Copyright: Thursday, October 07, 1999 10:32:27


Displays how a pattern or wallpaper will look on your screen. To preview a wallpaper, click its name in the list of background pictures, or click the Pattern button to view available patterns.


Lists the available wallpaper designs you can use to decorate the desktop. When you click a wallpaper name, a preview of your selection is displayed in the monitor graphic above.


Click to select a pattern to use on your desktop or create a new one. If you did not select a wallpaper, the pattern will cover your entire desktop. If a wallpaper is selected and you chose Center under Picture Display, the pattern fills the space around the wallpaper. If this button is unavailable, you have selected a setting under Picture Display that displays the wallpaper across your entire desktop.


Lists the available patterns you can use to decorate the desktop. To preview a pattern, click its name.


Displays how the pattern you selected will look on your screen.


Click to edit an existing pattern or create a new one.


Displays the name of the pattern you selected. To create a new pattern based on this pattern, type a new name here, and then modify the pattern by clicking in the Pattern area to add or remove color blocks.


Provides a means for you to modify patterns. To reverse the color of a block, click it. The color of these blocks is determined by the Desktop color that is currently specified in Item on the Appearance tab.


Shows how the pattern will appear when it is repeated, actual size, across the desktop.


Closes the Pattern Editor dialog box and saves any changes you have made.


Adds a newly named pattern to the Pattern list.


Saves any changes you made to the pattern.


Removes the selected pattern from the Pattern list.


Click to search for wallpaper on other drives or in other folders. You can use many file extensions as wallpaper: .bmp, .gif, .jpg, .dib, .png, .htm.


Lists wallpaper display options. Center will display the image in the center of your screen; Tile will repeat the image over your entire screen; Stretch will stretch the image to cover your entire screen.


Repeats small wallpaper images until your entire screen is covered.


Centers a wallpaper image on your screen.


Stretches a single wallpaper image to fit your screen.


Displays how a screen saver will look on your screen. To preview a screen saver, click its name in Screen Saver.


Lists the available screen savers. A screen saver displays moving images that prevent damage to your screen. The screen saver starts automatically if your computer is idle for a specified amount of time.


Provides a space for you to set how much time will elapse before the selected screen saver is displayed.


Click to preview the selected screen saver. Move your mouse or press any key to end the test.


Specifies whether to assign your logon password to the screen saver when the Wait time has elapsed. This is a security feature that locks your workstation until you type in your password to unlock it and begin working again.


Click to change settings for the selected screen saver.


Energy Star™ is a program administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reduce the amount of power used by personal computers and peripherals. The Energy Star emblem does not represent EPA endorsement of any product or service.


Click to open the Power Options Properties dialog box that allows you to adjust the power settings for your monitor.


Lists schemes that you can use to change the appearance of many screen elements simultaneously. The screen elements in each scheme are different colors, sizes, and formats. You can use existing schemes or create and save your own schemes.


Click to save your current screen settings. The name you specify will appear in Scheme, so you can easily restore these settings later.


Provides a place for you to type a name for your current screen settings. The name you type will appear in Scheme, so you can easily restore these settings later.


Click to delete the scheme that is selected in Scheme.


Displays how the current settings will look on the desktop.


Lists the screen elements for which you can change settings.


Provides a space for you to set the size (in pixels) of the selected window component.


Lists the background colors you can use for the selected window component.


Lists the gradient colors (smooth shading of one color to another color) you can use for selected items, such as title bars. If this option is unavailable, you cannot change the item's gradient color.


Lists the colors you can use for the text in the selected window component.


Lists the fonts you can use for the text in the selected window component.


Lists the point sizes you can specify for the text in the selected window component.


Click to apply bold text to the selected window component.


Click to apply italic text to the selected window component.


Displays how the Active Desktop items you have chosen will appear on your desktop.


Specifies whether you want Web content on your Active Desktop. When this check box is selected, you can add active content, such as a stock ticker, to your desktop.


Lists the available Active Desktop items. If a check box is not selected, the item will not appear on the desktop.

 My Current Home Page displays the home page selected in your browser.


Click to add an Active Desktop item, and then follow the instructions on your screen. The new item will be added to the list of Active Desktop items.


Click to remove the selected Active Desktop item. When My Current Home Page is selected, this button is not available.


Click to view and change properties for the selected Active Desktop item and to make the page available offline.


Displays the icons used for items on your desktop. To change the icon for a particular item, click the item, and then click Change Icon.


Click to change the icon for the selected desktop item.


Specifies whether to display desktop icons using all the colors supported by your current display and your color-palette settings.


Specifies whether to display window contents as you move or size it. When this check box is cleared, you can see only the outline when you move a window.


Specifies whether to smooth edges of large fonts to make screen fonts more readable. To use this option, you must have a video card and monitor that support 256-color. For best results, your video card and monitor should support high color (16-bit color).


Lists the options available for improving the readability of screen fonts.


Specifies whether to use large icons to represent files, folders, and shortcuts on your desktop. Large icons require more memory than smaller icons. If you notice a decrease in performance, clear this check box.


Click to change the selected desktop icon back to its default icon.


