Teach Yourself Windows 95 in 24 Hours, Second Edition

- Hour 8 -

Manage Your Desktop

This hour is a little different from the other hours. Instead of studying a single central aspect of Windows 95, such as Explorer, this hour contains a potpourri of desktop management tips and procedures that improve the way you use the Windows 95 environment. Whereas the previous hours have studied topics in depth, this hour offers advice that you may want to use while you work within Windows 95.

One area this hour explores is screen savers. Windows 95 comes with several screen saver designs and you can purchase and download additional screen savers. Screen savers not only provide something for your computer to do while it is idle, but they offer security features as well.

This hour also offers a collection of tips that simply help make your use of Windows 95 even easier than it would otherwise be. For example, you learned how to modify the Start menu in Hour 6, "Explore the Windows 95 System," through the important Settings menu on the Start menu. In addition to going through the Settings menu, you also can use the mouse to drag programs to the Start menu without displaying a single menu!

Start Windows 95 and walk through this hour, trying the shortcuts and advice, and decide which topics suit your needs best. Now that you've mastered the major Windows 95 tools such as Explorer and the Settings menu, you are ready to streamline the way that you use Windows 95.

The highlights of this hour include:

Why screen savers improve the use of your computer's idle time
How screen savers add security while you are away from your computer
Where to double-click when you need to change the computer's time or date
When to let Windows 95 arrange the desktop icons for you
How to use the mouse to add programs to your Start menu
What to do when you get tired of your Windows 95 colors

SOS: Save Our Screens!

Want to know an insider's computer industry secret? Here it is: Screen savers really don't save many screens these days. In the past, computer monitors, especially the monochrome green-letters-on-black kind, would burn in characters when left on too long without being used. In other words, if you left the monitor on for a long time and did not type anything, the characters on the monitor would begin to leave character trails that stayed on the monitor even after you turned it off.

To combat character burn-in, programmers began to write screen savers that blanked the screen or displayed moving characters and pictures. The blank screens had no burn-in problems, and the moving text never stayed in one place long enough to burn into the monitor. The screen savers would kick into effect after a predetermined length of non-use. Therefore, if you walked away from your computer, the screen saver would begin after a few minutes. Upon returning, you could press any key to restore the computer screen to its original state where you left it.

Almost everybody has heard of screen savers these days. Computer software stores contain shelf after shelf of screen saver programs. There are screen savers that display pictures of your favorite television characters. There are screen savers with cartoons. There are screen savers that continuously draw geometric and 3D designs. Microsoft designed Windows 95 to include several screen savers also. Therefore, you don't have to buy a screen saver because if you have Windows 95, you already have an assortment of them to choose from.

Getting back to that industry secret: Today's monitors don't have the burn-in problem that previous monitors had. Screen savers aren't needed. Why, during an age when they are not needed, are screen savers more popular than ever before? The answer is simple: Screen savers are fun! Screen savers greet you with designs and animated cartoons when you'd otherwise look at a boring screen. It's cool to use a screen saver.

TIME SAVER: If you think that you might want to try one of the store-bought screen savers, first try one from Windows 95 to see if you like screen savers. Some people decide they don't like them once they begin using screen savers.

CAUTION: Screen savers aren't just for fun and games so don't rule them out before you've looked at them! Even though you may not care for screen savers (as I just mentioned, not everybody likes them), the Windows 95 screen savers offer an added benefit not found in many other screen savers: The Windows 95 screen saver provides password protection. If you need to walk away from your screen for a while but you want to leave your computer running, you can select a password for the screen saver. Once the screen saver begins, a user has to enter the correct password to use your computer. This ensures that payroll and other departments can safely leave their computers, without fear that somebody will see confidential information.

Task 8.1: Setting Up a Screen Saver

Step 1: Description
Windows 95 contains several screen savers from which you can choose. Through the Screen Saver dialog box you can set up a blanking screen saver or one that moves text and graphics on the screen. You control the length of time the monitor is idle before the screen saver begins.

Step 2: Action

1. Click the right mouse button over the Windows 95 wallpaper. The display menu appears.

JUST A MINUTE: If you are working in Windows 95 now, using a word processor or other program, you may not see the wallpaper. Minimize your current window so that you can see the wallpaper and right-click over the wallpaper.

2. Select the Properties command. The Display Properties tabbed dialog box shown in Figure 8.1 appears.

Figure 8.1. The Properties command displays the Display Properties tabbed dialog box.

JUST A MINUTE: The Display Properties tabbed dialog box is the same dialog box you selected in Hour 2 to change your Windows 95 wallpaper. Therefore, if you don't currently use wallpaper (see the blank desktop background on Figure 8.1), your screen may differ slightly from the one in Figure 8.1.

