Welcome back. In Lesson 2, you took a tour of the Windows Vista interface and picked up some tricks for more efficient file management. Now you're ready to learn how Vista is wonderfully customizable. If there's something you don't like about the way it looks or how it operates, you can probably change it. In this lesson, you'll take a look at some of the ways you can make Vista your own. Let's begin with the center of customization in Windows operating systems -- the Control Panel.

To open the Control Panel, select Start > Control Panel. Control Panel settings are organized into categories to make them easier to browse. Figure 3-1 shows the top level of the Control Panel. Under each category are hyperlink shortcuts to a few of the most common options within the category.

Figure 3-1: The Control Panel displays categories at its top level.

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When you're looking for a certain setting, it's not always obvious which category contains it. To make it easier to find a particular option, you can switch to Classic View by clicking the Classic View hyperlink to the left of the categories. In Classic View, shown in Figure 3-2, individual icons appear for each setting. To return to the regular category-based view, click Control Panel Home.

Figure 3-2: In Classic View, each setting has its own icon.

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The following table lists each category of the Control Panel and its contents (all in alphabetical order) to help you find what you're looking for more easily. Notice that some items appear in more than one category; this makes them easier to find when it's a close call as to which category they fit into more naturally. Notice also that the items might not exactly match the ones on your system, depending on your Windows version and depending on the third-party programs installed.

Table 3-1: Vista Control Panel categories.

Next, learn how to control the appearance of your desktop.

Windows Vista provides several ways of controlling the display appearance. You can apply an overall collection of settings, called a theme, or you can customize each individual aspect of the display, from the fonts to the background color.

Changing and Saving Themes

Themes are all-in-one groups of settings, including window appearance, icons, backgrounds, color choices, screen saver, and so on. Windows Vista comes with two themes: Windows Vista and Windows Classic. Windows Vista is the default for Vista; Windows Classic sets up the display to look like Windows 2000 and Windows 9x. You can also create your own themes by configuring individual settings and then saving them.

To change themes, go to the Control Panel, click Appearance and Personalization, click Personalization, and then click Theme. The Theme Settings dialog box opens. Modify the current theme as you like, and then click Apply. Vista renames the current theme to Modified Theme, as shown in Figure 3-3.

Figure 3-3: Theme Settings dialog box.

To save those settings as a new theme, click the Save As button, type a name for the new theme, and then click Save.

Saving multiple themes comes in handy when two or more people share a computer, because each person can call up their preferred settings easily. However, another way of accomplishing the same thing is to set up multiple user accounts and let each person log on to her own account each time she uses the PC. Each user's account settings are retained separately, including the active theme.

Now that you know how to save and apply themes, let's look at how to change some of the individual settings that comprise a theme.

Changing the Background

You can set the background of your Windows desktop for a solid color or a picture. If you set the picture so that it doesn't fill the entire screen, you can select a solid color to appear around the edges.

Windows Vista comes with many pictures you can use, including scenery, textures, light auras, and paintings. You can stretch a picture to fill the entire screen, center it in the middle of the screen, or tile it so that multiple copies fill the screen.

To change the background:

1. In the Control Panel, click Appearance and Personalization.
2. Click Personalization.

As a shortcut to Steps 1 and 2, just right-click the desktop and select Personalize.

3. Click Desktop Background.
4. In the Choose a desktop background window, shown in Figure 3-4, select the picture you want. To select pictures from other locations, open the Picture Location drop-down list and select another location, or click the Browse button to identify a specific picture.

Figure 3-4: Select a background.

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5. Select the picture placement using the option buttons at the bottom of the window.
6. (Optional) If you chose to center the picture in Step 5, click the Change background color hyperlink, and then select a background color and click OK.
7. Click OK to complete the background change.

Now that you know how to change the desktop background, move on to learning how to change other display settings.

Besides the background, you can also control other aspects of the display appearance, including window color and transparency. To work with these settings:

1. In the Control Panel, click Appearance and Personalization.
2. Click Personalization.
3. Click Window Color and Appearance.

Depending on the version of Windows Vista you're running and your display adapter (and its compatibility with the Aero interface), you might see one of two windows.

