The Files Are In the Computer??
Part I in a continuing series.Hello, welcome to "The Files Are In the Computer??" This series will focus on how to get the most out of technology, computers, and teh internets. I know a lot about computers (specifically Windows-based computers). I am not a computer science major, but I do spend an unhealthy amount of time interacting with these machines, and I've learned a thing or two that I think others may be interested in knowing.
In this post I would like to focus on helping you make your computer a bit more user friendly. Namely, I'm going to focus on the task bar and start menu. You probably don't think too much about these two things, but they can honestly make your computing experience a pleasure or a pain in the ass. I would argue that the default WindowsXP settings for the task bar and start menu are less than ideal. But at least they let you change things...
If you right click on your taskbar and select Properties you will be greeted with the "Taskbar and Start Menu Properties" box. Alternately, you could go to Start > Settings > Control Panel > Taskbar and Start Menu. Either way you end up in the same place.
The first tab in this window is for the taskbar (this includes everthing to the right of the Start button). The first section of this menu is for Taskbar Appearance, but I would argue that it allows much more customization than just "appearance."1) The first check box is for "Lock the taskbar." If unchecked, this lets you move the taskbar around the screen, and also lets you hide or unhide parts of the taskbar such as the QuickLaunch or Notification areas (I'll explain these soon). For now, leave this unchecked. Once you have your taskbar the way you like it, I would recommend locking it so you don't accidently change something with an errant mouse click.
2) The next choice is to "Auto-Hide the taskbar." This makes the Taskbar and Start Menu disappear after a few moments of the the moving the mouse off of the taskbar. This is definitely a matter of personal preference. I like to see my taskbar (especially the clock) at all times, so I have this option unchecked.
3) Next, "Keep the taskbar on top of other windows" is fairly self explanatory. If checked, the taskbar cannot be "covered" by other open program windows or folders. I honestly don't know why anyone would want to uncheck this.
4) "Group similar taskbar buttons" will stack things in the taskbar if checked. In other words, if you have a lot of Windows Explorer file folder windows open, they will collapse into one "space" on your taskbar. To select an individual folder from this group, you need to first click on the group on the taskbar and then scroll the mouse up to highlight the particular folder you want. This works the same if you have multiple program windows open; for example if you are working on a number of Word documents or PowerPoint presentations. Personally, I think this is annoying. It defeats the purpose of the taskbar, which is easy access to your different open windows. I would recommend unchecking this option, unless you have a very small monitor or run your resolution very low (so you need all of the screen real estate you can afford).
5) "Show Quick Launch" is my favorite option. Lots of people love the operating system for Macs (OS X). OS X has a neat feature called the Dock which is a collection of icons that are short cuts to your frequently used programs. The Quick Launch is the closest thing that Windows has to this nice Mac feature, as it allows you to add a few handy program or file shortcuts right on the taskbar. I would definitely recommend checking this feature (I'll talk more about customizing the Quick Launch later).
The next section is the "Notification area." The Notification area is the section at the far right of your taskbar, which is probably full of mysterious icons that you never click on.
The first option here is self explanatory - click it to show the clock in the taskbar. I like knowing what time it is, don't you?
The final choice on the Taskbar tab is to "hide inactive icons." This is another very useful feature and I definitely recommend checking it. Why do you have all of these icons that you probably never click on taking up valuable space on your taskbar?
Before I go any further on this, I would like to point out that many, many programs install an icon in your Notification Area. I would say that 9 out of 10 of these icons are useless in your day to day work. But more than being a visual nuisance, they are also eating up processor power and slowing down your computer. This is because that little icon means that some part of the host program is actually running "in the background" on your computer. So, even if you aren't running Quicktime right now, that little Q in your Notification area may just be slowing things down on your machine. Usually these icons don't do much in the background, but when you have a slew of them all running at once the effect can add up! Luckily, almost all programs allow some way to disable the Notification Icons. There is usually an option under Preferences or Options in any given programs File menu. I would recommend double clicking on each mystery icon in your Notification Area so that it launches it's host program. Then find out how to disable the Notification Icon, unless you decide that it is useful to have it running. Some icons are necessary and functional (like the Gmail notifier or the Picasa Media Detector, which I'll talk about in some other post). Other Notification icons just allow a better way to minimize a program; for example there is an option in Microsoft Office that allows you to minimize Outlook to the Notification area instead of to the taskbar. Since most office workers have Outlook running all day long, it doesn't make sense to have it taking up space in the taskbar when you could just have a little icon by the clock sitting there.
Whew! Ok, so we've gone through all those icons and found out how to disable most of the useless ones. But now we still have a few that we need to have running. But do we really need to see them all the time? Probably not. So, to the right of the "Hide inactive icons" check box, there is a button that says "Customize." Click it! Here you will see all of the possible Notification icons that could possibly be running at any time on your computer. Each icon has an option to Always Show, Always Hide, or Hide When Inactive. Hide When Inactive is not especially useful, as Windows seems to think that if something is running in the Notification area, it is "active," so it will almost always be shown. Some icons need to be there but I don't need to see them... for example the Google Desktop icon (more on Google Desktop later too). The idea here is to get rid of any icons that you don't need to see constantly.
