Quiz_Master
* Teh Flirt King *
Customizing Windows XP Home Edition
By Quiz_Master (Ash)
E-Mail - hiddenturbo@yahoo.com
Tutorial finished on:
09/01/06
3:18 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of Contents
1. Desktop Customization
a.Wallpaper/Style
b.Files/Folders
2. Start Menu/Taskbar Customization
a.Styles and Options
3. Conclusion
Microsoft Windows is thought to be run on 90 to 95 percent of personal computers around the world. There are an estimated 300 million PCs being sold each and every single year, and with so many operating systems available, the most widely used, Windows has obtained the right for being the most largest operating system company ever. Alot of this is due in part to the domination of MS-DOS on the early day PC compatible computers such as IBM-PC clones for an example. Also because it is the one operating system where most primary types of software are supported. And then of course we have other OS's such as Macintosh, and of course the ever so popular Linux. It was predicted two years ago that the Linux market share would overpower Macintosh's market share sometime in 2005. It hasn't looked that way. While these other two operating systems are great, look cool, and are basically almost virus free, they are complicated to use, especially for the Window lovers alike. Now, every user of any operating system wants nothing but customization, customization, and more customization. And maybe you are a Windows user saying to yourself "Gee, I wish I could have my Windows XP look really cool! But I don't know how..". Well, no need to spend countless time searching over Google or Yahoo!, your guide to customizing the very basic features of Windows has finally arrived! The tutorial below will teach you step-by-step how to customize Windows so you'll never be looking at the same old colors ever again! There is a wide range of editing and modifcations out there, so lets go customize!
1. Desktop Customization
Here I am going to start out first with some Desktop modifications.
First we will begin with the very basic customization for the desktop EVERY Windows user should know how to do, change the wallpaper. And if you don't know, don't sweat it! I'll tech you in our first part of the tutorial below. Just keep reading, remember "Patience is the key to success" even though I'm the wrong person to be telling anyone that, it is true. Okay enough of my talking, lets get to customizing!
1a. Wallpaper/Style
------------------------------
Right click on your Desktop background and select "Properties". Once here you will see multiple options. First you will see multiple Tabs on the top, but we'll get to those in just a bit. First things first, what your looking at currently are the "Themes" for Windows XP. Depending on what you've done before, "My Current Theme" should be selected already... but if it is not, then "Windows XP" should be selected. Anyway, click the little black arrow next to it and you will see a drop down box. On this drop down box are multiple themes. The first one "My Current Theme" is for when you select a theme, but of course you wont be doing that until you are finished reading this tutorial! Okay and then you have the basic "Windows XP" theme, and then "Windows Classic" which will actually set it back to looking like Windows 95/98(oh, the horror!!). Then you have "More Themes online..." which just brings you to a part of Microsoft's website where they want you to buy a theme package, then there is "Browse..." this is for when you actually get around to making a theme, then decide to Save it(hence the "Save As..." button you see). Okay, lets move onto the next tab shall we? Click the "Desktop" tab to proceed.
Alright, here we are now at the "Desktop" tab. This is a very easy part of customizing and is where the main Wallpaper editing comes into play, everything just about speaks for itself here. But I'll guide you through anyway. First you should notice a clickable "Browse..." button, use this button to browse through you hard drive for your own custom pictures you wish to use as wallpaper. But first I recommend you choose a background that is already loaded so you can get the feel for everything. So lets choose an already loaded wallpaper, lets start with the picture named "Ascent" so scroll around on this same tab and click on "Ascent". The great part of all of this is you can preview how everything looks before you make a final decision! Okay so now click "Apply" and your whole computer screen will slowly fade into gray for about 10 seconds or so, then it will return with your new wallpaper! See, now that wasn't so difficult...was it? Take you time having fun and playing around with the other wallpapers you see. Now click the little black arrow you see under "Position", you should now see a drop down box with only a couple of options. These options being "Center", "Tile", and "Stretch". As an advanced notice I'll let you know now that most users choose "Stretch" just because it looks better, but this is your desktop... feel free to choose anything you want! Okay, so basically the "Center" option centers your wallpaper leaving space around it, "Tile" creates multiple wallpapers and makes them into a pattern like technique, hence the name "Tile". Now the last one option which is "Stretch" is pretty self-expla
natory, it stretches the wallpaper out so it covers your entire screen. And now click the black arrow under "color" this is basically pointless unless you either have a blank desktop or are centering your wallpapers, if any case read on, if not skip this part. Once you click the arrow a drop down box with different colors will appear, click the one to your liking or create your own color by clicking "Other...". Okay we're finished with this tab, click "Screen Saver" on the top to continue on.
Here you will select your Screen Saver. First click the drop down box under where it says "Screen saver" you will see multiple options for different type of screen savers. Choose one and click "Preview" to see whether or not you like it. You also click the "Settings" button to change different features and modify the screen saver around a bit, I cannot cover this area because there are settings with almost every screen saver, the customization is totally up to you. Underneath you will see something that should have a number on it, it should say "10" but if it doesnt, it will have some sort of number. This number indicates how many minutes your computer will sit idle until the screen saver activates, select however many minutes you decide to. Next to that there is a little checkbox next to where it should say "One resume, password protect" this option speaks for itself. Mainly what this is for is if you check this box that means whenever you try to turn the screen saver off and return to your computer, it will ask you for a password, if you decide you don't want this, do NOT check the box, if you do, check the box and choose a password when you Apply. Click the "Appearance" tab to continue.
This is the most customization here, and if you decide to edit the window colors, it is time consuming for first timers, so be aware. You will see three different drop down menus. "Windows and buttons:" "Color scheme:" and "Font size:" should all be there. Lets begin with "Windows and buttons:" first. Click the black arrow and you can see there are two options, the first one is "Windows XP Style" this is the default style and if you want to change how everything looks in this style, leave it be. The second style is "Windows Classic style" this is to make only the windows look like the style from Windows 95/98, if you want to edit them with this style select it, if not then leave the "Windows XP style" selected.
=Read below if you selected "Windows XP style". If you chose "Windows Classic style" then skip this section and continue onto the next=
Under this should be "Color scheme:" click the drop down box and there should be a few options, first there will be "Default (blue)" this is the one you probably already have. Then there is "Olive Green" select this and it will show a mini preview in the tab of what it looks like, neat huh? The next one is "Silver" this one if one of my favorite, choose whichever one you want. next is "Font size:" click the drop down box and you will then see here "Normal" "Large Fonts" and "Extra Large Fonts". This is an especially good feature for the elderly or anyone who has trouble seeing small font.