If your system supports Aero, you'll see the controls shown in Figure 3-5. From here you can select a color tint for the window borders, title bars, and other elements, and you can set their amount of transparency.

Figure 3-5: Aero window color and appearance settings.

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If your system doesn't support Aero, the Appearance Settings dialog box opens, shown in Figure 3-6. (You can also get to this dialog box if you do have Aero available by clicking the Open classic appearance properties for more color options hyperlink shown in Figure 3-5).

Figure 3-6: Appearance Settings dialog box.

In the Appearance Settings dialog box, you can do the following to fine-tune the display appearance:

1. Select Windows Classic from the Color scheme drop-down list.

The settings in the following steps apply only when Windows Classic style controls are in use.

2. Click the Advanced button. The Advanced Appearance dialog box opens, as shown in Figure 3-7.

Figure 3-7: Advanced Appearance dialog box.

3. In the sample area at the top, click the desired element to customize. Alternately, you can open the Item drop-down list and select the desired element.
4. Select settings for the Size, Color 1, and Color 2 options for that item. Depending on the item, one or more of those controls might not be available. For example, when customizing the desktop, size is not an issue, nor is Color 2.
5. If the chosen item contains text, the Font controls are available, as shown in Figure 3-7. If so, select a font, size, color, and other font attributes (such as bold and italic) for that text.
6. Click OK.

Controlling the Screen Resolution and Color Depth

In addition to controlling the colors and design elements of the display, you can control two other very important technical aspects:

• Resolution: The number of pixels (individually addressable colored dots) that comprise the display. The higher the resolution, the smaller the dialog boxes, icons, and text will appear, and the more memory the display adapter requires.
• Color depth: The number of binary digits needed to describe all the possible color options for a particular pixel. The higher the color depth, the more realistic photos look onscreen and the more memory the display adapter requires.

To control the screen resolution and color depth:

1. In the Control Panel, click Appearance and Personalization.
2. Click Personalization.
3. Click Display Settings. The Display Settings dialog box opens, as shown in Figure 3-8.

Figure 3-8: Display Settings dialog box.

4. Drag the Resolution slider to adjust the resolution.

On LCD (liquid crystal display) monitors, anything other than the highest possible resolution may cause the text on the screen to appear fuzzy. If you want the text to be larger in Windows but don't want the fuzziness associated with a lower resolution, close the Display Settings dialog box and click the Adjust font size (DPI) hyperlink on the left side of the Personalization window. In the DPI Scaling dialog box, select Larger scale (120 DPI).

5. Open the Colors drop-down list and select a color depth. On most systems, there is no obvious difference between Medium (16 bit) and High (32 bit).
6. Click OK.

If two monitors are displayed in the Display Settings dialog box, it means that your system can support multiple monitors. However, if one of them is grayed out, as shown in Figure 3-8, it means that no external monitor is attached to that adapter. (This is the case when you use a notebook computer with a built-in screen and no external monitor.) When multiple available monitors appear in the Display Settings dialog box, you can set separate settings for each monitor. Just click each monitor and configure its settings separately. To figure out which monitor is which, click the Identify Monitors button.

Next, find out how to control the performance of your keyboard and mouse.

In addition to controlling how the Windows desktop appears, you can control how your keyboard and mouse interact with it.

Adjusting Keyboard Settings

Keyboards are simple to configure -- most users rarely change the default settings. However, there are a few settings you can customize for a better computing experience.

To set keyboard settings:

1. In the Control Panel, click Hardware and Sound.
2. Click Keyboard. The Keyboard Properties dialog box opens, as shown in Figure 3-9.

Figure 3-9: Keyboard Properties dialog box.

There are three keyboard settings you can adjust by dragging the sliders:

Repeat delay: When you hold down a key, after a certain amount of time the character repeats onscreen as if you had repeatedly pressed and released the key. The amount of time it waits before this occurs is controlled by the Repeat Delay slider.

Repeat rate: When a key repeats, the rate at which it automatically repeats onscreen is controlled by the Repeat Rate slider.

