Logging On and Desktop To Windows XP

Logging On To Windows XP

Every user on the windows XP network has a unique Login ID, known as an account that is created by the system administrator. Windows XP prompts the user to logon by selecting the login ID from the list of authentic user as shown in the following figure.

On selecting the user name, the system configures the settings according to the user while displaying the welcome screen. After logging the user into the system, the windows XP Desktop screen is displayed. The Desktop is the area from where menus can be invoked objects on the computer or network accessed.

Note : When you access the windows XP system for the first time after installation, the system doesn’t prompt you for a username.

The Windows XP Desktop

When you start windows XP, you see icons displayed on the desktop. The desktop is the first view of the windows XP operating system. The desktop contains icons, short cuts and the taskbar. The user can navigate the user interface using the taskbar or the Start menu.

Desktop Icons

The following figure shows the desktop.

When you login for the first time, the desktop contains only one icon for the Recycle Bin.

Note : Windows XP works in adaptive mode and deeps adding icons to your desktop as you work with various applications. It is also possible to hide the icons of the desktop by clicking the right mouse button on the desktop and selection Personalize option followed by the Change Desktop Icons option, click on check box the following option Computer, User's Files, Network etc under Desktop Icon Menu and click on apply. This option acts in toggle mode and can be clicked again to show the icons on the Desktop.

Recycle Bin

Windows  stores deleted files in the Recycle Bin, which is located on desktop. You can use the Recycle Bin to retrieve files that you have accidentally deleted, or empty the Recycle Bin to create more disk space.

Taskbar

The taskbar is bar that appears at the bottom of the windows XP desktop as displayed in the windows XP desktop figure. The Start button is at the extreme left of the taskbar. All the applications that are running appear as minimized buttons on the taskbar. The current window is displayed as a pressed button; all other applications are displayed as raised buttons. You can click on an inactive application to make it active and it will be displayed as the current window. The taskbar thus makes it easier to switch between applications.

Start Menu

The Start menu is a menu located at the extreme left of the taskbar. Start menu provides links to all the programs/applications and documents.

The Start button opens a menu that displays the username of the current user on the top and makes the following main options available with a single click:

•   My Computer

• Control Panel

•   Help and Support

• All Programs

•   Switch User – Log Off, Restart, Sleep, Shut Down

The Start menu also displays options to execute frequently used applications which have been installed on your system.

From the Start menu, you can customize the look and feel of windows; find files and folders and log-ff or turn-off your computer. For some items, a submenu opens to the side of the main item to display a list of options for that item.

Working With Windows XP

A window is essentially a rectangular area on your screen in which you can view an application or document. You can open, close, move and change the size of windows. You can open more than one window at a time, and you can even minimize a window to an icon or enlarge it to fill the entire desktop.

Components of a window

A typical window appears as shown in the following figure.

As can be observed from the above figure, a window consist of a title bar, control buttons such as Close, Minimize and Maximize buttons, and a handle that appears when the mouse pointer is placed at the border of the windows. Let us understand how these components help us to work with windows.

Moving a Window

Let us take an example of “Program Files” folder in drive C:. You can double click on the folder to open the window. This window can be moved by placing your mouse pointer on the title bar that is at the top of the window and moving the mouse with the left button pressed to the required location. This will enable you to move the window anywhere on the screen.

Resizing a window

You can change the size of a window and make it big or small using the handle that appear at the four borders of the window. The mouse pointer changes to a handle when it is placed at the border of a window. You can drag (move the mouse with the left button pressed) to move the handle inwards or outwards to change the size of the window to smaller or larger respectively.

The size of the window can increase width-wise or length-wise as required by you.

Using Control Buttons

Every window has three buttons on the right-upper corner that can be used to minimize, maximize and close the window.

In a maximized window, the maximized button is replaced by the restore button as shown below.

Working With Menus and Dialog Boxes

To enable you to perform actions within a window, you have to work with windows menus and dialog boxes.

Menus

A menu is a list of available commands in an application window. The names of the menu appear on the topside of a window. The window menu, which can be used to manipulate a window, is represented by the program icon at the extreme left of the title bar and is common to all windows XP applications. You can open a menu by clicking the menu name. Let us discuss how you can use menus to open applications.

Starting an Application

To start an application, select the All Programs option from the start menu and click on the program application you want to execute. The All Programs option displays a submenu with a list of suboptions as displayed below.

Thus the Start menu is used to launch various applications. Alternatively, applications can also be launched through the Run option of the Start menu. The user needs to specify the name of the executable file and the application is launched. Following figure shows the Run dialog box.

Opening Documents

You can quickly access a recently used document using the My Recent Document option of the Start menu. This option will open a sub menu that will display about 12 to 15 recently used documents. Click on a document to open it.

Working With a Dialog Box

To perform any action on an object in Windows XP, you will have to interact with a dialog box. For example, if you open Notepad application and want to save a file you will have to use the Save As option in the File menu of an application.

When you select Save As from the menu as shown in the above figure, the Save As dialog box will be displayed.

You can click on the Help button at the top right hand corner of the dialog box to get more information about any of the items in the box. A pop-up window will display the required information and you can close the window by clicking inside it.

LOGGING OFF

The Log Off option on the Start menu enables you to close your current session. The following screen is displayed.

The two options available on the Log Off Windows screen are:

• Switch User

• Log Off

If you select Log Off option, the current session will be closed stopping all the running applications. Alternatively, when you select the Switch User option, the system will prompt you to select the user name to begin a new session. In this case, unlike the Log Off option, all the programs of your previous session are kept alive.

TURNING OFF YOUR COMPUTER

The Turn Off option on the Start menu enables you to shout down your computer. The following screen is displayed.

The three option available on the Turn Off Computer screen are:

• Hibernate – If you select this option, the system saves your desktop state to the hard disk and proceeds to shut down the computer. When you start the computer again, the saved desktop state is retrieved from the disk and displayed accordingly.

• Turn Off – If you select this option, the system closes all programs and shuts down the computer.

• Restart – This option will shut down the computer and then restart it.