KABUTU CHUUNGA ID UB16510SIN24221

COMPUTER FUNDAMENTALS

COMPUTER HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE

ATLANTIC INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY. HONOLULU HAWAII SPRING 5TH SEPTEMBER, 2011

Table of contents 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Describe basic computer components and their uses. Demonstrate how to install and uninstall software. Navigate the internet and utilize email functions. Differentiate between operating system and application software. Configure the current version of Windows operating system Demonstrate how to use Windows Explorer Conclusion References

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Describe basic computer components and their uses. French C. S. (2009) mentioned that a computer is any device that accepts inputs, processes, stores and gives an output or displays the processed results. For a computer to be able to do all these activities, it uses different hardware components. The computer hardware components are divided into two categories. These are external and internal hardware. External hardware The external hardware of a computer is composed of the keyboard, mouse, system unit (Box) and the screen. You may find other hardware components connected outside the computer such as speakers, printers and so forth. I will discuss such devices under other computer devices. These devices are also divided into categories of what they do on computers. For example a keyboard is an input device while a monitor is an output device. Keyboard A keyboard is an input device. It is made up of a systematic arrangement or layout of keys that are used to encode data into a computer. In other words, it is a hardware unit with a set of switches that resembles a typewriter keyboard and that conveys information from a user to a computer or data communications circuit. It consists of many keys; - Alt key, arrow key, Backspace key, Break key, Caps Lock key, character keys, Control key, Delete key, End key, Enter key, Escape key, function keys, Home key, Insert key, numeric keypad, Num Lock key, Page Down key, Page Up key, Pause key, Power-on key, Print Screen key, Scroll Lock key, Shift key, Tab key etc. A user of a computer uses several of these keys to complete a task especially when using word processing software like Microsoft Word. Some of these keys are used to enable and disable some hardware on computers. Some advanced users are able to do all their daily work with a keyboard only. A keyboard uses a PS/2 port to connect to a computer. Modern keyboards use USB technology and a few have incorporated Bluetooth wireless. Mouse A mouse is a pointing device that allows a computer user to be able to select icons and menus on the interface of a computer screen. It has a round case designed to be held by one hand with a right and left key for clicking. It also has a bottom sensitive directional component known as a trackball which allows the pointer to navigate over menus and windows on the screen. Most mice connected to the computer using a PS/2 port. However the technology of using USB has overtaken the PS/2 in modern computers. Most mice made nowadays are connecting to computers using USB technology. Others just like keyboards are using Bluetooth wireless technology. System unit A System Unit is the main system which performs the work of a computer. It allows the connection of all external devices to itself. It is made up of a system case, motherboard, power supply unit, processor, floppy drive, hard drive, CD drive and all the wires that

complete the connections inside. I will explain the internal components in the coming sections. Monitor A monitor is simply an output or display device. It gives a view of what a user is doing. There are two types of computer monitors CRT and LCD. A CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) monitor is an old type which has a cathode ray tube inside. It looks similar to an ordinary TV. It produces a lot of heat when in use. The LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) is the modern type of display used by computers. It is smaller in size and weighs less when compared to the CRT. It also consumes less heat from the electricity supply company which makes it more economical than a CRT. Most monitors connect to the computer using a Video Graphics Array (VGA) port. Although modern monitors still use the VGA, there are other new advanced port connectors such as DVI, S-Video and so forth. Power and connector cables Computers work with power. A system unit and a monitor both need power to do their work. To connect these devices to power outlets, they have special cables which are called power cables. The monitor also connects to the system unit using a VGA cable. Other devices have their special ways and connectors to connect to the system unit. Other external devices There are several other devices that connect to a computer. The list includes the following; - printers, speakers, barcode readers, cameras, scanners, projectors etc. They provide other input and output methods to a computer. Internal hardware Internal devices are those that are enclosed inside the system case. They actually make up the system unit. Devices that fall into this group include motherboard, disk drives, power supplies, processors, memory modules (RAM) etc. Let me talk about each one of them. Motherboard A motherboard as its name suggests is a main board of a system unit which provides the circuitry connection of all the devices that connect to a computer. It has several other components on it such as the South Bridge and North Bridge. The South Bridge handles the communication between external devices and the processor while the North Bridge provides a link between the memory and the processor. The North Bridge also links the AGP port to the processor for accelerated graphics viewing and editing. There are four common types of motherboard form factors. These are; (i) AT

