10 Ways To Enliven Your PC Desktop

If you are sick of staring at the same old desktop on your PC, day in and day out it may be time for a change. Don’t despair, there are plenty of people who have felt the way that you feel now, and some of them have made programs that can help you to turn your desktop from blasé to blazing. In addition to the paid applications we will also take a look at some of the basic customizing that you can do with the options built into your Windows system.

These are the options already built into the Windows OS that can help you to feel like the computer is a bit less factory and a bit more yours.

Screen Saver: Setting A New One

1. Right-click on any empty area of your desktop. This will make a menu appear.

2. In that menu choose "Properties", and a new Windows with the display properties will appear.

3. Click on the "Screen Saver" tab to see your current screensaver settings.

4. Choose a new screensaver from the pulldown list, or in some versions by using the file navigation menu.

5. Click "OK" or "Apply" depending on your version.

Get More Screensaver choices here.

Wall Paper: Setting A New One

1. Right Click on any empty area of your desktop. This will make a menu appear.

2. In that menu choose "Properties," and a new Windows with the display properties will appear.

3. Click on the "Desktop" tab to see your current wallpaper settings.

4. Choose a new screensaver from the pulldown list, or in some versions by using the file navigation menu.

5. Click "OK" or "Apply" depending on your version.

Get more wallpaper choices here.

Change Windows Sounds*

1. Log in on an Administrator Account. You must be an admin to change the sounds.

2. Open your Control Panel and then click on Sounds, Speech, and Audio Devices.

3. Click on the word "Change The Sound Scheme" and a new window will appear.

4. Find the "Program Events" list, and choose the event that you want to change the sound on. Click on this event to highlight it.

5. Use the "Sounds" menu to find the sound that you do want to use and select it. If you are using a custom sound you may have to search for it before you can select it.

6. Repeat this process with each sound you want to change.

7. Click "Save Scheme As," name and save your file. Then click "OK" in both this window and the one below it.

You can also download custom sounds on many great sites to keep you from getting bored with the standard sounds.

Change Your Folder Icons

1. Find the folder with the icon you want to change then right click on the folder and click on "Properties"

2. Click on "Customize" then on "Change Icon".

To make changes on the whole, instead of individually just change the theme using these instructions:

1. Right Click on any empty area of your desktop. This will make a menu appear.

2. In that menu choose Properties, and a new Windows with the display properties will appear.

3. Click on the "Themes" Tab, here you will find a drop down list where you can choose from the default themes that come installed in the program. Choose one and Click on OK.

If you don't like the default themes you can get new ones at the Microsoft Download Center that range from Ancient Egypt to New Zeland. You can also use any number of 3rd Party Sites to download themes.

A quick way to download some changes are with Widgets. There are a great number of PC widgets that are available through Yahoo! Widgets for free download.They range from silly Hula Girls dancing over your screen to serious system monitor tools. Whatever you want you are sure to find it there.