Summary | Using the Control Panel, personalize the
look and feel of your PC, especially the screen display. Develop an attitude of
explore and discover; right-clicking. Change your folder options and file
associations. Display file extensions. Decide whether to use the high-overhead
Active Desktop.
What is it?
How you customize your PC is probably as personal and
inscrutable to others as how you manage the documents, surfaces, cabinets, and
drawers in your physical office. In my mind, the goal is to be able to do things
with the fewest number of clicks, which usually means the least cognitive
load.
The terms customize and personalize are often used
interchangeably. In e-commerce they have some specialized meanings. In terms of
setting up Windows, customize means choosing among the options Microsoft gives
you and personalize means doing it your way. It's important that you have some
feeling of ownership for your business tools, and customizing helps you do that.
The drawback is that helpful instructions and screen shots may
not apply. For example, if you move your taskbar to the top of your screen,
instructions telling you to go to the Start menu on the lower left will not be
literally true. Conversely, if you're helping someone, you have to remember the
defaults, which is what most people use. In short, to the extent that you
customize and personalize your PC, you're going to have to adjust when
communicating with others.
Skills
customizing or personalizing your Windows PC
optimizing the
operation of your computer, especially file associations
and folder options
And the most important trick: How to silence your modem!
Go to Start | Settings | Control Panel | Modems. On the General
tab, slide the speaker volume to zero. If that doesn't work, on the Connection
tab, click Advanced and type "M0" (that's capital em-zero without the
quotes) in the Extra Setting box.
Tip | There are almost always two and often three or
more ways to do the same thing in Windows.
Tip | The terms directory and folder
are used interchangeably by most people.
AOL users
Set your preferences
Control Panel
Start | Settings | Control Panel
If yours doesn't look like this, pull down the View menu (screen
shot to left) and select Details. That view gives the most information,
specifically, the descriptions on the right.
To learn more about your PC, you should explore every one of
these. In a couple of months, return and explore them again, when many of the
options will make more sense. Depending on what you chose when you set
up Windows,
some of these options may not be available as described here.
Some highlights not mentioned elsewhere in this section:
Add/Remove Programs
You'll see three tabs, Install/Uninstall, Windows Setup, and Startup
Disk.
Use the Install/Uninstall tab to uninstall a program.
Deleting the .exe file or deleting the whole folder in C:\Program Files will not
change the registry entries. This is a good way to end up in dll hell.
Display
See below.
Fonts
From here, you'll get access to the same Windows folder you can see via Windows Explorer.
Internet Options
You can also get here in Microsoft's browser by pulling down the
Tools menu and selecting Internet Options. (In the Netscape 4 browser, use Edit
| Preferences.) You'll find screen shots and details on the Webmaking section's browser page.
Keyboard
Change your cursor's blink rate if it bothers you.
Mouse
Your 
laptop didn't come with a mouse because the
wide variety of inexpensive ones (under $30) will let you get exactly what you
want. The settings here for my IntelliPoint mouse may well be different from
yours.
On the StepSavers tab, I have checked the SnapTo option
even though it occasionally backfires by letting me inadvertently close or stop
something. The other three options don't work for me at all.
The Pointers tab has a pull-down Scheme selection that
will let you change the look of yours.
My Basics tab shows in the screen shot to the right. You
should try personalizing your double-click speed.
On the Visibility tab, you'll be able to add a trail to
your pointer. Personally, that drives me crazy.
The Productivity tab has an Orientation wizard that may
greatly improve your comfort, to say nothing of delaying the onset of RSI
(repetitive stress injury). Go for it!
Tip | Drag your My Computer icon onto the taskbar to
create a pop-up menu that allows you to navigate directly to anything on your
PC, including the Control Panel.
Customize your screen display
Select 
Display from the Control Panel or right-click
on an open area of your desktop and select Properties. While you're there
right-clicking, you might note the options in the screen shot at left for
arranging your desktop icons.
In most of the screen shots below, you'll see six tabs:
Background, Screen Saver, Appearance, Effects, Web, Settings.
Use the Background tab (screen shot below left) to choose
the background, aka wallpaper, for your desktop. These .bmp and .gif files are
also available in the C:\WINDOWS\ folder. You can browse to make any image on
your computer the background. You can also stretch, center, or tile it.
When you're viewing a page on the Web in your browser, you can
right-click on any image and choose Set as Wallpaper. If that's not enough,
there are a gazillion more at Wallpapers
HQ.
Use the Screen Saver tab (screen shot below right) to choose yours.
Depending on the capabilities of the screen saver program, the Settings button
may give you some handy options. Remember that screen savers load in RAM and a
fancy one can slow your computer.
Tip | Before you make a presentation, set your screen
saver Wait time to longer than the presentation.
How
Screensavers Work
by Jeff Tyson
Use the Appearance tab (screen shot below)
to finely tune the look of your windows. A lot of schemes came with Windows as
you'll see by pulling down the Scheme menu. You can start with one of those and
make item-by-item changes by pulling down that menu. For example, if you select
icon in the Item menu, you'll be able to change the size of the icons on your
desktop as well as the color, font face, and size of the words labeling it.
