Learn How to Customize the Windows Desktop

Article Added December 10th, 2006

The Windows Desktop is the full screen that appears on the monitor when your PC boots up.

Windows systems are based on Graphical User Interface or GUI, which means that pictures or icons are used to access the various programs stored in the computer.

With Windows XP, you can customize this screen in many different ways.
The background graphics on the desktop is referred to as the wallpaper. The small pictures on the screen are called the icons. To customize your desktop, right click on the mouse button and click Properties. The Display Properties Dialog Box appears. The various tabs in this box are used to customize the appearance of the desktop and the applications. Here we will examine each of these tabs.

Themes
A theme is a collection of wallpaper, icons, sounds, and other elements based on a central idea. This gives a focused, uniform look to all components of the desktop at the click of a single button. This user-defined setting dictates the appearance of the Windows User Interface. Windows is shipped with many inbuilt themes. Select any from the drop down list box to install it on your desktop. There are many freely downloadable themes.

Desktop
This option allows the user to decorate and customize the desktop. To add visual interest, change the plain solid color background to a more elaborate wallpaper. You can select one from the list. Alternatively, you can put any of your own picture files as the wallpaper. Click on the Browse button, locate and select your file.
You can choose from three positions to place the wallpaper.

Center Puts the image file in the middle of the desktop, on top of the underlying color.
Stretch The image is pulled until it fits the screen completely. A smaller picture becomes distorted on being stretched.
Tile Multiple copies of the image are repeated until the desktop is completely covered.
Windows does not display an image larger than the desktop.

By default the following icons are shipped with Windows

- My Computer
- My Documents
- My Network Places
- Internet Explorer

Click on the Customize desktop button to select which of these icons appear on the desktop. Clicking Change Icon can also change the icons associated with these.

The Desktop Cleanup Wizard removes the unused shortcuts on the desktop to the Unused Desktop Shortcuts folder. If you want the shortcut back, they can be restored too.

Screen Saver
A screen saver is a utility that puts a moving picture or pattern on your desktop after a specified period of keyboard and mouse inactivity.
If the image on the screen does not change for a long time, there is a possibility of damage to the monitor. The changing images of the screen saver prevent such a damage. The screen saver also guards the computer against unauthorized access if the legitimate user is away. When the keyboard or mouse is activated, the logon window appears. The password specified by you has to be keyed in to remove the screen saver from the screen.

To install a screen saver, choose one from the list provided. Customize its settings as per your liking. Test your screen saver with the Preview button. Specify the time (in minutes) after which the screen saver is activated.

Appearance
This tab is used to adjust Windows' colour settings and font sizes. There are numerous color schemes available that make the desktop more vibrant and colorful. The preferences for screen elements (e.g. Active Title bar, Application Background,Windows Border, Messagebox etc) can be specified individually. You can also choose the transition effects for the menus and methods to smooth edges of large screen fonts.

Settings
This final tab is used to set the more advanced of the display settings like the resolution of your monitor and setting the colour quality of the display.

As you see, customizing Windows Desktop is easy. So bid adieu to the same generic screen and welcome the new personalized desktop.