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+                        This Tutorial was made by PQ-ANGEL on                       +

+       Any comment or question contact me at

pq_angel_tutorial@hotmail.com +

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+            Short Computer Related Guide for Beginners          +

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+                      V 1.0                   +

+                                             +

DISCLAIMER

This Tutorial is copy righted and can't be used by anybody without the 

authors or web admin permission

you can only use this file for personla purposes such as reading it and 

larning from it, you can't sell this

tutorial because is free!!!.

if you want to upload this message to your web page or anything alike 

please contact me or the web admin

for more info.

INDEX

1.-Computing history

      1.1- Hardware

      1.2- Software

      1.3- Hacking

2.- HARDWARE COMPONENTS

      2.1- components

3.-SOFTWARE

      3.1- OS's

            3.1.1- Windows

            3.1.2- Linux

      3.2- Office Suites

      3.3- Applications

      3.4- Windows Various

            3.4.1- Registry

            3.4.2- Hidden files

            3.4.3- Optimizing

            3.4.4- Various

4.- TIPS & TRICKS

      4.1- Registry

      4.2- Hidden Files

      4.3- Free Space on HD

5.- Links

6.- Thanks

PROLOGE

I still remember my first contact with computer, it was 1993, i was 

just arrived in mexico and it was my third day in 

school, it was wednesday, i was storing my books in my bagpack when 

suddenly my computing teacher arrived 

(i was 8 years old), he asked us to go to the computing lab, i arrived 

and saw some monitors with a keyboard on it,

i didn't know what was it but then, suddenly, i turned it on and saw 

lot's of letters and numbers, i liked that, then my

teacher gave me a 5 1/4 inches disk (that was the DOS) and told me to 

insert it, i did what he told me, (the machines

where 80286 at a real low speed without a HD and with a non-expanded 

keyboard 

(the ones without the numbers in the left) and a 5 1/4 inches drive, i 

just can't forget it) then after DOS had loaded

i inserted a disk i found on my left, when it runned my teacher told me 

its name was "logos" (old and truty logos)

with it i made a lot of images and one day when i was bored of doing so 

i asked my teacher to make a copy of the

program for me, he told me no, if i wanted that copy i had to make it 

myself, so i did and it was cool!!!

i arrived with my all mighty powerful disk, inserted it on the drive, 

and typed the command "copy a: to b:" 

and i followed like that until the disk was finished copying, and what 

was my sorprise when i runned it the next class

that i copyed the version with teh one you can make music (weeelaaaa), 

so i maked my first song, and then my life

starts becoming more related to the computers to the point that my 

fathers buyed me one on 15 october of 1999,

a CELERON at 400Mhz with 32Mb in RAM, and from the time i'm writting 

this is still here alive, with me, but with

more RAM and a burner, hehehe, anyway, that is my history, isn't it 

lovely???

1.- Computing History

Computers were made a lot time ago by the men to make things easier in 

a certain way, at first they were big pieces

of metal in a very cold room managed by the most experimeneted people f 

the world and only military and goverment

had them, their info was stored in hard plastic cards with holes in it 

(like the braile language (blind people language

in case i miss spelled)), these cards were passed by a machine that 

counted the holes on the card and processed the

info it read.

then the magnetical computers came, these machines were different,. 

thought they were also very big and were all

day processing info, theynwere a lot faster, the data was stored in 

magnetical tapes, this machine were as big as a

conference room (a medium size one), they also needed to be in very low 

temperatures so they could work properly.

After this a long time passed and the personal machines came.

