Windows 2000: Tips for New Arrivals

Customizing the Desktop

If the desktop looks like Windows 9x then it must act like Windows 9x, right? Not necessarily. Some parts act the same, some don't. Forewarned is forearmed.

Personalize the Start Menu

The start menu in Windows 9x has a nasty way of growing out of proportion, creating unwieldy cascading menus. In Win 2000, the Personalized Menu feature collapses the cascading menus under the Start button to show only the items you're likely to need. Windows does this by tracking the applications you've recently used or installed, and showing just them--the others drop off the visible menu.

To access the entire contents of a menu, click the down-chevron symbol at the bottom of the list. The whole menu defaults to an alphabetical listing, with the top-level items standing proudly on buttons.

If you don't know where an item is hiding, you may want to turn off Personalized Menus and display the whole Start menu. Select Start, Settings, Taskbar & Start Menu, and under the General tab, deselect Use Personalized Menus.

Create the Right Toolbar

The Quick Launch toolbar (on the taskbar between the Start button and the running-program buttons) provides convenient one-click launching for a few select items--but these aren't your only choices. To add a program, document, or folder icon to the toolbar, simply drag it from an Explorer window to the place you want it on your toolbar. To remove an item from a toolbar, right-click it and select Delete. To replace the toolbar with another preconfigured one, right-click a blank space on the taskbar, select Toolbars, and then choose one of the alternative toolbar options.

Turn on the Active Desktop

With Active Desktop enabled, you can make the Windows desktop look and act more like the Web--right down to making single-click launch icons. More important, you can also introduce Web content from AltaVista search forms to Javascript news tickers right on the desktop, and have that content update itself on a regular basis. Although Active Desktop has been around since Win 95, changing its settings is much easier with Windows 2000.

To turn on Active Desktop the Windows 2000 way, select Control Panel, Folder Options (also to be found under the Tools menu of any Explorer window). In the Active Desktop area, select the General tab, then click the "Enable Web content on my desktop" radio button. Two other ways to turn on Active Desktop are holdovers from Windows 98. You can right-click a blank area of the desktop and select Active Desktop, Show Web Content. You can also right-click a blank space on the desktop, select Properties, and under the Web tab, select "Show Web content on my Active Desktop."

Add Active Items

The first time you turn on the Active Desktop feature, only one item of Web content is displayed--the Internet Explorer Channel Bar. To add new items, right-click a blank part of the Desktop, and select Active Desktop, New Desktop Item. In a single dialog box, you are given the choice to browse Microsoft's collection of Active Desktop items online (View Gallery), or enter the Web address or location on your hard drive or network of a Web element you'd like to add. Microsoft's Desktop Gallery is worth a look--especially if you're in the market for a stock ticker, weather map, or AudioNet jukebox on your desktop.

Customize Active Desktop

To tinker with the contents and layout of the desktop, right-click a blank space on the desktop and select Active Desktop, Customize My Desktop. This shows the Display Properties Web tab, with a list of current Active Desktop items that you can enable by clicking the item's check box. You can also add new active items by clicking the New button (see "Add Active Items" on the previous page).

Keep Active Desktop Items in Their Place

When you have set Active Desktop to suit your preferences, you can prevent the accidental resizing or moving of items by locking them in place. Right-click a blank space on the Desktop and select Active Desktop. If the Lock Desktop Items listing has a check mark next to it, your desktop can't be edited. But what if you want to edit it later? Right-click a blank space on the Desktop, select Active Desktop, and click Lock Desktop Items to access and remove its check mark.

View More Files in the Explorer Window

The broad pane down the left side of Explorer windows is handy for previewing and retrieving information--but it also takes up a lot of space. If you prefer to see more files, change Explorer's Web-view settings: Select Tools, Folder Options, and in the Web View section, select "Use Windows classic folders" and click OK.

Truly Useful Folder Descriptions

Even with long folder names at your disposal, there's just not enough room to really describe what's in a folder, who put it there, and what it's there for. But in 2000, you have a way to annotate information to a folder--using plain text or HTML. Open the folder you want to annotate, and right-click in a blank area in it. Select Customize This Folder, click Next, and check only Add Folder Comment, then click Next. In the Folder comment area, enter text or a block of HTML. Click the Next button, and then Finish. Results will appear in the left pane of the commented folder and its parent folder when the commented folder is selected (if your Explorer folders are set with Web view).

A Folder With a View

Want to view all the file extensions of all your files? Doesn't it make sense to display compressed files and folders in different colors? Windows 2000 can do all these things--but only if you tell it to. Open Folder Options either from Control Panel or the Tools menu of any Explorer window. Click the View tab, and scroll down the list, clicking to add or remove item check marks where necessary. Click OK to make the changes to the current folder, or click the Like Current Folder button to apply your settings to all of your folders. (This option is grayed out if you open Folder Options from Control Panel--by default, changes made there affect all folders.) To revert to the default view settings later, reopen Folder Options and click the Restore Defaults button.

The Shorter Route to Shortcuts

Creating a shortcut on the Desktop (or in any folder, for that matter) has always been fairly simple: Right-click a blank space, select New, Shortcut , and then enter the shortcut. In the past, this last step usually meant clicking the Browse button and then browsing through folders till you found the item. But Windows 2000 autocompletes paths: Type in C: and you'll get a list of everything in the root directory of C:, including all the first-level folders. Type C:\m and you'll get any file in the root directory starting with M, and all such folders (for example: My Documents and My Photos). The more you type, the narrower the list becomes. This autocomplete feature also works under Start, Run but lists only executable programs and folders.