WINDOWS OPERATING SYSTEM
BASIC OF WINDOWS : INTRODUCTION
The term MS- WINDOWS can mean any version (release) of MS – WINDOWS starting from version 1.0 In this courseware we will be referring to version 3,1 Good portion of the success of MS- Windows is attributed to the visual appeal even though this was not new to the Macintosh (MAC)user. MS- Windows runs on DOS environment. A huge number of software venders have provided application that run on MS- Windows. Unlike its earlier version , the MS-Windows 3. X incorporates all the main features of Graphical User Interface with the release of Windows the Micro broke the barrier of character User Interface (CUP). The DOS basically supports the CUL That is , all the command have to be typed on the command prompt . This forces a user to remember lengthy strings of commands and their parameters which makes life really tough.
Windows, apart form providing the user with a good user interface, provides many other major feature like:
1) Multitasking
2) Memory Management
3) Accessories
4) Dynamic Data Exchange
5) Object Linking & Embedding
6) True Type Fonts
1) Multitasking :
It is the capability to run more than one task at a time. For example the clook program can run on one corner of the Windows and you may be working with the calendar or writing a note.
2) Memory Management :
Windows memory management has broken the barrier of 640 kb limitation main memory usage. It now can use all the lmain memory above 1MB(extended) can be used for running application . Also to multitask efficiently, the windows memory manager uses the virtual memory.
3) Accessories:
Windows package itself is bundled with lots of utility program which we use in day to day life. Like , Text Editor, Calendar, Calculator and many more.
4) Dynamic Data Exchange:
This is a protocol for communication between application running under Windows. By using this technique of inter process communication and many more.
5) Object Linking & Embedding:
OLE , pronounced as O-LAY, is a Windows communication protocol that enables one application to use the services of another application .j That is, if you make a text editor that can probably edit graphics also then, you may the code for text editor but when a user wants to do some graphics then the paint brush (an already existing program) can be used from within your application . This saves the time required to develop any application.
6) True Type Font :
These are called as outline font. These fonts use mathematical formulae to create the outline of any character. Hence , by multiplying/ dividing by a suitable factor one can scale that font to any required size . They are also compatible with any king of printer.
User Interface
An interface can be defined as a link between two or more object. That is, without the link the object cannot communication with each other to produce anything good output. An user interface acts as a link between the computer and user. To efficiently and productively use any application software , the application must provide a good user interface.
User Inter Character User face(CUI)
A character user interface uses simple text to help to help the user to interact with the computer. A user need to remember the command with its syntax to actually use it. With the result user spends more time in accomplishing a given task. This picture illustrates the lengthy commands that one has to type in for copying files from one directory to the other.
Graphical User Interface(GUI)
GUI is pronounced as “gooey”. It uses pictorial illustration to help the user interact with the computer. When using a graphical user interface, the person operating a computer usually navigates from place to place and performs operations by using a mouse to click on location, icons and toolbars within a window rather than pressing keys on a keyboard to perform the same tasks.
By seeing all this there are certain question that may arise, like;
Who came out with GUI first?
The first GUI was developed by Xerox Corporation at its Palo Alto Research Center in the 1970s. The researchers have seen that the productivity increases by using a GUI and this is mainly due to the natural work flow the interface provides than the graphics itself. Window is an excellent GUI for DOS.
What an its advantages?
The primary difference between a GUI and CUI is the operation skill level requirement.GUI makes it much easier for a novice user to learn a new task. The GUI is much more user friendly than the character based application. Often you will find in a CUI, that you spend a lot of time in instructing the computer how to do a task, than doing it.GUI provides the user with icons dialog boxes window toolbars mouse etc. to make life much more easier than typing in the characters through the keyboard. Aesthetic appeal of GUI is far too good compares to a CUI.
Modes of Windows
The Window 3.1 can operate in tow different modes depending on various factors. When Window is invoked by typing WIN on the DOS prompt, it automatically determines the system that you use and finds its hardware configuration. Depending on that, the Window finds out the mode in which it should be running These modes are Standard mode and Enhanced mode.
Starting of Window:-
The user has the choice the specially the mode in which the Window should be running. The mode specified by the user may not be the appropriate one but nevertheless, windows runs in that mode. Only advantage that a user gets by running windows in standard mode3 even though his hardware support enhanced mode is the speed. On the other hand, by doing so you may be able to run many applications simultaneously.
