-letter file names
like finclin95.doc that you might forget in a week.
Keith, can you tell us more about these long descriptive
file names?
Long file names are great.
Now, you need to be careful, OK?
If you've created a file in a new 32-bit Windows 95 program,
you can name it anything, up to 255 characters
when you save it.
But when you want to rename an existing file that
was created in a pre-Windows 95 program,
there are two ways to go about it.
Using my computer, let's find the file.
We double click on our C drive and then double click
on our Favorite Things folder.
We'll select the file we want to rename
and then select Rename from the File menu.
Or let's take that old finclin95 file
and name it something that makes sense.
We'll right mouse click on it, select
Rename from the shortcut menu.
Now we can type in 1995 Financial Plan.
And we're set.
Now, if you use a new Windows 95 program,
this new name will appear inside of the program as well.
However, be careful.
Older Windows programs won't handle the long file names.
But Windows 95 takes care of that for you.
They automatically are shortened to eight letters
when you open the file in an old pre-Windows 95 program.
To avoid confusion, you might want
to find out what the eight-letter name for a long file
name would be after Windows 95 shortens it.
To do this, right click on the long file name
and choose Properties.
Now you can see the long file name
and the corresponding MS-DOS eight-letter name.
So now you'll know what to look for if you
need to bring this file up when you're
working with an older program.
So what happens if you give long file names to more than one
document that all begin with the same first eight characters?
Well, for example, suppose you want
to put on a big graduation ceremony
after you've mastered Windows 95 basics.
And you create three documents with long names
like graduation invitation, graduation announcement,
and graduation gift thank you letter.
Well, Windows 95 will give all three documents
the same first six characters followed by a tilde
and then a number.
So those three documents will be named graduate tilde
one dot doc tilde two dot doc and tilde three dot doc
respectively.
Thanks, Keith.
Remember, to take full advantage of long file names,
you need to have a Windows 95 program.
So that's one reason why you may want
to upgrade some of your programs.
Well, we've learned about organizing, moving, copying,
cutting, and pasting files from the Windows 95 desktop.
Next, we'll talk about deleting and retrieving files.
Well, we have only one more object on the desktop
to discuss in greater detail, and that's the recycle bin.
Have you ever deleted a file by accident or even on purpose?
But later, you really, really wished
you could get that file back.
The recycle bin protects you from losing information.
When you delete a file in Windows 95,
it isn't really erased from your hard disk.
It's just moved to a different directory
that Windows creates in your hard drive called
the recycle bin.
Now, if you double click on the recycle bin on your desktop,
you'll see all the files that you have deleted to date.
To get a file back, all you need to do is select the file,
choose Restore from the File menu,
and it will place the file back in the folder
it was deleted from.
Another way to restore a deleted file from the recycle bin
is simply to right click on it and select Restore
from the shortcut menu.
Let's say you don't want the file restored
to its original folder.
You'd rather have it placed somewhere else.
You can select the file, select Cut, and paste it
where you want it to go.
Or, I bet you've guessed by now, simply drag and drop
the file to the folder where you'd like it to be restored.
Now, when you install Windows 95, the recycle bin, by default,
takes up 10% of your hard drive.
When the recycle bin gets full, the oldest files
get deleted first, permanently.
So for most of us, 10% of our hard disk space
is more than enough to allocate to the recycle bin.
So if you're running out of hard disk space,
you can use the recycle bin to store
of hard disk space, you can regain a few megabytes
by reducing the size of the recycle bin.
To reduce the recycle bin size, right mouse
click on the recycle bin icon.
Choose Properties from the shortcut menu.
Here, you can set the size of the recycle bin
or choose not to use the recycle bin at all.
Now, of course, if you decide to disable the recycle bin,
any files you delete will be physically and permanently
deleted from your hard drive at the time you delete them.
Here's one more tip for the recycle bin.
To delete a file or folder quickly and easily
from the desktop, simply drag and drop it
into the recycle bin.
All right.
I hope all of you will do the right thing
and recycle all your old files using the recycle bin.
Keep the environment clean.
And in a few moments, we'll be back to show you
how to customize your desktop.
I'm sure many of you spend lots of time in front of your PC,
maybe even too much time.
But if you're going to do it, you might as well enjoy it.
How about adding a little splash to your screen
with wallpaper and colors to give your PC
your own distinctive personal feeling?
Now, this is something that you're really going to want to do,
and it's very easy.
Just go to the display dialog box from your desktop.
You can click on the Start button,
select Settings from the menu, then Control Panel,
and double click on the display.
