PCs For Dummiesa

410 Pages·2005·6.818 MB·English

by  Dan Gookin

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PCs
FOR
DUMmIES
‰
10
TH EDITION
by Dan Gookin
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PCs
FOR
DUMmIES
‰
10
TH EDITION
by Dan Gookin
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PCs For Dummies®, 10th Edition
Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
111 River Street
Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774
www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
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ISBN-13: 978-0-7645-8958-4
ISBN-10: 0-7645-8958-X
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About the Author
Dan Gookinhas been writing about technology for 20 years. He has con-
tributed articles to numerous high-tech magazines and written more than
100 books about personal computing technology, many of them accurate.
He combines his love of writing with his interest in technology to create
books that are informative and entertaining, but not boring. Having sold more
than 14 million titles translated into more than 30 languages, Dan can attest
that his method of crafting computer tomes does seem to work.
Perhaps Dan’s most famous title is the original DOS For Dummies,published
in 1991. It became the world’s fastest-selling computer book, at one time
moving more copies per week than the New York Timesnumber-one best
seller (although, because it’s a reference book, it could not be listed on the
NYT best seller list). That book spawned the entire line of For Dummies
books, which remains a publishing phenomenon to this day.
Dan’s most recent titles include Laptops For Dummies; Buying a Computer For
Dummies, 2006 Edition; Troubleshooting Your PC For Dummies, 2nd Edition;
Power Excel & Word;and eBay Photos That Sell.He also maintains the vast
and helpful Web site www.wambooli.com.
Dan holds a degree in communications and visual arts from the University of
California, San Diego. He lives in the Pacific Northwest, where he enjoys
spending time with his four boys in the gentle woods and on the temperate
blue lakes of Idaho.
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Publisher’s Acknowledgments
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located at www.dummies.com/register/.
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Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies
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Publishing for Consumer Dummies
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Contents at a Glance
Introduction ................................................................1
Part I: Introducing the PC ............................................7
Chapter 1: Computer? PC? What’s That? ........................................................................9
Chapter 2: The Nerd’s-Eye View ....................................................................................17
Chapter 3: Insert Tab A into Slot B ................................................................................29
Chapter 4: Computer On, Computer Off .......................................................................43
Chapter 5: Places to Go, Things to See in Windows ...................................................57
Part II: Computer Guts ...............................................67
Chapter 6: Inside the Box ...............................................................................................69
Chapter 7: The Basic Ports ............................................................................................83
Chapter 8: Disk Drives Me Crazy ...................................................................................93
Chapter 9: Memories . . . Like a PC Full of RAM .........................................................107
Chapter 10: Minding Your Monitors ............................................................................119
Chapter 11: The Keyboard and Mouse Chapter ........................................................133
Chapter 12: More than a Mortal Printer .....................................................................149
Chapter 13: The Mighty Morphin’ Power Modem .....................................................163
Chapter 14: Sounds Like ...............................................................................................173
Chapter 15: Even More Hardware! ...............................................................................183
Part III: Networking Nonsense ..................................191
Chapter 16: Basic Painless Networking ......................................................................193
Chapter 17: Abusing the Network ...............................................................................207
Chapter 18: Your Network and the Internet ...............................................................219
Chapter 19: Look, Ma: No Wires! .................................................................................229
Part IV: The Soft Side of Computing ..........................239
Chapter 20: Files: The Key to Understanding Software ............................................241
Chapter 21: Organizing Your Compu-Junk .................................................................253
Chapter 22: File Control ................................................................................................265
Chapter 23: Software, Programs, Applications ..........................................................279
Chapter 24: Making Your Own CDs .............................................................................289
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Chapter 25: Your Basic Internet Introduction ............................................................303
Chapter 26: It’s a World Wide Web We Weave ...........................................................313
Chapter 27: Basic E-Mail ...............................................................................................327
Chapter 28: Files to Here, Files from There! ...............................................................339
Part V: The Part of Tens ...........................................349
Chapter 29: Ten Common Beginner Mistakes ............................................................351
Chapter 30: Ten Things Worth Buying for Your PC ...................................................357
Chapter 31: Ten Tips from a PC Guru .........................................................................361
Index ......................................................................367
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Table of Contents
Introduction .................................................................1
What’s New in This Edition? ..........................................................................1
Where to Start .................................................................................................2
Conventions Used in This Book ....................................................................3
What You Don’t Need to Read .......................................................................4
Foolish Assumptions ......................................................................................4
Icons Used in This Book .................................................................................4
Getting in Touch with the Author .................................................................5
Where to Go from Here ...................................................................................5
Part I: Introducing the PC .............................................7
Chapter 1: Computer? PC? What’s That? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Computers at Their Most Dumb ...................................................................9
I/O ..........................................................................................................10
Processing ............................................................................................11
Storage ..................................................................................................11
The World of Hardware and Software .........................................................12
The computer’s operating system ....................................................13
Other software .....................................................................................14
The stuff you make ..............................................................................15
The PC (As in PCs For Dummies) .................................................................15
The Most Important Question: Will Your PC Explode? ............................16
Chapter 2: The Nerd’s-Eye View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
Variations on the Typical PC ........................................................................17
Your Basic PC Hardware ...............................................................................18
Looking About the Console ..........................................................................20
Major points of interest on the console, front .................................20
Things of note on the console’s rump ..............................................22
The I/O panel .......................................................................................24
Helpful hieroglyphics and hues .........................................................26
Chapter 3: Insert Tab A into Slot B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
Setting Up Your PC ........................................................................................29
Unpack the boxes ................................................................................30
Set up the console first .......................................................................30
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PCs For Dummies, 10th Edition
A General Guide to Plugging Things into the Console .............................31
Audio .....................................................................................................31
IEEE, 1394, FireWire .............................................................................32
Keyboard and mouse ..........................................................................33
Modem ..................................................................................................33
Monitor .................................................................................................34
Network ................................................................................................34
Printer ...................................................................................................34
Optical audio ........................................................................................35
S-Video ..................................................................................................35
Serial .....................................................................................................35
USB ........................................................................................................36
Wireless gizmos ...................................................................................36
Plugging Stuff into the Wall ..........................................................................37
The mighty power strip ......................................................................37
The UPS power solution .....................................................................38
Using the UPS (a short play) ..............................................................40
Chapter 4: Computer On, Computer Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43
How to Turn On Your PC ..............................................................................43
The PC Setup program ........................................................................45
Trouble in Startup Land! .....................................................................45
Here Comes Windows! ..................................................................................46
Log in, mystery guest ..........................................................................46
Welcome to the desktop .....................................................................48
Turning the Computer Off (Shutdown) ......................................................48
Your options for turning off the PC ...................................................49
Log yourself off ....................................................................................49
Please stand by (Sleep mode) ...........................................................50
Cybernation hibernation ....................................................................51
Restarting Windows ............................................................................52
Turning the darn thing off ..................................................................53
Power Button, What Is Your Function? ......................................................54
Should You Leave the Computer On All the Time? ...................................55
“I want to leave my computer off all the time” ................................55
“I want to leave my computer on all the time” ................................55
Chapter 5: Places to Go, Things to See in Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57
The Desktop ...................................................................................................58
Taming the Taskbar ......................................................................................59
The System Tray, or Notification Area .......................................................59
The Start Button ............................................................................................60
The Start button menu .......................................................................60
The All Programs menu ......................................................................61
The Control Panel .........................................................................................62