All the PC essentials at your fingertips! If you like your answers quick and your information up-to-date, look no further. This concise, superbly organized reference walks you through setting up a PC, the new interface and features of Windows Vista, using basic applications, organizing your stuff, getting on the Internet, networking (wired and wireless), burning CDs, upgrading your hardware, revving up your PC for high-speed game playing, and much more!

Table of Contents:
Part I: PC Overview 1 What You See: Basic Hardware 2 What You See: Console — the Front 4 What You See: Console — the Back 6 What You See: Console — the I/O Panel 7 I/O Symbol Table 9 The Basics: What Is a PC? 11 Hardware 12 Software 12 You 13 The Basics: Types and Models of PCs 13 The Basics: Inside the Console 14 The Basics: Adding Hardware 17 Internal expansion 17 External expansion 17 The Basics: Windows 18 The Basics: The Internet 19 The Basics: Your Stuff 20 Knowing about files 21 Working with files in Windows 21 Organizing files in Windows 22 Part II: Connecting Stuff 23 About Computer Cables 24 Audio 24 Digital Camera 25 Digital Media Player 26 Ieee 26 Joystick 27 Keyboard 27 Microphone 27 Modem 28 Monitor 28 Mouse 28 Network 29 Optical Audio 29 Power 29 Printer 30 S-Video 30 Scanner 31 Serial 31 Speakers 31 USB Port 31 Wireless Gizmos 32 Part III: Installing Hardware and Software 33 The Add Hardware Icon 34 Adding New Hardware 35 Adding an external dialup modem 36 Adding a non-USB joystick 36 Inserting an Expansion Card 36 Installing Memory 40 Removing Memory 43 Removing USB Storage Devices 44 Software Installation 44 Installing software from a CD or DVD 45 Installing software you downloaded from the Internet 45 Uninstalling Software 46 Part IV: The On–Off Thing 49 Changing the Power Button’s Function 50 Changing the Start Menu’s Power Button Function 51 Forcing the Computer Off 51 Hibernation 52 Logging On and Off 52 Logging in 53 Logging off 53 Locking the Computer 54 Quitting Windows 54 Restarting Windows 55 Sleep (Stand By) Mode 55 Putting your PC to sleep 56 Automatically going into sleep mode 56 Waking the computer 57 Switching Users 57 Turning the Computer System Off 58 Turning the Computer System On 59 The Uninterruptible Power Supply 59 Part V: Popular Places in Windows 61 Account Folder 62 All Programs Menu 64 Starting a program 65 Popular menus on the All Programs menu 65 The Startup submenu 66 Creating a desktop shortcut to a program 66 Putting a program on the Quick Launch bar 67 Pinning a program to the Start menu 67 Organizing the All Programs menu 68 Computer 68 Control Panel 69 Desktop 71 Network 72 Notification Area 73 Controlling the notification area 74 Controlling the visibility of the notification area icons 74 Recycle Bin 75 Start Menu 76 Changing the Start menu’s look 78 Configuring the Start button’s menu 78 Taskbar 79 Locking and unlocking the taskbar 80 Moving the taskbar 81 Resizing the taskbar 81 Setting taskbar options 82 Other toolbars 83 Quick Launch bar 83 Moving a toolbar 84 Removing a toolbar 84 Part VI: Disk Storage 85 About Disk Storage 86 Long-term and short-term storage 86 Disks and media 86 Saving and loading 87 AutoPlay 87 Bits and Bytes 88 CD-ROM and DVD Drives 89 Types of shiny discs 90 Playing a music CD or movie DVD 91 Drive Icons 91 Drive Letters 92 Disk drives A-B-C 92 Drive D and beyond 93 Drive Z 93 Changing drive letters 93 Ejecting a Removable Disk 94 Ejecting a floppy disk 94 Ejecting a CD or DVD 95 Ejecting other media 95 The Floppy Drive 95 Formatting floppies 96 Copying a file to Drive A 97 Floppy do’s and don’ts 97 Hard Disks and Drives 98 Inserting a Removable Disk 99 Inserting a floppy disk 99 Inserting a CD or DVD 100 Inserting media into a card reader 100 Putting a Drive’s Shortcut Icon on the Desktop 100 Types of Storage 101 Working with Removable USB Drives 102 Part VII: The Stuff You Create 103 About a File 104 Describing a file 104 Common file icons 105 Viewing file details in Windows Explorer 106 A file’s Properties dialog box 107 Creating Files 109 Finding Lost Files 109 Searching from the Start menu 109 Summoning the Search window 110 Finding a file when you know its name 111 Finding a file when you just created it recently 112 Finding a file when you know what type of file it is 112 Finding a file when you know that it contains a specific word 112 Managing Files 112 Copying files 112 Duplicating files 113 Moving files 113 Making file shortcuts 114 Deleting files 114 Permanently deleting files 115 Undeleting files 