Mouseclix

By: Hobie Lunin

A Clean Sweep (of your desktop).

I am often asked to come to a student’s home to help them with problems they may be having. When I get there, we turn on the computer and the first thing we see is a desktop with a jumble of icons scattered everywhere on the screen. Before we go much further, the student will ask, “how do I get rid of most of this stuff? I don’t need it all.” I usually ask where all of these icons came from and the response is often that it “was always there” (a hand-me-down computer) or “my kids (or grandkids) somehow put all of it in there.”

My response is to stop right there and give the student a lesson in organizing their desk top such that it is a helpful start to a session rather than an annoying screen that you just want to put out of your mind.

First, decide which of these icons (and programs) you still want in the computer and which you don’t. I will review quickly the procedure for getting rid of unwanted programs. Click on start, settings and then control panel. Then click on Add/Remove programs. Look at the list and click on (highlight) any program you want to get rid of and then click on the Add/Remove button and then follow the instructions.

Usually, when you delete a program, the icon on the desktop will disappear as well. Remember if you delete something that you had not intended to delete, you will find it in the Recycle Bin and you can Restore it from there from the file menu. Next go back to your desktop and get rid of the rest of the icons you do not want. The rule is that if the icon contains a tiny arrow in it, the icon is only a shortcut and that the program itself will not be deleted if you remove the icon. To delete the icon, right click it and left click on Delete or drag it to the recycle bin. After you have removed all unnecessary icons, drag the remaining ones around to where you want them on the screen. Then right click on the screen away from any icons and left click on “line up icons.” This will line them up evenly and you may want to again drag some to better locations before lining them up again. I suggest that you sort them by their usage, putting all the ones you use frequently, e.g., on the right side of the screen and the others to the left.

OK, now you are looking a little more organized on your desktop and you have gotten a few of the programs deleted. Some of the programs may not have appeared in the Add/Remove application described above, and so you may want to delete any additional programs by clicking start, going to programs and finding that program in the start menu. When you point to it with your cursor the cascading menu may show you an uninstall option. Clicking on this will remove it and place it in the recycle bin.

Well, now let’s look at the desktop screen once again to see if you are happy with the content and number of icons. Yes, that is much better. Your computer will boot up faster with fewer icons on the desktop. How about the background, how do we change that to something else for a new look? Click on start; point to settings and click on control panel. This time double click on display. The first screen that shows up is Backgrounds and you can select a new one depending upon your preferences.

In Win98, you can also select a theme that will make changes throughout your computer by clicking on the Appearance tab and then clicking on Scheme to select a scheme of background, color and screen saver that has a theme. For instance, right now, I am using a background scheme called “space” and in addition to providing a background and coordinated screen saver, it provides “spacey” sound effects to go with it. If you like the colors or the theme but are not particularly fond of the sound effects, you can silence them by clicking on the little icon on the lower right taskbar that looks like a speaker and then clicking in the box that says “Mute”.

To make changes in the time interval before the screen saver comes on, go back to the display screen as described above and click on “Screen Saver” and change the time shown in the “wait” field by clicking on the little arrows to readjust the time in minutes. If you have not selected a screen saver, (none) will appear in the screen saver field and the minutes field will be “grayed out.”

If you have gotten a hand-me-down computer and the previous user has changed the fonts of the desktop such that they are too large or too small, you may change these. Right click a blank space on the desktop, select Properties from the pop-up menu and then click the settings tab and then the Advanced button. Click the down arrow at the right end of the font size list box to see the two standard options Small or Large. One of these should work out OK. Click Other to display the Custom font size dialog box and drag the ruler to a new position. Release the mouse button to see how sample text will appear. Click on OK when you find what you want.

One last word. If you cannot find a good selection of screen savers or backgrounds on your computer, you can download more of them from your Windows 98 disk, if you have one.

I hope your desktop looks neat and orderly now with your selection of a new background and reduction of the number of icons.

Hobie Lunin is a Computer Instructor and Consultant, and can be reached at mouseclix2@yahoo.com