Windows Desktop Elements

Once you are logged in a window computer system, you will get dozens of applications, so you can choose
an option of your requirement.
Many of the options have shortcut icon readily available on your computer screen; however, in some
computers, you may not find any such option on the screen; in such a case, you can take the help of menu
button (as shown in the image given below) −

As you can see in the above image, in the left bottom, there is a window symbol (i.e., menu button); once
you click on it, the given menu option will appear and from here you can choose your option.

Start Menu Options

The following table lists down the options that appear after clicking on the Start menu −

Sr.No. Option & Description

1
All programs
It displays all those programs, which are installed in your system.

2
Document
It displays a list of folders used by the user.

3
Recent file
It displays the recently used file.

4
My picture
It displays a list of pictures.

5
My music
It displays a list of music/song, etc.
6
My computer
It displays the drives of computer where user keeps his/her work, file,
folder, song, video, picture, e-book, etc.

7
Control panel
It displays all the installed computer programs (software).

8
Printer
It displays the installed printers (if printer is installed in the system, user can
take print easily).

9
Help (support)
It helps users to know how to do a particular task.

10
Search
It helps a user to find a file in computer.

11
Run
It helps to start an application program or execute a DOS command.

12
Setting
It has different options that help to manage different settings of the
computer, software as well as hardware.

13
Log Off
It helps a user to log off the currently logged in user of the system.

14
Sleep
It makes the system non-functional; however, puts the ongoing work and
settings in memory and also keeps drawing small amount of power.

15
Hibernation
Hibernation puts the open documents and programs on hard disk and then
turns off your computer; in comparison to ‘sleep’, it uses very low power.

16
Restart
Its function is to shut down and again start (log on) computer; it is done
normally to refresh computer especially when computer is hanged.
 17
Shut down
It simply shuts down the system.

Note − Depending on the version of your window, the menu option may vary in terms of appearance and
number of menu options; however, there would not be any change in basics.

Recycle Bin
Recycle Bin is a trash location where deleted files remain stored. Once you delete any sort of file, it gets
stored (automatically) into recycle bin; therefore, if you mistakenly deleted some important file, don’t panic,
go to recycle bin and restore it. However, if you deleted file from recycle bin as well, then it is very difficult
to restore that permanently deleted file.

Internet Option
The option (i.e., short-cut key) of the Internet browser may be available on the main screen or at the bottom
menu bar (as shown in the image given below). However, if do not find it at both these places, go to the
menu, as all programs are listed there.

Multimedia
how the Computer Multimedia works. If a system presents, some information through more than two media,
it is known as multimedia. For example, TV presents audio and video; book presents text, image, and
graphs, computer, etc.
The information presented through multimedia has better quality and capability, as it can be understood
easily.
The advanced computer system is a great example of modern multimedia.

Literal Meaning of Multimedia

In this section, we will understand the literal meaning of multimedia.
 Multi − it means more than one
 Medium − it is singular and it means intermediary or mean
 Media − it is plural and it means conveying the information
Likewise, Multimedia is the field of Computer Science that integrates different forms of information and
represents in the form of audio, video, and animation along with the traditional media, i.e., text,
graphics/drawings, images, etc.
Multimedia Computer System
Multimedia computer system has high capacity to integrate different media including text, image, graphics,
audio, and video.
The multimedia computer system stores, represents, processes, manipulates, and makes available to users.
Significant Features of Multimedia Computer System
Following are the major features multimedia computer system −
 Its Central Processing Unit (CPU) is very fast, as it needs to process large amount of data.
 It has huge storage capacity.
 It has huge memory power that helps in running heavy data programs.
 It has high capacity graphic card that helps in displaying graphics, animation, video, etc.
 The sound system makes it easy to listen to audio.
 With all these features (discussed above), a computer system is known as high end
multimedia computer system.
 However, all the features listed above are not essentially required for every multimedia
computer system, but rather the features of a multimedia computer system are configured as
per the need of respective user.
Multimedia Components
Following are the major components of a multimedia computer system −
Text
It contains alphanumeric and some other special characters. Keyboard is usually used for input of text;
however, there are some internal (inbuilt) features to include such text.
Graphics
It is technology to generate, represent, process, manipulate, and display pictures. It is one of the most
important components of multimedia application. The development of graphics is supported by a different
software.
Animation
Computer animation is a modern technology, which helps in creating, developing, sequencing, and
displaying a set of images (technically known as ‘frames’). Animation gives visual effects or motion very
similar to that of a video file.
Audio
This technology records, synthesizes, and plays audio (sound). There are many learning courses and
different instructions that can be delivered through this medium appropriately.
Video
This technology records, synthesizes, and displays images (known as frames) in such sequences (at a fixed
speed) that makes the creation appear as moving; this is how we see a completely developed video. In order
to watch a video without any interruption, video device must display 25 to 30 frames/second.