=Below are the options for "Windows Classic style"=
Under the "Windows and buttons:" option. Under "Color Scheme:" you will find at least about twenty or so options, each one changes the color so go ahead, click each one and watch the preview change. Under "Font size:" you will see "Normal" "Extra Large" and "Large". I noticed when you change to certain color schemes only "Normal" is available under "Font size:".
Now this section is not only for Windows XP style or the Classic style, it is for all. Click the "Effects..." button. First you will see two check boxes, click the drop down box on the top that says "Use the following transition effect for menus and tooltips:" there should be "Scroll Effect" and "Fade Effect". "Scroll Effect" is for when you click boxes, for example click Start>All Programs and highlight items where boxes comes out, the "Scroll Effect" makes it roll out otherwise the "Fade Effect" just makes it fade and appear. The other checkbox saying "Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts:" is underneath, click the drop down box and you'll se the two options which are "Standard" and "Clear Type". "Clear Type" is what its already on, "Standard" makes the text look a little odd, almost how if you don't choose the "Anti-Alias" feature and most photo editing software. Below are four check boxes, I'll read them off to you "Use large icons" which is if you want your icons to be larger, "Show shadows under menus" this is if you want the shadow to show under the menus, "Show windows contents while dragging" this was the style for Windows 95/98 which is where when you drag a window it will not show the contents but only the out gray line of the window instead, "Hide underlined letters for keyboard navigation until I press the Alt key" this is where the underlined letters for the keyboard navigation will be totally hidden until you hit the Alt key. Or in other terms, for example, open up Notepad. Do you notice the options on top saying "File Edit Formation View Help"? One of the letters in each of those will be underlined if you check this, basically this doesnt really serve a purpose. Now click the "Advanced" button. Under here are an array of tons and tons of features. From editing the color of the windows, editing the type of style, the style color, the list goes on and on and on. I simply cannot tell you about EVERYTHING under here, because this tutorial would last forever. So this is the section I like to call -Do-it-yourself- where basically you figure it out, it gives you a chance to learn, figuring things out, and you'll get a sense of achievement knowing you've done it all by yourself. So, this is the time consuming part I was speaking of, edit some options, change some colors, and preview. You'll figure out sooner or later what changes what and you'll be able to do it all by yourself. Okay! Click the "Settings" tab and we'll be on our way for this part!
This is yet again another slef-explanatory section. You've basically have here a complete layout of Screen and graphic resolutions. If you are satisfied with your current resolution and such, skip this part otherwise keep on reading. Mainly first you have something that will say "Display:" and under it will be your type of monitor, mine says "Plug and Play Monitor on Intel(R) 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics Controller" and that is what yours might possibly say too if you do not have a graphics card. Okay continue on below where we have the "Screen Resolution" and the little bar/arrow you can move from the left to the right to change your resolution. I have mine set to 1024 by 768 pixels which is a reasonably good resolution and is what most PC users have theirs on. But of course change it to you hearts content. To the right we have "Color quality" I recommend putting it on "Highest (32 bit)" but that is just me, feel free to change it to whatever you wish to have. The button below that says "Troubleshoot..." does nothing more than bring you to a Help and Support center to try and troubleshoot any issues or problems your having. Clicking on "Advanced" would not be a smart choice for first timers since this part is a bit too complex for the normal computer user. But it basically tells you your Monitor, Adapter and others functions, there is not too much customization to do in here though fortunately.
You have finished this part of the section already? You're a faster learner than I thought! Okay, continue on down below for more.
1b. Files/Folders
------------------------------
I believe in a few things. Not only do I believe in how your computer, especially Windows, should always be organized to look nice, neat, and have a very comfortable feeling about it. Not only do I believe in that the fact of organization, usage and finding ability, but looking good while doing it! That is why this small sub-section will be all about customizing your folders and files so they stand out and laugh at the rest. So let's get started!
Okay first things first, if you do not know already then learn how to create a new folder by right clicking on your Desktop background and highlight "New" and then click "Folder" to create a new folder. When you make a new folder it will have the default picture which is that little yellow folder, but that is old school....lets get something that looks a bit better. Right click on your folder and select "Properties". Once here you will see a few things, first on top you will see all of the basic statistics such as the size of the folder, the name, where its located, how many files it contains, etc. Under all of this are a couple of options. You will see two options next to Attributes, these are "Read-Only" and "Hidden". The check box that reads "Read-Only" means that when you have the box next to it checked it causes all of the files under the folder to be "Read-Only" which means they cannot be deleted or changed, un checking this box turns off this feature. Now the next option "Hidden" causes this folder to be hidden. Great for hiding things temporarily if you do not want someone else to access it. Of course it will only actually become hidden once you go into Windows Explorer and click select to hide files and folders that are specified to be hidden. To do this click Start>All Programs>Accessories>Windows Explorer, now once Windows Explorer loads click "Tools" on the top next to Help. Under "Tools" click "Folder Options..." once under here click the "View" tab at the top, you should now see some settings in the middle. Look for something that says "Hidden files and folders" under this click "Do not show hidden files or folders" to hide everything that you selected to hide. Not, click "Show hidden files and folders" to show everything that you've select to hide. Once finished click OK and exit out of Windows Explorer. Now lets get back to the folder options. Now back to the two options, next to them is a button that says "Advanced..." click it, you should see a window pop-up now that has a few options which are "Folder is ready for archiving" which specifies whether or not the folder will be archived. Many programs use this feature which files and/or folders are backed up. My recommendation is that you make sure this is checked for every folder that contains any crucial or important data. Now the next option "For fast searching, allow Indexing Service to index this folder" and this option specifies whether the contents of the folder should be indexed for faster searching, once the folder is indexed you can search within the folder as well as search for properties, such as time and date, or attributes of the file or folder. Okay and the next option you see is "Compress contents to save disk space". Specifies whether the file or folder is compressed. The contents of compressed folders are not automatically compressed unless you elect to compress them when prompted. Also a side note for more advanced users, when you compress a file or folder they cannot be encrypted. Alright select whatever option you want and click OK to continue. Now on the top of the screen you may edit the name of your folder if you wish, otherwise we can do it an easier way later.
The next tab "Sharing" does not relate to customizing, so I am going to skip this. Besides, if you don't have a Router this tab is useless to you. Click the "Customize" tab to continue.
