Hardware and Software Basics

For those of you who are new to computers, this section discusses some basic terminology. Computer
hardware is the stuff you can see and touch; if you throw it off the roof of a building, it will probably
break. Your basic PC consists of the hardware components shown in Figure 1-1. Each component plays
some role in helping you use the computer:
Monitor: The big TV-like thing. Probably has its own on/off switch as well as brightness,
contrast, and other buttons for fine-tuning the onscreen display.
Screen: The part of the monitor where all the action takes place — similar to a TV set screen.
System unit: The main body of the computer. Houses the main on/off switch plus access to the
floppy disk and CD-ROM drives.
Mouse: Your main tool for navigating (getting around) and for making the computer do what
you want it to do. I’ll talk about mice in more detail in a moment.