Customising Your Desktop

The computer desktop like any real desktop can be customised to suit the
individuals needs. Items that are often used can be placed close to hand
while lesser used ones can be cleared away leaving an uncluttered work
area. Computer desktop icons can be added or removed as needed,
likewise the background may be altered to suit the users own tastes.
Use the buttons below to navigate through the lesson

1. The standard XP desktop designed to be uncluttered, to add some

usually seen icons Right click the desktop
2. From the menu select Properties
3. The desktop settings box will open

4. Select the desktop tab and Select Customize Desktop

5. Desktop icons can now be selected and added
6. Icons for My Documents, My Network Places, My Computer and
Internet Explorer will now be placed on the desktop.
7. The Desktop is now starting to look similar to that of previous
versions of Windows, which had these icons in place by default. The
background of the desktop can also be customised from the same
desktop tab.
8. The Background window has a list of available pictures to choose
from. These will vary depending on which version of Windows is
being used. To change the background select a suitable picture from
the list
9. A preview of the selected picture is displayed as it will appear on
the monitor; if no suitable picture is available the browse button can
be used to locate a picture on the computers hard drive

10.If the selected picture does not fit the screen completely there are
options to Center, Tile or Stretch the picture
11.Center will place the picture in the centre of the desktop, Tile will
tile the picture across the entire desktop Stretch will fill the desktop
with the selected picture; this can sometimes distort pictures if they
are too small.
12.Select apply to change the background picture.
13.Now the background has been modified.

14.Next we will look at the display settings, to access these settings

right click the desktop and select properties
15.The desktop properties box opens, select settings tab
16.The settings dialogue box is now displayed
17.Information such as screen resolution, color quality, monitor and
graphics card are shown here. The screen resolution dictates the
size of the desktop the larger the size, the smaller icons will appear
on the desktop but more work area will be available to change this
move the slider to the next available position.
18.When applied a warning box appears,
19.If everything is OK select yes to apply the new settings. Note the
size of the icons and taskbar has now changed
20.Returning to the display properties>settings and select Advanced
and the general tab
21.The DPI settings may be used to increase the size of desktop icons
and fonts this may require a restart of the computer
22.Select the large size 120dpi
23.Click OK to accept the changes

24.The changes will now be applied

25.The desktop fonts and icons are now larger.
26.The adapter tab, displays information about the graphics adaptor
27.Adapter information, Chip type, memory size is displayed. Click on
the list all modes button for a complete list of all the display modes
this adapter should be able to handle. Similar to the display settings
new settings can be selected and applied from the list.
28.Select OK or cancel to dismiss this box, and then select the Monitor
tab
29.Monitor settings are very important as the screen refresh rate
governs how often the screen is redrawn per second, if this rate is
to low (72 hertz and above is recommended) it can lead to eye
strain and headaches.
30.This is because the screen flickers whilst redrawing; you may have
noticed this on TV programs when the camera shows a computer
screen visible lines can be seen moving on the screen because the
camera captures the screen redrawing.
31.Although the redraw is too quick to be seen by the naked eye if the
refresh rate is too low the eye sees this redraw as a flickering and it
this that can cause the aforementioned eye strain.
32.From the drop down list select a higher refresh rate. If the screen
should go black wait 15 seconds it will revert back to its former
setting. Always try to use the highest possible refresh rate to avoid
any health issues.
33.Next select the troubleshoot tab to access hardware acceleration
34.Hardware acceleration is by default set to full by the operating
system to use the graphic adapters hardware, unless problems such
as distorted graphics are experienced this along with enable write
combining should be left on there defaults.
35.Next select the color management tab, this will allow access to any
associated color profiles which may have been supplied by the
monitor manufacturer; these profiles govern the colours displayed
by the monitor.
36.After all changes have been made, select OK to close all the open
dialogue boxes.