Windows 10 Settings (Personalization)

Personalization settings are used to change background, set colors and themes, set up lock screen, and others.

(i) Background

In the background settings section page. The first selection option you will find is the Background. From the selection option below this, you can select or choose from the three options there which are: Picture, Solid Color and Slideshow.

If you select the picture option, the next thing there is a display of default pictures and under it is the Browse button, which when clicked opens your file explorer for you to go and search the picture that you want to use as your background

You can also select Solid color, if you want a particular color for your background. There is an option Custom color, when you click on this option, it opens a dialog box, which you can use to pick a color for your background.

On the dialog box, if you click on the arrow beside the More, the options to use RGB and HSV will display for you. You can also use (type in) HEX code for custom colors if you are familiar with it.
After everything you can click on the Done button.

The last selection is the Slideshow, when you select this option, below it, you can choose a number of pictures you want to use for the slideshow by clicking the Browse button which will open the file explorer for you. It will ask you to select a folder for this. (Unlike the picture option) You will have to select the folder that contains the pictures you want to use the slideshow.

Beneath this option, you can set how long a picture will stay before another picture slides in. Under the text (Change picture every) you can set it to 1minute, 10minutes, 30minutes, 1hour, 6days or 1 day.

The next two options is the Shuffle - which when turned ON, picks pictures at random to display.
Let slideshow run if I am on battery power - when turned ON, it runs your slideshow only when you are charging your computer system (that is when your computer system is connected to a power source).

The last option which is common to slideshow and picture selection is the Choose a fit. This is used to set how the picture will look like when being displayed on your desktop. The selection options from here are the: Fill, Fit, Stretch, Tile, Center and Span.

At the right side of this Background settings page, under the related setting, you will find the links: High contrast setting and Syn your settings. When you click on these links, it will take you to the Ease of Access and Accounts settings page respectively. Do not worry about these links for now, for I will explain them individually when I get to their sections in this windows 10 settings tutorial.
You will easily digest everything if your follow this tutorial step by step instead of jumping from one unfinished area to another.

(ii) Colors

The color settings section page is primarily used to set the type of color you want for your computer environment.

The first thing you will see on color page is a display image showing you the effect of the current color state.

The first selection option is Choose your color. When you click on the selection menu box below this title, the three (3) options that you will see are the Light, Dark and Custom

When you select the custom, you can adjust the two default settings below it which are Choose your default windows mode and Choose your default app mode to either light or dark.

You can also turn ON/OFF the transparency effects. Transparency effect makes the desktop wallpaper visible behind any opened program or apps.

Under the heading (Choose your accent color), the first option when checked (enabled) automatically picks an accent color from your background. Next to it is Recent which displays the colors you have previously used before. You can also choose from there by clicking on it.
Next is the Windows color which display colors which you can also choose from.

Next after this is the Custom color option. When you click on this option, it opens a dialog box, where you can choose custom accent colors of your choice.

The last two options you can enable is showing accent colors for (a)Start, taskbar and action bar (b)Title bars and windows borders

(iii) Lock Screen

The lock screen settings section contains options for setting up backgrounds and others when your computer system is on lock screen mode.

The first heading here is the (Preview). Under this heading is a display of what the current setting state of the lock screen.

After the preview display, you will find the Background which has a selection option for selecting the background type you want for your lock screen. There are only three selection options which are: Windows spotlight, Picture and Slideshow

Windows spotlight displays different backgrounds gotten from Bin browser and also frequently gives suggestions on the lock screen.

When you select the picture from the background option, the choose your picture section will display where you can select from the recent pictures or click on the Browse button that opens the file explorer for you to select picture from your computer.

The next option is used to switch ON/OFF the Get fun fact, tips, and more from Windows and Cortana on your lock.

For the last selection, when you select the slideshow option from the background, an option to Choose albums for your slideshow will display under it. When you click on Add a folder, your file explorer will open for you to add the folder which contains all the pictures you want for your slideshow lock screen.

Advanced slideshow settings is another link option which when clicked on, takes you to another page where you can see advance settings for slideshow.

