Blockhead: How many windows does it take to run a computer?

Smarty: Ninety-five. But you have to get a kid to turn the computer on first.

You've heard your friends talking about all the great stuff they can do with Windows 95 -- such as playing games and getting their homework finished (and finished well!) in half the time. Now you finally have a chance to figure out what your friends have been up to all this time with Windows 95. Time to get flying.


Windows Aren't Just Something in Your House

Now that you have Windows 95, you can turn your computer from a piece of plastic, metal, and glass into a center of fun, bright lights, hot sound, and, yes, occasionally, education. What the heck is Windows 95, then?

It's a superprogram that makes the computer come alive. After Windows 95 wakes up inside the computer, that chunk of wires and chips can begin to do something interesting. Windows 95 is an operating system, and everything else is, well, just a program. A program lets you take all that computing power and apply it to something useful or silly, like a budget or a game. But without Windows 95, you'd be looking at a big boat anchor.


Your Friends Know Why Windows 95 Is Cool

Windows 95 is awesomely popular with kids, right up there with the Big Three: Coke, Pepsi, and Mountain Dew. Why has something so geeky as a computer program become so popular? We can think of about 1,000 reasons, but here are just a few:

Windows 95 is fun. Just like your favorite baseball or soccer team, Windows 95 has its own logo, with red, yellow, green, and blue windows coming at you through space, as shown in Figure 1-1.

In Windows 95, pictures jump up and down, characters zip around in games, and video rolls. Windows uses cool tools like the Media Player to make the computer into a TV that you can control, as if you were playing a movie on your VCR. (See Figure 1-2.)

It's got its own rock song -- Start Me Up, from the oldest rock 'n' roll band in history, the Rolling Stones. (Microsoft had to pay only $12 million for the rights.) If you don't know who the Rolling Stones are, just trust us that this is a big deal.

It's the leader. In the computer world, Windows 95 is McDonald's, and everyone else is Taco Bell. Windows is MTV, and everyone else is the evening news.

It's tomorrow. If you want to get a part-time job down at the local rock station, just tell them you know Windows and watch as doors open for you.


Windows 95 -- Are You in There?

Don't know if the computer has Windows 95? Ask your folks. Here's how: Just sit in front of the computer and yell, as loud as you can, "Oh my gosh, look at this!" Or take this book in to show your parents. Ask them to read the next paragraph. (If you know your computer already has Windows 95, go to "Turning On Your Computer
and Mousing Around" or anywhere else in the book that interests you.)


Hey, parents -- when you see this icon, an adult needs to step in for a moment and help out. Right now, you just need to confirm that the family computer already has Windows 95 installed. If you bought your computer after August 1995 (when Windows 95 was launched) and before the blitz began for Windows 98, the computer probably came with Windows 95 already installed. If you just bought Windows 95 and need to install it, now's the time. Put the CD-ROM in the drive and follow the instructions from the Installation Wizard, a robot-like creature that talks you through the whole process. To get the most out of Windows 95, you need the following:

16 megabytes of RAM

A CD-ROM drive

A Pentium processor

But you can (just barely) get by with 8 megabytes of RAM and a 386 or 486 computer. Your local computer dealer can easily increase the RAM in your computer but can't so easily upgrade your chip from 386 to 486 or 486 to Pentium.

Optional, but neat:

A sound card

Speakers

By the way: If you can stand it, the kids love having the speakers turned on, so if you have any, you may want to show them how to power the speakers, and how to keep the volume down to a low drone.


Now that you're introducing your kids to your personal computer, you may want to lay down some laws about what areas are off limits. Depending on the age, make sure they understand never to throw away any of your files. Also, alas, you may need to set up a new routine, in which you regularly back up files, just in case.


Turning On Your Computer and Mousing Around

Getting Windows 95 rolling is so easy, even your little brother (or the little kid down the block) can do it. Windows 95 starts up when you turn on your computer, so that's what you need to do now.


