50 ways to customise Windows Vista (part 1)

All this week we’ll be looking at how to make your windows vista PC look and act exactly how you want it to. Starting off today with our first 10 tips, we look at the appearance of your computer. Stay tuned for more advice throughout the week!

1. Where’s Aero Gone?

Windows Vista’s Aero interface is found in all version of Windows Vista except Home Basic. If your version of Windows Vista stacks up, but your PC refuses to give you the benefit of its stunning – yet practical – visuals, make sure your PC is up to the task. You’ll need a 1GHz processor and 1GB RAM installed alongside a graphics card with at least 128MB RAM that has a WDDM driver, supports DirectX 9, Pixel Shader 2.0 and 32 bits per pixel. Use the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor to check if your system should be using Windows Aero or not.

Check your Graphics score to see if it’s up to running Windows Aero

2. Start Personalising

The best place to start customising your system is via the Personalization Control Panel (right-click a blank space on the desktop and choose Personalize). You’ll see a number of options available, some of which we’ll cover below.

3. Change Colour

Change the tint and intensity of your Windows Aero colour scheme

Don’t like the default Windows Aero colour scheme? Click Window Color and Appearance to change it – if the seven options don’t tempt you, select “Show color mixer” and use the three sliders to get your own choice of colour and blend.

4. Get the Wallpaper Cut

Get inspired with a different desktop background to the default. Click Desktop Background and choose from the supplied wallpapers (use the drop-down menu to pick from different categories), or click Browse to select your own picture. You can also choose how to display your image on-screen.

5. Change Automatically

If you want your background to change periodically without having to do it yourself, download and install the free version of Wallpaper Master from http://jamesgart.com/wallpaperchanger/ – select your group of images and choose when to swap them.

Wallpaper Master lets you change your background when you want

6. Windows Dreamscene

Download Windows Dreamscape Preview through Windows Update

If you’re fortunate enough to own Windows Vista Ultimate Edition, you can enjoy animated backgrounds to really lift your desktop above the mundane. Add the functionality through Windows Update – click Start, select All Programs and click Windows Update. Click View Available Extras, tick Windows DreamScene Preview and click Install.

Once you’ve rebooted, you’ll find an additional category – Windows DreamScene Content – under Personalization > Desktop Background, plus a sample desktop to try.

7. Beyond Dreamscene

Want more animated desktops in Windows Vista Ultimate Edition? Visit www.stardock.com/products/deskscapes and download the free Stardock Deskscapes tool. Once installed, visit http://dream.wincustomize.com to download new animated backgrounds – save them to My Documents\Stardock\Dreams and you can access them simply by double-clicking one or selecting it under Deskscape Animated Wallpapers in Personalization > Desktop Background.

8. Make Your Own

Fancy building your own dreamscapes? Download the free DreamMaker tool from http://dream.wincustomize.com and create your own animated desktops from compatible video files for sharing with friends, family and other Windows Vista Ultimate users.

a) Prepare Video

Use a program like Windows Movie Maker to prepare your video file – you could even use a collage of images in conjunction with some of the program’s video effects to create your animation, but avoid creating something too brash and distracting.

b) Prepare Thumbnail

Load an associated image into an image editor like Paint.NET and reduce it to a maximum of 256×256 pixels, then save it in PNG or JPEG format.

c) Create Dreamscape

Load DreamMaker and work your way through the three tabs, which include giving your DreamScape a title, description and author information. Once complete, the file will be placed in your My Documents\Stardock\Dreams folder.

9. Use TweakVI

If you want even more control over your desktop’s look and feel, download and install the free TweakVI tool from www.totalidea.com – once installed, explore the Visual tweaks section to see exactly just how much control you have.

10. Working with Desktop Themes

Package up all your customisations – window colours, backgrounds and so on – into a special file called a Desktop Theme. This enables you to quickly switch between themes at a later date if you so wish. Choose Theme from the Personalization dialog and click Save As to back it up. Provide a name and
location and click Save. This will now be added to the list of available themes from the drop-down box.

Save all your customisations into a single Desktop Theme

Part One?Part Two?Part Three?Part Four?Part Five

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