You can save your new scheme so that you can
switch to it at any time. These appearance options can give you a great feeling
of ownership. Your PC will not look like anyone else's. You can have one whole
look for work and another for home.
Use
the Effects tab (screen shot on right) to change some subtle visual
effects. I especially recommend the third one I have checked, to smooth screen
fonts.
You can also use this tab to select which icon
you want to associate with the four functions that Windows won't let you remove
from the desktop. Their default names, before I changed them, were My Computer,
My Documents, Network Neighborhood, and Recycle Bin. If you click the Change
Icon button, you'll have some options as well as be able to browse to any icon
on your computer.
How many icons are on your computer? Go to Start
| Find | Files or Folders and type *.ico into the Named box and Look in: (C:). I
have over two hundred icons on mine.
How do you make a new icon? In a graphics editor, make a 16 pixel by 16
pixel bitmap (.bmp file) and save it with a .ico extension. Then browse to it
from this Effects tab.
Note that I took four of these screen shots at an
earlier time than I took this shot of the Effects tab. Between times, I
installed a virus scanning update that added a ScreenScan tab that you
probably don't have and I won't discuss here. See the second row of tabs?
Also, the Web tab won't do anything unless
you are using the Active Desktop, which I am not. As I
have said, personalizing your PC may make you have to adapt these instructions.
Use the Settings tab (screen shot on
left) to change the amount of information you can see on your screen. What
happens between the colored pixel and the human eye is some kind of magic. How
the computer deals with that magic adds more magic. Then how it's all referred
to by the geeks is beyond confusing. This is not the place for a discussion of
magic and confusion, so I'll just give you a link to The
Structure Of A Digital Image, a fascinating demo by John Henshall. I
recommend it highly.
My settings shown here produce a screen that shows as much
information as possible. On your computer, you'll probably find a trade-off
between bit-depth of colors and possible screen area. I recommend the largest
screen area you can get. Then set the colors for your personal preference while
retaining the screen area setting. I have my 19" monitor set for 24-bit
color and 1280 x 1024 pixels.
The Advanced button may well bring up a lot more
options. Mine brings up a new window with five tabs. The General tab (not shown)
lets me set the overall font size -- mine is set for small fonts -- as well as
whether the lower right corner of the task bar displays an icon for bringing up
these color and screen area options.
To change your settings:
Step 1: Right-click on an open area of your
desktop.
Step 2: Select Properties | Settings.
Step 3: Try to increase both colors and screen area until you get the most you
can of both at the same time.
Step 4: Click Advanced | General to adjust the size of the text and icons
displaying on the desktop.
Step 5: Click OK. It may ask you to confirm.
Tip | If you plug a larger,
higher-resolution monitor into your laptop, you will want to adjust these
settings whenever you go back and forth.
Set your file associations
Every file has an extension, the three or more characters after
the file name. For example, this page is called personalizedpc.htm, and .htm is
the file extension.
How many file extensions are there? Thousands, as you'll see at
the sites that list file extensions.
Tip | If your file extensions aren't showing, go to
Start | Settings | Folder Options | View and uncheck the box next to
"Hide file extensions for known file types".
Regardless of what you name the extension, the information in
the file still has a certain type of content. A text file is very
different from an audio file. If you try to open a spreadsheet with an image
editor, it won't work. Nor can you turn a text file into an image just by
changing the extension.
As long as the extension is appropriate to that content
type, then the question becomes, what application will open or view or play it?
You have dozens of choices, but you have to settle on one.
In the screen shot (to the right) of part of my desktop, the
blue e icon stands for Microsoft's browser, Internet Explorer, which will open
that file. The notepad icon stands for the text editor that will open the .txt
file. The green X icon stands for Microsoft's spreadsheet Excel, which will open
that file.
Your PC comes loaded with software (what Microsoft's competitors
call "illegal bundling") that will open almost any content type that
you encounter. 
If it doesn't have an application associated with that
extension, it will show the generic Windows icon -- 
above
504lins.xyz on the top right of the screen shot. Windows will bring up the Opens
With window, a long list of all the applications on your PC, and ask you to
choose one.
That's why you have so many different icons associated with the
file names on your desktop. In Windows, the icons are supposed to make the file
extensions redundant. Not in my experience, but maybe I'm just an old-timer. I
highly recommend that you follow the yellow tip above and show your extensions.
An example would be your browser. I recommend that you have both
major browsers installed on your PC. But which one should open .htm files? The
one that is set to open them is the one whose icon appears above the file name
on your desktop. If you open the other, it will ask whether you want to make it
your default browser.
Some of these players are built into the Web client or browser
(for example, all browsers
come with GIF and JPEG image players as well as the ability to handle HTML
files). You may need to download other players.
Sometimes when you download software, you'll get asked the same
thing. For example, by default, Windows Media Player will open most .avi video
files. If you download QuickTime, which will probably open all .avi files, the
installation software will ask whether you want to make QuickTime the default .avi
player.
