Glossary

Now what kind of site would we be if we didn't at least give you a vocabulary list to diligently study? There will be a multiple guess quiz at the end of the page. Just kidding. Windows and computer related terms Address: An address in memory is a location to which an application or a piece of hardware refers. For example, a word processor will store your document in a particular memory address while you have it open. Problems occur when two things (hardware or software) try to use the same address. Applet: Quite simply, a small application. For example, each of the windows that appear when you double-click on an icon in Control Panel are considered Applets, because while they are small applications by themselves, they require a larger application (Control Panel) to operate them. Application: Any program on your hard disk - an application usually has its own Directory and can be started by clicking on its icon in the Start Menu. Most applications have their own Window. Ascii: An acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, ASCII is a file format that contains no text formatting, so it is transferable between different operating systems and programs. ASCII text files are universally used for exchanging information between computers. Bandwidth: The range of frequencies (data) a transmission line can carry and defined in bits (BPS). The larger the bandwidth, the greater the information capacity of a channel. Simple terms - amount of data transferred on a line, such as a modem. Banner: An online advertising graphic. Usually located at the top of a web page. Binary file: Any file that is not plain, ASCII text. For example: executable files, graphic files and compressed (ZIP) files. BIOS: Short for Basic Input-Output System; this is a chip (or set of chips) in your computer that controls how your computer communicates with some of the basic hardware componentes in your system, such as the keyboard, floppy drive, and hard disk. In newer computers, the BIOS is also what supports Plug-&-Play. Bit: (contraction of binary digit) A single unit of information that has two values, 0 or 1. Boot: The process of starting up a computer. See Reboot. BPS: Bits per second. Measurement of digital information transmission rates. Browser: A software program for observing the World Wide Web; synonym for a Web client. Bug: An error in software that causes it to work improperly or not at all. This term comes from an occurance when an actual bug made a nest in an early hard-wired (without software) computer, causing it to malfunction. Buffer: The use of part of your computer's memory to relieve the burden on a specific component, such as your keyboard or printer. For example, if you press all of the keys on your keyboard at once (on a slow computer), the letters would appear on the screen slower than you've typed them. Since the computer isn't able to process keys that quickly, the keys you've pressed are stored in a buffer and fed to the computer at a slower rate it can handle - this way, your keystrokes aren't lost. Note that your computer will beep if the buffer is full, telling you keys pressed thereafter will be forgotten. Similar to Cache. Button: A 3-D control on the screen that looks like it's pushed in when you click on it. This is different from an icon, although buttons can contain icons. Buttons usually get a single left-click, while icons get a single or double-click. Byte: The smallest unit of storage, either on a disk or in memory. Eight bits forms a unit of data (byte). Typically, each byte stores one character (letter or number). Cache: A temporary storage bin in memory and on your hard drive. Helps to improve the performance of a specific component, such as your hard disk, CD-ROM drive, or even your processor. By storing recently accessed information in a disk cache, for example, your computer can respond faster because it is accessing memory, instead of the slower hard disk. (pronounced "cash") Similar to Buffer. Character: A letter, number, or symbol - anything that can be typed from the keyboard. Client: 1.) An application used over a Winsock connection, such as an email program or a World Wide Web Browser. 2.) A computer (hardware) on a network that isn't a server. Cluster Size: This is the smallest amount of hard disk space a file can occupy. Floppies have a cluster size of 512 bytes and hard disks can have a cluster size ranging from 1 kilobyte to 16 kilobytes (sometimes even more). The larger the partition, the larger the cluster size. CMOS: stands for Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor and refers to the physical makeup of the memory chips used to contain the CMOS memory settings. The CMOS memory settings are used to semi-permanently store information about your hardware: memory amount, number and type of hard drives and floppy drives, number and type of I/O ports (serial, parallel, SCSI, USB, etc.), system bus types (ISA, PCI, EISA, etc.) and