Using the Windows Control Panel - Part 3

In the first first part of this feature, we looked at how the Control Panel can help you take control of Windows and make it work the way you want it to. To round off our tour of this important Windows component, we'll explain the jobs of the remaining items and point out which settings can be tweaked to boost your computer's performance.

While some of the information you'll find in the Control Panel is only of use to PC engineers, learning more about how the Control Panel works will boost your knowledge of computing and give you the edge if problems arise.

There are two ways to view the Control Panel. The new one introduced in Windows XP - Category View - is slightly easier to use but doesn't give you as much power, so we will be using Classic View, which looks similar to old versions of Control Panel.

To switch, open the Control Panel and click on the link in the left-hand panel marked 'Switch to Classic View'. If there is no such link, or it says 'Switch to Category View', you are already in Classic View.

Phone and modem options
If you use a dial-up internet connection this is where to set it up. The first tab sets up locations, which enables you to define various locations from which to connect to the internet, complete with the correct dialling code for that area.

That way, if you regularly access the internet from two or more locations with your notebook, you can select the appropriate location each time and have all your settings already in place, especially handy for those whose work requires some travel.

Click on Edit to edit the default location, or New to set up another one. Either way, you will see the Edit Location box. Here you can choose a name and whether you need to dial a number for an outside line and set the area code. You can also tell the computer about call waiting on the line. In the third tab you can set up a calling card, if you use one to make calls. Click on OK to close the box.

In the second tab, Modems, you will see any modems that are installed on the system. If your modem isn't listed, click on Add and follow the instructions to make the computer detect it. You can select a modem and click on Properties to see its configuration. In the dialogue box that appears you can set the speaker volume so you can turn off the noise dial-up modems make as they jabber to the internet.

The other useful tab here is Diagnostics. You can click on Query Modem to make the PC probe the modem. The results may look incomprehensible, but they could be useful to an engineer, or when trying to solve problems on an online technical support forum.

Printers and faxes
In the Printers and Faxes control panel you will see a list of all the printers installed on your system, including faxes and shared printers. Double-click on one of the icons to see the print queue - the list of documents waiting to print.

If you right-click on any item in the queue, you can choose to pause, restart or cancel it, which can be helpful if you accidentally send a document to print before it's ready. From the Printer menu, you can choose Set as Default Printer to make this printer the first choice for all of your documents. Click on the close button (the 'x' in the top-right corner) to close the print queue.

Right-clicking on any printer icon and clicking Properties, then clicking Printing Preferences will let you change the printer's default settings. Any changes you make here will be made the default settings for all prints using that printer. You can change these for individual documents when you print them, but if you have a standard paper size, for example, you can set it here once and for all. Click on OK to close the preferences box, then on OK again to close the Properties box.

Accessibility options
The accessibility options enable you to customise Windows to suit your needs. Many of the options here are designed to help people with disabilities, but some are handy for all. The Toggle Keys option under the Keyboard tab gives you the option of hearing an alert whenever the Caps Lock and Number Lock keys are pressed, a useful warning to the non-touch typists among us.

If you have trouble pressing two keys at once, use StickyKeys. This means that instead of holding down two keys at the same time to achieve a task, you can press one followed by the other, such as pressing Control and then C to copy a piece of text.

FilterKeys, in the same tab, makes Windows ignore brief or repeated key presses. If you find yourself accidentally pressing the wrong keys, it may be worth turning this on.

In the next tab, you can turn on SoundSentry, which gives a visual indication when the system makes a sound. If you are hard of hearing or if the computer is in a noisy room and you can't hear it beeping, you can turn this on. The second checkbox on this page turns on ShowSounds, which forces programs to display on screen any text that they read out audibly. This may not work for all programs, such as games, however.

The third tab, Display, controls screen settings. You can switch the computer to High Contrast mode, which changes almost everything to black and white, with large text. You may find this useful if you have difficulty distinguishing objects on the screen, although some users find it distracting in itself. The two sliders on this page control the degree of contrast.

Administrative tools
In this control panel you can find various tools for in-depth tinkering. The Performance tool shows a graph of how the computer is performing, the Services tool allows you to switch certain parts of Windows on or off, and the Computer Management tool controls other aspects, such as organising and managing your disks and shared folders. While all these tools can be useful, they can be dangerous if used wrongly, so don't fiddle with any of the settings unless you're an expert.

Display
Windows XP allows you to set 'themes' for your Desktop, letting you save your background, screen saver and Desktop settings to a file. To pick one, browse the drop-down box on the Themes tab of the Display control panel and select one. To make your own, set the Desktop up however you like, go to the Themes tab and click on Save As, then give it a name.

