Transform Your WINDOWS DESKTOP
The 15 changes that make your PC easier to use
Remove screen clutter for good Get weather & news updates Create ‘fences’ for PC files Set up virtual desktops Unlock secret Start menu tools
The Windows desktop is the entryway to your computer. It’s the first screen you see after you’ve logged in, it’s where you place the shortcuts to the programs you use most, and it’s one of the areas of Windows you can really personalise – changing the background image, colour scheme, layout and more. But perhaps familiarity breeds contempt because it also tends to be the most neglected part of Windows.
We tend to clutter it with program shortcuts, many of which are barely used. We save documents and photos to it for convenience – only to leave them there clogging up space. And we put up with Windows’ default desktop layout because that’s how it has always looked.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Here, we’ll explain how to add useful new features such as a news tickertape. We’ll show you how to organise those icons into neat sections and take you through the process of personalising the desktop background, using virtual desktops and overhauling the settings you see when you right-click.
For those who find the taskbar too distracting we’ll show you how to make it transparent. Perhaps you’d like to banish the Cortana search bar in Windows 10 or declutter the notifications area – we’ve got it covered.
We’ll also focus on the Start menu and show you how to rearrange its shortcuts so your favourites are more accessible; and we’ll explain how to customise and swap any Start menu icon so you can make it your own.
So fire up your PC and read on to find out how to convert your Windows desktop from a convenient dumping ground to one of the most useful tools on your PC.
Give your desktop a spring clean
Before you add new tools and features to your desktop, take a long, hard look at it. Press the Windows key+d to minimise any open windows so that all you see are the shortcuts, files and documents scattered across your desktop. Ask yourself how essential each item is – and be ruthless.
One way to make this assessment easier is to find out when you actually installed the shortcuts and files sitting there. To see a list of items on your desktop, with details about when each item was created, open File/windows Explorer and click Desktop (in the left-hand column). Click the ‘Date modified’ column header (see screenshot below) to sort your desktop’s contents according to the last time they were modified – this will usually be the date you downloaded or created the file. Note that folders on your desktop will be listed separately from other file types.
In this view it’s also more convenient to move desktop items (like documents or photos) into relevant folders, or else create new folders (by right-clicking, going to New, then clicking folder) to give them a new home.
Organise your remaining icons
With your desktop cleared of all but the most essential files and shortcuts, your next step is to organise what’s left into groups. Nimi Places ( www.snipca. com/23604) is a brilliant new, free program that creates specific desktop sections – often referred to as ‘fences’ – within which you can place files and shortcuts. For example, you might want to fence together program shortcuts, documents or files relating to your hobbies and interests.
Download and run the installer (you’ll have to type a sequence of numbers to prove you’re a human being), then follow the instructions until you see the ‘Choose desktop layout’ screen (see screenshot above). Here, you can choose a layout for your fences and see a preview of how they’ll appear on your desktop. Click through the options on the left, beginning with ‘Casual (sides)’ and ending with ‘Organizer (side)’, and select the layout you prefer.
Don’t worry at this stage if it’s not exactly what you want because we’ll show you how to tweak the layout later. We chose the Artistic option because it lets us store many of our desktop shortcuts near to the taskbar, which we prefer. Click Finish when you’re happy.
Press Windows key+d to return to your desktop and you’ll see that the fences have been added. Mostly these fenced sections will be empty, though some may already contain relevant content. For example, if you chose a template that included a My Documents fence, it might already contain shortcuts to your documents. Adding shortcuts and files to a fence is simply a case of right-clicking the shortcut, selecting Cut, then rightclicking in the fence and clicking Paste. Once there, the shortcuts/files in fences work exactly as they do on your desktop.
You can rename a fence by doubleclicking its current name and typing an alternative. You can also move fences by placing the cursor over its title bar, holding down the left mouse button then moving your mouse. To change the size of a fence, hover over its top or bottom edge (until the cursor changes to a doublearrow), then drag. In this way you can shrink a fence to save room on your desktop. In this minimised state, you can scroll through the fence’s shortcuts by clicking its title bar, then pressing the up and down arrows on your keyboard or using your mouse’s scroll wheel.
