The "Desktop" icon inside Control Panel controls alot of the Windows options. From here you can set what screen saver you use, how long til it activates, your border width, any patterns for your desktop, etc. Below is the screen you will see when you activate (double-click) the Desktop icon.

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MORE DESKTOP ITEMS:

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Once you have picked a screen saver the "Test" button will show you what it looks like, and if you click on the "Setup" button you can set a password, and what ever options are related to that particular screen saver (i.e. what colors it will be, how many stars, or lines, etc.
 
 
 

What is a pixel ?

Pixels are the little dots that make up what you see on your computer screen. This is decided by several factors, the type of graphic display your "Computer" will output, the quality of your "Monitor" (SVGA is the standard today), and the settings of your software. 640 X 480 means there are actually 640 dots of light across your screen and 400 dots of light running up and down your screen.
 
 

What is a Bitmap ?

A bitmap file is a dot by dot rendering of colors. (Similar to the pixels on a screen) You can create bitmap files using the "Paintbrush" program that comes with MS Windows.

A Note About Windows Resources:
 
 

Windows uses several things to run your program:

1. The most important is your "RAM" memory inside your computer
1. The second is what is called a "Swap File" which is a special file created by Windows on your hard disk. Windows uses this file to store information it needs when it runs out of RAM memory.
1. The third item is less tangable, and it is called Windows Resources. There are GDI (Graphical Device Interface) resources, and User resources.

As Windows starts, runs, and closes resources, sometimes it does not return the parts of memory that it had been using - so that new programs that you start can now use those resources. These resources can get used up by many things (The most common being programs themselves) - but when Windows starts it uses some of these resources all by itself as it is starting. When you start getting error messages from Windows or those white boxes that say you have a GPF (General Protection Fault) there are several things you can check to see if you can improve how Windows is behaving.
 
 

1. Fonts: - Too many fonts (25 - 65 are fine) use up memory and resources. Remove (or even delete) some of the fonts from your system
1. Programs That Start Up When Windows Does: - Check inside your "Start Up" group and see if there are a bunch of programs that automatically run at start up. Try moving them to another group (by clicking and dragging them) and see if it affects your work. You can always move them back later.
1. Screen Resolution: - The higher your screen resolution (over 600 X 800 is pushing it on a 14" monitor) the more memory and resources are getting used.
1. The Number of Colors in Your Display: 256 colors should be plenty on most computers (unless they are being used as graphic design stations)
1. Your Swap File: - Note: you should not attempt to change or adjust your swap file unless you have alot of experience with computes, leave these setting to a technicial (or at least the local teen-age PC geek). But for the most part you should be using a Permenant Swap file, (if you defrag your hard drive, the larger you can set it) and set to approximately 1/2 the size of your RAM. If you have more RAM then the smaller your swap file needs to be set. Note: If you attempt to change the size of a Permenant file without at first resetting it to Temporay (or better yet - None), then you will corrupt it and Windows will NOT restart.
1. Wallpaper: - Using a large bitmap file for wallpaper will eat up Windows resources, try using a smaller file and choosing the tile option, or better yet choose none for the wallpaper and pick a pattern for the desktop color.

These are just some tips for getting all you can out of Windows. If you have a TON of RAM (16 Mb or more), a huge hard drive (2 Gb or bigger), and a fast processor (Pentium 120 or more) then these things are not nearly as important as they would be on a 4 Meg 386 machine.
 
 

Also: When you upgrade to Windows 95 (and everyone will) then these items will be even less important because 95 does handle resources and memory much better than the 3.x versions.
 
 

Also: If you have been running Windows 3.1 for a while and have started a bunch of programs, then exited them and started others - Do yourself a favor and "Exit" and Restart Windows to refresh your resources.
 

file: help-06.html
created: 1997
edited: 2002