Windows 3. 11 for dummies Book

Foreword

Introduction

About This Book

How to Use This Book

Please Don't Read This!

And What about You?

How This Book Is Organized

Part I: Introducing Windows (Bare-Bones Stuff)

Part II: Making Windows Do Something

Part III: Using Windows Applications (Those Free Programs)

Part IV: Looking at That Darn DOS Stuff

Part V: Getting Help

Part VI: Windows for Workgroups

Part VII: The Part of Tens

Icons Used in This Book

Where to Go from Here

Part I: Introducing Windows (Bare-Bones Stuff)

Chapter 1: What Is Windows?

What Is Windows?

What Does Windows Do?

What Is DOS, and Why Do I Still Need It?

Why Should I Bother Using Windows?

What Are the Best Versions of Windows and DOS?

Can I Still Use My DOS Programs?

Bracing Yourself for Windows

Chapter 2: Your PC's Parts

The Computer

The Computer's Microprocessor

Disks and Disk Drives

Fun CD-ROM Drive Stuff

What disk drives does Windows like?

What does write-protected mean?

The Mouse and That Double-Click Stuff

Cards and Monitors

Keyboards

Groups of keys

More key principles

Print Screen: the one fun, weird code key

Modems

Printers

Networks

Sound Cards (Making Barfing Noises)

Parts Required by Windows

Your Computer's Parts

Chapter 3: Out of the Box and onto the Hard Drive (Installation Chores)

Turning On the Computer

Getting to the DOS Prompt

If you're dumped at a menu

If you're dumped in a program

If you're dumped at the DOS prompt (you're already there)

Removing the Wrapper from the Box

Installing Windows the Simple Way

Installing Windows the Hard Way

Introducing Windows to Your Printer

Sniffing Out Your DOS Programs

Taking the Tutorial

Leaving the Setup Program

Turning Off the Computer

Installing Windows for Workgroups

Chapter 4: Windows Stuff Everybody Thinks You Already Know

Backing Up a Disk

Clicking

The Command Line

The Cursor

Defaults (And the Any Key)

The Desktop (And Wallpapering It)

Directories

The DOS Prompt

Double-Clicking

Dragging and Dropping

Drivers

Files

Graphical User Interfaces

Hardware and Software

Icons

Kilobytes, Megabytes, and So On

Loading, Running, Executing, and Launching

Memory

The Mouse

Multitasking and Task Switching

Networks

Pointers/Arrows

Programs/Applications

Quitting, Exiting, and Returning to DOS

The Save Command

The Save As Command

Temp Files

The Windows

Part II: Making Windows Do Something

Chapter 5: Starting Windows

Revvin' Up Windows

Playing on a network

Starting your favorite program

Finding the Secret Pull-Down Menus

Loading a file

Putting two programs on the screen simultaneously

Using the Keyboard

Printing Your Work

Saving Your Work

Quitting Windows

Chapter 6: Examining All Those Buttons, Bars, and Boxes

A Typical Window

Bars, Bars, and More Bars

The title bar

The menu bar

The scroll bar

Borders

The Button Family

Command buttons

Option buttons

Minimize/maximize buttons

The Dopey Control-Menu Box

Dialog Box Stuff (Lots of Gibberish)

Text boxes

Regular list boxes

Drop-down list boxes

Check boxes

Just Tell Me How to Open a File!

Hey! When Do I Click, and When Do I Double-Click?

Chapter 7: Arranging Things (Moving Windows Around)

Moving a Window to the Top of the Pile

Moving a Window from Here to There

Making a Window Bigger or Smaller

Making a Window Fill the Whole Screen

Shrinking Windows to Icons

Turning Icons Back into Windows

Switching from Window to Window

The Alt+Tab trick

The Alt+Esc trick

The Way-Cool Task List

Switching to another window

Ending a task

Cascading and tiling windows

Arranging icons

Exiting the Task List

Organizing Your Desktop

Chapter 8: Retrieving a Lost Window from the Pile

Plucking a Lost Window from the Task List

Finding a Window That's off the Edge of the Screen

Cascading Windows (The "Deal All the Windows Out in Front of Me" Approach)

Tiling Windows (The "Stick Everything on the Screen at Once" Approach)

Running DOS without Getting Lost

Chapter 9: Sharing Information (Moving Words, Pictures, and Sounds Around)

Examining the Cut and Paste Concept (And Copy, Too)

Highlighting the Important Stuff

Deleting, Cutting, or Copying What You Highlighted

Deleting the information

Cutting the information

Copying the information

Finding out more about cutting, copying, and deleting

Pasting Information into Another Window

Using Copy and Paste with a DOS Program

Copying a picture from a DOS program

Copying text from a DOS program

Pasting text into a DOS program

Using the Clipboard

Looking at Cool Object Linking and Embedding Stuff

Embedding

Linking

What's That Object Packager Thing?