You can switch ON/OFF various options in the advance settings options such as:

• (a) Include camera roll folders from this PC and OneDrive - This option is used to include pictures in your camera roll folders and those contained in your OneDrive folder.
• (b) Only use pictures that may fit my screen - This selects the pictures that can only size your screen well.
• (c) Play slideshow when using battery power - This option will play the slideshow only when your computer system is connected to a power source (i.e when it is charging).
• (d) When my PC is inactive, show lock screen instead of turning off the screen - This means that when you are not using your computer system at all, your lock screen should be displayed instead of turning off your screen.

The last option here is the selection option for Turn off screen after the slideshow has played for:. You can use the selection menu box to set it to a default length of time you want your slideshow to last. (30minutes, 1hour, 3hours and Don't turn off)

On going back to the main page. You will find the rest options which are easily understandable.

• (a) Choose one app to show detailed status on the lock screen.
• (b) Choose which app show quick on status lock screen

After these above you can you also choose to turn ON/OFF the Show screen background picture on the sign-in screen.

The second to the last is the link is the Screen timeout settings. When you click on this link, it will take you to the Power and Sleep setting section inside the Device settings. This settings section has already been previously explained, but incase you missed it or have forgotten it you can go back to the Device settings section and click on the Power and Sleep section in this windows 10 settings tutorial.

The last option here is the Screen saver settings. When you click on this link, it opens a dialog screen saver settings box

On the Screen saver settings section, below the heading the Screen Saver there is a selection menu option which you can use to select screen saver options that you like.
The default selection options are: None, 3D Text, Blank, Bubbles, Mystify, Photos and Ribbons.

When you select the second option which is the 3D Text by the side of it, you will find the Settings.. and Preview buttons.
Clicking the settings button brings out the 3D text settings dialog box.

In the 3D text settings dialog page, we have three grouped sections which are the Text, Motion and Surface Style.

The Text group contains time option and custom text. If you select the time, the current time will be displayed as the screen saver. But if you select on custom text, beside it there is an input field where you can edit custom text. Also, below it you will find the Choose font button.
When you click on this button, it opens the font dialog box, which has two columns, that is used to select the font and font style.

At the right side of the text group, you can easily set the resolution and size of the text by moving the range slider to either your left or right (low or high - Small or large).

Next grouped row is the Motion. At the left side, you can set the rotation type by clicking on the selection option and selecting from the following defaults (Spin, See-saw, Wobble, Tumble and None). While at the right side, you can set the rotation speed to either slow or fast by moving the range slider left or right.

The next and last grouped row is the Surface Style, the radio options to enable here are the solid color, texture and reflection.

Beside them, to the right are the checkbox option to enable Custom color, Custom texture and Custom reflection. Beside the custom checkbox again to the right (that is the last column in the surface style) there are: Choose color, Choose texture and Choose reflection respectively, which can only be available when the custom checkbox is checked (marked/enabled).

When the custom color button is clicked, it displays a Color dialog box for you to select your preferred color.

And when either the custom style or reflection button is clicked, it opens the file explorer for you to search and add your custom style or custom reflection.
Lastly, in this surface style group, you can also enable or disable show specular highlights.

At the right end side of this 3D text setting, there are three button options which are: Ok, Cancel and Display setting. The Ok button confirms and save your changes.
Clicking on the Cancel button aborts and ends everything, taking you back to the previous dialog box.
While the last button option Display settings, when clicked on, opens another small dialog box called Display settings. In this dialog box, there is only one row which is the Video Adapter row. This row contains the Name, Rendering, option checkbox to display hardware 3D rendering and the Help button. You can click on the OK button to save any changes made or cancel button to close that dialog box.

On going back to the main screen saver dialog box, remember what we selected was the 3D text option from the selection option Screen saver.

Next, if you select the blank (or mystify, bubbles, ribbons) options and try clicking on the settings button beside it, a pop-up message dialog box will appear, telling you that there is no option that you can set. This is because these options do not have any settings for them.

But when you select the Photos option and click on the settings button, it displays a dialog box named Photo screen saver settings. In this dialog box, from the use Use picture from row, at the right side, there is a Browse button, which when clicked on, opens a folder dialog box for you to add the folder containing the pictures you want to use.

The slideshow speed is the next row. Next to the title is a selection option, for setting the slideshow speed to either slow, medium or fast.
You can also shuffle the pictures by checking (enabling) the Shuffle pictures checkbox.
Lastly is the link How do I customize my screen saver. When you click on the link, it will open a dialog Get help page which you can get help from. (Note that you will need internet connection for the page to open).

