Windows Primer

Logging on

To begin using Windows you must log on, which lets the computer know that you are a valid user and gives you access to your own information. Windows 2000 keeps track of its users and can remember specific preferences for each of them. This is particularly important in the computing clusters, where the machines are shared among lots of different people. In that case, the operating system has to make sure that you can access your own information, but no one else's. Some aspects of this will be investigated in this lab.

Follow these instructions to log in to Windows. If you're using Windows 95/98/ME/XP, you probably won't have to log in, since you are the sole user.

1. Hold down the Ctrl and Alt keys and then press Delete.
2. If this brings up a window called Windows Security, click the button labeled "Logoff..." and after a few seconds repeat step 1.
3. You should see a Window labeled "Log on to Windows". Enter your user name or "net id" and password and click OK. (Your user name is the part of your email address that goes before "@princeton.edu".) Your password will be the last 8 digits of your social security number, unless you've changed it already.
4. If this is the first time you are logging into Windows from a cluster, it will you you to change your password. We encourage you to change it IMMEDIATELY, since social security numbers are not nearly as private as they should be. It might be a good idea to change it to your UNIX password.

There's good advice on how to choose a password on the web; for example, check out OIT, IIT, and MIT, three pages out of thousands.

After a few moments, you should see the Windows desktop with a bar across the bottom of the screen and several icons scattered across the left. Congratulations! You've successfully logged on. Remember these steps, because you will need to log on again at the beginning of every lab.

Using the Desktop

Now it's time to explore Windows. If you've used Windows before, this will be familiar. If you're a Mac users, you'll recognize all of the ideas but the details will sometimes be disconcertingly different. In any case, just use the mouse to click on buttons, icons and anything else that looks interesting until you feel confident with the way things work. Keep the following in mind as you experiment:

• Icons - Windows and other graphical operating systems use icons as shortcuts to run programs. Sometimes these shortcuts represent the programs themselves, and sometimes they represent files or documents used by those programs. Either way, double-clicking on the icon should start the associated program.
  Double-Click on the "Cluster Computer" icon. (On other Windows systems, it is usually called "My Computer" instead.)
  
  
  

  This should bring up a window with several different icons representing disk drives and other resources on your computer. Generally the icon labeled C: is the local disk (that is, the disk physically in the machine you are using), A: is the floppy drive, D: or E: is the CD-ROM. There may also be some "network drives", which are connections to disks on other computers.

  Double-click any of these icons. You should see another window (or a fresh view in the current window) listing files on that drive. This is one way to see all the files that are on your computer.
  
  

• Individual Windows - Now you probably have several windows cluttering up your screen. Each Windows window has a colored stripe across the top and a thin frame around the edges. The stripe is called the titlebar and is used to minimize, maximize, restore and destroy the window. It also shows the title of the program (or folder) and sometimes information about what that program is working on.
  
  Maximizing a window will cause it to take up the entire screen, blocking out all other windows. When a window is maximized, the maximize button will be replaced by a Restore button. Clicking that will cause the window to return to normal size. Minimizing the window will cause it to go away temporarily, leaving only a button on the Taskbar (see below). To restore a minimized window, simply click on its button on the Taskbar. Minimizing a program does not stop it, it simply frees up space on your screen.
  
  You can also change the size of a window by selecting its rim or corners with the mouse and dragging (holding down the left button and moving the mouse) them to the desired size. You can move the entire window by clicking on an empty part of the titlebar and dragging it to where you want.
  
  Finally, when you are finished with a window or program, you can stop it by clicking on the "X" button in the top right corner. You can also usually stop it by clicking on the "File" menu beneath the titlebar and choosing "Exit".
  
  
• Taskbar - This long bar at the bottom of your screen is the main tool for managing windows in Windows.
  
  

  On the far left is the Start Button (explained below). Next, there should be a long button for each currently open program or folder. One of these buttons may look depressed (or at least a little unhappy), indicating which window is currently selected. Some of these buttons will correspond to windows you can see on your screen. Others represent minimized programs and only expand to a visible window when you click on them. As you proceed in this lab and open more and more programs, each should appear on the taskbar. You can switch among them at any time by clicking the appropriate program on the taskbar.

  At the far right of the task bar, there are a few small icons and a clock in an area known as the "tray". These icons represent programs which are running in the background (without using a window), such as volume control and an anti-virus program. Try clicking with the right and left mouse buttons on some of these to see what happens.
  
  

• Start Button - The Start Button is used to start programs, find files, change settings or shut down the computer. Try clicking on the Start Button now. A menu should pop up with 7 or more different options. Some of these have arrows at the right, indicating that they lead to other menus instead of windows. For example, when you select Settings, you will see three more options which you can then select. An instruction to select "Settings | Taskbar" would mean to select Settings and then Taskbar. The following options should be available on your Start Menu:
  
  
  Programs - This is where you can find programs such as Netscape and Word.
  
  Documents - This is a list of recently used data files. Selecting one of these will start the program that is associated with that file. For instance, if you select a file that ends in ".html", Windows will start a web browser (like Netscape) to view it.
  
  Settings - This is where Windows stores information about everything from which printers are connected to which color scheme you prefer. Try not to change these settings unless you know what you're doing.
  
  Search - With this option, you can search for a file by name, even if you don't know where it is stored on the computer.
  
  Help - When you're really stuck, there's always Windows help, though you're often better off asking someone else who knows what's going on.
  
  Run - With this option, you can start programs by typing in their location on the computer. For example, typing in "c:\windows\notepad.exe" will start a program called Notepad which is in the "windows" folder on the C drive. In fact, you can usually get by just typing "notepad" in the Run dialog box; Windows fills in the rest for you.
  
  Shut Down - Selecting this will give you the option to restart the computer, shut down the computer, or log off of Windows. You should end every lab by selecting Shut Down and then, in the window that appears, choosing "Log off your-name".