So You Want to Be a Windows System Geek? Ah, but There's More Involved Than the Title

So you want to be a geek someday? Yet right now, you would happily settle for some fleeting feeling of mastery over the mystery which is your PC.

Yes, you think, you probably could get the case off, but what the heck would you do then? You wonder if you'll know your hard drive from video card from your modem, or whether the RAM is even sitting in the right slot.

Fear not: it's really not some deep dark world. It's a world where standards change every six-and-a- half minutes but it's not a deep dark world.

For me, being PC capable means equal parts of about three qualities: the patience to allow common sense to dominate over panic, the persistence to do the research needed beforehand and then proceed slowly and methodically towards the solution and the brains to know when to stop before you make the situation beyond hopeless. That's exactly what I had to do before I wrote or edited any of the two or three dozen PC and Internet oriented books I've written.

First, but sorry, there is really no escaping it: you're going to need to locate some good references material on subjects like PC hardware and Windows. Like it or not, that's what folks are using in the greatest quantity. Depending on the statistics you read, up to 85% of the market in geared to Microsoft Windows and its platform. You may prefer Unix or feel excited about someday using the Mac OS but if you want to know the PC world, you also need to know Windows-based operating systems for the foreseeable future. But spend some time looking for the right references; not everyone wants a Dummies book and not everyone is ready for those 1200 page PC bibles where every third word is an acronym.

Second thing to know: when something stops working on your PC, there is usually a reason for it.

Your first job - besides not getting bent of out of all possible shape - is to think back. What were the last few things you did before the machine stopped working or before the last time you rebooted your PC?