Computer Terms and their meanings   More Computer Basics

Also read A Guide To Basic Computer Terminology & Vista Computer Terms (funny)

A

ADSL: Short for asymmetric digital subscriber line, a new technology that allows more data to be sent over existing copper telephone lines. See more..

Affiliate: An affiliate is a person or company that advertises and promotes another companies products in order to make a sale. Sometimes you can lead customers to the company website, and if a product is sold you will receive an agreed share of the sale price.  Popular affiliate sites include Clickbank.com and Ebay.com.

AGP: (Accelerated Graphics Port) is usually located near the white PCI slots on a Motherboard. This is where you install a video card for better graphical performance. Most motherboards now come with onboard sound and video which is top quality, however when you install AGP video it removes pressure from the computers resources. See more..

Application Software: Or simply application is a computer program that performs tasks that the user wishes to perform. It could be Microsoft word and you might use it to write a letter or Adobe Photoshop to edit a photo. See  more..

Animation: A simulation of movement created by displaying a series of pictures, or frames. All of these pictures put together can make a computer animated gif, which will be a moving picture. You can also animate writing, banners, and even entire websites. A cartoons on television is one example of an animation.

Attachment:  A file attached to an e-mail message. For example you could attach a picture to send with your e-mail.

Auto responder An e-mail utility that automatically replies to an e-mail message with a prewritten response. Read More.....  

Autostart This is when a program or application starts without you having to double click on the icon to start. For example, if you insert a cd into the cd drive on your computer it could be set to autostart. If it is it will automatically open the disc to view or start the program it holds. You can also plug your digital camera in and a program will appear to extract the photos from the camera. This means that the program was set to autostart if a camera was attached to the computer.

B

Broadband: This usually refers to a high speed internet connection like DSL or cable. To use this connection you would also need a broadband modem. Broadband is a far cry from the good old Dialup internet.

Bios: Basic input output system. You can access this when you start-up a computer. It will say on the screen "To enter setup press .....key". It lets you change whether the CD-ROM or hard drive boots first. There are also settings to overclock some computer systems.

Bit: (binary digit) This is the smallest unit of information on a machine and can hold only one of two values: 0 or 1. Consecutive bits can be combined to form larger units such as a byte (8 bits = 1 byte).

Boot sequence: The order of drives that a system’s BIOS follows when looking for the operating system. For example it can go to the hard drive, the floppy drive, or the Cd rom.

Broadcast: To simultaneously send the same message to multiple recipients. Broadcasting is a useful feature in e-mail systems

Browser: A program to allow you to view and browse web pages on the internet. I use Internet Explorer.

Bandwidth: This is the term we use to measure the amount of data and its speed through an internet connection. The more bandwidth you have, the faster the internet connection. Bandwidth is limited by the line it travel through. Your internet service provider can reduce or increase your bandwidth according to you internet plan.

C

Capacity: (hard drive capacity) Basically means what size is the hard drive, how much data can it hold, etc. "My hard drive capacity is 500GB."

Case Sensitive: A term used to describe if it is of importance to use upper or lower case letters.

Desktop: It is everything you see when you start your computer except the taskbar. Your desktop has the icons on it that are shortcuts to programs and folders.

Desktop Background: A picture or graphic you display on your computer desktop (screen). If you have icons on your desktop the background will be behind these.

Download: To download something is to get it from the internet to your computer through your internet connection. For example, when you receive email to your computer the new emails are downloaded from your mail server. Now days people download everything including documents, information, music files, movies, games, cracks, cheats, and more.. To upload is the opposite of download.

E

Ergonomic office chair: This refers to a chair purposely designed to fit the comfort needs of the user with considerations such as surrounding environment taken into account.

Email Server:  An email server collects your email and delivers it to your chosen email client. Same with sending an email. It gets taken to the email server to distribute to the appropriate email recipient. It is a bit like a post office in the real world and the email client is your letter box.

Email Client:  An email client is a program that lets you read, create emails, send, reply to, read, and manage your emails. Some examples of Email Clients include Outlook Express, Thunderbird, Incredimail, Pegasus and many others.

F

File: In the old days a file used to be a section category that was kept in a filing cabinet, however now we have less paper to file away. Now the term file can mean anything on your computer. Everything on your computer is made up of files. Folders and directories have files stored in them. Programs are made up of certain files that make the program work. A file on a computer can mean any file unless you specify which type. For example there are music files, picture files, system files, and so on. See Creating, saving, copying, pasting, and moving files or folders on your computer.

File Extension: A file extension classifies what category a file falls into. If it has .txt as a file extension then you know it is a text file. If it has .jpeg it is a picture. See File extensions What are they?

Firewall: A personal firewall is a computer program that protects your computer from malicious users by blocking incoming and outgoing unauthorized access. Windows Xp comes with a built in firewall.

Format: (Hard drive, re-writeable disks) To clear of all data. Clean to the original state of empty. A hard drive has to be formatted and partitioned to install an operating system. It can also mean to format text by changing the font, color and size.

Forward: Forward is an option found in an e-mail client, which allows you to forward a received e-mail to another recipient.

Forum: This is a member based website, usually free to join, where people gather to chat and converse on a particular subject. Forums can be used as a very useful learning tool for most subjects as people share their knowledge and experiences with others. You can find computer help forums, money saving forums, child birth forums, and more..

G

Gigabyte: 1 gigabyte = 1,000,000,000 bytes for hard drive capacity or 1 gigabyte = 1024 megabytes for computer memory and files sizes.

H

Hardware:  The basic parts that make up your computer.

Html: (hyper text markup language) This is coding used to develop webpages. You can start from scratch, writing html or you can use a html editor like Frontpage that has a template to start with.

I

IP Address: A unique address that each computer has. If you have a home network your modem will have an ip address, so will your router, and any computers that are attached.

ISP: (Internet service provider) Your ISP is the company that supplies your internet connection to you. It could be a local phone company or even a pay tv company. You internet service provider usually sends you a bill for your internet connection.

J

K

Keypad: The set of numbers on the right hand side of the keyboard.

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