About the Author:

Stephie Smith has been tutoring beginners in the basics of Windows since 1995. The book and this website came about as a result of that tutorial program. Read more below in the Introduction to BASICS of Windows: The Easy Guide to Vista & XP. Click here for more about the book. Stephie is published in short stories and essays and also writes romance. Read more at www.StephieSmith.com.

INTRODUCTION from BASICS of Windows: The Easy Guide to Vista & XP

In 1988 my boss purchased a computer to track inventory. When no one was looking, I touched it. The screen went dark except for the words “Security violation. This computer is locked.” It took three days to get back into the computer, and in the meantime, when I passed co-workers in the hall they gave me accusing looks. I didn’t touch another computer for two years.

Eventually I took a word processing course, and I gained so much confidence I was eager to show off to a friend. Within minutes I had locked up his PC. When he restarted, a message said, “Internal failure. Insert boot-up disk to reformat drive.” He didn’t have one and we wouldn’t have known what to do with it if he had. He was forced to hire a real PC expert and I resolved to keep my hands off everyone else’s PC.

But I was determined to conquer this new technology. It obviously wasn’t going away, and it didn’t seem realistic to think I could get rid of it one PC at a time.

I worked hard and was proud of my increasing knowledge. So proud, in fact, that I must have bragged (although it certainly isn’t like me) to my sister because she called to tell me she’d given my number to an 83-year-old  man who had just purchased a Windows 95 PC. Gulp.

I hadn’t seen Windows 95, so I borrowed a set of videos on the subject and took notes. The man was a quick learner and was able to perform all the tasks during the first lesson. Unfortunately, when I returned several days later, he couldn’t remember how to do any of those things, and neither could I. Mumbling something about how important it was that he figure it out on his own, I slinked from the house (I’m not proud of this). But I returned the next day with exercises and some handout pages that he could keep for review.

I was relieved when his tutoring was over. And then the phone calls began. He had told a friend who had told a friend who had told a friend. I couldn’t say no. I didn’t have a job and my cats were used to eating—a lot.

So that’s how this book began: as handout pages for people who wanted to learn the basics of Windows, quickly and without reading a 400-page book.

Why XP and VISTA? 

Many people are using XP, but new PCs have Vista. I cover both so you will understand that certain things are basic to every Windows operating system, and if you learn the basics and refuse to be intimidated, you can get on any PC and figure out the rest. And that’s where the exercises are especially helpful. They force you to figure out what to do by giving you specific tasks to perform. Please do the exercises. You’ll be glad you did.

You’ll see screen shots from both Vista and XP and with different desktop themes. This will again drive the point home that it doesn’t matter how the PC looks or how it’s been customized, you can always get there from here—wherever here happens to be.

Finally, because weird things will happen, I’ve added Questions & Answers at the end of each section, hoping to cover many of the annoying things that might pop up (sometimes literally).

So . . . I hope you’ll use this book as it was written to be used:  to learn the basic skills and to gain enough confidence to realize that from there, you can go anywhere.

Good luck and happy computing!

Stephie Smith