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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Cable: One or more insulated wire conductors, that may or may not be shielded by a grounded conductor, used to connect peripheral devices to a computer.
Cable Connector: Hardware device at the ends of a cable used to make connections between devices.
Cable Modem: Broadband device providing Internet access that transmits and receives signals through a coaxial cable television network.
Cache: A portion of memory that stores frequently used data that provides for rapid access to that data.
Capacity: The amount of information that can be processed by, or stored on a computer or attached device.
Card: A printed circuit board or adapter that can be plugged into a computer to provide specific functionality.
Card Reader: An input device that reads information magnetically encoded on a credit card or identity badge.
CD: Compact Disk: a form of optical media.
CD Plus: Encoding format that provides for storage of both audio recordings and computer data on the same Compact Disk (CD).
CD-ROM: Compact Disk Read-Only Memory: write once, read many, high capacity optical storage medium.
CD-ROM Drive: This is a device that reads CD's but has come to mean the drive that will read any optical media, but please be careful, there are drives that will only read CD's and not DVD's, and not all these drives can write to blank discs. Please see the article on
optical media..
CD-R: Compact Disk-Recordable: multi-session CD-ROM recording format.
Central Processing Unit (CPU): The computational and control unit of a computer.
CERT: Computer Emergency Response Team: independent organization providing publicly available Internet security advisory and consultation services.
Certificate: Digital document that guarantees the identity of an institution or individual, or the secure status of a web site.
Certificate Authority: An industry trusted, third party organization that issues digital certificates.
Character Map: Provides for selection of special keyboard characters and copying of them into documents.
Character String: A sequence of keyboard characters that are treated as a unit. Individual elements may include upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols.
Chip Set: Collection of integrated circuits supporting and including the Central Processing Unit (CPU).
Clean Boot: Starting a computer using the minimum system files of the operating system; typically used in troubleshooting potential software conflicts.
Clean Install: Installation, or re installation of software following complete removal of all application or system files associated with a similar application, or a prior installation of the same software.
Click: A single press and release of a mouse button.
Click Speed: Maximum time interval between two clicks of a mouse button to initiate a double-click.
Client: Software program that requests services from a server, for example the exchange of electronic mail services.
Clipboard: Memory resource supporting transfer of information between software applications. “Copy” or “Cut” functions store information in the Clipboard that is transferred to a different software application using the “Paste” function.
Clock: There are two clocks on a computer, one is a little hardware device that the computer uses for purely internal functions, including maintaining the time clock that you can see in the system tray that is set and can be maintained in relation to the Greenwich Mean Time and your Time Zone, and is also used by the computer when interacting with files and the internet.
Clock Rate: The number of clock oscillations per second expressed in Hertz (Hz). Clock rate is one of the principle determinants of the overall processing speed of a computer.
Coaxial Cable: Two-conductor cable of circular cross-section and characteristic impedance containing a center wire surrounded by insulation and a grounded, braided-wire shield.
Code: Program instructions either in numerical form (machine code) or in a format that can be read directly by humans (source code).
Codec: Software that can compress and decompress audio or video data.
Cold Boot: To start a computer from a power off status.
Color Bits: A predefined number of bits of information assigned to each pixel within a color image that determines the color displayed on a digital monitor.
COM: Windows operating system name for serial communication ports.
COM1 is often used to connect a serial mouse.
COM2 is often used to connect a serial modem.
COM3 allows for connection of an alternative serial device.
Command: A user generated instruction to a computer program to execute a specified action.
Command Interpreter: Part of the operating system that accepts commands entered by the keyboard to initiate a task.
Command Line: Text written in command language that is passed to the command interpreter for execution.
Communications Program: Software application that supports the connection of, and transfer of information between different computers.
Compact Disk: Optical storage medium for digital data.
Compatibility: Extent to which a computer, its peripheral devices, data files, and software applications function without conflicts.
Compatibility Mode: Mode in which hardware and software running under one operating system support functionality under a different operating system.
Compiler: Software that translates a high level symbolic language to a low level machine language.
Compression: Reduction of the size of a file such that storage of that file requires less space or transmission of that file requires less bandwidth.
Computer Crime: A criminal endeavor conducted while using a computer. This can be accomplished by an authorized or unauthorized user of the computer either at the computer or by remote control.
Computer Graphics: Display of images on a computer screen.
Computer Name: Designation that uniquely identifies a specific computer on a network.
Computer Security: The integrated strategic steps implemented to protect a computer and its contents.
Configuration: Totality of a computer's internal and external components as they relate to either default or preferred settings, or some combination thereof.
Configuration File: File containing specifications defining the behavior of a hardware component or software application. File containing user specific information.
Connectivity: The overall status of the connection between two or more different computers including their ability to exchange data.
Connector: A device used to join cables or a cable and a device.
Context-Sensitive Menu(or Context Menu): A GUI (Graphic User Interface) that most often appears upon user demand and usually from a right-click of the mouse. Also referred to as a "pop up menu", it will list a set of available options, for the current context of either the computer (which has it's own context menus of course) or a piece of installed software, including the operating system. The available choices will be directly related to the object upon which the right-click was executed.
Contiguous: Physically located next to one another, such as contiguous sectors on a Hard Drive.
Contrast: Difference between the light and dark extremes of color on a monitor display or printed page.
Control Key: Labeled most often, on the lower left corner of most keyboards, as “Ctrl”. The key modifies the behavior of certain other keys when pressed in combination.
Control Panel: In Windows, a collection of icon shortcuts located centrally for the purpose of maintaining a quick navigation to certain System and some software settings. Usually, these are placed in the "control panel" because of the perceived need for a quick access in order to affect some preferred configuration change. The "control panel" concept is not just peculiar to the Windows operating system, as some software programs can also have a control panel component.
Cookie: Small block of data that a Web server stores on an individual user's computer. The browser sends a copy of the stored cookie back to the server when the user returns to the same Web page. Cookies are used to identify users, load customized versions of the Web page, and submit personal account information.
Corruption: Unintended alteration of data either in memory or stored on disk often resulting in loss of functionality or data.
CPU: The CPU is the brain of the computer, but the term has come to mean the tower portion of the desktop. Neither is a good description, but the real description is so esoteric as to be useless to the average user.
CPU Cache: Portion of fast memory that links the CPU and the main memory and that temporarily stores instructions and data required by the CPU.
CPU Fan: Fan located on the CPU heat sink to dissipate heat by forced air cooling.
CPU Speed: See Clock Rate.
CPU Time: Amount of time the CPU dedicates to a specific process in multiprocessing situations.
Crash: Failure of a program, operating system, or disk drive resulting in loss of functionality. A program crash generally causes all unsaved data to be lost. An operating system crash causes suspension of operation and requires a reboot of the system. A disk drive crash renders the drive inoperable and is likely to cause loss of data.
Crash Recovery: The ability of a computer to resume normal operation after a disastrous failure.
Ctrl: See Control Key
Ctrl-Alt-Delete: Keyboard shortcut to open Windows Task Manager in Windows XP. In Windows Vista and later it opens a list of actions.
Cursor: Screen icon and indicator used to select items, tasks to execute, and locations for the entry of text.
