Chapter 2: Personalizing the Desktop
In This Chapter
Tricking out your taskbar
Taking control of each desktop level
Traipsing through themes
Controlling the notification area
It’s your desktop. Do with it what you will.
You may think it’d be easy for a computer to slap windows on the screen, but it isn’t. In fact, the Windows desktop uses six separate layers to produce that window, er, vista. However, you can take control of every layer. I show you how in this chapter.
Most importantly, in this chapter, I show you the quibbles and quirks of the Windows 8.1 taskbar. Now that the old Windows Start Menu has gone the way of the do-do, the taskbar takes on new importance as the most accessible way to control programs on the desktop. The taskbar occupies a key piece of real estate.
I also include a discussion of desktop background, themes, and screen savers. Pretty cool stuff.
Recognizing Desktop Levels
The Windows desktop — that is, the collection of stuff you see on your computer screen — consists of six layers (see Figure 2-1, which shows four of the six layers).
For a quick change ...