Multimedia Application
Let us now see the different fields where multimedia is applied. The fields are described in brief below −
Presentation
With the help of multimedia, presentation can be made effective.
E-books
Today, books are digitized and easily available on the Internet.
Digital Library
The need to be physically present at a library is no more necessary. Libraries can be accessed from the
Internet also. Digitization has helped libraries to come to this level of development.
E-learning
Today, most of the institutions (public as well as private both) are using such technology to education
people.
Movie making
Most of the special effects that we see in any movie, is only because of multimedia technology.
Video games
Video games are one of the most interesting creations of multimedia technology. Video games fascinate not
only the children but adults too.
Animated films
Along with video games, animated film is another great source of entertainment for children.
Multimedia conferencing
People can arrange personal as well as business meetings online with the help of multimedia conferencing
technology.
E-shopping
Multimedia technology has created a virtual arena for the e-commerce.

Security
Advancement of computer technology has radically changed the world; resultantly, most of the works
whether it is matter of nation’s security system or buying a shoe online everything depends on computer.
Such increased dependency also raises the issue of security, as most of the data is now stored in the
computer system.
Your computer systems store various sorts of data and hence if it is not secured, then you might be in for a
big trouble.

Why Do We Computer Security?

Let us now see why do we need Computer security. It is required for the following major reasons −
 To prevent damage of the hardware.
 To prevent theft or damage of the installed software.
 To prevent theft or damage of stored data and information.
 To prevent the disruption of service.
 Likewise, security system keeps the computer system safe by protecting the installed software
and the stored data (information).
Protection of Data and Information
Following are the important steps to protect data −

 Make backup of all your important files.

  Keep your system virus by using anti-virus software.
 Keep updating your computer system.
 Run disk defragmenter and disk cleanup on certain interval of time.
 Use a firewall.
 Use anti-spyware software.
Further, if you use internet, then you need to take greater precaution. Consider the following points to
understand the precautions that need to be taken −
 Do not click on any link that you don’t know (as it may be dangerous for your computer -
virus attack).
 Do not open unauthorized an unlawful website (it may damage your computer system).
 Do not download unsolicited data from unknown website.
What is Defragmentation?
Frequent saving and deleting of file (data) from the hard disk creates problems in performance and also
reduce the space; therefore, defragmentation again clean-up the drive and restore the system to run
smoothly.
Following are the simple steps of defragmentation −

Disk Cleanup
While browsing websites (on internet), many of the files get stored in the hard disk automatically (actually
these stored files later help to reopen the website faster); besides some other cookies also get stored in the
hard disk. All these stored files create problem along with eating space.
So, disk cleanup process cleans all these files and releases the space occupied by these unwanted files.
Following are the simple steps of disk cleanup −

Threat
Threat in a computer system is a possible danger that might put your data security on stake. The damage is
at times irreparable.

Definition
As defined by the National Information Assurance Glossary −
 “Any circumstance or event with the potential to adversely impact an IS through
unauthorized access, destruction, disclosure, modification of data, and/or denial of service.”
 A computer threat can be "intentional" such as hacking or "accidental" such as
malfunctioning of or physical damage.
Types of Threat
Following are the most common types of computer threats −
 Physical damage − It includes fire, water, pollution, etc.
 Natural events − It includes climatic, earthquake, volcanic activity, etc.
 Loss of services − It includes electrical power, air conditioning, telecommunication, etc.
 Technical failures − It includes problems in equipment, software, capacity saturation, etc.
 Deliberate type − It includes spying, illegal processing of data, etc.
Some other threats include error in use, abuse of rights, denial of actions, eavesdropping, theft of media,
retrieval of discarded materials, etc.

