Windows Vista Security: Praxisorientierte Sicherheit für Profis

Personalizing Windows Vista

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Fit to Screen

Stretches or shrinks the image to fill the desktop background. This is a good

option for photos and large images.

Tile

Repeats the image so that it covers the entire screen. This is a good option

for small images and icons.

Center

Centers the image on the desktop background. Any area that the image

doesn’t fill uses the current desktop color.

6. When you are finished updating the background, click OK.

Choosing and Configuring Your Screensaver

Screensavers turn on when a computer has been idle for a specified period. Origi-

nally, screensavers were designed to prevent image burn-in on CRT monitors by dis-

playing a continually changing image. With today’s monitors, burn-in is not much of

a problem, but screensavers are still around because they offer a different benefit

today: the ability to password-lock your computer automatically when the screen-

saver turns on.

Windows Vista performs many housekeeping tasks in the background

when the computer is idle. These housekeeping tasks extend to creat-

ing indexes, defragmenting hard disks, creating whole computer back-

ups and system restore points, and more. Because of this, you want to

be more careful than ever when choosing a screensaver for your com-

puter. So, while you can install your fancy fish-tank screensaver with

the sharks and stingrays, you may do so at the expense of your com-

puter being able to perform background tasks while you are away

from your desk rather than while you are sitting at your desk.

Selecting a screensaver

You can configure your screensaver by performing the following steps:

1. Right-click an open area of the desktop and then select Personalize.

2. Click the Screen Saver link to display the Screen Saver Settings dialog box,

shown in Figure 3-13.

3. Use the Screen Saver listbox to select a screensaver. Although you can install

additional screensavers, the standard screensavers are:

(None)

Turns off the screensaver.

3D Text

Displays the time or custom text as a 3D message against a black background.

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Chapter 3: Fine-Tuning Windows Vista’s Appearance and Performance

Aurora

Simulates the lights of the aurora borealis against a black background.

Blank

Displays a blank screen (i.e., a screen with a black background and no text

or images).

Bubbles

Displays multicolored bubbles floating across your desktop. The open win-

dows and documents on the desktop remain visible.

Mystify

Displays arcing bands of lines in various geometric patterns against a black

background.

Photos

Displays photos and videos from a selected folder as a slide show.

Figure 3-13. Configuring the screensaver

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Ribbons

Displays ribbons of various thicknesses and changing lines against a black

background.

Windows Energy

Displays the Windows logo and then changing lines of energy (similar to

power lines) against a background that changes in hue from green to blue to

purple.

Windows Logo

Intermittently displays the Windows logo and arcing bands of lines against a

black background.

(Other)

If you’ve installed a screensaver program on your computer, you’ll typically

see options for the additional screensavers this program provides. Be careful

with some of these, as they can require a substantial amount of system

resources to maintain, preventing your computer from effectively perform-

ing background housekeeping tasks.

4. To password-protect the screensaver, select “On resume, display Welcome

screen.” Clear this option only if you do not want to use password protection.

5. Use the Wait box to specify how long the computer must be idle before the

screensaver is activated. A reasonable value is between 10 and 15 minutes.

6. Click OK.

Customizing the 3D Text and Photos screensavers

Two of the standard screensavers deserve additional discussions: 3D Text and Pho-

tos. With these screensavers (and likely any custom screensavers you install), click-

ing Settings displays a dialog box that allows you to customize the screensaver. To

customize the 3D Text screensaver, follow these steps:

1. In the Screen Saver Settings dialog box, select 3D Text as the screensaver and

then click Settings. This displays the 3D Text Settings dialog box shown in

Figure 3-14.

2. You can display the current time or a custom message as 3D text. To display the

current time as 3D text, select Time. To display a custom message as 3D text,

select Custom Text and then type your message.

3. Click Choose Font. Use the Font dialog box to set the font to use for the 3D text.

The default font is Tahoma.

4. Use the Resolution slider to control the display resolution of the text. The higher

the resolution, the more processing power required to draw and move the message.

5. Use the Size slider to control the size of the text.