December 2002
Beginner to intermediate
192 pages
7h 4m
English
Content preview from Windows XP Pocket Reference
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A Crash Course in the Basics of Windows XP
Windows XP, although technically an incremental upgrade to Windows 2000, has been positioned as the direct replacement to Windows Me, officially marking the end of the DOS-based Windows 9x/Me line. Windows XP is indeed the long-anticipated operating system designed to finally unify both lines of Windows, bringing the bullet-proof stability of NT to home and small business users, and the industry support of Windows 9x/Me to corporate and power users.
The following brief sections illustrate the layout of the Windows XP interface and identify the important concepts and components. Continue to Chapter 2 for tips and shortcuts for working with files, windows, and applications.
The Desktop
Like most modern operating systems that use graphical user interfaces (such as the Mac, Unix, and earlier versions of Windows), Windows XP uses the metaphor of a desktop with windows and file folders laid out on it. This desktop metaphor is provided by a program called Windows Explorer (explorer.exe), which runs automatically every time you start Windows. Figure 1-1 shows the default Windows XP Desktop.
Figure 1-1. The layout of the Windows XP Desktop is much cleaner than previous versions
Point and Click
Windows XP offers several settings that affect the way the interface responds to mouse clicks, all of which are documented in Chapter 4. The default setting (the ...
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I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
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I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.