Maybe Windows is already running. If so, you may see something like Figure 1-4 on the screen. If that's the case, you don't have to lift a finger. Someone has been nice enough to start Windows 95 and leave it running for you already. But if you need to fire up Windows 95 yourself, just follow these steps, and you'll be staring at Windows before you know it:

1.Figure out where the monitor's ON button is and push it.

Look for the ON button somewhere on the front of the monitor or on the side near the top.

If your monitor has a bunch of buttons (either on the front or behind a pop-up panel) showing on/off switches or plus and minus signs, don't mess with them. They probably control contrast and brightness, and a bunch of other stuff like image position and size, just like on your TV.

When you press the screen's ON button, you may see a little light come on next to it, proving that the screen is powering up.

2.If you have speakers attached to the computer, turn those on.

You want to to hear the boing sound that means "Windows is getting started" -- at least once.

What? No speakers? Or maybe you don't have a sound card -- the gizmo you need deep inside the computer to make the sounds. Start saving up -- you need about $100, minimum, to buy one. Or ask Uncle Ed if you can have the sound card and speakers that came with that computer he keeps in his hall closet.

3.Push the computer's ON button.

You may open your CD-ROM drive by mistake -- just push the button again to close it. Don't force it shut by hand because it breaks way easier than you think!

After a moment, you hear grinding noises from inside the computer -- don't worry. That's just the hard disk spinning, and it's supposed to do that. (A hard disk is a platter like those old records your folks have on the bookshelf, with Peter, Paul, and Mary, or The Who on them.) This hard disk has Windows 95 on it. The computer plays Windows from the hard disk to get started.

Then your screen may flash and run text over the background, and flash again. Exactly what happens on-screen depends on what your folks have done with the computer, but none of it matters, as long as you keep humming and tapping your finger, waiting.

What's this? Do you see a bunch of text on the screen ending in something like "Press any key"? Did you hear a beep, too? Well, if your computer asks you to press any key, all you gotta do is press that big bar at the bottom of the keyboard (just so you know, that big bar is called -- the spacebar). The computer just needs your okay to go on starting up Windows.

If you are asked for a password or warned that Windows 95 has had some kind of problem or error, call Mom or Dad. Most of the time these scary messages don't mean much, but better be cautious and get a parent to take the next step.

After a few more moments, you see a colored background appear with little pictures called icons (you can read more about icons in "Poking Around -- Clicking Icons and Unfolding Folders," later in this chapter). You may also see the Welcome to Windows 95 box, as shown in Figure 1-3 -- unless, of course, someone has already turned the welcome off. (See the sidebar "Saying 'Hasta la vista' to the Welcome box" in this chapter to find out how to make those tips disappear forever.)

You know all those lectures about how you have to get along together as a family? Well, you can't believe the fights that break out over the computer. No, maybe you can. But one thing that causes a lot of fights is changing the way the computer is set up. Maybe someone else really likes those tips that come up when you start Windows. So, before you zap the tips forever or make any other change like that, ask! Check with anyone else who uses the computer. Get an okay. You wouldn't paint your front door pink without getting at least a casual "Yeah, sure!" from the rest of the family -- or would you?

If nothing happens for a few minutes, or you get some annoying message that you can't understand, and you don't end up with the colored screen or the Welcome box, perhaps something's gone wrong. Ask your parents for help.  If they're busy, check out Appendix A. Good luck!

4.Move your mouse to make the arrow move around on-screen.

If you haven't used a computer mouse before, turn its tail toward the screen, and, holding the rest of the thingamajig with the palm of your hand, move the mouse around. See how the arrow on the screen moves at the same time?

5.If you want to take a brief tour of Windows, click the button called Windows Tour and then follow directions.

6.Get rid of the Welcome box by clicking the X in the top-right corner.

To click, slither the mouse around so that the tip of the arrow is pointing at the target and then press the left-hand mouse button quickly and let go.

