Color palettes
Tired of bland graphics? Windows 95 offers a variety of color
palettes, all just waiting to make your graphics look as glorious--or
as simple--as you wish. But before you dive into changing your
palette, you should know something about how Windows 95 works with
colors and how the palettes differ from one another.
Briefly, the fewer colors Windows is set to use, the faster it---and
your video card---can get the images to your screen. Also, fewer
colors mean less video memory is needed to display them all. (Video
memory, or VRAM, is the memory that’s built into your system’s video card.)
There are four standard color palette settings: 16 Color, 256 Color,
High Color, and True Color. The 16 Color palette is color in its
simplest form, allowing Windows only 16 colors with which to display
any and everything. This palette is a resource saver, and it allows
the fastest video speed. However, it is obviously the most limited in
terms of displaying your graphics.
Color palettes settings
In our last tip, we told you that Windows 95 offers four color
palettes (depending on your system), the first of which is 16 Color.
This palette doesn't offer many colors with which to display
graphics, but the good news is it doesn't hog system resources.
Next in line is 256 Color, which gives Windows 256 colors to work
with, resulting in a better display of your graphics. 256 Color means
greater video memory, or VRAM, usage and slower video speed compared
to its 16 Color cohort but not enough to make a significant
difference. This is why 256 Color is the most popular setting.
The High Color palette allows Windows 95 over 65,000 colors to
display images. Unless you have loads of VRAM, though, the High Color
palette can slow your video display significantly. If you're big on
true-to-life graphics, it's worth the sacrifice; if it's efficiency
you're looking for, stick to the lower-color settings.
Finally, there's True Color, which allows for somewhere around 16.8
million colors. The thing is, what you see on screen doesn't look
that much different from High Color (at least, not to the untrained
eye), so unless you're really into graphics---meaning you work with
them for a living or you're playing around with photographs---there's
no need to waste your system resources (not to mention your time)
with this setting.
Change your color palette
In our last tip, we talked about the differences among Windows' four
color palette settings---16 Color, 256 Color, High Color, and True
Color. Basically, the higher the setting, the better graphics will
look on screen, but the slower your display runs (unless you have
loads of video memory).
To change your color palette setting, click the desktop with the
right mouse button, choose Properties, and click the Settings tab.
Now click the down arrow next to Color palette, and choose your
palette. (Note: As we said, your ability to change to a different
color palette will vary depending on your system's graphics
capabilities---and on your resolution setting, which we'll discuss in
our next two tips.)
After you choose a palette, click OK, and confirm that you want to
restart your system. After Windows restarts, take a look at the icons
and perhaps some bitmaps to see the effects of your change. If things
are happening too slowly for you, change it to a palette that uses
fewer colors. If graphics don't look good enough, go for a palette
with even more colors. And if everything looks just right, enjoy.
What is resolution?
Your resolution setting determines how many pixels (dots of color,
really) are displayed on your screen. So, for example, a resolution
of 640 by 480 means that there are 640 pixels across the screen and
480 going down.
The higher the resolution setting (the more pixels), the more items
you can fit on your screen, because these items appear smaller. Take
a window that's 300 by 200 pixels. Three hundred is close to half of
a 640-pixel-wide screen, but more like a third of an 800-pixel-wide
screen. Higher resolution equals greater desktop real estate.
To adjust your screen resolution, open the Display Properties dialog
box to the Settings tab, and move the lever under Desktop one way or
the other to select an option (these options will vary depending on
your system). Click Apply; click OK to go ahead with the change; and
finally, click Yes if you like what you see. (If not, click No, and
you're back where you started.)
Resolution and color palette
In our last tip, we showed you how to change your screen
resolution---simply adjust the lever under Desktop on the Settings
tab of the Display Properties dialog box. In the tip before that, we
told you that you can change your color palette setting in the same
dialog box, by choosing an option under Color palette. Now let's look
at the relationship between resolution and color palette settings.
Screen resolution can limit your Windows 95 color palette selection
and vice versa. High resolution or color palette settings use up more
video memory (VRAM), leaving less left over to deal with color or
resolution. Windows knows what combinations of color and resolution
your system's VRAM can and can't handle and will adjust accordingly.