Controlling the Print Manager

Chapter 10: Customizing Windows (Fiddling with the Control Panel)

Looking at the Control Panel

Customizing the Desktop

Changing the wallpaper

Adding or changing patterns

Choosing the Fast "Alt+Tab" Switching option

Using the Screen Saver option

Arranging icons

Sizing the grid

Determining the cursor blink rate

Getting Better Colors

Understanding the Fuss about TrueType Fonts

Making Windows Recognize Your Double-Click

Setting the Computer's Time and Date

Adding or Removing a Printer

Making Cool Barf Sounds with Multimedia

Learning Which Icons to Avoid

Examining Scary 386 Enhanced and Swap Files Stuff

Playing with New Video Modes

Part III: Using Windows Applications (Those Free Programs)

Chapter 11: The Ever-Present Program Manager

The Program Manager's Reason to Live

Turning Program Groups into Icons and Back Again

Starting a Program from the Program Manager

Press Enter (IQ: 70)

The easy double-click (IQ: 80)

The menu launch (IQ: 100)

The keyboard launch (IQ: 120)

The Command Line (IQ: 120)

The browse (IQ: 120)

Creating Your Very Own Program Group

Putting a Favorite Program's Icon into the Program Manager

Making Windows do all the grunt work

Doing the grunt work yourself

Getting Rid of Icons and Program Groups

Restoring Your Original Program Manager

Tiling, Cascading, and Piling Up Program Groups

I Want a Better Icon!

Moving an Icon into Another Window

Making Programs Run Automatically When You Start Windows

Help! Everything Turned into One Huge Program Group!

Going Back to the Tutorial

Chapter 12: That Scary File Manager

Why Is the File Manager So Scary?

Getting the Lowdown on Subdirectories

Peering into Your Drives and Directories

Seeing the files on a disk drive

Seeing what's inside subdirectories

Loading a Program or File

Deleting and Undeleting Files

Getting rid of a file or directory

How to undelete a file

Moving Windows around in File Manager

Copying or Moving a File

Selecting More Than One File

Renaming a File

Using Legal Folders and Filenames

Copying a Disk

Creating a Subdirectory

Seeing More Information about Files

Dragging, Dropping, and Running

Telling Windows What Program Made What File

Making File Manager Behave Itself

It lists files that aren't there!

It doesn't list files that are there!

It shows only half of the screen!

Playing with Wild Cards

Finding the File You Saved Yesterday

Formatting a Floppy Disk

Chapter 13: Big Free Programs

Writing with Write

Opening and saving a file

Saving a Write file as an ASCII file

Other Write stuff

Figuring Out the Calendar

Drawing Pictures with Paintbrush

Learning how to draw something

Pasting stuff into Paintbrush

Making new wallpaper in Paintbrush

Paintbrush tips and tricks

Tracking Friends and Enemies in Cardfile

Adding a new card

Making Cardfile dial phone numbers automatically

Rooting through the cards for somebody's phone number

Chapter 14: Little Free Programs

Talking to Other Computers with Terminal

Jotting Notes in Notepad

Understanding Notepad's limitations

Turning Notepad into a log book

Telling the Time with Clock

Calculating Numbers with Calculator

Adding the à in Voilà (Character Map)

Repeating Keystrokes with Recorder

Using Sound Recorder and Media Player

Playing Cards in Solitaire

Playing Minesweeper

Part IV: Looking at That Darn DOS Stuff

Chapter 15: Memory Stuff You'll Want to Forget

What Is Memory, Anyway?

Why Does Windows Want So Much Memory?

Metric Memory Terms to Ignore - Please

Even More Memory Terms to Ignore

Conventional memory

Extended memory

What Mode Are You?

