How do computers work?

Question

At a mechanistic level

Answer 1

..
This is a huge question.
Mechanically you have electrical circuitry running around the motherboard telling each peripheral (item of hardware); like printer, scanner, speakers, keyboard, monitor to turn on and run.
BUT
They have nothing to run by without the SOFTWARE
which is your operating system, and the basic computer language commands sent in the simple language of
0 and 1

It is the combination of 0 & 1 in bits (a bit is 8 0's and 1's)
that spell out the command
Example
The letter a might be eight bits like 10000000
The letter b might be eight bits like 01000000
The letter c might be eight bits like 00100000
and so on through the alphabet

then there are numbers
Example
blue might be 00000111
red might be 00001110

So you see all basic code it first written in 0 and 1's
and then there are more sophisticated software’s that make coding easier like html and visual basic
which on the surface have icons to help shorten the process
rather than the code writer sitting there always typing the 0 and 1 combinations.

These codes to into the software and tell the hardware how to make your personal computer respond to your keyboard strokes and mouse clicks and movements to
send electronic signals through the wires, or throught a wireless router, to have the Operating System interpret the electric signals into code to respond to your requests.

I'm not going deeper
Here is a link to study more
http://www.basichardware.com/building_your_own.html

Basically you assemble your hardware
you install a software Operating System like XP
and then you install other applications
that help you tell your computer what you want it to do
with the other programs and applications (software)
you have installed.

h2h

Answer 2

Basically a computer is nothing more than a huge number of switches. That is at the bit level. How those switches are "flipped" controls everything else.

Answer 3

At WHAT level ???
They all work the same. It's called FM (freakin magic)

Answer 4

Here you go. All you want to know and more: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/hardware-channel.htm

Answer 5

You should be able to find that out here:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/