Friday, August 22, 2008
Custom User Icons
If you plan on getting a copy of XP, one of the first things you're going to do is set up a user account. Why not give your user account its very own picture? It's OK if you don't want to use a picture of your own because Windows comes with at least 20 beautiful pictures to choose from.
Here's how you can customize your user account icon.
Single-click the start menu and choose Control Panel.
Single-click the User Accounts icon.
Find the user account you'd like to change the icon for and click on it.
Click the text that says "Change My Picture."
You'll have the option to either pick one of the predefined icons or choose your own.
If you like one of the predefined icons, just highlight the one you like and click the button labeled "Change Picture."
If you'd like to use your own picture, just click the magnifying glass or the text labeled "Browse for more pictures." This will launch a dialog box directing you to navigate to where your new picture is stored. After you find it, just click Open to save your new changes.
Make XP display a custom screen saver using your very own pictures
It used to be darn near impossible to create a personal screen saver using your own photo collection. To do this, you had to track down a third-party application and sloppily piece together your pictures to create a screen saver.
Well, the engineers at Microsoft must have realized they hated third-party applications and decided enough was enough. XP can take any pictures stored in your "My Pictures" folder and display them in random order as a screen saver.
To make a personal screen saver in XP, follow these directions:
Right-click an empty spot on your desktop and choose Properties.
Click the Screen Saver tab inside the Display Properties dialog box.
In the Screen Saver pull-down menu, choose "My Pictures Slideshow."
Underneath the Screen Saver pull-down menu, adjust the time of inactivity before Windows will initiate your screen saver.
Click Settings to make additional adjustments. You'll be able to adjust transition effects between pictures, how frequently they change, what size the pictures should be, and more.
Click OK when you're done tweaking the settings adjustments.
Press the Preview button to see what your screen saver looks like.
If everything is to your liking, click Apply.
Volume Icon in Taskbar
It's really handy to have access to the Volume Control panel in the event you quickly need to move the volume slider up or down. In its default state, XP ships with almost a clean slate for both the desktop and taskbar. So, if you'd like to place the volume control icon in the taskbar, you're going to need to make a little adjustment.
To place the volume control icon in the taskbar, follow these steps:
Single-click the Start menu.
Single-click Control Panel.
Single-click Sound, Speech, and Audio Devices.
Single-click Sounds and Audio Devices to launch the Sound and Audio Devices properties.
On the Volume tab, locate the text labeled "Device Volume" and place a check mark next to the text labeled "Place volume icon in the taskbar."
Single-click Apply.
You should now have the volume icon in the taskbar. Now all you need to do is double-click this icon to bring up your Volume Control panel.
Display the Quick Launch Bar
If you have opened more than one program, you might like to display and use the Quick Launch bar. The Quick Launch bar makes it easy to access frequently used programs like Windows Media Player and your e-mail, and to open an Internet Explorer window. Windows XP loads several programs in the Quick Launch, including Show Desktop. One click on Show Desktop minimizes all the programs on your desktop. Another click restores them just as you'd left them.
To display Quick Launch on the taskbar
1. If the Quick Launch bar is not displayed, right-click an empty area on the taskbar and click Properties.
2. On the Taskbar tab, under Taskbar appearance, select the Show Quick Launch check box and click OK.
After Quick Launch is displayed, click Show Desktop to minimize all open programs.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Change The Taskbar Group Size
By default taskbar grouping will happen when you have three or more of the same program windows open. We have found the registry key to change the settings so that, if you prefer, Windows XP will wait till you open even more of the same program windows before they start to group. Here is an overview of Taskbar Grouping first:
Overview
The taskbar can become crowded with buttons when you are working with multiple programs at the same time. For this reason, Windows provides a feature to help you manage a large number of open documents and program items. The taskbar button grouping feature works in two ways. First, taskbar buttons for documents opened by the same program are always displayed in the same area of the taskbar so you can find your documents easily.
Second, if you have many documents open in the same program, Windows combines all the documents into one taskbar button that is labeled with the name of the program. A triangle on the right side of the button indicates that many documents are open in this program. The single button provides access to all the open documents. To access one of the open documents, click the triangle on the taskbar button, and then click a document name in the list. To act on all the open documents at the same time, use the right-click menu. For example, right-clicking the triangle gives you a menu that lets you close all the open documents.
The Tip
Click here to download the registry key to enable user defined grouping. It's currently set at 3, if you want to change this number open the .reg file in notepad and edit the line:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
"TaskbarGroupSize"=dword:00000003
Change this to whatever number you wish explorer to group at. i.e. change it to dword:00000008 if you wanted explorer to group on 8, or dword:00000005 if you want explorer to group on 5. Save the file after editing to the number and then click on the file you have edited. It will ask you if you want to enter this entry into the registry, click yes. You will then be notified if the key has been added to your registry correctly.
Use PostScript Type 1 fonts in XP
You don't need Adobe Type Manager to use PostScript Type 1 fonts under Windows XP.
Just drag the Type 1 font files to your fonts folder; XP automatically installs and activates the font. This works for TrueType and OpenType fonts, too.
XP Animations
You can turn off window animation ("exploding" windows), displayed when you play around with minimizing/maximizing open windows. This makes navigating Windows 95/98/ME/NT4/2000/XP a lot quicker, especially if you don't have a fast video controller, or if you got tired of seeing it all the time (like I did). :)
To do this, run Regedit (or Regedt32) and go to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER | Control Panel | Desktop | WindowMetrics
or if you are the only user of your Windows computer go to:
HKEY_USERS | .Default | Control Panel | Desktop | WindowMetrics
Right-click on an empty spot in the right hand pane. Select New -> String [REG_SZ] Value. Name it MinAnimate. Click OK. Double-click on "MinAnimate" and type 0 to turn OFF window animation or 1 to turn it ON. Click OK. Close the Registry Editor and restart Windows. Done.
TweakUI, the famous Microsoft Power Toy [110 KB, free, unsupported] can also turn off animated windows.
Just remove the check mark from the "Window Animation" box under the General tab.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Adjust various visual effects
1. Open up the control panel
2. Go under system and click on the advanced tab
3. Click settings under Performance options
4. You can now change various graphical effects (mainly animations and shadows)
How to make your Desktop Icons Transparent
Go to ontrol Panel > System, > Advanced > Performance area > Settings button Visual Effects tab "Use drop shadows for icon labels on the Desktop"
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