Since the introduction Windows Vista, Microsoft has made great improvements to Windows 7’s DPI (Dots Per Inch which refers to the screens resolutions) scaling technology which allows more information to fit into a smaller amount of space. This delivers a much higher quality output, text and pictures on-screen are smoother and crisper.

Click Start, type: text

Hit Enter on your keyboard.

Windows 7 Text Options

This will open the Display item, here you will see options available for making text larger or smaller on-screen.

1. Choose one of the following:
   • Smaller – 100% (default). This keeps text and other items at normal size.
   • Medium – 125%. This sets text and other items to 125% of normal size.
   • Larger – 150%. This sets text and other items to 150% of normal size. This option appears only if your monitor supports a resolution of at least 1200 x 900 pixels. Check out Notebooks.com article about how to change your screen resolution.
2. Click Apply.

You will be prompted to log off before changes can take effect. After you have logged off, log in again.

Windows 7 with larger text.

You will notice that text and items are much larger than they were before on-screen.

Windows 7 smaller text (Before)

If you would like to make it even larger, open the Display item and click Set custom text size (DPI) and click in the Scale to this percentage of normal size: list box and select a higher percentage.

How to make Windows font size even larger.

If you would like to return to a smaller size or the default text size, select the Smaller – 100% (default) option

Windows 7 font size menu

Click Apply.

You will be prompted to log off before changes can take effect. After you have logged off, log in again.

Changing the font size in this manner will make all of your Windows 7 menus and on screen items larger, allowing seniors or those with poor eyesight to read easier on the screen. This will increase the font on your computer, but it will not increase the font size on documents you send to others.

How to Change Font Size in Windows 7 (Quick Tip) is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

Right click your desktop and click Screen resolution. Alternatively, you can click Start, type: screen resolution and hit Enter on your keyboard.

This will open the Screen Resolution item. Here you will see information about your Display, the current Resolution along with the orientation (normally Landscape).

If you would like to change the screen resolution, simply click in the resolutions available, as you can see, mine is set to 1680 x 1050 (recommended) highest, while lowest supported is 800 x 600. The higher, the better quality, most displays or graphics card only support a certain resolution, so yours might only stop at 1280 x 800 for instance. If you want to lower the resolution, simply drag the knob anywhere along the vertical line and Windows will adjust the display to support.

If you are satisfied with the results, click Apply and OK to confirm changes.

If you are sure your graphics card can power a much higher resolution and you are not seeing it as an available option, you may need to install updated drivers for the graphics card.

Also, some computers use something called shared graphics, which means the graphics in your system uses some of the main memory to help render the interface. So, if you have 2 GBs of RAM in your computer, some of it might allocated to graphics. Sometimes the manufacturer of your computer might be conservative and allocate just the bare minimum. If you would like to adjust this, consult the documentation that came with your computer, this often requires going into the BIOS settings for your computer.

If your computer has what is called a discrete graphics card or what is known as a dedicated video card from a known vendor such as AMD or Nvidia then you probably need to download the latest driver which can enable additional capabilities.

• AMD Graphics Drivers and Software
• Nvidia Graphics Drivers automatically detect Nvidia Products
• Intel’s Driver Update Utility helps you get latest drivers for graphics, audio, network, other components: http://is.gd/jQGR7

To find out more about your graphics card:

Click Start, type: dxdiag

Hit Enter on your keyboard

This will open the DirectX Diagnostics Tool window. Go to the Display tab, there you will see under Device information about graphics device you have installed in your system, such as the name, manufacturer, chip type. This information can be used to help find make and model on the manufacturer’s website. You will also notice under Drivers, the version installed, along with the last time it was updated and Driver model support. DirectX Features displays information about the capabilities of the card.

How to Change Screen Resolution in Windows is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

Themes are one of the great aesthetic features of Windows 7. Microsoft provides a website just for downloading new themes and wallpapers. I must admit, I am an avid collector, especially of the Best of Bing Theme Packs.

No matter how nice the themes look, some themes have a wallpaper or two you don’t find so attractive, here is how you can remove the wallpapers you don’t like from Windows 7 Slideshow themes.

Step 1. Right click the desktop, click Personalize

Step 2. Make sure your wallpaper theme has been selected then click the Desktop Background link a the bottom of the Personalization window.

This will display a gallery of all the wallpapers in that particular theme.

Step 3. Hover over the wallpaper you don’t want to appear in the Slideshow theme and uncheck the tick in the box that appears on the wallpaper. Repeat this step for other wallpapers.

From now on, you will see just the wallpapers you want in your favorite Wallpaper slideshow.

How to Customize Wallpaper Themes in Windows 7 is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

First, open Microsoft Outlook.