Going back again to the main screen saver settings page, you can preview you changes by clicking on the Preview button which displays a full screen view of the screen saver you have set.

The last options in the first row are the:
wait option - which is used to set the amount of time that your computer device will stay inactive before showing the screen saver.
On resume display logon screen - This shows the logon screen first after your resume or start using your computer.

The second row is the Power management. Read the brief details there, also there a link Change Power settings which when clicked takes you to the power options settings in the control panel section of your windows 10 system. As earlier said, settings in the control panel will also be explained in details when dealing with the control panel section in this computer basic tutorial.

After you have successfully set your screen saver, you can click on either the OK button or Apply button to save and activate screen saver effects.

(iv) Themes

This themes settings section is primarily used to set your computer themes. (The background, colors, fonts, look and feel)

In the theme setting page, the first heading is the Current Theme: Custom. Under this heading is the display preview and beside this display, are clickable options - Background, Color, Sound and Mouse cursor.

When you click on the Background or the Color, this takes you to the background or color settings in this personalization section.

When you click on the Sounds a small dialog box displays where you can select the sound theme. Note that in that dialog box, there are also other options which are the Playback, Recording and Communications, all these are similar settings, but the main focus here is setting the sound theme.

Next is the mouse cursor, when you click on the Mouse cursor, it also displays a dialog box named Mouse Properties. It takes you first to the touchpad tab, but there are other tabs there such as the Buttons, Hardware, Wheel, Pointer options and Pointer tabs.

On going back to the main page, after setting your background, color, sound and mouse cursor, you can click on the Save theme button which brings out an input field for you to fill your theme name, save and start using the theme.

Your saved theme will now be displayed under the (Change Theme) heading section with the rest of the default themes in this settings page.

Before the display theme options, there is link which is the Get more themes in Microsoft store. When you click on this link, it will open Microsoft store theme section where you can search, download and install new themes for your computer system.
The default themes are the Windows, Windows Light, Windows 10 and Flowers. You can choose any of these ones, if you don't want to stress yourself looking for themes or creating themes by yourself.

At the right side of this page, under the related settings heading, the first link is the Desktop icon setting. When you click on this link, a dialog box appears that you can use to select the icons that will display on the desktop.

You can do this by just marking the icons you want to display on the desktop background from the Desktop icon row.
The next row shows the icon pictures and titles, and under this row, there are two buttons which are the Change icon and Restore Default.

When you click on the change icon button, it brings out another dialog box from which you can select and change the icon of an existing icon.

And when you click on the restore default button, this will restore the default settings for icon desktop settings.
You also have an option to allow themes to change desktop icons. After all settings have been made, you can then click on the Ok or Apply button to save and apply changes.

The next two remaining links are the Hight contrast settings and Sync your settings. These two links when clicked, takes you to the Ease of Access and Accounts settings section page, of which you will soon get to in this windows 10 settings tutorial section. So, for now chill and continue to follow up step by step.

(v) Font

The first heading in this settings page is the (Add Fonts). Under this heading, there is box in where you can drag, drop and install fonts to your system from your file explorer.

Below this box, there is a link Get more fonts in Microsoft Store. When you click on this link it opens the Microsoft store application online page to display fonts that you can download into your computer system.

The second heading is the(Available Fonts). Under this heading, there is a search input field that you can use to find already installed fonts in your computer system.
After this search input, below you will find the list of fonts that are installed in your computer system.

When you click on any font directly, it takes you to another page, where you will can change or adjust the font size, see the fonts metadata (Full name, Font file, Version, Designer/Foundry, Manufacturer, Copyrights, Legal trademarks and License description). The fonts metadata is different for different fonts and their font type faces. You can also uninstall the font by clicking on the Uninstall button.

On going back to the main page, at the right side of the page, under the related settings heading your will find the Adjust ClearType text and Download fonts for all languages
ClearType is an adjustment means that helps to improve the readability of text on an LCD screen computer device. When you click on this link option it will open a dialog box where you can start this operation. Also, you can click on the download fonts for all languages link when you want to download font for all languages. It will ask you for confirmation, click the OK button.

(vi) Start

This settings page contains options that you can use to switch ON/OFF when you open the start menu.

