Department of Software Engineering

University of Gujrat

Introduction to Information and Communication Technologies

Lab-1 Manual
Introduction to Lab Policy and Ethics

Afifa Akhtar
Lab Instructor
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Introduction to Lab Policy and Ethics

You will do much in the labs during your years. In order that those years be productive, you will
need to follow lab ethics and rules.
Some of the instructions regarding lab rules are as follows:

1. Bags are not allowed in the labs. Put your bags and other belongings on the shelves by
door when you come in the lab.
2. Make sure to hang your student identity card before entering the lab.
3. Foods and Drinks are not allowed in the lab.
4. Do not use mobile phones inside the lab.
5. Taking lab equipment outside the lab is strictly forbidden.
6. Do not speak louder.
7. Do not install unnecessary applications in lab computers.
8. Etiquette means manners: be polite, have respect for other’s property just like they should
have for yours. Be honest--do your own work.
9. Obey all regular classroom rules. Policies & Procedures of your regular classroom
teacher are in effect here just like the classroom. Do your own work; don’t disturb your
neighbors.
10. Put things in their right place after using them and before leaving the lab.

You must respect lab policy and ethics. In case of violation, different penalties will be given
accordingly.

Now, before starting working, we’ll need to know about the computer system and its hardware.

Computer:
In basic terms, a computer is an electronic device that processes data, converting
it into information that is useful to people. The term computer is derived from the Latin
term ‘computare’, this means to calculate or programmable machine. Computer cannot do
anything without a Program. A computer is made up of Hardware + Software.
Hardware:
Each physical part of the computer is its hardware.
A computer’s hardware devices fall into one of four categories:
1. Processor
2. Memory
3. Input and output
4. Storage

Processor (Processing Devices):

The procedure that transforms raw data into useful information is called processing.

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The processor in computer system is like the brain of the computer; it organizes and carries out
instructions that come from either the user or the software. In a personal computer; the
processor usually consists of one or more specialized chips, called microprocessors, which are
slivers of silicon or other material etched with many tiny electronic circuits. To process data or
complete an instruction from a user or a program, the computer passes electricity through
circuit.
the microprocessor (also refers as Central Processing Unit) is plugged into the computer’s
motherboard.
Motherboard: Computer's main circuit board. It's a thin plate that holds the CPU, memory,
connectors for the hard drive and optical drives, expansion cards to control the video and
audio, and connections to your computer's ports (such as USB ports). The motherboard
connects directly or indirectly to every part of the computer.

CPU/processor: The central processing unit (CPU), also called a processor, is located inside
the computer case on the motherboard. It is sometimes called the brain of the computer, and its
job is to carry out commands. Whenever you press a key, click the mouse, or start an
application, you're sending instructions to the CPU.

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Memory:
In a computer, memory is one or more sets of chips that store data and/or program instructions,
either temporarily or permanently.
Two important types of memories in personal computer are RAM and ROM.
RAM (random access memory): Short-term memory of the computer. The content in RAM
lost when you turn off the machine. Whenever your computer performs calculations, it
temporarily stores the data in the RAM until it is needed.

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ROM (read-only memory): ROM is a small chip on your motherboard that looks after your
BIOS. Once data has been written onto a ROM chip, it cannot be removed and can only be
read. Unlike main memory (RAM), ROM retains its contents even when the computer is
turned off. ROM is referred to as being nonvolatile, whereas RAM is volatile.

Input and Output devices:

A personal computer would be useless if you could not interact with it because the machine
could not receive instructions or deliver the results of its work

✓ Input devices are those devices which gets data from outside and take to the processing
unit of the computer.
Due to diverse nature of the data, variety of input devices exist to input data in different
forms. E.g. keyboard is used to enter textual data, mouse is used as pointing device,
Scanner is used to enter image data and through microphone voice data is entered.
Input devise may contain all or some of the above described devices and even can have
many other.

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✓ Output devices return processed data to the user or to another computer system. As data
presented to user can take different forms, therefore different output devices are needed
e.g. monitor is used to display images and text on a screen, printer is used to get output
on a paper, speakers are used to receive voice output etc.

Storage Devices:
A computer can function with only processing, memory, input, and output devices. To be
useful, however; a computer also needs a place to keep program files and related data when
they are not in use. The purpose of storage is to hold data permanently, even when the
computer is turned off.