Alright here we are on the final tab of Desktop customizing. This is the fun part, nothing too hard here to relax. Now on the top we have a little drop down box(Remember those? You dealt with alot of them in the Wallpaper section) which should say "Documents (for any file type). now before you start clicking like crazy and having fun allow me to explain what this is for. This allow you to select a folder template, folder templates apply specific features to your folder, such as specialized task links and options for working with pictures or music. I recommend just putting it on "Documents (for any file type" and keeping it that way, unless you are 100% positive you will only have videos in this folder, or pictures or perhaps music, and if you are select the right type that fits you. "Also apply for this template to all sub folders" this applies the same template to all folders you make in this folder in the future. Now below is a section that you will probably be passing on this tutorial. Mainly because this feature you see here is only for sub folders and has nothing to do with a new folder you are creating on the desktop. But you might as well learn now anyway. This ONLY works for sub folders and ONLY works when you are in thumbnails view. To go into thumbnails view, go into a folder and click the little box next to where it says "Folders" it should have a small black arrow next to it, click the arrow and click "Thumbnails", or you can click "View" on the top of the windows and select "Tumbnails" instead, whatever is easier. Anyway back to the option. There are two buttons "Choose Picture..." and "Restore Default". The "Choose Picture..." button is for you to choose a picture which will be visible on a subfolder, this option is supposed to be for reminding you the contents of which the folder contains. For example, you have a subfolder that has pictures of guns in it, so you select the "Choose Picture..." button and find a picture of a gun which will display on the subfolder, so you'll see a picture of a gun and say to yourself "Oh, that folders has pictures of guns in it.". The "Restore Default" button is self-explanatory, it just resets whatever picture you put on the subfolder back to the default. Now below these two buttons is the fun part, click on the "Change Icon..." button and lets get cracking!
You should now see a window pop-up with a whole bunch of different pictures in it. What you are looking at here is the section of pictures that you can change your folder to. It is actually one of my favorite features. So as you scroll from left to right go ahead and daze at the beautiful pictures and go "Oooo" and "Ahhhhhh". Alright but onto a more serious note, you have a button on top "Browse..." what this is is where you click to import your own personalized pictures to use for your folder. I have not used this before, so go ahead and see what types of formats it accepts. Then you have your basic "OK" and "Cancel" buttons and we all know what those do, and then you have "Restore Defaults" which does just that, restores your picture back to the default. Alright, we're finished with this sub-section! Find the pictures you want, click "OK" and read on.
Now, right click on a file and select "Properties" and lets continue. Here you see almost the same exact thing you saw when you clicked a folder and selected Properties. Here you have the same thing, size of file, when it was created, etc. etc. Click the "Summary" tab on the top, here you can edit the Title and Subject of certain files. If it is a Music file like an mp3 this might be needed. For example say you have the song "My Sacrifice" by Creed, you would put in the title "My Sacrifice" and "Creed" in the Author section. It isn't anything great, but just a small feature. When you've inputted what you want, click "OK". Here you are at your desktop...over looking your awesome looking folders and your cool looking desktop, but now what? Well you can simply move your files and folders around, yes, do that! Click and drag things around to get used to it. Okay, that is enough, if you right click on a File or Folder you have your usual options, "Rename", "Delete", "Properties" and so forth, not much explaining needs to be done here.
Okay open Windows Explorer once more and click "Tools" then "Folder Options..." once again. A tab "General" should open with three different options containing various check dots. The first named "Tasks" will be the first option you will notice, under it are two options: "Show common tasks in folder" and "Use Windows classic folders". If you select "Show common tasks in folders" this specifies that hyperlinks to common folder tasks and other places on your computer are displayed in folders. This will show on the left pane of the folder Window. "Use Windows classic folders" specifies that folder contents are shown like Window classic folders, which means that folder contents will not operate or look like Web Pages. The "Browse Folders" section should be right below which will show "Open each folder in the same window" and "Open each folder in its own window". These are self-explanatory if you know what you're doing, the first option is so that when you are browsing folders that each time you browse or open a new folder it will open up in a new window, that is if you select the first option. The second option is so new folders will open up in their own new window, the other windows from before browsed folders will still be visible. I suppose the second option is useful if you need to open up various windows with different content and do not want to close the others out. "Click items as follows" is next and if you select "Single-click to open an item (point to select)" then any type of file or folder will open on a single click without double clicking. Read on.
2. Start Menu/Taskbar Customization
So you've gotten this far already? Well now that you have, you should know that my tutorials are not BS in the fact that I can teach you the right way so that you will learn. Let that be a remembrance for all of my future tutorials. I'm glad you have the motivation to read all of this, it shows how us computer users today at whatever age, young or old, and whatever experience or knowledge, beginner or expert, we can all learn something new, and that we all have great motivation to succeed. Now lets carry on.
2a. Styles and Options
------------------------------
Right click on your start button and hit "Properties". Once here a window will pop-up called "Taskbar and Start Menu Properties" and from here you can do a variety of different modifications. You should already be looking at the "Start Menu" tab, below are two circles, one is dotted, next to each of them they have two options... "Start menu" and "Classic Start menu" click on the dot next to the corresponding feature and you will get a slight preview in the window above them, select whichever one you want and click the "Customize..." button next to it.
=The below instructions are for the "Start menu" feature. If you did not select this and you selected "Classic Start menu" instead then skip this section=
Alright you should see another window pop-up entitled "Customize Start Menu" under here the first thing you should see are two little pictures of a desktop computer. One will say "Large icons" and the other will say "Small icons", normally "Large icons" is already selected, if not, I recommend it... also of course differs depending on what type of resolution you have set. Under this you will see a small box with a number in it, this specifies the maximum amount of programs to display on the start menu. Under this is a button called "Clear List" I actually suggest clicking this every week or so, it basically clears the start menu cache of all stored programs that were recently used. Under this are two drop down boxes, and two check boxes. This is what it shows above the recently opened programs on the start menu for easy access to your internet browser and email client. If you want these, check the box next to "Internet" to display the easy access feature for your browser. Now next to this select the drop down box and click on the browser you want to display for easy accessibility. Check the box next to "E-mail" which is under "Internet" to enable the easy access feature for E-Mail. Now click the drop down box next to this and select the email client of your choice to be displayed for easy access, Outlook Express is selected by default. Click the "Advanced" tab to continue. Now as you take a look you will then notice at first a large scrollable box, but we will get to that a bit later. The two check boxes at the top read" Open submenus when I pause on them with my mouse" this is for when you click Start>All Programs and you see certain things with black arrows next to them that will open up with more features, this is for when you just highlight them(or pause over them) with your mouse, it opens a new box to display more. This is checked by default. "Highlight newly installed programs" will be the next thing available you should see. What this does is it highlights new programs you've installed. For a clearer example, say you just installed AOL Instant Messenger, or AIM for short, if you click Start>All Programs you will see "AOL Instant Messenger" and since you just installed it hypothetically speaking, it will be highlighted in yellow. This is checked by default but you may turn it off if you wish. Under this you see that big scrollable box again, lets get to this. What this is is it modifies part of the Start menu features. The first option should say "Control Panel" and under it should say "Display as a link", "Display as a menu" and "Don't display this item". Control Panel which is located when you click "Start" is already by default a link, you may edit it to change it to a menu if you want. Then there is "Enable dragging and dropping" I do not know why anyone would want to turn this off, but if you want to uncheck the box next to it. "Favorites menu" is next. This specifies whether to add the "Favorites menu" to the Start menu. "Help and Support" this specifies whether to add the "Help and Support" link under the Start menu, I recommend keeping this checked. Under all of these you will see different things like "My Computer" and "My Music" just to name a few. Checking options under them mean the same thing as I explained above about the Control Panel, except for whatever it enables the feature for the corresponding option(ex. My Computer, My Music, My Documents, etc.). Under this big scrollable windows is a button that says "Clear List" much like the one we saw on the "General" tab window. Clicking the button will delete the shortcuts to documents displayed in "My Recent Documents" folder, which sometimes will be located under the Start menu. Please note this DOES NOT delete the documents from the computer entirely, just the history of you opening them up. I recommend doing this every so often, at the end of this tutorial I will give you some links to programs that will do this for you. The check box next to this on the left says "List my most recently opened documents", select this box to have Windows display the "My Recent Documents" folder on the Start menu. When you're finished selecting all of your options click OK.
