Personalizing your computer

You can add a personal touch to your computer by changing the computer's theme, color, sounds, desktop background, screen saver, font size, and user account picture. You can also select specific gadgets for your desktop.

Desktop Personalization

The desktop (overview)

The desktop is the main screen area that you see after you turn on your computer and log on to Windows. Like the top of an actual desk, it serves as a surface for your work. When you open programs or folders, they appear on the desktop. You can also put things on the desktop, such as files and folders, and arrange them however you want. The desktop is sometimes defined more broadly to include the taskbar. The taskbar sits at the bottom of your screen. It shows you which programs are running and allows you to switch between them. It also contains the Start button , which you can use to access programs, folders,

and computer settings.

Working with desktop icons

Icons are small pictures that represent files, folders, programs, and other items. When you first start Windows, you'll see at least one icon on your desktop: The Recycle Bin (more on that later). Your computer manufacturer might have added other icons to the desktop. Some examples of desktop icons are shown below.

Desktop Icons

Double-clicking a desktop icon starts or opens the item it represents.

Adding and removing icons from the desktop

You can choose which icons appear on the desktop—you can add or remove an icon at any time. Some people like a clean, uncluttered desktop with few or no icons. Others place dozens of icons on their desktop to give them quick access to frequently used programs, files, and folders.

If you want easy access from the desktop to your favorite files or programs, you can create shortcuts to them. A shortcut is an icon that represents a link to an item, rather than the item itself. When you double-click a shortcut, the item opens. If you delete a shortcut, only the shortcut is removed, not the original item. You can identify shortcuts by the arrow on their icon.

File icon (left) and Shortcut icon (right)

To add a shortcut to the desktop

Locate the item that you want to create a shortcut for. (For help with finding a file or folder, see Find a file or folder.
Right-click the item, click Send to, and then click Desktop (create shortcut). The shortcut icon appears on your desktop.

To add or remove common desktop icons

Common desktop icons include Computer, your personal folder, the Recycle Bin, and Control Panel.

Right-click an empty area of the desktop, and then click Personalize.
In the left pane, click Change desktop icons.
Under Desktop icons, select the check box for each icon that you want to add to the desktop, or clear the check box for each icon that you want to remove from the desktop, and then click OK.

To move a file from a folder to the desktop

Open the folder that contains the file.
Drag the file to the desktop.

To remove an icon from the desktop

Right-click the icon, and then click Delete. If the icon is a shortcut, only the shortcut is removed; the original item is not deleted.

Moving icons around

Windows stacks icons in columns on the left side of the desktop. But you're not stuck with that arrangement. You can move an icon by dragging it to a new place on the desktop.

You can also have Windows automatically arrange your icons. Right-click an empty area of the desktop, click View, and then click Auto arrange icons. Windows stacks your icons in the upper-left corner and locks them in place. To unlock the icons so that you can move them again, click Auto arrange icons again, clearing the check mark next to it.

Note -- By default, Windows spaces icons evenly on an invisible grid. To place icons closer together or with more precision, turn off the grid. Right-click an empty area of the desktop, point to View, and then clicks Align icons to grid to clear the check mark. Repeat these steps to turn the grid back on.

Selecting multiple icons

To move or delete a bunch of icons at once, you must first select all of them. Click an empty area of the desktop and drag the mouse. Surround the icons that you want to select with the rectangle that appears. Then release the mouse button. Now you can drag the icons as a group or delete them.

Selecting Multiple window

Hiding desktop icons

If you want to temporarily hide all of your desktop icons without actually removing them, right-click an empty part of the desktop, click View, and then click Show desktop items to clear the check mark from that option. Now no icons are displayed on the desktop. You can get them back by clicking Show desktop items again.

The Recycle Bin

When you delete a file or folder, it doesn't actually get deleted right away—it goes to the Recycle Bin. That's a good thing, because if you ever change your mind and decide you need a deleted file, you can get it back.

The Recycle bin when Empty(left) and full(right)

If you're sure that you won't need the deleted items again, you can empty the Recycle Bin. Doing that will permanently delete the items and reclaim any disk space they were using.

Themes

A theme includes a desktop background, a screen saver, a window border color, sounds, and sometimes icons and mouse pointers. You can choose from several Aero themes. Use the whole theme or create your own customized theme by changing the pictures, colors, and sounds individually.

Component of the Themes

Desktop background

The desktop background, also called wallpaper, is a picture, color, or design on the desktop. It provides a backdrop to your open windows. You can choose one picture to be your desktop background or you can display a slide show of pictures.

Color

You can choose a picture for your desktop background or change the accent color for Start, the taskbar, and other items.

Sounds

You can change the sounds your computer makes when, for example, you receive e-mail, start Windows, or shut down your computer.

Screen saver

A screen saver is a picture or animation that appears on the screen when you haven't used the mouse or keyboard for a set period of time. You can choose from a variety of Windows screen savers.

Customize the Start menu

Organizing the Start menu can make it easier to find your favorite programs and folders.

Start menu

To pin a program icon to the Start menu

If you use a program regularly, you can create a shortcut to it by pinning the program icon to the Start menu. Pinned program icons appear on the right side of the Start menu.

Right-click the program icon you want to pin to the Start menu, and then click "Pin to Start."

Notes

To unpin a program icon, right-click it, and then click "Unpin from Start".
To change the order of a pinned item, drag the program icon to a new position in
the list.

To remove a program icon from the Start menu

Removing a program icon from the Start menu doesn't remove it from the All Programs list or uninstall the program.

Click the Start button .
Right-click the program icon you want to remove from the Start menu, and then click Remove from this list.

View your computer information

To check your PC hardware specs, click on the Windows Start button, then click on Settings (the gear icon). In the Settings menu, click on System. Scroll down and click on About. On this screen, you should see specs for your processor, Memory (RAM), and other system info, including Windows version.

About System

Windows edition. Lists information about the version of Windows running on your computer.

Computer name A computer name is a unique identifier that is given to each computer and is used by ITS to locate and connect to a computer in order to perform routine maintenance, as well as provide remote technical assistance.

Installed RAM Random access memory (RAM) is a computer's short-term memory, which it uses to handle all active tasks and apps. None of your programs, files, games, or streams would work without RAM

System Type The terms 32-bit and 64-bit refer to the way a computer's processor (also called a CPU), handles information. The 64-bit version of Windows handles large amounts of random access memory (RAM) more effectively than a 32-bit system.

Change Windows system settings

System Setting window

The links in the left pane provide access to additional system settings.

Device Manager. Use Device Manager to change settings and update drivers.

Remote settings. Change settings for Remote Desktop, which you can use to connect to a remote computer, and Remote Assistance, which you can use to invite someone to connect to your computer to help with a computer problem.

System protection. Manage settings that automatically create the restore points that System Restore uses to restore your computer's system settings. You can turn System Protection on or off for the disks on your computer, and you can create restore points manually. For more information, search Windows Help and Support for "System Restore."

Advanced system settings. Access advanced performance, user profile, and system startup settings, including Data Execution Prevention, which monitors programs and reports possible security attacks. You can also change your computer's virtual memory settings.

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