Desktop Decoration and Cleanup

By Nancy Strayer

Beginner's SIG

1/25/07

Have you ever admired the family photo or Space Shuttle photo plastered across a friend's monitor desktop?  The Display icon is your ticket to such interior-decoration stunts and many others.

Open the Display program by right-clicking on any blank spot on the desktop and choose Properties from the shortcut menu.

Themes Tab- Each of the themes here comes with a color scheme, font selection for your menus and dialog boxes, pictures to use as desktop icons, sounds, cursor shapes, and a desktop picture. (These special desktop pictures, by the way, are bonus backdrops that aren't listed in the Desktop tab, described next.)  Note that choosing “More themes online” will take you to a Microsoft website that costs $40 to download.

Desktop Tab- You can decorate the background surface of your desktop with a picture, pattern, or a solid color.

Wallpaper-click on one of the names in the Background list box to see how it looks on the miniature monitor in the dialog box.  If nothing in the list excites you, use one of your own graphic files as wallpaper, such as a scanned photo of your family or your family dog.  How?  Click on the Browse button to find the file you want.  You can use any graphics file with one of these extensions:  .bmp, .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, .dib, .htm, or .html. Click the backdrop you like, click OK to apply it and close the dialog box.

Solid colors-click “None” in the Background listbox, and then choose the color you want from the Color drop-down menu.

The Customize Desktop Button-clicking the Customize Desktop button takes you into an absolutely enormous world of additional options, including the Active Desktop feature that turns your entire desktop into a web browser.

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         General tab-all of this pertains to the icons on your desktop.  Click in the boxes to add My Documents, My Computer, My Network Places, and Internet Explorer to sit on your desktop.  You can change the appearance of the icons by clicking on “default”. The Desktop Cleanup will put all desktop icons that you haven't used in a folder called Unused Desktop Shortcuts.

         Web tab-This works well if you are on a DSL line. Click in the box in front of My Current Home Page. Click New button, type in the URL (web address) , and click OK.

Try this with www.msn.com  You can now click any underlined link to access the internet.  You can resize the window and lock it in place by right clicking OUTSIDE the web page portion.  Choose Arrange Icons By, then Lock Web Items on Desktop.  This freezes the size and position of the Active Desktop window.  Repeat the process to unlock the positions.

       Screen Saver Tab-use the Screen Saver drop-down list.  If you have graphics files, choose My Pictures Slideshow.  Windows XP puts on a slide show that features your My Pictures images one at a time, bringing each to the screen with a special effect.

Appearance Tab- This is where you can pick a number of schemes (predesigned accent-color sets that affect the look of all the windows you open.)They also control the size of your desktop icons and the font used for their names.

The factory setting, called “Windows XP style” creates the sunlit blue look of window title bars, and won't allow you to make any other changes.

The “Windows Classic Style” allow you to make multiple choices.  Click the Advanced button and then you can change the elements of the scheme one at a time. You can save all your customized changes with the SAVE AS feature.  Name your creation and you will see that name listed along with the “Official” Microsoft themes.

Effects-This button gives you special subtle effects.  Uncheck the “Use the following transition effect for menus and tooltips”.  It's a time-waster. Check the Clear Type to make your print easier to read. Check the “Hide underlined letters for keyboard navigation until I press the Alt key”.

Settings Tab-  Make sure your screen resolution is set to the “More” end.

Color Quality should be set to the highest setting.

www.Webshots.com-a free download program that will act as a screensaver and wallpaper.  You can download your choice of thousands of pictures.

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HOW TO ARRANGE YOUR

ICONS ON THE DESKTOP

     1.      Drag your icons to the area of the Desktop where you want them.

a.  If the icons bounce back to their original position, the Auto Arrange is turned on.

b.  To turn off Auto Arrange, right-click on the background area of the Desktop, then move your pointer to Arrange Icons by, then click Auto Arrange to turn off the function.

         2.       Right-click on the background area of the Desktop (Do not right                          click on an icon itself)

3.       From the drop-down menu in XP, choose Align to Grid.  In Windows 98 and Me, use Line Up Icons.

Reference:  “Windows XP The Missing Manual” by David Pogue.  Pogue Press O'Reilly, Cambridge, USA. 2002

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