=The below instructions are for the "Classic Start menu" feature. If you did not select this and you selected "Start menu" instead then skip this section=
Select the dot next to "Classic Start menu" then click the "Customize..." button to the right of it and read on. You will see "Add...", "Remove...", "Advanced", "Sort" and "Clear". I will explain one-by-one what each of these represent. The "Add..." button is to add a shortcut to the start menu or the Programs menu. If you decide to Add something click the button and you will see a "Browse..." button where you may browse for folders. Click the "Remove..." button to remove a shortcut from the start menu or the Programs menu. When you click "Advanced" this will launch Windows explorer. You can use this to add items or remove items from the start menu. It should at first bring up a small folder named "Programs" that you can modify(it looks kind of like a cache of some sort once you open it). "Sort" is for that when you click it it rearranges the items on the Programs menu so they are displayed in the default order. "Clear" removes the list of recently accessed documents, programs, and Web sites from the Documents menu. You should also do this frequently. Now below you have a few things you can do. They are all self-explanatory, "Display Administrative Tools" will do just that, display administrative tools. That is the one great things about Windows(the only one I can think of), they make the customizing pretty easy to understand. Whatever you do, I recommend keeping "Enable dragging and dropping" checked. Without this, it makes every job you do that much harder. When you're done click OK to proceed.
Okay, you're back at the Start menu customizing screen, click the "Taskbar" tab. "Lock the taskbar" should appear first on the list. Checking the check box next to this option locks the taskbar at its current position on the desktop so that it cannot be moved to a new location and also locks the size and position of any toolbar displayed on the taskbar so that it cannot be changed. If you want this option check the box next to it, if not then uncheck it. "Auto-hide the taskbar" will basically just hide the taskbar. To redisplay the taskbar, point to the area of your screen where the taskbar is located. If you want to be sure that your taskbar will be visible whenever you decide to point to it, make sure the box next to "Keep the taskbar on top of other windows" below is checked, and that the box next to "Auto-hide the taskbar" is also checked. "Group similar taskbar buttons" will be below. If the taskbar becomes so crowded with buttons that the width of the buttons shrink beyond a certain width, then they will all be collapsed into a single button. For example, say you have 4 Internet explorers up, each with a different website, and you also have outlook express, notepad, paint, and maybe an anti virus running, then those 4 internet explorers will be collapsed to create only one button on the taskbar rather than 4. You would click this one button and it will bring up an option for you to select which out of the four you wish to choose. "Show Quick Launch" is just glaring at you, I'll explain what it is. Checking the box next to this will enable the "Quick Launch" feature that displays on the taskbar next to the "Start" button. The Quick Launch is a customizable toolbar with different icons representing different programs. Say if you had a toolbar with the little "e" on it(which stands for Internet Explorer), when you click it you would launch internet explorer. This is mainly for quick accessibility to your favorite programs. The option below "Show the clock" is obvious, un checking this will disable the clock on the lower right of your computer screen, keeping it checked keeps it enabled. "Hide inactive icons" below is an option that keeps the taskbar notification area from displaying unused items. I am speaking in particularly more of the area to the left of the clock. Click the "Customize..." button to the right if you selected this option. Otherwise, skip this part. This lets you specify the behavior of an icon in the taskbar notification area. You may choose what programs you want to hide, show, or hide when they are inactive. For example, look to the lower right next to the clock, perhaps if you have "AIM" running you'd see a little icon next to the clock showing it(if you don't see one, try click the arrow that points to the left), well if you look on the menu here you see multiple programs such as "Java(TM) 2 Platform" or "AIM". Click to the right of them and you will receive a drop down box with three options. One of those three options are "Hide when inactive" another one is "Always hide" and the final option is "Always show". Clicking "Hide when inactive" hides the specified program when it becomes inactive. "Always show" will always show the specified program even when it becomes inactive. The "Always hide" will hide the specified program at all times, whether or not it is active or inactive. The "Restore Defaults" button will restore all of the options to its default settings. Once you're finished click OK, hit Apply at the next screen and click OK.
Would you like to have your favorite programs within reach easily? No more searching around for your programs, Windows XP(All Versions) allows you to easily make them accessible right when you click the Start menu! To do this select your favorite file or program by right clicking on it and selecting "Pin to Start Menu". Now if you click the Start menu you will notice that not only will you have your favorite Internet Browser and Email Application available on the top but you will have whatever file/program you pinned. A very unique option indeed, and is worth playing around with. To take a pinned item off the Start menu just right click it again and select "Unpin from Start Menu" and that will remove it.
Conclusion
_______________________________
This guide is completely noobish. There are many many things in Windows to customizing that I have not listed or mentioned. I might in the future revise this and make a follow up tutorial to cover some of these things, but for now you have this, smile. On a serious note, use Google if you don't understand something. I cannot stress this enough, it has been said many times before but I'm willing to say it again, use Google and find things on your own otherwise you'll never get anywhere if you're always relying on others to give you hand outs. Of course asking is a great thing, just don't over use it.
Now for those Windows programs I mentioned in the above articles. There are many Window cleaning/optimizing programs out there. I will list the two that I use, a paid one and a free one.
CCleaner(Crap Cleaner)
*www.ccleaner.com/
Webroots Window Washer
*www.webroot.com/consumer/products/windowwasher/
Also on another note, please keep in mind that when you are customizing Windows and want particular items in a certain location that dragging and dropping is your best friend. Use it, use it again and overuse it. It's a very key feature to fully customizing most things Windows.
So until next time, I hope you enjoyed the article and hope you learned alot. Please look for possible follow ups to this and also on all of my future articles. Enjoy...
