OPTIMIZING WINDOWS APPEARANCE

Turn off wallpaper and disable screensaver.

Both the wallpaper and the screensaver are not needed by your PC and only have an aesthetic value. True, screen savers were a necessity for old CRT screens, but now they are pretty much obsolete, just like the screens that required them.

Switching your wallpaper and screensaver off is super-easy:

Windows XP:

1. Right-click somewhere on your desktop and click on Properties
2. Go to the Desktop tab and set the background to None. You can then choose a background color

1. that you like best.
2. Now go to the Screensaver tab and set it to None. Click Apply, then click OK.

Windows 7:

1. Right-click somewhere on your desktop and click on Personalize
2. Click on the Desktop Background icon, then select Solid Colors in the Picture Location drop-down box and choose a background color that you like best
3. Click on the Save changes button
4. Now click on the Screen Saver - None icon to disable the screensaver
5. Click OK.

Adjust color scheme and visual effects

Remember that the pretty Windows is not the fastest Windows, especially if you have the "eye candy" Windows 7 with Aero and transparency enabled. So, if in your book performance is more important than looks, you should consider choosing a more minimalistic look. Here is how:

Windows XP:

1. Press the Windows key + the Pause/Break key to open System Properties
2. Go to the Advanced tab
3. Locate the Performance section and click on the Settings button
4. Now select the Adjust for best performance radio button.

This will make your Windows look very minimalistic and even out of date. If you don't mind that, then simply enjoy the performance gain. But if you'd still like XP to look more like XP, simply select the Custom radio button and select the visual effect you like.

Windows 7:

If it's the first time you are customizing Windows 7 appearance settings, you will need to switch Aero off. Yes, it looks nice, but it's also exceptionally resource-hungry. Here is how you can disable Aero:

1. Right-click somewhere on your desktop and go to Personalize
2. Now you can select a less resource-hungry theme, such as Windows 7 Basic or Windows Classic.

 If you want to keep Aero, but still gain some performance, click Window Color in the same window and uncheck the Enable Transparency box. You can also use the Windows XP method described above to adjust Windows 7 for best performance.