The new syllabus of Computer Operator Examination of Public Service Commission (PSC) puts more weight on operating system and requires you to learn about GUI, Elements of Windows, File Management, Windows Explorer, Windows Applications, Finding files and folders, Changing Windows Settings and Using System Tools. We will talk each topic gradually.

Introduction to GUI

A graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and office equipment. A GUI represents the information and actions available to a user through graphical icons and visual indicators such as secondary notation, as opposed to text-based interfaces, typed command labels or text navigation. The actions are usually performed through direct manipulation of the graphical elements. [Source : Wikipedia]

A GUI is a type of computer human interface on a computer. It solves the blank screen problem that confronted early computer users. These early users sat down in front of a computer and faced a blank screen, with only a prompt. The computer gave the user no indication what the user was to do next. GUI are an attempt to solve this blank screen problem.

A good GUI design removes the impediment of communication with the computer system and allows the user to work directly on the problem at hand.

a GUI is a specification for the look and feel of the computer system. GUI usually have common characteristic such as windows, icons, menus, and push-buttons (WIMP). Collectively, WIMP are pictures that bring forth a certain action or an action space. The user issues commands via the GUI to computer applications. GUI usually have three major components. These three components are: a windowing system, an imaging model, and an application program interface (API).

The windowing system builds the windows, menus, and dialog boxes that appear on the screen.

The imaging model defines the fonts and graphics that appear on the screen. WIMP are products of both the windowing system and imaging model.

Finally, the API is the means in which the user specifies how and what windows and graphics appear on the screen.

The Apple Macintosh, the IBM SAA, and X-Windowing System are the paradigms for all modern GUI.

Apple Macintosh

The GUI was a major part of the overall goal of the Macintosh. All graphical applications copied the Macintosh in its design and usage. The Macintosh introduced the first menu, icons, and point-and-click, mouse driven processing. With these menus and icons, the Macintosh was the first computer system that limited the users to contextual correct answers. For example, once the user made a selection via a menu, the menu limited the user’s subsequent actions. The user could no longer choose something meaningless. The Macintosh’s GUI has all three major components of a GUI, which are the windowing system, an imaging model, and an API.

IBM SAA

Unlike the Apple Macintosh, the IBM-SAA is more than just a GUI. It is a whole system of interfaces that can span machines from personal to mainframe computers. As such, it includes many functions that most GUIs do not, including a suite of networking and database tools. The SAA’s GUI portion has all three GUI components. Another unique item of the SAA is that the user does not need a mouse to interact with the application. All actions can be executed from the keyboard, a functionality not available in the Macintosh GUI. The most common SAA-type GUIs are Windows 3.11 for DOS and the Program Manger for OS/2.

MIT X-Windows System

Although a separate GUI standard, many X-Window based GUI, such as Motif and TCL/TK, have copied the look and feel of the IBM SAA. X-Windows is still the underlying library for these GUI. The X-Windowing System is the most popular GUI for UNIX systems. This is because any X-Windows software can use the X-Windows library, which gives it great portability and standardization across platforms.

[Source: Bernard J. Jansen Computer Science Program University of Maryland (Asian Division) Seoul]

Introduction to Windows Operating System

The Windows operating system started with the introduction of Windows OS and Windows for work group for networking. Since then, it has come a long way and Windows 95, 98 and 2000, XP, Vista and Windows 7 family of operating systems were introduced. It provided the computer user with the most integrated and easy to use the operating system with all the facilities in built. The Windows 8 is the latest Windows operating system for desktop (client) operating system and Windows 2008 for the server operating system. [Ref: National Institute of Open Schooling]

Basic Elements of Windows

Desktop

Desktop is the working area on Windows operating system where we place and arrange application and document windows to work efficiently. When you turn on a computer, the desktop is displayed first. The desktop contains icons of useful applications and shortcuts of frequently required documents. We use wallpapers on desktop background to make desktops attractive. Wallpapers are the images displayed on the desktop background.