P.S. : Look for more articles in a week as I m busy in studing right now....
By Quiz_Master (Ash)
E-Mail - hiddenturbo@yahoo.com
Tutorial finished on:
09/01/06
3:18 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of Contents
1. Desktop Customization
a.Wallpaper/Style
b.Files/Folders
2. Start Menu/Taskbar Customization
a.Styles and Options
3. Conclusion
Microsoft Windows is thought to be run on 90 to 95 percent of personal computers around the world. There are an estimated 300 million PCs being sold each and every single year, and with so many operating systems available, the most widely used, Windows has obtained the right for being the most largest operating system company ever. Alot of this is due in part to the domination of MS-DOS on the early day PC compatible computers such as IBM-PC clones for an example. Also because it is the one operating system where most primary types of software are supported. And then of course we have other OS's such as Macintosh, and of course the ever so popular Linux. It was predicted two years ago that the Linux market share would overpower Macintosh's market share sometime in 2005. It hasn't looked that way. While these other two operating systems are great, look cool, and are basically almost virus free, they are complicated to use, especially for the Window lovers alike. Now, every user of any operating system wants nothing but customization, customization, and more customization. And maybe you are a Windows user saying to yourself "Gee, I wish I could have my Windows XP look really cool! But I don't know how..". Well, no need to spend countless time searching over Google or Yahoo!, your guide to customizing the very basic features of Windows has finally arrived! The tutorial below will teach you step-by-step how to customize Windows so you'll never be looking at the same old colors ever again! There is a wide range of editing and modifcations out there, so lets go customize!
1. Desktop Customization
Here I am going to start out first with some Desktop modifications.
First we will begin with the very basic customization for the desktop EVERY Windows user should know how to do, change the wallpaper. And if you don't know, don't sweat it! I'll tech you in our first part of the tutorial below. Just keep reading, remember "Patience is the key to success" even though I'm the wrong person to be telling anyone that, it is true. Okay enough of my talking, lets get to customizing!
1a. Wallpaper/Style
------------------------------
Right click on your Desktop background and select "Properties". Once here you will see multiple options. First you will see multiple Tabs on the top, but we'll get to those in just a bit. First things first, what your looking at currently are the "Themes" for Windows XP. Depending on what you've done before, "My Current Theme" should be selected already... but if it is not, then "Windows XP" should be selected. Anyway, click the little black arrow next to it and you will see a drop down box. On this drop down box are multiple themes. The first one "My Current Theme" is for when you select a theme, but of course you wont be doing that until you are finished reading this tutorial! Okay and then you have the basic "Windows XP" theme, and then "Windows Classic" which will actually set it back to looking like Windows 95/98(oh, the horror!!). Then you have "More Themes online..." which just brings you to a part of Microsoft's website where they want you to buy a theme package, then there is "Browse..." this is for when you actually get around to making a theme, then decide to Save it(hence the "Save As..." button you see). Okay, lets move onto the next tab shall we? Click the "Desktop" tab to proceed.
Alright, here we are now at the "Desktop" tab. This is a very easy part of customizing and is where the main Wallpaper editing comes into play, everything just about speaks for itself here. But I'll guide you through anyway. First you should notice a clickable "Browse..." button, use this button to browse through you hard drive for your own custom pictures you wish to use as wallpaper. But first I recommend you choose a background that is already loaded so you can get the feel for everything. So lets choose an already loaded wallpaper, lets start with the picture named "Ascent" so scroll around on this same tab and click on "Ascent". The great part of all of this is you can preview how everything looks before you make a final decision! Okay so now click "Apply" and your whole computer screen will slowly fade into gray for about 10 seconds or so, then it will return with your new wallpaper! See, now that wasn't so difficult...was it? Take you time having fun and playing around with the other wallpapers you see. Now click the little black arrow you see under "Position", you should now see a drop down box with only a couple of options. These options being "Center", "Tile", and "Stretch". As an advanced notice I'll let you know now that most users choose "Stretch" just because it looks better, but this is your desktop... feel free to choose anything you want! Okay, so basically the "Center" option centers your wallpaper leaving space around it, "Tile" creates multiple wallpapers and makes them into a pattern like technique, hence the name "Tile". Now the last one option which is "Stretch" is pretty self-expla
natory, it stretches the wallpaper out so it covers your entire screen. And now click the black arrow under "color" this is basically pointless unless you either have a blank desktop or are centering your wallpapers, if any case read on, if not skip this part. Once you click the arrow a drop down box with different colors will appear, click the one to your liking or create your own color by clicking "Other...". Okay we're finished with this tab, click "Screen Saver" on the top to continue on.
Here you will select your Screen Saver. First click the drop down box under where it says "Screen saver" you will see multiple options for different type of screen savers. Choose one and click "Preview" to see whether or not you like it. You also click the "Settings" button to change different features and modify the screen saver around a bit, I cannot cover this area because there are settings with almost every screen saver, the customization is totally up to you. Underneath you will see something that should have a number on it, it should say "10" but if it doesnt, it will have some sort of number. This number indicates how many minutes your computer will sit idle until the screen saver activates, select however many minutes you decide to. Next to that there is a little checkbox next to where it should say "One resume, password protect" this option speaks for itself. Mainly what this is for is if you check this box that means whenever you try to turn the screen saver off and return to your computer, it will ask you for a password, if you decide you don't want this, do NOT check the box, if you do, check the box and choose a password when you Apply. Click the "Appearance" tab to continue.
This is the most customization here, and if you decide to edit the window colors, it is time consuming for first timers, so be aware. You will see three different drop down menus. "Windows and buttons:" "Color scheme:" and "Font size:" should all be there. Lets begin with "Windows and buttons:" first. Click the black arrow and you can see there are two options, the first one is "Windows XP Style" this is the default style and if you want to change how everything looks in this style, leave it be. The second style is "Windows Classic style" this is to make only the windows look like the style from Windows 95/98, if you want to edit them with this style select it, if not then leave the "Windows XP style" selected.
=Read below if you selected "Windows XP style". If you chose "Windows Classic style" then skip this section and continue onto the next=
Under this should be "Color scheme:" click the drop down box and there should be a few options, first there will be "Default (blue)" this is the one you probably already have. Then there is "Olive Green" select this and it will show a mini preview in the tab of what it looks like, neat huh? The next one is "Silver" this one if one of my favorite, choose whichever one you want. next is "Font size:" click the drop down box and you will then see here "Normal" "Large Fonts" and "Extra Large Fonts". This is an especially good feature for the elderly or anyone who has trouble seeing small font.
=Below are the options for "Windows Classic style"=
Under the "Windows and buttons:" option. Under "Color Scheme:" you will find at least about twenty or so options, each one changes the color so go ahead, click each one and watch the preview change. Under "Font size:" you will see "Normal" "Extra Large" and "Large". I noticed when you change to certain color schemes only "Normal" is available under "Font size:".