3. Click the tab labeled Screen Saver. Windows 95 displays the dialog box shown in Figure 8.2.

Figure 8.2. The Screen Saver dialog box controls the screen saver's timing and selection.

Depending on your attached hardware, the bottom portion of the Screen Saver dialog box may or may not be grayed out as is the figure's. If your monitor is designed to be Energy Star-compliant, the lower dialog box settings will be available to you. You'll be able to adjust these options to save energy. The Energy Star controls work independently and override any screen saver settings you might use.

4. The dropdown listbox, directly below the Screen Saver prompt, that you display when you click the down arrow contains a list of Windows 95 screen savers. Click the box now to see the list. When (None) is selected, no screen saver will be active on your system.

5. If you select Blank Screen (the item in the dropdown list directly after (None)), Windows 95 uses a blank screen for the screen saver. When the screen saver activates, the screen will go blank, and a keypress (or password if you set up a password) returns the screen to its original state.

The remaining screen savers are more fun than a blank screen saver. Click any one of the remaining screen savers in the list now (such as Flying Windows), and Windows 95 gives you a preview of it on the little monitor inside the dialog box as shown in Figure 8.3.

Figure 8.3. You may preview any of the screen savers.

6. The animated screen savers can move fairly fast. If you want to adjust their speed, click the Settings button. In some cases, you also can adjust the number of animated items that appear on the screen saver screen.

7. The Preview button lets you view, full-screen, the screen saver if you want a better preview than the small screen inside the dialog box provides. Click Preview to see the actual screen saver in action. Press any key or move the mouse to terminate the screen saver preview and return to the dialog box.

8. The Wait prompt determines how many minutes your computer must remain idle for the screen saver to activate itself. By pressing Alt+W (the shortcut key combination for the Wait prompt), you can enter a new minute value or click the up and down arrow keys to change to a new minute value.

JUST A MINUTE: Task 8.2 explains how to use the password option with the screen saver.

9. When you click the OK command button at the bottom of the dialog box, Windows 95 activates the screen-saver program. The screen saver remains active in all future Windows 95 sessions until you change it again using the Screen Saver dialog box.

10. The screen saver operates in the background but never shows itself, even on the taskbar of program buttons, until your computer sits idle for the specified minute time value. Don't touch the keyboard or mouse for the waiting time period, and you'll see the screen saver go into action. Press any key (or move the mouse) to return to the desktop.

Step 3: Review
Screen savers are easy to set. A right mouse-click on your desktop and selecting Properties from the resulting menu will activate the Display Properties tabbed dialog box where you can launch a screen saver. Not only can you control which screen saver is used, but you also can control the number of idle minutes the screen saver requires before activating. You can control the speed of animated screen savers as well.

TIME SAVER: If you don't want a screen saver, select (None) in the screen saver's dialog box.

Task 8.2: Securing Your Screen Saver

Step 1: Description
Using the Display Properties box, you can add a password to any of the Windows 95 screen savers including the blank screen saver. Once the screen saver executes, it requires a password before relinquishing control to you or anyone else who wants to use your computer.

Step 2: Action

1. Display the Display Properties tabbed dialog box once again by right-clicking over your screen's wallpaper and selecting Properties.

2. Click the Screen Saver tab to see the Screen Saver dialog box.

3. Click the Password protected checkmark prompt.

4. Press the Change button. You must tell Windows 95 the password it will require before releasing a screen saver. The Change Password dialog box, like the one in Figure 8.4, opens.

Figure 8.4. Tell Windows 95 the secret screen saver password.

5. Windows 95 requires that you type the password twice. The password appears on the screen as asterisks, as you type, so that no one looking over your shoulder can read your password. Due to the asterisk protection, Windows 95 asks that you enter the password twice to ensure that you make no mistakes as you type the new password. Type the same password at both prompts on the screen.

6. Press the OK command button. Now when Windows 95 starts the screen saver, you will have to enter the password to use the computer.

CAUTION: The screen-saver password does not guarantee total computer security. Someone can reboot your computer and use the computer's files. The password-protected screen saver does, however, keep people from looking at the work you were performing before you left the computer idle.

Step 3: Review
The password lets you protect your computer's screen from view by others. By setting a password, you ensure that people cannot stop the screen saver to look at what you were doing with the computer before the screen saver took effect.

Check the Time

A clock showing the current time appears at the right of your taskbar. (The clock's position may differ depending on where you moved your taskbar.) In addition to the time, your computer and Windows 95 also keeps track of the date.

