CIS 138
Adding New Users
Windows 7 allows you to have multiple users sharing the same computer under their own
individual accounts. This allows each individual user to have their own location on the computer
where they can store their personal documents, pictures, videos, saved games, and other personal
data. This also allows the owner of the computer to assign certain accounts the ability to perform
administrative tasks like installing software, while limiting other user's abilities.
This tutorial will walk you through creating a new account in Windows 7 and Windows Vista.
1. Click on the Start button. This is the small round button in the lower left corner of your
screen that has a Windows flag on it.
2. Click on the Control Panel menu option.
3. When the control panel opens you will see a screen similar to Figure 1 below.
Figure 1. Windows 7 Control Panel
4. Click on the Add or remove user accounts control panel option as shown by the red arrow
in figure 1.
5. You will now be in the Manage Accounts control panel as shown in Figure 2 below.
Figure 2. Manage Accounts screen in Windows 7
This screen shows all the accounts currently on your computer. To create a new account,
click on the Create a new account option as shown by the red arrow above.
6. You will now be at the Create New Account screen.
In
the New
account
name field enter the name of the new account that you would like to create. This could be a
person's first name, full name, or whatever other designation you would like to give. You then
need to decide which of the two types of accounts you would like to create. An Administrator
account has full access to the computer and can make all changes, install software, and create
and delete accounts. The other type of account is Standard user and has limited privileges as to
what settings and changes it can make to the computer. It is suggested that for all users, you set
them as a Standard User account and have one administrator account that you can logon to as
needed. This will protect your computer from malware and other harmful activities.
When you have finished selecting a name and the type of account you wish to setup, you should
click on the Create Account button.
7. Your new account will have been created and you will see it listed in the Manage Accounts
screen.
Figure 4. New user has been created
As you can see our new user, named Test Account, has been created. Now when you start Windows 7
or Vista, you will see the additional account listed in the logon screen. That user can then select their
login name and login into their profile so they can access their private data.
Disk Cleanup Tool
The Disk Cleanup utility removes unnecessary files to free up space on the disk drive of your
choice. To run Disk Cleanup on a Windows 7 computer, follow these steps:
1. Click Start.
2. Click All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Disk Cleanup.
3. Select Drive C from the drop-down menu.
4. Click OK.
5. Disk cleanup will calculate the free space on your computer, which may take a few
minutes.
6. After the calculation is complete, you should see a dialog box that looks similar to the
following:
7. Confirm
that only the following checkboxes are checked:
•
Downloaded Program Files
•
Temporary Internet Files
•
Recycle Bin
•
Temporary Files
8. Click OK.
9. You will see a dialog box that prompts you: Are you sure you want to permanently
delete these files?
10. Click Delete Files.
11. Disk cleanup will delete the files and close automatically.
Disk Defragmenter
When defragmenting a disk partition, the files stored on the disk are rearranged to occupy
contiguous storage locations. This process increases the access speed to your files by minimizing
the time required to read and write files to/from the disk and by maximizing the transfer rate. The
system startup time for Windows is also improved.
1. Go to 'Start Menu -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System tools -> Disk Defragmenter'.
Below is a screenshot of a typical Disk Defragmenter window.
2. Under the 'Current status' section, Disk Defragmenter shows the list of all partitions,
including hidden ones.
3. To see if a partition needs to be defragmented, select it from the list and press 'Analyze disk'.
4. While analyzing, you will see in the 'Last Run' column the status - 'Running...' and,
underProgress, the completion percentage. If you want to interrupt the disk analyzer, press 'Stop
operation'.
5. After running the disk analysis, you can see how fragmented the partition is. This information
will help you decide whether you want to defragment the disk or not. For example, in the image
below, you can see for the partition 'Data(D:)', the date and time of the last analysis or
defragmentation, and that it is 0% fragmented. Based on this, you can estimate how long the
defragmentation process will last.
6. To defragment a partition, select it and press 'Defragment disk'.
Windows 7 allows you to defragment more than one partition at a time. You can see the progress
of each defragmentation and you can decide to stop any of the defragmentation processes by
selecting the partition and pressing 'Stop Operation'. Disk defragmentation can take from several
minutes to a few hours, depending on the size and degree of fragmentation of your disk.
One of the good things about this tool is that you can use the computer to do other things while
running any of the available operations.
Uninstall Unused Program
To see a list of the programs that we can uninstall we must first open the Programs and
Features control panel. To do this you should follow these steps:
1. In Windows 7 click on the Start button to open your Start Menu. The Start button looks
like this:
.When the Start Menu opens click on the Control Panel menu option.
2. When the Control Panel window opens click on the Uninstall a program option under
the Programs category. This option is shown by the arrow in the image below. If you are
using the Classic View of the Control Panel, then you would double-click on
the Programs and Features icon instead.
3. You will now be at the Programs and Features, or Uninstall or change a program,
screen as shown on the top screen. From this screen you can uninstall programs, view
installed updates, and turn Windows features on and off.
4. Now you have to double-click on the program that you want to uninstall. You will then
see the screen below to confirm that you want to uninstall the program.
5. Click Yes to confirm.
If you do not want to continue, then you should press the No button, and you will come back to
the list of programs. If you press the Yes button Windows 7 will start the uninstall routine for
the program and begin to remove it. An uninstall screen will typically now open and may ask
you questions about how the program should be uninstalled. You typically want to remove the
entire program except any data that you may need in the future. As each program's uninstall
process is different, it is advised that you read each screen carefully and continue with the
uninstall process. When uninstalling certain programs you may receive a prompt from Windows
stating An unidentified programs wants access to your computer. When you receive this as
you uninstall the program, you should click on the Allow button, as it is the uninstaller being
started.
Windows Update
1.
Open Windows Update by clicking the Start button
of results, click Windows Update.
. In the search box, type Update, and then, in the list
2.
In the left pane, click Check for updates, and then wait while Windows looks for the latest updates for your
computer.
3.
If you see a message telling you that important updates are available, or telling you to review important
updates, click the message to view and select the important updates to install.
4.
In the list, click the important updates for more information. Select the check boxes for any updates that you
want to install, and then click OK.
5.
Click Install updates.
Read and accept the license terms, and then click Finish if the update requires it.
If you're prompted for
an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.