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Computer Boot Camp © by www.GeeksOnTour.com 40

Testimonials

Your on line tutorials are as awesome as the seminars you present live. I

am so glad I got connected with you in Redmond and look forward to more

learning and use of some of the things I was already trying. Esther

Thank you for sending me the CD tutorial for my computer. I love it, and

am learning and changing things all the time. I have a long way to go, just

changed my wallpaper and am trying a few other things. If you only knew

how terrified I was and so now am becoming a little less terrified....thank

you sooooo much! Sandy

I am getting your newsletter and joined your web site and have been

watching your videos. I am one of these self taught kind of people and enjoy

learning new things. I would like to pass your site on to all my friends and

future friends. I think they will get as much out of your information as I

have. Thank-you for making this a great adventure and keep up with your

work and I hope to meet you on the road soon. Happy Trails

GOT Class? Join Geeks On Tour Classroom and get instant

access to over 140 tutorial ‘Show Me How’

Videos. More added every month!

Plus a classroom Q&A Forum.

Only $39 for a full year’s membership.

www.GeeksOnTour.com

Click on ‘Join’

Computer Boot Camp © by www.GeeksOnTour.com

Jim and Chris Guld are

“Geeks on Tour”

Computer Boot Camp Workbook

Fundamental Windows Knowledge www.geeksontour.com


Chris owned and operated a computer training center (Computer Savvy) in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida from 1983-96. She was a certified instructor and specialized in database development with MS Access. Chris was the president of the Int‟l Computer Training Ass‟n in 1993. As a Network Administrator at Computer Savvy, Jim managed

over 100 computers and taught Windows NT as a Microsoft Certified Instructor. He was later a network administrator for an Internet Service Provider, a construction firm, and numerous small businesses and professionals.

Fulltime RVers: In 2003 Jim and Chris sold their house and took to the road in their motorhome. In 2004-5 Jim was a contractor with Coach Connect providing Wi-Fi technical support to RV parks across the country. “Geeks on Tour” began in 2006. Chris builds the website, including the video tutorials. They travel around the country giving seminars at Rallies and RV parks, and offering a variety of computer services.

Subscribe Today!

FREE E-Newsletter Past topics include:

Traveling with Computers

Reading your email from anywhere

Improving photos with Picasa

Backup your Blog

Cut/Copy/Paste,

Tips for the Digital Photographer

Sign up at:

www.GeeksOnTour.com


GOT Class? Join Geeks On Tour Classroom and get instant

access to over 140 tutorial ‘Show Me How’

Videos. More added every month!

Plus a classroom Q&A Forum.

Only $39 for a full year’s membership.

www.GeeksOnTour.com

Click on ‘Join’



Boot Camp Contents

Introductions ················································································· Using your Tutorial Videos on DVD ............................ 4

Your computer‟s specifications ................................. 6

Your Computer‟s Keyboard ....................................... 8

Your Computer‟s Connections .................................. 9 Session 1 ····························································································

Word Processing and Saving Files. .............................. 10

Using Wordpad to write a letter

Save the letter in a new folder underneath your Docu-

ments. Use Save As for another document.

Internet and Web Browsing............................................ 16

Connecting to the Internet with Wi-Fi

Go directly to a website with its URL

Search for a website with Google

Webmail

Session 2 ···························································································· File management with Windows Explorer ..................... 24

Find the files you created in Session 1

Copy files from CD to your Documents

Save a file received in Email to your Documents

Backup your Documents to a flash drive

On/Off, Sleep, Restart and System Restore.................. 28

Turning off your computer properly

What happens when you close the lid?

Reboot fixes everything! (almost)

System Restore

Session 3 ···························································································· Computer Maintenance - BUCS .................................... 34

Review your Security Center

Cleanup files

Download.com for Cleaner program

Safe Computing .............................................................. 36

Spotting Email scams

Using BCC and other Email Netiquette

Play anti-Phishing Phil


Your Boot Camp Tutorial Videos (disk in back)

To play it Your computer must have

the Flash Player installed.

