Background color changer

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Dear friends, These ideas are compiled from years of accumulations from various magazines, books, on-line sites and my own personal experience. I claim neither originality nor ownership to any of its contents. My only intent is to share the various “tips, “tricks” & “hints” in hopes of helping & maybe enhancing your computing experiences. They are all intended for anyone who uses a PC.

It is for beginners as well as advanced users. Enjoy and use as you will.

SET YOUR WINDOWS SO THEY ALL HAVE THE SAME VIEW

If you like to see lists of your files in a certain way—as large icons, for example, or with detailed information—Windows XP lets you set your view options for all your folders at once the way you want them. On the Tools menu in Windows Explorer, click--Folder Options.

• Click the View tab.
• Set the view for this folder the way you want it to be for all folders.
• Click Like Current Folder, then click Yes to confirm, and click OK.

SEARCH FOR INFORMATION RIGHT FROM THE ADDRESS BAR IN INTERNET EXPLORER

You can quickly search for information on the Web using the AutoSearch feature in Internet Explorer 6 in Windows XP:

• In the Address bar, simply type “go” or “find” or “?” followed by a keyword or phrase, and then press ENTER. Your search results will soon appear.

Note Internet Explorer searches for your word or topic using only one search service. If you don’t find what you need, click the Search button on the toolbar and try using different search services.

HOW TO DISPLAY THE ANIMATED SCREEN CHARACTER IN THE SEARCH OPTION

• Click Start, and then click Search.
• In the Search Companion dialog box, click Change Preferences.
• Click With an animated screen character in the How do you want to use Search Companion box. The screen character is displayed in Search Companion.

CHANGING TIME CLOCK 24HRS..12HRS OR REVERSE

The desire to change the time format in the system tray clock is a fairly common one and finding the setting can be challenging. Click Start | Control Panel. If you’re in XP native view, click “Date, Time, Language and Regional Options.” If you’re in Classic view, click Regional and Language Options. Click the Customize button, then click the Time tab. In the drop down box for Time Format, choose h:mm:ss tt or hh:mm:ss tt. The “tt” stands for A.M./P.M. The selections that begin with capital H cause the clock to display military (24 hour) time.

HOW TO CONFIGURE DEVICE MANAGER TO SHOW DETAILED INFORMATION

Sometimes when you’re troubleshooting problems with various devices and components, you would like to see information such as the hardware ID of the device or its firmware revision or other information that is not available in Device Manager. You can configure Device Manager to display more detailed information than is displayed by default. Here’s how:

1. Click Start | Run.
2. Type cmd.exe and press Enter.
3. Type set DEVMGR_SHOW_DETAILS=1 and 3.press Enter.
4. Type start devmgmt.msc and press Enter to open the Device Manager console.

Now a Details tab will appear in the properties for each device. This tab contains the additional information that you may need.

USE THE DESKTOP CLEANUP WIZARD IN WINDOWS XP

To start the Desktop Cleanup Wizard:
• Right click anywhere on the Desktop
• Select Properties at the bottom
• Click the Desktop tab
• Then click Customize Desktop. The Desktop Items dialog box is displayed.
• Under Desktop cleanup , click the Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days check box .
• If you want to run the Wizard immediately. Click Clean Desktop Now. The Desktop Cleanup Wizard starts.
• If you do not want the Wizard to run at all, uncheck the check box.

RESTORE ICONS THAT HAVE BEEN REMOVED FROM THE DESKTOP IN XP

This article describes how to restore the My Computer, My Documents, and My Network Places icons after they have been removed from the desktop.

In Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition and Professional, the new Start menu is enabled by default. When the new Start menu is enabled, the My Computer, My Documents, and My Network Places icons are removed from the desktop.

• Right-click the Desktop and click Properties.
• Click the Desktop tab. • Click Customize Desktop.
• Click the General tab, and then click the icons that you want to place on the desktop.
• Click OK.

ADD FIELDS TO THE DETAILS VIEW OF FOLDERS

You can add other columns to the Details view of the files contained in Windows XP folders, such as Comments, Description, Category, and many others. To add new columns:

• Right-click the column header of the fi les list, and then click one of the fields listed, or click More.
• In the Choose Details dialog box, you can reorganize the order of column headers, specify column widths, and add columns to display details for the files in that folder. When you click the new column header, the width of the selected column is displayed in pixels in the Choose Details dialog box.

This article has been obtained from APCUG with the author’s permission for publication by APCUG member groups; all other uses require the permission of the author (see e-mail address above).

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