Click File

Then click Options

Then click Mail then click Signatures

Click New

Give the Signature a Name

Enter the details for the signature

Select the default messages you would like the signature to appear on:

Then click Save, then click OK.

If you want, you can create an alternate signature with different information, so you can use it for different types of communication.

Every time you create a new Email or Reply to a recipient, your signature will automatically be added.

How to Set Up a Signature in Outlook (Quick Tip) is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

What is a Theme?

A theme in Windows combines photos, sounds, color along with wallpaper background, sound scheme, screen saver and special icons/mouse pointer.

The personalization story gets much deeper when we enter the world of software and Windows 7 makes the experience even more interesting. Windows has for a long time included theming capabilities, probably as far back as the first version. Microsoft’s first major overhaul of making Windows more customizable was with the release of Windows 95 in 1995 and the companion pack, Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95. This allowed customers to customize their PC experience with additional window themes, icons and sound schemes. Eventually, this was incorporated into Windows 98 and future releases. Windows XP released in 2001 introduced a bold experience called Luna, which featured thicker title bars with three optional colors called Blue, Olive and Silver. Some of the qualities of this theme include, large self explainable icons, rich in color and depth, bright vibrant wallpapers and overall richer palette of colors. Subsequent themes were released outside of Windows XP by Microsoft, such as a ZUNE theme, Royale introduced with the release Windows XP Tablet PC/Media Center 2005. Microsoft also released a companion update to Microsoft Plus! for Windows XP. Consumers described that release as offering little to be worth $39.

With Windows Vista, Microsoft took another bold step, redesigning the Windows user experience now called AERO. Windows Vista introduced real life effects such as translucent windows, life like icons and a cleaner design that made using Windows daily a pleasure. Microsoft added numerous effects and color schemes for changing the color depth of Glass along with high quality wallpaper backgrounds. Microsoft also used Windows Vista as an opportunity to update the Display Properties dialog creating a new Explorer shell called Personalization. In this new interface, in which elements were categorized into different sections explaining what each does, users clicked a different link which led to a shell or dialog for customizing the Windows interface, whether it was Window color, Desktop background, Glass color, Screen Saver, Sound scheme etc.

Windows 7 improves on this, by enhancing the layout for quicker access to elements, but also adding more options for theming the Windows interface and making Windows connect better with locals. Themes are now bundled packages that feature a collection of high resolution wallpapers and an assigned glass color. Of course, there are some additional changes for users upgrading from versions of Windows such as XP or as far back as Windows 2000 Professional. Lets discuss some more about the different aspects of the Windows 7 Personalization Explorer shell. To access it, right click your desktop, click Personalize.

Users should note, Windows 7 offers varied experiences depending on the capabilities of your hardware and the edition of Windows 7 you are using. Lets learn some more about these tier of capabilities:

Windows Aero Standard – Combines some of the capabilities of Windows Aero Glass with some features of Aero Basic. Users will notice that window borders are more glass like in appearance, but do not have the option for translucency. The Taskbar is similar Aero Basic, except for the option of Thumbnail previews is now available.

Windows Aero Glass РWhat some would call the cr̬me de la cr̬me, Aero Glass offers the ultimate user experience for Windows users. The Windows Aero Glass encompasses every aspect of the Windows desktop experience: Start menu, Desktop, Taskbar and Windows Explorer. The immediate differences users will note is the ability to have translucent glass windows and a Taskbar with powerful effects such as interactive thumbnail previews, ability to see running videos with the ability to hover them and see a full size preview. If you invoke the Alt+Tab command, you can also see a live preview of windows on the fly. Users can also customize the color of the windows with up 16 different colors to choose with the option of controlling the intensity of the window color itself.

In addition to these themes, Microsoft also provides different that are grouped as Basic and High Contrast themes.

Windows Aero Basic – For computers that cannot support the minimum graphics requirements of Windows Aero Glass. Aero Basic features the standard elements of the Windows 7 interface except for the translucent effects and animations. Instead, areas such as the Taskbar, window borders display a blue/grayish color scheme. Other unavailable features include the inability to choose a Window Color, see and interact with thumbnail previews, Alt-Tab Preview, Flip 3D and Aero Peek.

Windows Classic - First introduced with Windows 95, this experience was the flagship theme for Windows for many years and was replaced by Windows XP’s Luna in 2001 but is still included in Windows for persons who are not quite ready for the changes in Windows 7. Microsoft has made some changes to Windows Classic in Windows 7 where menus are concerned. The standard look and feel still exist, but Microsoft has decided to remove the Standard Classic Menu that was available as an option in both Windows XP and Vista. Personally, I agree with this, since the new Start menu offers so many benefits such as Instant Search, easier access to programs, better control (no cascading/off screen sub menus), ability to search HomeGroups, Public directories and detailed results when presented. The new Start menu also introduces support for features unique to Windows 7 such as Jump List providing access to task and recently accessed files associated with a program.