1.1 hardware

The first personal machine that existed were the commodore, these 

machines tought they were like computers they

were more focused on games, finally in the late 80's the first personal 

computer went out and saw light, the 8086

from IBM, this machine had no more than 5 Mhz of process speed and no 

more than 512Kb on RAM, this computer

was real powerful but too expensive to afford for many people so not 

everybody could had one, then a few years 

later the 80186 saw light, this computer was cheaper, faster and way 

much cooler, then we had 80286 (now on all

the computers with that kind of processor, for make it shorter the omit 

the 80, example: 80486=486, and nowadays

they are called X86 (86 caused thay have, in some way, a similar 

structure), then 386, 486, 586 and 686, the lasts

ones where someway like the pentium and pentium-2 but with lower 

performance (just like celeron nowadays), all

machines where great, but, there was a big step on the 486 processors, 

there were two kinds of processors, the 486SX

and the 486DX, the difference (if remember right) was that one had way 

much better performance than the other and

besides DX processors had better architechture, but that is not the 

important thing, the important here was the DX2

these processors were developed almost 4 months before the pentium came 

out, the new and dynamic about these

ones were the mathematical co-processor that made things way much 

faster, cooler and better, from that time all

machines were made to have that processor, what this co-processor makes 

is that if you are running an instruction

and the main processor is busy but you have other instructions waiting 

to be processed the most important ones

are sent to the main processor and the otehrs are sent to to the 

co-processor and stored in there, is in someway like

the cache memory, anyway, after ths th pentium came, it was the hell of 

a processor, tought the first one was at 66Mhz

it was really good, then two years later the pentium two processor came 

out, from this time everything got shooted up

everything started going faster in this time, the initial speed of this 

machine was of 233Mhz and only one year later the

pentium 3 came out, it's initial speed was of 550Mhz, and then only 9 

months later pentium-4 came out with an initial

speed of 1.2Ghz, and so on, right now the new 64 bit processor is being 

developed and is supossed that it will be ready

on second semester of 2003, this one is going to be the hell of a 

processor, tought the first one is only going to be at

1Ghz of speed is going to run like a pentium-4 at 3Ghz and even better, 

it's artificial intelligence unit is going to be

500% more exact than the one of pentium-4 and is supposed to have 4Mb 

of cache memory, with a minimum amount

of RAM of 1Gb and another ton of things (no it can't think for itself 

yet... wait, it does!!!! aaaaaaah!!!!!, no hold on...

yeah, well, what??? phew!!! it was only the artificial intelligence 

unit, it is programmed for that, hehehe, j/k)

so in a pair of years be sure that i'm buying one, besides with those 

specs, who wouldn't??? the creator of macintosh?

1.2 Software

"before saying anything i must say that due to the short knowledge i've 

got about linux/unix history i'm not writting

nothing about, all info about this send it to: 

pq_angel_tutorial@hotmail.com"

The first OS for a machine wasn't very cool, it was just the cursor on 

a black screen and all the instructions were

interpreted by commands (no it wasn't ms-dos, and less microsoft OS), 

but then when the first personal computer

went out to the market (yes, the IBM personal computer), it had an IBM 

OS much likely ms-dos but harder to use, and

then microsoft appeared with it's MS-DOS (MicroSoft - Dinamyc Operative 

System), everybody tought it was a wonderful

OS (or almost everybody), i'm sure you are asking "what???, that piece 

of crap????", well it was the first OS wich let

you manage all your files in a simple way, microsoft amde a contract 

with all hardware companyes (excepting apple)

so all of their systems had the lovely MS-DOS on it, this is how 

microsoft monopoly started, then in 1989 

(if i remember well) windows went out to the market, this was software 

boom, why??, well it was the first graphic OS

in the world, you could manage everything with a graphical interface 

(no more commands and lots of simbols in the

screen, everything was suposed to be easier), but, well yeah, lots of 

errors, but not talking about microsoft mistakes

in here, anyways, a few years later windows 3.1 came out, this one was 

almost the same as windows 3.1 but faster 

and with less errors and bla, bla, bla, a few months (or years don't 

remember wuite well, i think it was on 1994)

windows 3.11 saw light, this was most like a patched version of windows 

3.1, so no much to talk about this version

tought it had some new things it was, like i said, like a windows 3.1 

patched version, then in 1995 glorious windows '95

came out, now, this was a great OS, no more windows 3.1 kind OS, it had 

a totally new interface, it was hell easier to

use, it was better looking and also it was a 32 bits based OS, also 

some time before windows '95 came out a windows

called windows NT hitted the market, this windows was meant to be for 

servers, it was designed to be for high speed

machines and bla, bla, bla, you know to work in the net, then  years 

later (and two more NT windows later (version 2 

and 3)), windows 98 came out, it was hell cool???, no!!!!, it was the 

worst OS in the market, tons and tons of errors

you couldn't spend 3 hours in front of your computer without restarting 

it cause windows crashed, it was very unstable

then in 99 windows second edition was released, this was the real 

windows '98 thi really was an OS, no erros, very

stable, bla, bla, bla, all that hings we already know and have heard a 

lot of times, (by the way, before i forget to write

NT technology wasn't based on the MS-DOS and was supposed to be more 

stable than any other windows (that means

no crashing), and yeah that is right, but almost nothing is compatible 

with it, for the reason that it has got a totally

different structure than any other windows), then also in 99 windows 

NT4 came out, no big deal for me, cause i n don't 

use it but some others like it, then in 2000 famous windows 2000 came 

out, this was suposed to be a cool OS intended

for server, profesional and personal use, but it's name was disguissed, 

the windows 2000 was named windowsNT5

but they name it 2000 for commercial purposes, marketing and that kind 

of things, then at the beginning of the 2001

windows ME (Millenium Edition) came out, this was a great OS when 

installed correctly, otherwise was just trash,

i personally like it a lot, tought my machine is kind of old it works 

great, you just have to configure it right, this OS

is the first non MS-DOS based personal OS, it had a totally new code 

(different from windows '9x and NT), and besides

it is compatible with any 9x aplication so it has got almost no 

incompabilities, (just for some recovery system tools

that are not compatible like symantec utilities and so, but thay have 

got patches so is not big deal), and then,

also on 2001 new windows XP (windows eXPperience), came out, this is 

supossed to be the most secure OS in the

market, anti-cracking OS and so, ha!, only two weeks later of it 

release you could buy a cracked version of it for only

US$1.30, so, i don't like it too much, but something is something, 

there are going to be to versions of this OS, the

32 bit version (alredy in the market) and the 64 bit version, this one 

is intended for the intel itanium new processor

and the new AMD 64 bit processor, supossde to be realeased on 2003 (or 

sooner, who knows)