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Magnetic Storage: There are many types of computer storage, but the most common is
the magnetic disk. Hard disk drive is the well-known example of magnetic storage.
The hard drive is where your software, documents, and other files are stored. The
hard drive is long-term storage, which means the data is still saved even if you turn the
computer off or unplug it.

Optical Storage: devices that use lasers to read data from or write data to the reflective
surface of an optical disc. for example CD, DVD etc.

Software:
Software is a program that enables a computer to perform a specific task, as opposed to the
physical components of the system (hardware).

Computer software divided into two categories.

• System Software
• Application Software

System Software is those programs (set of instructions to solve a problem) that are responsible
for the controlling and managing the actual operations of the computer hardware.
e.g. Operating System of the computer, Windows, utility program etc.

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Application Software is used to accomplish tasks specified by the user e.g. Adobe photoshop,
MS Word, Paint tool etc.

Working with a computer:

After turning on and logging in to the computer, the first window we come across with is
known as Desktop window.

Figure 1-Windows 10 Desktop

Figure 2-Wndows 8 Desktop

➢ Searching for desired application program:

Most of the time the software you’re looking for will be placed on the Desktop or
Taskbar. In case it’s not the case, then you can also search it from available options.

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Suppose we are looking for “MS Word” in our system.

• In Windows 10:
Go to “Cortana” and type Word using your keyboard.

Once the required program is shown up in the search, you can hover your mouse
arrow over it and open it by clicking left key/button of the mouse.
There is another way to find the desired program. For this click on “Start Button” on
desktop and then go to “All Apps”.
By going through all applications you’ll be able to find the program if it’s already
installed in your system.

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These two are the simplest ways to find any installed program in Windows 10.
• In Windows 8 or 8.1:
For searching in windows 8 or windows 8.1, click on start button form desktop.
Following window will be opened.

Click on the search bar and type “Word”.

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Click on the program to open it.

Other way to search through windows 8 is:
▪ Move your mouse arrow to the bottom right corner of the desktop.

Click on the search icon and type “Word”.

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Select and click the program to open it.

Note: Previous versions of Windows (e.g. 7 and XP) have a desktop structure, similar to
Windows 10. For searching in those versions, you can click on Start Menu Button on the left
button corner of the desktop screen and find the program from the available list.

Writing Tools:
When we search for MS Word, we can see that there comes another program, named
“WordPad”.
WordPad and Notepad are two default writing tools of Windows Operating System, which
comes along the windows installation. But for using MS Word (Comes along Microsoft Office
Suite) we first need to install it.
All three of these softwares are writing tools but Word is the most feature-rich program as
compared to the Notepad and WordPad.
➢ Notepad is the most basic text editor, which allows you to open and create text files.
While you can create several paragraphs of text with Notepad, using line breaks (by
pressing the Enter key), the program does not give you text formatting options. For
example, you cannot change the font size or make the text bold.
➢ WordPad is similar to Notepad but gives you more formatting options. You can use bold
and italics formatting, and change the font, size, and color of the text. You can also create
bulleted lists and center and justify paragraphs. WordPad allows you to save documents
as either basic text (.TXT) files or rich text format (.RTF) files. Saving a document in the

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rich text format will keep all the formatting you have done to the text, while saving it as a
basic text file will remove all text formatting from the document.
➢ Firstly, Microsoft Word is not a free software. You’ve to purchase it before using it.
Microsoft Word allows you to add advanced formatting to documents using predefined
layouts that include fonts and color selections for document titles, headings and body test.
You can download additional document templates from the Office website, allowing you
to use Word to create documents such as business letters, invitations and note cards with
a minimum of effort. WordPad does not support document styles.

Typing Exercise:
Now to get ourselves familiarize with computer system we’ll done some typing exercises.

First of all, go into start menu and open Word or Wordpad software.
Following window will be opened in Word.

Now select Blank Document from the available options.

This will open a new form for typing.

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Now Select font “Times New Roman” and size “12” from ribbon.

After these settings, type following paragraphs in writing area for practicing.

Para# 1:

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Para# 2:

You can use these buttons to change the font style while typing.

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Also practice using following shortcuts while typing:

After completing your typing exercises, click on “File” option form menu and then “save” the
document.

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