Customising the Taskbar, Customising the Desktop

Customising the Taskbar

The taskbar is locked by default, to make any changes to its size or content, you first need to unlock it.

1.Right-click on the taskbar.

2.Remove the check mark in front of the Lock the Taskbar option.

You may now resize and customise the taskbar according to your wishes.

•Right-click on the taskbar and select Toolbars; add a check mark in front of the toolbar you wish to add to the taskbar area.

•Right-click on the taskbar and select Properties to access the Taskbar appearance and Notification area options.

•In the Taskbar appearance pane, uncheck Group similar taskbar buttons if you do not wish to take advantage of the feature that groups sessions of a same program (for instance several documents opened in the same word processor) in one single entry in the taskbar. Note that all sessions are immediately accessible by clicking the arrow on the right of the taskbar entry.

•In the Taskbar appearance pane, put a check mark in front of Show Quick Launch to add shortcuts to your favourite software applications or directories in the taskbar area located just to the right of the Start button.

•In the Notification area pane, click on Customise to change the notification area behaviour, for instance, if you do not wish to take advantage of the feature that hides the seldom used notification icons.

Note

If you wish to restore the Speaker icon to the notification area (as in previous versions of Windows®), follow the steps below.

1.Click on Start, Control Panel, Sounds, Speech and Audio Devices.

2.Pick Change the speaker settings.

3.On the Volume tab, put a check mark in front of Place volume icon in the taskbar.

4.Click on Apply, and then on OK to close the Sounds and Audio Devices Properties window.

Customising the Desktop

If you were familiar with previous versions of Windows®, note that you can easily restore to the Desktop the familiar My Documents, My Computer, My Network Places icons.

1.Right-click anywhere on the Desktop and select Properties in the pop-up window.

2.In the Display Properties window, click on the Desktop tab, and click on the Customise Desktop... button.

3.In the Desktop icons pane, check or uncheck the icons you wish to have on the Desktop.

Note

In the Desktop Cleanup pane, you may choose to deactivate the Desktop Cleanup Wizard. This wizard automatically removes from the Desktop the icons that have not been used in the last 60 days.

4.Click on OK to close the Desktop Items window, and on OK again to close the Display Properties window.