Lesson 2.

1 Windows

Slideshow created by Sarel Myburgh

Updated by Savon (25-Feb-23)
Navigating windows

To use a computer, we must know how to navigate it.

Navigating means finding your way around the computer, knowing how to use folders and
how to get to different programs.

Let’s have a look at the terminology we are going to use during this course.
The Desktop
● Window
● Folders
● Files
● Icons
● Taskbar
● System Tray
● Quick Launch
● Start Menu
Explorer

This is used to navigate Windows. You can use it to find, create, delete, move, and sort files
and folders.

Files are the things like videos, pictures or documents.

If you have a lot of files which are the same (eg, Songs or Movies), you can make a folder to
keep them together.

Folders help keep the computer nice and tidy!

We will learn how to make a folder a little bit later.

Explorer
● Logical drives
● Quick Access shortcuts
● Search Bar
● Address bar
● Layout settings
● Navigation buttons
● Menu
● Navigation Tree
Context Menus

When we right click, we get a dropdown

menu

This menu gives us some more option for

the thing we right clicked on, for example:

● Right clicking on a file can give you

options to delete, copy or move it.
● Right clicking on the Recycle Bin
allows you to empty it
● Right clicking on an image allows you
to set it as a wallpaper.
Making folders

Let’s make a new folder with the

context menu!

1. Right click on an empty space

where you want to make your
folder 3. Click on Folder
1.Right click
2. Hover your mouse over New
3. Click on Folder

Now it has created a folder called New

Folder. You can rename this to 2. Hover your mouse (don’t
whatever you want. click)
Searching with Explorer
Sometimes we need to find a file, but we do not know where it is! To find the file, we need to use the
search bar, at the top right of the window. Just enter the name of the file, and it should show up.

You can use a wildcard in your search (*). This is like a Joker. If you search for *.pdf it will give you all
the pdf files. Note in the picture how all of the results end in .exe

Note: Search only finds files in the folder you are in right now, as well as subfolders.
 Folder Management

A tidy computer is a happy computer!

We need to organize all of our files so that we know exactly what is where. It also helps us know which files
are old or useless, and which ones are important.

You don’t throw your favourite clothes on the floor, so why would you throw your important files on the
desktop?

You can have folders in folders to help organize even more. For example, if I have a lot of movies I can
organize my folders like this:

C:\Videos\Movies\Horror\2017\IT
Keyboard Navigation

Sometimes your mouse does not work, or you use

a laptop and using the trackpad is a pain in the
neck. What do you do? Use the keyboard to
navigate!

Let’s look at some of the buttons on the keyboard

and how they can help us navigate around our
computer.
 Shortcuts

Along with our navigation buttons (arrows), we can use keyboard shortcuts to make our jobs
even easier and faster! Let’s take a look at the most common shortcuts:

● CTRL-C Copy ● ALT-TAB Switch Windows

● CTRL-V Paste ● CTRL-ALT-DEL Logout
● CTRL-X Cut ● CTRL-SHIFT-ESC Task Manager
● CTRL-Z Undo ● ALT-F4 Exit program
● CTRL-A Select All ● ALT-numpad Special letters (é)
● CTRL-S Save ● ALT-SHIFT Change language
● CTRL-P
Print ● Backspace Go back
Conclusion

In this slide we learned:

● How to navigate Explorer, with and without a mouse!

● Common keyboard shortcuts
● The different parts of a window and the desktop
● How context menus work
● How folders work
● How to keep our files tidy!