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Wiley The Unofficial Guide to Windows XP

1. Figure 3 20 You can see more buttons and more of the text when the taskbar is to either side of the desktop 86 PART I INSTALLATION CONFIGURATION AND CUSTOMIZATION With the taskbar unlocked you can also resize it Click and drag the edge to resize it to show as much or as little information as you like This tends to have better results when the taskbar is at the sides of your screen rather than the top or bottom but it s a matter of personal preference When you have it resized you can re lock the taskbar so that it keeps its size and location There are several other behavior and appearance settings you can change for the taskbar Right click the taskbar and then click Properties or right click the Start button click Properties and then click the taskbar tab see Figure 3 21 Taskbar and Start Menu Properties wea Taskbar appearance 3 start amp S 2internet fam Fold Lock the taskbar C Auto hide the taskbar Keep the taskbar on top of other windows Group similar taskbar buttons Show Quick Launch Notification area Jia 1 23 PM Show the clock You can keep the notification area uncluttered by hiding icons that you have not clicked recently Hide inactive icons Figure 3 21 Change key taskbar behavior using the Taskbar Properties dialog box Most of the settings are self explanatory but the two that you may want to change are Group similar taskbar but
2. personalize their desktop with pictures of family pets travel destinations hobbies or inspiring artwork You can access the basic wallpaper settings by right clicking the desktop clicking Properties and then clicking the eponymous Desktop tab You can choose which wallpaper to display and the mini monitor gives you a preview of what it will look like For images that are smaller than the screen resolu tion you can use the drop down list box to stretch the image to fill the screen tile the images or display it normal size with a color background that you pick from the color list box Windows XP comes with several wallpapers that you can use and some of them are quite well done By default the wallpapers are stored at Windows Web Wallpaper You can copy personal images to this directory or you can use the Browse button to go to a separate location If you are practicing safe computing you have a separate folder on a non Windows partition with your personal data on it including desktop wallpaper See Chapter 2 for additional information on using one partition for your programs and one for your data You can use Internet Explorer s Set as background feature to copy an image to your desktop Windows saves this image at Documents and Settings Yusername Application Data Microsoftnternet Explorer Internet Explorer Wallpaper bmp However this clobbers any other image previously saved at this location You are better off saving the i
3. MANAGING THE WINDOWS DESKTOP 73 Highly regarded theme management programs include WindowBlinds at www stardock com and StyleXP at www tgtsoft com Both are shareware cost 19 95 and occasionally have the odd operational discontinuity bug to work around but the sites also have libraries of themes that you can browse and download for free Finally if you want additional themes Microsoft encourages you to give them more money for the privilege You can purchase the Microsoft Plus SuperPack for Windows XP For only 29 95 you can get four astounding new themes and eight stunning screen savers according to the Microsoft Web site There are also some additional games and multimedia add ons some of which may be useful to you others that are available elsewhere Movie Maker 2 is a free download so you don t need to buy the SuperPack to get it The hidden powers of the Start button The Start button is the place where everything can be done to your com puter By clicking Start you can work your way through stacks of menus in order to launch applications run system programs and access frequently used documents The Start button was introduced in Windows 95 and ever since then has undergone modification The latest version separates the menu into four areas the pinned applications area the most recently used area an area for common Windows related e Intamat 7 My Documents et Exp functions and a men
4. on the cursor and desktop icons see the section Windows applica tions and performance later in this chapter Sound effects are turned off click Start Control Panel Sounds Speech and Audio Devices and then Change the sound scheme Any applications I use on a regular basis are placed on the Quick Start toolbar no need to have them on the desktop too see the section Customize your toolbars later in this chapter I get rid of all helper applications in the notification area except for a few key ones like antivirus and firewall see the section Improve startup with MSCONFIG later in this chapter The net result is a faster cleaner desktop that doesn t get in my way or slow me down when I work One annoying feature of the Classic view is the Personalized Menus com mand This feature changes the contents of the Programs window depend ing on how often you use the various programs The rest are hidden waiting to be rediscovered behind a downward facing arrow Unless you like inter faces that hide themselves from you you re better off deselecting this option Mucking about with menus One of the big annoyances with Windows is that it quickly becomes cluttered with programs icons shortcuts and other debris Start menu items are found in the Documents and Settings folder and come from two primary places the All Users folder and the logged on user s folder Windows looks in both places to see w
5. t It lets you end processes any processes even ones that Windows thinks you shouldn t For this reason it s a great tool to have in your toolbox and is a worthy replacement for or addition to Task Manager Best of all it s free ware You can find Process Explorer at www sysinternals com Improve startup with MSCONFIG When Windows XP boots it starts a number of services and applications so that the Windows environment is configured for your use These services and applets may or may not be needed many of them are enabled out of the box while others are added by applications or device managers you install Microsoft provides a program called the System Configuration Utility or MSCONFIG that lets you determine which services and applications run at startup You can see which programs are starting where they reside on your system and enable or disable them by clicking a check box This makes it 100 PART I INSTALLATION CONFIGURATION AND CUSTOMIZATION easy to determine if a particular service or application is needed and lets you undo any changes if you find your system is less stable or less functional without the applets You can also control these services and applets using the Services Manager and RegEdit see Chapter 11 for more information on these applications However if you are experimenting with the boot time and application startup MSCONFIG is easier to use than the other applications Click Start click Run t
6. From Start Menu Sy Add Logoff to the Start Menu E Remove Logoff on the Start Menu En Remove and prevent access to the Shut Down command EH Remove Drag and drop context menus on the Start Menu Prevent changes to Taskbar and Start Menu Settings EW Remove access to the context menus for the taskbar Ry Do not keep history of recently opened documents y Clear history of recently opened documents on ext E1 Turn off personalized menus f Turn off user tracking En Add Run in Separate Memory Space check box to Run dialog box amp Do not use the search based method when resolving shell shortcuts E Do not use the tracking based method when resolving shell shorte amp Gray unavailable Windows Instaler programs Start Menu shortouts f Prevent grouping of taskbar items E Turn off notification area cleanup Si Lock the Taskbar i Force classic Start Menu SM Remove Baloon Tips on Start Menu items szzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzz R n vi m gt gt extended Standard Figure 3 18 The Group Policy Editor is the industrial strength Windows settings editor A cautionary note to the casual hacker Sometimes the language in the GPE uses double negatives which means that enabling a setting doesn t always do what you think it might For example when you enable a Remove option it means you remove the object If you select disable that means the Remove item will be present on the menu Yes it s counte
7. I INSTALLATION CONFIGURATION AND CUSTOMIZATION Group Policy Jg File Action View Help e gt 88 amp amp 5 Local Computer Policy Computer Configuration J Software Settings J Windows Settings Administrative Templates Es User Configuration E Software Settings J Windows Settings E Administrative Templates Windows Components Sy Start Menu and Taskbar J Desktop E Control Panel 29 Shared Folders E Network J System 3 LJ Start Menu and Taskbar Do not keep history of recently opened documents Display Properties Requirements At least Microsoft Windows 2000 Description Prevents the operating system and instaled programs From creating and displaying shortcuts to recently opened documents F you enable this setting the system and Windows programs do not create shorkcuts to documents opened while the setting is in effect Also they retain but do not display existing document shortcuts The system empties the Documents menu on the Start menu and Windows programs do not display shortcuts at the bottom of the File menu F you disable this setting the system defaults are enforced Disabling this setting has no effect on the system Note The system saves document shortcuts in the user profile in the we dete iaaa gt Setting SY Remove My Pictures icon from Start Menu Aj Si Remove My Music icon from Start Menu E Remove My NetwornPlaces icon
8. Web browsers e mail clients instant messaging clients media players and Java interpreters The courts agreed and ordered Microsoft to play well with others Microsoft s response was to create the Set Program Access and Defaults option in the Add or Remove Programs dialog box see Figure 3 19 this option appears in Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2 Shortcut icons are added directly beneath the Control Panel icon in the Start menu and at the 84 PART I INSTALLATION CONFIGURATION AND CUSTOMIZATION top of the All Programs menu Click one of these icons or open the Control Panel and click the icon in the left hand column 15 Add or Remove Programs A program configuration specifies defauk programs for certain activities such as Web browsing or sending e mail and which programs are wf yi accessible From the Start menu desktop and other locations Chenge Choose a configuration Programs x Microsoft Windows d O Non Microsoft Add New G 2 Me Cust R Programs om le Choose a default Web browser Use my current Web browser Add Remove A Windows Internet Explorer v Enable access to this program Components Choose a default e mail program Use my current e mail program Set Program 7 pe anand Outlook Express v Enable access to this program Defaults Choose a default media player Use my current me a player O Windows Media Player vV Enable access to this pr
