Customizing the Desktop

Customizing the desktop is one way to make your eyes always fresh and not boring to be in front of computer. Windows XP enables you to customize any Desktop elements such as wallpaper, screensaver, theme, and others. Moreover, you can customize all of those desktop parts only on one window, namely the Display Properties dialog box.



Showing the Display Properties dialog box:

You can easily show the Display Properties dialog box by right-clicking the blank area on desktop background (wallpaper), and then clicking Properties. In the dialog box, you will see there are five tabs indicating parts of desktop that you can customize.


Changing the Desktop Theme:

Theme represents all the components of desktop. So, by changing the theme, usually you'll see all the desktop parts also change, including wallpaper, screensaver, icons, etc. To change the theme, follow thses steps:

- In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Themes tab.

- From the Themes drop-down list, select the theme that you want to use. The preview of selected theme will be showed on the preview section.

- When finished, click OK button.


Changing the desktop background picture (wallpaper):

To change wallpaper:

- In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Desktop tab.

- Under Background, select the picture which you wish to use as wallpaper.

- If you want to use your own image file, click Browse button, then locate your image file.

- Under Position, you can specify how the wallpaper is located on the screen.

- Under Color, you can change the background color. This color will appear when you select no wallpaper picture, or the wallpaper doesn't fill the entire of the screen.

- After finished, click OK button.


Customizing Desktop Icons:

You can set wheter default icons on Windows Xp will appear or not, and you can also change their picture.

To customize desktop icons:

- In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Desktop tab.

- Click the Customize Desktop button. The Desktop Items dialog box then appears.

- In Desktop icons section, select the default icons to be displayed on desktop (My Documents, My Computer, My Network Places, or Internet Explorer).

- In the list of icons pictures, click one of them, and then click the Change Icon button to change its picture to another picture, or you may click the Restore Default button to make it use the default picture. Do this step for another icon picture.

- In the Desktop cleanup section, selecting the Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days checkbox will perform Desktop cleanup program every 60 days. You can also click the Clean Desktop Now to perform cleanup process right now.

- When you've finished making any changes, click OK button.


Changing Screen Saver:

Screen saver is a moving picture or pattern that appears on the screen when the mouse or keyboard has not been used for a specified period of time. To use a screen saver, follow these steps:

- In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Screen Saver tab.

- In the Screen saver section, select the screen saver that you'd like to use from the drop-down list. Then click Settings button if you want to change the setting for selected screen saver. When you wish to see the preview, just click Preview button.

- Set the period of time using the Wait spin box. The screen saver will run when your computer is idle for the period of time you specify.

- Last, click OK button.


Changing Windows Appearance:

To make changes to the Windows appearance, follow these steps:

- In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Appearance tab.

- Select any options that you want to use on the drop-down lists of Windows and buttons, Color scheme, or Font size. Every changes you do to the drop-down lists, will be viewed on Preview section.

- Click OK button to apply the changes you've made.


Changing the Screen Resolution and Color Quality:

To change them, please do these steps:

- In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Settings tab.

- In the Screen resolution section, change the resolution by dragging the slider to right (more) and left (less). You can also change the color quality used by your system by changing drop-down list value in the Color quality section.

- Click OK button to apply all the changes you've made.