(ii) (iii) (iv)

ATX NLX BTX

AT Motherboard It was the first type of motherboard introduced on the market. It had only one big port for connecting a keyboard. This was a limitation to connectivity. If one wanted to connect another device to a computer, they would certainly need a PCI or ISA card to install on motherboard. With the backward and less advanced operating systems of those days, it was a tedious task for a technician. They would have to configure the interrupt requests per device to ensure that there is no conflict between devices. Due to these limitations, the industry pioneers decided to make a form factor which had a port cluster with several ports on it for connecting many other devices. This was the ATX. ATX Motherboard ATX stands for Advance Technology eXtended. The ATX motherboard had a port cluster which allowed it to connect several devices. It was made to alleviate the problems that were discovered in the AT. It could connect the keyboard, mouse, monitor, printer, network connector and USB ports for many other devices that use USB technology. The ATX is also slightly smaller than the AT. It is the most popular motherboard used in the world even today. NLX Motherboard This motherboard is smaller in size and has a riser card which provides and interface to connect expansion cards on a computer. It is used in small form factor system units. BTX Motherboard BTX stands for Balanced Technology eXtended. It is quite similar to the ATX form factor. The only difference with the ATX is that it has surface and onboard slots designed for cooling. It is also the most popular because modern devices produce a lot of heat due to advanced tasks of which it was made to handle. Disk drives There are three types of disk drives used on computers. These are hard drives, CD/DVD drives and floppy drives. Hard drives A hard drive is an apparatus that contains platters (disks), read/ write head, the spindle motor all sealed in a case that protects against outside contamination. The data on the hard drive is written on the platters and when needed at a later date the read/write head

retrieves it from the platters. The hard drives store data in bytes. Current hard drives are so big that they range from 40 Giga bytes to 1 Terabyte. CD/DVD drives CD and DVD drives are used for reading CDs and DVDs. They have a lens which reads the sector of a CD or DVD and retrieve the data encoded into a disk. There are also disk rewriters which can be used to transfer information from one disk to another or from a computer to a disk. A standard CD is about 700 MB while a standard DVD is 4.7GB. Floppy drives A floppy drive is used to read and write data to floppy disks. Microsoft computer Dictionary (2002) says a floppy disk is a round piece of flexible plastic film coated with ferric oxide particles that can hold a magnetic field. When placed inside a disk drive, the floppy disk rotates to bring different areas, or sectors, of the disk surface under the drives read/write head, which can detect and alter the orientation of the particles magnetic fields to represent binary 1s and 0s. A floppy disk 5.25 inches in diameter is encased in a flexible plastic jacket and has a large hole in the center, which fits around a spindle in the disk drive. A floppy drive can hold about 1.44MB of data. It is phasing out due to high data storage demands the computer industry is experiencing. Power Supply The power producing companies generate AC power which can travel long distances. A computers internal components use DC current. For this reason a device to convert AC power to DC is required. This happens to be the power supply. A power supply is used to convert AC current to DC current in suitable voltages for all the different components of the internal components. It has a 20 in modern computers is a 24 pin connector known as Pin1. This pin connects the motherboard to the power supply. There is also another independent 4 pin connector to the motherboard. The power supply has other several connectors such as the Molex, Mini power connector and SATA power connector. The Molex connector connects the hard drive and DVD/CD drives to the power supply while the Mini power connector connects the floppy drive to the power supply. The power supply has several color coded wires which transmit power to devices. For instance the wires that take power to the Molex connector are red, yellow and black. The red color carries 5.5 volts, the yellow wire carries 12 volts and the black wire carries 3.5 volts. The power carried by the red wire is used to power up the electronic board while the power carried by the yellow wires is used to power the motor on the drives. The black wires with their 3.5 volts are used for grounding.