There are several reasons why you may want to change the computer's time and date settings. Perhaps you've moved to a different part of the world and need to change the computer's clock. Perhaps your computer contains a time and date memory kept current with a battery that has gone bad. Perhaps the person who set up your computer simply didn't know the right time or date when he or she installed Windows 95. Whatever the reason for setting the time and date, you'll see here that these settings are simple to adjust.

JUST A MINUTE: Windows 95 uses the international settings, found by double-clicking the Regional Settings icon in the Control Panel, to format all date and time values displayed from within Windows 95. Therefore, the selected country in the Windows 95 international settings determines the appearance of all time and date values.

As you saw in Hour 2, "Tour Windows 95 Now," the Control Panel contains many of your system's hardware and software settings. You can change your computer's date and time settings by double-clicking the Date/Time icon inside the Control Panel. There's a better way, though, a much faster and easier way, as Task 8.3 describes.

Task 8.3: Changing the Time and Date with the Mouse

Step 1: Description
The taskbar itself gives you access to the time and date settings of your computer. You can double-click on the taskbar clock to display the time and date modification dialog box.

JUST A MINUTE: If you don't see the time on your taskbar, select the Settings | Taskbar command on the Start menu and check the Show Clock option.

Step 2: Action

1. Double-click your taskbar's clock. Windows 95 displays the Date/Time Properties tabbed dialog box shown in Figure 8.5.

Figure 8.5. A double-click displays this Date/Time Properties dialog box.

2. This is the easiest clock you'll ever have to set! The up and down controls let you change the month or year. If you click on a day inside the month, the date instantly changes to that date.

3. Click over the hour, minute, or second to change the time. If you highlight the hour (by dragging the mouse cursor over it), the minute, or the second, then click either the up or down arrow next to the time. That highlighted value increases or decreases by one unit. As you change the time value, the analog clock face changes also.

4. When you are done modifying the date or time, click the OK command button to close the dialog box, and the taskbar's time reflects your changes. You can now turn off your computer, and the computer's new settings will still be in effect (up to the second) when you turn on the computer again.

5. Windows 95 is smart and can handle time zones easily. If you display the Date/Time Properties dialog box and click the Time Zone tab, Windows 95 displays the time zone dialog box shown in Figure 8.6.
The time zone currently in effect is highlighted on the global world map. If you want to set a different time zone, you either can drag the map's highlighted time zone line left or right, or click the dropdown listbox arrow to display the world's time zones. The listbox contains a list of every possible time zone in the world.

Figure 8.6. Change the time zone visually or using a dropdown listbox.

TIME SAVER: Not all time zones respect daylight saving time. For example, if you live in Indiana, you don't have to change your clocks every six months because you don't follow daylight saving time. For those who don't want Windows 95 to adjust for daylight saving, uncheck the option at the bottom of the screen.

6. Once you select the proper time zone and daylight saving time setting, click the OK command button to close the dialog box, and the settings will then take effect.

Step 3: Review
Changing the date and time requires double-clicking over the time on your taskbar. The tabbed dialog box that appears lets you change the time, the date, and the time zone. If you want Windows 95 to update the clock every daylight saving time period, you can check an option to have Windows 95 do just that.

JUST A MINUTE: If your computer adjusts the clock due to daylight savings time, Windows 95 lets you know about the change with a dialog box the first time you use Windows 95 after the change.

Arrange Those Icons

Over time, you could place many icons on your desktop. A clean desktop keeps the clutter down, so you don't want to place too many items on the desktop at any one time. You might, however, using the copy and paste tools discussed so far in this book, want to put your most popular programs out on the desktop (created as a shortcut) so the programs are always there when you want to double-click their icons.

TIME SAVER: As you learned in Hour 6, "Explore the Windows 95 System," you can place your most commonly used programs on the desktop by copying the icons and creating a shortcut to the icon programs. If you do this, you then don't have to display the Start menu and click through a series of cascaded menus when you want to execute that program.

Once you place a lot of icons on the desktop, you may get a cluttered screen, such as the one shown in Figure 8.7. Windows 95 supplies tools that can help align those icons better and make your desktop look a little more professional, as Task 8.4 explains.

Figure 8.7. Numerous icons can clutter the Windows 95 desktop.

Task 8.4: Arranging Your Desktop Icons

Step 1: Description
Your desktop can get cluttered. When it does, use the right mouse button's desktop menu to put order back in your icons.