High Contrast themes - If you have difficulty reading or viewing your screen, Windows has for years included high-contrast color schemes that heightens the color contrast of some text and images on your computer, making those items more distinct and easier to identify.

System Requirements – To run Windows Aero Glass, you need appropriate hardware. The capabilities will vary depending on what you have installed, here is a list of suggested requirements from Microsoft:

• 1 GHz CPU (processor) 32 or 64 bit
• 1 GB of RAM
• 128 MB video card
• DirectX 9 compliant video card that supports Windows Display Driver Model 1.0 or later, Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware, and 32 bits per pixel. (To find out if your card is DirectX 9 compliant, open the Run command (Windows key + R), type dxdiag. Under System Information, DirectX Version: you should see the version of DirectX

For best results, you might also want to follow these graphics processor recommendations:

• 64 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor with a resolution that is less than 1,310,720 pixels (for example, a 17-inch flat panel LCD monitor that has a 1280 x 1024 resolution)
• 128 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor with a resolution from 1,310,720 to 2,304,000 pixels (for example, a 21.1-inch flat panel LCD monitor that has up to a 1600 x 1200 resolution).
• 256 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor with a resolution greater than 2,304,000 pixels (for example, a 30-inch wide-screen flat panel LCD monitor that has up to a 2560 x 1600 resolution)

How do I personalize Windows 7?

Aero Background - You can easily turn your desktop into a slideshow of your favorite photos.

From the Personalization window, click Desktop Background

Choose the images you want to cycle and display on your screen. You have the option of choosing how long a picture is displayed on your screen.

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Glass Color – You can make your windows look the way you like with your favorite color. Windows 7 Color and Appearance now includes a total of 16 different colors to choose from.

From the Personalization window, click Windows Color

Choose the color you want. You also have the option of controlling the intensity of the color by using the Color Intensity slider. The transparency effects can optionally be turned off.

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Windows 7 bundles a set of 6 pre-packed themes for you to get started with, these include the default branded Windows 7 themes: Architecture, Characters, Landscapes, Nature and Scenes. The Windows Team went the extra mile with Windows 7 where themes and local cultures are related. Windows 7 offers themes tailored to different regions and languages, with special wallpapers, sounds and Aero Glass colors to provide a more locally relevant experience.

The Sounds Area of Personalization includes a collection of 13 new sound schemes that are also related to the new Windows 7 bundled themes.

Windows 7 does not stop at what comes bundled on the installation disk, users can create their own Slide show themes and download additional ones from Microsoft’s Windows 7 website here Simply click a theme to Download and it will install your chosen theme. If you want to create your own theme and save it, learn more in the following Notebooks.com article here

You can download additional themes and backgrounds from the Windows 7 website

Themes are a great way to have fun with your PC and make it represent you and your experiences. Of course, you are not limited by what Microsoft provides, third party solutions are also available for you to customize the Windows interface to an even greater degree. StarDock Object Desktop which is partly responsible for the now defunct Windows Dreamscene once available to Windows Vista provides artistic themed interfaces for Windows, allowing you to change up your Windows experience as much as you like. You can learn more here So, don’t be afraid to have fun with Windows 7 and change it up the way you like, as Microsoft says After all, it’s yours.

Resources

Using the Windows 7 Desktop – Fun Time Savers

A Guided Tour of Windows 7 for new users

Making Windows 7 Your Own: Personalization and Themes is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

The biggest limitations in Windows 7 Starter, as compared to the other editions of Windows 7, are;

• No desktop personalization
• No DVD playback
• No Multi-Monitor Support
• No Aero affects
• And others

A recent survey by Retrevo, which revealed that 21% of respondents were planning on purchasing a netbook this coming year, found that many consumers don’t understand the differences in Windows 7 editions.

Specifically, 46% didn’t know about the different versions of Windows 7, and 64% didn’t know that the Starter edition lacked the above features already found in Windows XP.

When asked if they would be disappointed with a netbook that couldn’t support these common, and expected these days, features; 56% said they would be dissatisfied with the experience!

Unfortunately most new netbooks are migrating to Windows 7 Starter edition, Retrevo found 23 out of 28 sold at Amazon shipped with Starter edition, which means consumers will end up paying more for these features.

This will either come about in the form of higher priced Windows 7 netbooks or by taking advantage of the ability to do an Anytime Upgrade in Windows 7. While paying more for a new netbook or dropping $80 on an Anytime Upgrade from Starter edition to Windows 7 Home aren’t appealing there is a silver lining. Users who just want a simple computer to use on the go, as a secondary computer, will be able to save $50 to $80 on their netbook purchase.

Majority Of Users Would Be Dissatisfied With Windows 7 Starter is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.