Taskbar

A horizontal bar at the bottom of a desktop is taskbar that displays the icons of opened windows, start button and system tray. Quick launch toolbar, language toolbar, and some other toolbars can be enabled to display on the taskbar if preferred. Usually, quick launch toolbar is displayed to the left of taskbar just after the start button and language bar on the right side just before the system tray. System tray displays the icons of applications that are running in the background and provides the method to access them and control them.

System clock, volume control icon and so on are available on the system tray.

My Computer

A section of Microsoft Windows that was introduced with the release of Microsoft Windows 95 and included with all versions of Windows after that. My Computer allows the user to explore the contents of their computer drives as well as manage their computer files. Although the name has changed to Computer, the program still acts identical to the earlier My Computer. [Source: Computer Hope]

My Documents

My Documents is a folder created automatically by Windows as a convenient repository for any files you create. You’re under no obligation to store your files in My Documents, but it makes sense to use it because storing your files in a central folder makes it easy to locate them and easy to back up. You can then create as many sub-folders as you like within the My Documents folder to organize your files further. My Documents is the default folder for many Windows applications to save your files.

My Documents as a central file store, Windows has gone a step further by placing other special folders including My Pictures and My Music within My Documents.

In fact, you’ll find that Windows Explorer, the file management tool in previous versions of Windows, has faded into the background and has barely maintained its identity as a separate entity. Instead, XP encourages you to access all your files by clicking the Start Button and then selecting My Documents. [Extracted and modified from Geek Girls]

Recycle Bin

The Recycle Bin provides a safety net when deleting files or folders. When you delete any of these items from your hard disk, Windows places it in the Recycle Bin and the Recycle Bin icon changes from empty to full. Items deleted from a floppy disk, pen drives or a network drive are permanently deleted and are not sent to the Recycle Bin.

Items in the Recycle Bin remain there until you decide to permanently delete them from your computer. These items still take up hard disk space and can be undeleted or restored back to their original location. When it fills up, Windows automatically cleans out enough space in the Recycle Bin to accommodate the most recently deleted files and folders.

Windows allocates one Recycle Bin for each partition or hard disk. If your hard disk is partitioned, or if you have more than one hard disk in your computer, you can specify a different size for each Recycle Bin. [ReferenceMicrosoft]

Start Menu

A button on the bottom left corner of your desktop on the TaskBar used to begin almost any task on your computer is Start Button. Windows 95, 98, NT and later up to Windows 7 use the Start button.

A single left-click on the Start button opens the Start menu. In the Programs section of the Start menu, you have access to many of the applications on your computer. In the Settings section of the Start Menu you can access your computer’s settings, printer, TaskBar and Start Menu options. From the Start menu you can also Shut Down your computer and install programs.

If you right-click your mouse on the Start button, a local menu appears. Two items on this menu are particularly useful:

Open: clicking this item opens the Start Menu folder as a window on your desktop. The Start Menu folder contains a Programs shortcut you can double-left-click to open your Programs folder as a window on your desktop. This is an alternate method for accessing your programs and documents.

Explore: clicking this item opens the Windows Explorer. [Source: MFM Software Inc]

[Note Windows Vista and the later ones do not have Open command when you right click the start button. There’s a rumor that Windows 8 will not have Start button at all!]

Windows Explorer

Windows Explorer is the operating systems File and Folder Manager. You’ve probably used Windows Explorer without even realizing it. Every time you open, say, your Documents folder or the photos folder on a memory card, that’s an instance of Windows Explorer. The tool’s fundamental purpose is to let you view, open, copy, move, and otherwise manage your files and folders. So learning how to use it is key for tasks like importing photos from the memory card, copying files to a flash drive, setting up folders to keep your data organized, and so on. [Source: PC World]

Starting and Shutting Down Windows

Starting Windows

Starting Windows is not much harder job than starting your computer in DOS except you’ll have to wait for a few more moments. When you switch on your computer, it boots your system, loads GUI and other drivers and finally starts authentication program. Authentication program will display Log in screen (Welcome Screen) to ask your username and password. After you’ve provided the login credentials, it verifies the data according to system database and displays the desktop, task-bar and icons. When you arrive at the desktop screen with task-bar and icons, Windows is started. Enjoy using your Windows.

Windows can be basically started in 3 different modes – Normal mode, Safe mode and Command Prompt mode.