2- HARDWARE COMPONENTS

2.1 components

computers are maked of hardware, and hardware has got lots of variants, 

nowadays the only component you don't need

to run a machine is sound card and a mouse, they are optional, bu if 

you want to take full advantage of it you need these

things, ok, the machine has got the next components:

chasis: where you put all your hardware in, this is hot hardware cause 

it only has got 1, 2 or 3 buttons (power on/off,

reset and suspend) 3 or less slets (little low voltage lights) and a 

few apir of cables to connect buttons with the 

mother board and the slets, in other words is the outside part of a 

normal computer (i say this cause there are guys (like

me) that remove the chasis, or part of it, and have all hardware at air 

for faster changes, for example taking HD (Hard

Drive) out and putting in another one, this only recommended for 

advance users))

Mother Board (MB): this is one of the main parts of the computer, 

thought all are important this is the most important

one, why??, easy, here is where you plug all hardware in. processor, 

modem, sound card, etc...

Processor: there are several kinds and brands of processors, but they 

all have only one function; to compute all the

data we want to, for example if you open word a set of instructions is 

sent to the processor and then interpreted by the

different parts of it, finally it gets back the instruction already 

interpreted to you and vouala, you just opened word.

RAM (Random Acces Memory): what the heck is that?????, well this is 

that thing that makes your machine read 

everything, it stores the data of a program so it keeps loaded and you 

don't have to load it each time you want to make

something in it, for example; if you just opened word what RAM does is 

store the set of instructions in there so each

time you type a letter or the programs needs to do some process it 

doesn't has to load again, you probaly asking:

what about if my memory is low or finishes?? why does other machines 

with a higher amount of RAM goes faster

than mine???, well basicly when you store your info on RAM it needs an 

amount of space, for examle word 2000

needs 22Mb each time is opened, so if you have 32Mb on RAM you still 

have 10Mb of free RAM (of course that 

you really don't cause windows also needs of this memory so it really 

depends on the amount of RAM you have

and the programs you are running at that instant)but if you runned out 

of physical memory (RAM is called Phisical 

memory and there is another one called virtual memory) it uses the 

virtual memory, virtual memory doesn't really

exists, cause is only emulating that, what it really does is use a part 

of the free space on your HD as RAM thought

cause it doesn't exists, is called virtual, "yeah but why does my 

machine goes slower than the other if both have 

physical memory?", well virtual memory has got, besides a lower 

transfer bus (the transfer bus is the speed in Mhz the

data is transfered from a place of the computer to the other) no 

inmediate access, this means that the RAM sends or 

recieve the data at the moment and has got a bus of minimum 66Mhz and a 

maximum of 800Mhz (only pentium-4 has

got a bus of 800Mhz, a kind of RAM called RRAM (Rambus Random Acces 

Memory) besides, RAM are chips and 

virtual memory (localized in the HD) are heads and cilinders, and as we 

all know chips are faster than head and 

cilinders. well that is what RAM is

BIOS: the bios is a little chip localized in the Mother Board, it tells 

the machine who it is and what date it is also

SLOTS & PLUGS: these are places where you plug every single card, 

component or cable in your machine, these

are localized in the Mother Board

GRAPHIC CARD: there are two kinds, the card itself (is plugged into a 

slot in the mother board) and integrated in the 

mother board (is the pure graphic processor, without condensors and all 

that stuff), these cards are uses in all 

the computers, this is so we can see images like icons, or the windows 

desktop and all those things, in other words

any image to be seen is needed of a graphic card.

SOUND CARD: as equal as the graphic card are two kinds, the dard itself 

and integrated to the Mother Board, this is

needed to reproduce any sound on your machine, without sound card you 

can not hear any sound, "yeah but, what

about is i connect my speakers to the computer???" you can't, without a 

sound card you can not plug your speakers

in the computer.

HD (Hard Drive): this is where all the info and data you have is stored

CD-ROM: unit where youre ad CD's on your computer

FLOPPY DISK: where you read the diskettes

(mouse, keyboard and monitor are not listed cause we all now what that 

is, don't we??)

3.-SOFTWARE

3.1 OS's (Operative Systems)

these things are usde to, as their name says, operate your machines, 

without them your machine is just a bunch of

microcircuits without any use.

3.1.1- Windows

This is the most famous OS in the world, and also the most hated one by 

us, hackers, why???, well it ahs got a lot of

errors, bugs and problems, besides you can not do almost anything with 

it cause they hide every single adavnced

option so the OS looks as they want it to look and not as you want it 

to, anyways, this OS is owned by microsoft,

it's first release was "windows", then "windows 3.1", "windows 3.11", 

"windows NT series (NT1, 2, 3 and 4)".

"windows '95", "windows '98", "windows '98SE (Second Edition)", 

"windows 2000 (supposed to be NT5)", 

"windows ME (Millenium Edition)" and "windows XP (eXPerience)", this OS 

is intended for people that doesn't

know a lot about computers.