(If you're using Windows 98 or Windows Me, there's a version of this article specifically tailored to you.)

In the second tutorial in this series, we explored a typical Windows Desktop and gained an overall picture of the function of each of the Desktop components. This time, we're going to explore some features of the Desktop in detail and do some redecorating to make the Desktop a more efficient place.

Take a look at the Desktop in Figure 1. It's a typical Windows Desktop. It has been customised to some degree, by adding icons to the Desktop and changing the background.

There's a lot more you can do to make your Desktop both utilitarian and easy on the eyes.

Figure 1. A sample Windows XP Desktop (click the image to see a full-size version)

How can this Desktop be improved? Here are some things wrong with this setup:

That's all fixable. One of the delightful things about Windows is that you can tailor most aspects of it to suit your own desires. We're going to steer clear of some of the more exotic things you can do to liven up your Desktop and instead focus on two goals:

  1. Making the Desktop as easy to use as possible.

  2. Adding a little individuality to the Desktop.

Icon placement

Let's start with a cosmetic but very important change by rearranging the icons. It's simple to do and in the process you'll get to practice your mouse technique and learn about a great time-saving feature called shortcuts.

An aside about the mouse

If your mousing technique isn't solid, I recommend you spend some time practicing before you go messing with your computer. In particular, you should practice double-clicking (two clicks of the left mouse button in rapid succession, without moving the mouse in the slightest between clicks) so you can do it correctly each time.

A good way to practice double-clicking is to double-click the My Computer icon on your Desktop. This opens a window titled My Computer (you can see the window's title in the coloured strip across its top). Once it's open, close it by clicking the Close button (the little X in the top-right corner of the window). Repeat this over and over until you can do it faultlessly. Make sure you use the left mouse button and that your hand doesn't move between clicks.

(Note: If the My Computer icon is not currently displayed on your Desktop, you can display it by clicking the Start Button, right-clicking My Computer in the Start Menu and selecting Show On Desktop. While you're at it, do the same thing for My Documents if it's not yet displayed on the Desktop.)

I know I'm harping on mouse technique a lot; that's because poor mousing technique is the cause of more problems and confusion for beginners than almost anything else. So spend the time now to get it right. If you need some reminders about technique and mousing terminology, take a look at the tutorial on basic mousing techniques.

Organising your icons

Enough mousing around. Let's get down to work.

Start by right-clicking in an empty spot on the Desktop. A pop-up menu will appear. Select Arrange Icons to display a sub-menu. In the sub-menu, make sure there is no tick (checkmark) beside the Auto Arrange option. If there is a tick, select the Auto Arrange option to remove the tick/checkmark.

Now right-click once more in a blank spot on the Desktop, select Arrange Icons By and then select Align To Grid (unless there is already a tick/checkmark beside that option, in which case you can leave it as is).

Once you've done that, take a look at the icons in Figure 1 once more. The purpose of Desktop icons is to give you quick access to programs, documents and important functions. This task can be made easier by organising your icons into logical groups. For starters, move the Recycle Bin to its own space, away from other icons. The Recycle Bin is where you dump unwanted items; it makes sense to get it away from a crowded area, so you don't accidentally delete something you wish to keep. I stick mine in the lower-right corner of the screen.

To move the Recycle Bin, drag-and-drop it to its new location. Remember, you drag-and-drop an item by pointing to it with the mouse pointer, depressing the left mouse button and, while keeping it depressed, moving the mouse pointer to a new location. Once there, you release the mouse button.

Move your other icons to more useful positions, too. For instance, you may want to group all folders and files in one section of the Desktop, put shortcuts to programs in another section, and leave special items such as My Documents, My Computer, My Network Places and any other system items you may have in their own corner. The only thing to watch out for when moving icons is to make sure you don't cover one icon with another. Not only can you lose an icon that way, but you can also accidentally delete an icon or run a program by dropping an icon in the wrong place. So make sure you move those icons to a bit of vacant Desktop real estate.

A readable Desktop

There's no much point in organising your Desktop icons efficiently if the background wallpaper you've chosen makes them hard to decipher. Although it's tempting to use a high-energy wallpaper and tastes differ widely, while you're still becoming comfortable with Windows it makes a lot more sense to use a simple background which makes it easy to find everything on the Desktop.

Windows comes supplied with a selection of wallpapers and you can download others from many sites on the Internet. Webshots, in particular, offers a great choice of free wallpapers. You can also do away with the wallpaper and simply have a solid colour background.

Here's how to change your wallpaper:

  1. Right-click in a vacant spot on the Desktop and choose Properties from the pop-up menu to show the Display Properties dialog box.
  2. Click the Desktop tab.
  3. Scroll through the Background list and click each of the offerings in turn until you find something suitable. Click Apply to see that background applied to your Desktop; click OK once you're satisfied with your choice.
  4. If you decide to choose no background (by selecting None at the top of the Background list) you can select a colour instead by clicking the down-arrow in the Color box and then clicking one of the colours.

Now take a look at Figure 2. It shows another Desktop, with the icons organised quite differently and a less intrusive, although still interesting, background. You'll see special system items in the top left; shortcuts to drives down the right side; the Recycle Bin in the lower right; and folder and file icons along the top centre. That leaves a fair-sized space in the centre to open a program window and still be able to see and get at all the Desktop icons.