9. s other tabs go into detail on legacy startup files services and boot configurations It is best to leave these alone unless you have some experience with legacy applications hacking boot files and working with startup diagnostics Services are covered in more detail in Chapter 11 and it s better to use the Services management panel services msc to control how services are launched Windows applications and performance There are other ways to tune Windows XP for optimal performance ones that do not require diving deeply into the registry or hacking away at appli cations Surprisingly for Windows some of these settings are accessible and understandable The first two settings are usually set for you but depending on your needs you can change them around They tell Windows on a macro scale how to allocate its cycles best performance for applications or best perfor mance for services Click Start right click My Computer and then click Properties You can also right click the My Computer icon if it is on your desktop click Start Run and then type sysdm cpl or access the dialog box through Control Panel gt System The System Properties dialog box appears click the Advanced tab and then in the Performance section click Settings The Performance Option dialog box appears Click the Advanced tab This tab contains two primary settings one for processor scheduling and one for memory usage see Figure 3 33 By default on a
10. then type services msc Scroll down to Themes double click it change the startup type to Automatic click Start and then click OK 72 PART I INSTALLATION CONFIGURATION AND CUSTOMIZATION Display Properties Ze Tf Brick Desert Eggplant High Contrast 1 High Contrast 2 High Contrast Black High Contrast White Lilac Maple Marine high color Plum high color Pumpkin Rainy Day Red White and Blue VGA Rose Slate Windows Classic Windows Standard Windows Standard Fonts i Figure 3 9 Switch to the Windows Classic style and you unlock Windows color schemes that can charitably be described as blinding Normal Themes schemes and skins Microsoft uses the terms themes and schemes to mean different sub sets of technology though to most end users the difference is acade mic In the rest of the software world anything that changes the look and feel of an application is called a skin Many programs are skinnable including MSN Messenger and Windows Media Player Although you d think that skins apply to applications and themes apply to entire operating systems it doesn t always work that way WindowBlinds applies skins to Windows according to the Web site Rather than get wound up about proper use of terminology just pre tend that it all means the same thing the changing of the interface to look the way you want it to CHAPTER 3
11. there s no easy way under Windows XP to slow down the emulation environment Your best bet is to download a third party slowdown applet that you can run prior to launching your older application This can provide some relief for impossibly fast applications However this is not guaranteed and the environment may not be stable so use slowdown applications at your own risk Mo slo is a popular slowdown utility available in several differ ent versions at www hpaa com moslo 108 PART I INSTALLATION CONFIGURATION AND CUSTOMIZATION Just the facts Nearly every aspect of the Windows basic look and feel can be configured Additional wallpapers themes and icons can be added to further customize Windows With the addition of a few PowerToys you can tweak the last 10 percent of the Windows settings It is easy to take control of applications and system applets so that Windows works the way you want it to With a little luck older applications can run on XP
12. FIG later in this chapter Edit desktop settings with Tweak UI Despite all the improvements in the Windows interface and new usability enhancements there are many aspects of Windows that are odd get in the way or just plain don t work the way you expect them to Microsoft develop ers found this was true for them as well so some unsung geniuses developed the PowerToys The PowerToys collection started out as only an interface configuration application using checkboxes and tabbed dialog boxes to make changes to obscure Registry settings The changes would turn off animated menus for example or clear all search dialog boxes at logoff The recent batch of PowerToys has been expanded to include useful utilities not just for the user interface but for other Windows applications including the command line Not everyone will need all of them but if you find that Windows out of the box is a little too inflexible the PowerToys are a good first place to look for opening up Windows Tweak UI configures many of the Windows behaviors that are otherwise difficult to control If you are acting as the system administrator and you want the changes to be global use the Group Policy Editor to make the nec essary edits Otherwise if you are changing things on a peruser basis only Tweak UI is the PowerToy of choice Once you have installed Tweak UI click Start click All Programs click PowerToys for Windows XP and then click Tweak UI The wind
13. Figure 3 17 The Classic menu lets you alphabeti stable and running To read more cally sort your menu with only a single button click about the GPE and user settings see Chapter 4 to find out how to create and apply security profiles see Chapter 6 Although the GPE is most often used in larger businesses you can still use it to configure settings related to the Start menu rather than manually adjusting the settings Launch the GPE by clicking Start and then Run typing gpedit msc and then clicking OK Browse to User Configuration Administrative Templates Start Menu and Taskbar see Figure 3 18 The far right pane lists a number of settings that can be applied to all users that log onto the computer including the removal of various Start menu items locking the taskbar and clearing out any tracking items such as Recent Documents When you have the Extended View tab selected you can click an item and see an explanation of what the item does and the operating system requirements if any To change one of these set tings double click the item Select the appropriate radio button and then click OK Hack i O The GPE isn t available in Windows XP Home Edition because it creates policy files that apply registry keys at startup rather than edit the registry directly You can still edit the appropriate registry values in XP Home Edition but it would be simpler and less error prone to purchase XP Pro 82 PART
14. GET THE SCOOP ON Configuring the basic desktop Making the Start menu and taskbar work for you Enhancing Windows with PowerToys Managing applications Improving performance Managing the Windows Desktop 4 4 ou don t get a second chance to make a good first impression This saying has never been truer than with an operating system People make snap judgments about an OS based on how it looks are the col ors crisp and clean with enough variation to be pleasing to the eye Does it look comfortable to work with And is it flexi ble so that it can be changed if boredom sets in Out of the box Windows XP is the most flexible and col orful version that Microsoft has released to date It has mixed together a new design an upgrade to some old components and some much needed tweaking to give the Windows desk top a fresh new look It s an improvement over the Windows 9x and Me series and not as industrial as the Windows NT or Windows 2000 flavors The graphical parts of the XP desktop include the overall screen resolution which determines how much information you can pack onto a monitor s real estate icons desktop wallpaper graphical schemes a collection of settings that determines how windows menu text and other items appear and themes or global changes that create order out of configuration chaos hopefully in a pleasant and use ful way 59 QJ ctr D UO 60 PART I INSTALLATION C
15. ONFIGURATION AND CUSTOMIZATION Resolution icons wallpaper screen savers and themes Personalizing a desktop is a fun way to make a computer yours You can change nearly everything you see on the desktop including the wallpaper icons and desktop resolution If you don t like something you see odds are you can change it with a few judicious clicks Desktop resolution Desktop resolution is a combination of what modes your video adapter is capable of and what resolutions your monitor can display Most new video adapters today have no problem running at 1600 horizontal x 1200 verti cal resolution at 32 bit color Older cards lack the onboard horsepower and memory to render all the computations needed at that rate Monitors vary and will play a role in what resolutions to use from your video card Older monitors will not be able to display high resolutions even newer LCD monitors will not clearly display higher resolutions Resolution is changed by right clicking the desktop clicking Properties and then clicking the Settings tab see Figure 3 1 You can select the screen resolution and color quality in this dialog box feel free to play with the set tings until you find one you like If the screen appears to paint more slowly than you like such as with noticeably jerky movements of your mouse cursor when you move it try lowering the color quality from 32 bit to 24 or 16 bit This exponentially reduces the number of ca
16. Windows XP desktop both are set to optimize for Programs so you should not have to change these options If you are doing development or testing Web server programs you can change these settings so that background services and the system cache receive the majority of the available computer cycles 102 PART I INSTALLATION CONFIGURATION AND CUSTOMIZATION Performance Options weg visual Effects Advanced Data Execution Prevention Processor scheduling By default the computer is set to use a greater share of processor time to run your programs Adjust for best performance of Programs Background services Memory usage By default the computer is set to use a greater share of memory to run your programs Adjust for best performance of Programs System cache Virtual memory 4 paging file is an area on the hard disk that Windows uses as if it were RAM Total paging file size for all drives 384 MB Figure 3 33 You can instruct Windows how to optimize its performance for applications or for services The next group of settings is in the same general area but pertain to video performance From the Performance Options dialog box click the Visual Effects tab see Figure 3 34 Here you can fine tune the amount of eye candy you want when you use Windows The first two radio button options are all or nothing switches they select all or none of the items listed in the Custom list b
17. a free screensaver rotation program choose the My Pictures Slideshow option from the drop down list box You can point it at any folder with pictures or images and display them after a certain amount of desktop inactivity Watch Out Sometimes the nastiest things are contained in the most innocent looking packages Screen saver programs are notorious for containing adware spyware and viruses Before downloading one do a search to see if it s been reported as a malicious program Also scan the program with antivirus software before clicking setup CHAPTER 3 MANAGING THE WINDOWS DESKTOP 69 Figure 3 7 The Mystify screen saver uses few computer cycles but still looks good Themes Themes affect nearly every aspect of the desktop including wallpaper icons audio events transitions effects and other glitz and sizzle that give you the feeling of looking at a completely different version of Windows Themes are where artistry and creativity can truly soar there are thou sands of themes available on the Internet and new ones are being created every day Most first run blockbuster movies have desktop themes available and of course there are plenty of fan built themes for everything from aard varks to zeppelins air and Led Unfortunately Windows comes with only two themes in the box the Windows XP theme and the Windows 2000 theme You can experience the raw excitement of changing between these two by righ