Normal mode is what we usually start a computer on. It loads all the drivers and is suitable for any tasks. Safe mode is used for diagnostics and repairing or troubleshooting the problems. It loads minimal set of drivers. Command Prompt mode will start your computer to offer a command prompt so that you can enter DOS commands to repair if it can start in Normal mode.

You can choose the mode by pressing F8 while your computer is booting. Pressing F8 will display Advanced Boot Menu.

Shutting Down Windows

You need to save your documents, close all the applications and shut down Windows to turn your computer off after you finished working with it.

It seems like the simplest thing in the world: shutting down your computer. But Windows 7 gives you a number of different ways to do that. Here’s a guide to choosing the best shut down option.

Clicking on the Start button in Windows 7 brings up, among other items, the Shut down button in the lower right-hand side. Next to that button is a triangle; click the triangle to bring up the other shut down options.

Option No. 1: Shut down. If you click the Shut down button itself, without clicking the triangle and opening the other options, Windows 7 ties up all the loose ends and shuts down the computer completely. You would normally do this to turn off your work computer at the end of the day, or your home computer before going to bed.

Option No. 2: Restart. The Restart button “reboots” your computer (it is sometimes called a “warm boot” or “soft boot.”) That means it saves your information to the hard drive, turns off the computer for a moment, then turns it back on again. This is most often done after fixing a problem, adding a new program, or making a configuration change to Windows that requires a restart. Restarts are often needed in troubleshooting scenarios.

Option No. 3: Sleep. Clicking on Sleep puts your computer in a low-power state, but doesn’t turn it off. The main advantage is that it allows you to get back to work quickly, without having to wait for the computer to do a full reboot, which can take several minutes. Normally, pressing the computer’s power button “wakes it up” from Sleep mode, and is ready for action again within seconds.

Sleep is a good mode to use for those times when you’ll be away from your computer for a short period. It saves power (which saves money), and allows you to get back to work quickly. Keep in mind, however, that it does slowly drain the battery; if you’re using a laptop and are low on power, this mode could eventually result in your computer turning itself off.

Option No. 4: Hibernate. Hibernate mode is sort of a compromise between Shut down and Sleep modes. It remembers the current state of your desktop and fully shuts down the computer. So if, for instance, you have a web browser open, a Microsoft Word document and a chat window, it would turn off the computer, while remembering what you were working on. Then, when you start up again, those applications will be waiting for you, right where you left off.

Hibernate mode is intended mainly for laptop and netbook users. If you’ll be away from your laptop for an extended period, and are worried about the battery dying, this is the option to choose. It doesn’t use any power, but still remembers what you were doing.

[Source: About.com]

To shut down windows xp computer system , click on Start button. On the menu that pops up, click on Turn off computer. This will bring up a dialogue box with more options in it. Click “Turn Off.” It is important to remember that turning off the computer by pressing the power button without going through the shut down process may damage the computer.

Selecting Turn Off will shut down your computer completely. Restart will reboot your computer (warm boot). Stand By will cause your computer to go in sleep mode.

Press Shift key when above dialog box is displaying to show Hibernate option instead of Stand By.

File management with Windows Explorer

In computer, we create new files everyday and most of them are stored safely for future use. Every computers naturally have thousands of files. Some are system files required for the computer system itself to operate. Some other are executable files that starts and runs an application. Some are configuration files and some user files. In this pile of files, the task of organize them efficiently and making them readily available whenever required is known as file management.

Following are some of the basic tasks in file management:

• Searching for Files
• Creating Folder Directories
• Saving Files
• Copying Files
• Moving Files
• Deleting Files

The tool in Windows for this task is Windows Explorer. Windows Explorer is the file management application in Windows. Windows Explorer can be used to navigate your hard drive and display the contents of the folders and subfolders you use to organize your files on your hard drive. Windows Explorer is automatically launched any time you open a folder in Windows XP. You can also right-click on a folder and select Explore to open that folder using Windows Explorer.

The following is the standard method to launch Windows Explorer.

• Click on Start, Programs, Accessories, Windows Explorer; or right-click on the Start button and click Explore.
• Size the window for your desired viewing. You can also size each of the vertical windows within the larger one to see all the information.

