Taskbar - The bar located at the bottom of the screen by default. 

Icon - The little pictures than represent a file or program. 

Scandisk - A utility used to repair common hard disk errors, such as cross-linked clusters and lost allocation units, and fix bad sectors.  

Fragmentation - the process of spreading the extents of a file across the free space on a hard disk, rather than placing them in contiguous blocks. 

Defrag - (Disk Defragmenter) A utility that is run to defragment the hard disk. Fragmentation happens as files are removed from the hard disk leaving blank areas that are noncontiguous. Running defrag will repair this problem. 

Device Driver - A program that provides an interface between a piece of hardware and the operating system.  Software driver

Bios (basic input/output system) - A program that is stored in the firmware of a computer that contains basic information and drivers needed to get the computer up and running. 

RAM - Random access memory  measured in Megabytes or Gigabytes.

Control Panel - A software utility that allows you to modify the settings and behavior of Windows. These settings and or properties are stored in the Registry. 

Registry - A database that contains information used by the operating system and its applications, ranging from dynamic hardware configuration and system runtime information to application customization settings. 

General Protection Fault (blue screen) GPF - An error that occurs when a program tries to access the protected memory address space of another program. Usually caused by a severe hardware or software conflict 

CD-ROM - Round Disks that look like a music CD, but contain computer programs and games. 

CD-R & CD-RW - Round Disks that you can record on with a CD-Writer.

Floppy Disk - The Square disks that contain computer files and programs. 

Modem - A device (hardware) used to communicate between computers. Different types of modems can be used such as dedicated line modems, cable modems, and so on. The most common type of modem in use today is the analog modem that uses standard telephone lines. 

Mouse – your pointing, clicking, selecting device

Start button - The button that is located in the lower left-hand corner of the Windows desktop. Most activities can be accomplished or initiated at the Start Button.  Click the start button to open the start menu

Start Menu - The primary entry point into the operating system, all your programs, printer, documents, music, and pictures. This is also where you SHUT DOWN your computer. 

Monitor - The television type screen in front of you to view your computer. 

Tower - The box that contains the guts (motherboard, peripherals, hard drive, memory, power supply) and also the CD-ROM drive and floppy drive and other various drives that can be added. 

Ctrl-Alt-Del - Also known as the three-finger-wave (bye-bye) All three fingers simultaneously press down on Ctrl, Alt, and Delete to free your computer when it freezes up. This action will restart your computer and run scandisk automatically or you need to run manually to realign your files. Also can bring up a screen to end task and possibly avoid restarting. 

Hard Drive - The non-removable disk located inside the tower that all programs reside on. 

CPU (chip) - Central Processing Unit located on the motherboard of the computer. Largely determines the speed of the computer. 

Back up - The act of or utility used for copying files or a program (s). Can be done on the hard drive, floppy disk, zip disk, and/or CD-R disk.  

Shortcut - A quick and easy way to reach commonly used folders, utilities, and files.  It is recognized by the curved arrow on the left bottom corner of an icon.  You may safely remove a shortcut without fear of removing a program.

Programs (Manager) - Located on the Start Menu, it lists and gives easy access to many of the programs on your hard drive. Click start, all programs.  

Windows Explorer - Located in the programs (mgr), the Windows utility for managing the files and folders in Windows.   You may also get to this by right clicking on your start button, and click explore.

My Computer – is simply a picture of your computer and all the drives, document folders, and your scanner (if you have one).