Microsoft Windows XP Power Toolkit

For the same reasons that people decorate their homes or workspaces with photographs or other personal items, personal computer users often enjoy customizing their computer screens. Microsoft Windows has always allowed you to change screen color schemes and desktop background, but Windows XP comes with several stunning images that can be used as backdrops for your desktop, as well as a seemingly endless combination of desktop, Start menu, and color scheme options. The visual style engine of Windows XP even supports the use of true color bitmaps in buttons, borders, and toolbars.

Thousands of Windows XP users have purchased Microsoft Plus! for Windows XP as an add-in to Windows XP. Plus! includes wallpaper (now referred to as the “desktop background” in the Windows XP Display Properties item in the Control Panel), screen savers, icons, mouse pointers, and Windows Media skins (striking three-dimensional visual styles) that enable you to customize your system with professional-quality photographs and designs. If you would rather not use the Plus! themes, however, several third-party companies offer collections of themes and utilities that should give you all the choices you need to express your personality on the face of your PC.

This chapter covers the following topics:

• Adding themes and screen savers with Plus! for Windows XP (Plus! digital media tools are discussed in Chapter 13, “Digital Media Tools for Microsoft Windows XP”).

• Third-party visual style and theme tools, including the utility Style XP, from TGT Soft LLC; and WindowBlinds, one of the components of the Object Desktop suite from Stardock, which also includes DesktopX, ObjectBar, IconPackager, and WinStyles (all of which are included on the companion CD to this book).