To do this, go to the Start menu and select 'Settings > Control Panel', then in the Control Panel select 'Display'.Ĭlick the Appearance tab at the top of the dialog. To change themes or colours, you'll need to get into the Display Properties. Fortunately, it's easy to change the existing ones.
#Windows xp background download windows#
Given that it's so important, and so easy to change, you'd have thought that Microsoft might have included more than two themes with Windows XP. If the image is too vibrant, consider creating a copy in your image editor, then increasing the brightness and lowering the contrast to produce a washed-out look that won't distract you when browsing the folder. Note that you can't stretch or centre your chosen image - if it's smaller than the window in question it will tile, so bear that in mind when choosing your image. Once installed, just select your chosen image, click 'Change Image' and select the image you want to use. You could do this the hard way - by manually editing configuration files - but a better and easier way is to use a third-party program that can do the hard work for you. You can change the icon or picture used to represent a folder (see tip 5), but you can also add a background image or colour to folders. Here you can choose whether to show common task links to the left of folder windows, as well as the type of files you'd like displayed. When you're navigating your hard drive you can spend a lot of time looking at folders, so it's a good idea to customise them to suit your taste.