Customizing Your Desktop

Perhaps you’ve noticed that everyone’s computer screen, called the “desktop,” seems to look different. What makes the main difference is its background, called “wallpaper” and the number and types of icons on the desktop. Another big factor is the screen resolution – the higher the resolution, the smaller the icons look.

Resolution:
Sometimes people who don’t see clearly like to make everything on their desktop appear larger. One way to do this is to decrease the resolution of your monitor. In WinXP, right-click on an unused area of the desktop and choose Properties. Then choose the Settings Tab. In the lower left box labeled “Screen area”, use the slider bar by dragging with your mouse. (In Win98, this box is on lower right.) I recommend no lower than 800 by 600 pixels, or too much will scroll off the side and bottom of the screen. Even at 800 by 600, most web pages will not display fully and you may miss important content. Watch for the presence of scroll bars (when a page is fully displayed, scroll bars disappear). Most web pages and program screens are currently designed for 1024 by 768 pixels. You can change your resolution back and forth as often as you like, depending on what you’re working on.

Desktop Background:
Would you like to have a different photo as your “wallpaper”? Several choices are built into Windows. You can find them by right-clicking on an unused area of the desktop and selecting Properties from the pop-up menu. Choose the Desktop tab on WinXP (Background tab on Win98). Then review the various choices under the Desktop list in WinXP (Wallpaper list in Win98). You’ll be able to see a thumbnail preview of what your new wallpaper will look like.
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Photos:
To use one of your own photos (saved on your PC as a .JPG file type), open the photo with Internet Explorer, right click on the image, and choose “Set as background”(or wallpaper) from the pop-up menu.. Voila! Your own picture is now your desktop background. However, you may find that certain backgrounds are just too busy to effectively see your icons, so you will need to experiment. By the way, to override the photo program that normally opens a .JPG file, first browse to it in Windows Explorer, right-click on its name, then choose the “Open with....” menu option. Internet Explorer should appear in the list of choices. (It may appear as Iexplore or iexplore.exe.) In Win98, hold down the Shift key while right-clicking on the picture’s file name to get the “Open with…” choice to appear. This list may have many programs listed, so scroll if necessary to find Iexplore or its icon.

Icons:
Most icons are “shortcuts” (like a bookmark) to launch programs or open folders.. If you see a small upward arrow in the lower left corner, it’s just a shortcut and can be safely deleted. Right click on the ones you no longer need and choose delete from the pop-up menu. (Click Yes in the Confirm Delete dialog box to send it to the Recycle Bin.) NOTE: The Recycle Bin needs to be emptied regularly to actually free up space on your hard disk. Right-click on its icon and choose “Empty Recycle Bin” from the pop-up menu.

To create a new icon on the desktop for a program, first find it via the Start button > Programs list. Hover over it with your mouse, then right click and choose “Send To >”. From the next cascading menu choose “Desktop (create shortcut)”. A similar technique can be used to add a shortcut icon for a folder you use frequently. When finished deleting and adding icons, right click on an unused area of the desktop and chose “arrange icons”. You can arrange by name, date, size, or type, or just manually arrange them to your preference by dragging. With a little practice, you can develop a unique, functional desktop that reflects your own style and preferences.