18. an install or remove Scroll through the list to find the com ponents you want to add or remove you can click Details to get a list of subcomponents that can be added or removed Select a component to add or remove and then click Next Windows adds or removes the selected com ponent Close the wizard by clicking Finish Depending on the component you may need to reboot your system CHAPTER 3 MANAGING THE WINDOWS DESKTOP 97 pa Windows Components Wizard Windows Components pees You can add or remove components of Windows xP fe To add or remove a component click the checkbox A shaded box means that only part of the component will be installed To see what s included in a component click Details Components Ll Far Services 3 8 MB M BP Indexing Service 0 0 MB Internet Explorer 0 0 MB Wi Intemet Information Servines IIS 135MR IY Description Includes Windows Accessories and Utilities for your computer Total disk space required 75 5 MB Space available on disk 1822 9 MB lt Back Next gt Cancel Figure 3 30 The wizard shows you a list of Windows components to install or remove Removing hidden Windows components Older versions of Windows allowed you to select components such as games the Briefcase and WinTV remember that one at installa tion time Windows XP sped up the installation process by removing the component selection process Instead it installs many c
19. an just copying it Drag and drop is also used to re order items in a toolbar Left View click and drag the icons to new Open Folder locations Windows displays a black Show Text vertical bar showing you where the Show Title icon will land when you release the Close Toolbar mouse button alua If you get tired of any of these toolbars you can get rid of them by right clicking the toolbar and then clicking Close Toolbar see Figure 3 24 or you can right click the taskbar click Toolbars and then deselect the specific toolbar If you Task Manager Show the Desktop have the toolbar visible as a window Lock the Taskbar Properties just click the Close button All systems are go The Figure 3 24 To get rid of a toolbar right click it notification area and then click Close The notification area is at the far right of the taskbar see Figure 3 25 This area is YB 3 50 Pm also known as the system tray because it is where many figure 3 25 The system related icons appear Microsoft calls it the noti Notification Area can contain many icons only some of which actually pens with your system that you should know about a notify you of important fication area on the theory that when something hap widget will notify you about it events The reality is that many applications system related or user related put icons here Many of them are spawned by applets loaded at startup others are here instea
20. ave each desktop focused on a particular task or application Taskbar Magnifier Use this PowerToy to magnify part of the screen from the taskbar Similar to the Magnifier function in the Accessibility folder but more focused pun intended Webcam Timershot This PowerToy lets you take pictures at specified time intervals from a Webcam connected to your computer and save them to a location that you designate You may have a feature like this already in your Webcam software if so use the software that came with your Webcam instead If you decide you don t like a PowerToy you can uninstall it from the Add or Remove Programs window in Control Panel Add remove and change Windows components You can add remove and change most of the components that are available in Windows These run the gamut from accessibility tools to applets like Calc and WordPad to services like Internet Information Server IIS or Distributed Transaction Coordinator Some components such as additional mouse pointers are just for fun or add to the things you can do with Windows Others like IIS are meant for heavy duty use or more extensive use of Windows than as an ordinary desk top PC Because many of these components and services are really meant for development usage there are limits on what you can do with some of them For example the version of IIS that ships with Windows XP has a limit of ten concurrent connections So although you can run a Web
21. cations use four sizes of icons Two of these are used on the desktop while the other two are used by the system in Windows Explorer folder views and window title bars For desktop tweaking there are two icon sizes see Figure 3 4 to know about large 32 x 32 pixels and extra large 48 x 48 pixels Large is displayed by default extra large requires changing a setting From the Display Properties dialog box click the Appearance tab and then Effects Select the option to use large icons click OK and then click Apply Size isn t all that you can change with your desktop icons There is noth ing that requires you to use the default icon for an application shortcut If you are an inveterate tweaker you can change around the icons themselves to suit your pleasure Icons can be found in three primary places Windows system files such as shell32 dll application executables and icon files with the extension ico The cheap although not easy way to switch your desktop icons is by changing every program s shortcut from its default to another one more to your liking From the Start menu or the desktop icon right click an icon click Properties and then click Change Icon A dialog box appears listing the currently available icons for the shortcut These icons are the ones embedded within the application s executable some programs have only one icon others offer several Recycle Bin Stouvviwebwawecwneeuubeneds or even dozens
22. con tent directly to the desktop so that users could have an ever changing stream of information that connected people with things that were useful or helpful to them The concept didn t work in part because people wanted images and information from multiple sources aggregated into a single loca tion in part because other applications and services did a better job and in part because Active Desktop was inflexible Web content could be synchronized to the desktop only once per day so other than con necting to Picture of the Day sites Active Desktop was not useful for pulling down news sites or frequently changing information Despite these drawbacks Active Desktop is still lurking in the back ground and you must have it enabled in order to use themes or to view the new Windows XP interface If you want to explore its settings open the Display Properties dialog box click the Desktop tab click Customize Desktop and then click the Web tab The Windows XP screen saver has 11 built in effects you can use It will also lock your desktop so that no one can access your computer you must log on again to clear the screen saver You can access these settings on the Screen Saver tab on the Display Properties dialog box When you select a screen saver and then click the Settings button you can change things like transitions effects colors and other options depending on the specific saver chosen see Figure 3 7 If you want
23. ction of the Start menu There is also a button that clears the MRU area so you can get rid of menu clutter Now click the Advanced tab This dialog box see Figure 3 14 lets you change what items are visible and how the Start menu behaves Some of the more annoy LS 3 My Documents My Network Places y g My Computer Internet Explorer Kii Activate Windows Set Program Access and Defaults Windows Catalog ey W Windows Update E Programs gt Documents Ce Settings ye Search r Help and Support Run A Log Off mike Windows XP Professional go Turn Off Computer Figure 3 12 If you long for the days of Windows 2000 Windows XP lets you quickly switch back to its look ing features you can turn off including the Open submenus and Highlight new programs options You can also configure whether some of the common menu options like the Control Panel open up a new window link or list all the window s contents menu If you want to work with the more advanced options of Windows XP you need to make the Administrator Tools visible Although it s understandable why Microsoft wouldn t want just anyone pok ing around in there it s one of the rare cases where something should be enabled by default not hidden by default General Advanced Select an icon size for programs 38 Large icons 4 O Small icons Programs The Sta
24. d of minimizing to the taskbar which helps save real estate Whether you prefer lots of notification icons or few there are two basic set tings you can control regarding overall appearance You can manage the settings by right clicking the taskbar and then clicking Properties The two set tings are to display the clock or not and to hide inactive icons 90 PART I INSTALLATION CONFIGURATION AND CUSTOMIZATION To hide or unhide icons or to hide only inactive icons click the Customize button You are presented with a list of icons that have made an appearance at one time or another in the notification area Click an entry and then click the drop down list and change its status to whichever one suits your needs see Figure 3 26 Customize Notifications Windows displays icons for active and urgent notifications and hides inactive ones You can change this behavior for items in the list below Select an item then choose its notification behavior Name Behavior Y Keep your computer up to date Hide when inactive FA 30 days left for activation Hide when inactive 9 Windows Security Alerts Hide when inactive Hide when inactive Past Items Always hide Always show 8 Windows Messenger Not Sign Hide when inactive ed MSN Explorer Not signed in Always show VM ware Tools Hide when inactive Safely Remove Hardware Hide when inactive Snaalt Hide when inactive Restore Defaults Figure 3 26 You can c
25. ear lier incarnations of Windows 9x From the Display Properties dialog box click Appearance You can switch the window and button styles between Windows XP and Windows Classic when you do this the contents of the Color Scheme list box change and you have access to several of the eye blinding schemes from Windows 9x see Figure 3 9 The primary difference is that windows and buttons have a 3 D appearance in XP while the Classic is strictly 2 D Even odder if you choose the Windows XP style and click the Advanced button many of the settings you can change have no effect on the current theme such as Active Title Bar Try changing the Active Title Bar to fade from bright red to dark blue the default XP theme won t change Interestingly when you minimize or maximize a window you will see the modified title bar colors flash by however when the window comes to a rest it displays the default colors CHAPTER 3 MANAGING THE WINDOWS DESKTOP 71 Themes schemes and styles Someone at Microsoft was aiming for job security when the design specifications for themes schemes and styles were created The tech nologies are interrelated affect each other and cause customer confu sion rather than clarity Quick where do you change title bar colors Answer any or all three will do the trick Here is an attempt to explain the difference Themes cover the most desktop territory affecting anything that generates a common look and fee
