5-23LESSON 3 CONFIGURING SYSTEM SETTINGSTABLE 5-5 WINDOWS XP VISUAL EFFECTSVISUAL EFFECT DESCRIPTIONCAUSES MENUS TO FADE OUT AFTER YOU SELECT A COMMAND
5-23Lesson 3 Configuring System SettingsTable 5-5
Windows XP Visual Effects
Visual Effect Description
Causes menus to fade out after you select a command. Disabling this
Fade-out menu items
after clicking
effect makes menus disappear instantly after selecting a command.
Causes Windows to display a drop shadow behind menus for a three-
Show shadows under
dimensional effect. Disabling this effect makes menus appear more
menus
quickly.
Causes Windows to display a drop shadow behind the mouse pointer.
mouse pointer
Disabling this effect can make the mouse more responsive. Also, some
older applications do not work well when this feature is enabled.
Show translucent
Draws a filled-in rectangle when selecting multiple items on the desk-
selection rectangle
top instead of just a rectangle outline. Disabling this effect slightly
increases the speed with which you can select items.
Causes Windows to redraw a window while the window is being
Show window
moved. Disabling this command makes dragging open windows
contents while
noticeably faster.
dragging
Slide open
Causes combo boxes to slide open instead of simply appear. A combo
combo boxes
box is a drop-down list of items that you open from within a dialog box.
Disabling this effect makes combo boxes appear more quickly.
Slide taskbar buttons Causes taskbar buttons to slide to the left when other programs are
closed or to the right when new programs are opened. Disabling this
effect makes taskbar buttons appear instantly in the new location
instead of sliding. Disabling this effect makes taskbar buttons available
more quickly when they change locations.
Smooth edges of
Makes screen fonts easier to read, especially at higher resolutions. Dis-
screen fonts
abling this effect increases the speed at which Windows displays win-
dows and dialog boxes.
Smooth-scroll
Causes the contents of a list box to scroll smoothly when you click the
scroll bar rather than just jump down a few items in the list. Disabling this
list boxes
effect makes scrolling list boxes faster, but often disorienting.
Use a background
Different types of folders in Windows XP can use different background
image for each
images. Many of the special Windows folders, such as Control Panel,
folder type
make use of this effect.
Use common tasks
Causes folders in Windows to display a task pane on the left side of the
in folders
folder that lists tasks that are related to the files in the folder.
Use drop shadows
Creates a transparency effect on text labels for icons, but this transpar-
ency really allows you to see only any other icons obscured by an icon
for icon labels on
on top. The transparency does not allow you to “see through” to the
the desktop
actual desktop background. Disabling this effect causes Windows to
display the desktop more quickly.
Use visual styles on
This setting is an important one in that it controls the new look of Win-
windows and buttons
dows XP. If you disable it, your desktop will look like previous ver-
sions of Windows.
Advanced Performance Options
The Advanced tab of the Performance Options dialog box is shown in Figure 5-9. The
options in this dialog box allow you to adjust the application response, which is the
priority of foreground programs versus background programs, and virtual memory.
F05us09.bmp
Figure 5-9