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Custom Windows

You would never take the wheel of a new car without adjusting the seat, mirrors, and radio presets to your liking. So why should your computer be any different? A few quick tweaks here and there in Windows can greatly increase your comfort zone.

Clean Up Toolbars Fast

All Versions Your Explorer and folder windows can quickly become top-heavy with buttons, menus, and other controls if you turn on all the possible toolbars. It's easy to hide some of them by using the View, Toolbars menu. If you find these toolbars useful, however, you can quickly compact or expand them by positioning your pointer along the bottom edge of the bottom toolbar and dragging it up or down.

This is handy if you're only cleaning things up on the fly, but if you're looking for a more permanent solution, drag the handle on the left edge of each toolbar and position it wherever you want to put it. By placing some toolbars side by side, you can save vertical space and still have access to the controls you want. Note: For Windows 95, this tip requires Internet Explorer 4's Desktop Update.

Now Clean Up Your Desktop

Windows 98, 98 SE, 2000, Me If your desktop is cluttered with icons, you could spend hours getting more organized, or you could take the easy way out: Hide all your desktop icons and open a folder window that shows your desktop items. Doing so makes them much easier to sort.

Hiding icons requires the Active Desktop feature (the mode for showing Web content on the desktop): In Windows 98, right-click the desktop and choose Properties. Click the Effects tab and check Hide icons when the desktop is viewed as a Web page. In Windows 2000 and Me, right-click the desktop and choose Active Desktop, Show Web Content. Now you can toggle your icons on and off by simply right-clicking the desktop and choosing Active Desktop, View As Web Page (in Windows 98) or Active Desktop, Show Desktop Icons (in Windows 2000 and Me).

All Roads Lead to the Desktop

All Versions If you've hidden your desktop icons using the previous tip, or just want another way to get to the desktop, try these tricks:

• Launch Windows Explorer and use the tree pane or Address bar drop-down list to scroll up to the top (Desktop) level. Or click in the Address bar field of any folder window, type desktop, and press Enter.
  
  
• Create a shortcut to the Desktop folder: Right-click in a folder or on the desktop and choose New, Shortcut. Type Explorer /root, (including the comma at the end). This method works in Windows 95 and 98, but not in Windows 2000 or Windows Me.
  
  
• For Windows 2000 and Me, make a shortcut to the Desktop folder (choose Start, Search, For Files or Folders to locate the right Desktop folder for your user profile). The window it opens won't include the built-in system icons (like My Computer and Recycle Bin), but you'll have access to everything else.
  
  
• Right-click an empty part of the taskbar and choose Toolbars, Desktop. You can keep this toolbar docked within the taskbar, let it float on the screen, or dock it against an edge of the screen (see Figure 4). Customize the toolbar by right-clicking an empty area of the toolbar and choosing Show Text or Show Title to toggle between these items. Choose an icon size from the View menu, and then choose Always on Top if the toolbar is not in the taskbar and you don't want any windows to cover it. Even if you decide to hide the icons' text labels, you can still see what each icon is by positioning the pointer over it (don't click) to see its info tip. (See " Look Before You Double-Click.")
  
  

Get the Biggest View Possible

All Versions To get the most spacious, capacious view of your folder or Explorer window, press F11 to enter kiosk mode. This view makes the file pane fill the whole screen. It hides all toolbars next to the menu bar (see "Clean Up Toolbars Fast" above), and makes the file pane even bigger than maximized size (see Figure 5). Even Windows' taskbar is covered by this mode. To pop it back into view, move your pointer to the taskbar's last location.

To make your screen even bigger, right-click a toolbar at the top and choose Auto-Hide. This slides the toolbar out of sight when not in use, but it pops back when you move your pointer to the top of the screen. If you have an Explorer bar showing on the left, you can hide it by clicking the Auto-hide pushpin button at the top of that panel (in some Windows 9x systems you have to slide the pointer away from the Explorer bar). The bar pops back when you move the pointer to the left side of the screen. Click the Auto-Hide button again to make that panel stay in place. To exit kiosk mode, hit F11 again. Note: For Windows 95, this tip requires Internet Explorer 4's Desktop Update.

Preview Sound and Video Files in Web View

Windows 9x Windows 2000's Web View lets you preview Web video and sound formats as well as images. Windows 98, 98 SE, and 95 with Internet Explorer 4's Desktop Update already have this feature, but you need to turn it on first. In a folder window, choose View, Customize this Folder. Make sure 'Create or edit an HTML document' is selected and click Next twice. In Notepad, search for 'var wantMedia' and change '=false' to =true. Save the file, exit Notepad, and click Finish in the Customize this Folder wizard. You should now be able to select .wav, .avi, .mov, and .mpg files in the folder and use the controls in the left panel to see them in miniature or hear them.

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