The Desktop is the starting point for all Windows operations.
Desktops often have two trays filled with icons for various tasks or programs that the computer can execute. The speaker icon in the right-hand tray, for example, when left-clicked, presents a slider to adjust speaker sound volume.
The right-hand tray icons often represent programs that have at least a portion of themselves resident in RAM. This means that they use resource even though they may not be doing anything for you at a particular moment. Don't allow too many things in this tray.
The left-hand tray is just a repository for icons of commonly used programs and saves you the need for multiple mouse clicks to get a program started.
The Desktop itself is a blue color and may have many shortcut icons on its surface. The Desktop will always have at least 4 icons present. A 5th will be present if you have your computer connected to a network.
Right-clicking on any of the blue of the Desktop will bring up a context menu.
The start button is located at the bottom left corner of your desktop screen. It is situated on the left edge of the Taskbar. A single left-click on this button will launch a popup menu that will look something like
As you move your mouse pointer up and down on this menu, the menu items will become highlighted with a blue band of color.
Note that the four items at the top of the list have small triangles at their far right. Holding your mouse pointer or left-clicking on one of these items will cause a fly-out submenu to appear.
Note that the last two items have three periods after the text. This indicates that a dialog box will appear asking for additional information to complete the particular action.
A left-click on the Turn off computer... item will open the Turn off the computer options dialog box. All computers should have at least three options. Your computers will have a Restart, Turn Off, and Stand By as Administrator choice.
The Turn Off option shuts down Windows XP. Windows stores a number of things about its state prior to its shut down. On many computers, selecting Turn Off will do the storing and automatically shut off the computer. On other computers, you should wait for the message: "It is now safe for you to turn off your computer."
The Restart option shuts down Windows XP and immediately restarts it.
In some instances, a program "freezes" the computer and will not allow a selection of the Turn off computer dialog box. In those instances, you might try to hold down the control and alt key and tap the delete key. This may present you with the Windows Task Manager dialog box and enable you to left-click on the End Task button to stop the offending operation. In other instances, you may have no choice but to turn off the computer at the switch, wait for 20-30 seconds and then turn it back on. This will sometimes cause a Windows utility program called ScanDisk to execute. ScanDisk scans your disk(s) for any errors that might have been introduced by the abnormal shutodown procedure. Ordinarily, you need not "save" anything that ScanDisk offers you.
Stand By puts your computer into a low power state and is most useful with battery powered notebook computers. Desktop computers have little need for Stand By mode.
A left-click on the Run menu item will open the Run Window. If you know the exact path of a program file, you can type that information into the box to the right of Open: and then left-click on OK or simply press Enter.
Entering a program file will start that program. Entering a document file (from a word processor) will open that document within the word processor program.
If you are not certain of the exact path to a file, you can browse for it by left-clicking on the browse button. This generates a dialog box with a directory structure within and allows you to search through a disk for the appropriate file. Once located, you must left-click on the file name and then left-click the Open button. This returns you to the Run window with the file and its associated path properly inserted. You may then left-click on OK or press Enter.
Clicking on the downward pointing triangle to the right of where you enter the program name will drop down a list of files that you have recently launched from the Run window. Left-clicking on one of those names will insert the program or document name properly in the Run window. You may then left-click on OK or press Enter.
Windows XP has a great Help file set. A left-click on the Help and Support menu item takes you to the Help and Support window which is depicted below.
The Help window has four tabs at the top. The first, Contents, displays the window at the left. Each item is a general topic. Users new to Windows XP can profit from browsing through these items.
To see the contents of the Troubleshooting topic, you left-click on the item to select it and then left-click on Open or press Enter.
Another option available to you from the original Help selection is the Index tab. Index, when selected by a left-click, displays a windows something like that pictured below. As you type in letters of word(s) describing the item you wish help about, the index list moves to appropriate areas.
Another tab option available from the Help menu choice is Search. Enter a word or phrase and search the Help database for help on it.
Left-clicking on the Search item of the Start button menu opens a small dialog box with a number of options to perform searches. At a minimum, any Windows XP computer will have the "For Files or Folders..." option. We are going to deal more with the Search options when we discuss Explorer, Microsoft's file manager utility.
Moving your mouse pointer over the Settings item of the Start menu opens a small dialog box. There will be at least three items that you can choose from. Left-clicking on Printers will bring up a folder window that displays a view of all the printers installed on your computer, each represented by an icon and some descriptive words.