Elements of Windows
Windows provides a very rich graphical environment for the user, It allows the user to do everything easily and efficiently to tackle the needs of the application and files in the system. Some of the basic elements of windows are;
Desktop:-
One can consider the windows environment as if it were flat surface of a desk. The various tools that we keep on the desk as the applications being managed by windows.
For instance the top fiat blank surface of the desk is considered as the desk top of windows.
Wall paper :-
May be you keep a photograph of your family on the top of the desk under the table glass which can be equivalent to the wallpaper of the windows.
Tools :-
There are counties tools available for you to efficiently do your job. Like appointment planner can be equivalent of the application programs called “calendar” in windows. The sheets that we keep on the desk for jotting down notes could be analogous to the “Notepad” application in windows. Finally we move or pick up things with our hands which is similar to the “mouse pointer” on the computer screen.
Program Manager :-
Just like you manage your desk, in the same way the Program Manager of windows manages all the activities with in the Windows.
Mouse Operations
This is the device with we navigate around the windows and its various components. This device is normally connected to the Serial Port of the PC. By moving the mouse on the mouse pad we can point at any portion an the screen. A mouse is designed to be gripped by on the top. There is a direction and movement detection device on the bottom, usually a metal ball but at times an optical sensor.
What all can we do with a mouse?
The following are same of the operations that we perform using a mouse.
Mouse Pointer: This operation can be performed by simply moving the mouse on the pad and taking the pointer to particular area on the screen. Normally a mouse pointer is nothing but a arrow shaped figure on the screen which moves as we move the mouse
Click Mouse Button : This operation is performed by pressing and releasing the mouse button once without much time delay and also without moving the mouse.
Double Click Mouse Button : This operation is achieved by pressing and releasing the mouse button twice with a little time gap between the two clicks.
Drag the mouse: when you press the mouse button and also simultaneously move the mouse on mouse pad is called dragging the mouse. By using this technique you can move one graphical item from one place to other. You can also select some text in your word processer for doing a block operation like delete, copy, move etc.
What is an ICON: Icon is basically a pictorial representation of an application or a document. It is easy to remember which icon stand for what and just by viewing at the icon one can even guess what it would be representing.
Type of Icon : In general you can categorize icons into four major types.
1)Group Icon : Group icon represents a document window in the Program Manager that contain all the program item of that group. For example the Accessories Group and the Application Group icon look same except for their description. By double clicking on this icon one open up a group window which will display the program item icons that it contains.
2)Program Item Icon : Program item icon represent an or a document. The icon can same for more than one application but the description below the icon will be different. These appear in any Group window in a Program Manager. In this case all the icon is side the main group are categorized as program items icons. By double clicking on the icon one can execute or open it that application.
3)Application Icon : When a running application is minimized, if turn into an icon and it is named as Application icon. They align themselves on the bottom of the desktop. The three icon shown in the border of the desktop represent the application icon. By double clicking, one can restore it to its original shape and size.
Types of windows : There are basically two different type of windows that you will come across as you work with windows.
Application Windows : An Application Windows appears as soon as we start an application (program). Some application program allow the user to open more than one window to work with.
Example: In a word processor, you may open more than one letter at a time. These windows inside the application program is called a Document window. Even though you may be having two document windows inside the Application Windows but the menu bar is present only on the Application windows governs the action that are performed on the Document windows.
Moving Between Application : Windows environment allows a number of application to run simultaneously. One can move from one application to the other by just placing the mouse on some portion of windows and clicking. The title bar of that application is highlighted. When more than one application is opened, you often find that some of windows get hidden behind the other windows and make it difficult for you to place the mouse on that windows which you want to see. In such cases one can move from one application windows to another by pressing ALT+TAB key. you see a small box popping out on the windows in which you are working.
This carries the name of the application to which you would like to switch. By keeping the ALT key pressed if you keep pressing the TAB key, you will notice a pop up windows displaying one by one all the application that are currently running. Once you reach the application that you want to switch release all the keys.
Closing an Application Windows : you can close the application by double clicking on the control Menu box on the left top corner of the window.
Minimizing an Application window: click on the minimize button on the right top corner of the windows. The windows turns into an icon on the bottom of the Desktop.
