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Learning to use your PC well starts with learning to use Windows. In this first lesson, we'll start with the basics that every computer user must know in order to use a computer with minimal frustration. If you've been working in "frustration and aggravation" mode for a while, this lesson will take care of that. We'll start by talking about what Windows 8 is and why you want to learn it. Then, we'll get right into the most important skills and terminology that allow you to control what you see on your screen at all times. And that's important, because the first step to using anything that's in your computer is getting it on the screen where you can see it!

In this lesson, you'll explore the new Windows 8 Start screen. This new area gives you access to all the apps, programs, files, and more that exist on your computer. You'll find out how to manage the Start screen, work with apps, download and update apps, and customize the Start screen so that it looks the way you want. Get ready to have some fun and learn new stuff because the Windows 8 Start screen is brand new!

In today's lesson, you'll have fun personalizing your computer by choosing your own desktop pictures, window colors, and sound scheme. Along the way, you'll learn about the important Control Panel window in Windows 8 and tips for using dialog boxes and those occasional mysterious dimmed options that do nothing when you click them. The skills you learn in this lesson will go a long way to helping you gain complete control of your computer.

No matter how you intend to use your computer, there'll be times when there's some typing involved. It might be for writing email messages, memos, or letters, or it might be for taking notes in a course, or for chatting with others in a website. Whatever the reason, today's lesson will teach you all the tricks for making typing (and editing) quick and easy. And you'll also discover how to save your work in files and folders, so it'll always be there when you need it!

Everything that's in your computer is stored on its hard drive. The hard drive is like a filing cabinet containing files organized into folders. Finding things you've saved in the past is a matter of opening the filing cabinet, so to speak, and then locating the correct folder. You'll use the File Explorer program to accomplish this. And in this lesson, you'll learn how it all works so you can start gaining complete mastery of your own files and folders.

Today it's time to have some fun with photographs. In today's lesson, you'll learn to use Photo Gallery to get pictures from a camera into your computer. You'll learn some tips for organizing those photos. And you'll also learn how to rotate pictures that are sideways, delete any awful pictures you'd rather nobody ever see, and print all your favorite photos on paper.

In this lesson, we'll have even more fun with photos. Today, you'll learn how to further organize your photos by renaming them, rating them, and adding captions and tags. You'll also learn how to search for photos with tags. And you'll learn about Photo Gallery's editing tools for adjusting brightness and contrast, straightening crooked pictures, correcting red eye, and cropping.

The Internet is home to popular websites like Facebook, Twitter, Google, ed2go, and many others. I'm sure many of you have seen reference to .com sites in ads and elsewhere. If you don't have a lot of computer experience, you might find it difficult to get to the many things you hear about on the Web. But not after this lesson! Today, I'll teach you how to use Internet Explorer, the program that provides access to all of those popular websites.

Managing files and folders is one of those computer skills that every computer user needs to know. In many work and school environments, people just assume you know how to manage files, and they rarely provide any details on how to accomplish things like copying, moving, or renaming files and folders. Today's lesson will explain how to do those very things that others assume you already know how to do.

In this lesson, you'll expand your file management skills by learning how to delete and recover files. You'll learn how to select multiple files to work with so you don't always have to manage your files one at a time. And we'll discuss how to copy files to and from removable media like flash drives, CDs, and DVDs.

Your computer is an investment of money, and the pictures and other files you store on your computer are an investment of time. You might even have some photos or other files that are so precious the thought of losing them causes you anxiety. What you need to do is protect those files. And that's just what this chapter is all about—how to use the tools and techniques that are built right into Windows to help you protect your valuable time and files!

In our final lesson, you'll learn some more techniques for protecting your computer, including using resources for free protection from viruses and spyware. You'll learn how to remove programs you no longer want or need. You'll learn how to copy and paste text and create screenshots. And you'll discover some great timesaving tips and shortcuts, as well as resources for helping yourself so you don't have to be so dependent on others.