Processor (CPU). The processor (CPU) is the brain of the computer. It has two components the Logic Link Control (LLC) and the Arithmetic Unit. The LLC is used for control while the Arithmetic Unit is used for calculations. There are two processor makers in the world. These are AMD and Intel. The processors made nowadays are so fast because they contain several cores inside. A core is a combination of processor chips made into one single processor. Intel makes the Intel Core 2 dual and Intel Core 2 Quad while AMD makes the Phenom X3 and X4. Memory (RAM) There are two types of memory used in computers. The Read Only Memory (ROM) and the Random Access Memory (RAM). The Read Only Memory writes data permanently and mostly the contents of this memory is some software (firmware) written by a special program from the manufacturer. The Random Access Memory (RAM) is a temporal kind of memory whose data is erased when power is withdrawn from it. The RAM is a work space of a computer. All the data that is being worked on is kept in the RAM. The processor retrieves the data it wants to work on from memory then gives an output. When you open a file, it is loaded into memory and remains their while it is being worked on. There are several types of RAM that are used in computers. These are;SDRAM, Rambus, DDR1, DDR2, SODIMM (for laptops) etc.

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Demonstrate how to install and uninstall software. Installing System Software Computer software is a group of instructions that are executed to perform a specific task. There are two types of computer software. These are system software and application software. The application software is installed on the system software so as to allow the user of the computer to perform the actual work to produce the desired results. However in this context I would like to talk about the system software because it is the one that is used to coordinate the hardware that we have just discussed in the previous topic. System software also known as operating system is the main software that is installed on a computer to coordinate all the hardware and provide an interface for a user to access other software on the computer. There are many operating systems software in the world today such as the following:1. 2. 3. 4. Windows Linux Unix Macintosh etc

Amongst the four systems software I have mentioned above, Windows is the largely deployed in the world. Windows operating systems are made by Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates in the 1970s and since then it has played a major role in the software market. It is the world giant in software making Microsoft has released so many operating systems based on windows since its inception. The popular ones that you may have seen or used are;1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Microsoft Windows 95 Microsoft Windows 98 Microsoft Windows Millennium Microsoft Windows NT Microsoft Windows 2000 Microsoft Windows XP Microsoft Windows Vista Microsoft Windows 7 Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and 2008

The process of installing these operating systems differ in one way or the other though not much. I will use a standard installation of Windows 7. To install Windows 7 you need to have a DVD containing the installation files of Windows 7. You will have to configure the computer BIOS to boot from the DVD drive. After configuring the computer in this manner load the DVD in the DVD ROM drive and restart the computer. The BIOS will prompt you to press any key on the keyboard. Simply strike any key on the keyboard and setup will be initiated loading installation files from the DVD ROM drive. It will copy the files needed for installation to the hard drive and later run the setup process up to the end. During the installation stages, you will be prompted to enter different information such as regional and time settings, product key and several configurations and settings. The length of the installation process depends on how fast the processor and other

hardware are on your computer. Once this process reaches the end, your computer will be ready for use. At this point you will have to install all the necessary application software that you will need to use on the computer. Uninstalling Software Uninstalling software is the process of removing software on the computer. There are two types of software on a computer the operating system and application software. The operating system is the main software on a computer while the application software is installed on the operating system and provides an interface between a user and the computer to perform a specific task. When taking an action of removing these two types of software the processes differ. Uninstalling the operating system means the process of removing all software on the computer. This is like that because the operating system holds all software on a computer. Therefore when you uninstall it, it means that all software installed on it is removed as well. To uninstall the operating system you are required to format the hard drive. This process erases all files on the computer and creates a new platform for the operating system to sit. You will erase the operating system in a computer if you need to load another one. When talking about uninstalling, I always look at it to suit application software. In Windows 7 you will have to go to the Control panel and click on the category for Programs. When you click on the programs, another list of options will appear. Select Programs and Features from this list and you will be taken to Uninstall or Change a Program. In this window or interface, simply right click the application program you want to uninstall and from a popup menu select uninstall. This will invoke the application uninstalling process. When it finishes the Windows will demand a restart. Simply restart the computer and your unwanted application will be removed from your computer completely. You need to know that for one to uninstall software on a computer should have administrative privileges on that computer.