By clicking on the maximize button present on the right top corner of the window. By doing so , your application window now will occupy the whole screen.
Document Window : A document is a piece of information that an application processes. Some application presents the user with many workspaces each containing single document. You saw that the Program Manager.
If you are working with a word processer then you may open couple document at the same time. Each document windows title bar shall show the name of the file that has been opened. By seeing the title bar one can navigate through the document window.
Moving Between Document windows :if you consider File Manager application in the figure, you will see that it has opened to document one showing the details of C:*.* and the other showing the files in C:Dbase4*.*.
Changing the workspace i, e from one document to another you have to just click on the title bar of that document.
At time you may find that one document window is completely hidden behind the other, in such cases press CTRL+F6 key to switch from one document to another.
Click on the Title Bar of c:*.* 1 to make the c:*.* 1 document window active
Working with Menu : The windows menu provides the commands that are available for the user. These menu item are found in the windows menu bar.
Selecting a Menu
Using :- Of the menu just move down the box. You will notice the menu items inside a menu gets highlighted as you navigate through them. Once you reach the command that is to be selected then click on it.
Using :- As hotkey. By pressing ALT key and the hotkey one can select that menu. For instance Pressing ALT+F will invoke file menu command list after selection of the file menu, a box containing the various commands that it supported are listed. By pressing the command that is to be activated , press ENTER key.
Deselecting the Menu : many times you may select a menu and then change your mind to go ahead with some other work. This can be done provided you deselected the menu that was selected.
Menu Conventions :The menu conventions that are normally used in the windows environment are listed below
.1) Standard Menu Item :- The word that appears in the menu once selected initiates action. They may or may not require any further information. This word normally has one of the letter underlined and by pressing that key you can directly go that item. The other way to reach that item is by using the up /down arrow key. If you are using a mouse you can directly drag the mouse pointer down the list and select that item. Try clicking each menu item. For example in the excel menu in edit selecting shadow which is the underlined.
2) Dimmed Menu Item:- Some of the menu item that are not valid at that movement of time dimmed and even if the user selects the item there is no response. Whenever the option become normal.
3) Casceded Menu Item: This menu item has a black color arrow make on the right of the work. Once the item has been selected you will find another set of options appear in a small box and by selecting one of the options the final action will be invoked.Try clicking each cascaded menu item. For example in the excel menu in edit selecting shadow which is the underlined.
4)Dialog Box Menu Item :- The menu item that has ellipsis points following the word when selected pops up a dialog box which in turn certain interaction from the user.
5)Check Menu Item :- This menu item selected puts a check mark ( ) is put before the word. When this item is again selected then check mark is removed indicating that this option is no more available.
Working With Dialog Box : A dialog box is windows through which all windows based application interacts with the user. That is, then information required by the application is through dialog box . For instance, let us say that, you have write a letter using a word processor which obviously has to be saved on a disk using a SAVE dialog box.
Depending on the application a valley of question are to answered the user. These kind of interaction take place through a windows which is normally called a dialog box.
Windows Controls in a Dialog Box :
Windows environment uses controls as means to interact with the command structure of your application program. Instead of using the conventional method of typing the complete command or interact with user.
Sometimes you will see a number of controls being used in a single dialog box itself.
Text Box : This box enable you to type the text that you would like to feed to the application. After typing the text you can press the Appropriate Command Button to initiate action. For example, to save a file you can type the file name in the text box and press OK button to invoke saving.
List Box : This window presents you with a list of pre-defined options that are acceptable for the application. You can select one of the options from the list box.
Combo Box : This window control is a combination of a text box and a list in combo box you can enter the this test itself on the rectangular box provided are you can go thought the option from the list portion of the combo box you will see that this option appears on text box option of the combo box.
Drop Down List Box : This is some what like the List Box. In a list box you can see many options on a small Where as in all window out of which we select one. Where as in a Drop Down List Box only one option is seen on a rectangular box and rest all other options are hidden till you demand for it. Dialog box where the space is a criteria , a dropdown list box control could be used.
Check Box : At times you will find a dialog box contains a number of option or characteristics of the application that can be turned off or on depending on the need. These options have a small box preceding them. If the option is selected, then a “ X “ mark appears on the box and is deselected this “ X “mark disappears.
