INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTING Class
taught by John King

Fourth Monday, 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM at the Embassy Suites Hotel, just before the general meeting.  2006 schedule:

Class 1. Computer Hardware – What’s Inside the Box?

• Why would you want to open your PC?

• Motherboard, CPU, RAM and plug in cards

• Hard drives, floppy drives and cables

• Cases, fans and power supplies

• We’ll assemble a working PC on the desktop.

Class 2. Booting Up and Starting Windows

• What happens during boot up?

• The BIOS and BIOS updates

• BIOS Settings you might need to change

• Jargon explained: CPU, RAM, ROM, BIOS, CMOS…

• Where to find more help

Class 3. Hard Disk Organization and Windows Utilities

• Hard Disk organization overview

• Using Windows Explorer for disk and file management

• The Search utility

• The Windows Recycle Bin - restoring deleted files

• Disk Error Checking, Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter

Class 4. When Windows Won’t Start – Protection and Recovery

• Reasons why Windows won’t start

• Preventive steps you should take now

• Troubleshooting, Repairing and startup problems

• Windows startup options – the F8 key

• What you need for a full reinstall of everything

• Backup: What, Where and How

Class 5. What Mother Should Have Told Me About Windows

• The Windows Desktop

• Start Menu and Taskbar features

• How to create and use Shortcuts to files and folders

• Control Panel hardware settings

Class 6. Preparing to Surf the Internet

• Internet Service Provider options

• Configuring an e-mail account

• Internet Explorer (browser) shortcuts and settings

• Internet Security: Anti-virus, Firewalls, Windows Updates, Anti-Spyware, etc.

Copyright © 2006 Golden Gate Computer Society. All rights reserved.