Desktop Management

( This is an optional skill.  Those of you without much computer experience may find it especially helpful)

Desktop Management & Knowing your setup - these are basic skills that will help make your computer time more efficient and provide an understanding of possibilities and limitations of a given computer setup. For the purposes of this course, the most important aspects of desktop management are

  • recognizing different types of files
  • knowing how to save online files to your computer 
  • understanding the basic file structure of your computer (and how to find the files you've saved)
  • being able to locate and start programs that are installed on your computer

If you are confident in your ability to do all of the above, you can skip down to the tasks below.  If you're not or if you'd like to learn more about desktop management, please look at the information, guides, and screencasts below 

Basic guides
More advanced

  File types (extenstions)  and programs that open them 

File Extension Type of File Programs
.ppt ,  .pps , or . odp presentation Powerpoint  or OpenOffice Impress
.doc or .rtf document Microsoft Word or Open Office
.pdf document Foxit  or Adobe Reader
.mp3 audio Windows Media Player, VLC, and other Media Players
.htm or .html web page Firefox, MSIE   , or other browsers
.swf or .flv flash file Firefox, MSIE   , or other browsers (sometimes a flash plugin is required to view this files)
.wmv , .rm , .avi ,
.mp4 , .mpg, or .mov 		video (video files)
Windows Media Player, VLC, Real Player, or other media players
 

Tasks:  (if you're not sure how to do this, check the basic guides above)

  • Open Windows Explorer.  (Start/Programs/Accessories/Windows Explorer)
  • In your root directory, create a folder called 'EFL537'.
  • Save this file in to that folder. (To save the file, RIGHT click, save link  as' )
  • Rename the file to 'yourname-task1' .
  • Email that file as an attachment to efl537@gmail.com