The Windows desktop is your main workplace. Or maybe play place, depending on how you use your computer. But the point is, your Windows desktop is similar to a real, wooden desktop. It’s where you keep all the stuff you’re using right now—the stuff that’s open. Your hard disk and its folders, by comparison, are more like your filing cabinet. Where you keep stuff you might need in the future.

We all like to set up our own desktop and work environment in unique ways. What works best for one person isn’t necessarily great for someone else. The way things look and work on your Windows Vista desktop aren’t set in stone. You can personalize things in many ways to make them look and work the way you like. That’s what this articleis all about—having things your way. Most of the options described in this articleapply only to the user account you’re currently logged in to. So any changes you make to your own desktop apply only to you (assuming you’re logged in to your own user account). This means everyone can have things just the way they want without stepping on each others’ toes.

Using the Personalization Page

Many options for personalizing the look and feel of Windows Vista are on the Personalization page. As with most things in Vista, there are many ways to get to the Personalization page. Use whichever is most convenient for you at the moment.

- Right-click the desktop and choose Personalize.

- Tap the Windows key, type pers, and click Personalization.

- In Welcome Center, double-click Personalize Windows.

- Click the Start button and click Control Panel  ->  Appearance and Personalization  -> Personalization.

The sections to follow look at how you can use the various options on the page to fine-tune the look and feel of Windows Vista on your screen.

Choosing a screen resolution

One of the first things you might want to adjust is your screen resolution, because it determines how much stuff can fit on your screen. Resolution is measured in pixels, where each pixel represents a tiny lighted dot on the screen. The pixels are too small to see individually. But suffice it to say the higher the resolution, the smaller everything looks, and the more stuff you can get on the screen. Click Display Settings in the Personalization page to open the Display Settings dialog box. There is no right or wrong setting for the screen resolution. A high resolution is good because you can see more stuff on your screen. But a high resolution isn’t good if things are so small on your screen that you can’t see them. As you move the slider from one resolution to the next, you can see the general shape to the aspect ratio of the current selection. You can’t really judge how small things will look on your screen as you move the slider, so it may take a little trial and error to get things just right. But let’s stop a second to talk about that aspect ratio term here.

Understanding aspect ratio

There was a time when all computer monitors had a 4:3 aspect ratio. This means that for every 4 pixels of width, you get 3 pixels of height. These days you’ll come across other aspect ratios including 5:4 and the 16:9 ratio found on widescreen TVs. There are some others. You can check the manual that came with your monitor or notebook computer for your screen’s exact aspect ratio. Or, just choose a resolution that looks good on your screen. Table 11.1 lists some common aspect ratios and resolutions that fit them. So, the trick here is to move the slider to a resolution (for instance 1024 x 768) and then click the Apply button. The new resolution is applied to your screen. If the screen went blank, don’t panic. It means that you chose a setting that won’t work. The setting will be undone automatically in about 15 seconds and everything will be okay again. To try a different resolution, move the slider to another setting and click Apply again. If you find a setting you like, you can click OK and be done with it. If you need to do some further tweaking, read on.

Other Ways to Size Things

The resolution you choose really only sets a basic default size for things on the screen. There are countless other ways to adjust the size of text, icons, and pictures on your screen, and they work no matter what resolution you choose. For example, holding down the Ctrl button while spinning your mouse wheel affects icon size. In Internet Explorer, you can click the Page button and choose Zoom or Text size to change the size of pictures and text on your screen. Many programs have a View option in their menus that let you zoom in and out of things to make them larger or smaller. DPI scaling and the Accessibility Settings described later in this article offer many options for making things larger and easier to see on the screen.

If things look squished or stretched after you’ve adjusted things to fit nicely on your screen, you probably chose a resolution that doesn’t match the aspect ratio of your monitor. Choose a resolution that does fit your screen’s aspect ratio, and then use monitor buttons to adjust from there.

Adjusting color depth

The Colors button allows you to choose a color depth for the monitor. The rule here is simple: The higher the color depth, the more colors your monitor shows. And the more colors your monitor shows, the better things look—especially photos and video. So all you have to do is click the button and choose the highest available setting. Typically that will be either 32-bit or 24-bit.

Using multiple monitors

Windows Vista supports the use of multiple monitors in a variety of configurations. In many cases, adding a second monitor is a simple matter of connecting to the external monitor and turning it on. If the device supports Extended Display Identification Data (EDID), Windows will detect the device and adjust the resolution automatically. If the external monitor is a television set, you may need to connect, turn on the TV, and then use the Input Select or TV/Video button on the TV or remote control to select the external input (often shown as AV1 or Component on the TV screen). You can also add multiple video cards to the PC and connect a monitor to each one. After you connect to an external monitor and configure it to show input from the plug to which you connected the computer, the New Display Detected dialog box might appear on your primary display automatically. If it doesn’t appear automatically, try restarting your computer. Log in to an administrative account and wait a few seconds to see if it starts automatically.

If you can’t get the New Display Detected dialog box to open, don’t worry. As discussed in a moment, you should be able to activate and configure the second screen through the Display Settings dialog box.

The options available to you depend on the type of device to which you’re connecting. Options that don’t apply to your connection are dimmed and cannot be selected. Basically, you have two choices:

- Mirrored: Choose this option when using the second display to teach a course or give a presentation. The external display shows what’s on the primary display.

