From the course: Working with Computers and Devices

Get to know the operating system

From the course: Working with Computers and Devices

Get to know the operating system

- [Instructor] When you first start up your computer, the first thing to load is the operating system. For example, Windows 10 is the most recent version of the Windows operating system that comes pre-installed on many PCs and tablet devices. Here we'll explore the basics of navigating around an operating system using Windows 10, but many of these concepts carry over to other operating systems as well. When you start started the computer, you'll usually see a screen to log into your account on that computer. Generally, it's a good idea for each person using a computer to have their own account rather than sharing an account between multiple users. Individual accounts allow each user to keep their files and work secured and organized and let users personalize their experience on the computer. For example, one user could set the computer to display text in English while another user could set it to display in Spanish and because accounts are secured by passwords, neither user can see the other's documents or other files. To log into the computer, select your username, or sometimes you'll enter it manually and then type in your password. In Windows 10 when you set up your account, you also have the option of setting up a personal identification number or pin which you can enter instead of your password. So you'll either enter a password or a pin in this case, I'm entering a password and I'll press Enter on my keyboard and that's going to log me into the computer. Once you're logged in, the first thing you see is your computer desktop. Similar to a real physical desktop, your computer desktop is where you store files you're currently working with. In most operating systems, you can personalize the look of your desktop by changing the background image, sometimes called the wallpaper or by changing the colors. At the bottom of the Windows 10 desktop is the task bar, which is an essential tool for working with the Windows operating system. Depending on how you have it set up, in the task bar you can see what apps are currently running, what the current time is, what appointments are on your calendar and so on. On the far left of the task bar, you'll find the Start button. Clicking it opens up the Start menu and this is where you can find all the applications installed in your device. This is also where you'll find the buttons to log off, restart and shut down the computer. For now, let's click outside the Start menu to close it without selecting anything. Next to the Start button is the search box where you can search for applications by name or search for files and documents on your device. Using the search box can be a lot quicker than manually looking for applications in the Start menu. Just start typing the name of the application or document you want to work with and Windows will display the search results as you type. For example, if I wanted to quickly open the calculator app, I could just start typing calculator, there it is, and I can just press Enter on my keyboard to open that up. Next to the search box, you'll see icons for applications that are currently running or pinned to the task bar. Pinned applications are apps that you can place in the task bar to quickly access again so you don't have to dig through the Start menu to find them each time you want to open them. Applications that are currently running have a line underneath them so you can easily tell if they're in use as you can see here under the calculator icon. To pin an application to the task bar, place your mouse cursor over it and then click the right mouse button on your mouse or pointing device, this is referred to as right click, which often brings up a menu containing several options. In this case, I'll choose to pin the calculator app to the task bar since I use it a lot. So now even if I close the calculator app by clicking the X button here in the upper right corner, notice this icon stays in the task bar. We no longer see the blue line under it because it's not running, but I can easily click to open the calculator app from here now. Also here within the pinned and running apps is File Explorer. Clicking that opens up a window you can use to browse the files on your computer and I'll just close that. The last section of the task bar is here on the right. Here you usually see the date and time along with various other icons depending on how the computer's task bar has been customized. Clicking on icons can give you more information about the computer. For example, clicking on the clock, displays the calendar, clicking on the network icon shows you the status of your network connection. Clicking this arrow here reveals other icons that may be hidden so the task bar isn't cluttered with too many icons at once. So for example, from here, I can click the speaker icon and that allows me to adjust the volume of the computer speakers. So that's the task bar in Windows. Now, when you're done using your computer, it's usually a good idea to log out of your account or to shut down the computer if you don't need to leave it running. To do so, click the Start button. If you just want to log out, but leave the computer running, for example, if someone else needs to log into their account to use the computer, just click the user icon at the top here, and then choose a Sign Out. That will log you out of your account, but leave the computer running so someone else can sign into their account. Ultimately, you can click the power button here and from here, you can shut down or restart the computer. Choose to Shut Down if you want to shut down the computer so it's not using any power. And restart shuts down the computer and immediately starts it again. Sometimes restarting can fix issues that may crop up while using the computer. Again, we've been looking at the Windows 10 operating system in this video, but many of these concepts like searching for applications, accessing settings and logging out and restarting apply to other operating systems as well.

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