26. esktop run it on demand From the 66 PART I INSTALLATION CONFIGURATION AND CUSTOMIZATION the Desktop tab and then Customize Desktop see Figure 3 6 Click Clean Desktop Now and Windows sweeps the icons away for you Desktop Items Jeg General Web Desktop icons C My Documents C My Network Places C My Computer C Internet Explorer aa i Wa a w oe y My Computer My Documents My Network Recycle Bin Re Places full i el gt Restore Default Desktop cleanup Desktop cleanup moves unused desktop items to a folder Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days Clean Desktop Now Figure 3 6 Use the Clean Desktop Now feature instead of dragging all those icons to the Recycle Bin Be warned The wizard scans and removes icons that apply to single users as well as all users of a computer If no one in your family has used a common icon in a while it could disappear into the Unused Desktop Shortcuts folder Wallpaper and screen savers Most people need no introduction to desktop wallpaper It s one of the few things in Windows that can be changed easily and many people like to To change the cleanup interval open Regedit and browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft WWindows CurrentVersion Explorer Desktop CleanupWiz Double click Days Between Clean Up change the base to Decimal and then type the number of days you prefer CHAPTER 3 MANAGING THE WINDOWS DESKTOP 67
27. ettings in the General category You can spend quite a bit of time exploring all the settings that Tweak UI makes available to you here are a few favorites General This collection of settings configures many of the animation features of Windows XP With the exception of the cursor shadow all of these get turned off Explorer Use this section to show or hide various Windows XP folders such as ones labeled My or options you never use such as Links Taskbar and Start menu Start menu This section allows you to choose which applications will stick around in the most recently used section of CHAPTER 3 MANAGING THE WINDOWS DESKTOP 93 the Start menu You can eliminate little used applications and keep the clutter minimized Double check this section every now and again as new options are added as you install and use additional programs Logon You can choose which accounts are visible in the workgroup s logon screen This is nice for those occasions when you don t want your kids attempting to hack the Administrator account hidden by default One setting you should be careful with is the Logon Autologon setting In general you should always log on with a user name and password even if you re the only person in your home To save time you can have Windows log on with any user s account automatically but because this setting bypasses the normal log on process anyone can get access to your personal i
28. g the icon of the application window you are switching to you will also see a preview of the page This helps particularly when multiple sessions of an application are open The page preview size is configurable which is a big help for people with limited vision Power Calculator With this PowerToy you can graph and evaluate func tions as well as perform many different types of conversions It won t replace your HP scientific calculator but it s handy nonetheless Bright Idea You can download all the PowerToys for Windows XP at www microsoft com windowsxp downloads powertoys xppowertoys mspx CHAPTER 3 MANAGING THE WINDOWS DESKTOP 95 Image Resizer This PowerToy enables you to resize one or many image files with a right click This is a fast and easy way to resize images for Web pages or to reduce the size of image attachments in e mail such as when you send your newest pictures of the kids to the grandparents CD Slide Show Generator With this PowerToy you can view images burned to a CD as a slide show Doing a proper job of mastering a slide show produces better results and requires more effort but if you just want a quick and dirty way to display images from a disk this is it Virtual Desktop Manager Manage up to four desktops from the Windows taskbar with this PowerToy Microsoft attempts to do what Linux has done for years increase the size of the virtual desktop You can switch between desktops and h
29. get xls for example you can put a shortcut to it here so that you are never more than one click away Address Desktop Gd My Documents 4 My Computer My Network Places 2 Recycle Bin Internet Explorer Links Customize Links Free Hotmail windows 5 Windows Marketplace Windows Media Figure 3 23 Revealed at last the hidden toolbars of Windows XP If you have installed Windows Media Player 10 you will have a Windows Media Player toolbar listed When WMP is launched and then minimized a control toolbar appears in the taskbar with the necessary media controls This is handy for when you are listening to music but don t need the screen real estate consumed with the player s interface Inside Scoop a ihe ee Microsoft applications such as Windows Media Player and Outlook have an annoying habit of installing shortcuts onto the Quick Launch toolbar for you without asking first Don t hesitate to delete these shortcuts if you find them annoying CHAPTER 3 MANAGING THE WINDOWS DESKTOP 89 You add items to all toolbars but the Address toolbar by dragging and dropping an icon onto them The easiest way is to open the toolbar click Start browse to the icon you want to add and then drag the icon onto the appropriate toolbar Left clicking and dragging automatically creates a short cut if you right click and drag a menu appears giving you the option to move the icon to the toolbar rather th
30. hange the way icons appear in the notification area A few words about the Hide when inactive option When this box is selected any icons that have not been active for a while will disappear and be replaced by a left facing chevron in the notification area You can see the chevron in the preview box above the check boxes Your inactive icons can be briefly redisplayed by clicking the chevron which scoots to the left and shows you all the icons again If you want to click an icon click quick the chevron gives you only a few seconds time before concealing the icons again CHAPTER 3 MANAGING THE WINDOWS DESKTOP 91 Hack Want to get rid of the notification area completely Open gpedit msc and browse to User Configuration Administrative Templates Start Menu and Taskbar Change the policy in the Hide the notification area to Enabled and reboot Two other ways of reducing the number of icons are to tell applications not to use the notification area either when minimizing or when just plain running and to reduce the number of applets that load at startup Some programs like media players let you choose whether to minimize to the noti fication area or to minimize to the taskbar others like MSN Messenger don t give you an option For the latter applications you can change the visi bility status as recommended above For dealing with applets that load at startup see the section Improve startup with MSCON
31. hich icons should be displayed and then creates a Start menu from those items When software is installed it may end up in one or the other folder depending on how the software s designers intended it to be used CHAPTER 3 MANAGING THE WINDOWS DESKTOP 79 The best way to clean up clutter is to prevent it When asked for a folder for the pro gram icons during Setup you can type in any location such as Programs Fun Stuff This makes it easier to categorize your applications to match the way you work Some menu items can be turned off or disabled as shown in the previous section but most of the annoyances can be resolved only through judicious pruning of the Start menu There are two main ways to do this dragging items around the Start menu one at a time or using Windows Explorer to work with multiple items at the same time Click and drag an icon to a different location on the Start menu Windows displays a black horizontal bar showing you where the item will land when you release the mouse button Using this method you can quickly pin a frequently used application to the Start menu Ifyou are using the standard Windows XP menus and want an easier way to reorganize your menus you have to do a little digging with Windows Explorer Click Start All Programs Accessories and then Windows Explorer By default it opens to My Documents In the folders pane browse to Documents and Settings All Users Start Menu Programs see Fig
32. ick on the program s executable Be careful if CHAPTER 3 MANAGING THE WINDOWS DESKTOP 85 you decide to lock out a program using this method Besides if it s a non Microsoft program and you don t want access to it why not just uninstall it One interesting behavior is that the Start menu icons reappear every time you install or reinstall a service pack If it bothers you use Tweak UI or the Group Policy Editor to get rid of them All about the taskbar and the notification area Along with the Start menu the taskbar and the System Tray are two areas you can optimize for the way you work They present a limited area to work with and so you need to determine the best balance between having plenty of information and preserving screen real estate Taming the taskbar By default the taskbar appears at the bottom of the screen but you can move it to any edge Right click the taskbar and deselect the option to lock the taskbar Click and drag the taskbar to any edge of the screen you prefer see Figure 3 20 One benefit of moving the taskbar to the sides is that you can reduce button crunch the condition where you have many windows open and the buttons get smaller making it impossible to tell what a particular button s content is E Document WordPad Jag File Edit View Insert Format Help Dee SRA B Arial 10 x Western w BZU 5 o 3 36 PM Thursday 10 6 2005 For Help press Fi
33. in my Startup folder That way information about my system and misbehaving applications is just one click away Task Manager and then click End Task The application may close right away or you may receive a system notification that This program is not responding Click End Now or wait for Windows to lose patience and close the application for you Sometimes it s not an application that goes awry but a system process This often happens with poorly written device drivers or services related to hardware that are running around listening for a response but not smart enough to figure out that the hardware isn t responding Usually when this happens the CPU usage found on the Performance tab rockets up to 100 Click the Processes tab and find the process that is consuming all or nearly all of the CPU cycles Click the process and then click End Process most of the time this is sufficient to put down the misbehaving process There are times however when the process won t be or can t be killed Unlike UNIX based systems there is no way to log on as root and have ulti mate control over what happens with the system Windows protects some processes even if you think they should be ended A third party program called Process Explorer works much like Task Manager but provides far more detail about running processes such as file system handles than aver age users would ever need But it does one thing that Task Manager doesn
34. is list The Classic Start menu s Customize button has fewer options than the Windows XP one see Figure 3 15 and some of the options are not as clear as to what they do The option to expand a menu option such as Control Panel means to display its contents as menu items rather than open up a win dow displaying the contents Customize Classic Start Menu Start menu E You can customize your Start j j menu by adding or removing items Remove Advanced Sort A To remove records of recently L accessed documents programs and Web sites click Clear Advanced Start menu options C Display Administrative Tools C Display Favorites Display Run Enable dragging and dropping C Expand Control Panel C Expand My Documents C Expand My Pictures v Ca Figure 3 15 The Classic Menu is a bit more confusing to work with but it performs the same functions as the one for the new Start menu 78 PART I INSTALLATION CONFIGURATION AND CUSTOMIZATION Minimalist at work As a writer I make my living writing books about software I launch and close applications flip between windows and in general put the desktop through a solid workout every day Anything that gets in the way or slows down a train of thought is dispensed with So nearly all of the ooh ahh things that Microsoft built into the operating system are banished immediately I turn off all animations and video effects except dropped shadows