It is included on the disk,

or you can download it

online at:

http://get.adobe.com/

flashplayer/

Insert disk into a DVD drive

It may start playing auto-

matically—it will probably

pop up a window of

choices. Choose „Run Autorun‟

You will see a brief view of a black screen, it will quickly

disappear and you should see a list of videos at the left.

Just click on a video‟s name to start it playing. Some-

times the screen stays blank for several seconds before it

starts playing. Be patient, it will start.

You can pause a video by clicking the pause button:

Then restart it by clicking Play:

The Contents: Boot Camp Demos ● Windows Essentials

Vista: What‟s New ● Safe Computing

● Connecting to the Internet

More … The Travelers’ Collection The Boot Camp disk con-

tains the „Show-me‟ videos

related to learning how to

use your computer. We

have even more Show-Me

tutorials on fun stuff like

Managing Digital Photos,

Making a Blog, and Using

Google Earth. We call it our

Travelers‟ Collection. It is

sold separately.


Learn to be a ‘Safe Driver’ As you drive, or browse around the web, you need to learn to

be careful about what you click on. Every link takes you to a

web address. Anti-Phishing Phil is a game that teaches you

how to recognize safe and unsafe addresses.

Play anti-Phishing Phil

http://cups.cs.cmu.edu/antiphishing_phil/new/index.html

Or use the link found on

www.GeeksonTour.com/bootcamp

Recommended Resources:

Geeks on Tour Videos on your Boot Camp disk:

Email: BCC field

www.WiFiSavvy.com: all articles in the Email category, specifically

email Netiquette article

Your email provider’s Help


Safe Computing Video: How to avoid Email scams

Email Netiquette Always write a descriptive subject. When looking at an

inbox, people usually just see a list of Subjects. If the

subject of your email is blank or non-descript (e.g. Hello)

it will look like spam and they may delete it without ever

reading it.

Use the BCC (Blind Courtesy Copy) for multiple recipients.

If you put multiple recipients in the To: or the CC: field,

each recipient will see the addresses of every other re-

cipient. At a minimum, that is annoying, and it could sub-

ject everyone on the list to spam from someone using

„Reply to All‟

Always sign your emails. Spammers know how to „spoof‟

your email address in the „From‟ field, but not a signature

in the body of the message.

Exercise:

Write down the emails of the people on either side of you in

class.

Send one email addressed to yourself and CC‟d to both of

them

Repeat, but put their email addresses in the BCC field.

When the email is received by all, take a look at the re-


This booklet, and the disk included, can be used as a self-study workbook or as the course material for a hands-on class. Geeks on Tour often schedule this class as a 3 session (2-3 hours each) hands-on class.

Note that there are several references in this booklet to the appli-cable „Show-Me‟ videos on the disk. At the top of each section you may see reference to „Boot Camp Demo‟ and other videos. Also in the Recommended Resources section. Or, you can play the videos on the disk, one after the other, and learn a lot just by watching!

See: www.GeeksonTour.com/Bootcamp For additions, corrections, and lots of links to information connected to this Computer Boot Camp class.


Make:

Model:

Purchased from:

on date:

Service Tag or ID number:

(look on the bottom of your computer)

Serial Number:

(look on the bottom of your computer)

Your computer’s ‘Properties’ Some fundamental information about your computer can be

found in My Computer, right-click, properties

Operating System:

Processor:

Memory size (RAM)

Computer‟s Name:

Manufacturer‟s website:

For help call:

(Look on website, or on purchase paperwork)

Your Computer’s storage—Disk Drives Start—My Computer (Vista: Computer)

Drive C size:

Drive D Size:

USB drive :

Other:

Bootcamp Demo Video: Meet your Laptop




Vista: Performance


Cleanup

Cleanup temporary Internet files Internet Explorer: Tools, Delete Browsing History.

Firefox: Tools, Clear Private Data

We usually do not clear cookies or passwords

Cleanup other temp files XP: Start, My Computer, Right-Click on C drive and choose

properties. Click on Disk Cleanup.

Vista: Start, type Cleanup, click on Disk Cleanup

Choose All Users, and C drive (repeat if you also have a D)

Download.com for free utilities There are lots of free utility programs that can help you main-

tain your computer. The best place to look and to download

them is from www.Download.com

Go to Download.com, search for atf-cleaner, download it

and use it. It will perform the cleanup tasks above.