some settings related to this hardware. With Plug-and-Play components, Windows 95/98/NT/2000 can update some of this information. CMOS memory is not the same as the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) memory which is stored in ROM (Read Only Memory) or PROM (Programmable Read Only Memory). In some systems the BIOS is stored in Flash EPROM (Flash-programmable Erasable/Programmable Read Only Memory) which is re-programmable without removing the chips from the system using special software. Control: An element of the user interface, such as an icon, a button, or a window. Context Menu: The menu that appears when you right-click on an object, such as a folderor a file. It's called a context menu because the items in the menu depend on what's being clicked - the menu is appropriate to the context. CPU: Central Processing Unit. The heart of your computer. The CPU is the module that processes the data. Database: A collection of information stored in an organized fashion, suitable for updating and viewing the information contained within frequently and easily. A database application is required to access the information in a database. Defragment: Using the Disk Defragmenter application, you can fix all the files on your hard disk that have become fragmented. When many files become fragmented, your hard disk performance is slower, and the danger of file corruption is greater, so it is a good idea to defragment often. This is also known as Optimizing your hard disk. Directory: A container for files - it can have any name, but always has a yellow folder for its icon. Also called Folder. Every directory has its own icon, into which other icons can be dropped. DMA: (Direct Memory Access) addressing used by some hardware. Your system should have 6 available addresses 00 to 05. No two pieces of hardware can share a DMA channel. Most new hardware no longer uses a DMA. Driver: A piece of software that assists your computer in using a specific device, such as a printer or scanner. Buggy drivers cause the majority of problems with a computer. FAQ: Short for Frequently Asked Questions, a collection of questions and answers commonly used in World Wide Web sites, newsgroups, and other discussion forums. FAT: (File Allocation Table) This table information is stored in the Data section of a bootable disk (floppy or hard). It normally consists of the first 63 sectors. Information about each file, size, location, and number of sectors used to store the file are keep here. If the table (Table 1) becomes corrupted there is a backup table (Table 2). Windows uses Table 1 to read files, Scandisk for Windows can also read Table 2 if needed. Fdisk can read Table 2 also, if you use the MBR switch (fdisk /mbr) to repair the boot sector. If the Table becomes corrupted this is known as losing the FAT. Microsoft Press's: A file system based on a file allocation table, maintained by the operating system, to keep track of the status of various segments of disk space used for file storage. The 32-bit implementation in Windows 95 and above is called the Virtual File Allocation Table (VFAT). File: Files contain data, whether it's a document you've written, or an application used to create the document. Every file has its own icon. Files are stored in folders. Finger: Finger is a very old way of looking up someone's email address on the Internet. Assuming a user's ISP supports it, fingering a user on the internet displays the last time the person logged in, and whether or not he or she has any mail to be read. There also may be special information displayed if the user has set up a Plan file. You need a Finger client (software) to use this feature of the Internet. Folder: Interchangable with Directory, although folder is a newer term. Fragmented: When a file has become fragmented, it means that it is broken up into pieces on your hard disk. Imagine if you saved a file to your hard disk, and then saved another right after it. When you go to add more to the first file and then save it again, it no longer can fit in the space allotted, and must be split apart. When many files become fragmented, your hard disk performance is slower, and the danger of file corruption is greater. To fix fragmented files, you must defragment your hard disk. FTP: File Transfer Protocol - a method of transferring files from one computer to another across the Internet. You need FTP client software to use FTP. Windows comes with a simple DOS-based FTP client, FTP.EXE. Anonymous FTP is the most common use of FTP. GB: An abbreviation for Gigabyte. Gigabyte: One billion bytes, or more precisely, 1,024 megabytes (totalling 1,073,741,824 bytes). Different definitions of this term cause discrepencies between different manufacturers and applications. Gopher: Gopher (from the phrase "go for") can be considered an older version of the World Wide Web, but it's structure is a more rigid menu system, and doesn't have any graphics. GPF: General Page Fault - When the OS cannot process a command generated by a program it falters and cannot continue without dropping the command from memory. GPFs are displayed as the Blue Screen of Death of by a System Error message. Also see Memory Address. GUI: Short for Graphical User Interface; a type of user interface that uses graphics (such as icons and windows) to control the computer. Windows uses a GUI. Hacker: A person who delights in having an intimate understanding of the internal workings of a system, computers, software, and computer networks in particular. Hard Disk: This is a disk that is permanently connected to your computer, and has a much higher capacity and speed than a floppy disk. Its capacity is measured in megabytes, and can be divided into several partitions. Hardware: A general term used to describe the equipment that makes up and is connected to your computer. To the beginner, software is what ever you see on the screen, and hardware is everything you can touch. Hit: A request from a browser for a single item from a web server. An overused term when discussing traffic on a Website, e.g. "We get 500,000 hits per month." Calling one page from a server could result in dozens of "hits" because each graphic is interpreted as a hit. In reality, counting only the "index.htm" page or "default.htm" page would be a more accurate gauge of traffic. Icon: The little pictures that you see on the screen, usually representing folders and files - icons can be dragged onto other icons, onto applications, and into folders. Icons usually get a double-click, while buttons get a single left-click. Interface: The method by which you control anything. The screen is the interface to your computer, just as a dashboard is the interface to your car, just as a doorknob is the interface to a door. Internet: A term used incorrectly to describe the World Wide Web - the Internet is a WAN, and a superset of the World Wide Web. Originally connecting a few universities and the United States government, it was designed to provide a network that could withstand a war, because of its decentralized structure. IOS Error: (Initiating the Operating System, the true meaning is Input/Output Supervisor) These errors occur while Windows is first booting up, loading files into memory. There are logged in the bootlog. This error can be devastating, causing you to be locked out of Windows. IOS errors can not generally be repaired by reinstalling Windows. Usually you need to format. RegRepair 2000 can repair most of these errors as long as you are not locked out of Windows. Windows may not report these errors to you while booting. To find these errors use the Find IOS Errors in RegRepair 2000. Interrupt: A method by which a piece of hardware communicates with the processor. It's called interrupt, because the device (such as a sound card) interrupts the computer to carry out a function (such as playing a sound). See IRQ. IRQ: (Interrupt Request) There are 16 IRQs available (0 - 15). No two pieces of hardware can share the same IRQ, with the exception of your IDE controllers. These are usually 14 and 15. IRQ problems occur because two pieces of hardware try to use the same IRQ. I/0: (Input / Output Range) The memory addressing range a device uses to communicate. No two devices may share an I/O range. If you have 3 or more Com ports then I/O s are shared which means that only one device may be used at a time. KB: An abbreviation for Kilobyte. Kilobyte: One thousand bytes, or more precisely, 1,024 bytes. LAN: Local Area Network - a network with all its computers close together (geographically). Lost Chains: Pieces of files that are no longer being used, but are still taking up disk space. Use Scandisk to clean up your lost chains and delete them. If you convert them to files, they will have the CHK extension - these files will be useless to you unless you know how to retreive your data from them. MB: An abbreviation for Megabyte. Megabyte: One million bytes, or more precisely, 1,024 kilobytes (totalling 1,048,576 bytes). Memory Address: Windows uses a demand-paged virtual memory system, a linear address space accessed using 32-bit addresses. Each process is allocated its own address space. No two processes can occupy the same address. When you get a Windows message that a program has performed an illegal operation and you click on details, you will see the memory addresses (014f:301678df) of the process that perform the illegal operation. Memory Allocation: Windows uses the random access memory (RAM) and a virtual memory address (Swap File). Windows places information into RAM and then moves it to the Swap File when it need to make room in RAM. Or moves the information into the Swap File that is not needed immediately. Menu: A list of things that an application does. In Windows, nearly every application has a menu along the top of its window, usually containing the items File, Edit, View, and Help - when clicked, additional subordinate menu items are displayed. MRU: This isn't as much of an actual term, as it is a frequently-seen acronym in the Registry. It stands for Most Recently Used, and is generally used in conjunction with lists of stuff you've recently typed in. For example, there's an MRU list for the things you've most recently typed into the Start Menu's Run command. Multitasking: An operating system performs multitasking when it runs more than one application simultaneously. See Preemtive Multitasking, Cooperative Multitasking, and Multithreading. Multithreading: The method by which an operating system is able to run different parts of the same application simultaneously. See Multitasking. Network: A network is what you get when you connect two or more computers together - the Internet is a type of network. The terms LAN and WAN describe the geographic scope of the network. Object: A general term used to describe almost everything on the screen. In a stricter sense, objects are used in an object-oriented design. Object-Oriented: An overused term, originally used to describe an advanced method of computer programming. For example, the interface in Windows is considered to be sort of object-oriented, because files and most of the controls are treated as strict objects, each having its own property sheet. OLE: Short for Object Linking and Embedding; a method by which applications can share information. Basically, it allows you to Cut something from one application and Paste it into another, and then edit the object in place. This second-rate technology (invented and pushed by Microsoft) has been known to cause Pentium-class systems to behave like 286's, is responsible for erratic drag-drop behavior, and is completely outclassed by competing technologies such as OpenDoc. Operating System: The software used to control a computer and run applications. Windows, DOS, and Unix are all examples of operating systems. Partition: A division of a hard disk. For example, a 500 megabyte hard disk can be divided into two 250-megabyte partitions. Smaller partitions can be used to further organize files and reduce the cluster size. Path: A file path contains the location of the file. C:\Windows\System is the path for the file name C:\Windows\System\Azt16.drv. A valid path must contain the drive letter, a full colon and backslash, the directory and a backslash, any sub directories and a backslash, and the file name and extension. Ping: From Navy terminology, ping is used to find out if a machine on the Internet exists and is responding. To use this feature, open a DOS window while you're connected, and type FINGER WWW.MICROSOFT.COM (or any other server). Ping will send small pieces of information to the machine, and you know if the server is "up" if you get a response. Processor: This is the chip in your computer that does all the calculations - for Windows users, it's based on Intel's x86 architecture, which includes the 386, 486, and Pentium series. This is also referred to as the CPU. RAM: Random Access Memory is temporary memory that your computer uses to store information. Text copied to the "clipboard" is stored in RAM until it is replaced by new information or the computer is turned off. Reboot: The process of re-starting your computer. If you turn it off and then on again, or use the reset button on the front of your computer, it's called a cold boot. If you hold Ctrl and Alt while pressing Del, it's called a warm-boot. See Boot. Registry: A complicated database of settings for use in Windows. You can edit these settings with the Registry Editor, REGEDIT.EXE. The registry is stored in two files in your Windows directory, USER.DAT and SYSTEM.DAT. Registry Export / Import: A means of taking information out of the Registry and saving it as a text file in a format that can be put back in the Registry. Input this information is called Importing. This procedure is done by opening RegEdit clicking on the key you want to Export, then the Menu Bar Item "Registry" and then "Export", saving it to a file name without an extension. You should always save it within the Windows Directory so that you can Import it back in if need be. To save the entire Registry you need to click on "Computer" and then Export. Rich Text Format: Rich Text Format (RTF) is a file format that lets you exchange text files between different word processors in different operating systems. The RTF Specification uses the ANSI, PC-8, Macintosh, and IBM PC character sets. It defines control words and symbols that serve as "common denominator" formatting commands. ROM: Short for Read-Only Memory - this is a type of storage or memory that can only be read, not written to. A CD-ROM is an example of a ROM storage. See RAM. Root Directory: The top-level directory in the tree. For drive C:, the root directory is signified by a single back-slash: C:\. Server: A computer on a network that handles a specific function for the