Sources of Threat
The possible sources of a computer threat may be −
 Internal − It includes employees, partners, contractors (and vendors).
 External − It includes cyber-criminals (professional hackers), spies, non-professional
hackers, activists, malware (virus/worm/etc.), etc.
Common Terms
Following are the common terms frequently used to define computer threat −
Virus Threats
A computer virus is a program designed to disrupt the normal functioning of the computer without the
permission of the user.
Spyware Threats
Spyware is a computer program that monitors user’s online activities or installs programs without user’s
consent for profit or theft of personal information.
Hackers
Hackers are programmers who put others on threats for their personal gain by breaking into computer
systems with the purpose to steal, change or destroy information.

Phishing Threats
It is an illegal activity through which phishers attempt to steal sensitive financial or personal data by means
of fraudulent email or instant messages.

How to Secure Your Computer System from Threats?

Following are the significant tips through which you can protect your system from different types of threat −

 Install, use, and keep updated Anti-Virus in your system.

 Install, use, and keep updated a Firewall Program.

 Always take backups of your important Files and Folders.

 Use Strong and Typical Passwords.

 Take precaution especially when Downloading and Installing Programs.

 Install, use, and keep updated a File Encryption Program.

 Take precaution especially when Reading Email with Attachments.

 Keep your Children aware of Internet threats and safe browsing.

Virus
A virus is a computer code or program, which is capable of affecting your computer data badly by
corrupting or destroying them.
Computer virus has the tendency to make its duplicate copies at a swift pace, and also spread it across every
folder and damage the data of your computer system.
A computer virus is actually a malicious software program or "malware" that, when infecting your system,
replicates itself by modifying other computer programs and inserting its own code.
Infected computer programs may include data files, or even the "boot" sector of the hard drive.

Types of Virus
Following are the major types of computer virus −
Worms
This is a computer program that replicates itself at a swift pace. Unlike a computer virus, it is self-contained
and hence does not need to be part of another program to propagate itself.
Trojan Horse
A Trojan Horse is also a sort of destructive program that remains disguised in a normal software program. It
is not exactly a virus, as it cannot replicate itself. However, there is possibility that virus program may
remain concealed in the Trojan Horse.
Bombs
It is similar to Trojan Horse, but Logic bombs have some specialty; these include a timing device and hence
it will go off only at a particular date and time.

How Does Virus Affect?

Let us discuss in what ways a virus can affect your computer system. The ways are mentioned below −

 By downloading files from the Internet.

 During the removable of media or drives.

 Through pen drive.

 Through e-mail attachments.

 Through unpatched software & services.

 Through unprotected or poor administrator passwords.

Impact of Virus
Let us now see the impact of virus on your computer system −

 Disrupts the normal functionality of respective computer system.

 Disrupts system network use.

  Modifies configuration setting of the system.

 Destructs data.

 Disrupts computer network resources.

 Destructs of confidential data.

Virus Detection
The most fundamental method of detection of virus is to check the functionality of your computer system; a
virus affected computer does not take command properly.
However, if there is antivirus software in your computer system, then it can easily check programs and files
on a system for virus signatures.

Virus Preventive Measures

Let us now see the different virus preventive measures. A computer system can be protected from virus
through the following −

 Installation of an effective antivirus software.

 Patching up the operating system.

 Patching up the client software.

 Putting highly secured Passwords.

 Use of Firewalls.

Most Effective Antivirus

Following are the most popular and effective antivirus from which you can choose one for your personal
computer −

 McAfee Antivirus Plus

 Symantec Norton Antivirus

 Avast Pro Antivirus

 Bitdefender Antivirus Plus

 Kaspersky Anti-Virus

 Avira Antivirus

 Webroot Secure Anywhere Antivirus

 Emsisoft Anti-Malware

 Quick Heal Antivirus

 ESET NOD32 Antivirus

A Simple Understanding of Bits and Bytes

When it comes to running a business, everything is measurable. From the hours on your
employee’s time card to data stored on your network, you can be sure there is a way for it
to be quantified. For time, we know seconds and minutes, but how do you measure data?
Bit by byte.

