Welcome to my first article of my new website.
The following article is for the complete beginner, not experienced are advanced users This article as a short introduction to the basics of the desktop, what is found on the desktop.
When you first log on to a computer or laptop you are first presented with the desktop, when working with beginners to the IT world I try where possible to define computer related objects to real world physical objects, to try to make the learning process easier.
The following article is an introduction to the basics of the computer, if you are an advanced or experienced user, then this article is not for you.
Lets start with the basic
What is the desktop?
Well! I like to equate to a TV screen, on a TV you have a picture, on the desktop you have a desktop background picture. In addition to the desktop background picture you also have some small square shaped objects that are icons. We will look at icons shortly, lets start with the main screen.
As you can see in my example above, I have an image that I created, and I made this image as part of my desktop, I did that by a process of what is called (“personalising my desktop“). Personalised desktops are common.
To personalise your own desktop you select a blank area on your desktop and right click, and select the option to personalise
When you find a blank area on the desktop and right click also referred to as (“Alternate Click”) you will see the menu appear below, you mouse over the word (“Personalise”) and then left click, to open the personalise panel.
The Personalise panel as below is opened as in the following image, as you can see, from this panel, you can change the picture on the screen or desktop background.
You can also change the window colour scheme you see and use, I encourage you to click and open the options, a common point that I find with complete beginners is that they are afraid of breaking their machine, the truth is unless you start deleting or removing system objects, in an exploration sense you can do little damage, you cannot break anything by clicking on any of these
Clicking and changing the colours of the bar at the bottom of the screen and the colour scheme is about all the you will change, you can also change the sounds and the screen saver. The screen saver is for want of a better concept a background that will change if the machine is not used for a certain length of time. The screen saver was originally used to stop images being burned to the screen in the days of CRT Monitors.
Desktop Backgrounds
To change the background mouse over the text that states desktop background, then left click, that will open the desktop background window. This window will give you the option of changing the picture, as I did with mine.
The next screen that will open is as follows. As you can see in the main window, a set of pictures will appear, in my screen shot, I have created an examples folder, in your screen you will see the default pre-installed images that are shipped with your laptop or computer
If you wish to find different pictures click the arrow next to the Browse button, and a drop down menu will appear like in the screen shot above. As you can see in my example I have created a folder that is add to my you tube account, but, also in the menu are many of the default folders and locations that have been pre-installed in my laptop.
To change your picture simply mouse over the picture, that you want, the picture will then display a small tick box in the upper left corner, click in side to make the picture that one you want, then click the changes, and that is it. You will now see your desktop picture has changed.
Lets look at the browse button and what will it do?
In simple terms it will open a new exploration window, this window will allow you to navigate or move to a different location, as in my example screenshot, and allow you to choose a different picture in a different location and to make that picture your desktop picture. It is up to you. In my example I created a wall paper folder on my laptop, then had to navigate to that location in order to select a picture IF I wanted to add my own desktop picture or desktop (“Wallpaper”).
One important point to notice is that the system will tell you exactly where the picture is that you have selected in my example screen shot I have all my wallpaper in my D:\ location, but, for this tutorial I purposely created a test folder in my C:\ Drive. You can see that my example is in C:\Users\Daily\My Documents\Add to my you tube account.
As you will learn, you can add any picture you like to the desktop, you can make it any size you want, you can create several pictures and have them change every 10 minutes or rotate every hour by clicking several pictures whilst holding down the CTRL on the keyboard. In the next screen shot you will see that I have demonstrated this
By simply holding down my CTRL key on my keyboard I was able to select more than one image, once I did that more options became available, the “Shuffle” and “Change Picture Every” as more than one image was selected the system understood that you can only have a single picture on the background open at once, and that, as you had selected more than one image you would like to create a rotating set of pictures to appear on the desktop. Take note that you do not have to click the save changes button strait away, the picture rotation begins immediately if you have the shuffle time at 1 or 10 seconds. If you set the change antiviral at say 30 minutes, then every 30 minutes, the desktop picture will change.
Try it out for yourself
A closing note for beginners It is a little difficult at first, working out if you need to right click, or left click, or should you use the right click menu options, but, trust me, it will get easier, you will get used to this, it is defined by time and usages of the computer or laptop.
If this helps, being dyslexic, I like to equate the “right click, to the menu option”, and the “left click to perform an action”, that was how I was able to remember the difference, (“right click opens the menu left performs that action”). But we all learn differently.