Exercise 1: Microsoft Windows

Note: These instructions were written on a computer running Windows Millenium and may not work exactly as written for your computer.

What to Do How to Do It
Open the UMU Intranet home page
  1. Double-click Internet Explorer (or run the Netscape Navigator browser)
  2. If necessary, select or type in the URL http://home.umu.ac.ug/
Set your browser to start with the UMU Intranet home page
  1. Make sure you are at the UMU Intranet home page
  2. Click the Tools menu and select Internet Options
  3. Click the General tab, click the Use Current button, click OK
Open the Operating Systems course web site
  1. Go to the UMU Intranet home page
  2. Click Courses Online
    OR: type in the URL http://home.umu.ac.ug/os/
Open these instructions
  1. Go to the Operating Systems course web site
  2. Click Exercises
  3. Click Exercise 1
Open and close My Computer
  1. Double-click My Computer on the desktop
  2. Click the File menu and click Close
Open Windows Explorer
  1. Click Start, Programs, Accessories, Windows Explorer
    OR: Right-click My Computer on the desktop
Windows Control Panels  
View the Windows control panels
  1. Click the + next to My Computer in the Folders pane of Windows Explorer
  2. Click once on Control Panel
  3. Click the View menu and click Details
View the Display control panel settings
  1. Double-click the Display control panel
  2. Click the Background, Screen Saver, Appearance and Settings tabs
  3. For help on any setting, click the ? button (near the x button) and click the setting
  4. You can safely change any of the settings on the first three tabs, but be careful with the Settings tab
  5. Click Apply to apply your changes, Cancel to close the control panel, or OK to apply and close
  6. Be sure to change the settings back the way they were
    (be considerate of other users and the lab administrator)
View the System control panel settings
  1. Double-click the System control panel
    OR: Right-click My Computer and click Properties
  2. View the overview of hardware settings
    (Windows version, registered user and organisation, serial number, processor type and speed, memory, etc.)
  3. Click the Device Manager tab or button
  4. Click the + next to any type to view devices of that type
    (keyboard, mouse, monitors, disk drives, etc.)
  5. Click a device and click Properties; view the General, Driver and Resources tabs.
    What driver files, I/O IRQs, DMAs, and other resources is the device using?
  6. Click the Performance tab and click the File System, Graphics and Virtual Memory buttons
  7. Click Cancel
View the Network control panel settings
  1. Double-click the Network control panel
  2. View the Configuration, Identification and Access Control tabs
  3. Click Cancel
View the programs and Windows components installed on your computer
  1. Double-click the Add/Remove Programs control panel
  2. Look at the list of installed programs
  3. Click the Windows Setup tab
  4. Click any of the Components to select it and click the Details button
  5. Click Cancel
View other control panels Other control panels that you may find useful in studying operating systems include:
  1. Add New Hardware
  2. Users and Passwords
  3. Scheduled Tasks
  4. Printers
Windows Folders  
View the contents of the root directory
  1. Click the C: or D: drive beneath the My Computer icon in the left pane of Windows Explorer
    (some computers at UMU use the C: volume for installing programs and D: for user data)
  2. Click the View menu and click Details
  3. View the Documents and Settings folder.
    This contains documents and settings for each user who has an account on this computer.
    Files in the All Users folder will be visible to anyone using the computer.
View the contents of the Program Files folder
  1. Click the + next to the C: or D: drive in the left pane of Windows Explorer
  2. Click the Program Files folder in the left pane
    This may be a more complete list of installed programs than you find in the Add/Remove Programs control panel
View the contents of the Windows or winnt folders
  1. Click the Windows (or winnt) folder in the left pane
View the contents of the system and/or system32 folders
  1. Click the + next to the Windows (or winnt) folder
  2. Click the system and/or system32 folder in the left pane
View the contents of other folders inside Windows (or winnt)
  1. Click the folders beneath the Windows (or winnt) folder. Folders of interest include
Folder Contents
command external DOS commands
desktop shortcuts that appear on the desktop
favorites Internet and local shortcuts
(created by clicking Favorites, Add to Favorites in Windows/Internet Explorer)
fonts fonts installed on the computer
help help and documentation files
inf program setup information files
Recent shortcuts to documents that were recently accessed
(the list you see when you click Start, Documents)
SendTo shortcuts that appear in the SendTo menu when you right-click an icon
Start Menu shortcuts that appear in the Start Menu
temp temporary files (often used by installation programs when installing software)
Windows System Tools  
View the currently installed System Tools
  1. Click Start and move to Programs, Accessories, System Tools
Install a System Tool that is missing
  1. Open the Add/Remove Programs control panel
  2. Choose Windows Components
  3. Click the System Tools component and click Details
  4. Put a tick in the box of any component you want to install
  5. Click OK
View the System Information tool
  1. Select System Information from the System Tools menu
  2. Click the + beside each category to expand it
  3. Click an item to view its contents
View the System Monitor tool
  1. Select System Monitor from the System Tools menu
  2. Click Edit, Add Item
  3. Select a category from the category menu
    (Disk Cache, File System, Kernel, Memory Manager)
  4. Select an item within the selected category and click OK
    You will see a graph of the selected property
View other system tools Other system tools useful to the study of operating systems include
System Tool Purpose
Backup Make backup of files, folders or disks
Scandisk Check disks for errors and repair
Disk Defragmenter Reduce fragmentation of files on disks
Disk Cleanup Remove unnecessary files that are taking up disk space
DriveSpace Disk compression to use less disk space
Task Scheduler Arrange for programs to run at certain days/times
Maintenance Wizard Schedules scandisk, defrag and disk cleanup tasks
System Resource Meter View usage of system resources (GDI, User, System)