Or since we're teaching the easiest way to use Windows 95,
simply right mouse click on an empty space on the desktop
and choose Properties from the shortcut menu.
The first tab is the Background tab.
This allows you to add patterns or wallpaper
to the background of your desktop.
There are a number of patterns included with Windows 95,
and by selecting them, we can see how
they'll appear on your screen.
I think I'll go with the Setup wallpaper.
Now, another cool thing you may want to do
is set up a screensaver that will display still or moving
graphics on your monitor after your computer has been
idle for a set period of time.
Screensavers are fun, but they can also
serve as reminders that time is passing,
and they can hide on-screen information from others
when you're away from your desk.
To set up a screensaver, click on the Screensaver tab
in the Display Properties dialog.
Select the type of screensaver you want from the list.
Notice, as you select the screensaver,
it shows what it will look like in the window.
Now, let's choose scrolling marquee,
because here we can create our own message that
will scroll across the screen.
Click on Settings, and let's type in a good positive message.
How about, I am becoming a Windows 95 expert.
Let's format the text.
72-point red should do the trick.
While I'm here, I'll set up a password
so nobody can access my system if I step away.
I just put a check next to the Password Protect box,
then click on Change.
I'll type in my password.
Finally, I need to set the idle or wait time
before the screensaver appears.
I'll set it for 10 minutes so that if I'm
away from my desk for that long, the scrolling marquee
will appear.
And to get back into my system, I have to enter my password.
As you've seen, customizing your desktop
is more than just making it look the way you want.
It can actually boost your productivity
and protect your sensitive information
while you're working on it.
Well, it's time for another short break
before we talk about the last thing you'll
want to do with your computer.
We're almost done.
And when you're done working with your computer
for the day, what's the last thing you need to do?
The last thing you'll need to do is to shut off your computer.
So when you're through using Windows
and you're ready to turn off your computer,
you should always use the shutdown feature
from the Start menu to exit Windows.
There's two reasons why this is very important.
First, if you've forgotten to save your work,
Windows will remind you to do so so you
won't lose any of your work.
And second, Windows opens a number of temporary files
that it needs to close before you exit.
If you just turn off your PC, then all these temporary files
will be left on your hard disk and they'll
take up valuable disk space.
So to close out of Windows, click on the Start menu
and choose Shutdown.
Windows will give you four choices at this point.
But for now, just stick with the one at the top that asks,
are you sure you want to shut down your computer?
You probably won't use the other three choices very often,
but we'll tell you more about them in the Windows 95
advanced tape.
The shutdown process takes a few seconds,
so Windows will post a message on your screen asking you
to wait while it's making sure it's OK to turn off your PC.
Finally, you'll get the message, it's now
safe to turn off your computer.
We're done.
Well, almost.
We should take a minute or two to review
what we've covered in Learn Windows 95, Getting Started.
We've learned there are a lot of great reasons
to use Windows 95.
It lets you work the way you want to work,
do more things better with your PC than ever before,
be more productive, and have more fun.
We've also learned all about the Windows 95 user interface,
how to start programs and open documents through the Start
menu, and how to customize the list of programs and documents
that appear in the Start menu.
How to switch quickly from one program
to another using the task bar, making your computer work
the way you want it to with a control panel,
how to find and organize your files,
how to use the Windows online help system,
how to work with your files on the desktop,
and finally, how to safely shut down your system when
you're done using Windows 95.
Plus, some of our favorite tips for getting the most out
of Windows 95, like right mouse clicking.
Wow, that's a lot of amazing stuff we've learned today.
And after this, you'll find you are definitely
on your way to mastering the basics of Windows 95.
Just refer to the handy reference guide
we've included with this tape to refresh yourself
on most of the basic functions you
need to know to start getting the most out of Windows.
Now, when you're ready to learn more advanced topics,
you can watch our Learn Windows 95 Advanced Features
videotape, which goes into more advanced topics, such as?
Sending and receiving faxes, accessing the internet
and the Microsoft network, running and customizing
MS-DOS-based programs, optimizing your system,
connecting to a network, and a lot more.
And in our Learn Windows 95 Tips, Tricks, and Shortcuts,
the software guys covered topics such as?
Customize your system to work the way you want it to,
optimize your PC's performance, work more efficiently,
troubleshoot and fix common problems,
and do just about everything faster and easier.
You'll find Learn Windows 95 Advanced Features
and Learn Windows 95's Tips, Tricks, and Shortcuts
at local retail outlets.
Or you can order your tapes by calling 1-800-242-4842.
Until then, it's been great showing you
around the new Windows 95 desktop.
We're learning all that cool stuff
from the software guys at Winstruct.
See you next time.