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You can customize just about everything on your computer to make it look and work exactly the way you want. It’s fun to experiment with the various themes, and to try out the Windows Aero glass feature for a cool transparent look in parts of Windows components. You can not only create a screen saver with pictures from your Photo Gallery—you can even use a video clip as part of your screen saver. You can change the size and color of almost everything; set items to open with one click instead of two; and rearrange or hide the taskbar, toolbars, Start menu, and Desktop items. You can even customize your little friend the mouse.
You can use a single window in which to open all your folders, or use a separate window for each folder; and you can choose the details—date, author, and so on—that you want to be shown in your folder windows. If you sometimes work in a different language, you can switch the layout of your keyboard to conform to that language, and you can add clocks that let you check the time in other cities or countries. If you have any problems with your vision, hearing, or manual dexterity—or if you just want to try a different way of working—the Ease Of Access Center presents an array of alternative tools that you’ll want to try.
The visual and auditory interface elements of Windows Vista—colors, Desktop background, icons, sounds, screen savers, mouse pointers, and so on—are all part of a theme. Windows Vista comes with a few themes, other themes are available as add-ons, and you can also create your own themes. If the new look of Windows Vista doesn’t appeal to you, you can revert to the look of earlier versions of Windows.
Click the Start button, type pers in the Search box of the Start menu, click Personalization to open the Personalization window, and choose Theme to display the Theme Settings dialog box.
If you already have some customized settings that you want to save, with Modified Theme selected, click Save As. In the Save As dialog box that appears, name the current theme, select a different location in which to save it if you want, and click Save.
