Keywords
Click: The act of pressing the left mouse button. For some left-handed users, this may be the right mouse button, if you use the mouse on the left side of your computer. This depends on how your computer is set up.
Right-Click: The act of pressing the right mouse button. For some left-handed users, this may be the left mouse button.
Click-and-drag: The act of pressing the left mouse button (right for some left-handed users) and keeping it pressed, while moving the mouse in some direction
"Three-finger salute": Pressing CTRL, ALT, and Delete at the same time. On older computers, this immediately rebooted the computer. On newer versions of Windows, this either brings up the task manager, or a 6-button screen, depending on how Windows is setup.
Hard power down: Turning the computer straight into the off position, usually by pressing and holding the power button for about 5 seconds (some computer you may not need to hold the button, instead just pressing it will work). This is typically not recommended unless Windows is completely locked up and will not function. When doing a hard power down, do NOT turn your computer on again immediately. Wait at least 30 seconds to do so. This is to let the electric charge die down. To compare, this would be like jamming the breaks in your car then immediately hitting the gas and flooring it. Not pleasant, is it?
Soft reset: Hitting the reset button to reboot the computer. This is an alternative to the "three finger salute". Some computers don't have a reset button. Instead, often times hitting the power button quickly will do a soft reset, instead of a hard power down.
Hard Drive: This is the device that stores everything on your computer, such as your pictures, documents, programs, etc.
Floppy disk drive: This is a device that stores stuff onto a small portable disk. Unfortunately, it doesn't store very much and has pretty much become obsolete.
USB pen drive: A portable drive that plugs into a USB port and is capable of storing much more than a floppy disk, but usually considerably less than a hard drive.
USB port: A square plug that exists on pretty much every computer (PC or Macintosh) since around 1998. This are used for a number of items, includiong USB pen drives, printers, memory card readers, and more.
Firewire port: A port similar to a USB port, but is used considerably less on PCs (but more on Macintosh computers). Primarly video cameras use these ports, but other things may as well.
802.11: This is wireless internet. There are primarly 4 versions in use: A, B, G, and N. A is not commonly used. B and G are the most common, with N being a new standard. These three all work with each other (but typically not with A). 802.11B is the slowest speed, and also sometimes has problems with 2.4GHz cordless phones as well as some microwaves.
CRT monitor: The older style of computer monitors, that contained a cathode-ray tube (much like TVs did). This causes the monitors to be bigger, heavier, and use more electricity. These are often being replaced now with LCD monitors.
LCD Monitor: The newer style of monitor, which is considerably lighter and thinner than CRT monitors. They also use less electricity. They are also easier on the eyes, since they refresh the screen in a different manner. These have considerably improved over the last few years with higher refresh rates, allowing them to be better for gaming.
Tips
Knowing which version of Windows you have, along with which service pack you have installed: Right-click My Computer, click properties. The box that pops up tells you which version and what's the latest service pack installed (example - Windows XP Service Pack 3).
Changing screen resolution: Is everything on the screen too small (or too big)? Right-click on the desktop and click properties. Click the Settings tab. Now move the slider bar on the left for a smaller resolution (everything gets bigger) or to the right for a bigger resolution (everything gets smaller). How much you'll be able to adjust it will depend on your computer monitor and which version of Windows you have (XP and Vista will only go down to 800x600, while earlier versions allowed you to go down to 640x480).
Locking the task bar: In Windows XP and Vista, you can lock the taskbar to prevent you from resizing or moving the bar to other locations. Right-click an open spot in the task bar and choose Lock the Taskbar. Choose it again to unlock it.
The Run Box: Clicking Start, then Run (also done by pressing the Windows key and R at the same time) opens up a box that can allow you to open various applications without having to find the item in the start menu or desktop. Typing "winword" (no quotes) and hitting enter will start up Microsoft Word, if you have it installed. "excel" starts up Microsoft Excel (again, if installed). "notepad" opens up notepad. "calc" opens up the Calculator. "mspaint" opens up Paint. "iexplore" opens up Internet Explorer (forget this though, go get Firefox). There's plenty more - this is just a small sample.
Renaming files quickly: With any file selected, press F2. Type in the new name. Press enter (or click away). File renamed!
F1 opens up the help function in Windows or whatever program you're in at the time. Not all programs will have this, but a number of them do.
F3 in any folder in Windows quickly brings up the search function, so you can search for files.
Reverse Tab?: As you may know, the tab key makes an indent in programs like Microsoft Word. Did you know that shift-tab will reverse this? This also works in Excel. Tab normally moves the selected box one to the right - shift-tab moves one to the left (also, while enter moves down, shift-enter moves up).
Home/End buttons: By themselves, Home and End will take you to the beginning and end of a line, respectively. Holding CTRL with Home or End moves you to the beginning of the entire document or the end, respectively. Shift and Home or end highlights the line from the cursor's original position to the beginning or end of the line. CTRL and Shift and Home or End does both - highlights from the cursor's original position to the beginning or end of the document.
Insert Key: Hitting this in programs like Word or Notepad turns on a function called "Overwrite". If you turn it on, instead of inserting what you write between characters in your document, it'll overwrite them. Press Insert again to turn it off.
No need to type www. and .com in your browser: Save your fingers from some typing. If you're looking for a website that begins with www. and ends in .com (like www.imamyth.com for example) just type in what's between them (in the case of the example, imamyth) and press CTRL and Enter. Your browser fills in the extra! Shift and Enter does www. and .net. CTRL and Shift and Enter do www. and .org.
Autocorrect in Microsoft Office: Don't like Microsoft changing stuff on you in Word (like (C) to a copyright logo)? Turn it off! In Word (or Excel or probably every other program), click Tools, then Autocorrect Options. Uncheck options you don't like in there. Most of it will lie under "Replace text as you type".