T 'n' T: Displaying Around You Can See Clearly Now Gregg Keizer
Mon 1/14/02 -- I'm blinder than a mole in the dark when I can't find my glasses, but I know a good looker when I see one. I'm talking, of course, about monitors, displays, CRTs, and LCDs -- you know, the things you stare at while you use Windows.
Getting your screen to look just right doesn't require a degree in ophthalmology, but some tips and tricks -- T 'n' T, as we say around here -- sure can help. Take a look at this week's collection.
Change color depth without rebooting: Save yourself some time by telling Windows 98 and later versions to implement color depth (palette) changes without restarting your PC. This no-brainer takes just a moment: Open the Display dialog (you can find it in Control Panel, but the quicker way is to right-click any empty spot on the Windows desktop, then pick Properties).
Click the Settings tab, then the Advanced button. On the General tab, check "Apply the new color settings without restarting." Click OK a couple of times, and you can switch among 8-bit (256 colors), 16-bit (65,000 colors), 24-bit ("true color" or 16.7 million colors), or 32-bit (ditto plus support for alpha blending or transparency) without waiting for the PC to shut down and start up again.
Large type edition: Text too tiny for your weary eyes? No problem. Head back to the Display Properties dialog and click the Settings tab, then the Advanced button. On the General tab, monkey with the DPI (dots per inch) setting near the top. The default is 96 dpi, but you can bump it up to 120 dpi (a 25-percent increase) for bigger, more readable text. You'll have to restart your PC before you see the difference.
You're in command: Typically, Windows' display drivers limit you to a paltry number of resolutions or refresh rates or -- well, I could go on and on. You're not running things; Windows is. That's why I just downloaded PowerStrip 3.12, a handy-dandy utility that offers some 500 different ways to control how Windows works with your display and graphics adapter.
Among the nifty things PowerStrip does, it offers color correction that beats the pants off Windows' own, lets you customize your CRT's refresh rate to avoid nasty flicker, and changes gamma (brightness) settings automatically when you launch different applications -- or on the fly when you're playing a game. Note that the program is shareware, so you'll need to kick in $30 if you end up keeping and using it.
Password protect: Okay, so password-protecting your screen saver isn't exactly the fiercest guard dog you can put on your PC. But it can keep casual snoops and busybodies from messing with your machine. That's important, both at work -- there's always someone in the office out to get you, right? -- and at home, where curious kids can wreck havoc in seconds on that Quicken file you left open.
To set a screen saver password, open Display Properties and click the Screen Saver tab. Naturally, you need to run a screen saver to protect it with a password, so pick one from the list. (By the way, if you get bored with the screen savers bundled with Windows -- which should take all of about five seconds -- download some new ones from the Web. My favorite destination for both free and for-pay savers: ScreenSaver.com.) Check the "On resume, password protect" box and type a password -- and remember it; you'll need the password to make the screen saver give back your desktop.
When the big Web demands a big screen: You probably know that Internet Explorer offers a view called Full Screen (it's under the View menu, silly, or toggled with the F11 key) -- but it still clutters your display with toolbars. For an ultra-clean, full-screen look at Web pages, try Kiosk Mode (it's available in every edition of IE since 2.0).
Right-click on an blank part of the desktop, and choose -- no, not Display Properties, but New / Shortcut from the pop-up menu. A dialog box appears; type "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE" -k (including quotes) in the first field, give the shortcut a name -- IE Kiosk works for me -- and click Finish.
You can leave the resulting icon on the desktop, but I've stuck it in the QuickLaunch part of my Win XP Taskbar for even faster access. When you click on the shortcut to open IE in Kiosk Mode, the browser opens to your chosen home page (WinPlanet, of course -- Ed.), showing no toolbars -- nothing, really, on the screen except the Web page. To quit Kiosk Mode, you must press Alt-F4 to close IE. For more information, including a list of handy shortcut keys that work in this mode, check out this article in Microsoft's Knowledge Base.