Cursor blink rate: The speed at which the insertion point in a dialog box or a text-based application flashes is controlled by the Cursor Blink Rate slider.

3. Click OK to save your changes and close the dialog box.

Adjusting Mouse Settings

There are three types of settings you can adjust for a mouse: button behavior, pointer behavior, and pointer appearance. Depending on the mouse model you have, it may have additional settings as well; the exact settings and the appearance of the Mouse Properties dialog box depends on the mouse driver installed.

If you use a generic mouse, the default mouse properties shown in this lesson appear.

To set mouse settings:

1. In the Control Panel, click Hardware and Sound.
2. Click Mouse. The Mouse Properties dialog box opens, as shown in Figure 3-10, with the Buttons tab displayed.

Figure 3-10: Mouse Properties dialog box, Buttons tab.

3. On the Buttons tab, adjust the Double-click speed slider, if necessary. This controls how quickly you have to click twice in a row for it to be considered a double-click rather than two independent single clicks.

The checkboxes on the Buttons tab are not commonly used. The Switch primary and secondary buttons option switches the functions of the right and left buttons. This is useful for a left-handed user who prefers to click with the index finger of the left hand. Checking the Turn on ClickLock option turns on an accessibility feature.

4. Click the Pointers tab.
5. Select a pointer scheme from the Scheme drop-down list, and then click OK.

You can also customize individual pointers in the scheme by double-clicking them in the list.

6. Click the Pointer Options tab.
7. Drag the Select a pointer speed slider, shown in Figure 3-11, to adjust the pointer sensitivity, if necessary.

Figure 3-11: Mouse Properties dialog box, Pointer Options tab.

8. Check or clear any of the other checkboxes on the Pointer Options tab, if necessary.
9. Click OK.
10. Click OK to close the Mouse Properties dialog box.

In the next section, you'll take a closer look at the Windows Sidebar.

The Sidebar, as mentioned in Lesson 1, is a new feature in Vista. It enables you to add live gadgets (mini-applications) to the desktop itself. These gadgets can include clocks, calendars, stock tickers, weather reports, and so on, pulling their information from your system's information and from the Internet. Figure 3-12 shows the Sidebar with some common gadgets in it.

Figure 3-12: The Sidebar with some gadgets installed.

On most systems, the Sidebar loads automatically by default when Windows starts. If it does not, you can start it manually from the Start menu (select Start > All Programs > Accessories > Windows Sidebar). Here are a few Sidebar tips:

• To remove a gadget from the sidebar, right-click it and select Close Gadget.
• To add a gadget, click the plus (+) sign at the top of the Sidebar. The Gadget Gallery opens. Drag a gadget from this window onto the Sidebar to attach it.

You can attach or detach gadgets from the Sidebar. (Gadgets are attached by default.) To detach a gadget so that it's a free-floating object on the desktop, right-click the gadget in the Sidebar and select Detach from Sidebar. To add it back to the Sidebar, right-click it and select Attach to Sidebar, or just drag-and-drop it onto the Sidebar.

To get additional gadgets:

1. In the Gadget Gallery, click Get More Gadgets Online. The Windows Live Gallery dialog box opens.
2. Click See All Gadgets.
3. Find the gadget you want and click Download to Sidebar.
4. Click Install.
5. In the File Download dialog box, click Open. Wait for the file to download and run. (This might take a few minutes, depending on your Internet connection speed and the size of the file.)

If the download doesn't work, repeat Steps 1 through 4 in the preceding list, but click Save in Step 5 and save it to your desktop. After it downloads, double-click it to install it.

6. In the security warning dialog box that opens, click Install.

As you've probably noticed, the Sidebar can make your Vista user experience a breeze. Spend some time modifying the Sidebar by adding and removing gadgets until you find the perfect mix for you.

Moving On

In this lesson, you learned about the Windows Vista Control Panel and saw how to customize the display, keyboard, mouse settings, and Windows Sidebar. In Lesson 4, you'll learn about some of the unique user-friendly multimedia and convenience features in Windows Vista Home Premium. Before moving on, complete the assignment and quiz for Lesson 3, and be sure to post any questions or comments on the Message Board. See you there.