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Navigate the internet and utilize email functions. The Internet The Internet is a group of networks worldwide. The word internet actually comes from the words interconnected networks. This network allows people to share information from any corner of the world. Windows 7 comes with Internet Explorer a program that is used to access the internet. Internet Explorer has some nice features which makes it the best web browser program in the world. It has the following features which I like very much such Favorites, Auto complete, Saving a site for offline viewing and Opening many tabs in the same window. Favorites The favorites allows you to bookmark sites that you like most so that you can easily visit them next time when you want to view the site. It will keep the URL of the site and should you need to access it again simply go to your favorites and you will be on the site as quick as possible. This is also nice in the sense that you will not have to write the sites that you like on a separate piece of paper. All you need to do add them to the favorites list and continue with whatever you are doing. Auto Complete The Auto Complete feature allows you to type a URL and Internet Explorer will automatically complete it for you. It will suggest a lot of complete URL options and from the list you will be able to see what you are looking for. Saving a site for offline viewing You can use Internet Explorer to save a site on a floppy or USB flash disk so that you can view them when there is internet. To people who do research saving a site to a removable is really useful. Imagine if you were in the midst of reading a long list of things on the internet and you cannot finish in the given time due to internet charges or power failures. The best you can do is to simply open the site and save it on a removable media.

Opening many tabs in the same window Using Internet Explorer 8 you just open one window and open several tabs in the same window with different URL. As you can see in the windows below, Tab One is opening MSN.com and Tab Two is on Facebook.com while the other two tabs are opening. It gives you an interface where you can do everything on the same window.

Email Accounts An Email is simply an Electronic message sent to someone via a computer network. For one to send an email needs email client software and email server software. The common email client software is Microsoft Office Outlook.

This program has Outbox and Inbox folders. The Inbox folder holds incoming mails while the Outbox folder holds the outgoing message. As you can see in the window

above an interface for outlook has four panes. The first one is a Mail pane. In this pane we find the folders which hold messages. For instance in the window above the Inbox folder is selected and a list of its contents are displayed in the second middle pane. In this pane you are now able to read the titles of the messages and see the day and dates when the messages were received. When you click on a message in this pane it will be displayed in the third middle pane where you will be able to read the message. The last pane is a to-do bar. It has a calendar which shows you the date of the day. It also shows you if you have any appointments that day. You can link the Outlook account to your Gmail account. When you do that Microsoft Outlook will download the messages from Gmail. When you send an email using Outlook, it goes to an email server which will also forward it to another email server. From this server the client will be able to download the message and the receiver will be able to read it. Microsoft made the Microsoft Exchange program to work as an email server. It receives and forwards emails. There are other email sites like Gmail from Google and yahoo mail. These sites host the mails from their own servers and their customers read the message from the server using internet browser software. Email is one of the fastest modes of communication in the world today. It is cheap and the moment you send it within minutes the other person will receive it.

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Differentiate between operating system and application software. Operating System Computer software is a group of instructions that are executed to perform a specific task. There are two types of computer software. These are Operating system software and application software. The application software is installed on the system software so as to allow the user of the computer to perform the actual work to produce the desired results. Operating System software also known as System software is the main software that is installed on a computer to coordinate all the hardware and provide an interface for a user to access other software on the computer. There are many operating systems software in the world today such as the following:5. 6. 7. 8. Windows Linux Unix Macintosh etc

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

7.