Now this section is not only for Windows XP style or the Classic style, it is for all. Click the "Effects..." button. First you will see two check boxes, click the drop down box on the top that says "Use the following transition effect for menus and tooltips:" there should be "Scroll Effect" and "Fade Effect". "Scroll Effect" is for when you click boxes, for example click Start>All Programs and highlight items where boxes comes out, the "Scroll Effect" makes it roll out otherwise the "Fade Effect" just makes it fade and appear. The other checkbox saying "Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts:" is underneath, click the drop down box and you'll se the two options which are "Standard" and "Clear Type". "Clear Type" is what its already on, "Standard" makes the text look a little odd, almost how if you don't choose the "Anti-Alias" feature and most photo editing software. Below are four check boxes, I'll read them off to you "Use large icons" which is if you want your icons to be larger, "Show shadows under menus" this is if you want the shadow to show under the menus, "Show windows contents while dragging" this was the style for Windows 95/98 which is where when you drag a window it will not show the contents but only the out gray line of the window instead, "Hide underlined letters for keyboard navigation until I press the Alt key" this is where the underlined letters for the keyboard navigation will be totally hidden until you hit the Alt key. Or in other terms, for example, open up Notepad. Do you notice the options on top saying "File Edit Formation View Help"? One of the letters in each of those will be underlined if you check this, basically this doesnt really serve a purpose. Now click the "Advanced" button. Under here are an array of tons and tons of features. From editing the color of the windows, editing the type of style, the style color, the list goes on and on and on. I simply cannot tell you about EVERYTHING under here, because this tutorial would last forever. So this is the section I like to call -Do-it-yourself- where basically you figure it out, it gives you a chance to learn, figuring things out, and you'll get a sense of achievement knowing you've done it all by yourself. So, this is the time consuming part I was speaking of, edit some options, change some colors, and preview. You'll figure out sooner or later what changes what and you'll be able to do it all by yourself. Okay! Click the "Settings" tab and we'll be on our way for this part!
This is yet again another slef-explanatory section. You've basically have here a complete layout of Screen and graphic resolutions. If you are satisfied with your current resolution and such, skip this part otherwise keep on reading. Mainly first you have something that will say "Display:" and under it will be your type of monitor, mine says "Plug and Play Monitor on Intel(R) 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics Controller" and that is what yours might possibly say too if you do not have a graphics card. Okay continue on below where we have the "Screen Resolution" and the little bar/arrow you can move from the left to the right to change your resolution. I have mine set to 1024 by 768 pixels which is a reasonably good resolution and is what most PC users have theirs on. But of course change it to you hearts content. To the right we have "Color quality" I recommend putting it on "Highest (32 bit)" but that is just me, feel free to change it to whatever you wish to have. The button below that says "Troubleshoot..." does nothing more than bring you to a Help and Support center to try and troubleshoot any issues or problems your having. Clicking on "Advanced" would not be a smart choice for first timers since this part is a bit too complex for the normal computer user. But it basically tells you your Monitor, Adapter and others functions, there is not too much customization to do in here though fortunately.
You have finished this part of the section already? You're a faster learner than I thought! Okay, continue on down below for more.
1b. Files/Folders
------------------------------
I believe in a few things. Not only do I believe in how your computer, especially Windows, should always be organized to look nice, neat, and have a very comfortable feeling about it. Not only do I believe in that the fact of organization, usage and finding ability, but looking good while doing it! That is why this small sub-section will be all about customizing your folders and files so they stand out and laugh at the rest. So let's get started!
Okay first things first, if you do not know already then learn how to create a new folder by right clicking on your Desktop background and highlight "New" and then click "Folder" to create a new folder. When you make a new folder it will have the default picture which is that little yellow folder, but that is old school....lets get something that looks a bit better. Right click on your folder and select "Properties". Once here you will see a few things, first on top you will see all of the basic statistics such as the size of the folder, the name, where its located, how many files it contains, etc. Under all of this are a couple of options. You will see two options next to Attributes, these are "Read-Only" and "Hidden". The check box that reads "Read-Only" means that when you have the box next to it checked it causes all of the files under the folder to be "Read-Only" which means they cannot be deleted or changed, un checking this box turns off this feature. Now the next option "Hidden" causes this folder to be hidden. Great for hiding things temporarily if you do not want someone else to access it. Of course it will only actually become hidden once you go into Windows Explorer and click select to hide files and folders that are specified to be hidden. To do this click Start>All Programs>Accessories>Windows Explorer, now once Windows Explorer loads click "Tools" on the top next to Help. Under "Tools" click "Folder Options..." once under here click the "View" tab at the top, you should now see some settings in the middle. Look for something that says "Hidden files and folders" under this click "Do not show hidden files or folders" to hide everything that you selected to hide. Not, click "Show hidden files and folders" to show everything that you've select to hide. Once finished click OK and exit out of Windows Explorer. Now lets get back to the folder options. Now back to the two options, next to them is a button that says "Advanced..." click it, you should see a window pop-up now that has a few options which are "Folder is ready for archiving" which specifies whether or not the folder will be archived. Many programs use this feature which files and/or folders are backed up. My recommendation is that you make sure this is checked for every folder that contains any crucial or important data. Now the next option "For fast searching, allow Indexing Service to index this folder" and this option specifies whether the contents of the folder should be indexed for faster searching, once the folder is indexed you can search within the folder as well as search for properties, such as time and date, or attributes of the file or folder. Okay and the next option you see is "Compress contents to save disk space". Specifies whether the file or folder is compressed. The contents of compressed folders are not automatically compressed unless you elect to compress them when prompted. Also a side note for more advanced users, when you compress a file or folder they cannot be encrypted. Alright select whatever option you want and click OK to continue. Now on the top of the screen you may edit the name of your folder if you wish, otherwise we can do it an easier way later.
The next tab "Sharing" does not relate to customizing, so I am going to skip this. Besides, if you don't have a Router this tab is useless to you. Click the "Customize" tab to continue.