115 Recovering the previous version of a file 115 Naming and Renaming Files 117 The filename extension 117 Renaming a file 118 Filename wildcards 118 Opening Files 119 Pathnames 119 Saving Files 121 Saving for the first time 121 Saving after the first time 121 Closing a document 121 Selecting Icons 122 Selecting a single icon 122 Selecting all icons in a window 122 Selecting more than one icon 122 Lassoing a group of icons 123 Selecting all but a few icons 123 Grabbing a range of icons 123 Selecting two ranges of icons 123 Deselecting an icon from a group 123 Part VIII: Organizing Your Stuff 125 About Folders 126 About Windows Explorer 126 Around the Windows Explorer window 126 The Address bar 128 Managing your favorite folders 129 The tree structure 130 The toolbar 130 Compressed (Zip) Folders 131 Making an empty compressed folder 132 Adding files to a compressed folder 132 Making a compressed folder from one or more files 132 Extracting files 133 Directories 133 Folder Options 134 Choosing a folder template 134 Adding a picture to a folder’s icon 135 Changing a folder icon 136 Folders for Your Stuff 136 Managing Folders 137 Making a new folder 138 Renaming, copying, moving folders 138 The Root Folder 138 Subfolders 139 Part IX: Printing 141 Adding a Printer 142 Finding a home for the printer 142 Connecting the printer 142 Printer software setup 143 On and selected? 143 Setting up a USB printer 143 Forcing Windows to recognize the printer 144 Adding a network printer 145 Adding more than one printer to a single PC 146 The Default (Favorite) Printer 146 Envelopes 147 Configuring your document as an envelope 147 Printing on an envelope 148 Ink and Toner 150 Ink cartridges 150 Toner 150 Ink and toner tips 151 Paper 151 Buying paper 151 Adding paper to the printer 152 Paper tips 152 The Printer’s Control Panel 154 Print Preview 154 Printing 155 The Print command 155 Choosing a printer 156 Printing multiple copies 156 Printing a single page or range of pages 156 Printing the Screen 157 Printing a Test Page 157 Stopping the Printer 158 Turning the Printer On and Off 159 Types of Printers 159 Inkjet printers 160 Laser printers 160 Uninstalling a Printer 160 Part X: Networking 161 About Networking 162 Accessing a Shared Folder 162 Accessing a Wireless Network 163 Adding a Shared Folder to Your Disk System 164 Mapping a folder to a disk drive 164 Unmapping a folder 165 Checking the Network Connection 165 Checking the Network window 166 Checking the Network and Sharing Center window 166 Using the little networking guys 166 Connecting to a Network 166 The NIC 166 The network cable 167 Configuring the network 167 The Network and Sharing Center 167 The Network Connections Window 169 The Network Window 169 The PC’s IP Address 170 The PC’s MAC Address 171 The PC’s Network Name 172 The Public Folder 173 Sharing the Public folder on the network 173 Unsharing the Public folder 174 Repairing a Network Connection 174 Sharing a Folder 175 Making a folder on your PC available to the network 175 Unsharing a folder 176 Sharing a Printer 176 Using a Network Printer 177 Which Folders Are You Sharing? 177 Workgroups 177 Part XI: Creating Your Own CDs and DVDs 179 Checking to See Whether You Have a Recordable Drive 180 Creating a Musical CD 180 Destroying a Disc 182 Disc Formats 182 Disc Types 183 The CD-R, DVD-R, DVD+R 184 The CD-RW, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM 184 Erasing an RW Disc 185 Writing to a Disc in Windows 185 Initializing a recordable or rewritable disc 185 Working with a Live File System disc 187 Working with a Mastered disc 187 Part XII: The Keyboard 189 Accessing Menus with the Keyboard 190 The Any Key 190 Controlling a Window with the Keyboard 191 Dead Keys 192 The Help Key 192 Keyboard Basics 192 Keyboard layout 192 Shift keys 193 Lock keys 194 Keyboard Shortcuts 195 Keyboard Types 197 Keys for Editing Text 198 Names for Funky Keys 199 Setting the Repeat Delay and Repeat Rate 199 Special Keys 200 Part XIII: The Mouse 201 Basic Mouse Activities 202 Changing the Double-Click Rate 203 Connecting a Mouse 203 Extra Mouse Buttons 204 Increasing the Mouse Pointer Visibility 204 Left-Handed Mouse 205 The Mouse Pad 206 Mouse Pointers 206 Making the pointer go faster or slower 206 Choosing a new pointer 207 Using an animated pointer 207 Loading a set of pointers 207 Saving your own set of pointers 208 Mouse Types 208 Air mouse 208 Mechanical, or ball, mouse 208 Optical mouse 208 Trackball mouse 208 Wireless mouse 209 Glossay: Tech Talk 211 Index 221