You can customise each fence by right-clicking its name to access its settings. For example, click Appearance, then Theme to choose its colour, or click View, then ‘Small icons’ to change the size of the icons within it. To create a new fence, click the Nimi Places icon on your taskbar (it looks like a scanner) and click the ‘+’ symbol, then Place. You can decide to use an existing folder as the basis for your new fence (so that it contains only that folder’s contents), or click the Make New Folder button to create an empty fence (it will be named whatever you call the folder). To remove a fence, click the Nimi Places taskbar icon again, right-click the fence in the list then click Remove.
Create a background slideshow
Now that your desktop is beginning to emerge from the smothering blanket of items, you might want to change its background image. First, you need to choose the photo(s) you want to use. Open File/windows Explorer, navigate to the folder containing your photos, then create a new folder (we called ours Background) and copy as many photos as you want into it.
Windows 10 users can then right-click anywhere on the desktop and click Personalize. Choose Slideshow from the Background dropdown menu, then click Browse in the ‘Choose albums for your slideshow’ section. Click the Browse button to navigate to the folder you just created (Background in our case), click it once to select it and then click ‘Choose this folder’. You’ll see that the folder has been added to the ‘Choose albums for your slideshow’ section. Click the folder here and a white rectangle will appear to show it’s selected (see screenshot below).
Windows 7 users can try free tool Desktop Background Tuner ( www.snipca. com/23596) for even more control. Go to the website then click the Download Desktop Background Tuner link (ignore the green Start Download buttons – these are adverts for other programs). Open the ZIP file – we use Peazip ( www.peazip. org) to do this – then double-click ‘Desktopbackgroundtuner.exe’ to open it.
You’ll see a folder called Windows Desktop Backgrounds with a series of subfolders below. These contain the background images you see when you right-click the desktop, then click Personalize. To create a new folder with your own images, click Windows Desktop Backgrounds to highlight it, then the Add Group icon (on the far left with a green plus sign). Enter a name for your folder into the Display Name box (we chose Favourites), choose ‘Folder Name (as it looks in Explorer)’ from the Group Images By dropdown menu, then click Save.
Next, click the folder you created (Favourites in our case) and then click the Add Folder icon (the blue folder with a green plus sign). When the pop-up window appears, choose My Personal Folder or ‘Folder for All Users’ depending on your preference, click Browse then navigate to the image folder you created earlier, then click OK. Now right-click your desktop, click Personalize, Desktop Background, then select the folder you created.
Scroll down and use the ‘Picture position’ dropdown menu to choose how you want the image to be displayed (we chose Fill) and how long each photo is displayed. Finally, click ‘Save changes’ and the desktop background will reflect the changes you have made.
See news and weather updates on your desktop
Your desktop is staring you in the face every time you use your PC, so it’s a shame that it fails to provide much in the way of worthwhile information about the inner workings of your PC or the outer workings of the world around you. OK, you can see the time at the bottom right and Windows 10 users get a bunch of personal notifications from social media sites, but that’s about it. Step forward Infobar 2.0, a free tool that relays news headlines, weather updates, system information and plenty more besides – all in a slender bar that slots in at the top of your desktop.
To get it, go to www.mitec.cz/infobar. html and click the Download button at the top right. Double-click the downloaded file to install it and – after a few seconds – Infobar will open. If it doesn’t, open the Start menu and click the Infobar shortcut.
From left to right, it displays your PC’S name, the current weather, how long your PC has been on for (known as ‘up time’), system information, date and time. Underneath the bar you’ll see a tickertape displaying the latest news headlines. If you’d rather only have Infobar appear when you summon it, click the star icon (at the top left of the bar – see screenshot above) and click Auto Hide. Now the bar will only appear when you move your mouse to the very top of the desktop.
Initially, the weather forecast probably
won’t reflect the weather near you. That’s because by default it’s set to its developer’s location (in the Czech Republic). To change this, click the star icon (at the far left of the bar), then Preferences. Type your location into the box, for example London,uk, then click OK.
You can also choose your own news source, though we’d advise you stick to Reuters’ news feeds as they appear to have no compatibility problems – unlike the BBC’S feed. To see a list of all Reuters’ news feeds go to: http://uk. reuters.com/tools/rss. Choose the feed you want to use and copy the full URL in the ‘Copy URL to RSS Reader’ column (for example, for UK domestic news, use: http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/Ukdomesticnews). Click the star again on the left of Infobar, then Preferences, RSS and paste the URL into the ‘Default RSS feed’ box.
