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Changing screen colors, font sizes, screen savers, and so on doesn't strike most people as a maintenance topic, but, in fact, many problems can be linked to your video system. Changing the color of your desktop won't solve anything, of course, but turning a screen saver off just might do the trick. |
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These settings can be found in Start, Settings, Control Panel, Display. This is where you can change the screen background, the screen saver, the general appearance (like colors and fonts), and the resolution settings and number of colors displayed. By default, the first tab you see is Background. Appearance is the only tab with no troubleshooting use. The Background tab lets you change the "Pattern" and "Wallpaper" settings. I've never been quite sure of the difference between the two, but then, I don't use them. If you seem to be low on resources, change them to "none" to see if it makes a difference (while the default Windows backgrounds are pretty small files, people can and do add custom files which can be quite large and take up a lot of memory). If you're short on hard drive space, you can actually remove these files. Go to Start, Settings, Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs. Select Windows Setup, and double-click Accessories. There you will see all of the Windows add-ons that you can keep or discard, including wallpaper, sounds, games, and so on. Deselect anything you don't want, and hit OK. You may have to reboot. If you change your mind later, you can always put them back on (you'll need your Windows CD to it, though). |
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The "Settings" tab allows you to change the number of colors (called
"Color palette") and the resolution (here called "Desktop area"). The available
settings depend on your video card and monitor. For most users, a color
palette of 256 colors is plenty. But if you are watching video or looking
at photo-quality pictures, you'll want more colors-- try the "High Color"
setting you see on the left.
The Desktop area setting changes your screen's resolution. A higher resolution gives you more "desktop space," but everything on the desktop is smaller. Most people find 800x600 comfortable, and that is the most common setting preferred by software and Web pages these days. Using fewer colors will use less of your video adapter's memory, which may clear up problems. |
| The Screen Saver tab allows you to choose a screen saver, or turn it
off entirely. If you are having random lock-ups, especially when the screen
saver is on, turn it off and see if the problem persists. On a historical
note, screen savers are no longer necessary to keep a static imaged from
being "burned" into the screen. These days, the screen saver is either
decorative or it has a password and therefore is a simple form of security.
If you really want to be energy-conscious, you can tell your monitor
to go to low power or shut off entirely after a certain amount of time
idle.
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Just for fun...
If you would like to change the colors of your screen, go to the Appearances tab. You can select a "scheme" which has coordinated colors, or edit the colors assigned to different parts of the screen to create your own "scheme." |
