PERSONALIZE YOUR COMPUTER
Part IV: CHANGING YOUR COMPUTER SETTINGS

Your computer comes with more stuff than you can imagine! It's good to have a look around and see what's there. It's like going on a treasure hunt to explore your computer! There are tools you can use. There are utilities for cleaning the insides of your computer. There are ways and means for you to change the time, the date, to change your mouse from right to left handed, etc. Let's go exploring!

See also How To..., Lesson #11: Windows Set-Up.

Not all computers are "set-up" to utilize all of these options. If you find something you want and your computer gives you the message that the particular option is not available, go to Windows Explorer Help for instructions in how to change your Set-Up.)

Go to Start/Settings/Control Panel and you will find a number of icons of things you can change (or leave alone!)

Notice that if you single click on an icon, the status bar at the bottom of the screen will give a brief description of the purpose of that icon. You can double-click on any icon to see what can be changed. Just a note of caution though: it's probably not wise to change settings that you don't understand. Use the Help in Windows Explorer for more information on anything that is covered here.

Most of the icons in your Control Panel are self-explanatory but here's some ideas of what is available.

• Accessibility Options:
  There are options here which make the computer more responsive to those folks who need a little help.
  For example, there's an option here for the deaf to receive visual signals rather than audio.

• Date/Time:
  What if you move from the east coast to the west coast and you need to change your computer's time zone? Double-click on the Date/Time icon. Click the Time Zone tab. You can also set your computer to automatically adjust for daylight savings time by checking that option. The date and time settings are used by your computer to identify when files are created or modified.

• Regional Settings:
  What if you are from Britain or Canada are are accustomed to the date being displayed as 15-7-00 rather than July 15, 2000? Double-click on the Regional Settings icon. You can select how you want numbers, currency, time and date displayed.

• Mouse:
  What if you are left-handed? Or you want to change the type of pointer your mouse displays? Choose the Mouse icon and see that you can change the speed of your mouse as well as the motion you see on your screen when you move your mouse.

• Keyboard:
  You can even change your cursor blink rate by selecting keyboard. Your keyboard can be set for multiple languages if the language is installed on your computer.

The Start Menu

There are several other places you can go to view the options of things that can be changed. It is beyond the scope of this chapter to go into details of technical subjects but let's just take a peek.

• Go to Start->Settings->Taskbar and Start Menu
  You should have "Always on Top" and "Show Clock" checked.

• Go to Start->Settings->Folder Options
  You can customize the way your folders look and choose what icons will appear on your toolbar.

• Go to Start->Run
  You can type in the path of a file and run it from here instead of looking through Windows Explorer. Or to go to Drive A you can type in A:\, click Browse, and a window will open telling you what is on a disk in Drive A.

• Go to Start->Programs->Accessories
  You will find a calculator, a Note Pad, and the program "Paint", things every office desk needs!

C.   Housekeeping:

There are also several programs on your computer that are used to "clean things up".

You have a recycle bin. Anytime you delete a file or folder it goes into the recycle bin. That way if you made a mistake and really didn't want to delete the file, you can go get it back. But, occasionally you need to empty your recycle bin because the files in it just take up room! You can right-click on your recycle bin icon and click delete. Your computer will open a window to show you what is in your recycle bin and ask you to confirm that you really do want to delete these files or folders. Once you say "Yes", they are gone for good! (A note of caution: do not depend on your recycle bin to hold files until you are sure they should be deleted! Computers do strange things somethimes and they may not be in your recycle bin when you go to look for them!).

Other programs that are used for housekeeping are Disk Defragmenter and ScanDisk. You find them in Start/Programs/Utilities/System Tools. You should occasionally use these programs to keep your computer running smoothly.

See also: How-To... Computer Maintenance.

According to Windows 98* Help:

"Disk Defragmenter optimizes the speed with which your programs load and run. With quick startup and shutdown, you can work, play games, and explore the Internet faster and more efficiently. You can use Disk Defragmenter to rearrange files and unused space on your hard disk so that programs run faster."

"ScanDisk runs automatically in the event the operating system is shut down improperly. ScanDisk detects corruptions when they are most likely to occur and then corrects them. You can also run ScanDisk at any time to evaluate your computer and to check for errors that may be using up disk space."