While you’re here you can slow down the scrolling speed of the news tickertape using the Scroll Interval setting. By default, this is set at 10, but increasing it to 20 gives you more time to read the headlines (see screenshot above right).
You can also change the background and font colour to make the news easier to read. In the Background Color dropdown menu choose ‘black’ and in Font Color select Highlight Text. Once you’re happy with your selections, click OK.
Make use of virtual desktops
You’ve been able to use virtual desktops since Windows XP. But only in Windows 10 has Microsoft made the feature available without the need for additional software (Windows 7 users should install Microsoft’s Desktops v2.0 tool: www. snipca.com/23624).
The idea is that you create virtual desktops geared towards specific tasks. So you might, for example, have one for your email, another for your browser and a third for your office program. Creating one is easy in Windows 10. Press the Windows key+tab to open Task View, then click ‘New desktop’ at the bottom right. You’ll see ‘Desktop 2’ added to the right of ‘Desktop 1’ in your taskbar. Click ‘Desktop 2’ to open your new virtual desktop. Alternatively, use the keyboard shortcut Windows key+ctrl+left/right.
Any programs you open within it will remain on that desktop, but you can drag open programs from one virtual desktop to another by pressing Windows key+tab and then dragging and dropping a program (from the centre of the screen), to another desktop (see screenshot above).
Tell your virtual desktops apart
To easily distinguish one virtual desktop from another, you can give each one a different background colour using the free tool Virtual Desktop Enhancer ( www.snipca.com/23625). Click the first link (‘Windows.10.virtual.desktop.Enhancer.0.10.2.zip’) in the downloads section, then extract the ZIP file to a folder of your choice. Right-click the Settings file, choose ‘Open with’, Notepad and then scroll down to the Wallpapers section.
Here, you can assign colours or photos to your virtual desktops – the numbers (1-, 2-) correspond to ‘Desktop 1’, ‘Desktop 2’ etc. that you see in Task View. To add a colour you’ll need to enter its HEX code here. To get one, go to www. htmlcolorcodes.com and use the slider and cursor to determine the colour you want (see screenshot left). Make a note of the six-figure HEX code at the top (ignoring the #). Return to the Settings Notepad file. By the ‘1-’ entry, type 0x then the HEX code (0XE91C12 for a shade of red, for example). Alternatively, paste the file path of an image you’d like to use, such as C:\users\yourUsername\Pictures\example.jpg. You can also rename your desktop using the Desktopnames section of the Settings file.
Save the Settings file (by clicking File, Save), then double-click the virtualdesktop-enhancer.exe file. You’ll see that your background and name settings have been applied to your virtual desktops. If nothing happens, you’ll have to install Microsoft’s Visual C++ tool (from www.snipca.com/23627).
Revamp Windows 10’s Start menu
Some tiles displayed in your Start menu might be difficult to see clearly. For the most part Windows 10 apps – such as Edge and Onenote, as well as anything you install from the Windows Store – have icons that are recognisable. But the icons for downloadable programs – like Peazip and OBS Studio – can appear tiny and blurred.
Tile Iconifier is a free tool that can fix this. Go to www.snipca.com/23653 and scroll down to the downloads section, then click the top link if you have a 64bit system or the second link if you have 32bit. To check which you have, click Start, type about your PC, press Enter, then look next to ‘System type’.
When the ZIP file downloads, extract it to a folder of your choice and double-click Tileiconifier.exe to open it. You’ll see your Start menu tiles listed on the left. Select one you want to change by clicking it once (we selected Peazip), then doubleclick the ‘Medium icon’ box – it will be blank except for the words Double Click Me. This will open a window where you’ll see an icon (sometimes multiple icons) for that program. Choose the one you usually see associated with that program (it will be highlighted with a blue square), then click OK.
You’ll see that the ‘Medium icon’ box is now filled with the icon you selected. Click the Tile Iconify button (see screenshot above), then click the Start button to see what the edited tile looks like now (it should appear larger, filling the available space). If you don’t like it, you can continue to edit the tile by using the slider below the ‘Medium icon’ box to zoom in or out.
If the icon is circular you might have some blank space behind it. To add colour to this space, use the Background Colour dropdown menu. You can also make the text used for the shortcut’s name white or black using the Light and Dark settings in the Foreground Text section. Remember to click the Tile Iconify button whenever you want to apply any change you’ve made. If you want to revert to the tile’s original appearance, click the Remove Iconify button (bottom left).
