To use Aero Glass, you need a Direct X 9 class graphics processor that supports WDDM, 32 bits per pixel, and Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware. The graphics card needs at least 64 MB of graphics memory. But 256 MB of graphics memory (or better) is preferred, especially for higher-resolution displays. Many newer graphics cards meet all those requirements. But onboard graphics chips rarely do. If you’re thinking of adding a graphics card to your system to get all the visual bells and whistles, look for a card that’s Windows Vista compatible. You’ll also need to get a card that fits in an available slot on your motherboard. These days, PCI Express X16 is the preferred graphics slot, followed by PCI Express (PCIe), AGP, and PCI (in that order). If you don’t know what slots are available on your motherboard, or aren’t comfortable installing hardware, your best bet would be to take the system into a professional. Tell them you’re looking to upgrade your graphics display to full Windows Vista graphics capabilities. They can advise you on cards you can purchase and estimates for installation.

Making text sharper

The first two options are the most important because they affect the clarity of text on your screen. Choose the first option to enable text sharpening (even though that’s worded as “smooth edges of screen fonts”). On an LCD display, you’ll almost certainly want to choose ClearType from the second box; however, ClearType could clear up fuzzy-looking text on any monitor. It’s certainly worth a try. If you don’t like the results, you can return to the dialog box at any time and use the Standard setting instead.

The other two options enable or disable shadows under menus and specify whether or not you can see an entire program window when dragging. On an older computer that just barely has enough hardware horsepower to run Vista, clearing those two checkboxes might help speed things up on your screen.

Coloring individual screen elements

Clicking the Advanced button in Classic appearance settings takes you to the Advanced Appearance dialog box. As always, the word Advanced is a good way of knowing that these settings are not for beginners or the technologically faint of heart. People have been known to do crazy things in this dialog box, like set everything to the same color, then wonder why they can’t see anything on their screen. (They can’t see anything because when everything is exactly the same color, the screen is basically one big blob of whatever color they choose.) If you’re savvy enough to tackle the Advanced Appearance options, here’s how they work. First you choose an item to color from the Item drop-down button. Controls that apply to that item are instantly enabled. Controls that don’t apply are disabled. From the enabled options, you can choose colors and fonts, as applicable. Your choices are reflected in the preview above the buttons.

You definitely don’t want to experiment or try things out for the heck of it in Advanced Appearance options. If you plan to use it to solve some problem, don’t. It will not solve any problems. If it’s too late for that and you’ve already made a mess of things, go back to the Theme Settings dialog box described earlier and choose a different theme.

Personalizing your desktop background

You can wallpaper your desktop with any picture or color you like. In the Personalization window, click Desktop Background to open the Desktop Background page.

Click the drop-down button and choose a category of pictures, like Vistas, Textures, or Painting. Or choose Pictures to view pictures from your own Pictures folder, or Public Pictures from the shared Pictures folder. (Of course, if either folder is empty or doesn’t contain any compatible picture types, you won’t see any pictures after making your selection.) After you choose a category, point to or click any picture to see it applied as your desktop background. If you have pictures in some folder other than the Pictures folder for your user account or the Public Pictures folder, click Browse. Navigate to the folder that contains those pictures. Then click (or doubleclick) the picture you want to use as your desktop background. All pictures from that folder will appear in the Desktop Background window. Click whatever picture you want to use. If the desktop is covered, click the Show Desktop Quick Launch button or right-click the time in the lowerright corner of the screen and choose Show the Desktop. Then to get back to where you were, click the Show Desktop button again, or right-click the time and choose Show Open Windows. Try out different pictures until you find one you like.

Try the options under How should the picture be positioned? to view it in different ways. The options will have little or no effect on large pictures. But if you choose a small picture of your own, the center option will show it repeatedly, like tiles. The third option will show it centered on the screen. If you choose that third option, you can click Change background color to color the border surrounding the picture. If you don’t want a picture on your desktop, choose Solid Colors from the drop-down list. Then click whatever color you like. Or click More for a wider selection of colors. When you’ve found and chosen a picture or color you like, click OK.

