Click:  When you press the mouse button, you click.  Thoughout the clickhere.gr tutorials, every time we say click without specifying right or left, infer a left-click.

Desktop:

The desktop [surface] is the area that appears on your screen as soon as you start-up your computer.

Taskbar:

This is known as the taskbar.  On most computers it is located at the bottom of the screen.

Icon: You turn-on your computer.  Can you see a mini design of a computer  (usually it's located on the upper left hand corner) entitled "My Computer"?  This mini-design is known as an icon.  Generally, all these mini-designs you see on the Windows® menus and the desktop are called icons.

Window:

What you see in the above screenshot is known as a window.  A window is any rectangular frame that displays something be it an image, a video, a webpage such as clickhere.gr and so forth.

Program:  anything that performs a function on your computer.  Would you like this in plain english?  Do you want to see a picture? You need a picture-viewing program to see it.  Do you want to see a video?  You can pretty much guess the answer... Windows® come equipped with programs for viewing videos, writing documents, viewing webpages etc.  Each program has a name that identifies it...  For instance, when you watch a video on Windows® you use a program named "Microsoft® Windows Media Player".

Microsoft:  The collossal company based in the United States, that designs Windows®, hundreds of computer programs and a whole lot more.

Note with totally useless information: Microsoft's valuation in the stockmarket is equivalent to the entire production of the Greek economy over a 2,5 year period!  In other words, if the owners of Microsoft were to sell the company, they would be able to "support" the entire Greek population (10 million +) for 2,5 years with the sale proceeds!

Windows®:  You turn on your computer.  After a brief period, colour, icons, menus etc. appear on your screen.  You are inside Windows®, your computer's "operating system".  The "operating system" dictates how everything appears and functions on your computer.  Think of an operating system as a VCR unit. All VCRs essentially do the same thing...  They differ, however, in how they are operated.   Setting the time and date on one VCR unit may differ from another.  As such, different steps are followed to start writing a document among operating systems.  Aside from Windows®  there are other operating systems.  Windows®  itself comes in different versions (95, 98, Millenium, XP etc.) demonstrating some variations.

Note: Although the clickhere.gr computer tutorials are written based on the Windows® ME (Millenium Edition), they apply to all versions of Windows®.  Differences in topic areas covered are negligible.

Local disk or hard drive: the device inside your computer where all information is stored (images, videos, programs)... Think of you hard drive as a recording tape with very large [recording] capacity!

File:  An image on your computer is also called an image file.  A document is called a document file.  A video is called a video file.  Have you caught our drift?  Anything that is a form of "content" in your computer and is not a program, is a file.

Save:  When we save something on the computer, we "record it" to its [local] disk.  Saving can be thought of being the equivalent of recording sound on an audio tape.  We can save a file (e.g. a document) or a program on a computer.

Delete :  Anything we erase from the local drive (e.g. a file or program) is known as deleting.

Folder:  A place where files are saved (stored) for categorization purposes.  We'll be using an example here... Picture a tree (local disk).  A tree has branches (folders).  Branches have leaves (files) and subranches (subfolders).  These subranches in turn have leaves and other subranches.  And on and on...  Each branch or subranch (folder - subfolder) has a name (e.g. "My Music") depending on its leaves (e.g. music files).

Microsoft® Windows Explorer: a program which in essence is a listing of your computer's contents.  Think of it as a book's table of contents.

Install [a program]: the "recording" of a program to your local drive in such a way that it can function.  Take for instance an air-conditioning unit (the program).  You place it inside your home (save it on your local disk). You drill the wall, connect it (install the program).  That's the logic!

Uninstall/delete [a program]: The exact opposite of installing.  You unplug the air-conditioning unit, remove it from the wall and patch the holes.

Control Panel:  a window containing icons, where by clicking on each one of them you can "adjust" something (e.g. your printer, your monitor etc.)  For instance, in the Control Panel window there's an icon for your mouse.  By clicking on it you can adjust how quickly your mouse pointer moves.

Screen Saver:  You leave your computer on for some time without using it.  Your screen goes blank or some "effects" appear.  It's your Screen Saver that is activated.  The Screen Saver is a Windows® function that protects your monitor from "wear and tear" while your computer is on without being used.

Theme:  When you turn on your computer you may hear some sounds or nothing at all.  Did you know that you can hear something specific each time you turned it on (e.g. 2-3 lines from your favourite song)?  Your taskbar is grey.  Did you know that it could become orange?  The Windows® font is very specific.  Did you know you could change it to something cartoon for instance?  Finally, you're growing tired of your Wallpaper...  By selecting a Windows® theme you can change everything that has to do with the appearance and the sounds your computer makes.  We'll be showing you just how in one of our tutorials.

Wallpaper:  Your desktop's image.  Some of you may not even have an image but just a colour instead (e.g. blue).  This can be replaced by an image (wallpaper) that will appear in the desktop background, behind the icons.  We'll be showing you how in one of our tutorials.

Internet:  A worldwide computer network.  Each time you visit a web-page such as clickhere.gr, you connect to a computer that sends you the page's information (text, images etc.), through the phone line (can be cable or satellite as well).  In essence, a "conversation" takes place between your computer and the web-page's computer.  When you have a phone conversation with a friend, you use your phone company's network.  With your computer, you use the Internet.

Historical note: the Internet is a product of the cold war, that was developed by a military branch of the United States in the 60's! It has evolved quite a bit since then!

Email: Electronic correspondence.  Sending letters through the Internet.  When you use your mobile phone you send SMS messages.  With the Internet you send email messages.

Attachment:  You send an email message.  You write text.  Would you like to send a picture too? Attach the image to your email message then.  An attachment is anything included in an email message that is not text.

Download: Anything you received through the Internet.  Is someone sending you an email message? While you're receiving it, you're downloading it.  Are you visiting a page on the Internet?  The time it takes from typing the page's address (e.g. http://www.clickhere.gr) to the page actually appearing on your screen is the download period.  An analogy as well... Picture receiving a fax.  The period the fax machine starts printing your fax until it stops would be the download period.

Upload: The exact opposite of download.