Using Mouse : The “ X “ mark. If you click on this box again you will find the “ x “ mark disappearing. i,e. every time you click on this box you find it toggling. ( switch between on and off )
Using Keyboard : SPACEBAR key you will find the “ x” mark appearing on the box . If this option is to be disabled then you press SPACEBAR key again. You will find that the option toggles between off and on.
Spinner Button : It nothing but a pair of buttons provided for increasing and decreasing the va lue in the box. The button looks like this.
Option Button :
These are options given by an application that are mutually exclusive. Selection of option button can be done in the following ways.1) Mouse Or 2) Keyboard
Understanding control Menu box
The control menu box is located at the left top of the window. Clicking on this object an location window opens the control menu box of MS- DOS application shall be dealt later. Using Keyboard.
Depending on the application requirement, you will find that some of the menu items in tool menu box dimmed.
Click on the Control Menu Box of the Program Manager and move the cursor across each one of the menu item to see the description. Do the same for the Main Document Window.
Arranging the Desktop : When you start working with Windows and use application, you will often find that some of the application windows become invisible i.e. the application window is hidden the other. This happens because many times we would like to have larger workspace and due to which we increase the window size. By doing so we would actually covered many other applications. This situation demands for a re- arrangement
Frequently Used Keystrokes:
Let us now look at some of the frequently used keystrokes in windows. These keystrokes behave identically in all the windows application.
ALT +ESC Select the next application windows icon on the desktop.
ALT +ENTER Dos program execution is switched from full screen to a window and vice versa.
ALT +TAB Switch between application window.
ALT +F4 Quit the Windows,
ALT +Print Screen Captures the active windows into clipboard and then can be used in paintbrush or any other application.
ALT + Spacebar Invokes the control menu box the application window.
ALT +Hyphen Invokes the control menu box of the document window or the group window.
CTRL + ESC Invoke the task list dialog box.
CTRL + E6 Switches to the next document window.
CTRL + F4 Close the document windows.
Print Screen Copies the complete screen to the clipboard
Introduction to Program Manager :-
The Program Manager manages all the applications that have been loaded on the windows. This does most of the house keeping job, like starting an application, rearranging the files and arranging the various application in groups.
The program manager when invoked for the first time it shows it shows a window on the desktop and opens up the Main Group for the user.
By default windows program manager is packaged with five groups, Namely
Main Group, Startup Group, Accessories Group, Application Group, Games Group
You always add as many group as you want through the program manager.
Element Of Program Manager :-
You will find that there are three different type of elements in the figure:
· Group Window
· Group Icons
# Program Items Icons
Of course it contains menu and various menu items which gives the user flexibility to manage the windows the way he wants. We will go into the details of Program manager in a short while from now.
Working with Groups
As we have already seen a group is a logical collection of certain program items. For example if you have some number of application that are used for PC diagnostics, then you could add a new group in the program manager and call it as PCDIAG. Once you have your own group then you could insert all the application related to the PC diagnostics into this group.
Group Window :-
Open a group window :- You can open up a group window in the following ways
Using Mouse Using Keyboard
Shrinking Group Window :- By shrinking windows, we get a group icon. Using Mouse Using Keyboard
Group Window :- Maximizing Group Window
Using Mouse Using Keyboard
Single click then icons to see the descriptions and double click to see the group window. Move the mouse pointer across the group window and click to see the descriptions.
Rearranging Group Windows :-
Normally when we work with window, you will find many group windows are open at any given time. Obviously a difficulty that we immediately come across is moving one window to the other. In the previous session we learned to move around one window to another by just clicking on the title bar of that window. But since the windows size are different you may come across a situation where the complete windows that is to be selected gets hidden a behind a larger window.
What to do?
You could select the window menu of the Program Manager and where you will see list of group names. You can select the one that you wish to switch to. This way the selected windows come on top of all other windows. Also you will notice that the color or the intensity of the title bar changes.
But this way of doing is pretty time consuming so you may thing of rearranging your group windows
Look at the view of the program manager window where all the group windows have been opened for use.
The window menu gives the following menu item by switch one can easily arrange the group window and icon so that is each one is visible. This makes moving around windows very much easy.
1)Cascade Option :- In this, all the open group windows align themselves to the left most corner ( below the menu bar of the program manager ) with their title bar on below the other. Also the control menu boxes of the group windows get aligned diagonally.