35. l When you create or install new themes you are affecting nearly every aspect of the desktop Theme information is stored in a text file with a theme suffix Schemes are collections of settings that affect specific sets of oper ating system components For the desktop this means such ele ments as title bar colors and text window background color and icon spacing among other window specific elements Scheme information is stored in the Registry m Styles are a middle ground specifying the look and feel of com mon Windows controls such as windows buttons and title bar colors and shading effects Styles are accessed using APIs and specific style information is stored either in the Registry or in a custom configuration file read by a program s library If you must dive into the wild world of the Windows desktop stick to working with Themes Your life will be simpler and happier for it Because of the maddening design choices built into Windows XP if you are into themes you are better off not wasting your time wrestling with obscure and undocumented quirks Your best bets are either to download themes from the Web or to invest in a theme management program For the first option visit www themexp org or www wincustomize com or any theme site that grabs your interest after a quick Google search Inside Scoop If you install a theme and it doesn t work you need to enable the Themes service Click Start Run and
36. lculations the graphics card has to perform and will help with slow redraw rates LCD monitors are the coolest thing to hit computing in years You can ditch your bulky power gobbling CRT and switch over to a svelte energy efficient LCD monitor incidentally reclaiming a lot of your real life desk top s real estate There are a few things to watch out for when you go shopping for one however First you have to be sure your video card and LCD monitor can talk to each another Either your LCD monitor should support an analog connec tion or your video card should have a digital output connection most com monly a DVI connector Most LCDs support analog input though there are some that do not Check to see that you have the necessary connections available and buy the necessary cable to connect them if you don t have one in the LCD box CHAPTER 3 m MANAGING THE WINDOWS DESKTOP 61 Display Properties we Themes Desktop Screen Saver Appearance Settings bs i Display Default Monitor on YMware SYGA II Screen resolution Color quality ii More Highest 32 bit iv 800 by 600 pixels inhi Figure 3 1 The most common desktop resolution settings are readily accessible in the Display Properties dialog box Next your LCD will look its best at its native resolution which should be listed on the box or at the manufacturer s Web site Though your LCD mon itor can perform scaling taking an inpu
37. ly choose whether to send your custom configuration information to Microsoft Click Yes or No and then click Next Click Finish to exit the wizard 106 PART I INSTALLATION CONFIGURATION AND CUSTOMIZATION You can configure compatibility for any application without using the wizard Right click on an executable or a shortcut that launches it and then click Properties Click the Compatibility tab see Figure 3 36 to show the compatibility mode options on a single dialog box page make the necessary selections and then click OK Clicking the executable or the shortcut will launch your application using the compatibility mode settings MS DOS Prompt Properties wed General Program Font _ Memory Screen Misc Compatibility Summary If you have problems with this program and it worked correctly on an earlier version of Windows select the compatibility mode that matches that earlier version Compatibility mode Run this program in compatibility mode for Windows 95 v Windows 95 Windows 98 Windows Me Windows NT 4 0 Service Pack 5 Windows 2000 FTR C Run in 640 x 480 screen resolution C Disable visual themes Input settings C Tum off advanced text services for this program Learn more about Figure 3 36 Select the compatibility mode you want to use for your program CHAPTER 3 MANAGING THE WINDOWS DESKTOP 107 Application Compatibility Toolkit If you don t want t
38. mage to a different folder and then pointing your desktop to that image Another way to change your desktop with minimal hassle is by using a wallpaper rotation program that can automatically switch your desktop image without relying on Active Desktop to do it for you These programs fill a nice little niche between static desktops and dynamic screensavers One of the best and free programs is WinWall available at www desktopchanger com It is small flexible and unobtrusive The Web page features links to wallpaper sites where you can easily spend days sorting through images for your desktop Screen savers are another popular and easy desktop modification Screen savers were initially developed for monitors built in the 80s and 90s that ran the risk of having an image burned onto the screen A screen saver blanked the screen or drew random images over the monitor reducing the likeli hood of burning in any one image Berkeley Systems marketed the After Dark product that contained the near legendary Flying Toasters screen saver Today there are hundreds of screen saver programs available for every interest and hobby With today s monitors the risk of burn in is low to non existent but the fun factor remains 68 PART I INSTALLATION CONFIGURATION AND CUSTOMIZATION In Active Desktop When Windows 95 first shipped someone had the bright idea of creating the Active Desktop The concept was to bring Internet
39. mand is like a bridge between the GUI world and the command line capable not only of saving you time but opening up powers you didn t know you had Any application that is in Windows application path can be launched by typing the executable name such as winword Most Windows specific applications such as Regedit are in this path and can be launched in this manner Many management functions can be launched directly from the Run command such as the Group Policy Editor gpedit msc and the Local User Manager lusrmgr msc For some of these such as mscorcfg msc NET configuration using the Run command is the only way to gain access to them You can also open shares across the network without browsing through My Network Places Type computername sharename and then click OK The share opens up in a new window Finally you can open up Control Panel components without the seemingly endless drill down To open the Add or Remove Programs component type appwiz cpl or open the Network Connections com ponent with ncpa cpl So keep the Run command around You will find yourself using it with increasing frequency The antitrust icon The United States Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft saying that Microsoft was using unfair business practices to prevent competition They presented evidence that Microsoft ignored or clob bered other programs settings when those programs were installed specifically
40. nfor mation to the application allowing it to run Compatibility mode also includes re creating registry structures and other OS specific variables found in Windows 9x which differed in significant ways from the structure cur rently used by Windows XP Compatibility mode isn t an instant cure all There are numerous appli cations that should not be run using compatibility mode These include ones that interact directly with hardware such as older antivirus software disk defragmentation programs registry editors and rescue utilities like Norton Utilities If you try to run an application that directly manages hardware or the operating system using compatibility mode you stand an excellent chance of corrupting your system and making it unbootable The easiest way to configure compatibility mode is by using a wizard 1 Click Start click All Programs click Accessories and then click Program Compatibility Wizard Click Next The Program Compatibility Wizard appears Click Next 2 The Program Compatibility Wizard offers you a choice of how to locate your program choosing from a list running a program on CD or man ually browsing to a location If you select the first option the wizard searches the Program Files and Windows folders for applications that CHAPTER 3 MANAGING THE WINDOWS DESKTOP 105 you have already installed This option is best for older Windows appli cations The second option is for programs on a CD that are no
41. nforma tion or masquerade as you online This setting is most useful for testing and troubleshooting when you never leave the computer It is a high security risk and should be disabled once you have finished your testing Lastly there is another setting that can be a huge help Occasionally Windows gets confused about resource information and mixes up icons on the desktop and in Windows Explorer In the Repair section see Figure 3 28 the first item in the drop down list allows you to rebuild icon resource informa tion and nine times out of ten it will restore the mixed up icons to their nor mal programs and files D Tweak UI we About General Tweak UI can attempt to repair the following aspects Mouse of your system Explorer Common Dialogs Taskbar and Start menu A Rebuild Icons v Repair Now Desktop Rebuild Icons My Computer Descripti Repair Font Folder Control Panel e Repair My Music icon Templates Rebuilds Repair My Pictures icon ed Explorer icons from me Repair My Videos icon Internet Explorer Repair Regedit Command Prompt Rebuild p Hisplaying the 3 Logon wrong ico Access Control Warning Repairing icons may cause icons to lose any custom Repair positions ed acer Figure 3 28 One of Tweak UI s Repair options reset icons to their default appearance 94 PART I INSTALLATION CONFIGURATION AND CUSTOMIZATION A grab bag of PowerToys PowerToys are additional programs that Mic
42. o spend your time adjusting settings repeatedly in order to find what works there may be an easier way to create a com patible environment for your older applications Microsoft offers an advanced set of tools intended for system admin istrators called the Application Compatibility Toolkit Its core applica tion the Compatibility Administrator contains a number of settings and fixes for many applications They are settings that have worked in other environments and may in yours You can download the toolkit at http msdn microsoft com library default asp url downloads list appcomp asp If you want to run MS DOS applications on Windows XP your course of action is a little trickier You can run applications in the standard command line virtual machine cmd exe Or you can run your application in a DOS emulation environment command com Both are managed by NTVDM or NT Virtual DOS Machine which sets environment variables needed by DOS programs when you run them Environment variables can be set by modifying or creating custom AUTOEXEG NT and CONFIG NT files that are run when the virtual machine starts The AUTOEXEC NT and CONFIG NT files can be found in the Windows system32 directory If you were comfortable modifying their analogues in DOS you can do the same in Windows XP Very old MS DOS applications relied on the CPU clock speed to deter mine how fast the application ran Even if you configure the environment correctly