Step 2: Action

1. Close or minimize any open windows to get a clear view at your desktop.

2. Point to the desktop with the mouse cursor and click the right mouse button to display the desktop menu. The first two commands, Arrange Icons and Line up Icons, manage your desktop icons. The first command, Arrange Icons, produces the following set of commands:

By Name

By Type

By Size

By Date

Auto Arrange

The first four of these commands determine how you want Windows 95 to arrange the icons. If you want the icons in alphabetical order, for example, you would select the by Name command. The second command arranges the icons by the file type they represent (executable program, document, and so on). The third command arranges the icons by size from smallest to largest. The fourth command arranges the icons in date order using the date of their last modification.
Figure 8.8 shows the result of ordering icons in Figure 8.7 by name. See if you can spot a problem.

Figure 8.8. The icons almost appear in alphabetical order.

Windows 95 puts its own icons at the head of the list. Therefore, icons such as My Computer, Inbox, Recycle Bin, Network Manager, and The Microsoft Network (you may not have all these Windows 95 icons on your desktop) always will come before your own icons. Windows 95 then arranges the remaining icons in alphabetical order as shown in Figure 8.8.

The Auto Arrange command is really an option, not a command, that you can check on and off. Windows 95 puts a checkmark next to the Auto Arrange command on the right-click menu when you choose Auto Arrange. Thereafter, no matter what order you select for the icons, Windows 95 keeps the icons arranged in your order, but in straight and organized columns. If, for example, the Auto Arrange option were checked in Figure 8.8, when you attempted to drag one of the icons out of the alignment to the far right edge of the screen, Windows 95 would snap that icon right back into the columns of icons on the screen.

TIME SAVER: The Auto Arrange option keeps you from having to adjust icons manually, putting them in aligned order every time you add a new icon to the desktop or remove an icon from the desktop.

3. Click your Auto Arrange option now. Your desktop icons will arrange themselves into rows and columns.

4. Click the by Name command to put your non-Windows 95 icons in alphabetical order.

5. The Line up Icons command organizes your icons into straight columns and rows but does not group them together. Suppose, for example, that you want a few icons in the upper-right corner of the desktop and a few in the lower-right corner. You can move the icon groups to those corners, and then select Line up Icons to put those icons in rows and columns while still maintaining their locations on the screen.

JUST A MINUTE: The Auto Arrange option, when checked, always overrides any attempt to order icons in groups using Line up Icons.

Figure 8.9 shows how you can create organized groups of icons using Line up Icons after dragging the icons to their approximate locations within the groups on the screen.

Figure 8.9. Use the Line up Icons command to create organized groups of icons.

Step 3: Review
By right-clicking over your desktop you can use the Windows 95 tools to place your icons in an organized order. You can organize the icons and keep them organized if you want to leave the work up to Windows 95; the Auto Arrange option ensures that icons go into a table of rows and columns as soon as you add an icon. If you delete an icon from the desktop, the others rearrange automatically also. If you want more control, you can turn off the Auto Arrange option and use the Line up Icons command to organize your icons into related groups on the desktop.

TIME SAVER: Remember that you can delete an icon from the desktop by right-clicking over that icon and selecting the Delete command. If you select more than one icon (by holding Ctrl while clicking the left mouse button) before clicking the right mouse button over one of the selected icons, Windows 95 deletes all of the selected icons in one action.

The Neatest Tip Yet!

Want to add programs to the Start menu quickly? Hour 6 taught you how to access the powerful Settings | Taskbar dialog boxes with which you can modify the way the taskbar behaves. The Settings | Taskbar dialog boxes include several options that let you rearrange the Start menu and add or remove programs to and from the Start menu.

If all you want to do is add programs, such as the calculator program, to the Start menu, you don't need the Settings | Taskbar dialog boxes, as Task 8.5 explains.

Task 8.5: Quickly Adding Programs to the Start Menu

Step 1: Description
After starting Explorer, opening the My Computer icon, or displaying a Windows 95 Open dialog box, drag the program's icon to the Start button. Windows 95 instantly adds that program to the Start menu. Earlier you saw how to add the Windows 95 Calculator program to the Start menu. This task offers you a faster way to add programs by showing you how to drop the calculator program onto the Start button.

Step 2: Action

1. Start Explorer.

2. Click on the Windows folder to display the Windows directory.

3. Scroll the right window until you see the calculator icon appear with the name Calc beneath the icon.

JUST A MINUTE: If you've turned on the display of filename extensions, the full name of the Calculator program is Calc.exe.

4. Drag the calculator icon to the Start button. Drag the icon slowly. As the icon passes over certain parts of your screen, such as the dividing lines between windows, you'll see the icon change to a circle with a slash through it (the international "Do not" sign), but the icon reappears when you drag the cursor to the Start button.

