Volume 1 - Issue 5
Welcome to all you potential Geeks out there !! Geeks are great, if I had've known that I'd be one today, I think school would've been a lot different. I spent my time trying to be one of the cool ones and my education was not important. Well We Know Different Now Don't We !!! Just to clarify a little bit of background the name Majyk ( pronounced Magic ) which is a nickname coined by some close friends of 30 some odd years and is also the license plate on my Harley. So you can see how the geek stigma kind of makes me wonder when I lost control cause now at parties the topic of Bikes has been replaced with conversations of different kinds of hardware besides chrome. But thanks to my ability to become a dog at times I can still show my face at bike related functions.
So on with the show we go !!!
I've been waxing poetic about viruses, firewalls, downloading safely, and feel it is time to steer you in the direction of online education. Even to just be able to move around in the Windows enviroment would make me feel as if I am doing my part in trying to help others to have as much fun as I am. Speaking of fun, thats what our topic is for this session .
The first topic I would like to introduce to you is being able to have sound files played as you use different tasks in Windows. First we need to download some sound wav's so when starting windows or when you get e-mail just for example the sound is what you want it to be.
We need a source link for some new sounds so here is one I use
Wav Source
Now we have the site, we need to download these various sound wav's into a folder that for the purposes of this lesson we can call Soundbytes ( you can name the folder whatever you want. Remember the lesson on downloading and making new folders ). I'm going on the premise that you can make new folders OK !! Most of the sites are set up so that when you see the sound file you like you have the choice of listening( when you click on it , it opens some form of media player and turn up the volume on your speakers so you can sample it ). If you like it , right click your mouse over the sound wav and a window will open up with some options. Choose Save target as and save it to the folder you have chosen to store these wav's in. Some of the wav's are hilarious and you may find that you will save more than you need but thats OK you can save them for later.
Now we're ready to apply these sounds to the windows functions that you choose to personalize. Go to the Start button, go to Settings and open up the Control Panel . Find the Sounds and Multimedia icon and double click it and a window will open with a list of windows commands and it shows what sounds are assigned to each. Find the task you want for example New Mail notification , click on it and in the space below you will see that a sound is assigned to it already that's OK we're going to change it. Select Browse and search for the folder that you put all your downloaded wav's in. When you have found the wav file you want click it to hi-light it and then click OK and you will see that it has replaced the sound wav that was there originally. Now all you have to do is click Apply and the next time you check your e-mail the sound wav you chose will play when your mail downloads.WOW !!!! Sorry I get excited easily ( that men are dogs thing again ).
Now you can do this with each command in windows that you choose to personalize. Ready for more ????? How about we show you how to change your background or wallpaper as it is called. Again you need to find web sites that catalogue wallpaper and let me tell you there are millions of them so here's a link to one site that lists submitted sites for you to browse by category.
wallpapervault.com
Remember to check which resolution you are running by right clicking on any blank area on your desktop and click on Properties and select Settings and it will tell you 640 x 480 , 800 x 600, 1024 x 768 or higher. when you have determined this you can choose the proper size wallpaper. When you have found a web site that you like and pictures that you want you are going to download them to a folder that you could name Wallpaper or a name of your choice.To Download the picture you want, right click on the picture that you have opened up on whichever web site you're on. A window will open up with a list of options and choose save picture as and again a window will open and ask where you want to save the picture. Find the folder you made for your pictures and save it there. The picture will be saved as a .jpg which is a compressed format for the internet so saving the picture doesn't take up a lot of room.
When you have downloaded all the pictures you want we need to learn how to change the background. NOTE !! This step is only if you are running anything less than Windows XP such as Windows 98 or Me.
There are different ways to do this , if your like me I get bored fast with my wallpaper so I change it almost bi-weekly. If this is you you will want to install a picture program for example Corel Photohouse or Paintshop Pro or you can find a generic one on the web. You will need this software to convert the .jpg to a .bmp ( windows bit map ) and then save it back to your wallpaper folder. This method is more advanced . Right click on your desktop and select properties and select the background tab .Click on the browse button and find the folder that your wallpaper is stored in, select the .bmp picture that you converted and click on it to hi-light it and click open . You will now see your choice in the preview window, now just click apply and the picture will be on your desktop. If you only change your background once in a while, when you are on the web site of wallpaper and you have opened up the picture that you want( I say it like this because most websites store the pictures as thumbnails and when you click on them they open to a larger size ). Right click on the picture and select set as background and windows will set it as your background . Easy or what !!!
When you see the amount of hi-resolution pictures available you'll want to change your background all the time. Windows has a screensaver that you can set up to use your wallpaper folder as a slideshow with special effects called My Pictures.
My wife's clients look forward to seeing what new pictures I have loaded each time they come and I am asked to share. No Problem !!! Now you can do this too !!!!