• (a) Show more tiles on start - This option shows addition tiles when enabled (turned ON)
• (b) Show app list in start menu - This option displays the application list in the start menu. When turned OFF, the application list will not be displayed
• (c) Show recently added apps - Shows the application that has just been installed recently on your computer system.
• (d) Show most used apps - Show the applications that you frequently use.
  
• (e) Show suggestions occasionally in start - Bring out suggestions from time to time.
• (f) Use start full screen - When you click on the start menu, it will cover the full screen size of your computer desktop.
• (g) Show recently opened items in Jump lists on Start or the Taskbar and in file explorer quick access.

The last option on this start settings page is the Choose which folders appear on Start. When you click on this link option, it takes you to another page for you turn ON/OFF the folders that will appear when the start menu displays. (File Explorer, Settings, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos, Network, Personal folder)

(vii) Taskbar

The Taskbar settings has to do with everything that is located on the taskbar. During the introduction to windows 10 environment in this computer basics tutorial, I explained every area in the taskbar.

The first section on the taskbar settings page contains options which you can enable and disable (turn ON/OFF). These options include the following

• (a) Lock the taskbar - for locking the taskbar
• (b) Automatically hide the taskbar in Desktop mode - This means the taskbar will not show when you are in desktop mode, but when you hover the bottom of your desktop, it will come up.
• (c) Automatically hide the taskbar Tablet mode - This means the taskbar will not show when you are in tablet mode
• (d) Use small taskbar button - When this option is ON, it reduces the size of the taskbar buttons.
• (e) Use peak to preview the desktop you move your mouse to the Show Desktop button at the end of the taskbar
• (f) Replace command prompt with Windows PowerShell in the menu when I right click the start button or press Window Key + X
• (g) Show badges on taskbar buttons - There are some applications that usually have badges, you can choose to show their badges by switching this option ON. (Badges are used to display simple count number or indicator. For example, your Facebook application, when a message comes in, you will notice the message count number at attached to the application icon.)
The next option is the Taskbar location on screen with has a selection button with which you can click and select the position you want the taskbar to be located in your computer desktop. (Left, Top, Right or Bottom).

The next option after this is the Combine taskbar buttons. It also has a selection button below it where you can select any of its following options:
• (i) Always hide Labels - This is the default options that hides labels (brief information) of icons on the taskbar

• (ii) When taskbar is full - The option only hides labels when the taskbar is full.

• (ii) Never - The option when selected, will not hide labels even if the taskbar is full.


The last option in this first section is a link How do I customize taskbars?. When you click on this link, it takes you to the Get Help application page where can find answers to the questions above.

Under the heading (Notification Area), there are two links, the Select which icons appear on the taskbar and Turn system icons on or off

The Select which icons appear on the taskbar when clicked on, takes you to a page where you can select (turn ON/OFF) which icons will appear on the taskbar.

The Turn system icons ON or OFF when clicked on, takes you a page where you can select (turn ON/OFF) which system icons will appear on the taskbar.

Under the next heading (Multiple Displays). The first option is to turn ON/FF (show/hide) on all displays.
The next option is the Show taskbar buttons on. You can use the selection option to choose whether you want to show the taskbar buttons on All Displays or only one display

The next option after this is which I have previously explained is the Combine taskbar buttons. It also has a selection button below it where you can select any of its following options:

• (i) Always hide Labels - This is the default options that hides labels (brief information) of icons on the taskbar for multiple displays
• (ii) When taskbar is full - The option only hides labels when the taskbar is full for multiple displays
• (ii) Never - The option when selected, will not hide labels even if the taskbar is full for multiple displays

Note that if you are not on multiple display, these sections will be gray and you cannot use any of these settings.

The last heading in this Taskbar section under the personalization settings is (People). Under this heading are options which you can enable and disable (turn ON/OFF), these options include the following

• (a) Show contacts on taskbar - When turned ON, your contacts icon will display on the taskbar. Note this option has to be ON for other options to be available on this section.
• (b) Choose how many contacts to show - Here you can use the selection button to choose the number of contacts you want to show. The options are (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 and Put everyone in overflow). When you select put everyone in overflow, it means you can scroll through all your contacts.
• (c) Show my People Notification - This displays notification from the People application
• (d) Play sound when my People Notification arrives - When this option is ON, a sound will play when the People notification comes in.
• (e) Show my People app suggestions - This brings out other application suggestions that you can use for your contacts