퀵실버-맥 스위처 One Stop 정보창고

by Gina Trapani

After I wiped my hard drive clean and reinstalled Windows XPlast week, I booted up into an pristine, default operating system -that felt a lot like a hotel room just before I rolled my luggage in,tossed my jacket on the couch, unmade the bed and set my toothbrushnext to the sink. I had no idea how many changes I'd made to Windows tofit my preferences over the years until they were all undone.

• Re-locate the taskbar

  I've got a wide screen and I like to see as much informationvertically as possible, so I drag and drop the Windows taskbar to theleft hand side of my screen (not right, because it interferes withscrolling) to maximize vertical space. The pleasant side effect is thatopen windows stack on top of one another, freeing up more real estatefor viewing and working with them in the taskbar. See also: Ask Lifehacker: Moving your Windows taskbar.

• Enable Quick Launch with large buttons
  
  It'sprobably because my love affair with Mac OS X has gotten me fond oflarge buttons on a dock, but I can't live without the Quick Launchtoolbar on Windows taskbar. I'm a no-icons-on-the-desktop girl, so mytop dozen or so programs and documents go in Quick Launch: includingthe "Show Desktop" button and a shortcut to the "My Documents" folder.To enable Quick Launch, right click on your task bar and from theToolbars menu choose "Quick Launch." Drag shortcuts to programs, filesand folders onto Quick Launch to add 'em and use the right-clickcontext menu to delete items.

  To enable the large button setting, unlock the toolbars (right click onthe taskbar, and uncheck "Lock the taskbar"). Then right-click withinthe Quick Launch bar and from the View menu choose "Large Icons." Sincemy taskbar is vertical, I like to create two columns of big fat QuickLaunch icons so I can read open windows' title bars, too.

• Remove MSN Messenger, MSN Explorer and Outlook Express
  
  Ever since Windows Updatehad its way with me, the little green MSN Messenger guys moved into mysystem tray, showing up every boot-up without ever asking. I don't useMSN Messenger (currently Trillian and GAIM are battling it out for myIM client of choice), yet right-clicking on the MSN guys in my systrayoffered no "Quit and don't automatically start up again" option. (Shameon you, Windows, that's just so TACKY.) To evict 'em (and the other twoMS-specific programs I don't use, Outlook Express and MSN Explorer),from Control Panel's Add and Remove Programs, go to "Add/Remove WindowsComponents" and uninstall those suckas.
• Install Windows PowerToys: ClearType Tuner and Alt-Tab replacement

  Also as a result of my Mac affair, somewhere down the road I became acomplete font diva. Windows default font settings are atrocious andpixelly; I had no idea how bad we had it until I saw the other side.Now I can't live without ClearType. The ClearType Tuner Windows PowerToy - a free download from Microsoft - smooths out your fonts allpretty-like and lets you tune the settings for maximum fontgorgeousness. Once the Tuner's installed, hit up the Control Panel andselect the ClearType Tuner applet to turn on Clear Type and get itworking perfectly for your monitor configuration.

  While they're all good, the other essential Windows PowerToy isthe Alt-Tab replacement. I'm a big program switcher using the Alt-Tabkey combination, so I really appreciate this PowerToy, which displays apreview of the program window you're tabbing to and over, instead ofjust the program icon. Very useful for tabbing to exactly where youwant to go.

  
  

  Download the ClearType Tuner and Alt-Tab Replacement at Microsoft's web site.

• Set Start menu to classic view

  I don't like my Start menu all big and fat and different every timeI look at it, because I'm cranky like that. Right-click on the Startmenu and choose Properties to switcherback to the Classic view (mypreference), or, if you're of a more tolerant persuasion, wade aroundthe the XP Start menu's Customize dialogs to get your menu just how youlike it.

• Disable Error reporting when programs crash
  
  Windowsdevelopers who deal with what I imagine are millions of program crashreports every day reported from Windows? I truly appreciate what you doto improve the computing world's experience every day. However, I neversend error reports to Microsoft after a program has crashed - at thatmoment of utter frustration I'm feeling less than helpful, you see - so I disable the dialog which says "This program just ended unexpectedly. Send an error report to Microsoft?"

  To do so, from the Advanced tab of the System dialog box in ControlPanel, check off the "Disable Error Reporting" radio button.

• Show the underlying file system, no matter what

  I love that Windows tries to save me from breaking any of the delicatechina by hiding file extensions, special system files and the operatingsystem's internal folders. Actually, that's a lie. I despise it. It'smy computer, and I want to know what's happening under the hood, evenif it means a file ends in "ini."

  To set Windows to display exactly what's going on in every nookand cranny of your hard drive, from Explorer's Tools menu, chooseFolder Options. From the View tab, uncheck "Hide extensions for knownfile types," check "Show hidden files and folders," check "Display thecontents of system folders," and uncheck "Hide protected operatingsystem files" (XP will ask AGAIN about this, but just tell it you'reindeed sure).

  
  

  Last, since I'm the type of girl who really likes to sink her teethinto the dark troublesome world of (gasp!) file systems - with suchcomplex and confusing concepts as file paths and extensions - I alsocheck "Display the full path in the title bar" so when I'm Exploreringaround my hard drive I know where I am at all times.

This list is not exhaustive, and obviously these are all a matter ofpersonal preference. I'd love to hear what unique Windows settings workfor you and why, so let us know how you customize your Windows desktopin the comments or in an email to tips at lifehacker.com.

http://www.lifehacker.com/software/top/geek-to-live--top-windows-tweaks-158144.php

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