rest of the network. For example, a print server can allow all the computers on a LAN use a printer. A World Wide Web server contains pages (like what you're viewing) that are sent to other computers on the Internet for viewing. Shortcut: A small file that allows you to put an icon for an application in a directory other than the one containing the application. You can also make shortcuts to folders and files. Useful places for shortcuts are the desktop and the Start Menu. You can tell a shortcut from other icons by the little curved arrow in the lower-left corner. For those users familiar with Unix, this is similar to a symbolic link. SIMM: Short for Single Inline Memory Module; a SIMM is a small circuit board that holds memory chips. Rather than installing individual chips to increase your system's memory, you install SIMMs, which are much easier to install and remove. Nearly all newer computers (those capable of running Windows) use SIMMs. Slack Space: The amount of disk space that is wasted by having a large cluster size. For example, if a 300-byte file is stored on a disk with a cluster size of 1,024 bytes, there will be 724 bytes of slack space that can't be used for any other files. You can see how much space is allocated to a file by typing "DIR /v" at the command prompt. Software: A general term used to describe the programs that can be used on a computer, such as applications, drivers, and operating systems. To the beginner, software is what ever you see on the screen, and hardware is everything you can touch. Start Menu: The menu that appears when you click the button labelled Start at the bottom of your screen, on the Taskbar. Swap File: A file on your hard disk called WIN386.SWP that Windows uses to store information when you run out of memory. Since a hard disk is slower than memory, a system without a lot of RAM will run out of memory sooner, requiring heavier use of the swap file, thereby resulting in slower performance. Note that if you've upgraded from Windows 3.x, the old filename for the swap file (386SPART.PAR) is preserved. Task: Any program that is currently running on your computer. You can switch between tasks with the Taskbar or by pressing Alt-Tab on the keyboard. Taskbar: The bar along the bottom of your screen, containing the Start Menu and a button for each running Task. Telnet: A method of connecting to other computers on the Internet. You need a Telnet client (software), and an appropriate account to use Telnet. Windows comes with a simple telnet client, TELNET.EXE. Titlebar: The stripe across the top of a window containing the title of the application in the window. You can move a window by dragging its titlebar. Tray: The small indented area on your Taskbar that holds the clock by default. Tree: A graphical diagram used to display the hierarchal structure of the directories on a disk. The Windows Explorer allows the disk to be viewed in this fashion. Trojan Horse: A computer program which carries within itself a means to allow the program's creator access to the system using it. A Trojan normally will not do any damage by itself. Virus: A program that when loaded infects, alters or destroys other programs. Some virus programs cause major trouble and some are nothing more than annoying pranks. User Interface: The Interface to your computer - a combination of controls used to perform any operation. WAN: Wide Area Network - a network with all its computers geographically far apart - the Internet is the ultimate WAN. Window: A rectangular box containing an application, a part of an application, a message, or a folder. This concept is the basis for the user interface in Windows. Winsock: Short for Windows Sockets - this is the language your computer speaks when it's connected to the Internet. Dial-Up Networking is the winsock support built into Windows. Once you've connected Windows to the Internet, you can use winsock clients (software). Winsock Client: See Client (software). Workgroup: A type of LAN. The computers that make up a workgroup tend to share the responsibilities equally, as opposed to a client / server relationship. World Wide Web: The portion of the Internet you used to access this page. WWW for short, it is a subset of the Internet. Netscape, Mosaic, and Internet Explorer are examples of browsers used to navigate the World Wide Web. Worm: A computer program, which replicates itself and is self-propagating. Worms, as opposed to viruses, are meant to spawn in network environments. Worms usually are designed to slow down a network or even crash it. See also: Trojan Horse, Virus. Zip: A type of file compression used most often on the Internet. The file extension for a zipped file is .ZIP. For more information on glossary terms, click the Windows Start button and choose Help. Select the Index tab and type one of the glossary terms in as a keyword. It's that simple! Top of page last modified Monday December 20 2004 © 2000 - David Seibold