Left-clicking on Printers and Faxes brings to the following window:
The Add Printer option is available on any computer. It is actually a "wizard" that will lead you step-by-step through the installation of any printer that might be attached to your computer.
There are three printer possibilities on this computer. Yours may have only one or two.
Double-left-clicking the Add Printer icon launches this wizard.
The other printer icons present depend on which printers you have attached to your computer.
If you select such an installed printer icon and left-click on the File on the menu bar, you enable a drop-down menu with a number of choices.
These include:
Setting the printer as the default printer-- the printer to which all print jobs will go when you choose to print.
Printing preferences.
Pausing all print jobs sent to that printer.
Cancel all print jobs sent to that printer.
Sharing.
Create a shortcut.
Delete a printer's definition.
Rename a printer.
Change certain print properties such as print quality.
The Documents item on the Start menu brings up one or more fly-out menus that list all of the files that you have recently edited, viewed or listened to. This is a convenience for re-opening a recently used file. Holding the mouse pointer over a file name will select it. A double-left-click will re-open it.
Some folks do not like to leave a trail of documents that they have recently opened. You can disable this feature by doing the following:
The Programs item on the Start menu leads to a series of fly-out submenus from which you can launch various programs and applications. Every computer's programs submenu will be different. An example of one portion of a programs submenu is shown below:
On these submenus, the items with this icon 
to their left and a right-pointing triangle are folders containing other items. Remember, a triangle means you are going to get more menu. Holding your mouse pointer over an item will select the folder and give you its contents.
The double downward pointing symbols indicate that there is more to this menu. To see those programs, click on the symbols. This feature can be turned off so that all program possibilities are always displayed.
To turn off the "customized menu" and see all menu possibilities, do the following:
Let's begin by talking a bit about file and folder or directory names.
File names have two parts, a name and an extension. Microsoft used to limit us to an "8.3" formula—eight characters for the file name and three characters for the extension. In the Windows XP environment, you may have file names up to 255 characters in length. You should, however, probably never exercise this extreme freedom. Keep your file names informative but brief.
File names may use any of the letters of the alphabet but should avoid the following symbols:
/ $ < > : ; * |
You should also avoid spaces in file names. The Macintosh world and Microsoft world accept spaces in file names but the Unix/Linux world is less happy with them and you will often move your files through a computer using the Unix/Linux operating system.
In the Microsoft world, file names and extensions are case-insensitive. So, the following file names are equivalent:
myFile.doc
MYFILE.DOC
MyFILE.Doc
In the Unix/Linus and Macintosh world, these three files are distinct, different files. That is, Unix/Linus and Macintosh operating systems are case-sensitive as far as file names are concerned.
You can use upper and lower case letters in your file names BUT you have to remember to be consistent. If, for example, you place a file called myFile.htm on a Unix/Linux server and later, request that file to be served as myfile.htm, you would get a file-not-found message. Fixing this kind of error can be very time consuming because nothing really looks wrong.
In the Unix/Linux and Macintosh world, file names do NOT have extensions. For Unix/Linux a file name might look like:
myprog.html
The .html is actually part of the file name and NOT an extension.
In the Macintosh world, the file system is extremely different. Files are not monolithic and do not consist of a single entity. They are generally composed of two pieces called forks, a data fork and a resource fork.
The data fork on a Macintosh system contains what we generally call a file in the PC world and is generally the only part of interest when transferring information from a Macintosh to a PC or Unix/Linus system.
Windows XP ships to users with the file extension feature turned off and attempts to emulate a Macintosh (which doesn't use file extensions). This is unfortunate and I suggest that you turn the display of file extensions back on by doing the following:
Assuming you are using the classic start menu and have a desktop icon called My Computer,
Now, let's go to the File Manager, which Microsoft has unfortunately named Explorer. This is not the Internet browser client, Internet Explorer. Explorer is a file manager and a good one at that.
Right-clicking on your desktop icon, My Computer, will allow you to select Explore which will run Windows' file manager.
It comes to life as a two paned window. In the left pane, you find a hierarchial listing of folders. You will never see file names in the left pane.
In the right pane, what you see depends on your choice of view. Below is a screen capture of a typical file manager window.
This view in the right-hand pane is called Thumbnails.
To change the kind of view in the right-hand pane, click on the pull-down menu icon as shown in the screen capture below.
This gives you several choices that you may experiment with.
