Today's "older" computers are perfectly capable of accommodating the needs of young PC users, and they're excellent machines for playing educational CDs, small multimedia files, or games downloaded from the Internet. And don't forget the most important role they play in a child's homework-clad life: A simple encyclopedia CD on a used computer makes excellent research tool (not to mention a rather fancy calculator! The most vulnerable victims of software piracy are software businesses or independent programmers who create and distribute commercial software or shareware. We described shareware in another article, but because both commercial software and shareware require payment, they're the target of pirates who seek to make these kinds of programs free to use. A powered computer lacking an operating system wouldn't display anything more than a bunch of confusing text messages that describe the computer's boot process. At the very end of this process, the computer looks for an operating system and if not found, it will prompt the user to tell it where it is. When executed, they would process each command without the user having to type each and every one of them. When Windows was developed, the need for typing commands was essentially eradicated thanks to the introduction of the point-and-click (mouse) interface. But this didn't stop the batch file fever that started under MS-DOS - and in some small circles, batch files are still as popular as they were in the beginning. The key is to understand what computer errors are, understand what they mean when they show up, and understand how to minimize their occurrence in the first place. Basically, computer errors are the result of a number of things that may or may not have anything to do with the way the computer is used. If programmed incorrectly, an application might display the wrong information in this area. Context menu - like the menu bar, a context menu displays when a user right-clicks on something. It displays commands just like what you see on a File menu or a Help menu. Input box - input boxes are usually small rectangles that allow you to type data into a simple interfaces like a webpage or browser window.