Personalizing desktop icons

In the left column of the Personalization window, you’ll see a link titled Change desktop icons. Click that to see the dialog box. Select (check) any icons you want to see on your desktop. Clear the checkbox of any icon you don’t want to see. As always, choosing icons is purely a matter of personal taste. And you can change the icons you see on your desktop at any time. Click OK after choosing the icons you want to see.

Creating your own desktop icons

The Desktop Icons Settings dialog box shows only the few icons built into Windows Vista. Many programs you install create other desktop icons. And you’re free to create your own desktop icons. The desktop isn’t a good place to store things though. So most desktop icons are actually just shortcuts to other places or programs. Shortcut icons are unique in a couple of ways. Instead, deleting a shortcut icon only deletes the icon. The program or folder to which the icon referred still exists. You can still open that item through a non-shortcut method.

If you often go through a series of clicks or steps to open some item, creating a desktop shortcut will make it quicker and easier. Get to the icon you normally click (or double-click) to open a program, folder, or document. Then right-click that icon and choose Send To  ->  Desktop (create shortcut).

To copy a desktop shortcut icon to the Start menu, drag and drop it onto the Start button. You can also drag and drop a desktop shortcut onto the Quick Launch toolbar.

Adjust the font size (DPI)

In the left column of the Personalization window, you’ll notice a shielded item titled Adjust font size (DPI). The shield indicates that only administrators are allowed to use that option, and for good reason. It’s the kind of option that can really get you into a pickle if not handled correctly. Basically it lets you increase the size of text (and just about everything else) by adjusting the dots per inch (DPI) on the screen. The problem is that if you make things too large for your current screen resolution, you won’t be able to get to the options you need to change the settings back to what they were before. Adjusting the font size DPI isn’t the only way to enlarge text on the screen. Many programs offer a Zoom option on their View menus to enlarge things. The Accessibility options described later in this article also offer some safer alternatives. But if nothing else really works for you, using the Adjust font size (DPI) setting might be your best bet. The setting requires a restart after you’ve made a new selection, so here’s the best way to go about using it. In some of the following steps, I’ll have you use the keyboard rather than the mouse, because if you make things so large that the mouse can’t get to options, the keyboard method provided in the steps should work. And (hopefully) get you out of any jam you might get yourself into:

1. Close all open programs and log in to a user account that has administrative privileges.

2. Open the Personalization window (right-click the desktop and choose Personalize).

3. Click Adjust font size (DPI) to open the DPI Scaling dialog box.

4. To make text larger, choose the next highest setting (for example, 120 DPI). Or, to get out of a jam, click a smaller size or the Default scale option.

5. Press the Tab key twice to get to the OK button and press Enter.

You can click the Custom DPI button and choose a percentage increase. But be careful to increase the current percentage value only slightly. Otherwise, you might make things so huge that hardly anything fits on the screen.

6. Click Restart or press Enter.

The new setting will be applied after the computer restarts. If the things are too large on your screen, repeat the preceding steps, choosing a smaller size in step 4.

Personalizing your screen saver

A screen saver is a moving picture or pattern that fills the screen after a period of inactivity. The name screen saver harkens back to the olden days where leaving a fixed image on the screen for too long a time could cause permanent damage to the screen. But that problem has been solved for a long time. So a screen saver is completely optional nowadays. Still, it’s a nice way to have your screen do something entertaining when the computer is on but nobody is using it.

Personalize the right side of the Start menu

To choose other options for your Start menu, click the Settings button next to Start menu or Classic Start menu. You’ll have fewer options if you go with the Classic Start menu. For the newer style Start menu, items in the Customize Start Menu dialog box let you choose what appears on the right side of the menu.

Start menu folders

The list box contains options that control the appearance and behavior of your Start menu. Items on the menu that open folders give you these three options:

- Display as a link: Choosing this option tells Windows to open the corresponding folder when you click the menu option. This is the most natural method, once you’re familiar with working in folders.

- Display as a menu: Choosing this option tells Windows to show items within the folder as options on a menu, without opening the folder. This option is a reasonable alternative for folders that contain few icons but is unwieldy for folders that contain many icons.