Defragment your hard drive XP: Start, My Computer, Right-click on C drive and choose

Properties. Click on the tab for De

Vista: Start, type Defrag, click on Disk Defragmenter. Notice

that you can schedule this to be done weekly if you leave your

computer on all the time.

Bootcamp Demo Video: Cleanup



Search for the Users Guide for your computer on the manufacturer’s

website:


Note: It is highly recommended that you use an external, USB mouse. You can also use an external keyboard. Keyboard: Locate the following

The Escape key, The Ctrl (Control) key, The Alt key, The Del

(delete) key, The INS (insert) key

The Tab key, The Caps Lock key – Note the indicator light

The „Window‟ key – what does it do?

The Number Lock key – with the Number lock key ON, find

the number keys (usually m,j,k,l,u,I,o,7,8,9)

The little pictures on the function keys (F1, F2 etc) indicate their purpose when the Fn key is held down. Try to find the Brightness control, or the Volume control.

Touchpad: How do you …

Click:

Double Click:

Drag:

Right Click:

Disable the touchpad:

Mouse and Touchpad settings.

There are many options you can set for your mouse and

Touchpad. Explore them in:

XP: Start, Control Panel, Mouse

Vista: Start, type „mouse‟, click on Mouse




Safe Computing: Scan with Microsoft One Care Live

Safe Computing: Download CCleaner

www.WiFiSavvy.com: all articles in the Safe Computing category


Computer Maintenance

BUCS You can save some Buck$ by following our BUCS system of computer

maintenance.

B = Backup

U = Update: automatic updates of system and virus/spyware definitions

C = Cleanup: periodic, manual deletion of files

S = Scan & Defrag: automatic daily (nightly) scans for virus & spyware.

Periodic manual scans and defrag.

Software Protecting your Computer You need one and only one Firewall

You need one and only one Anti-Virus program

You need at least one Anti-Spyware program.

You need to automatically update your system and protection

software.

Check your Security Center to determine what software is on

your computer:

XP: Start, Control Panel, Security Center

Vista: Start, type Security Center, click on it

Your Firewall:

Your Anti-Virus:

Your Anti-Spyware:

Are automatic updates on?

Bootcamp Demo Video: Security Center


1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

An external monitor? A camera card? A „pcmcia‟ slot? USB ports? A „mini‟ data card slot? SD card slot? Firewire? (1394) for video SVideo output? Modem port Ethernet Microphone Head-phone , Wireless Network adapter on/off switch Built in micro-phone Built in camera? Volume control Power Button

CD/DVD player: can □ Read CDs □ Write CDs □ Read DVDs □ Write DVDs


Word Processing One of the basic uses of a computer is to serve as a typewriter.

We call that word processing. A basic word processing program

comes with all versions of Windows. It is called Wordpad.

XP: Start, All Programs, Accessories, Wordpad

Vista: Start, Wordpad (meaning, type the word „wordpad‟

and it will appear)

(Note: you can also use MS Word for this exercise.)

You should now see a white screen. This is like a blank piece

of paper in a typewriter. You want it to automatically keep your

lines to the width of the ruler,

View, Options, Wrap to Ruler

Now type this letter. Do not press Enter in the body of the let-

ter, let the program „wrap‟ your lines.

If you ever want to see this letter again, you must save it.

File, Save

Every file saved on your computer needs a location and a

name. We want this letter to be saved in your Documents

folder, in a new folder called BootCamp. And the name of the

file is Elk City Letter.

Elk City Campground

Whitehorse, YT

Dear Manager,

Elk City looks like a great campground, and I am an awesome

work-camper looking for a campground to work for next sum-

mer. You can find out all about me at my blog:

www.odieguldworkcamper.blogspot.com

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Odie Guld

Bootcamp Demo Video: Saving Files

Essentials: Writing a Letter, Save-Save As, Cut, Copy, Paste, My

Documents

Vista: Explore Files, Navigating Files



On/Off, Sleep and Restart …

Turning it off You don‟t turn it off by using a switch, there is a procedure to

follow:

Vista: Start, click on the triangle to the

right to bring up this menu. Click Shut

Down.