43. of icons to choose from Select an icon and then click Extra large OK twice Your icon changes to Figure 3 4 You can switch to larger icons when your selection you use higher desktop resolutions Bright Idea If you are using the large icon set you can also switch to using larger fonts From the Display Properties dialog box click the Appearance tab From the Font size drop down list select Normal 10 pt Large 14 pt or Extra large 17 pt and then click OK CHAPTER 3 MANAGING THE WINDOWS DESKTOP 65 Inside Scoop Some system icons can be changed only through Display Properties Click the Desktop tab and then click Customize Desktop You can also choose which of these icons you want displayed or not on the desktop from this dialog box If you don t like the limited selection of icons you can browse to other applications or even Windows system libraries From the Change Icon dialog box click Browse and then go hunt down icons that are more to your liking Shell32 dll holds many of the Windows system icons some of which you may have never seen see Figure 3 5 Take a look in other executables too you may find something that is more appealing The Internet also has icon libraries available if you want to add some pizzazz without having to do the heavy lifting yourself Do a search for free XP icons in your favorite search engine and start browsing The easier way to change your icons i
44. ogram Choose a default instant messaging program Use my current instant messaging program Windows Messenger V Enable access to this program Mi OK Cancel Help Figure 3 19 The Set Program Access and Defaults dialog box lets you specify non Microsoft programs to use for key Internet functions There are three configuration radio buttons listed The first is the nothing but Microsoft option In essence you tell Windows that no matter what else is installed on your machine you want to use only Microsoft products Your other programs are still available but the related program associations remain with Microsoft applications and the pinned applications on the Start menu belong to Microsoft The second option is the anything but Microsoft option where you tell Windows that you want to use your non Microsoft browsers media players and instant messengers However this is a scorched earth option all references to Microsoft applications in the Start menu and program associations are removed The applications are still on disk and can be restored by coming back to this dialog box but otherwise it s as if they were never on your system The Custom option lets you mix and match between the two For exam ple you can choose a non Microsoft browser as your default but still allow access to Internet Explorer If you choose not to allow access to a program it may not work even if you cl
45. omponents without asking you for permission some of which look like they can t be uninstalled You won t find a way to uninstall Pinball for example even though it takes up a lot of space on your hard drive But there is a way to list those hidden components in the Add Remove Components dialog box Using Windows Explorer browse to the Windows inf folder and use Notepad to open the file SYSOCG INF If you can t see the folder change Explorer s settings to show you hidden and system files You will see a number of line entries like this one Games ocgen d1l1 OcEntry games inf HIDE 7 Delete the word HIDE from the component you want to appear in Add Remove Components and then save the file Go to the Add Remove Components dialog box and you will see the components ready to be deleted 98 PART I INSTALLATION CONFIGURATION AND CUSTOMIZATION Manage applications with Task Manager Task Manager is a jack of all trades application that provides a wealth of information about the overall health of Windows Most frequently it is used to kill applications and processes that have crashed and are no longer responding You can launch Task Manager see Figure 3 31 in three different ways Right click on the taskbar and then click Task Manager press Ctrl Shift Esc or press Ctrl Alt Del The latter will either bring up Task Manager if you are in a workgroup or bring up the Windows Security dialog box if you are in a domain where
46. ow see 92 PART I INSTALLATION CONFIGURATION AND CUSTOMIZATION Watch Out s n 7 E F Although PowerToys are written by Microsoft and available from Microsoft Microsoft lets you know in no uncertain terms that all PowerToys are unofficial and unsupported If you install one and Windows breaks you re on your own Figure 3 27 displays a tree in the left pane a collection of settings related to tree items in the upper right and the lower right contains explanations sometimes very brief of what each setting accomplishes Most settings are per user some are global and some require a log off and a log on to change the desktop W Tweak UI ajx About Settings General Mouse Beep on errors A Explorer M Enable combo box animation Common Dialogs M Enable cursor shadow Taskbar and Start menu M Enable list box animation Grouping M Enable menu animation Start Menu V Enable menu fading Desktop V Enable menu selection fading My Computer M Enable mouse hot tracking effects v Control Panel Templates Description Internet Explorer The Beep on errors check box enables the playing of a Command Prompt beep sound customizable in the Sounds control panel when a system error occurs This setting does not affect Logon custom error sounds played by applications Access Control Repair This is a per user setting Cx Figure 3 27 You can turn off desktop animation s
47. ox The Custom radio button lets you pick and choose which animation elements you want Windows to spend time computing and displaying for you CHAPTER 3 MANAGING THE WINDOWS DESKTOP 103 Performance Options Ze Visual Effects Advanced Data Execution Prevention Select the settings you want to use for the appearance and performance of Windows on this computer O Let Windows choose what s best for my computer O Adjust for best appearance O Adjust for best performance Custom Show translucent selection rectangle Show window contents while dragging Slide open combo boxes Slide taskbar buttons Smooth edges of screen Fonts Smooth scroll list boxes Use a background image for each Folder type Use common tasks in Folders Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop ES ES KS ES ES ES Figure 3 34 Select the visual effects you want displayed If you play computer games there are two additional changes you can make that will help with performance especially if your system is on the bor derline for the game s hardware requirements Most games suggest turning off anti aliasing and anisotropic filtering both of which ask your video card to spend precious cycles calculating features that probably won t be missed in fast action first person shooter games Watch Out n m m The last item in the list Use visual styles on windows and buttons turns on and off the Windows XP
48. ramat ically among adapters an in depth discussion of specifics is beyond this chapter But here are a few tips on getting the best out of your card m Make sure your drivers and management applications are up to date Even though the screamingly newest drivers may have bugs any drivers that are more than a couple weeks old are probably safe to use And as with many things in software the older the hardware the more likely the bugs have been pretty well squashed Most video card help files and user guides are hopelessly obscure Find an official or unofficial forum or message board for your video card lurk there for a while and learn from the mistakes of others m Ifyou work in a profession such as graphics design or video edit ing hang out on profession specific forums You will find a lot of advice about specific adapter settings for particular projects including tweaks to make the card faster visibility From the Display Properties dialog box click the Appearance tab and then click Effects Select the Use the following method to smooth screen fonts check box and then select ClearType from the drop down list see Figure 3 2 The other setting that affects your viewing quality is off the beaten path for reasons known only to Microsoft From the Settings tab click Advanced and then click the Monitor tab see Figure 3 3 From here you can change the screen refresh rate Set the screen resolution and color quality fir
49. rintuitive Just get into the habit of reading the GPE items and the explanations closely before making changes But you re not done yet The GPE has written the changes to the neces sary files but Windows hasn t been told to apply them yet You can do this in two ways You can log off and log back on again or click Start Run type cmd and then click OK In the command window type gpupdate and press Enter This instructs Windows to read the local policies file and apply any changes that have been made Additionally if you browse around the Administrative Templates folder you will see that you can change a lot of settings related to Windows XP s basic operation Browse to Control PanelDisplay and you can hide many of the options that have been covered in this chapter Feel free to experiment but remember that it s possible to lock down Windows so tightly that you cannot gain access to any administrator tools the GPE or Regedit There are ways around this but they can be painful and complicated The moral of the story Change only a few things at a time and don t be in a rush to make your system impenetrable You just may lock yourself out of your own house CHAPTER 3 MANAGING THE WINDOWS DESKTOP 83 Run Run Unless you have really good reasons to hide the Run command from users pesky inquisitive children for example you should think twice before disabling it with either the Group Policy Editor or Tweak UL The Run com
50. rlier versions of Windows Figure 3 11 The Start menu can display the new look or the classic look New look or old look Your first choice available is to switch between the Windows XP menu system and the Windows 2000 menu system Some people find the Windows XP look a real mess others find it useful If you prefer the pre XP menu struc ture without a lot of distractions you can switch between the two by clicking the appropriate button The mini monitor shows you what the two will look like Notice also that several icons are added to the desktop with the Classic look see Figure 3 12 My Documents My Computer My Network Places and Internet Explorer These can be added to the Windows XP desktop by using the PowerToy Tweak UI covered later in this chapter CHAPTER 3 MANAGING THE WINDOWS DESKTOP 75 You can customize either menu by clicking the Customize button Most of the settings differ between the standard and classic menus those that occur on both such as Display the Run command are not persistent between the dialog boxes so if you change a setting in one it will mysteriously change when you switch between them The Start menu s basic cus tomization see Figure 3 13 includes viewing large or small icons in the menu setting the num ber of most recently used MRU applications visible in the menu and choosing which Internet and e mail applications to pin to the upper left se