When you go to buy a computer, some of the first information you’ll see is the size of the
hard drive and the measure of random access memory (RAM). You’ll see numbers like
500GB or 2TB, and if you don’t know about computers, or more specifically, data, you
would have trouble understanding what those numbers mean.

How to Measure Data

To understand the measurements of data, the best place to start is at the bit. The bit is the
smallest measurable increment of data, and everything on your computer is built upon them.

Computers operate using binary (or base two) math. The binary language represents every would-
be digit as a bit, and every bit is given a value of 0 or 1. A bit is generated through fluctuations of
electric current that run through a computer’s components.

Those fluctuations then turn into the ones and zeros used to transmit bits, process calculations,
and relay information across your network.

The methods used for network message encoding include:

 Wi-Fi carries bits using radio signals

 Ethernet connections carry bits using electric signals of varying voltages
 Fiber connections use pulses of light to carry bits
As with any data or information you transmit between networks, you’ll want to make sure these
bits are encrypted for maximum information security.

If a bit is the smallest measure of data, that means that the byte is a sequence of bits. Data is
organized in bytes to improve speed and efficiency of data processing. Due to the size of a bit, a
byte (being eight times larger) is the base measure for data.

Quantifying the Speed of Data

The rate that data travels through a network connection is measured in time, so the units used are
bits per second (bps). Networks are capable of transmitting millions (or billions) of bits per second
(called megabits{mbps}/gigabits{gbps}, respectively).
The speed of transferring data from network to network continues to grow as both file sizes, and
computing components can handle more data.

Bits and Bytes by the Numbers

Every byte consists of eight bits. So, you’d think that a kilobyte would be 1,000 bytes, right? Not
exactly. Remember, computers operate using the binary system. That means hard drives,
memory, and bandwidth are measured in powers of two. Going back to the kilobyte example: 2 ^
10 equals 1,024, not 1,000.

Confused? Let’s explain it by using an example you’d encounter in day-to-day computing: an IP

address.

An IP address in Internet Protocol (IP) consists of 32 bits (or four bytes). For example, the IP
address 192.168.1.1 has values of 192, 168, 1, and 1 for each of its bytes. The encoding of that IP
address in bits looks like this:

11000000 10101000 00000001 000000001

This means that:

 192 = 1100000
 168 = 1010100
 1 = 00000001
Converting Bits to Bytes (and Beyond)
Let’s go down the data rabbit hole even more with this conversion table:

 8 bits = 1 byte
 1,024 bytes = kilobyte
 1,024 kilobytes = megabyte
 1,024 megabytes = gigabyte
 1,024 gigabytes = terabyte
As you can see, that 1,024 number keeps popping up!
Say you were to convert 4 kilobytes into bits. You’d first convert kilobytes to bytes (4 x 1,024).
Next, you’d use that total (4,096) to convert to bits (8 x 4,096) to get 32,768 bits.

These numbers lead to confusion among consumers. For example, when you purchase a 1
terabyte hard drive, it has about 8 trillion bits. Why “about” 8 trillion? Well, manufacturers are
assuming a rounded 1000 megabytes per gigabyte, while computers use 1,024.
This difference in numbers means when you purchase a 1 terabyte hard drive, you’ll notice about
35 gigs aren’t available. On top of this, your operating system needs a small amount of space on
the disk.

Even with all this information, computing can still be confusing. The beauty of computing is that it
is a structured system with static rules.

Technology always advances, but the principles stay the same. Also, if a computer isn’t working,
trust us, it’s going to let you know.

Computer Science: Abbreviations

In this chapter, we will discuss the different abbreviations in Computer Science. The following table lists
down those abbreviations −