XP: Start, Shut Down, Shut Down.

If all is working properly, Windows will close

everything you had opened and will grace-

fully shut down the computer, including

turning the power off.

If something is not working and you cannot shut it down prop-

erly, realize that unplugging it does not do the trick because it

can run on battery! What you do is to hold down on the On

button. Keep holding down on it—the computer will eventu-

ally power off. If even that does not work, you‟ll need to re-

move the battery.

Restart, aka Reboot The single most important troubleshooting skill for computers

is to reboot.

When anything is acting funny or not working. Reboot.

When your computer has slowed to a crawl. Reboot

When you have lost your Internet connection. Reboot

When something is missing on your screen. Reboot

Reboot solves 90% of all problems.

System Restore System Restore is a handy troubleshooting tool. If Restart

doesn‟t fix your problem, you may be able to fix it by taking

your system back to a date before the problem started.

XP: Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System

Restore

Vista: Start, type „System Restore, click on it. Wait … Wait


Saving Files …

Saving a file in XP: File, Save

First make sure you‟re in the folder you want. Start with

My Documents. It should be showing in the „Save In‟

field. If not, click „My Documents in the left bar.

Next, you want to make a folder called „BootCamp‟ that is

inside the My Documents.

Click the folder with the or-

ange star at the top right. You

should now see a „New

Folder.‟ While the words „New

Folder‟ are highlighted, type

„BootCamp‟ And press Enter.

Next, double-click on the Bootcamp folder, and you

should now be „inside‟ it. Notice the „Save In‟ field now

displays Bootcamp.

Last, you want the file called Elk City Letter. In the file-

name field where it displays, „Document.rtf‟ you want to

erase that and type Elk City Letter. Then click „Save‟


Saving Files …

Saving a file in Vista: File, Save

First make sure you‟re in the folder you want. Start with

Documents. It should be showing in the address bar at

the top. If not, select Documents from the folder list at

left. If you don‟t see a folder list, click the

„Browse Folders‟ button.

Next, you want to make a folder called

„BootCamp‟ that is inside the Docu-

ments folder. Click on „New Folder.

You should now see a „New Folder.‟

While the words „New Folder‟ are high-

lighted, type „BootCamp‟ And press

Enter. (if you miss it when it‟s ready, you can find „New

Folder‟ right-click and choose „Rename)

Next, double-click on the Bootcamp folder, and you

should now be „inside‟ it. Notice the Address bar now dis-

plays Chris > Documents > Bootcamp.

Last, you want the file called Elk City Letter. In the file-

name field where it displays, „Document.rtf‟ you want to

erase that and type Elk City Letter. Then click „Save‟



Start— Help and Support: search for ‘Shut Down’

Start—Help and Support: search for Power Options

Start— Help and Support: search for ‘closing the lid’

GOT Tutorial Video: Vista—Shutdown or Sleep?


On/Off, Sleep and Restart You should be able to tell whether your laptop is off, or just

asleep. To put it to sleep:

Vista:

XP—standby:

When it‟s asleep, you should see some light that blinks, or

pulses like a heartbeat to indicate that it‟s not off. What does

yours do?

To wake it up, some computers use any key, some use an ar-

row key, some require you to press the On button once, lightly.

How do you wake yours up?

Closing the Lid Most people like their laptops to go to sleep when they close

the lid, but there are other choices as well. Check yours

Vista: Start, type power options, then click on it

on menu at left, click “Choose what closing the Lid

Does‟ - review all options

XP—Start, Control Panel, Performance and Maintenance,

Power Options, Advanced




Essentials: Saving your Work

Essentials: My Documents

Essentials: Cut, Copy, Paste

Vista: Overview of Files and Folders

Navigating Files and Folders


Saving Files …

Another Letter with ‘Save As…’ If you want to write this same basic letter to someone else, you

can start with the Elk City letter, change the address, then use

„Save As‟ to create another letter.

With the Elk City letter still on your screen, erase the Elk

City address and type:

If you just clicked File, Save—your Elk City Letter would be up-

dated to the new text. That‟s not what you want. You want Elk

City to stay as is, and create another file called Big Sky letter.