Specifies whether to activate animations for menu and file commands. Animations change the appearance of menus and windows when you open and close them.


Lists the available transition effects. Click Scroll effect for menus to slide in and out, or click Fade effect to allow them to fade-in when you open them and dissolve when you close them.


Specifies whether to suppress the drawing of keyboard shortcuts (the underlined characters in menus and controls) and input focus indicators (the dotted rectangles around objects), until you actually start using the keyboard to navigate in Windows, generally with the ALT, TAB, or arrow keys.


Displays icons that represent your monitors. If you have more than one monitor installed, right-click on a monitor icon, and click Identify to see a number appear on the monitor corresponding to the icon you clicked. The settings for that monitor appear in Display, Colors, and Screen Area.

If more than one icon is displayed, drag them to the positions that represent how you want to move items between monitors. For example, if you are using two monitors and you want to move items from one monitor to the other by dragging left and right, position the icons side by side. To move items between monitors by dragging up and down, position the icons one above the other. The icon positions don’t have to correspond to the physical positions of your monitors. You can position the icons one above the other even though your monitors are side by side.


Displays all installed video adapters. If you are using more than one monitor, the adapter for your primary monitor is in position 1.


Displays the current color settings for the monitor attached to the video adapter that appears in Display. To use a different color setting, click the arrow, and then click a setting.


Displays the current screen area settings for the monitor whose video adapter appears in Display. Drag the slider to specify the screen area you want. The higher the number of pixels, the more information you can display on your screen.


Specifies that your desktop will be extended onto the monitor corresponding to the icon you selected above. This check box is unavailable for your primary monitor because additional monitors are all extensions of the primary monitor.


Click to open the Properties dialog box for the monitor and video adapter that appears under Display.


Specifies that the monitor corresponding to the icon you selected above is the primary monitor. The primary monitor will display the logon dialog box when you start your computer. In addition, most programs will display windows on the primary monitor when you initially open them.


Click to display a number on the monitors that correspond with the icons shown above.


Click to start the Display Troubleshooter.


Lists the available font sizes for the selected monitor. To use a different font size, click a font size in the list or choose Other, which allows you to set a customized font size.


Lists the available percentages you can use to set a custom font size. The changes will be reflected under the ruler in Sample. The font size you specify affects all video adapters on your system.


Click to drag your cursor along the ruler to specify a custom font setting. After you drag, your changes will be reflected in the sample below the ruler, and an exact percentage will be shown in the list above.


Displays how the font will look based on your changes.


Displays options for changing your monitor color settings.


Specifies that your computer should restart automatically when you change system display settings. Windows 2000 will display a prompt asking you if you want to restart your computer. Be sure to save unsaved data before you click Yes.


Specifies that your computer should apply changes to system display settings without restarting.

Some programs might not display colors correctly without being restarted after you make changes. If this happens, close and then reopen the program after you change color settings.


Specifies that Windows 2000 should display a prompt asking you if you want to restart after changing system display settings. Be sure to save unsaved data before you click Yes.


Displays the current video adapter type.


Displays information about your video adapter.


Click to view all of the video modes available for this adapter.


Lists all of the combinations of screen resolution, colors, and refresh rates available for the selected video adapter.


Click to display device and driver properties for this video adapter.


Shows the type of monitor you are using with the selected video adapter.


Lists the refresh rates available for the selected monitor listed under Display on the Settings tab. A higher refresh frequency reduces flicker on your screen.


Click to display device and driver properties for this monitor.


Specifies whether the list under Refresh Frequency will include modes that are not supported by your monitor. Choosing a mode that is inappropriate for your monitor may cause severe display problems and could damage your hardware. You must be logged on as a member of the Administrator’s group in order to view unsupported modes.


Lists the type of monitors you are using with the selected video adapter.


Adjusts the levels of hardware acceleration controlled by device drivers. Dragging the slider from Full to None gradually disables portions of hardware acceleration and enables you to detect which areas might be causing you to have problems with your graphics hardware.


Specifies that the marquee text should scroll across the center of your screen.


Specifies that the marquee text should scroll across random areas of your screen.


Adjusts the speed of the text as it moves across the screen.


List the available background colors.


Provides a space for you to type the text you want to display.


Displays how the settings will appear on your screen.


Click to specify a font, font style, and size for the displayed text.


Lists Polygon 1 and Polygon 2. You can specify individual settings for each polygon.


Specifies whether the selected shape is active. If this check box is cleared, the selected shape does not appear and your screen will become black when the screen saver is displayed.


Provides a space for you to type the number of lines for the selected shape.

This option is available only when the Active check box is selected.


Specifies that you want to choose two alternating colors for the selected shape, which you can select from the color list boxes.

Color options are available only when the Active check box is selected.


Specifies multiple random colors for the selected shape.

Color options are available only when the Active check box is selected.


Specifies whether the shapes appear on a black background or the shapes appear over your work.


Provides a space for you to type the number of Beziers in each loop (up to 10).


Specifies the number of loops (1 to 100).


Adjusts the speed of the image.


Adjusts the speed of the stars.


Specifies the number of stars displayed.