Welcome to the blog, Open Panes. This blog aims to be a basic to moderate Microsoft Windows how-to. Think of it as a Computer 101 class, in blog form. I hope it will help a lot of people out there who are just starting or want to know more about their operating system, how to interact within, how to get things done, and perhaps add to the understandings of what really goes on in some of the behind the scenes. I'll try not to get too deep into the inner workings except where it adds to the understanding, but I'll warn you that I am a systems administrator by day for both Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems. Where possible, I will try to split out the more complex stuff into "Part 2" sections for those who want to learn more, but for those who don't you can most likely skip those parts.
I assume that anyone here has an already working PC (no troubleshooting to be found in here, not to say you won't learn how to do a little here and there, but that's not the focus... There are too many ways to get off topic and muddy up everyone's understanding), and that you want to learn and are ready to dive into things you may not be comfortable with. Please read through things before diving in, and then try to work along with the screenshots and descriptions. The more you attempt them on your own, the more you'll learn and get used to the operating system.
Another note, at the writing of this welcome post, Windows XP is still the predominant version in the wild, but this is changing. Vista and Windows 7 are quickly taking over (7 being the current up to date version) and with XP falling out of support soon, 7 will be making major percentage strides in the coming years. That said, I'm still going to have a lot of windows XP content. I will try to explain the difference between the versions as I go to be forward thinking, but I can't ignore the millions of people running XP. It's also important to note that they really don't differ that much in general, and if you learn how to use XP and understand why certian options do what they do, you'll probably be able to figure out 7 fairly quickly. Again, where there are huge differences, I'll try to explain both.
A large pat of this blog is learning the concepts and then applying them... So were going to start with a few concepts. Whew, alrighty, now to the content!