What's a Memory Manager?

Chapter 16: Those Hoggy DOS Programs

Running DOS Programs under Windows

Making Your Own PIFs for DOS Programs

Changing Fonts in a DOS Window

Halting Runaway DOS Programs

Part V: Getting Help

Chapter 17: The Case of the Broken Window

Geez, I Can't Even Get Windows to Install

The Mouse Doesn't Work Right

I'm Stuck in Menu Land

I'm Supposed to Install a New "Driver"

Adding a driver for a mouse, keyboard, or monitor

Adding a driver for other toys

But mine's not listed!

Oh, No! I Forgot the Password to the Screen Saver

My Window Won't Sit Still

I Clicked on the Wrong Button (But Haven't Lifted My Finger Yet)

My Computer Has Frozen Up Solid

My DOS Program Looks Weird in a Window

My Disk Drive Makes Random Grinding Sounds

My Printer Isn't Working Right

Yikes! Make Everything Go Back the Way It Started

Program Manager Lost Some of My Icons!

Who's Dr. Watson?

Chapter 18: Error Messages (What You Did Does Not Compute)

Not enough memory

Application Execution Error: Unexpected DOS error #11

Cannot Read/Write from drive C:

Not ready error reading drive A:

A Message Flashes, the Screen Clears, and Windows Doesn't Load

Insufficient Disk Space

No association exists for the data file

Not a valid filename

There is no disk in drive A. Insert a disk, and then try again.

Share Violation: File Already in Use

This application has violated system integrity

Chapter 19: Help on the Windows Help System

Consulting the Windows Built-In Computer Guru

What Does That Funny Computer Word Mean?

Sticking Electronic Sticky Notes on Help Pages

Finding Help for Your Problem

Trying to Find the Same Page Again

Part VI: Windows for Workgroups

Chapter 20: Windows on a Network

What Is a Network?

What Is Windows for Workgroups?

How Does Windows Differ from Windows for Workgroups?

Just Tell Me How to "Log On" and "Log Off" a Network!

Sharing hard disk directories

Sharing printers

Chatting with someone else

A Hearty Game of Hearts

Part VII: The Part of Tens

Chapter 21: Ten Aggravating Things about Windows (And How to Fix Them)

Those Zillions of Mouse Menus Take Forever

It's Too Hard to Keep Track of All Those Windows

My Print Screen Key Doesn't Work

It Doesn't Remember My Favorite Program Manager Layout

I Can't Find the Right Icon in Program Manager

My DOS Programs Run Too Slowly under Windows

It's Too Hard to Line Up Two Windows on the Screen

The File Manager Shows the Wrong Stuff on My Floppy Disk

I Need an Expensive Sound Card to Hear Any Cool Sounds

I Want to Make Windows Load Automatically Each Morning

Chapter 22: Ten DOS Commands You Shouldn't Run under Windows

Dangerous First-Degree Offenders

CHKDSK /F

FDISK

RECOVER

SELECT

FORMAT C:

Recently Paroled Commands

APPEND, ASSIGN, JOIN, and SUBST

SHARE

FASTOPEN

DOS 6 Commands to Avoid While Running Windows

DBLSPACE

DEFRAG

EMM386

MEMMAKER

MSCDEX

NLSFUNC

SMARTDRV

VSAFE

Chapter 23: Ten Programs That Make Windows Easier (Or More Fun)

Installing a Windows Program

Answering question after question (the grill session)

Trying to make it work

Using Symantec's Norton Desktop for Windows

Using MicroHelp's UnInstaller

Using Berkeley Systems' After Dark 3.0

Using Delrina's WinFax Pro

Using Wired for Sound Pro

Microsoft Bob

Chapter 24: Ten Expensive Things You Can Do to Make Windows Better

Buy More Memory

Shell Out the Bucks for a Bigger Hard Drive

Order a 386, 486, or Pentium Computer

Put a Graphics Accelerator Card on the Credit Card

Purchase a Shell Program

Beg For or Borrow a Bigger Monitor

Chapter 25: Ten Atrocious Acronyms

ASCII

BIOS

DDE

DLL

DRV

EMS

IBM

INI

IRQ

OLE

PCX

PIF

RAM

ROM

TMP

TSR

UAE

XMS

Windows 95 Insert
Glossary
Index
Reader Response Card