A new section of each course starts monthly. If enrolling in a series of two or
more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two
months apart.
All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons
are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have
to be present when lessons are released. You will have access to all lessons until
the course ends. However, the interactive discussion area that accompanies each
lesson will automatically close two weeks after the lesson is released. As such,
we strongly recommend that you complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.
The final exam will be released on the same day as the last lesson. Once the final
exam has been released, you will have two weeks to complete all of your course work,
including the final exam.
Week One
Wednesday - Lesson 01
If you want to get beyond the basics of using Windows Vista, then this course is for you. Here you'll learn the many tools and techniques for working with programs, disks, folders, and files—the very skills that separate the beginners from the experts. In this first lesson, we'll begin by reviewing a few basic tools and techniques, and then we’ll explore how to use disk drives, folders, and files to store and retrieve your work. This will provide a strong foundation for mastering the skills coming up in the rest of the course.
Friday - Lesson 02
Folders on a computer disk are like folders in a filing cabinet. You can use them to organize your files, making it easier to find what you need. Today's lesson will cover the many ways in which you can find and navigate through the folders on your computer's hard disk. You'll also learn ways to save your files so they're easy to find when you need them in the future.
Week Two
Wednesday - Lesson 03
Everything you save and download is actually stored as a file. It doesn't matter if it's a photo, video, song, or written document, it’s still a file stored on a disk. In this lesson you'll learn all about files, filenames, and filename extensions. You'll learn important techniques for opening, using, saving, and closing files. And you'll learn how to choose which programs you want to use to work with different kinds of files. Finally, you'll discover techniques for dealing with stubborn files that refuse to open.
Friday - Lesson 04
If you're tired of having to click a whole bunch of things just to get to something you frequently use, you'll love the skills you gain from this lesson! Today you'll learn how to create your own shortcut icons to make it easy to get to all your favorite programs, folders, and files right from the desktop, Quick Launch icon, and other places.
Week Three
Wednesday - Lesson 05
Today's lesson gets into more advanced techniques for managing files and folders. For starters, you'll practice creating your own folders and find out how to move files into those folders for better organization. You'll also discover how to make copies of files and how to give better names to the files you already have. And finally, you'll learn how to delete files you no longer need as well as how to recover files you may have deleted by accident.
Friday - Lesson 06
Knowing how to work with one file or folder at a time is good. But as you'll learn in this lesson, you can use those same skills to manage many files at once. This can be a huge timesaver, and the skills involved aren't difficult to learn. You'll get plenty of hands-on practice in this lesson to help with total mastery of these important skills.
Week Four
Wednesday - Lesson 07
Ever been confounded by a CD or DVD? Well, after today's lesson, you'll know exactly what to do to control what happens when you insert a CD or DVD into your computer's drive. You’ll find out how to copy files to and from these kinds of discs. And we'll also clear up any confusion about the many different kinds of CDs and DVDs on the market.
Friday - Lesson 08
In this lesson, we'll start having some fun with music. Yes, you can use your computer to store and play music, create your own custom music CDs to play in any CD player, and copy songs to portable MP3 players. If you like music, you're sure to love this lesson and have plenty of fun while learning.
Week Five
Wednesday - Lesson 09
Today's lesson is all about DVDs. While they look a lot like CDs, they're not quite the same. And trying to use them can be challenging. If your computer has a DVD drive, this lesson will show you how to watch DVD movies on your computer screen and how to copy files from DVDs. And if your computer has a DVD burner and the right software, you can also create your own DVD-Video discs to watch on TV.
Friday - Lesson 10
As your collection of files grows, the need to protect them becomes ever more important. In today's lesson you'll learn all about making backups of your files using the Backup and Restore Center that comes with Windows Vista. You'll learn how to restore missing and damaged files from those backups, and you’ll get to know the Previous Versions feature of Windows Vista, which lets you restore damaged files from shadow copies.
Week Six
Wednesday - Lesson 11
This lesson is all about installing, using, and removing programs. There are thousands of programs to choose from, and many you can download for free right from the Internet if you know how. Today you'll learn how to install and use programs like a pro and also how to remove programs you no longer need or want.
Friday - Lesson 12
Your computer's hard disk can store many thousands of files. And no matter how well organized you are, there will be times when you’ll struggle to find a file that you’ve lost track of. Today's lesson will teach you everything you need to know about searching for missing files. With the skills you’ll learn in this lesson, you’ll have total mastery of the information you store in your computer.