subject: Increase Efficiency With a Personalized Desktop [print this page] Increase Efficiency With a Personalized Desktop
To increase efficiency, it is good practice to have well-organized office desks with everything from pens, notepads, telephone, etc. within easy reach. People should take this same approach when setting up their Windows desktop. Personalizing the desktop with shortcuts to frequently used programs, documents and handy gadgets keeps everyday tasks at your fingertips. A few minutes spent customizing your desktop for optimum performance will increase your efficiency in the year ahead.
Customize Start Menu
Organizing the Start menu can make it easier to find your favorite programs and folders.
Resize Taskbar
Resizing the taskbar creates additional space for useful buttons and toolbars.
Add Toolbar to Taskbar
A toolbar is a row, column, or block of buttons or icons representing tasks you can do within a program. Some toolbars can appear on the taskbar.
Change Notification Icons
The notification area is located at the far right of the taskbar, and it contains program icons that provide status and notifications about things like incoming email, updates, and network connectivity. This area can be customized to include useful icons and notifications.
Customize Desktop Gadgets
Desktop gadgets (e.g., calendar, clock, feed headlines, etc.) can be customized by changing their settings, size and position on the desktop, as well as displaying them on top of other windows.
Theme
A theme is a combination of pictures, colors, and sounds on your computer. It includes a desktop background, screen saver, window border color, and sound scheme. Some themes might also include desktop icons and mouse pointers. Windows comes with several themes. The Windows 7 Basic theme is great for computers that perform slowly, a high-contrast theme makes the items on your screen easier to see, or an Aero theme can be chosen to personalize the computer.
Desktop Background
The desktop background (also called Wallpaper) can be a personal digital picture, corporate logo, picture that comes with Windows, solid color, or picture framed with a color. One image can be displayed in the background or a slide show of pictures.
IT Radix recommends that their clients use the same filing structure in Windows and in their email (e.g., clients folder and then individual clients below). Shortcuts can be created to jump straight to these client folders. A few minutes spent customizing your desktop for optimum performance will increase your efficiency and save you time in the long run. Need help optimizing your desktop? Give IT Radix a call...that's what we're here for!