Now that was the tough part. Next, click on the "Start Menu" tab at the top. WindowsXP comes with the default set to your first choice here ("Start Menu"). If you like how your start menu works, leave this alone. Personally, I think the start menu is a cluttered mess in this configuration. I can never find anything without looking around for a minute. But the second choice on this list ("Classic Start Menu") is a heck of a lot easier to navigate. I recommend switching to the Classic menu and trying it out for a few days... I think you'll like it.
To really make the most of the Start Menu, click the "Customize" button on the right. You can add, remove, or sort the icons on your start menu in the top section. The "Clear" button is useful for getting rid of your Start Menu "history," such as what documents you have opened recently. The bottom section offers you even more customization options.
1) "Display Administrative Tools" - if checked, this adds Administrative tools to the Start > Programs menu. Check it... you'll need these later.
2) "Display Favorites" - this is only useful if you use Internet Explorer. You will not be using Internet Explorer by the time I'm through with you. Leave this unchecked.
3) "Display Log Off" - This adds a "log off" button to the Start menu. Useful if you don't like hitting CTRL-ALT-DELETE to log off of your computer.
4) "Display Run" - Adds "Run..." button to the start menu. This is a great way to quickly launch programs or the command window (I'll write about these later). Definitely check this!
5) "Enable dragging and dropping" - Allows you to rearrange things on your Start menu by dragging and dropping them around. I like this feature. But once you get the Start menu the way you like it, you might want to disable it, so you don't accidently move things around when clicking.
6) "Expand Control Panel" - this gives you quick access to the Control Panel. I recommend checking it.
7) "Expand My Documents" - this gives you quick access to all of the folders and documents in My Documents. I would leave this unchecked. Later I will show you a different way to get to My Documents quickly.
8) "Expand My Pictures" - Leave this unchecked unless you really need to get to your pictures folder quickly and frequently.
9) "Expand Network Connections" - only useful if you have multiple network cards or connections on your computer. Even then it is kind of overkill. Leave it unchecked.
10) "Expand Printers" - same as above, but for printers. Do you have lots of printers? Probably not, unless you are in a big office. Most likely you will leave this unchecked, at least on your home computer.
11) "Scroll Programs" - this is a matter of personal taste. When you have lots of programs installed on your computer, the Start menu can sometimes become a very long list, sometimes so long that it spills over to a 2 page or even 3 page list. If you don't like this, you can check this box to scroll through your programs in a single list. Personally, I like to see all my programs with one click. I would leave this unchecked.
12) "Show Small Icons In Start Menu" - this shrinks the icons on the Start menu. If you like to squint, feel free to check this. Personally I already run my monitor resolution very high (I'll address this in another post), so the icons are already small. No need to shrink them further.
13) "Use Personalized Menus" - leave this checked.
Now click Ok for the Customization menu and Ok for the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties menu. Not too painful, right?
Now, as long as you chose the option to Enable the Quick Launch bar and you chose not to Lock the Taskbar, you can re-size the Quick Launch area next to the Start menu using your mouse by dragging the double arrow (">>" symbol). This way you can decide how many icons you want to display here. I usually have 4. Any of the icons that are hidden can still be accessed by clicking the double arrow (">>"). You can also rearrange the icons to decide what order they are displayed. I generally put the "Show Desktop" icon first, then Firefox (I'll talk about Firefox later), then a shortcut to Windows Explorer, and finally Microsoft Outlook. The hidden icons are all of my media programs (Itunes, Windows Media Player, Quicktime, and Internet Explorer... yes sometimes you have to use it!).
Now one final trick: right-click on the desktop and go to Toolbars. This menu lets you add a few additional items to the Taskbar. Here you can toggle the Quick Launch bar on and off here (I would leave it on). There is a handy feature here called Desktop. If you check it, it adds a double arrow (">>" symbol) to the Notification area that says "Desktop." Clicking this gives you instant access to all of your desktop shortcuts, including My Computer and My Documents (this is why I recommend not having My Documents on the Start menu... it would be duplicitive).
Finally, if you are an iTunes addict like me, you can click the iTunes checkbox on the Toolbars menu. Now if you minimize iTunes it will turn into a little controller on your taskbar. Unfortunately this little control bar takes up a lot of space. Luckily Itunes has a built in mini player that can sit anywhere you like. I'll talk about that in an upcoming post, where I will get into all the Itunes goodness.
Ok, that post covered a lot of stuff, and most of it is really pretty basic. But honestly, a lot of people never really experiment with customizing their computer interface, either because they are afraid they will mess something up or just because they don't know how to get things the way they want them. Hopefully this post gave you a good idea of how to set up your taskbar and start menu for maximum efficiency. Stay tuned for more computer-nerd goodness in the coming days!
posted by averagejoe @ 7:19 PM
1 Comments:
NICE ! My task bar is mad efficient now. Thank you for freeing me from tyranny of the default settings.
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