2)Title Option :- In this, the group windows which are open shall be resized to fit into the workspace of the Program Manager just like the tiles that we fix on the walls. The size of each windows will depend on how many were open at that time.
Arranging Group Icons :- At times you may notes that when you open a group window, some of the group icons become hidden because of the size of the group /document window or may be the number of groups in the program is more.
If you want to view the groups that you have in the Program Manager then ,press CTRL+F6 key. But this not very user friendly.
To arrange the icon, select one of the group icons then select windows Menu of Program Manager and the arrange icon menu item. This will rearrange your group icon in a row at the bottom of the program Manager.
Manager Program Menu :-
Let us now discuss the various menu in the Program manager and see a brief description each one of them. Click each one of the menu options to get a brief description.
Creating a Group:- Once Windows is loaded on to your system the five basic group are automatically loaded into your system. Let us say that you have many application that are needed for your daily requirements, which are sure you would like to keep it a separate group of your liking. To do this first you will have to create a new group in your program manger and then put your application new program item in that group.
The program manager allows the user to performed all these operation through its menu.
Creating a Group :-let us now see the steps involved in creating a new group called “MYGROUP”
Using Mouse Select the File menu item New. . .(Or)
Using Keyboard Press ALT+F key to select the File Menu and use the Up/Down arrow key to select New . . . Option .
This dialog box will pop up and you can see that the Radio Button for the program group has already been selected.
Using Mouse : If you find the Radio button is not selected then you have to point the mouse over the button and click , then you see a black post. Click on Ok button to continue.
Using Keyboard : Press G key to select. Use TAB key to select Ok button and then press ENTER key.If you want to abort this operation then you can select the Cancel button and either click or press ENTER key.If you need any Help from windows you could select Help, then windows will guide you thoughOnce the ok button is clicked you will see a dialog box as shown, for getting the user information regarding the name of group and its description. You can see that the Ok button dimmed. But this options will be available once you type the name of the group. This group name appears below the group icon. Similarly when you enter some text in this description field also you will find the OK button automatically getting active.
Creating a Group:-
If you are creating a new live the group file field blank. The program manager would automatically give the name to it. The group file name normally end with. GRP as extension. In this case it would be MYGROUP.GRP.
If you want to name the group file yourself then you could type in the name and all the properties regarding this group will be stirred in a file with this name. If left blank, as in this case, the program manager default creates a file MYGROUP. GRP.
If you want to abort this operation you could select Cancel option. Once OK Button is selected then you will see that the new group created and is blank( with out any program item to begin with )
New group that has been created with name as My group which appears in the title bar
Deleting a Group :-
If you want to delete any group, following actions are to be done. Select the group that you want to delete by 1 clicking on that group icon. If the group icon was open as a window at the minimize button on the top right top right of the group windows Once you have selected the group icon , you then select the file menu of the program Manager and select the Delete menu item. This will delete the group after confirming it again from the user. Basically it removes every detail regarding that group but the application program item still remains in the disk as. This also deletes the GRP file for that group.
Creating a Program Item :-
After creating a group of your choice, you would like to add some program items that make sense for you.We can create a program item in the following ways:
a) By the Program Manager
b) By the Windows Setup utility in the control panel
c) By File Manager utility in the Main Group
Now we will see how to create a Program Item Using Program Manager, the other ways to create the same will be detail in the Chapters to some.
By the program manager :-
Program Manager provides all the facility to create a program item. to do that, first open the group window in which you want to create the program item.
For instance let us say the group name is My group ;Using Mouse you point at the My group icon and double click. select the File menu and move the mouse pointer to paint at the menu item New… and click (or)
Using Keyboard first, you must select the group named My group by pressing CTRL + F6 Key repeatedly and then press ALT + key to select the File Menu and use the Up/Down ARROW key to select New… Option.
This dialog box will pop up and you can see that Radio Button in front of the one of the options.
Using Mouse :-
Using Keyboard
If you want to about this operation then you can select the Cancel button and either click on it or press ENTER key.
If you need any help from windows you could select Help option. Windows will guide you through.
Once you select the OK button the next dialog box titled Programs Item Properties will appear which will seek other information from you regarding the description, program name with complete path, short key at the dialog box.