51. rosoft developers worked on after Windows XP was released to manufacturing They add missing func tionality to Windows and even make Windows fun in some cases The PowerToys collection is updated from time to time as new applets are built or as existing PowerToys gain some features or bug fixes Here is a list of PowerToys currently available RAW Image Thumbnailer and Viewer The RAW format is considered the most flexible and true to life file format unlike lossy formats such as JPG With this PowerToy you can organize and work with digital RAW files in Windows Explorer much as you can with JPEG images It also provides thumbnails previews printing and metadata display for RAW images ClearType Tuner This PowerToy lets you use ClearType technology to make it easier to read text on your screen and installs in the Control Panel for easy access It is a definite boon for LCD or laptop users since ClearType was initially either on or off with no easy means of control HTML Slide Show Wizard This wizard helps you create an HTML slide show of your digital pictures ready to place on your Web site Open Command Window Here This PowerToy adds an Open Command Window Here context menu option on file system folders giving you a quick way to open a command window cmd exe pointing at the selected folder Incredibly handy for users who enjoy a command line interface Alt Tab Replacement With this PowerToy in addition to seein
52. rt menu contains shortcuts to the programs you use most often Clearing the list of shortcuts does not delete the programs Number of programs on Start menu ga Show on Start menu Internet Internet Explorer E mail Outlook Express Figure 3 13 Use the Customize Start Menu dialog box to change your basic menu options such as icon size and number of most recently used items Customize Start Menu General Advanced Start menu settings Open submenus when pause on them with my mouse Highlight newly installed programs Start menu items Search Set Program Access and Defaults 4 System Administrative Tools Display on the All Programs menu Display on the All Programs menu and the Start menu Don t display this item Recent documents Select this option to provide quick access to the documents you opened most recently Clearing this list does not delete the documents List my most recently opened documents Clear List Figure 3 14 Save yourself some clicks and enable the Administrative Tools menu items CHAPTER 3 MANAGING THE WINDOWS DESKTOP 77 Bright Idea You can pin any program to the top left part of the Start menu by dragging it onto the Start button or by right clicking a shortcut and clicking Pin to Start menu Right click the icon and click Unpin from Start menu or right click it in the menu and click Remove from th
53. rtup I Programs JEE File Edit View Favorites Tools Help ie Back 7 2 2 Search ey Folders ia Address IM C Documents and Settings Al Users Start Menu Programs M amp CJ Administrative Tools m k MSN Explorer horbeut M Administrative Ti M Games E Snagit 7 A Startup 0 mke O Cookes O Desktop ve Favorites LI My Documents C Start Menu I Programs m Accessories Startup 5 gt Program Files CQ WINDOWS E 4 DYD RW Drive D 5 m fl Qi Windows Messenger 3 shorter F i sl Figure 3 16 Windows Explorer is the fastest easiest way to rearrange or delete Start menu items With the Classic view you are given a wizard to create or remove new folders and shortcuts In the Classic view right click Start click Properties and then click the Customize button At the top of the Customize dialog box are the Add and Remove buttons that walk you through the steps needed to well add or remove items in the Start menu This wizard works its magic only on the logged on user s own folders not the All Users folder To do that or to move things around click the Advanced button This launches Windows Explorer focused on the user s folders but you can browse up and down the folder list and work with menu items normally Note that Windows places the Sort function on this menu rather than as a rightclick menu option see Figure 3 17 This button also sorts the Start menu recursi
54. s to use a program designed to col lect all icon files from your computer create icon libraries and then point your shortcut to a library There are a number of freeware and shareware programs available to extract icons create static or animated icons and do just about anything you could ever want with icons Popular icon manager choices include Microangelo www microangelo us IconCool Manager www iconcool com and AZ Icon Editor www hermancompute com After a while your desktop may Change Icon Ze get cluttered with icons especially Look for icons in this File when programs install lots of links CAWINDOWS system324shell32 d to affiliate Web sites or trial soft Select an icon from the list below ware that shipped on the CD Some l z eA A aj people like the casual disorder that z ae Sa 9 E r W comes with acres of icons other gt E a SD ba DEL wy people get tired of dragging icons on e a B amp a L L to the Recycle Bin in an attempt to S gt A ate po D i B clear some space on the desktop i J af Windows XP has the Desktop Q 93 2 a le gt Cleanup Wizard that cleans up z unused icons and puts them into a folder on your desktop By default it runs every 60 days but you can Figure 3 5 Shell32 dll contains most of the s standard Windows system icons found in menus Display Properties dialog box click windows and on the d
55. s with a few toolbars that you may find useful When you first activate them the toolbars appear on the existing taskbar you can click and drag them onto your existing desktop creating separate windows You may also need to increase the taskbar s size to accommodate the additional toolbars To display the new toolbars right click the taskbar and then click Toolbars The menu see Figure 3 23 shows four toolbars that you can add to your desktop m Address The Address toolbar is next to Quick Launch the most useful of the bunch It displays a dockable toolbar that lets you type in or copy and paste a URL This will launch your default browser and navigate to the link It s very handy and saves you a click or two m Links The Links toolbar shows you the contents of Internet Explorer s Favorites Links folder This is only partially useful you may not put all your favorites into this folder and you may not even use Internet Explorer as your browser Desktop This toolbar may be useful to someone but it s not clear whom it s meant for It contains a subset of buttons that you can reach in other and better ways Maybe you ll discover the use that Microsoft thought of when they included it in Windows XP 88 PART I INSTALLATION CONFIGURATION AND CUSTOMIZATION m Quick Launch The single most useful toolbar in the bunch This lets you add any program document or URL onto it that you want If you are always opening bud
56. server on your 96 PART I INSTALLATION CONFIGURATION AND CUSTOMIZATION desktop it s more for development efforts than for actual serving of content on the Internet It all starts with the Add or Remove Programs dialog box Click Start click Control Panel and then click Add or Remove Programs see Figure 3 29 The default view shows you which applications and software updates you have installed on your computer You can remove or change the pro gram s installation if that option is available by clicking a program and then clicking Remove File Edit View Favorites Tools Help Q x z gt z P Psh gt gt Folders EN Address Control Panel g Control Panel 6 Pick a category GB Swkch to Classic view we A cs Appearance and Themes Printers and Other Hardware SS See Also SS A Windows Update Help and Support Network and Internet Connections ow Other Control Panel Options Date Time Language and Regional fr Options Install or remove programs and Windows components J Sounds Speech and Audio Devices Accessibility Options Performance and Maintenance Security Center Figure 3 29 You can add or remove just about anything on your computer using this option To remove Windows components click the Add Remove Windows Com ponents button on the left side of the dialog box The Windows Components Wizard appears see Figure 3 30 showing you a list of Windows compo nents that you c
57. st and then set the refresh rate to the highest your monitor supports CHAPTER 3 m MANAGING THE WINDOWS DESKTOP Effects we Use the Following transition effect For menus and tooltips Fade effect lv Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts Standard Show shadows under menus Show window contents while dragging Hide underlined letters for keyboard navigation until I press the Alt key Figure 3 2 ClearType can help you see text better on LCD screens Default Monitor and VMware SVGA II Properties Be General Adapter Monitor Troubleshoot Monitor type m Default Monitor Monitor settings Properties Screen refresh rate 85 Hertz v Hide mo f cannot d Clearing this ox allows you to select display modes that this monitor cannot displa rrectly This may lead to an unusable y and or damaged hardware Figure 3 3 Increasing your monitor refresh rate reduces eyestrain and fuzzy screen objects 63 64 PART I INSTALLATION CONFIGURATION AND CUSTOMIZATION Icons The Windows XP icon set is colorful and sometimes fun to watch Most peo ple will never change the icons that are applied to any application file or shortcut on the desktop However like many things in software the default icons are ones that a developer thought would look good with an applica tion not necessarily what is informative or helpful to you Windows and Windows appli
58. style If you deselect this item the interface reverts to the Windows 2000 style though it keeps the Windows XP Start menu structure 104 PART I m INSTALLATION CONFIGURATION AND CUSTOMIZATION These settings are found in your video card s management applet or on a special tab in the Display Properties dialog box Deselect these options and you will gain some additional cycles without drastically reducing image quality Running old DOS or Windows applications With Windows 2000 Microsoft removed the support for older DOS and 16 bit Windows applications that was in Windows 9x and Windows Me This code though well written allowed applications and device drivers to write directly to hardware causing hard locks system level crashes and the infa mous blue screen of death Removing this code drastically reduced the number of crashes but also made backwards compatibility trickier especially for custom software that relied on legacy applications or gamers with several years of older games they wanted to play However with Windows 2000 and Windows XP Microsoft included Compatibility Mode a set of software services and database collection of application information that provides limited DOS emulation for these older applications For example some Windows 16 bit applications query Windows to find out what version it is and the application will not run if the answer is not recognized Compatibility mode provides the necessary i
59. t at one resolution and changing it to another you re better off passing it a signal that doesn t require addi tional calculations and incur dithering and jaggies in the process Third pixel response time is typically slower than CRTs If you plan on playing high speed games with intense graphical changes LCDs will blur and look messy because the crystals can t change as fast as CRT pixels in response to the video signal There are some expensive LCD monitors with response times of approximately 8 milliseconds but most are in the 18 25ms range Finally Windows XP has a feature made initially for laptops called ClearType This is a font dithering algorithm that can make screen fonts look cleaner You can try using it on your LCD monitor to see if it helps with 62 PART I INSTALLATION CONFIGURATION AND CUSTOMIZATION Video cards drivers and management applications Most new video cards come with comprehensive drivers and man agement programs that can adjust nearly every aspect of a card s perfor mance Frequently they install tabs in place of the standard Windows ones that change desktop resolution color quality and monitor refresh rates for you If you have one of these programs installed you should use it to fid dle with your adapter s settings Although you can still use the default Windows dialog boxes you re better off playing the game the way the video card manufacturer intended Because the interfaces vary d