X is the way to close a window. In a moment, the Welcome box disappears.

7.Scope out the screen, which looks more or less like Figure 1-4.

Your background picture is probably more interesting than the one we show here because Microsoft provides a spectacular blue picture. (We show you how to switch to another image for the background in Chapter 4.)

Because the whole screen is where you do your work, Microsoft calls the screen the desktop. Of course, this desktop doesn't have any gum wrappers, CD boxes, or crumpled-up notes from school. This desktop is more like a big table on which Windows lays out various programs, each in its own, uh, window. That's right, you have windows on top of the desk, and the wastebasket, too (it's called the Recycle Bin). Well, if you can toss old T-shirts on your desk, why can't Microsoft fill your electronic desktop with pictures, windows, trash baskets, and enough colors to make 31 flavors of ice cream?


Saying "Hasta la vista" to the Welcome box

If you never want to see one of these tips again -- and if you are sure nobody else in the family cares -- click the little box at the bottom of the Welcome screen -- the one that says Show this Welcome Screen next time you start Windows. Then click OK. That Welcome box won't bother you or anyone else ever again.



Poking Around -- Clicking Icons and Unfolding Folders

Do you hog the remote when you're watching Real World on MTV or Nick at Nite, flipping through the channels, making that TV do exactly what you want it to do? Well, you'll love Windows 95. You can use the mouse to click and click and click, making Windows jump and juke and jive.

What can you click? Right on your desktop, you see a bunch of little pictures, called icons, that were meant to be clicked. You can make Windows do all kinds of stuff by clicking icons. Here's how they work:

1.Click the My Computer icon twice, really fast.

The icon looks like a computer, and it usually lives up in the top-left corner of your screen, although it may have drifted off somewhere else on your screen.

Clicking twice very fast is called double-clicking. Double-clicking tells Windows that you are really, really serious about using whatever you're clicking. Double-clicking tells Windows you want to open an icon, to start a
program, or to see what is inside of a window.

After a moment, a window opens and looks like the one shown in Figure 1-5. By double-clicking this icon, you tell Windows 95 that you want to open the My Computer window -- and it does it!

The My Computer window shows what's on your computer, or what can be added. Inside the window, you see plenty more icons -- double-clicking any of these icons makes Windows 95 do something else.

2.Double-click the icon for the hard disk (usually called C) to see what information is stored there.

You see a list of folders, like those big manila folders your parents have in their desks. Each electronic folder contains programs, or stuff that helps the programs do their work, or the results of someone's work using one of the programs. If you want to look inside these folders now, turn to Chapter 6.

3.To put away the My Computer window (or any window, for that matter), click the X in the top-right corner.

The window disappears, but the icon stays on the desktop so you can use it again.

When you look at all these icons, the drawings and labels may help you figure out what these buttons do. But most icons are pretty confusing. Table 1-1 gives you the buzz on what some of the most common icons mean. (Depending on how your folks installed Windows 95, you may or may not have all these icons, plus some
others.)

Table 1-1 Common Icons on Your Desktop

Name and What It Does:

My Computer  - Shows you what's on your computer (stuff such as programs, letters, and pictures).

Inbox  - Where your electronic mail lands, if you get any. (Your folks have to do a lot of setup to make this work. You can read more about e-mail in Chapters 10 and 11.)

My Briefcase  - Holds stuff you want to move over to your laptop computer when you go on a business trip. What? You don't have a laptop and you aren't planning any business trips anytime soon? Well, forget this.

Recycle Bin  -  The trash. When you're tired of a game or anything else on your computer, you toss it into this bin to get rid of it. You may be able to recover it, if you act fast, as described in Chapter 2.

Microsoft Network  - Microsoft's answer to America Online. A big site on the Web with lots of info; also, the software that gets you there. (Your folks may not have installed this, so the icon may not be on your screen.) Read about it in Chapter 11.