- Don’t display this item: As it says, choosing this option will prevent the option from being displayed at all on the right side of the Start menu. Folders you can open directly from the Start menu are summarized in the following list. If you’re new to all of this and don’t know what might be useful, set them all to Display as a link. If after a few months you discover you don’t need one, set it to Don’t display this item.

- Computer: Contains icons for all of your computer’s disk drives. Useful for copying files to and from external disks and memory cards.

- Control Panel: Contains all the pages and dialog boxes for personalizing your system and for managing hardware and software.

- Documents: Stores all of your private documents excluding digital media (pictures, music, video).

- Games: A folder of saved games and scores. If you don’t play computer games, set this one to Don’t display this item.

- Local User Storage: Shows at the top right of the Start menu as your user name. Opening it reveals icons for all of your private folders including your Favorites, Contacts, and Saved Searches.

- Music: Contains songs in your Windows Media Player media library.

- Pictures: Contains photos and video clips from your digital camera, Photo Gallery, and any other resources you choose.

Start menu places Some checkbox items in the list box let you access other resources. Of course, all of them are optional. You should choose only those options you’ll actually use. Here’s a brief description of each and some suggestions:

- Connect to: Select this option only if you need to manually connect to a wireless, dial-up, or VBP connection often.

- Default Programs: It’s unlikely you’d need to get to this often enough to warrant putting it in the Start menu. You can get to Default Programs through Control Panel or by clicking Start and typing def.

- Favorites menu: Choose this option only if you keep track of favorites in Internet Explorer and your Links folder. If you don’t use Favorites, this option won’t get you much.

- Help: If selected, displays a Help and Support option on the right side of the Start menu. Because this is an important resource for information that everyone should learn to use, and use often, it’s a good idea to select this option.

- Network: Choose this option if your computer is connected to a local network and you need access to shared resources often.

- Printers: Choose this option only if you need to get to your printer icons often to manage print jobs. If you don’t put this on the Start menu, you can still open the Printers folder through Control Panel. Or click the Start button, type pri, and click Printers.

- Run command: Shows a Run option for more advanced users who run programs that don’t have icons. If you don’t choose this option, you can type the program name in the Search box and then click its name on the Start menu. Or type run in the Search box and click Run on the menu.

- System Administrative Tools: If selected, provides quick access to advanced tools often used by system and network administrators. You can choose to display on the All Programs menu only, or both the Start menu and All Programs menu. If you choose Don’t display this item, you can still open Administrative Tools from Control Panel, or by clicking the Start button and typing adm.

Start menu searching

Searches in Windows Vista are a huge improvement over searches in earlier versions of Windows. But you need to understand how it works to take full advantage. See Articles 30 and 31 for the whole story. Several options in the Customize Start Menu dialog box center around searching. They’re all selected by default. Here’s what each one means:

- Search: If selected, shows a Search option on the right side of the Start menu. Clicking that option opens the main search box for searching your computer.

- Search Box: If selected, shows the Search box at the bottom left of the Start menu (the one that contains the words Start Search).

- Search Communications: If selected, searches launched from the Search box will include Windows Mail e-mail messages for people in Windows Contacts.

- Search Favorites and History: If selected, searches launched from the Search box will include Internet Explorer favorites and its history of visited Web sites.

- Search Files: If you choose Don’t search for files, searches launched from the Search box won’t include document files. If you choose Search entire index, those searches will include all indexed files. The default setting, Search the user’s files, searches documents in the user’s document folders (Documents, Pictures, Music, and such).

- Search Programs: If selected, searches launched from the Search box include programs and Control Panel items.

Start menu behavior

Some items in the Customize Start Menu list are about how the menu behaves rather than what you see on the menu. Those options are as follows:

- Enable dragging and dropping: If selected, this allows you to rearrange icons on the All Programs menu by dragging them with the right mouse button. But if you choose the Sort All Programs menu by name, this won’t do you much good because that option will put them right back into alphabetical order!

- Highlight newly installed programs: If you select this option, the All Programs menu won’t fan out across the screen when you open it. Instead, you’ll have to scroll through the menu using buttons at the top and bottom. I would recommend that you clear (not select) this option.

