Chapter 2 – Introduction to Windows Operating System II Manipulating Windows GUI 1CMPF112 Computing Skills for Engineers

What is GUI? A graphical user interface (or GUI, pronounced "gooey") is a method of interacting with a computer through a metaphor of direct manipulation of graphical images and widgets in addition to text. Graphical User Interface is a graphical way to represent the operating system. Allows user to use a mouse or keystrokes to select icons and commands from menus 2CMPF112 Computing Skills for Engineers

What is GUI? A type of user interface item that allows people to interact with programs in more ways than typing such as computers. Offers graphical icons, and visual indicators, as opposed to text-based interfaces, typed command labels or text navigation to fully represent the information and actions available to a user 3CMPF112 Computing Skills for Engineers

What is Widget? A widget is a graphical component, or control, that the user interacts with, such as a window or a text box. CMPF112 Computing Skills for Engineers4 Button Check box Radio button Combo box Icon Text box (edit field) Tool tips Scrollbar Status bar Toolbar Menu command menu context menu pie menu Window Panel dialog box, modal window

What is a Windows? A portion of the screen (in graphical form) where programs and processes can be run. You can open several windows at the same time. For example, you can open your in one window, work on a budget in a spreadsheet in another, download pictures from your digital camera in another window, and order your weekly groceries on the Web in another window. Windows can be closed, resized, moved, minimized to a button on the taskbar, or maximized to take up the whole screen. CMPF112 Computing Skills for Engineers5

What is an Icon? An icon in Windows is a small picture or object that represents a file, program, web page, or command that can be manipulated by the user. Icons serve as visual mnemonics and allow the user to control certain computer actions without having to remember commands or type them at the keyboard. There are 4 default icons which are placed on a standard Windows desktop and come with the Windows OS package. My Computer My Document Recycle Bin My Network Places CMPF112 Computing Skills for Engineers6

Icon – My Computer Contents of your floppy disk, hard disk, CD-ROM drive, and network drives. Search for and open files and folders, and gain access to options in Control Panel Double click on any of the icon and user can see what is stored on each drive CMPF112 Computing Skills for Engineers7

Icon – My Documents Personal folder. It contains two specialized personal folders, My Pictures and My Music. In Windows Vista, "My Documents" has been renamed to simply, "Documents". "My Music", "My Pictures" and "My Videos" have also lost their prefix, You can make your personal folders available to each person with a user account on this computer, You can make them private so that only you can access the files within them. Any files created will be stored in the My Document folder (by default) CMPF112 Computing Skills for Engineers8

Icon – My Network Places Provides a view of all the shared computers, files and folders, printers, and other resources on the network to which your computer is connected ( e.g. Local Area Network – LAN). My Network Places presents a view of the network similar to the view of your computer presented by Windows Explorer. CMPF112 Computing Skills for Engineers9

Icon – Recycle Bin All deleted item/data will be stored here. Deleted data can be recovered here. To permanently delete a file, just click Empty The Recycle Bin. The following items are not stored in the Recycle Bin and cannot be restored: ◦ Items deleted from network locations. ◦ Items deleted from removable media (such as 3.5-inch disks). ◦ Items that are larger than the storage capacity of the Recycle Bin. CMPF112 Computing Skills for Engineers10

Features of Windows GUI Task Bar Files and Folders Start menu Windows Explorer Windows Find tool (choose Find or Search from the Start menu) CMPF112 Computing Skills for Engineers11

Features of Windows GUI CMPF112 Computing Skills for Engineers12 Files & Folders Find/Search tools Start Menu Task Bar Desktop Explorer

Task Bar The task bar is the place for the Start button, clock and volume. The task bar gives you a log of all programs you have opened. To switch programs, click on the icon buttons on the taskbar To view the properties of the task bar : Click Start Setting Taskbar Properties CMPF112 Computing Skills for Engineers13

Files & Folders A file is a collection of information that the computer and the user uses. It is always in a particular format/extension, ◦ i.e..doc,.pdf,.txt,.jpg,.avi,.mp3,.bat,.exe You can arrange up files into folders (or directories) to organize them and make them easily accessible using My Computer/Windows Explorer. Folders can have sub-folders as well for further organization CMPF112 Computing Skills for Engineers14

Files & Folders There are several thing that can be done to files and folders. User can create folder and file, move and copy files or folders, rename file and folder, delete file or folder, launching program, find file or folder and save file. CMPF112 Computing Skills for Engineers15

Start Menu After clicking on the Start menu, a menu appears giving you a quick way to handle common tasks. You can launch programs, call up documents, change systems settings, get help and shut down your PC. CMPF112 Computing Skills for Engineers16

Windows Explorer Hierarchical structure of files, folders, and drives on your computer. It also shows any network drives that have been mapped to drive letters on your computer. Using Windows Explorer, you can copy, move, rename, and search for files and folders The right pane is the Folders pane, where a user can select a folder to display its content in the right pane. The plus (+) sign can be clicked to display a list of what it contains A folder in the right pane can be double-clicked to display subfolders or files CMPF112 Computing Skills for Engineers17

Continue to notes given. CMPF112 Computing Skills for Engineers18