Functions of an operating system In order to fulfill its purpose the operating system must carry out a number of functions. It has at its disposal, and under its control, the various system programs to accomplish this work. The functions of an operating system are as follows:It schedules and loads programs in order to provide a continuous job processing sequence or to provide appropriate responses to events. It controls hardware resources e.g. control over the selection and operation of devices used for input, output and storage. It handles errors when they occur and uses corrective routines where possible. It passes control from one program to another under a system of priority when more than one application program occupies main storage. It protects hardware, software and data from improper use. It communicates with a computer user or operator by means of terminals or consoles and through the use of monitor commands and responses. The operator or user may also be able to communicate with the operating system by means of command language. It furnishes a complete record of what has happened during operation. The details of this log may be stored for accounting purposes. Application Software The application software is a program designed to assist in the performance of a specific task, such as word processing, accounting, or inventory management and is installed on the operating system which manages its operations. The following list shows some applications that are used in computers worldwide. Take note that the list is endless as there are thousands of applications in use. Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher etc) Nero Suite Windows Media Player Internet Explorer Mozilla Firefox Antivirus software (Norton, Avast, Panda, MCfee etc)

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

7. 8. 9. 10.

SPSS Microsoft Visual Basic Windows Movie Make Etc

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Configure the current version of Windows operating system Windows 7 has a lot of configurations that one needs to know for them to work well with the operating system. We will look at some of the few ways you can use to configure it. These are:- User Accounts and Family Safety, Windows Activation and Network Adapter Settings. User Accounts and Family Safety The User Accounts and Family Safety is used for creating and managing user accounts. To access this tool, you follow the steps below. 1) Click the Start button. 2) Navigate the mouse to the Control Panel and click it. 3) The Control Panel will open as shown below.

4) Click the User Accounts and Family Safety. It will look like the diagram shown below.

5) As you can see in the window above there are five options. There is a User Accounts, Parental Controls, Windows CardSpace, Creadential Manager and Mail. You can Change your account picture, Change your Windows password and Add or remove accounts using the User Accounts option. You can set parental controls for any user on the computer. You can also view parental control settings.

Windows Activation Michael Aldridge, Josh Evitt, Lisa Donald and James Chellis (2007) mentioned that Windows Activation is Microsofts way of reducing software piracy. Unless you have a corporate license for Windows Vista, you will need to perform post installation activation. This can be done online or through a telephone call. Windows Vista will attempt automatic activation three days after you log on to Windows Vista for the first time. There is a 30-day grace period when you will be able to use the operating system without activation. After the grace period expires, you will not be able to create new files or save changes to existing files until Windows Vista is activated. When the grace period runs out, the Windows Activation Wizard will automatically start; it will walk you through the activation process. Network Adapter Settings Computers are no longer isolated from each other. This has made work for people very easy. You no longer need to always be moving with a flash from computer to computer. The network has to do that for you. It also allows you to get to the internet. For these

reasons I would like to explain how one needs to configure the computer so that it can participate on a network. IP Addressing. There are two types of Internet Protocol addresses IPv4 and IPv6. Windows 7 supports both. Let us look at how you can configure a computer with IP addressing. Before we go into details I would like to also mention that there are two ways of configuring the computer for IP addressing. We have Manual (static) and Dynamic. I will explain both ways of IP address configuration. Manual IP Configuration You configure a computer manually by inputting the IP addresses into the TCP/IP protocol properties window. To access this window you do following steps. 1) Click Start. 2) Navigate the mouse to the Control Panel and click it. 3) The Control Panel will open as shown below.

4) While in the Control Panel click the Network and Internet category. 5) The Network and Internet category will open. Select and click the Network and Sharing Center.

6) It will open as shown below.

7) On the left pane click the Change Adapter Settings. The Network Adapter Settings will open shown all network adapters connected to the computer. 8) Right click the Local Area Connection. You should see the following interface.

9) In the above interface select the Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click Properties. 10) The Properties window of IPv4 will open as below.

11) Click on the Use the following IP address and enter the following details. IP address 192.168.122.104 Subnet mask 255.255.255.0 Default Gateway 192.168.1.1 12) Click on the Use the following DNS server addresses and enter the following details Preferred DNS server 192.168.1.10 Alternate DNS server 192.168.1.8 13) Click Ok when you are finished.

