How to Customize Your Windows XP Desktop

Steps

1. Turn on your computer and log in if you have not already done so.
2. Make sure your mouse isn't over any icons or tool bars on your screen, then right click. A menu will appear. Move your cursor down over "Properties" and click once.
3. A window named "Display Properties" will appear. Go to the second to last tab: "Appearance".
4. If you like the bars on your screen rounded, go down to "Color Scheme" to change tool bars and window borders to a predefined theme's colors.
5. If you move down to "Font Size", you can change how big the text is.
6. If you want to change any of the colors, click "Advanced".
7. The boxes shown will be squared, in the old Windows style, but don't worry. If there is any color you want to change, click on the item and chose the colour(s) you would like.
8. To change the colours, scroll through the different colours until you find the one that you like, and then select it.
9. To change the appearance of text, click on some text in the preview window, and change the size, boldness, underlining, font, and colour.
10. If you like boxes that are squared at the edges, go back to "Appearance", open the scroll box "Windows and Buttons", and select "Windows Classic Style".
11. Now you can choose from even more themes.
12. Once you have chosen a theme, you can follow the steps above to change colours and sizes.

Tips

• A theme is a preset series of colors and styles for your computer. These include the popular blue Windows XP style, its silver and green style, and also many colour themes that are in the square Windows 95/98/2000 style.
• You can customize the colours as much as you like if the "Windows Classic" option is selected. However, you cannot change the colours in Windows XP style.

Warnings

• The above steps do not apply to Windows Vista

Things You'll Need

• A computer with Windows XP installed

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