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Windows Tips: Make Desktop Text Easy to Read

Select a readable system font, create a Show Desktop icon, learn how to use your Windows key.

Scott Dunn

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Create a 'Show Desktop' Shortcut

If you have Windows Millennium, 2000, 98, or 95 with Internet Explorer's Desktop Update installed, the Quick Launch toolbar on your Windows taskbar probably includes a Show Desktop icon (with a little blotter, paper, and pencil) that toggles between minimizing and restoring all open windows. But what happens if you or some errant application deletes this icon?

To restore it, select Start, Find, Files or Folders or Start, Search, For Files or Folders. In the Named box, type "Show Desktop.scf" (including the quotation marks). Specify Local Hard Drives in the Look In field. Click Find Now, and if you're in luck, the Find utility will locate a copy of this file. When it does, drag the file from the Find window to the Quick Launch bar to place a Show Desktop icon there.

If your search turns up nothing, you can re-create this file yourself. Open Notepad and type the information you see in Figure 2, exactly as shown. Then choose File, Save As, and navigate to the folder where Quick Launch items are stored. To find this folder, right-click an empty area of the Quick Launch toolbar (or the gripper line that you drag to resize the toolbar) and choose Open. The folder name appears in the Address bar. In the 'File name' box, type "Show Desktop.scf". Make sure that you include the quotation marks to prevent Notepad from adding its default .txt extension. The shortcut should reappear on the Quick Launch toolbar.

If you have difficulty finding the Quick Launch folder, you can always save the Show Desktop.scf file on the desktop, and then drag it to the Quick Launch bar. You don't have to keep the Show Desktop icon on that toolbar; you can copy the icon (or a shortcut to it) onto any customizable toolbar or menu (such as the Favorites menu). And if you have a Windows keyboard, you can press Windows-D instead of clicking the Show Desktop icon (see "Windows Toolbox.")

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