For example, at the lowest resolution, you may be able to choose from
four different color palettes, but at your monitor's highest
allowable resolution, you may only be able to choose 16 or 256 Color.
(Just because you see other, more complex, color palette options in
the list, doesn't mean they're fair game. On our system, you can
choose the True Color and High Color palettes, even with the highest
resolution selected, but doing so bounces the resolution back down to
a lower number---all the way to 640 by 480, for True Color. Gotcha!)
The only people out there who can mess with deluxe color palettes
while using a high resolution setting are those with a hyper-deluxe
system. Lots of VRAM, a state-of-the-art monitor---the works.
Enhanced printer troubleshooter
Having trouble printing? The Enhanced Printer Troubleshooter may be
able to help. Pop your Windows 95 installation CD into your CD-ROM
drive, navigate your way to D:\Other\Misc\Epts, and double-click the
Epts.exe file. Just answer the questions as it asks them, and, most
likely, you'll get to the bottom of your problem.
Show or hide the volume speaker
You can display or hide that little yellow speaker in the Taskbar's
tray any time you want. To remove it, click it with the right mouse
button, choose Adjust Audio Properties, and, in the Audio Properties
dialog box, deselect Show volume control on the Taskbar. Click OK,
and it's gone-zo. To get it back, open the Control Panel, and
double-click Multimedia. On the Audio tab of the Multimedia
Properties dialog box, select that same option and click OK.
Change the taskbar's size
No matter which edge of the screen the Taskbar's on (you can click
and drag it over to any edge), you can make it as wide or as narrow
as you'd like. If you've got the Taskbar on the right or left edge of
the screen, hold the cursor over its edge, and when the cursor
changes to a double-pointed arrow, click and drag it in either direction.
If the Taskbar is along the top or bottom of the screen, you can
still size it up or down, but not with as much precision. You can
only increase its width by rows of open window items. So as you drag
to make it bigger, it will fit two rows, then three, and so on.
Sizing it down works the same way, in reverse.
Remove window animation
When you minimize a window, you'll see the window shrink down to the Taskbar.
If you then click the Taskbar item to expand the window, you'll see it grow to
its full size. All this activity is called "window animation," and if you want,
you can get rid of it. Without animation to drag you down, you'll be able to
move in and out of windows even faster. (This is a Registry-related tip; as
with all such tips, we suggest you back up your Registry first.)
Open the Registry Editor (click Start|Run, enter Regedit and click OK), and
navigate your way to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics.
Right-click the WindowMetrics key, choose New, and select String Value from
the pop-up menu. Name the new value MinAnimate. Click MinAnimate with the right
mouse button, choose Modify, and in the resulting dialog box, enter "0" on the
Data value line. Click OK, close the Registry Editor, and restart Windows 95.
Now try minimizing a window. No animation there.
(You can get your window animation back by deleting the MinAnimate value
or by changing its value data from 0 to 1. As always, you'll need to restart
Windows 95 for your Registry change to take effect.)
Change start menu delay
When you click the Start button and choose Programs, there's about a
half-second delay before you see Programs submenu folder. This also
applies to selecting any Start menu item that displays a submenu. You
can change this delay to anything you want, right down to no delay at
all. All it takes is a quick trip to the Registry Editor. (As always,
back the Registry up first.)
Open the Registry Editor (click Start|Run, enter Regedit and click
OK) and navigate your way to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop.
Right-mouse click anywhere in the right pane, choose New, and select
String Value in the popup menu. Name the new value MenuShowDelay.
Right-mouse click this new value, choose Modify, and in the Edit
String dialog box, enter a number as close to zero as you dare (to
indicate the delay in milliseconds). Enter any number you want, even
0. (The default is 400, which accounts for the almost half-second
delay.) Click OK and close the Registry Editor.
Restart Windows 95, then click Start and select some folders to see
your change. (If things are moving too fast or too slow, go back to
the Registry Editor and change the setting to a higher or lower
number. If it's too low, you'll find that unwanted menus pop out and
block what's under them.)