The Internet  - One way to get onto the Internet, the free-for-all world of Web sites. Uses Microsoft's program, Internet Explorer, to get onto the World Wide Web. Won't work unless your folks have signed up with a service that actually makes the connection. Check it out in Chapter 10.



Don't read this -- no really, don't!

Don't waste you time with this sidebar if you don't care what's new in Windows 95. But if you're wondering how Windows 95 differs from some other computer junk you've used, read on.

If you've been used to ancient PC machines at school, or an old Apple II, you are going to be knocked out at all the graphics and the way you can use a mouse to do stuff, instead of always typing, typing, typing.

If you've been using a Macintosh, well, Windows 95 is as close as the PC world gets to the Mac. You'll know right off how to use a lot of things, such as windows, icons, and buttons. Deep down, there are big differences, but your experience as a Mac person will see you through.

If you're familiar with Windows 3.1, well, you're going to find some major changes in Windows 95:

Your program groups now show up on the Start menu, which you can read about in "On Your Mark, Get Set, Go!" in this chapter. The Start menu replaces the Main window.

The File Manager has become something called Windows Explorer, which lives on the Start menu.

The Control Panel now lives underneath Settings in the Start Menu.

The Run command shows up on the Start menu.

Windows 95 has fewer calories and tastes better than Windows 3.1. Really.



On Your Mark, Get Set, Go!

Programs are the beef inside the cheeseburger, the disk inside the CD case. Programs take all the power in your computer and apply it to doing something fun, or, if not fun, maybe something you have to get done (your book report, for example).

You've heard of word processing programs that help you write and programs that let you draw. Whenever you play Nintendo or Sega, you're running a program. So how do you get Windows to run a program for you?

Good news! You can start every program the same way in Windows 95. Just follow these easy steps:

1.Use your mouse to slide the pointer down to the bottom of the screen.

If it was hidden, the taskbar appears. The taskbar is a fun little bar across the bottom of the screen, as shown in Figure 1-6. It helps you do your work -- that's why they call it the taskbar. If you want to find out how to hide it
yourself, or keep it on top of everything else, check out Chapter 2.

2.Slide the pointer along the taskbar to the left to point to the Start button.

3.Click Start.

The Start menu pops up, as shown in Figure 1-7. (Yours won't look exactly like this, because you may have different programs than we do, or someone may have asked Windows to make everything smaller. But, hey, it looks sort of like this.)

(Read "Ordering Fast from the Menus" in this chapter to get the 411 on menus.)

You can start more than programs from the Start menu

The Start menu grows on you. The main thing you use it for, at the beginning, is to start a program, using the Programs option. After you create something on the computer, you can open it again from the Start menu, using the Documents list, which shows stuff you have been working on. Other options let you adjust Windows' settings, find something on your computer, and get advice and help. The last item on the start menu is seriously important: This is the way to close down your computer, so nothing gets damaged when you finally turn it off.


4.Click Programs.

You could just as easily rest the pointer on top of Programs and wait a second to get the same effect. But clicking is more fun.

Another menu zips out to the side, showing programs and little folders that hold whole groups of programs.

Yes, here, you find menus upon menus. They come out like a waterfall, so Microsoft calls them cascading menus.

5.Locate the program that you want to work with.

You may have to do some digging to find the program you want. For example, say that you want to start a neat program called Media Player. It turns your computer into a sound machine.

To open Media Player, you have to go to the top of the Programs menu and click Accessories.

Wow! Another menu appears: The accessories are just little programs that are fun or helpful. They're called accessories because, like putting on a new belt or an earring, they add a spark of pizzazz to Windows 95.

You then click Multimedia, to see programs that play music, video, or animation, and then you click Media Player.

The Media Player program opens up in all its glory, as shown in Figure 1-8.

Congratulations! You've opened a Windows program. Want to see what it can do? Skip on down to the next section, and find out how to order your computer around!

