There are two areas where the visual effects are set, one is
the background the other is appearance of the icons, task bars, and tool bars.
A) Icon, task bars, and tool bars are controlled through the system properties
same as the swap file. On the "Performance Options" page you will see a tab
called "Visual Effects". You have four options, the best one is "adjust for best
performance", you can select "Custom:" then go down the list and remove all the
check boxes, maybe leave a couple checked because you like the feature.
B)The background color scheme is controlled by the display settings in the
Control Panel. there are five tabs, "Themes", "Desktop". "Screen Saver"
"Appearance", and "Settings".
1)Themes
- This is the bane of any system admin that has to put up with "My
Computer is too SLOW!" complaint. The end user will not let you change it, the
simplest way to get around this is to delete them when you load the system (oopps,
giving away trade secrets.....) any way this is where you get rid of the
Microsoft hills and valleys.
2) Desktop - you can set background, there are some already created or you can
make a customized desktop. This is where you see those company logos in the background......
3)Screen Saver
- If you have small children
or work in an office it is important
to set the screen saver and have it password protected. Ten minutes is a company
standard time-out, you don't always remember to lock your computer. A small
child typing on the keyboard or clicking the mouse can cause a lot of havoc. I
know a guy that lost a large amount of data because he didn't lock his system,
his little boy had a field day on the computer.
4) Appearance
- lots of options here! the main one is under effects:
a) "Use the following transition effects........." I remove this one for sure
b) "Use the following method to smooth......." Turn off and if you see jagged
edges on your fonts or Icons turn it back on, minimal performance loss.
c)All the rest I turn off, unless you need "BIG" icons or shadows, etc.
5) Settings - This is for screen resolution and colors. If you set up your
computer on the same monitor you use daily this should already be at optimum.
You can increase your colors or resolution, be careful you may get the
"Resolution out of range" error.