Regardless of the default, you can still use any application for
any relevant file type. One way is to open the application and to then open the
file from within it or to drag the file onto the application from your desktop
or from Windows Explorer.
Another way is to change the association, as explained in the Folder Options section below.
Lists of file extensions
Whatis?com's Every File
Format in the World
EXT Search
ComputerUser's High-Tech Dictionary - File
Types
Advanced: Wotsit's Format
File format information on hundreds of different file types
and all sorts of other useful programming information; algorithms, source code,
specifications, etc.
AceNet Hosting Service's Almost Every file format
in the world!
Center for Innovative Computer Applications' Image File
Formats List
Common extensions
Features, attributes, and pros and cons of the file types you
will use most often:
text files
.txt
.htm, .html
.css
.js
image files
.gif, .jpg, .psp
proprietary Office file types
.doc
.ppt
.xls
Folder Options
Start | Settings | Folder Options
or
My Computer | View | Folder Options
or
View Folder Options in Windows Explorer
On the General tab, I use Classic Style.
On the View tab (screen shot above left), I have selected "Show all
files". I have not selected "Hide all file extensions".
Thus, the *.htm or *.css or *.jpg always displays so I can keep them
straight. (The icon associated with the file name on the desktop is supposed to
convey the same info.) Lower down (not visible on above screen shot), I have
also selected "Smooth edges of screen fonts".
On the File Types tab (screen shot above right), you have a lot of
options. What you're doing is deciding which application opens which file type.
By scrolling down, you'll note that Windows can handle dozens and dozens of file
types. To learn more about them, check out these the sites that list file extensions.
I'll give an example and then you'll have to experiment on your
own.
In the list of Registered file types, scroll down and select
Cascading Style Sheets in the white area. In the darker area below, you'll see
the Extension, the Content/Type, and Opens With. Be careful that yours doesn't
say: CSS, text/css, and FrontPg.
If you want to look at a style sheet in Notepad, you can open Notepad and then
open the .css file. However, its default -- what you'll get if you click on a .css
file -- is FrontPg. Why? Because it says so on the Folder Options | File Types
tab.
To change the application associated with that extension
Take a look at the screen shot above right and the two screen
shots below. The one on the right below indicates that text documents (*.txt)
will open with NoteTab. Let's say I want to change that.
Step 1: Click Edit.., which should bring up the Edit File
Type window, as on the left.
Step 2: Select open in the white Actions box.
Step 3: Click Edit.. below the white box, which should bring up the Editing
action for type: box, as below right.
Step 4: Click Browse.. so that you can navigate to the *.exe file of the
application you want associated with that file extension.
After you select the application you want, click OK until you
get back out.
If
everything went okay, the NoteTab next to Opens with: (on above right screen
shot) will have changed to whatever you browsed to, as will the icon associated
with it.
Note the Change Icon button on the screen shot on the left. You
can change the icon to any .ico file you want, even one you made yourself. (Make
a 16-pixel by 16-pixel bitmap in an image editor and save it as an .ico file.
Then browse to it from this Change Icon button.)
While you're looking at the Folder Options, explore the various file types on
your computer. I have over five hundred on mine. Seventy-some are Microsoft
proprietary types.
Custom Toolbar
step 1: Make a folder on your desktop or somewhere less visible.
step 2: Stock it with files or shortcuts, for example, commonly
used programs or all the files you're using for a project.
step 3: Drag the folder onto the taskbar next to the system
tray.
step 4: Resize the toolbar. Detach it so that it floats. Attach
it to the side or top of your desktop.
Details and screen shots at Web Attack's Create custom toolbars
tip.
Active Desktop
Bill Gates "got" the Internet in late 1995. Within a
year, he had made Microsoft one of the most netcentric and webcentric
organizations on the planet. He went from richest American to richest human. The
one caused the other.
The showpiece of this change was supposed to be making the
browser the GUI to the operating system. The desktop would go away. So would
applications such as Word and Excel. For you and me, at least in the short-term,
this would have been a Good Thing. Our lives would be easier and we would be
less geeky. The Internet would be more popular. And Bill Gates would be so very
rich that his wealth wouldn't be fathomable nor his assets countable.
The rest of the computer industry thought that was a very Bad
Thing. They prevailed on the Justice Department to at least slow down Microsoft
if not stop it entirely. They succeeded beyond their expectations as you know if
you followed last year's trial in Washington, D.C.
Extra! Behind the Headlines
A detailed explanation of what got Microsoft in trouble with the Justice
Department.
Predatory Pricing -
Microsoft's Modus Operandi
by William C. Spaulding
What's left of Microsoft's grand plan is the Active
Desktop. Now that the trial is winding down, Microsoft has revised and
renamed the whole effort Microsoft.NET.
Meanwhile, you can choose the Active Desktop as an option. If
you do so, some of the instructions in this PC Workshop won't be exactly as
explained.
Also, Active Desktop eats RAM and will slow down your computer's
performance sooner. Personally, I don't use it though I can understand why you
might.
AOL users
Set your preferences
learn more about error
messages
Windows 98 Options