After choosing a desired view (my usual choice is either List or Details but you can experiment with the various possibilities), do the following steps:
Examine the screen capture below. This is the left-hand pane showing various folders and places.
Notice the 
icon to the left of each entry. When I left-click on a given it opens that item showing its contents as folders in the left pane and folders (possibly) and files in the right pane. See the example below as I open My Computer.
The original plus icon has changed to a minus icon in the left-hand pane and below My Computer, an array of objects appears, at least some of which have their plus icons indicating that they may be "opened."
Left-clicking on the plus icon the left of Local Disk (C:), yields the following:
Notice that the plus icon has changed to a minus icon and a number of new objects are available under Local Disk (C:). Many of these new objects have a plus icon indicating that they contain something (more folders and perhaps some files). Those without a plus icon are folders that have no subfolders therein but may have files.
When I left-click on the plus icon to the left of aaaaMeyer, the image in the left-hand pane changes to reveal that there is a subfolder called images therein. It has no plus icon to its left and so has no subfolders but may contain some files.
When I left-click on the folder name aaaaMeyer in the left-hand pane, the contents of the folder, aaaaMeyer appear in the right-hand pane as is shown in the screen capture below.
Again, notice that in the left-hand pane, the icon to the left of aaaaMeyer is a minus icon, indicating that the folder is open. Since it is open, it displays any subfolders therein below the name aaaaMeyer.
A left-click on the folder name, aaaaMeyer, in the left-hand pane, displays the contents of that folder in the right-hand pane. Notice that this includes file names as well as the subfolder, images.
Several useful things can be done from a display such as you see above. For instance, a right-click on a file name in the right-hand pane brings you a menu of choices that can operate on that particular file.
Most of these choices are self-explanatory.
Another interesting thing that the file manager allows is the moving of files from one folder to another. If you right-click on a file or folder name and drag it to another folder to the left-hand pane or to a subfolder in the right-hand pane, a menu appears that allows you to do several things.
Most interesting is that a choice is possible between copying that file (or files, if you made a multiple selection) to this new place, OR, moving that file (or files, if you made a multiple selection) to this new place. Copying and moving are not the same thing.
The ease with which one can move files around in this manner requires a great deal of care on your part. You should never just move program files around. Their location is stored in a Registry that tells Windows where things are at. If you just drag files around, the links in this Registry file are broken and programs that once worked will work no longer. Only move "data" files around.
One often wishes to create a new folder or subfolder. How is this done? Very easily with the file manager.
To make a new folder called junk on the C: drive, do the following:
Adding a program to your computer is extremely easy. Most new programs today come on a CD and run an autostart program that presents you with a screen for a loader program. Sometimes your name and organization is asked for and almost always, some kind of program key number is asked for. You may also be asked to agree to some sort of licensure agreement.
After all these things are done, the loader program runs and more or less installs the new program. It will advise you when it is finished and you may be asked to re-start your computer. Easy!
To remove a program, do the following:
In general, the program will be removed but sometimes you will be asked if you wish to leave shared files. I leave them rather than risk removing them. Also, sometimes the remove program is unable to remove every last item associated with the program. You can manually remove these fragments which usually consist of data files that the program has generated.
There are several ways to do this. Perhaps the easiest is to right-click on the time display in the lower right-hand corner of your screen. This will bring up a menu where one of the choices is Adjust time/date. Select this option and view a screen that allows you to adjust the time and date.
You can change the numbers in any box. You can drag the clock's hands around to set the time. You
left-click on the desired day of the month to change the day to that day. There are tabs for Time Zones and Internet Time. The latter synchronizes your time with a time server operated by Microsoft.
The information written to your hard disk is stored as a series of concentric tracks on the hard disk. On a freshly formatted disk, this information is written contiguously.
As you delete and add and delete information from your hard disk, you destroy the contiguousness of the tracks. You are still able to access information, however, response time takes a hit because the read/write head of the hard disk often has to seek to a new track and this takes time.
A way of returning contiguity to the tracks is to "defrag" the hard disk. A systems utility program is provided by Microsoft to do this task.
To get to the system utility, do the following steps:
This will present you with a Disk Defragmenter window. Left-click on the Analyze button and view the results window. Windows will tell you that you should defrag or not.
If you decide to defrag and you have a lot of disparate information it may take significant time (sometimes hours) for the program to complete its operations. The program must move information around on the disk to make things contiguous and this may take a lot of time.
The penalty for not defragmenting a hard disk occasionally is that disk reads and writes progress noticeably slower.