Alright here we are on the final tab of Desktop customizing. This is the fun part, nothing too hard here to relax. Now on the top we have a little drop down box(Remember those? You dealt with alot of them in the Wallpaper section) which should say "Documents (for any file type). now before you start clicking like crazy and having fun allow me to explain what this is for. This allow you to select a folder template, folder templates apply specific features to your folder, such as specialized task links and options for working with pictures or music. I recommend just putting it on "Documents (for any file type" and keeping it that way, unless you are 100% positive you will only have videos in this folder, or pictures or perhaps music, and if you are select the right type that fits you. "Also apply for this template to all sub folders" this applies the same template to all folders you make in this folder in the future. Now below is a section that you will probably be passing on this tutorial. Mainly because this feature you see here is only for sub folders and has nothing to do with a new folder you are creating on the desktop. But you might as well learn now anyway. This ONLY works for sub folders and ONLY works when you are in thumbnails view. To go into thumbnails view, go into a folder and click the little box next to where it says "Folders" it should have a small black arrow next to it, click the arrow and click "Thumbnails", or you can click "View" on the top of the windows and select "Tumbnails" instead, whatever is easier. Anyway back to the option. There are two buttons "Choose Picture..." and "Restore Default". The "Choose Picture..." button is for you to choose a picture which will be visible on a subfolder, this option is supposed to be for reminding you the contents of which the folder contains. For example, you have a subfolder that has pictures of guns in it, so you select the "Choose Picture..." button and find a picture of a gun which will display on the subfolder, so you'll see a picture of a gun and say to yourself "Oh, that folders has pictures of guns in it.". The "Restore Default" button is self-explanatory, it just resets whatever picture you put on the subfolder back to the default. Now below these two buttons is the fun part, click on the "Change Icon..." button and lets get cracking!
You should now see a window pop-up with a whole bunch of different pictures in it. What you are looking at here is the section of pictures that you can change your folder to. It is actually one of my favorite features. So as you scroll from left to right go ahead and daze at the beautiful pictures and go "Oooo" and "Ahhhhhh". Alright but onto a more serious note, you have a button on top "Browse..." what this is is where you click to import your own personalized pictures to use for your folder. I have not used this before, so go ahead and see what types of formats it accepts. Then you have your basic "OK" and "Cancel" buttons and we all know what those do, and then you have "Restore Defaults" which does just that, restores your picture back to the default. Alright, we're finished with this sub-section! Find the pictures you want, click "OK" and read on.Now, right click on a file and select "Properties" and lets continue. Here you see almost the same exact thing you saw when you clicked a folder and selected Properties. Here you have the same thing, size of file, when it was created, etc. etc. Click the "Summary" tab on the top, here you can edit the Title and Subject of certain files. If it is a Music file like an mp3 this might be needed. For example say you have the song "My Sacrifice" by Creed, you would put in the title "My Sacrifice" and "Creed" in the Author section. It isn't anything great, but just a small feature. When you've inputted what you want, click "OK". Here you are at your desktop...over looking your awesome looking folders and your cool looking desktop, but now what? Well you can simply move your files and folders around, yes, do that! Click and drag things around to get used to it. Okay, that is enough, if you right click on a File or Folder you have your usual options, "Rename", "Delete", "Properties" and so forth, not much explaining needs to be done here.
Okay open Windows Explorer once more and click "Tools" then "Folder Options..." once again. A tab "General" should open with three different options containing various check dots. The first named "Tasks" will be the first option you will notice, under it are two options: "Show common tasks in folder" and "Use Windows classic folders". If you select "Show common tasks in folders" this specifies that hyperlinks to common folder tasks and other places on your computer are displayed in folders. This will show on the left pane of the folder Window. "Use Windows classic folders" specifies that folder contents are shown like Window classic folders, which means that folder contents will not operate or look like Web Pages. The "Browse Folders" section should be right below which will show "Open each folder in the same window" and "Open each folder in its own window". These are self-explanatory if you know what you're doing, the first option is so that when you are browsing folders that each time you browse or open a new folder it will open up in a new window, that is if you select the first option. The second option is so new folders will open up in their own new window, the other windows from before browsed folders will still be visible. I suppose the second option is useful if you need to open up various windows with different content and do not want to close the others out. "Click items as follows" is next and if you select "Single-click to open an item (point to select)" then any type of file or folder will open on a single click without double clicking. Read on.
2. Start Menu/Taskbar Customization
So you've gotten this far already? Well now that you have, you should know that my tutorials are not BS in the fact that I can teach you the right way so that you will learn. Let that be a remembrance for all of my future tutorials. I'm glad you have the motivation to read all of this, it shows how us computer users today at whatever age, young or old, and whatever experience or knowledge, beginner or expert, we can all learn something new, and that we all have great motivation to succeed. Now lets carry on.
2a. Styles and Options
------------------------------
Right click on your start button and hit "Properties". Once here a window will pop-up called "Taskbar and Start Menu Properties" and from here you can do a variety of different modifications. You should already be looking at the "Start Menu" tab, below are two circles, one is dotted, next to each of them they have two options... "Start menu" and "Classic Start menu" click on the dot next to the corresponding feature and you will get a slight preview in the window above them, select whichever one you want and click the "Customize..." button next to it.
=The below instructions are for the "Start menu" feature. If you did not select this and you selected "Classic Start menu" instead then skip this section=
Alright you should see another window pop-up entitled "Customize Start Menu" under here the first thing you should see are two little pictures of a desktop computer. One will say "Large icons" and the other will say "Small icons", normally "Large icons" is already selected, if not, I recommend it... also of course differs depending on what type of resolution you have set. Under this you will see a small box with a number in it, this specifies the maximum amount of programs to display on the start menu. Under this is a button called "Clear List" I actually suggest clicking this every week or so, it basically clears the start menu cache of all stored programs that were recently used. Under this are two drop down boxes, and two check boxes. This is what it shows above the recently opened programs on the start menu for easy access to your internet browser and email client. If you want these, check the box next to "Internet" to display the easy access feature for your browser. Now next to this select the drop down box and click on the browser you want to display for easy accessibility. Check the box next to "E-mail" which is under "Internet" to enable the easy access feature for E-Mail. Now click the drop down box next to this and select the email client of your choice to be displayed for easy access, Outlook Express is selected by default. Click the "Advanced" tab to continue. Now as you take a look you will then notice at first a large scrollable box, but we will get to that a bit later. The two check boxes at the top read" Open submenus when I pause on them with my mouse" this is for when you click Start>All Programs and you see certain things with black arrows next to them that will open up with more features, this is for when you just highlight them(or pause over them) with your mouse, it opens a new box to display more. This is checked by default. "Highlight newly installed programs" will be the next thing available you should see. What this does is it highlights new programs you've installed. For a clearer example, say you just installed AOL Instant Messenger, or AIM for short, if you click Start>All Programs you will see "AOL Instant Messenger" and since you just installed it hypothetically speaking, it will be highlighted in yellow. This is checked by default but you may turn it off if you wish. Under this you see that big scrollable box again, lets get to this. What this is is it modifies part of the Start menu features. The first option should say "Control Panel" and under it should say "Display as a link", "Display as a menu" and "Don't display this item". Control Panel which is located when you click "Start" is already by default a link, you may edit it to change it to a menu if you want. Then there is "Enable dragging and dropping" I do not know why anyone would want to turn this off, but if you want to uncheck the box next to it. "Favorites menu" is next. This specifies whether to add the "Favorites menu" to the Start menu. "Help and Support" this specifies whether to add the "Help and Support" link under the Start menu, I recommend keeping this checked. Under all of these you will see different things like "My Computer" and "My Music" just to name a few. Checking options under them mean the same thing as I explained above about the Control Panel, except for whatever it enables the feature for the corresponding option(ex. My Computer, My Music, My Documents, etc.). Under this big scrollable windows is a button that says "Clear List" much like the one we saw on the "General" tab window. Clicking the button will delete the shortcuts to documents displayed in "My Recent Documents" folder, which sometimes will be located under the Start menu. Please note this DOES NOT delete the documents from the computer entirely, just the history of you opening them up. I recommend doing this every so often, at the end of this tutorial I will give you some links to programs that will do this for you. The check box next to this on the left says "List my most recently opened documents", select this box to have Windows display the "My Recent Documents" folder on the Start menu. When you're finished selecting all of your options click OK.
