What is a CD Rom? What is a CD Rom used For?

What is a CD Rom? CD is short for compact disc!



Unlike the Floppy disk or the hard drive that are magnetic storage CD Roms are optic storage. They are read by a very fine laser beam. My children love to think of Star Wars when I say that! Floppy disk's lifespan can be very short, and to be honest can be very fragile! Keep in mind some floppy disks are better than others, but overall its scarey to depend on them. Magnetics can wear out quickly where as the CD rom? Its can take a licking and keep on ticking as the commerical says! Please don't take that to mean you need to abuse them. You don't want to do that either! CD Roms can wear out as well, but most of the time if you take care of them its measured in spans of 10 years or more!

Besides the durable nature of the CD rom lets look at storage space compared to Floppy disk. You can place an entire encylopedia on a CD rom. If you were to place that on Floppy disks? It would be more than 400 disks to have the same information. CD roms are cheap, durable, and hold LOADS of information!

I have a friend of mine that is intimidated by loading a CD rom into her computer. I remember asking her if she ever loaded a compact disk into her CD player, or a DVD into her DVD player? She gave me the 'your kidding me right' look as she rolled her eyes stare. (YEP I was being sarcastic at the time) I told her then you have ALL the technical expertise required to load discs into your computer CD or DVD Drive!

Be sure to handle the disc only by its edges so that you don't scratch the surface or get any dirt or finger prints on it.

If your drive has a open slot on the front of your computer for the CD rom slide the shiny side down (label on top) into the slot.

If your drive as a drive tray: Press the load/eject button on the front of the drive to open it. Then lay the disc down in the tray (shiny down, label up), and press the load/eject button again.

This would be an example of the label. You see the title or the name of the CD rom.

CD Rom label side UP placed in the CD ROm drive!



If you ever have an issue with playing a CD or DVD it may be a little dirty. To clean the CD Rom get a small lint-free cloth. Wipe the CD Rom from the center of the disc to the outside of the disk. Don't clean in a circular motion of the CD Rom. Make sure you wipe the shiny side, and not the side with the label (it has the writing on it). The computer reads the shinny side. If you get something sticky on it? Dampen your cloth with a little distilled water, and wipe as I mentioned above. Wait until your CD rom is completely DRY before inserting it to try to use it again.

What is the CD rom? What is a CD rom used for? The CD rom is used for storage basically, and most programs now days are CD roms. There are different types of CD roms as well, and we will go over that in another lesson.

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Where is CD Drive?

In previous lessons I was trying to explain the different types of disk drives. The last type of disk drive is called the CD Drive that you place CD Roms in. Let me show you a picture of the drive with a CD Rom in it.


For my computer the E drive is my CD rom drive. How did I figure that out?


You can either go to 'my computer' on your desktop, OR

Vista has renamed "My computer" to just 'Computer'.

Most of the time Windows Vista and XP don't have their version of 'my computer' on the desktop. If you have it on your desktop it could look similar to this:



If you see 'my computer' or 'computer' like pictured above on your desktop double click it at this point.


If you don't have one of those icons above (or similar) Hit your start button, and then go to computer (newer systems like Vista) or 'my computer' for other versions of windows. You should see a bunch of disk drives with letters. We are only concerned with those at this point. We will go over the other items you see later (if you have any).



Keep in mind your 'my computer' or 'computer' screen may be a little different then pictured, but the principle is the same.

You may see pictures of drives and letters. C Drive is normally your Hard Disk Drive. In some of the newer systems you will actually SEE a picture of a CD rom like above, and at times your drives will be named for you (windows, floppy, CDrom, DVD, etc). My CD rom drive says, "DVD RW DRIVE". At times some computers DON'T make it that easy for you to identify things! That will be in a future lesson about device manager.

We will look at the device manager in a future lesson, and you will see how your computer identifies your CD Rom among other things! Where is the CD Drive? For now check under your 'my computer' or 'computer' section on your computer.

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What is an Operating System?

What is an Operating System? The operating system of your computer is the is the MOST important program, and basically the backbone of your computer. We deal with Windows PC's on this blog, and your operating system can be called:

Windows Vista
Windows XP
Windows 2000
Windows ME
Windows 98
Windows 95

Those are some of the names that seem to be the most popular for operating systems software for your computer.

If you are reading about operating systems you may see people call them OS or O/S. Those are short abreviations for the word 'operating system'.

The purpose of an operating system is to organize and control hardware and software so that the device it lives in behaves in a flexible but predictable way.

Believe it or not operating systems have started to pop up in smaller computers as well. If you tinker with electronic devices, you're probably thrilled to know that operating systems can now be found on many of the devices we use every day, from cell phones to video games. The computers used in these devices have gotten so powerful that they can now actually run an operating system and applications. The computer in a typical cell phone is now more powerful than a desktop computer from 20 years ago. Hard to believe isn't it?