Left us now look at the dialog box.Assume that you want to create a program item icon for an application called MY PROG. EXE in the C:DOS directory. Also assume that you want to create a program item icon for an application called MYPROG.EXE in the C:DOS directory. Also assume that the application takes one command line parameter and working directory as C:MYDIR.
Let us now look at the dialog box where you would be entering all these information.
Browsing to get the application program
If you happen to forget the directory or the file name of the application, then you could in voke the Browse option button. You will then see dialog box through which you can scan the complete disk (hard disk or floppy disk). The complete path of the file that you select from this dialog box will automatically get transferred to the Command line item text box in the Program item properties dialog box.
You can then key in the command line parameters with it. In this case you may key in “abc” after the file name.
Providing an Icon
If the application ( C 
OSMYPROG . EXE) has its own icon the program manager will automatically take it and place it in the MY group. If there is no icon associated with it then you could choose the change icon option and select the icon by moving on the scroll bar. After selection and click on the icon that you would like to have for your application . In this case the brief has been chosen as the icon Representing the application. By pressing OK button the icon will appear on the MY group window.
Deleting a Program Item
Deleting a program item involves a tedious process but deleting doesn’t take any time. Here deleting the program item means only removing the program item icon from the group so that window no more shows the icon. This process dose not physically remove the application associated with the program item icon from the disk.
That is ,let us say you want to delete the MY group program item icon , only the program icon will be deleted from the group MY group but the application program C OS MYPROG. EXE will still be remaining in the disk.
Let us look at the steps involved to delete a program item icon.
· First select the Group icon (if that group is not open) that contains the program item.
· Then double click on the group icon to open it up as a window.
· Then select the program item that needs to be deleted from the group. After selecting the item go to File menu and click on the “delete” menu item. You will be asked for confirmation (if the confirmation option is turned on ) and once you accept it , the item will be remove from the group.
Copying a Program Item
A program item icon can be copied from on group another. Then that particular program icon can be found in both the groups and also it can be executed from both the groups.
Step 1
First select and open the group that contains the program item into a group window by double clicking. If the Group window is already open , then select that window by clicking on the Title bar of the Group window.
Step 2
Then select the program item that is to be copied by coving the mouse pointer on it an clicking.
Step 3
Press and hold the CTRL key and drag the icon to the group icon where you want it to be copied. The destination group icon need not be opened for doing this operation.
If you want to place the program item icon on a particular place destination group window then before dragging you must open the source window and destination window side by side ( you can always re-size the window to it in side by side ).
Then point a mouse on the program item to be copied. Press and hold CTRL key and drag the icon to the destination window and place it at the area where you wanted it to be and finally release the CTRL key.
While dragging the icon you will notice that the mouse pointer which is normally an arrow shaped figure, has changed to a copy of the icon that you are trying to copy.
Another way to copy a Program Item
There is one more way to accomplish the same is through the menu. Let us see the steps involved in doing this through the menu items. The STEP 1 and STEP 2 remains the some as in the previous case but instead of dragging you would use the menu commands.
Select the File menu of the Program Manager and move to the Copy menu item and select it either by clicking on to it or by pressing ENTER key.
You will see this dialog box on the screen. The first item says which program item is being copied. The next item says to which group it belongs.
Next , you have to specify the group to which you want to copy. This can be done by clicking the mouse on the drop-down list box and then navigating the pointer to select the group to which you want to copy.
Press ENTER key or point the mouse on the OK button and then click. Just as we have seen in all other dialog box , here also we have Cancel and Help buttons for aborting the process or to get help from windows respectively.
Moving a Program Item
This process is similar to the copying program item , except that , the program item no longer remains in the source group after the move operation. You can find the Program item only in the de4stination group.
Step 1
First select the group which contains the program item and open that group icon into a group window by double clicking. If the Group window is already open, then select that window by clicking on the Title bar of the Group window.
Step 2
Then select the program item that is to be copied by moving the mouse pointer on it and clicking.
Step 3
Drag the icon to the Group icon where you want to copy this . the destination group icon need not be opened for doing this operation.
If you wan to place the program item icon at a particular place in the destination group window then before dragging you must open the source window and destination window side by side ( you can always re-size the window to fit in side by side ) then pointer the mouse on the program item to be moved. Drag the icon to the destination window and place it where you would like it to be.
While dragging the icon you will notice that the mouse pointer, which is normally an arrow shaped figure has changed to a copy of the icon that you are trying to move.