File, Save As (it should automatically be in the same

folder you used before)

All you have to do is give it a new name and click Save:

Big Sky Campground

Billings, MT

Dear Manager,

Big Sky looks like a great campground, and I am an awesome

work-camper looking for a campground to work for next sum-

mer. You can find out all about me at my blog:

www.odieguldworkcamper.blogspot.com

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Odie Guld



Seminar Handout: Vista—What’s New


Vista: Navigating Files and Folders

Essentials (XP): My Documents

Essentials: Cut, Copy, Paste

Safe Computing: Backup to External HD

Misc: Viewing a photo attached to an email


File Management …

Copy files from Disk to Computer On your Boot Camp disk, there is a

folder called Seminar Handouts.

Within that folder are 3 files. You

want to copy those 3 files from the

class disk to your computer into the

Documents\Bootcamp folder.

Using Explorer open the Seminar Handouts folder so you

see these 3 files

Select all three. You can click on the first on and Shift-click

on the last, or you can drag a „lasso‟ around all three. You

will know they are selected when they are all blue.

Copy them. Several ways: 1) Edit menu, Copy 2) Ctrl C or 3)

Right-click Copy

Using Explorer, locate your Documents folder and open the

Boot Camp folder.

Paste the files. Several ways: 1) Edit menu, Paste 2) Ctrl V

or 3) Right-click Paste

Saving an Email Attachment As part of the bootcamp class, we sent you an email with a file

attached. It is a picture. We want you to save that picture into

your Pictures folder, in a subfolder called bootcamp. We also

emailed you with a .mp3 file attachment, save that in Music.

Backup (note: we recommend making backups to CD or DVD

rather than flash drives.) For backing up photos, use Picasa

With everything you‟ve learned now—copy the entire Docu-

ments\bootcamp folder to your flash drive.

Insert the flash drive, choose Open Folder to View Files

Make a folder called Bootcamp Backup

Navigate to your Documents folder on your computer

Right-click on the Bootcamp folder and choose Copy

Navigate back to the Bootcamp Backup folder, right-click

and choose Paste




Essentials

Vista


Wi-Fi: My computer has Wi-Fi built in:

The switch to turn it on/off is located:

To connect to a wireless network

XP: right click on icon:

View Available Wireless

networks, choose the correct net-

work, click connect

Vista: right click on icon:

Connect to network, choose

the correct network, click con-

nect. When prompted, specify

Public network, not home or work.

Satellite or Cellular: Service Provider:

Technology: Satellite Cellular Dial Up

Support phone #:

Support email:

Username:

Password:

Steps to connect:

Bootcamp Demo Video: Connecting to the Internet

Connecting to the Internet group of videos.


File Management…

Viewing a Disk (CD or DVD) To see what files are on

your Bootcamp Disk, in-

sert the disk into the

drive (label side up.) You

will probably get a mes-

sage popped up on your

screen.

Choosing „run Auto-

run.bat‟ will make it start

playing the videos. To

just explore what‟s on

the disk, you want to „open folder to view files.

If the disk was already in the drive, or for some other reason,

you didn‟t get the above popup, you can explore the disk by

click on Start, then Computer

Windows Explorer will open and display all of the storage

devices that are part of your computer.

Once you click on Explore, you should be seeing all the

files and folders on the disk.


File Management To Find the documents (aka files) that you created in Session

1, just click on Start then Documents.

What you‟re looking at now is called Windows Explorer.

Double click on the folder „Bootcamp‟ and you will then see

the contents of that folder, which should be the Elk City and

the Big Sky letter. Note: if you double-click on a letter, it will

open. If you have MS Word or some other word processor

installed on your computer it may open using that program

rather than in Wordpad. We just used Wordpad in case you

had nothing else.