Ordering Fast from the Menus

Whenever you open a program, you see a row of words at the very top of the program window. These words say weirdo stuff like File, Edit, and Tools. But those aren't just ordinary words -- they are actually menus.

The menus on your computer are a lot like those menus you see over the heads of the clerks at fast-food restaurants, or on their cash registers, if you've gotten behind the counter. Menus let you place an order -- that is, boss your program around, ordering it to do, well, whatever it does. Each program has a different set of menus, depending on what the program is for.

For example, if you're working with Media Player, you can use menus to order the program to play a sound file. After you finish playing around with Media Player, you consult the menus again, and, like when you ask the waiter for a check, you can tell Windows 95 to close down the program.

No matter what menu you're ordering from, just do the following to make that menu (and program) do exactly what you want it to do:

1.Move the pointer until it's directly over the menu that you want to open.

2.Click once.

Whoa -- a menu drops down outta nowhere and gives you tons of choices of stuff your program can do for you.

3.Move the pointer down to the word that describes what you want the program to do.

For example, if you want to open a program, go to the Start menu and choose the program that you want to play with.

4.Let go of the mouse button.

The program should do what you told it to do with your menu choice.

Here's your chance to see a menu in action. For our very next trick, we show you how to open a sound file in Media Player. A sound file is the computer equivalent of the sound track on your CD-ROM. And Media Player is the computer equivalent of your CD player. If you haven't started Media Player, click Start, glide over
Programs, then Accessories, and click Media Player.

1.Click the File menu.

Ta da! The menu drops down so you can browse through it, as shown in Figure 1-9.

2.Click Open.

You see a new window. It's the Open dialog box, as shown in Figure 1-10.

3.Click The Microsoft Sound.wav.

Yes, I know, that's a pretty techie name. But .wav just stands for wave -- it's a name the techies take from sound waves, because the file has sounds in it. The Microsoft Sound file's full, ugly name shows up in the box called File Name, toward the bottom of the window. So now you've selected the file you want to open.

4.Click the Open button.

Now you've loaded up your computer version of a track on a CD. Notice how the buttons came alive, as shown in Figure 1-11 -- they're black now, meaning you can click them the way you press buttons on your CD player. Before, without anything to play, the buttons were grayed out, meaning they didn't have anything useful to do.)

5.Click the Play button (the right-pointing triangle, underneath the 0.00 second mark).

You hear the Microsoft Sound -- the odd chimes that ring to show that Windows 95 is starting. Fantastic, huh? Well, maybe not much. But you can see how you can play sounds using the menus in Media Player.

And if you still don't believe how great menus can be, follow these steps and see how menus can help you make Media Player as loud or soft as you want it:

1.Choose Device-->Volume Control. (Click Device and then click Volume Control.)

You see a window like the one shown in Figure 1-12.

2.Drag the Volume sliders up and down to increase and decrease the volume. (It won't hurt your ears.)

3.Click the X to close the volume control window.

Um, er...Did you make sure to turn your speakers on? They sure can't make much noise without power. (Duh.)

4.Click the Play button again to hear the Microsoft Sound even louder (or softer).


Psst. Want to show your parents something they may never have known was possible? Put a music CD into the computer's CD-ROM drive. Like your CD player, the computer has a special tray for the disk to go in, but on the computer, it slides out (you plop the CD in) and then it slides back in, like a drawer in your desk. Wonder where the CD-ROM drive is? Look for a panel about five inches wide on the front of your computer and a button right underneath that makes it slide out and in.

After you put the music CD into the drive and press the button to send the drive back into its cabinet, go to the Device menu in Media Player and choose CD Audio. After a moment, the whole display changes, showing all the tracks or times of pieces. Click Play (the button with the triangle pointing to the right). The music comes out through the computer's speakers -- and it will go on doing that even when you move on to do other stuff. The quality may not be as super-sensurround as your boom box, but still, getting a computer to play your favorite rap, hiphop, rock, or country song is pretty awesome, huh? (To find out what the other buttons do, just let your pointer hover over one for a second; a label comes up, telling you what the button does.)