You don't have to organise your Desktop in this way, but it pays to have a logical and tidy Desktop scheme when you're learning how to use your PC. Choose something that suits you.

Figure 2. A Desktop organised along functional lines (click to view a full-size image).

Shortcuts

I've been tossing around the term shortcuts so it's about time you became acquainted with this handy Windows feature. A shortcut is a quick way to start a program or open a file or folder without having to search for its exact location on your computer.

If you take a careful look at Figure 2 you'll see some of the icons have tiny black arrows in their bottom-left corner. The black arrow indicates the icon is a shortcut. Each shortcut points to the location of a file, folder, drive or program.

To create a shortcut:

  1. Open the folder which contains the item to which you want to create a shortcut.

  2. Locate the item in the folder and right-drag-and-drop (that's using the right mouse button) the item onto a vacant spot on the Desktop. A pop-up menu will appear asking what you want to do. Choose Create Shortcut Here.

Creating drive shortcuts

Let's try a practical example by creating shortcuts to your CD-ROM and floppy drives—shortcuts that will come in handy when you want to explore the contents of a CD or copy a file to a floppy. Create the floppy shortcut first:

  1. Double-click My Computer to open it. If the My Computer window obscures the Desktop, resize it by moving the mouse pointer to the bottom-right corner where you can see a triangular set of dimples and, when the mouse cursor changes shape click-and-drag the window's edge diagonally up towards the left. 

  2. Right-drag-and-drop the floppy drive icon to your Desktop. 

  3. Select Create Shortcut Here from the pop-up menu.

Follow the same procedure to create a shortcut to your CD-ROM drive.

Tip: Windows XP actually provides a simpler method for creating drive shortcuts: You (left) drag and drop the icon onto your Desktop. But for consistencies' sake, I've described the right-drag-and-drop method because it can be used for any item in your computer.

Creating drive shortcuts - click the image to see a full-size screenshot

Now, whenever you want to copy a file onto a floppy disk, you can simply drag the file from its location on your hard disk onto the floppy disk shortcut you've created on the Desktop (make sure to place a floppy disk in the drive first, of course). And, if you place a disc in the CD drive and it fails to AutoPlay (that is, load automatically), you can double-click its shortcut on the Desktop to open it and load it manually.

Shortcut properties

It's important to distinguish between shortcuts and the objects to which they point: They are not the same thing. For instance, you can make multiple shortcuts to the same file (perhaps one shortcut on your Desktop, another in a folder you often use). Creating a shortcut to the file doesn't copy the file, so you can create shortcuts without wasting your hard disk space.

You can delete a shortcut and the file or program it points to remains on your computer. However, if you delete the file or program itself, not only will it be gone for good but any existing shortcuts to that object will no longer work.

You can rename a shortcut without affecting the file, too. This means you can give your shortcuts highly descriptive names. To rename a shortcut, right-click it and choose Rename from the pop-up menu, then type in the new name and press Enter. You can test your shortcuts by putting a disk in the drive and then double-clicking the shortcut to display the disk's contents.

Quick Launch shortcuts

To finish up, we're going to make one final shortcut, this time to a program instead of a drive, and instead of placing it on the Desktop we'll stick it in the Quick Launch bar to the right of the Start Button. The Quick Launch bar is the ideal place for shortcuts to the programs you use most often, because it only takes a single click (instead of the usual double-click) to launch a program from the Quick Launch bar. If it sounds like laziness to bother about whether you single or double-click to open something, just wait until you've had to do so several thousand times—it makes a difference!

The shortcut we'll create is to a word processing program called WordPad, which is supplied free with Windows. Chances are you'll have your own word processing program installed, but we'll use WordPad as an example because all Windows computers include it. We'll create the WordPad shortcut a little differently because there's already a shortcut to it on your Start Menu (all the items on the Start Menu are shortcuts, although they don't sport the usual black-arrow shortcut symbol). So, in effect, we'll be making a copy of a shortcut.

Here's how to do it:

  1. Click the Start button, select All Programs, then Accessories.

  2. Right-click-and-drag WordPad from the menu onto the Desktop, then release the mouse button. When the pop-up menu appears, select Copy (remember, you're creating a copy of a shortcut).

  3. Now drag the shortcut you just created from the Desktop onto the Quick Launch bar. Don't release the mouse button until you see a dark insertion point, a solid black line to the left of the shortcut icon like this:

When you see the insertion point, release the mouse button. Your shortcut will be added to the Quick Launch bar.

  1. You may need to resize the Quick Launch bar so you can see all the items in it. To do so, right-click in a blank space on the Taskbar and select Lock The Taskbar. Now you will be able to resize the Quick Launch bar by dragging the dimpled section of the Taskbar to the right. Once you can see all the icons, right-click in a blank spot on the Taskbar and select Lock The Taskbar once more.

That's it. You can now run WordPad by clicking its icon in the Quick Launch bar. If you like, you can delete the interim shortcut to WordPad which you created on the Desktop.

© 2002,  Rose Vines

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