Abbreviation Full-name

A/D Analog-to-Digital

ABC Atanasoff Berry Computer

ACM Association for Computing Machinery

AI Artificial Intelligence

ALGOL Algorithic Language

ALU Arithmetic Logic Unit

AMD Advanced Micro Devices

ARPANET Advanced Research Project Agency Network

ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange

BASIC Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code

BCD Binary Coded Decimal

BIOS Basic Inpute Output System

BIPS Billions of Instructions Per Second

BPI Bytes Per Inch

CAD Computer Aided Design

CAE Computer Aided Engineering

CAN Campus Area Network

CASE Computer Aided Software Engineering

CD Compact Disk
 CDC Control Data Corporation

CD-R CD-Recordable

CD-ROM Compact Disk Read Only Memory

CD-RW CD Read/Write

CL Command Language

CLI Command Line Interface

COBOL Common Business Oriented

CODASYL Conference On Data Systems

CPU Central Processing Unit

CRT Cathode Ray Tube

D/A Digital-to-Analog

DAT Digital Audio Tape

DBMS Data Base Management System

DBS Demand Based Switching

DDL Data Definition Language

DDS Digital Data Storage

DEC Digital Equipment Corporation

DMA Direct Memory Access

DNA Digital Network Architecture

DPI Dots Per Inch

DRAM Dynamic RAM

DSN Distributed Systems Network

DTS Digital Theater System

DVD Digital Video/Versatile Disk

EBCDIC Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code

EDSAC Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator

EDVAC Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Calculator

EFM Eight-to-Fourteen Modulation

ENIAC Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator

 EPG Electronic Programming Guide

EPIC Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing

EPROM Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory

FAT File Allocation Table

FDM Frequency Division Multiplexing

FEP Front End Processor

FLOPS Floating Point Operations Per Second

FM Frequency Modulation

FMS File Management System

FORTRAN FORmula TRANslation

FSK Frequency Shift Keying

FTP File Transfer Protocol

GB Giga Bytes

GFLOPS Giga FLOPS

GHz Giga Hertz

GNU Gnu Not Unix

GPRS General Packet Radio Service

GSM Global System for Mobile communication

GUI Graphical User Interface

HP Hewlett Packard

HSS Hierarchical Storage System

HTML HyperText Markup Language

HTTP HyperText Transport Protocol

IBM International Business Machine

IC Integrated Circuit

IDN Integrated Digital Networks

IP Internet Protocol

IrDA Infrared Data Association

ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network

 ISP Internet Service Provider

JPEG Joint Photographic Experts Group

JRE Java Runtime Engine

JSP Java Server Pages

KB Kilo Bytes

KHz Kilo Hertz

LAN Local Area Network

LCD Liquid Crystal Display

LED Light Emitting Diode

LPM Line Per Minute

LSI Large Scael Integration

MAN Metropolitan Area Network

MAR Memory Address Register

MB Mega Bytes

MBR Memory Buffer Register

MHz Mega Hertz

MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface

MIPS Millions of Instructions Per Second

MNP Microcom Network Protocol

MPEG Moving Pictures Experts Group

MS-DOS MicroSoft Disk Operating System

MVT Multiprogramming with Variable Tasks

NIC Network Interface Card

NICNET National Informatics Center NETwork

NOS Network Operating System

OCR Optical Character Recognition

OMR Optical Mark Reader

OS Operating System

OSI Open System Interconnection

 OSS Open Source Software

PAN Personal Area Network

PC Personal Computer

PDF Portable Document Format

PDL Program Design Language

PDP Program Data Processor

PIP Peripheral Interchange Program

PROM Programmable Read-Only Memory

QoS Quality of Service

RAM Random Access Memory

ROM Read Only Memory

SDLC Software Development Life Cycle

SEQUEL Structured English QUEry Language

SGML Syntax for Generalized Markup Language

SIMM Single In-line Memory Module

SNA Systems Network Architecture

SNOBOL StriNg Oriented and symBOlic Language

SQL Structured Query Language

SRAM Static RAM

SSI Small Scale Integration

TB Tera Bytes

TCP Transport Control Protocol

TDM Time Division Multiplexing

UDP User Datagram Protocol

ULSI Ultra Large Scale Integration

UPC Universal Product Code

URL Uniform Resource Locator

USB Universal Serial Bus

UTF Unicode Transformation Format

VAN Value Added Network

VCR Video Cassette Recorder

VDT Video Display Terminal

VGA Video Graphics Array

VOD Video-On-Demand

VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol

VSAT Very Small Aperture Terminal

WAN Wide Area Network

WAP Wireless Application Protocol

WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access

WLAN Wireless Local Area Network

WLL Wireless Local Loop

WORM Write Once Read Many

WWW World Wide Web

XHTML eXtensible HyperText Markup Language

XML eXtensible Markup Language

X.400 Electronic Mail Protocol

X.500 Directory Server Protocol