- Sort All Programs menu by name: Choosing this option keeps items on the Start menu in alphabetical order. Programs are listed first, followed by program groups (folders). If you don’t choose this option, you can alphabetize those items by right-clicking any item on All Programs and choosing Sort by name.

- Use large icons: Choosing this option displays the large icons on the Start menu. Clearing this option displays smaller icons, which makes room for more items on the menu. The Number of recent programs to display option dictates how many program icons can appear at the left side of the Start menu. If you set this number too high for your current screen resolution and icon size, you might see the “Some items cannot be shown” message when you click the Start button. Clicking the Use default settings button resets the Start menu options and number of recent programs to display options back to their original settings. The checkboxes below the list let you decide whether or not you want to keep options for Internet access pinned to the top left of the Start menu.

Customizing the left side of the Start menu If you use the modern two-column Start menu, there are many ways you can customize it. Recall that items above the horizontal line are pinned to the menu and never change. Items below that line reflect programs you use often. So those items are likely to change over time. Of course, you’re never stuck with whatever happens to be on the left side of the Start menu. You can rightclick any item. Choose Remove from this list to remove an item. If an item isn’t already pinned to the Start button, choose Pin to Start Menu to pin it. There are also easy ways to control items on the Start menu. One is to right-click an item that’s already on the left side of the menu. To remove an item, right-click and choose Remove from this list. To pin an item to the top of the Start menu, right-click it and choose Pin to Start Menu.

On the All Programs menu, you can right-click any program’s icon and choose Pin to Start Menu. That’s a quick and easy way to put the icon for a program you use often near the top of the Start menu. If you use a folder often, you can pin its icon to the Start menu too. For that matter, if you use a single document often, you can pin its icon to the Start menu as well. Just drag the file or folder icon and drop it right on the Start button. Similarly, you can pin a copy of any desktop shortcut icon to your Start menu. Again, just drag the desktop icon and drop it right on the Start button. To unpin an item from the top-left side of the Start menu, right-click its icon and choose Unpin from Start menu.

Reorganizing the All Programs menu

The All Programs menu provides access to virtually all application programs installed on your system. Items at the top of the All Programs menu represent individual programs. Items marked with folder icons represent groups of programs. When you click a folder icon, it expands to show programs within that group. Any program group can contain still more groups, each group identified by a folder icon. Within that program group, I found, and opened, another group named Microsoft Office Tools.

Microsoft Office doesn’t come free with Windows Vista. It’s a program you have to purchase separately. So don’t be alarmed if you have no Microsoft Office group on your All Programs menu. I’m just using that as a general example.

If you enable dragging and dropping, you can move things around on the All Programs menu using the right mouse button. But doing so can be awkward. As an alternative, you can work in a more typical folder window. Right-click the Start button and choose one of the following options, depending on what you want to accomplish:

- Open: Opens a folder containing icons from the current user’s Start menu.

- Explore: Same as above but also opens the Navigation pane automatically.

- Open All Users: Opens a folder containing icons that appear in all users’ Start menus.

- Explore All Users: Same as above but the folder opens with the Navigation pane already open.

As always, you need administrative privileges to make any changes that affect all user accounts.

A folder named Start Menu opens. Its icons represent items that are on the Start menu. Within that Start Menu folder is a folder named Programs. When you open the Programs folder, you see icons that represent items on the All Programs menu. Any changes you make in that Programs folder are reflected in the All Programs menu.

For example, suppose you have half a dozen conversion programs on your All Programs menu. You’d like to group them into a single program group, perhaps named Converters, on the All Programs menu. In the Programs folder, click the Organize button and choose New Folders. Name the folder Converts. Then move the icons for the conversion programs into that folder. Suppose you want to go the other way. Take all or some of the programs out of the Microsoft Office group and put them right on the All Programs menu. Open the Microsoft Office folder in Programs and select the icons you want to move. Then press Ctrl+X to cut them. Click Programs in the breadcrumb menu to go back up to the Programs folder and press Ctrl+V to paste them. The pasted programs will be on the All Programs menu rather than in the Microsoft Office group. When you’ve finished making changes, close the Programs or Start Menu folder (whichever is open). Then click the Start button and choose All Programs. Any organizational changes you made in the Programs folder show up in the All Programs menu.