=The below instructions are for the "Classic Start menu" feature. If you did not select this and you selected "Start menu" instead then skip this section=
Select the dot next to "Classic Start menu" then click the "Customize..." button to the right of it and read on. You will see "Add...", "Remove...", "Advanced", "Sort" and "Clear". I will explain one-by-one what each of these represent. The "Add..." button is to add a shortcut to the start menu or the Programs menu. If you decide to Add something click the button and you will see a "Browse..." button where you may browse for folders. Click the "Remove..." button to remove a shortcut from the start menu or the Programs menu. When you click "Advanced" this will launch Windows explorer. You can use this to add items or remove items from the start menu. It should at first bring up a small folder named "Programs" that you can modify(it looks kind of like a cache of some sort once you open it). "Sort" is for that when you click it it rearranges the items on the Programs menu so they are displayed in the default order. "Clear" removes the list of recently accessed documents, programs, and Web sites from the Documents menu. You should also do this frequently. Now below you have a few things you can do. They are all self-explanatory, "Display Administrative Tools" will do just that, display administrative tools. That is the one great things about Windows(the only one I can think of
), they make the customizing pretty easy to understand. Whatever you do, I recommend keeping "Enable dragging and dropping" checked. Without this, it makes every job you do that much harder. When you're done click OK to proceed.Okay, you're back at the Start menu customizing screen, click the "Taskbar" tab. "Lock the taskbar" should appear first on the list. Checking the check box next to this option locks the taskbar at its current position on the desktop so that it cannot be moved to a new location and also locks the size and position of any toolbar displayed on the taskbar so that it cannot be changed. If you want this option check the box next to it, if not then uncheck it. "Auto-hide the taskbar" will basically just hide the taskbar. To redisplay the taskbar, point to the area of your screen where the taskbar is located. If you want to be sure that your taskbar will be visible whenever you decide to point to it, make sure the box next to "Keep the taskbar on top of other windows" below is checked, and that the box next to "Auto-hide the taskbar" is also checked. "Group similar taskbar buttons" will be below. If the taskbar becomes so crowded with buttons that the width of the buttons shrink beyond a certain width, then they will all be collapsed into a single button. For example, say you have 4 Internet explorers up, each with a different website, and you also have outlook express, notepad, paint, and maybe an anti virus running, then those 4 internet explorers will be collapsed to create only one button on the taskbar rather than 4. You would click this one button and it will bring up an option for you to select which out of the four you wish to choose. "Show Quick Launch" is just glaring at you, I'll explain what it is. Checking the box next to this will enable the "Quick Launch" feature that displays on the taskbar next to the "Start" button. The Quick Launch is a customizable toolbar with different icons representing different programs. Say if you had a toolbar with the little "e" on it(which stands for Internet Explorer), when you click it you would launch internet explorer. This is mainly for quick accessibility to your favorite programs. The option below "Show the clock" is obvious, un checking this will disable the clock on the lower right of your computer screen, keeping it checked keeps it enabled. "Hide inactive icons" below is an option that keeps the taskbar notification area from displaying unused items. I am speaking in particularly more of the area to the left of the clock. Click the "Customize..." button to the right if you selected this option. Otherwise, skip this part. This lets you specify the behavior of an icon in the taskbar notification area. You may choose what programs you want to hide, show, or hide when they are inactive. For example, look to the lower right next to the clock, perhaps if you have "AIM" running you'd see a little icon next to the clock showing it(if you don't see one, try click the arrow that points to the left), well if you look on the menu here you see multiple programs such as "Java(TM) 2 Platform" or "AIM". Click to the right of them and you will receive a drop down box with three options. One of those three options are "Hide when inactive" another one is "Always hide" and the final option is "Always show". Clicking "Hide when inactive" hides the specified program when it becomes inactive. "Always show" will always show the specified program even when it becomes inactive. The "Always hide" will hide the specified program at all times, whether or not it is active or inactive. The "Restore Defaults" button will restore all of the options to its default settings. Once you're finished click OK, hit Apply at the next screen and click OK.
Would you like to have your favorite programs within reach easily? No more searching around for your programs, Windows XP(All Versions) allows you to easily make them accessible right when you click the Start menu! To do this select your favorite file or program by right clicking on it and selecting "Pin to Start Menu". Now if you click the Start menu you will notice that not only will you have your favorite Internet Browser and Email Application available on the top but you will have whatever file/program you pinned. A very unique option indeed, and is worth playing around with. To take a pinned item off the Start menu just right click it again and select "Unpin from Start Menu" and that will remove it.
Conclusion
_______________________________
This guide is completely noobish. There are many many things in Windows to customizing that I have not listed or mentioned. I might in the future revise this and make a follow up tutorial to cover some of these things, but for now you have this, smile.
On a serious note, use Google if you don't understand something. I cannot stress this enough, it has been said many times before but I'm willing to say it again, use Google and find things on your own otherwise you'll never get anywhere if you're always relying on others to give you hand outs. Of course asking is a great thing, just don't over use it. Now for those Windows programs I mentioned in the above articles. There are many Window cleaning/optimizing programs out there. I will list the two that I use, a paid one and a free one.
CCleaner(Crap Cleaner)
*www.ccleaner.com/
Webroots Window Washer
*www.webroot.com/consumer/products/windowwasher/
Also on another note, please keep in mind that when you are customizing Windows and want particular items in a certain location that dragging and dropping is your best friend. Use it, use it again and overuse it. It's a very key feature to fully customizing most things Windows.
So until next time, I hope you enjoyed the article and hope you learned alot. Please look for possible follow ups to this and also on all of my future articles. Enjoy...
P.S. : Look for more articles in a week as I m busy in studing right now....