Common File Management Tasks with Windows Explorer

Selecting Files and Folders

You must select a file or folder before you can use it. After selecting you can take many actions with those files or folders such as cut, copy, move, rename etc.

• To select a single file, click once on it.
• To select a list of files, click once on the top item of a list. Hold the Shift key, then click on the last item of the list.
• To select non-adjacent multiple files one by one, hold down the Ctrl key as you click.

Dragging files and folders

Click on a object and hold down the left mouse button while moving mouse is known as dragging in Windows. Drag to a new location to copy or move the object and release the mouse button.

Windows will copy the dragged file if you drop it in to a different drive but will move if the destination folder is within the same drive.

• Hold Ctrl key while dragging and drop to copy files/folders
• Hold Alt key while dragging and drop to move files/folders

Sending Files to a USB Pen Drive

You many need to transfer files from one computer to another or keep back up copies of important files. USB Pen drive is a very handy device in such situations. Follow the steps to copy files to USB pen drive.

• Insert your memory stick into the USB port
• Start Explorer or My Computer
• Select the file or files you wish to back up
• Right-click the mouse
• Choose Send To >> {Name of Disk} of your USB drive

Creating a new folder

Folders are really helpful to organize files. You can create new folders and sub folders so that you can arrange files logically. Follow the method below to create folders:

• Select the location for the new folder
• From the menu bar select New Folder
• Type the name you wish to give to the new folder then Press Enter.
• To make a sub-folder, open an existing folder and follow the same procedure.

Alternately, you can right-click the location where you need to create new folder and choose New Folder from the context menu.

Renaming files or folders

If ever you wish to change the name of a file or folder, Windows Explorer allows you to do it easily.

• Right click on the file or folder that you want to rename
• From the shortcut menu, choose Rename. The name is highlighted and surrounded by a box, allowing you to overtype the existing name and press Enter.

If you click the name of folder twice (not double click), it will activate rename – a better and quicker way to rename files and folders.

Select multiple files and issue rename command to rename a list of files at once. Windows will name the files with your provided name and serial number.

Deleting Files and Folders

Windows Explorer lets you to delete files and folders easily:

• Select the files that you want to delete
• Press the Delete key on keyboard or right click the files then select Delete from shortcut menu. Click on Yes if you are sure you wish to delete the files.

File names in Windows

File names in Windows can be up to 260 characters long (including extensions) and can contain any characters (including spaces) except the symbols: / : * ” > < |

Give your files short and meaningful names – don’t necessarily use Windows Automatic file naming which can produce bizarre and overly long file names. The filename includes the path name too, i.e. c:Program Filesfilename.ext

Overwriting Files

You may be asked to confirm that existing files should be overwritten. Check the date, time and size of each file carefully before saying yes. New versions of files can easily be overwritten.

Resorting to backup copies

If you have to resort to your latest backup:

• Leave the backup disk write-protected
• Take a copy of the latest backup file and use this for working on
• If your most recent backup is found to be flawed, take a copy of the previous one.

Thus if disaster strikes again, you still have a protected copy of your work.

Searching Files and Folders

If you save a file and then can’t remember what you named it or where it was saved, you can search for the file using the Windows Search feature. Windows allows you to locate files based on file name, a portion of a name, date, and/or the text included in a file. To conduct a search, you can:

• use your START menu and choose Search, or
• right click My Computer, and choose Search.

The Search Results dialog box comes up You can search for documents or multimedia, or even for another computer on
your network. If you can’t remember the whole name of the document, you can enter the part you remember, and add an asterisk. Advanced search options (or choosing “All files and folders”) will let you enter text from the document you are looking for, and select the drive or folder you want to search.

Copying Files and Folders

You can use several methods for copying (and moving) files:

• right clicking,
• clicking a toolbar icon,
• clicking edit, copy on the menu bar,
• pressing ‘control c’ on your keyboard, or dragging your files to another location.

When copying files from one directory or drive to another, you are going to select the file, then use one of these methods to copy it to another location.

