Chapter 2. A+ Essentials Study Guide

This chapter provides a study guide for the CompTIA A+ Essentials exam. Various sections in this chapter are organized to cover the related objectives of the exam. Each section identifies the exam objective, provides an overview of the objective, and then discusses the key details that you should master before taking the exam.

An overview of the sections in this chapter is as follows:

Personal Computer Components

This section describes the components of personal computers such as the processor, memory, storage devices (such as hard disks and removable drives), display devices, input/output devices (such as the keyboard and mouse), and various ports and types of cables used to connect these components. Installing, configuring, upgrading, and troubleshooting these components are also covered in this section.

Laptops and Portable Devices

This section describes the identification of different components of portable computers. Installing, configuring, upgrading, and troubleshooting these portable computers is also covered in this section.

Operating Systems

This section describes requirements and installation procedures for various operating systems used on personal computers such as Mac OS X, Linux, Windows 98, Windows 2000, and Windows XP. Upgrading a previously installed operating system and troubleshooting common problems is also covered in this section.

Printers and Scanners

This section describes the basics of installing, configuring, optimizing, upgrading, ...

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