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Demonstrate how to use Windows Explorer Windows Explorer Windows Explorer is a tool contained in the Windows Operating Systems which allows users to access drives, folders and files on a computer. The diagram below shows a task bar and quick access link to Windows Explorer. To launch Windows Explorer you should click on the Windows Explorer link on the Taskbar as shown in the diagram below.

When you clink the link Windows Explorer will open as shown in the diagram below.

Windows Explorer has two panes. The left pane shows the list of links you can access within the window. There are four categories in this pane. These are Favorites, Libraries, Computer and Network.

Favorites In the favorites category we have the Desktop, Downloads and Recent places. From the Favorite interface you are able to access information that is saved on the Desktop, Download and also any places that you visited recently. The Downloads folder keeps information that you download from the Internet using Internet Explorer. After the download is complete you simply go to Windows Explorer and get to the favorite then check in the Downloads folder. The Recent Places shows your recent files and activities that you just did on your computer. It is a long list of things depending on what you accessed recently. Libraries In the Libraries there are Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos. The Libraries folder is the one which is opened by default when you launch Windows Explorer. You can go to your documents from here. You can also access you music, pictures and videos. Computer In the computer there are drives like the hard drive, DVD drive and Removable media. The Computer category allows you to see what is in your hard drive, DVD drive and any other removable media that are connected to your computer. For example if you connect an external hard drive, you simply get to Windows Explorer and you will see it listed in the Computer category. Network The Network category shows the computers that are on the network. If you have a Workgroup or Domain all the member computers will be listed here. Take note that even non Workgroup or Domain members will be listed. If you need to copy some files from a computer on the network just launch Windows Explorer and go to the Network category you will see the computer you want to connect to and simply double click it. Apart from launching Windows Explorer from the task bar you can as well use the long way that is if you are used to using the Start button. This is how you do it;1. Click button as shown below.

2. The Start Menu will appear as shown below.

3. Point your mouse to Accessories and in the Accessories folder you will see Windows Explorer. Simply click it. It will open just as it opened when you clicked the link from the Taskbar.

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Conclusion Computers are made up of hardware and software. The hardware is the physical part that you can see and feel where as the software are the instructions that are executed during computer operation. You need to have all the necessary computer hardware connected together and then install the operating system for the computer to perform all the wonders it can do. You first install the operating system. After the operating system is installed you can now install the application software on the operating system. The operating system is the main software that manages all the hardware, software and resources on the computer. The application software is a program installed on the computer operating system to allow a user to perform their specific work on the computer. Computers need to be maintained. You need to configure a computer so as to allow you to use it with others. The windows operating system needs activation within 30 days of its installation. Microsoft conducts activation on its operating systems to prevent software piracy. You will also need to configure how others will access your computer by creating other user accounts and passwords. You do this using the User Accounts and Family Safety. If you are to connect to a network you will be required to configure IP addressing on your computer. You do this from the Network and Sharing Center.

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References C. S. French (2009) Data Processing and Information Technology 10th Edition Course Technology Cenage Training Hampshire, United Kingdom. Don Poulton (2008)MCTS Windows Vista Configuring Que Publishing, US. Ian Mclean and Orin Thomas (2010) MCTS Windows 7 Configuring, Microsoft Press, Redmont Washington, US. IEEE Standard Glossary of Computer Hardware Terminology June 1994. Jill Spealman and Kurt Hudson (2004) Planning, Implementing & Maintaining a Microsoft Wndows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure Microsoft Press, Redmond, Washington. Kenneth C. Laudon, Jane P. Laudon and Mary Elizabeth Brabston (2011) Management Information Systems (Managing the Digital Firm 5th Canadian Edition Pearson Toronto Canada. Mark Edward Soper, Scott Mueller and David L. Prowse (2010) CompTIA A+ Cert. Guide Pearson Education United States. Michael Aldridge, Josh Evitt, Lisa Donald and James Chellis (2007) Microsoft Windows Vista Client Configuring Study Guide, Wiley Publishing Inc, USA Microsoft Computer Dictionary 5th Edition Copyright 2002 by Microsoft Corporation Mike Meyers (2006) All in One A+ Study Guide Total Seminars, United States.