Moving Files

The process of moving files from one place to another is essentially the same as copying. When right clicking, or choosing Edit from the menu,

• Select your file.
• Choose cut instead of copy
• Then go to the drive or directory where you want to move the file and select paste.

Manipulating Windows

The sizes of the windows on your screen can be changed so that more windows are visible. Following is a list of common features that can be implemented on all windows.

MAXIMIZE

This function allows you to concentrate on one application by making its window cover the entire screen.

MINIMIZE

This function allows you to keep an application running, but remove it from the desktop area so that other applications can be accessed. The minimized program becomes a bar at the bottom of the screen, and can be accessed by clicking on the bar.

RESIZE

If an application window is not maximized, it can be resized so that more or less content can be seen. If you move your mouse pointer to one of the edges of the window, it will become a two-way arrow. At this point, hold down the left mouse button and drag the
perimeter of the window in or out. When you release the mouse button, the window will resize to your specifications.

CLOSE

This function closes and exits the application you are running. However, if you are running an application such as Microsoft Word, the window of each document will have a close button, and clicking this button will only close that particular document, and not the entire program. It is important to always save your work before using the close feature, as any unsaved changes will be lost.

 

Important Points to Remember

• Graphical User Interface (GUI) is a type of user interface (computer human interface) that allows users to interact with computers.
• GUI is an attempt to solve the blank screen problem of DOS or character user interface.
• GUI have common characteristics WIMP (windows, icons, menus and push-buttons).
• GUI has 3 systems – the windowing system, the imaging model and API.
• Windowing system builds the windows, menus, dialog boxes and so on.
• Imaging model defines the fonts and graphics.
• API is the means in which the user specifies how and what window and graphics appear on the screen.
• There are 3 GUI paradigm – Apple Macintosh, IBM SAA and MIT X-Window System
• The macintosh introduced the first menu, icons, and point-and-click, mouse driven processing.
• X-Windowing System is the most popular GUI for UNIX systems.
• Windows 8 is the latest Windows operating system for client PCs and Windows Server 2008 for the server operating system.
• Desktop, Taskbar, My Computer, My Documents, Recycle Bin, Start Menu, Windows Explorer are some of the basic Windows elements.
• Wallpaper are the images displayed on the background of desktop.
• Start button is placed on the left side on taskbar and system tray on the right. There can be quick launch toolbar after Start button and Language toolbar before system tray. The taskbar area displays the icons of opened applications that can be used to switch between those applications.
• My Computer is used to explore the contents of computer drives as well as manage the computer files.
• The name of My Computer is changed to Computer in windows vista and later.
• My Document is the central file store for any user and the default save location for most of the Windows Applications.
• Recycle bin holds your deleted files. You can restore the files from recycle bin to its original location if required.
• The files are not sent to Recycle Bin if you deleted from pen drives, floppy disks or network drives.
• Hold Shift and press Delete to remove a file from your computer without sending it to Recycle Bin.
• Though you delete files, the disk space is not freed up until you remove the deleted files from recycle bin. So it is a good idea to empty recycle bin in case when you face low disk space problem.
• A single click on Start button opens Start Menu.
• Right click on Start button will produce Open or Explore options.
• Windows Explorer is the Windows’ File and Folder Manager. It is used to view, open, copy, move and otherwise manage your files and folder.
• Shut Down option in Start menu will let to turn off your computer safely.
• You can shut down, restart, sleep or hibernate the computer if you finished working with it or are not using it for some time.
• Hold Shift key on keyboard to show Hibernate option when Turn Off Computer dialog box is displaying.
• You can select multiple files by clicking on the first file in the list and hold Shift while clicking on the last file.
• Multiple non adjacent files can be selected by holding Ctrl while clicking each file.
• Drag and drop will copy if source and destination drive are different otherwise it will move.
• Copy and Paste operation will create duplicate copies of files. To move files use Cut and Paste operation.
• Windows allows you to search files based on file name, a portion of a name, date, and/or the text included in a file.
• File names in Windows can be up to 260 characters long (including extensions) and can contain any characters (including spaces) except the symbols: / : * ” > < |
• You can rename multiple file at once by selecting them and rename.
• Right click and then choose Send To >> Drive name will copy selected file into your pen drive.