What is an operating system? You see it as Windows Vista, or one of the others titles I mentioned above. What does an operating system do? It provides basic instructions your computer needs to function.

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What is a Disk Drive? Where is the C Drive?

What is a Disk Drive? Yesterday when I was writing about the floppy drive or A drive I mentioned they are basically storage units!

As I mentioned most of the time computers will have 3 main drives. The A Drive as went over yesterday is the Floppy Disk Drive. A C Drive that we will talk about today, and later we will go into CD-Rom drives. SURE Computers CAN have more than 3 drives, and I want to try to hit the basics first!

Today we want to talk about the C Drive or Hard Disk Drive. The Hard drive is INSIDE your computer so you don't have to use a disk or CD rom. Below is a picture of what it looks like.



Earlier we had gone over what 'my computer' was, and if you look at the pictures you will see the drives and their letters. Its basically the names of the drives that the computer uses.



As you can see the A drive is the floppy disk drive. (B Drives can be floppy disks also!) C Drive, D Drive, E Drive in the picture look like Hard Drives. Normally C drive is your primary. There are times in which computer hard drives are paritioned (or divided basically), and that is why you may see more than one hard drive letter. The actual hard drive (C) is called the physical drive, and the paritioned (or divided pieces) is called a logical drive.

Example of a partition

In some of the newer computers the vendors don't supply all the original software with your computer anymore, but they can partition (or divide) the drive to store all the original software including windows on a small parition. If you have a newer computer, and you have a restore option to return to how your computer was when you took it out of the box? Chances are the window restore is using that paritioned drive to do that for you.

That is NOT to say that you can't have MORE than one hard drive on your computer! You can do that as well. Years ago I have a computer that needed more hard drive space, and it was just easier to add a second hard drive instead of upgrading it. I basically left all the original software that the computer used on one drive, and then my files (like letters, spreadsheets, etc) on the second drive. Personally, I thought it was a pain...lol and I don't miss it AT ALL!

Most of the time I would say if it is a newer computer chances are your computer has partitions instead of additional hard drives. If a visual will help you understand here is a picture of a pie chart.



The Green portion could be for your use - the C Drive. The small blue part? That would be the partitioned portion - or logical drive. Per the example I gave before it could be where your computer vendor stored your original software that came with your computer!

I hope I was clear on what a disk drive is, and made sense of what your C drive is as well. Remember you can ask any questions in my comment section, and don't forget to enter your email address to have the lessons sent to you as I write them!



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What is a Floppy disk drive? A Drive?

What is a Floppy disk drive? What is A Drive?

Disk drives are part of your computer that actually stores your information - at times externally (outside the computer). At times you will get these disks that contain programs that you can load into your computer to use. Other times if you have a file (maybe a letter, spreadsheet, etc) that you would like to share with someone else you can copy this information onto a disk for the party to load onto their computer. I guess the short and the sweet version of disk drives? They are storage units!

Today we are going to show you what a Floppy Disk Drive, or 'A DRIVE' is!

Most computers have at least 3 disk drives, but some can have more or less. Your computer names those drives to identify them. Most of the time you will see see A, C and D drives. Normally if you see a B drive its additional floppy drive.

Floppy Drives look similar to this:


The slit may be horizontal or vertical depending on how your computer is setup.
The above happens to be a 3.5" drive. The disk itself is 3.5" .



Keep in mind some computers have MORE than one of these drives, but Drive A is normally your floppy drive. Drive B can be the second one. Some of the newer computers no longer have floppy drive at all, so don't panic if you don't see it. Most programs are now distributed on CD's or CD roms.



There are some older computers that also have the larger version of the floppy disk drive that is 5.25". You don't see these much anymore, but I used to use these to store my files on in college! Showing my age here?!



I hope this lesson helped you identify what a floppy disk drive or 'a drive' is. If you have ANY questions please feel free to leave a comment on this blog. You can also enter your email below, and get sent new lessons as I get done writing them!

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Where is 'My Computer' located?

 

Where is 'My Computer' Located, and what is 'My Computer'?

 

Today’s How-To Guide For the Computer Beginner is locating the My Computer Icon, and what the ‘My Computer’ is!

 

NOTE:  Some newer versions of windows does not have the 'my computer' icons on their desktop, and we will go over how to place it there. 

 

Lastly, also note in newer versions of window (Ie Vista, 7) they call it just ‘computer’ not ‘my computer’

We will start with the older versions of windows, and then move to the newer versions.