- Extended: Choose this option to use the second monitor as an extension of your desktop. You can use standard techniques for moving and sizing program windows to move a window from one screen to the other, or to extend a program across two screens to double its width.

Choose Left or Right depending on whether the extended display is to the left or right of the original primary display.

Extending Microsoft Excel across two monitors lets you see twice as many columns!

You can also display content on the second monitor only, leaving the first monitor black. If you’re using a mobile computer on batteries, this option will conserve battery power. Regardless of how you set things in the New Display Detected window (or even if it doesn’t appear at all), you can use the Display Settings dialog box to configure the second monitor. Open Display Settings as described at the top of this section. Then click the second monitor’s box (with the number 2 in it). If that second monitor is grayed out, choose Extend my desktop onto this monitor. If the second monitor still doesn’t light up, click Apply.

If you can’t get the second monitor to work, make sure it’s properly connected and turned on. If the second monitor is a TV, make sure you choose the right input setting using Input Select or TV/Video on the TV or its remote control.

When both monitors are working, you can set the color depth and resolution of each one independently. Click the monitor box (1 or 2) that you want to change. Then use the Resolution slider and Colors button to adjust, within the limits of each monitor. If you’re not sure which square in the dialog box represents which monitor, click Identify Monitors. Each monitor will display a large number that corresponds to the square in the dialog box that represents that monitor. You can arrange the squares in the dialog box to match the arrangement of the monitors. For example, if monitor 2 is to the left of monitor 1, drag the 2 square to the left of the 1 square. If the monitors are stacked with 1 on top of 2, drag the 1 square so it’s above the 2 square.

Reducing monitor flicker

If a monitor seems to flicker, adjusting its refresh rate can help. You shouldn’t change the refresh rate just for the heck of it though. Do so only to reduce flicker. First click the Advanced Settings... button. Then click the Monitor tab in the dialog box that opens. Use the button under Screen Refresh Rate to try a higher setting.

Don’t clear the checkmark from Hide modes that this monitor cannot display checkbox. Doing so will allow you to choose settings that could damage the monitor!

After you choose a new refresh rate, click Apply. The monitor might go blank for a few seconds. When it comes back on, see if the situation has improved. If not, you can try another refresh rate (followed by a click on the Apply button) until you find an optimal setting. When you find the best setting, click OK to close the Advanced Settings dialog box.

More Stuff You Can Do with Monitors In Windows Vista

Your monitor attaches to a graphics card or onboard graphics chip inside your computer. That card or chip defines the full range of your visual display. Windows Vista might not give you access to the full range of settings available to you, even after you click the Advanced Settings button. To take full advantage of your graphics card (or chip) capabilities, you may want to use the program that came with that device. There are hundreds of such devices on the market. And there is no rule that applies to them all. To fully understand the capabilities of your graphics card and the programs for using it, refer to the manual that came with the card, or with your computer.

Don’t forget to click OK after adjusting settings in the Display Settings dialog box. Remember, the settings you choose aren’t set in concrete. You can re-open that dialog box and change things any time you like.

Choosing a theme

A theme is a collection of appearance settings that determine how things look on your screen.

To try a theme, click the button under the Theme: heading. The preview area below the button gives you a sneak peek at how things will look if you apply the theme. If you can tell, right off the bat, that you hate a theme, just choose a different one. If you’d like to take a closer look, click the Apply button. The theme is applied to your desktop. Feel free to try out as many themes as you like. When you find one you want to use, select its name and click Apply. If you plan to further customize things to your own liking, click Save As. Then enter a name for the theme. The suggested name will be My Favorite Theme. But you can replace that with any name you like. Of course, you can create as many custom themes as you like. Just remember to give each one a unique name after you click Save As. When you’re done in the Themes dialog box, click OK as usual. The remaining sections describe other ways to personalize your work environment. Any changes you make will be applied to whatever theme is currently selected.

Personalizing your color scheme Aero Glass and the ways in which you can tweak it to your liking are new to Windows Vista.

I trust that most of the options are self-explanatory. Click any example under the Pick a color heading. Use the Enable Transparency checkbox to enable or disable the transparency effect on window borders. If you opt to enable transparency, you can control how transparent the borders are using the slider. The farther right you drag the slider the less intense the transparency. If you don’t enable transparency, the slider affects only the intensity of the color you choose under Pick a color.

Transparency and Computer Performance

When choosing a color scheme, you might see a warning about transparency affecting your computer’s performance. Applying transparency on a computer screen takes a significant amount of mathematical calculations. If your computer doesn’t have the hardware horsepower to do the task instantly, you might experience a general slowdown in computer performance when you enable transparency. It shouldn’t be an issue with newer computers that are specifically designed to run Windows Vista.

Before you start creating a color, you might find it useful to drag the Intensity slider to the middle or far right end of the bar, and clear the Enable transparency checkbox. Also, drag the Saturation and Brightness sliders to the middle. That will make it easier to see your color selection on the window’s border. Drag the Color slider along the rainbow bar until you find a color you like. Move the Saturation slider to adjust, deepen, or fade your selected color. Use the Brightness slider to brighten or darken the color. You can also enable transparency and adjust the intensity as you go. Just keep playing around with things until you get a color you like.