17th May 2008

Windows 98 Tutorial Part 1 - The Windows 98 desktop, icons and clock

Welcome to the first part of our Windows 98 tutorial, this course is aimed at users that are unfamiliar with the Windows 98 operating system, in this part of the tutorial we will have a look at the Desktop, introduce you to icons and show you how to alter the time and date.

Before you follow this tutorial you must read and agree to the terms of our disclaimer.

In part one:	Other related pages:
The Windows 98 Desktop. Introduction to Icons. Keeping your desktop tidy. The Start button and Taskbar. The Clock, setting date / time. Continue to Part 2. Back to course menu.	Change Desktop Wallpaper. Change Screen Resolution. Create a Desktop Shortcut. (these pages open in a new window)

If you have any trouble with any of the terms see our computer dictionary.

The Windows Desktop

To the left you can see an example of the Windows 98 desktop (see fig 1.1), this is how your machine would normally look when you first switch it on.

Desktop refers to the main background area (in our example the white area), your desktop can be customised by changing the colour, or even adding a background picture.

In our example to the left we have pointed out some areas of interest, we will look at these below.

Introduction to Icons
Icons are small graphical images that can represent your computer's programs, files, folders and printers amongst other things (see fig 1.1).

To activate an icon you double click (two clicks in quick succession) on it with the left mouse button, this will activate the icon and either start a program or open a file/folder.

The icons on your desktop can be renamed by right clicking on them and selecting rename, similarly they can be deleted by right clicking and selecting delete

You can easily create your own icons for your favourite programs, folders, etc.
See our guide to creating desktop shortcuts.

Below is a quick guide to the icons we have in our example:

My Computer
This is a standard icon and is very useful, it gives you access to your computer's disk drives as well as your printer settings and the Windows 98 control panel, we will be looking more closely at the My Computer icon later in the tutorial.

My Documents
The My Documents icon links to a standard folder which Windows 98 uses to store your documents, by default Windows 98 will save any documents you create in this folder.

Internet Explorer
This icon is a shortcut to Microsoft's Internet Explorer program, Internet Explorer is used to view web pages on the internet.

Network Neighborhood
The Network Neighborhood Icon points to a folder that contains links to any other computers that are in your workgroup (if you have one), or on your network (again, if you have one).

Recycle Bin
When you delete a file, Windows 98 will place the file into the recycle bin instead of deleting it altogether, this allows you to restore the file in case you deleted it by mistake. For example say you deleted a file by accident you could double click on the recycle bin icon to see its contents, and then restore the file back to where you deleted it from by right clicking on it and then selecting restore.
Note: some files are too big to be stored in the recycle bin, but Windows 98 should warn you if you delete a file that cannot be restored.

Keeping your Desktop tidy

As you use Windows 98 more and more your desktop may start to fill up with icons for programs and/or documents.

To automatically sort and align your icons simply click the right mouse button anywhere on the desktop and a menu will appear (similar to that shown in fig 1.2), hover the mouse pointer over arrange icons and a submenu will appear, from here you can arrange your icons by name, type, size and date.

The Auto Arrange option when selected (ticked) will automatically arrange and align your icons when you right click on the desktop and select Refresh from the menu.

The Start button
The start button (see fig 1.1) is a very important part of Windows 98, clicking it opens what is called the start menu, this is used to access your programs, your settings and more, as this button is so useful we will take an in depth look at it in part 2 of our Windows 98 tutorial.

The Taskbar
The taskbar is another important part of the desktop, it is used among other things to navigate between any open programs or documents. We will look in detail at the Taskbar in part 3 of our Windows 98 tutorial.

The Clock - Setting Date/Time

The clock sits on the taskbar (see fig 1.1), hovering the mouse pointer over it will display the date.

To adjust the time or date right click on the clock and select Adjust Time/Date from the menu.

You will now see the Date/Time Properties dialogue box as seen in fig 1.3.

To adjust the date, you would use the monthly calendar along with the month selector (A) and the year selector (B).

To adjust the time simply select (left click) the part of the time you want to change (hours, minutes, am/pm) in box C and then use the up and down arrow buttons (D) to alter the time accordingly.

To change your timezone use the timezone selector (E).

There is also an option to allow Windows 98 to adjust the time for daylight saving changes.

Once you have made your changes simply click the OK button.