Starting with some versions of Microsoft Windows 95 and included with all versions of Windows after that included 'My Computer'. My Computer allows the user to explore the contents of their computer drives (IE: C drive, A Drive, Etc) as well as manage their computer files.

Below are some common icon's you will see for your 'my computer' which should be on your desktop!  Once we locate this on our desktop we can see the contents of our computer drives by double clicking on them.

 

 

 

 

As I mentioned before 'My computer' for Vista, Seven (7) is just named 'computer' NOT My Computer, and your icon on the desktop should look similar to the picture I supplied.

 

 

 

 

The only thing missing is the word ‘my’ with the new operating systems.  (Giggles) YES it does the same thing as described above.

On your desktop you should see 'my computer' icon (or ‘computer’ with new operating systems).

 

Double-click the My Computer icon, this icon is almost always located on the top left portion of the desktop and should look similar to the icons above as I mentioned.

Here are some screenshots from different versions of windows 'my computer' once you double click the icon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At times in Windows XP and Windows Vista and Windows 7 you will not see the My Computer Icon on your Desktop.

 

If you want to place it there you can!

'My Computer' Icon for Windows XP

 

Let’s place our ‘my computer’ icon on the desktop!

 

 

Right-click on the Desktop (an empty spot) and click Properties.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the Display Properties window click the Desktop tab you will see towards the top of the picture (themes, desktop, screensaver, etc).

 

Click the Customize Desktop button, which you will find towards the bottom of this picture. Its almost right on top of the OK Button.  The next picture is similar to what you should see next.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Within the General tab (see top again), check or uncheck the desktop icons you wish to display on the Desktop.

 

If you at our picture (towards top) you will see items like: My Documents, My Computer, My Network places, Internet Explorer are all selected. This means all of them will now appear on your desktop.

 

If you do not want one or more of them on your desktop? Remove the check mark by clicking on the box.

 

Make your own selections on your computer.  Make the choices you have to be placed on the desktop, or remove the ones you don’t wish there.  Click OK when finished.

 

 

 

 

You can click OKAY to the rest of your screens that had come up at this point to get out of this application, and view your desktop.  THEY should BE THERE!

'My Computer' Icon for Windows Vista

Keep in mind in Vista its called, “Computer” not “MY computer”

To put the Computer icon on the desktop,

 

 

 
Click the Start button(1) , and

then right-click on "Computer"(2).

 

 

 

Click the "Show on Desktop" (3) item in the menu, and your Computer icon will show up on the desktop automatically.   Check your desktop NOW for your ‘computer’ icon.  Remember in newer operating systems they no longer call this ‘my computer’, but ‘computer’.

 

OR another way to find My Computer to place on the Desktop:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right-click on the desktop and choose Personalize (blue Finger),

 

 

 

 

then click on "Change Desktop Icons" on the left-hand side of the screen(Right Finger).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the Desktop Icon setting  panel you can choose which of the built-in icons to show on the desktop. In our case we are after 'computer', because Vista doesn’t call it MY computer.

 

In the picture I have supplied, the red finger is pointing at “COMPUTER”, but right next to it is the recycle bin.  I have chosen to place the computer and recycle bin on the desktop by making sure the check marks are present.  If I didn’t wish for one or the other to be  on the desktop?  I would make sure no check mark is present like pictured for ‘user files, control panel, or network’ that are pictured here.

 

Once you have completed your choices you will then click ‘ok’ to let the computer know you are finished.

 

You know now how to find where the 'my computer' icon is located!

 

I hope you enjoyed today’s How-To Guide For the Computer Beginner lesson on where is the My Computer Icon.

If you have ANY questions please feel free to leave a comment on this blog were I have indicated.

 

You can also enter your email below, and get sent new lessons as I get done writing them!

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What is a scrollbar?

What is a scroll bar? Look to the left side of your screen, and you will see the scrollbar as well as the scroll arrow and scroll box. Below is an image of a scrollbar and I identified the parts for you.



The scrollbar on the right enables you to scroll up the screen and scroll down the screen. At times you will also see a scrollbar along the bottom of your screen as well. This allows you to scroll your screen to the left and scroll your screen to the right. It basically brings you to areas of your screen that are hidden from view.

The scroll bar has a scroll box inside of that. If you wish to go to the top or the bottom of the screen that is NOT in view you would place your mouse pointer over that scroll box, and then hold it down and your glide your mouse up and down.

The scroll arrow is nice when you have a VERY long page, and you want to go directly to the top or the bottom of the page you are using quickly. Click on the scroll arrow direction you wish, and you will scroll directly to the top or bottom of the screen.

Take a look at a humorous example of a scrollbar in action!



I love IT! Hope you enjoyed our lesson on what is a scrollbar. Try it on your screen now using your scroll box, and the scroll arrow to try it yourself!


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