Swap Windows 10 icons
If you’re fed up with the way a certain Start menu tile looks, you can change the icon completely using Tile Inconifier. As before, click a shortcut to select it in the list then double-click the ‘Medium icon’ box. This time, however, click Browse at the top right when the Icon Selecter window appears. Click the Common Icon DLLS dropdown menu, then select any of the entries to see a sample of icons. If there’s nothing of interest, repeat the process selecting each entry in turn. Once you’ve found a suitable icon click it to highlight it, then click OK. Use Tile Iconifier as in the previous tip to customise and apply it.
Put your favourite programs within easy reach
By default your Start menu programs will be listed in alphabetical order, so those you use most are probably not at the top of the list. But there is a trick you can use to push any program to the top.
In Windows 10, open File Explorer, click View, Options, ‘Change folder and search options’, then View. Select ‘Show hidden files, folders and drives’, then click Apply (see screenshot below far left). In Windows 7, open Windows Explorer, then click Tools. Click OK to close the Folder Options window, then navigate to C:\programdata\microsoft\Windows\start Menu\programs in File Explorer to see all the programs in your Start menu.
Find a program you want to push to the top of your Start menu (we’ll use Paint. NET in our example) and right-click it, then click Rename. Move the cursor to beginning of the name (to the left of the ‘P’ in our case) then hold down the Alt key while typing 0160 using the Numpad (with Numlock on), then release Alt. You’ll see a space has been added to the left of the program’s first letter (though in effect this is a special character rather than a gap). Press Enter to confirm the name change, then Continue when prompted.
Next, click the Start button and you’ll see the shortcut has been added to a new ‘&’ header at the top of your Start menu (see screenshot left). In Windows 7, click the Start button, then All Programs to see the shortcut at the top of the list. Note: adding the special character will make that icon disappear from Tile Iconifier (see previous tip), so make your icon changes using that first.
Remove Cortana’s search box
With your desktop and Start menu now under control, all that’s left is the taskbar. One complaint we often hear is that the ‘Ask me anything’ search box (next to the Start button) takes up too much of the taskbar. There really is no need for this. Microsoft only placed it there in an attempt to make more people use its digital assistant Cortana. The good news is you can reduce its size or remove Cortana from your taskbar altogether. To do so, right-click the search bar, point your cursor at Cortana then click the Show Cortana icon to replace the search bar with a much smaller icon, or click Hidden to remove Cortana entirely.
Get rid of your Task View button
You can also remove the Task View button, which is positioned to the immediate right of the Cortana search box. To do this, right-click the taskbar, then click ‘Show Task View button’ to untick it. You can still activate the Task View by pressing the Windows key+tab.
Stop programs stacking
By default, Windows stacks multiple instances of the same program on your taskbar. So, for example, if you open two Chrome windows, they’ll appear on top of each other (like a deck of cards). You can disable this feature, thereby making it easier to select a specific window of an open program. Right-click the taskbar, click ‘Taskbar settings’ then scroll down to the ‘Combine taskbar button’ dropdown menu. Choose Never to turn the feature off, or ‘When taskbar is full’ (see screenshot above) so that stacking only happens when there’s no available space left on the taskbar.
Make your taskbar transparent
Having put plenty of time into optimising your desktop, why not make sure you can see as much of it as possible? To do this, Windows 10 users can use a new tool called Translucenttb to make the taskbar (but not its icons) entirely transparent, letting you see more of your desktop.
To get it go to www.snipca.com/23631, scoll down to the Downloads section, then click the second entry in the list (Translucenttb.2017.2.zip). Open the ZIP file and extract its contents to a folder of your choice. Next, double-click the folder, then Translucenttb.exe. You’ll see an icon for the program appear in the notification area of your taskbar – click it, then choose Clear (see screenshot left) – and the taskbar will fade away.
You’ll have to run the program every time you start your PC for it to take effect, but there is a workaround. Open the folder you extracted the Translucenttb contents to, right-click the ‘.exe’ file, then click ‘Create shortcut’. You’ll see the shortcut is added to the folder. Right-click it and click Cut, then press the Windows key+r to open the Run box. Type shell:startup then press Enter. Right-click in the window that opens, then click Paste to add the shortcut. Translucenttb will now run when you switch on your PC.