Another way to move a Program Item
There is one more way to accomplish the same and that is through the Program Manager menu commands. Let us see the steps involved in doing this through the menu . the STEP 1 and STEP 2 of the process remains the same as in the previous case of Move but instead of dragging you would be using the menu.
Select the File menu of the Program Manager. Then move the cursor to the Move menu item and select it either by clicking on to it or by pressing ENTER key.
You will see this dialog box on the screen. The first item specifies which program item is being moved. The next item says to which group it belongs.
Next , you have to select , to which group you want to move it to. This can be done by clicking the mouse on the drop-down list box and then navigating the pointer to select the group to which you want to move.
Press ENTER key or point the mouse on the OK button and click. Just as you have seen in all other dialog box, here also you have Cancel and Help option button for aborting the process or to get help from Windows respectively.
Change Properties
Property means the characteristics of the item. The program Manager contains both group and program items. Let us now see what all properties can be changed.
Change of Group Properties
To view the properties of any group, you have to first shrink the group window to a group icon and then select the group icon whose properties are to be displayed.
If it is already in the form of an icon then you just have to select it.
Now select the file menu and click on the properties menu item. You will then see dialog box called Program Group Properties containing the property of the group.
Change of Program Item Properties
The characteristics of any program item also can be changed or viewed as we have done for Groups. First select the group the contains the program item for which we want to view the properties. Now move the cursor and select the group icon and double click on it so that you are double to open up the group window for viewing the program items. If the group that contains the program item is already open that you may select that group window by clicking on the title bar of that windows
Now select the program item icon whose properties are to be seen.
Then select the file menu and click on the properties menu item. You will see this program item properties dialog box.
YOU MAY CLICK ON EACH CONTROL ON THE DIALOG BOX TO SEE WHAT ALL CAN BE ACCOMPLISHED.
Saving the Settings : As we have seen in the previous sessions that you can change the layout of the program manager according to yours wish a great ease. If is very obvious that once you change a layout on your pc, you would like to have the same setting till you yourself change it again.
This way when you start the window session next time you will find the layout of the complete screen looks as though you had never closed the session.
Saving of the settings of the Windows group and icon layout can be done in two different ways.Save the curare sorting and continue to work with windows.If you want to save the setting without quitting window then you first switch over to the Program Manager windows.
Using Keyboard Using Mouse
Save the setting when finally quitting the window session.You will have to inform the Program Manager to save settings every time you quit windows. This can be done by selecting the program Manager window and then:
Using Keyboard : You press ALT + O key to open option menu and from the drop down list of menu item select “ Save Setting on Exit “ item and press ENTER key.
Save the settings when Finally quitting the window session.
Using Keyboard : you click on the Options menu on the menu bar and then point at the menu item Save Setting on Exit and click.
You will see a check mark preceding the option to remind the program manager to save the setting while quitting.
Exit Program Manager :
As we have already discussed that the program manager runs irrespective of whether you are directly using it or not. Once you are in windows environment the program manager will be executing. to exit program manager ( basically you are quitting windows ) you will have to select the file menu and select the Exit Windows command or Press ALT+F4.
when you click on the OK button , you will be quitting Windows environment & switch back to DOS environment.
Introduction to File Manager
Disk and file manipulations are the most commonly and frequently used activities. But for the application provided by Microsoft Windows for accomplishing this task the life could have became really tough.
Windows has provided File Manager application in the Main group to help the user in performing any task related to disk and file management. Operations like copy , delete , move, rename, create directory, opening a file etc. are some form the huge command list that File Manager provides.
The Graphic user Interface of this has been so well designed that even a beginner feet comfortable on the first go, this application can open multiple document windows that s you con have one document showing you the files in the A-drive and the other showing the C-drive.
INVOKING FILE MANAGER
To run this application you can open up the Main group in the Program manager and select the file manager icon click on it.Or you could go to the file Menu of the Program Manager and select the run option and enter the file name as ” WINFILE. EXE”
BASICS OF FILE MANAGER
1) File manager Title Bar:- this display the title of the application. In this case it display file manager
2) DOCUMEND WINDOWS TITLE BAR:This display the path of the directory in the disk that is opened in this document windows.
3) Drive Bar:- This rectangular strip display the Drive Icons for all the Drive that are present isystem. Like the Floppy Drive, Hard Disk Drive, etc.
