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All about windows and how they display you computer

Windows are one of the most basic and often used ways of interacting with your computer. They are used by most of the programs that you might run. The few exceptions would be programs like games that run completely without use of windows common graphical interface components (or shell out of windows) such as the start menu and the task bar.

Windows frame Figure AWhat I refer to as a window is a box or a frame around the program you are interacting with such as shown in figure A. Most of what you see here will be the same no matter what program you are working with, no matter if it is a Windows Explorer window or a word processor document. Let us look at the individual parts of a window.

Moving down the left side of this window, in the upper left hand portion (were the small folder icon is) is where the title of what ever it is you are working on will be displayed. For instance the title of this page that is displayed up there is "All about windows, no curtains needed". If you were using windows explorer to browse the contents of your computer the title would be the name of the folder you are currently viewing. Next you would see the menu lists. These menus are going to be different (or possibly not shown at all) depending on what program you are running. If you are working in Outlook Express there will be menu items to create a new email message and so on. If you are working in Windows Explorer you will have options to create a new folder inside of the current view, among other options. Below are some buttons that would provide access to commonly used commands (depending on the application that is being used) Just below these (depending on how your program display is configured) is the "address" field. If you are using Internet Explorer this will show the URL of the page. The page address of the page you are currently viewing is http://www.copperjacket.com/pc-tech/computer-basics3.htm. If you were working inside of Windows Explorer (or any other file/folder viewing utility) the address would show your current location inside of the hierarchy of the storage organization. For instance if you were looking inside of a folder named "current project" inside of your "my documents" folder. The title at the top of the window would say "Current project" the address would say C:\My Documents\current project as your location. Further down is the actual window area where what ever it is you are working on is located. The figure I have shown is a blank black area, depending on what you are working on this area might be filled will folder icons, in the case of a Windows Explorer window, or with text such as would be the case with a word processor document. At the top left of this window will be three different buttons First of them is an icon that looks like a line.The line button means to minimize, or make drop down off of the desktop and into the task bar. The next (from left to right) button will either be a double square or a single square. If it is a single square pressing it will make the window expand to cover the entire screen. If it is a double square pressing it will return it to a resizable configuration so that multiple windows can be displayed on your desktop at one time. The last icon of the "X" will close the window. If you are inside of a program such as a word processor or others pressing this will also close the program as well. You might be asked is you would like to save your changes or not.

 

 
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