Using Your Computer

To begin with, you should probably be aware that every box comes with the manufacturer’s instructions on how to assemble the computer. Follow these to the letter and you will find the going really simple.

Setup

1. Start by unpacking the box and carefully laying out every part that came in the box. Keep your manual ready with you and first identify each and every item that you pull out. The most basic computer package will contain the PC tower, a keyboard and a mouse. If you have purchased a package deal your box will also contain the monitor.

2. Now take a close look at the back of the computer – you will find a number of receptacles where connections for the monitor, keyboard and mouse are made. The receptacles are always color-coded and follow the same code universally.
3. Before you start making the connections, identify where you will be placing the tower and the two input devices. Do not place the tower in a very tightly confined area or inside a closed cabinet. The tower needs to be in a place where there is plenty of air circulation so that it stays cool.

4. Never leave the PC on while making the connections. It is likely that as you are making the connections, something causes a sensitive part in the PC to blow up. Turn all devices off before you start making the connections.

5. Now, pull out the manual and try to identify the various spots on the PC tower where the monitor, keyboard and mouse will be connected. With both the cable ends as well as the receptacles being color coded, this step should be easy to do.

6. Let us now start making the actual connections. Ensure that you connect the unit through an Uninterrupted Power Supply, or UPS. Identify the three-pronged plug meant for the computer. Now connect this to the back of the computer – usually the receptacle for this is in the top left corner. Connect the plug to the UPS. You will need to connect the computer to a battery protected receptacle so refer to the instruction manual that came with the UPS to make sure that you have connected it right.

7. Now identify the power cord of the monitor and connect this to another battery-protected receptacle on the UPS. Take the VGA cord and connect one end to the monitor and the other end to the computer. All you need to do is to tighten the connector nuts but take care that you do not over tighten them.

8. Take the mouse cord and look at the connector end – you will see that it is colored purple. Identify the receptacle on the back of the computer that is coded purple and connect the mouse cord there.

9. Finally, take the keyboard cord and look at the connector end – this time it will be coded green. Again, identify which receptacle is coded green and connect the keyboard there.

10. Once you have made all the connections, you might want to ensure that all the cables are connected correctly, that they are not being stretched at any point and finally, that they are tied up with some cable ties to ensure a proper management of all wires.

You are now ready to turn on your computer system. Power the computer on by just pressing the power button. Within seconds you should see the Welcome screen! You have managed to successfully set up your computer.

What Makes it All Work

When you work on a computer, you may be working with special applications like word processing software or a browser to surf the Internet or a player to listen to some music. The main software that organizes various applications, decides how much of computer resources should be given to each application and in general ensures an efficient working of the computer system is called the operating system. The operating system allows you to communicate effectively with various devices, to run different applications at the same time, to manage data and to run various maintenance tasks.

There are different kinds of operating systems – you can find desktops and laptops with the latest version of Windows or Linux operating system. Macintosh computers are always equipped with Mac OS X operating system. Regardless of which operating system you use, most of the functionality and features that we will be describing will exist in some form or the other in almost all operating systems.

For our purpose and for the purpose of this ebook, we will be using and talking about the Windows operating system as it remains till date, one of the most widely used operating systems in the world.

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