4) File Manager Bar :-this is the menu bar of the File Manager and it displays the various Menu that is supported.
5) Active drive Name:- the drive bar has all the drives in the system listed as icons. The active drive is displayed here.
6) Directory Tree Structure :- this portion of the document window shows the various directories and sub-directories.
7) Directory Contents :- this portion of the document window displays the contents of any given directory. in this case it is displaying the contents of directory C: DEMOMYDIRI which has set of sub-directories.
8) Horizontal Scroll Bar : - By dragging this small box on the horizontal slide one move right / left to see the contents. This scroll bar comes into picture if the content do not fit into the given size of window horizontally. That is the number of columns of the contents are more than what the windows can accommodate.
9) Split Window Bar : - one can place cursor on this and move it right or left to resize the windows.
10) Vertical Scroll Bar : - By dragging this small box on the vertical slide one move up/ down to see the contents. This scroll bar comes into picture if the contents do not fit into the given size of window vertically. That is, the number of rows of the contents are more than what window could accommodate.
11) File Folder Icon :- A folder is nothing but a directory which contains files and sub- directory.
A Folder icon with a “- “ mark indicates that it has been expanded.
A Folder icon which does not have any further folder in it.
A Folder icon which is currently open for viewing .
A Folder icon with a “ + “ indicates that it has some folders in it
Status Bar : - This displays various important like, Drive space that is free, total space of the drive in display in display, number of files in the directory content window & its size etc .
Directories Tree :- File Manager Document Windows The document windows is divided into two parts to show the content of the selected drive. The left portion of the window shows the directory selected. Just as any menu bar. It has title bar and a drive bar having all the drive icons .It is also possible that the document window displays information about the tree only, or the directory only or both as mentioned above.
Selection of Drive : - Selection of a drive can be done by clicking one of the drive icons on the drive bar. If you double click on the drive icon then you would be invoking another document window.
To Invoke Multiple Document Windows:-
To invoke a new document window, you can select the Windows menu option and then select the New Window menu item from it. Or , you can point at the drive icon and double click.
Directory Structure :- The file organization in windows environment is same as that of DOS . There are options that file can set/ reset to view the directory structure. For instant, you could set the option to view the complete tree of given drive or directory, or to view the root level directories with an indication of expandable directory.
1) Expandable File Folder Icon
2) Expandable file folder Icon
3) Split Window Bar
4) Select File Folder
5) File Folder Icon
6) Root Structure
Indicating Expandable Directory tree : -
The File manager can be configured to indicate to the user the folders that can be expanded. Once in this way, you will find that all the folders that have further levels of directories will have a “ + “ mark on it.
To active this options, select Tree Menu and select the menu item indicate Expandable Branches.
The file manager then refreshes itself and gets the details of the complete directory structure and shows all the expandable, non expandable and expandable file folder with a different icons so that one can differentiate.
When you select this options a check mark appears in befor the menu item.
( + ) File Folder Icon : - indicates expanded tree. By double clicking on this icon the minus sign on the folder icon reverts back to plus sign and the directory tree is collapsed.
[ ] File folder icon :- indicating non expandable tree. By clicking on this icon you can view the files in this folder on the right side of the window.
Viewing the Directory Tree : -
We have seen how to configure the file manager to view the expandable directory tree. By doing so, the File Manager only gives an indication to the user about expandability of the folder and not the actual view the director tree using the commands available in the Tree menu.
Expand One level :- This options reveals the list of all the sub- directories that branch out from the selected parent directory. It does not show any sub- directories that branch out from the child directories that is, it only display one level of expansion at a time.
For instance, the demo folder expand to one level but not further, even sub- directories inside the misdial folder.
Expand Branch : - The figure displays the complete tree of a selected branch. The parent directory selected is demo and sub – directories in the parent are shown and child directory is expanded to show the sub – directories that it contains.
Expand All
This menu item in the tree menu of the file manager when selected expands the complete directory structure of the drive selected.
OSMYPROG . EXE) has its own icon the program manager will automatically take it and place it in the MY group. If there is no icon associated with it then you could choose the change icon option and select the icon by moving on the scroll bar. After selection and click on the icon that you would like to have for your application . In this case the brief has been chosen as the icon Representing the application. By pressing OK button the icon will appear on the MY group window.