60. t clicking the desktop and then clicking Properties The Display Properties dialog box defaults to opening on the Themes tab The drop down list includes Windows XP and Windows Classic see Figure 3 8 if you have installed other themes you will find them listed here The mini monitor shows you what your new theme will look like click OK if you want to keep the new theme You can also save your current settings as a theme so that you can switch between themes without losing your custom settings Click the Save as button Windows defaults to saving a theme file in the My Documents folder which is normally a great place to save personalized information However the themes listed in the drop down list box are found in the Windows Resources Themes folder so you should browse to that folder and save your theme files there 70 PART I INSTALLATION CONFIGURATION AND CUSTOMIZATION Display Properties we Themes Desktop Screen Saver Appearance Settings theme is a background plus a set of sounds icons and other elements to help you personalize your computer with one click Theme Wiley scheme Modified x Wiley scheme Modified Wiley scheme My Current Theme Windows XP Windows Classic More themes online Browse Figure 3 8 You can switch between Windows themes or third party themes if you have them installed Oddly Microsoft has stashed several color schemes that were found in
61. t yet installed whether Windows or older DOS applications The third option is for programs not installed but present on your hard drive this is the best option for all older DOS applications Assuming you re working with an older Windows application choose the first option and then click Next 3 A list of programs is presented see Figure 3 35 Select the program you want to configure from the list and then click Next Help and Support Center aes c gt 0 G Index Je Favortes E2 History TI Support v Options Help and Support Center onal s XP Profess Program Compatibility Wizard Select a compatibility mode for the program Choose the operating system that is recommended for this program or that previously supported the program correctly Microson Windows 95 Microsoft Windows NT 4 0 Service Pack 5 Microson Windows 98 Windows Me Microsoft Windows 2000 O Do not apply a compatibility mode lt Back Next gt Cancel Figure 3 35 Select the compatibility mode you want to use for your program 4 Select the operating system compatibility mode and then click Next Select optional display modes for your application if needed and then click Next 5 To test the compatibility settings click Next 6 Click which result applies to your compatibility tests and then click Next The wizard collects Windows system information based on your responses and you can voluntari
62. tons and Show Quick Launch The grouping feature is an attempt to save button space in the taskbar When you open more than one window using the same application such as Word or Internet Explorer Windows will collect the windows into a single taskbar but ton The button is then modified to show the number of collected windows CHAPTER 3 MANAGING THE WINDOWS DESKTOP 87 and a down pointing arrowhead When you click the button a document list appears and you can click on the necessary document to jump to it Turn this option off and you go back to the Windows 2000 default behavior where button crunch is the normal state of being The other setting is to show the Quick Launch toolbar see Figure 3 22 The next section covers custom toolbars in depth but the Quick Launch toolbar was turned on by default in Windows 2000 and then turned off in Windows XP I find the Quick Launch toolbar to be one of the most helpful features of the desktop and I rely on it extensively I don t need to sort through multiple layers of menus on the Start Menu in order to launch a commonly used application And because I prefer not to have my tue A desktop cluttered with icons the B Ei Quick Launch is where I put short Figure 3 22 The Quick Launch toolbar shown undocked is the perfect place to launch frequently applications used programs cuts to my most frequently used Customize your toolbars Windows XP come
63. u structure for s thi l Fi 3 10 Ca E mail LLI My Recent Documents gt every ing else aee e f Call catooke Wee naa Like many things with Microsoft gt xi MSN Explorer 2 My Music 93 My Computer Windows Media Player a My Network Places software there are numerous access points that lead you to settings you can change and some of the more D Windows Movie Maker R Control Panel important settings are hidden where QD Tou windows t Prowem Access and 5 Defaults you wouldn t expect them The Start A Fies and Settings Transfer a Printers and Faxes SS Wizard k button is a prime example It con a 3 a Help and Support tains a number of settings that Dan Sear change how it behaves and how All Programs gt 77 Run your desktop looks EE Loa oF iO Turn Off Computer You can access the hidden pow ers of the Start button by right click Figure 3 10 The four Start button areas present you with different ways to launch applications or ing it and then clicking Properties open documents 74 PART I INSTALLATION CONFIGURATION AND CUSTOMIZATION The Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box appears with the Start Menu tab selected see Figure 3 11 Taskbar and Start Menu Properties wea Taskbar Start Menu Select this menu style for easy access to the Internet e mail and your favorite programs Classic Start menu Customize Select this option to use the menu style from ea
64. ure 3 16 From this point you can follow the rest of the Start menu hierarchy and use the multiple selection and drag and drop capabilities of Windows Explorer to create and delete fold ers move icons and folders around and in general make the organization more to your liking For applications that install to a specific user s directory browse to Documents and Settings ousername Start Menu Programs One incomprehensible Windows design decision is the non alphabetization of menus by default In other words when you move menu items around they are tacked on at the end of the current menu structure rather than put in alphabetical order automatically like in any other folder To remedy this decision Microsoft included a sorting option that you must invoke each time you want the menu structure cleaned up Right click anywhere in the All Programs menu and then click Sort by name Folders are moved to the top of the menu and sorted followed by individual menu items You need to do this for each subsequent level of the Start menu sadly the sort feature isn t recursive so it won t work its way through the levels of the Start menu orga nizing your icons for you 80 PART I INSTALLATION CONFIGURATION AND CUSTOMIZATION Folders x Se Local Disk C a H Documents and Settings O All Users gt Desktop LI Favorites H L Shared Documents L Start Menu L Programs E M Accessories e Accessories ha Games an Sta
65. vely There s probably a reason Microsoft flip flopped the sort ing behavior between the menu versions but it seems counterintuitive to take away functionality that was perfectly decent in a previous release Watch Out z o 3 If you shuffle icons around you may make some programs go invisible to other users Feel free to move icons within a particular user s directory including the All Users one but be careful moving icons from a user to All Users and from All Users to a specific user CHAPTER 3 MANAGING THE WINDOWS DESKTOP 81 It s our policy to say no Customize Classic Start Menu we e Start menu Group policies are used by p Yo can customize your Start n f ii Windows centric environments to o ndia a a e define and control just about every aspect of the operating system and related software The Group Policy 2 Toremove records of recently K accessed documents programs Editor GPE is the tool used to and Web sites clek Clear define and apply policies to com jyenced tart menu mor puters and users and is especially C Expand My Documents 5 _ Expand My Pictures helpful in locking down unneeded L Expand Network Connections a Ree Expand Print services or restricting the damage Bi Scr Procrans that end users can accidentally do en These settings override those cre me Ca ated by users which makes it a pow erful tool to help keep a computer
66. you can then click the Task Manager button Windows Task Manager File Options View ShutDown Help Applications Processes Performance Networking Users Image Name User Name CPU Mem Usage explorer exe mil i VMwareService exe SYSTEM 1 796 K msmsgs exe mike 2 184K VMwareUser exe mike 3 016K spoolsv exe SYSTEM 4 240 K svchost exe LOCAL SERVICE 4 240 K svchost exe NETWORK SERVICE 2 904 K svchost exe SYSTEM 23 908 K wuauclt exe mike 5 200 K svchost exe NETWORK SERVICE 3 744K svchost exe SYSTEM 4 308 K Isass exe SYSTEM 1 180 K SnagIt32 exe mike 10 708 K services exe SYSTEM 3 744K winlogon exe SYSTEM 4 660 K csrss exe SYSTEM 3 452 K smss exe SYSTEM 460K taskmar exe mike 3 872 K C Show processes from all users End Process Processes 22 CPU Usage 7 Commit Charge 100356K 6329 v Figure 3 31 Task Manager displays a list of what is running on your computer Click the Applications tab and you will see a list of all running applica tions on your system and each application s status If the program has crashed and has stopped responding your mouse cursor moves but you cannot open menus or click the close button Task Manager shows you the helpful message Not Responding Click the unresponsive application in CHAPTER 3 MANAGING THE WINDOWS DESKTOP 99 Inside Scoop Because Task Manager displays CPU usage and helps identify misbehaving applica tions I put a shortcut to taskmgr exe
67. ype MSCONFIG and then click OK Click the Startup tab see Figure 3 32 You will see a list of the applets that are loaded at boot time the name of the applet the applet s location and any com mand line options and the registry key that contains the information System Configuration Utility General SYSTEM INI WIN INI BOOT INI Services Startup Startup Item Command Location 7 VMwareTray C Program Files vMwarel vMware Tools vMwareTray exe _ HKLM SOFTWARE Microsof V YMwareUser C Program Files WMwarelWMware Tools v MwareUser exe HKLMISOFTWARE Microsof V msmsas C Program Files Messenger msmsgs exe background HKCU SOFTWARE Microsof gt Disable All Figure 3 32 MSCONFIG lets you select which applets to load at boot time From this dialog box you can select and deselect which applets you want loaded at boot time This is a great way to determine which applets are needed and which are just consuming CPU cycles For example I never used my video card s control panel which was so generously installed into the notification area for me Using MSCONFIG I determined that my system worked just fine without it so I launched Regedit and removed the registry key that loaded the applet CHAPTER 3 MANAGING THE WINDOWS DESKTOP 101 Hack Want a fast way to bypass loading all those applets at boot time Hold down the Shift key when your computer is booting MSCOMFIG

Wiley The Unofficial Guide to Windows XP

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