Two-for-One: Having Several Programs Open at Once

You know those two-for-one sales down at the mall? You buy something you really, really want, and then, because it's on sale, you come home with two of them. Well, Windows lets you have two, three, even four programs open at once. For example, you can leave the music playing on Media Player and then go over to another program and write about it. All you need to do is use the menus you find in the Start menu; check out "On Your Mark, Get Set, Go!" earlier in this chapter to find out how to open a program.

For example, if you already have Media Player open, here's how to open Notepad, a program for writing: Click the Start button and then choose Programs-->Accessories-->Notepad. The Notepad opens, as shown in Figure 1-13.

Notice that the music is still playing. Media Player just goes on playing the CD until the end, unless you go back and click the Stop button. So you can work in another program with background music.


Tap-Dancing on the Keys

On the computer, you write by pressing the letters on your keyboard. But what a lot of keys there are! Every keyboard is a little different, but most have a bunch of letters, numbers, and punctuation marks all arranged as on a typewriter. But then, over on the right, your keyboard may have a bunch of arrows (good for old-fashioned games) and a numeric keypad, which is like your parents' handheld calculator.

If you know how to type, type your name in Notepad (you open Notepad by clicking the Start button and then choosing Programs-->Accessories-->Notepad). If you don't know how to type, hunt and peck. Some tips about computer typing:

To make capital letters, hold down the Shift key and type the letters.

To make a space, press that big bar down at the bottom of the keyboard.

To start a new line, press Enter.

To back up over a typo, wiping it out, press Backspace. (Sometimes it looks like an arrow pointing to the left, just above the Enter key.)

For most numbers, use the ones above the letters. (To make the numeric keypad do numbers, you have to press the Num Lock key, which locks it into numbers.)

To have the computer put the time and date in your work, choose Edit-->Time/Date.


You see that row of keys at the top or side of your keyboard, all beginning with F? That stands for Function. And some programs use those keys like commands on a menu. Click a Function key, and it does something useful. In Notepad, for example, if you want to get the date and time inserted in your document, press F5.


Computer keyboards are pretty tough, but you can really mess them up if you spill soda on the keys. The sugar in the soda makes everything sticky, inside and out. Ditto for crumbs. Don't eat at the computer -- that's the best rule. And we know this sounds like Mom, but if your fingers are all greasy from that third doughnut and the pizza, um, well, you'd better wash up before sitting down at the computer keyboard. The slime makes the keys yucky for the next person, but even worse, the goo leaks down into the guts of the keyboard and makes keys jam or stop working.

If you do spill something into the computer keyboard, turn the keyboard upside down as quickly as possible so nothing further can leak inside. Be sure to tell someone. Turn off the computer -- see how to in "Stop: Turning Your Computer Off Without Breaking Anything" in this chapter -- and then dry off the keyboard as thoroughly as you can...and keep it upside down.


Printing the Proof to Show Your Friends

Printing is simple -- if your computer's printer is turned on. When you are using a program like Notepad, printing lets you get a copy of what you write on the computer. Printing lets you show your friends at school or send a copy of your letter to your grandparents. Your printer is that gizmo near your computer, with all the paper stacked up. Many printers make black letters on white paper, but some can print in colors, although not quite as bright as those on the screen.

To print something, follow these steps:

1.Turn on the printer, if it isn't already on. (Wait while it grinds and clanks and settles down.)

Show your child exactly how to turn on the printer, so little fingers don't accidentally press one of those other buttons and break its connection with the computer or something worse.

2.In the program you've used to write or draw, choose File-->Print.

For example, after you write something in Notepad, you would choose File-->Print.

In some programs you may be asked how many copies to print and other questions. The simplest thing to do, at least the first time, is to click the OK button and just get one copy, the regular way.

After a moment, whatever you're working on gets printed.

