Tech Tips – Making It Look Good

Even with two monitors to work from, your computer desktop and folders can get pretty cluttered at times. There are many ways to to clean up that clutter, or at least temporarily shove everything in the “closet” while you have guests over.  

Yes, "Cat In A Basket" is an official desktop wallpaper from Microsoft.

(1) Shake It Like You Mean It: With Windows 7’s “shake” feature, you can minimize every window except the one in which you’re currently working in one step. Click and hold the title bar of the window you want to keep on the desktop.  While still holding the title bar, shake it quickly back and forth until all of the other windows minimize to the taskbar. Then let go. To make them return, shake the title bar again.

(2) A Change Will Do You Good: Windows 7’s theme is ok on its’ own, but if you don’t like the default colours, right-click the desktop, choose ‘Personalize’, then ‘Window Color’, and you’ll be able to set any color you want for your windows.

(3) Gadgets Are Gone. Free Downloads Are Not: Even though Microsoft has gotten rid of their hosted online gadgets, they’ve offered up a variety of other enhancements for your PC such as custom themes, wallpapers, languages, and more.  We can recommend this site for downloading and applying these tweeks, as it comes directly from Microsoft itself: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads

(4) You Need Tools To Build Your Home: Windows 7 has a number of free utilities that will help you keep your files better organized and ensure you get the most out of your system.  You can find addons and templates for Microsoft Office, movie making programs, and more all at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/default.aspx

It’s always nice to give your office a bit of personality. Your computer is no exception!