Vista XP

Bootcamp Demo Video: File Management



Seminar handout: High Speed Internet on the Road


Wi-Fi: Connecting and Disconnecting from a Network

Wi-Fi: How to turn off your Internal Wi-Fi

Www.WiFiSavvy.com: all articles in the Wi-Fi category

Internet on the Road magazine article on the Boot Camp Disk


Browsing the Web Bootcamp Demo Video: Web Browsing

Essentials: Web Basics 1 and Web Basics 2

In order to view or „browse‟ websites, you need a piece of soft-

ware called a „Browser.‟ There are several. Here are a few:

Internet Explorer

Firefox

AOL

this one is a little confusing because it is lots of things

besides just a web browser. It is a website, a content-

provider, an email provider, and a dial-up Internet Service

Provider (ISP) You don‟t have to use the AOL browser

software in order to see the AOL website, or get your AOL

email.

Go directly to a website If you know the address of a website, you can type it into the

address bar and press Enter to go directly there. A website‟s

address is also known as its URL (Universal Resource Locator.)

For example, the URL for Geeks on Tour is

http://www.geeksontour.com

You can usually get by without typing the http:// and the www.

Just type geeksontour.com and press Enter, or click the GoTo

button.

The address bar in Firefox

The address bar in Internet Explorer




Email: Get a Gmail account

Email: Backup up addresses to Gmail

www.WiFiSavvy.com: all articles in the Email category


Webmail Your email address?

Web address to access your email—your email „Host‟:

Password:

The web address to access your email is *usually* the same as

the domain. So, in the examples above:

HappyCamper would browse to Comcast.net and click on

‟Email‟ to read/write her email online.

JimSmith can go to AOL.com online. Note: he does *not*

need the AOL software in order to read/write his email.

Just use any browser to go to AOL.com and click on AOL

mail. Email from AOL is free.

The Geeks‟ email is a little different. Even though the

domain name is geeksontour.com, we know that is

hosted by GoDaddy.com. So, to read/write our email

online, we go to www.GoDaddy.com and click on „Check

my Web Mail‟

You may use Windows Mail, Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora,

Thunderbird or other Email „client.‟ where it retrieves your email

for you and you can read/write offline. That is fine, but what if

something happens to your computer? Or, you‟re in a hotel

without your computer? It is good to know how to access your

email online directly.

Bootcamp Demo Video: Webmail


Search for a website If you don‟t know the URL for a website, but you know some-

thing about it, or you‟re just hunting for something—you can

type that „something‟ into the Search Bar. The search bar will

use Google, or some other search tool that you specify (Yahoo!,

AOL Search, Ask.com etc.) You will be shown many websites on

a Search Results Page. Then you can click on the one you

want.

Then click on the website you want.

Enter your Search terms here Then press Enter, or click the magnifying glass

Same thing with Firefox


Browsing the Web …

Try this: Go to GeeksOnTour.com, click on Essential Skills at the left

menu under Computer Tutorial Videos and watch the free

video called, “Web Basics—Part 1” (This is also on your

Boot Camp DVD.)

If it doesn‟t play correctly, you may need to download the

Flash player from http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

… ask for help.

Go to www.CampingWorld.com and find the closest one to

here. Where is it?

Using Search, find the gas station with the lowest gas

prices nearby.

What is the price?

What website did you find it on?

Go to www.WiFiSavvy.com. What is it?

Still on WiFiSavvy.com, Use the „Find‟ box to find the article

on „7 Tips for Buying a New Computer‟

Just type “7 Tips” into the box in upper right, then click

Find.

Go to www.geeksontour.blogspot.com. What is it?

If you have a blog, what is it‟s URL?

If you know someone who has a blog, but you don‟t know

the address, you can search specifically for blogs. Go to

Google.com, at the top of the page you should see several

links, the last one reads, “more.‟ Click on the dropdown

arrow and select „Blogs‟. Enter search terms into the spe-

cial box and click „Search Blogs‟

Google (search) your name.

How many results did it fine?


Website Notes: Website: www.geeksontour.com become a member to view all

the videos! Just go to www.geeksontour.com and click on „Join‟

Username/Password:

Website:

Username/Password:

Website:

Username/Password:

Website:

Username/Password:



Essentials: Web Basics Part 1

Essentials: Web Basics—Part 2

Essentials: Web Basics—part 2 Using Firefox

Essentials: Internet Explorer 7—tabbed browsing

www.WiFiSavvy.com: all articles in the Internet category