3.Take the sheet out of the printer (gently). Admire it. Show it to your parents or send it to Grandpa and Grandma.


Safe Not Sorry: Saving What You've Done

Saving stores whatever you've been working on, with whatever name you give it. That's good, because the computer doesn't have a very good memory after you turn it off. In fact, nada. It forgets everything! And if someone trips over the power cable while you're working, well, forget it! Everything you've done could be out the window.

If you are writing something long, such as a letter to Santa or a class report, or if you are making a gigantic drawing of alien spaceships, you should save it every ten minutes so you won't lose much work if your clumsy friend turns the computer off by mistake, reaching for another CD. Ditto, if you get part way through the work,
and have to stop for supper. Saving lets you bring the picture or letter back on-screen to work with some more on another day.

Here's how to save your work:

1.Choose File-->Save.

You see the Save As dialog box, as shown in Figure 1-14.

Why is it called a dialog box? Well, this one lets Microsoft Windows 95 ask you what you want to call your fabulous document, and where you want to put it on the hard disk, deep inside your computer. So it's like, well, a conversation. You're having a dialog with the computer.

2.Type a name for your fantastic document, such as My Name.

The suggested title, Untitled, gets replaced with your name. If you happened to click inside Untitled, you may want to wipe it out by pressing the Backspace key to erase letters, and then type your name.

3.Click the Save button.

The program now takes everything you have worked on and gives it the name you just typed. It also saves what you did under that name on the hard disk inside your computer. Where exactly? Well, each program starts out suggesting you save the document to one place, but after someone has saved documents to another location, the program may suggest that location the next time.


But I've Got to Use the Computer Now!

How long have you been on the computer so far? Well, has anyone else wanted to use it during that time?


If your parents use the computer for their work or for grownup games, such as going on the World Wide Web to look up golf scores or recipes, you should sit down with them and work out a schedule. You want to know when you can use the computer. And they need to know that the computer will be free when they just have to use it. Making up a schedule helps avoid fights and hurt feelings.

You can use Notepad to write up the times when you are good to go on the computer. Post that list right over the computer so everyone else can see.

Worried that your kids may inadvertently wipe out the home budget or address book you've saved on the hard disk? Consider getting a program like Edmark's KidDesk Family Edition, which sets up a control center for each child, as shown in Figure 1-15. You can specify which programs a child can use and make your folders and programs off limits. Each child gets a personal desk with a calendar, a clock, and icons of their favorite programs. Even prereaders can get their programs going on their own without your having to interrupt what you are doing to help them go through the launch sequence. Bonus: If you have a microphone, kids can leave voice messages for other family members.


Stop: Turning Your Computer Off Without Breaking Anything

Your computer looks pretty simple, but behind the scenes, it's like a circus act, juggling many little pieces of programs and trying not to drop or lose track of anything. If you just pull the plug on the computer, it instantly forgets where it was, and the next time you start, the computer may look like Jim Carrey on a bad hair day. You could lose some of what you were working on or wreck a program. 

Here's the drill for shutdown. Learn it and do it, or take the hit for messing everything up:

1.Save whatever you have been working on.

2.Exit each program by clicking the big X in the top-right corner of its window.

If you want to get your CD out of the CD-ROM drive, make sure that you have exited the Media Player program, and then press the button on the CD-ROM drive to open it. Take the disk out -- and then press the button again to close the drawer.

3.Choose Start-->Shut Down.

Yes, use the Start button to stop. We know that it doesn't make too much sense, but that's the way you do it.

After a moment, you see the Shut Down dialog box, as shown in Figure 1-16.

4.Click Yes.

Open windows close on-screen, the hard disk spins and whirs, the printer hiccups, and you wonder if the computer will ever shut down. Finally, you get a message saying that it is okay to turn the computer off.

5.Turn off the computer, screen, printer, and speakers.

6.Clean up all your stuff so the next person doesn't have to look at it.

Do you have to? No. But it's a friendly thing to do.