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Opening Windows Tutorial for Seniors and Beginners

Opening, closing, minimizing and maximizing those windows

Learning Objectives:

• Opening windows
• Closing windows
• Minimizing windows
• Maximizing windows
• Resizing windows

Target Audience:

Complete beginner/novice

Introduction

This free online course is for seniors and novice computer users and will teach you how to manage those windows.

Let's get started

Microsoft Windows comes in various forms, e.g. Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows ME and others. They all have one thing in common - they all have windows. Figure 1 shows a variety of windows opened on the desktop.

Whenever you open or start a program it will open in a window.

Exercise 1: Minimizing Windows

Open a new window by double clicking on an icon on your desktop. Look at the top right corner of the newly opened window and you will notice three small buttons (see figure 2). The first button is for minimizing the

open window. By clicking this button the window will be minimized to the bottom of your screen.

The second button will maximize or restore the window and the third button will close the window.

Left click on the minimize button. The window will have disappeared off your desktop. If you look at the bottom of your screen you will see a rectangular button with an icon and the name of the

window that you opened. This is useful when you want to work on something else but have the original window close to hand. For example, you may want to copy from one window to another.

If you click on this button then the window will re-open.

If you click on the third button the current window will close. Re-open the window ready for the next exercise.

Exercise 2: Maximize and Restore

On your opened window left click the maximize button. The window will now completely fill your screen. This is used when you want a better view of the window contents. If you now click on the same button once again you will notice that the window goes back to it's original size and position.

Place your cursor over the top middle section of the window and left click, keep the mouse button pressed and move your mouse. You will notice the window follows your mouse cursor. This is called drag and drop. Release the mouse button so that the window is in a different area of the desktop. If you now maximize the window and press the restore button you will notice that the window returns to the last place you positioned it.

Exercise 3: Resizing Windows

Apart from maximizing and restoring your windows, there will be occasions when you need to make them a specific size, e.g. to fit more than one window on your screen so that you can view both windows contents at the same time.

Place your mouse cursor over the left hand edge of the opened window until you see your cursor pointer change to a double headed arrow similar to this symbol: ⇔

Try not to move your cursor, otherwise it will change back to the normal pointer. Keeping the double headed arrow in view, click with your left mouse button and move your mouse left and right. You will now notice that the width of the window alters as you move the mouse. Now try the same technique to alter the height of the window. To do this you will need to place your cursor over the very top (or bottom) edge of the window until you once again see the double headed arrow.

Diagonal resizing

The same technique is used to resize your windows diagonally. Simply place your cursor over any of the corners of the window until you once again see the double headed arrow, left click and resize to suit.

Summary

You should now be comfortable using windows. If you are still unsteady then try the exercises again. This section is easier if you are comfortable using the mouse, if you are a little unsteady with the mouse then try our using the mouse course for seniors.

Where next

Try following online courses for seniors and beginners

• Scrolling
• Using the start menu in Microsoft Vista