Name

Display Properties

Synopsis

Change the appearance of the Desktop and most application windows, choose ascreensaver, and change the settings of your display adapter and monitor.

To Open

Control Panel [Appearance and Themes] Display

Right-click on an empty portion of your Desktop Properties

Command Prompt desk.cpl

Command Prompt control desktop

Command Prompt control color [8]

Description

The Display Properties window allows you to configure a wide variety of settings that affect the Desktop, display, and appearance of just about anything on the screen (see Figure 4-25).

Configure the appearance of most screen elements in Windows with Display Properties

Figure 4-25. Configure the appearance of most screen elements in Windows with Display Properties

Settings are divided into the following tabs:

Themes

A theme is a name under which a collection of display settings is saved. After you’ve selected the preferences in the other tabs in this dialog, click Save As to create a new theme. Then, if you ever make a subsequent change, you can easily revert back to your saved preferences by selecting the desired theme from the Theme list. Don’t confuse themes with styles (available in the Appearance tab).

Saving your theme is a good idea, as it will allow you to restore your settings easily if they’re ever changed. It also allows you to quickly switch between multiple groups of settings, which is useful, for example, if you use two different monitors. When you click Save ...

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