You can change some of the relevant settings for the theme using the other tabs. In Desktop you can change the background - choose a picture from the list, and then select Stretch, Tile or Center from the Position box. The picture in the box should reflect how it will look on screen. If your picture is smaller than the screen, you can select a background colour as well, to show behind it.

The next tab controls the screen saver - choose one from the drop-down list, along with a time delay. It will kick in once your system has been idle for the time you set. For further options, click on Settings (the settings will vary depending on what the screen saver is). If you install a third-party screen saver, it should appear in the list here.

Click on the Power button to change power management options, such as how long it takes to switch the screen off. This is more useful for notebook users, but it's handy for the environmentally conscious, too.

There are other Desktop options in the Appearance tab. You can choose between Windows Classic and Windows XP style or Desktop, and from the second drop-down box you can select a colour scheme; the sample at the top of the dialogue box will show how it will look after your changes.

You can make detailed changes using the Advanced tab and then save them as a new theme under the Themes tab. If you click on the Effects button, you can choose to use large icons, show shadows on the screen, and other options.

Finally, in Settings you can configure your video card and monitor. The slider controls the display resolution - for a TFT screen this should be set at the screen's native resolution (see the manual for details), and for a CRT you can set it to whatever looks best to you.

You can also change the number of colours shown - the higher the better. If you have two monitors connected to the PC, they will both show up here. You can select either one by clicking on the picture of it, and change its settings individually.

Fonts, games and the power of speech
The Fonts folder shows a list of all the installed fonts. Double-click on one to see a sample of it at various sizes. To install new fonts, click on File, then Install New Font, and navigate to where your fonts are stored on the PC or on a disk.

Once you have found the file, a list of fonts should appear in the top box. Select the ones you want and click on OK. Windows will copy them to the Fonts folder, so you can delete them from the original location once they're installed.

The Game Controllers panel lists all the joysticks and other controllers attached to the computer. Click on one and then on Properties to see whether it works - move the controller and you should see a response on the screen. You can also install new controllers by clicking on Add.

The Power Options panel displays the power management settings - the same ones that can be accessed from the Display control panel (see above). You can tell Windows to turn off the screen and hard disks after a certain amount of inactivity, or select a scheme from the drop-down list.

There is a speech function built into Windows, which will read text from the screen. To use it, go to the Start menu, click on All Programs, Accessories, Accessibility, and then Narrator. It's clearly designed for those with visual impairments but is also fun for children to use.

To change its options, use the Speech control panel. You can select a voice with the first drop-down box, although Windows only comes with 'Sam' installed. Click on Preview Voice to hear it. You can also change the speed of the reading with the slider, and use Audio Output to choose where the sound comes from (if you have more than one sound output).

PowerToys
They might be called toys, but PowerToys are certainly not child's play. They are small software components you can add to the computer to boost performance or add new features. We had planned to cover PowerToys here but with so many other things to talk about in the Control Panel, we thought these useful add-ons deserved their own space. We'll take an in-depth look at PowerToys later this year.

You can try out some PowerToys for yourself beforehand if you like, though. They are available to download free of charge from Microsoft's website here. The most useful is TweakUI, which gives you several pages of options for further tweaking of the system.

Once you have installed it you can find it in the Start menu, under Programs, then 'PowerToys for Windows XP', then TweakUI. Most of the options are self-explanatory, and there is nothing you can change here that will kill your system, or that can't be changed back later.

ClearType for Windows XP is another useful PowerToy, which tunes your display if you are using a flat-panel monitor - you will find it in the Control Panel window once it's installed. Run it and it will take you through the process, step by step.

The Alt-Tab Replacement PowerToy changes the behaviour of Windows when you press Alt-Tab to change application. Instead of just showing the program, it will show you a screenshot as well. The Power Calculator gives you several graphing and scientific functions in addition to the basic calculator. The HTML Slide Show Wizard takes you through creating a slide show of your digital images, step by step, for display on the web.

More power to you
The Control Panel contains all kinds of settings, tweaks and tools you can use to master Windows and make it work for you. Although there are some parts that are best avoided, in case you damage part of Windows, there are several sections of the Control Panel that you can safely change to suit yourself.

If you find yourself stuck knee-deep in Windows error messages, or if a program isn't working as it should, it's worth coming to the Control Panel and seeing whether you can change any settings to make a difference. Alternatively, if you find that some aspect of the Desktop or other part of Windows isn't set how you like, the Control Panel should be your first port of call.