5. Release the icon over the Start button. Click the button to display the Start menu. As Figure 8.10 shows, your Start button will now include the calculator program that you can start directly from the first level of the Start menu.

6. If you've been following this task, you may or may not want the calculator program to remain on the Start menu. If not, select Settings | Taskbar and follow the steps to remove the program as described in Hour 6.

Figure 8.10. The calculator program is now part of the Start menu.

Step 3: Review
From an Open dialog box, the Explorer screen, or the My Computer icon, you can add programs to the Start menu with a simple mouse drag. Don't add too many programs to the Start menu, though, or you'll clutter the Start menu too much. Keep only your special and frequently used programs on the Start menu.

CAUTION: Unfortunately, Windows 95 offers no short way to remove programs from the Start menu. You'll have to return to Hour 6's chapter and remove the program from the Start menu within the Settings dialog box explained there.

Paint Windows 95

Windows 95 offers several color schemes for you to select. Microsoft designed several color schemes that work well together. Depending on your taste, you can choose from conservative to very wild colors.

The color schemes that you can select have nothing to do with the colors of icons, wallpaper, or screen savers on your system. The color schemes determine the color for various system-wide items such as screen title bars, window backgrounds, and dialog box controls.

Task 8.6: Changing the Color Scheme

Step 1: Description
By selecting from various color schemes, you can determine the colors Windows 95 uses for common system-level items such as window controls. The Control Panel contains a Display icon that you use to change the color of your Windows 95 installation.

Step 2: Action

1. Select Control Panel from the Start menu's Settings menu.

2. Double-click the Display icon. The Display Properties tabbed dialog box appears.

TIME SAVER: To display the Display Properties tabbed dialog box quickly right-click over the wallpaper and select Properties.

3. Click the Appearance tab to display the Appearance dialog box shown in Figure 8.11.

Figure 8.11. Change system colors using the Appearance dialog box.

4. If you want to take the time, you can change the colors of every item on the Windows 95 screen including dialog boxes, window borders, and title bars. However, it's much easier to pick a color scheme from the list of the many choices that Microsoft supplies.

In the Appearance dialog box, the top half contains the selected color scheme. If you select a different color scheme, you'll see that scheme's color appear at the top of the dialog box. For example, suppose you're taking your powerful color laptop to Egypt to write with while cruising down the Nile River. Open the dropdown listbox labeled Scheme and select Desert from the list. Instantly, the top half of your dialog box changes colors to a Desert scheme. Now you can compute like a true Egyptian!

5. The color scheme of your Windows 95 installation does not instantly change. You're still in the process of selecting colors at this point. If you don't like the desert color scheme, try another. As a matter of fact, try all of them to find one you really like.

TIME SAVER: There are some color schemes that include the additional benefit of large text sizes. As Figure 8.12 illustrates, you can select a color scheme that makes window text easier to see by enlarging the character size of the Windows 95 characters when they appear in dialog boxes and title bars.

Figure 8.12. You can change not only system colors but also common Windows 95 character sizes.

6. When you find a color scheme that you really like, click the OK command button to close the dialog box and change the color scheme to your selected colors. You can now begin working with the new color scheme; as soon as you open a window you'll see the difference.

Step 3: Review
The Control Panel contains a display icon that enables you to change the color scheme of your Windows 95 installation. Once you change the colors and, optionally, the font size, all standard Windows 95 displays, such as windows, borders, and title bars, will reflect the new colors.

TIME SAVER: Although Microsoft Plus! is an add-on program you must purchase separately from Windows 95, Plus! offers several additional color schemes as well as entire desktop themes that let you add personality to your Windows 95 desktop.

As you change your color scheme, feel free to change the Windows 95 display font as well. By default, Windows 95 displays icons and window titles and messages in the MS-DOS Sans Serif font. From the Appearance dialog box, you can select a different font for almost every kind of text Windows 95 displays.

Summary

This hour took a brief detour from the style of surrounding hours. In this hour, you caught a glimpse of some tips and desktop-management tools that may help you work inside Windows 95 more effectively. After completing the first part of this book, you already have a good foundation of the tools that are available to you as a Windows 95 user. Now that you've become more comfortable with these aspects of Windows 95, you'll appreciate some of this hour's time-saving tips.

Windows 95 is misleading in one respect: It is extremely easy to use. Both novices and advanced users seem to enjoy Windows 95. It remains simple and free of clutter so beginners don't get confused by having to deal with too many things at once. Windows 95 also contains powerful options and tools so that advanced users can always find a different way of accomplishing tasks that take longer using other operating environments.

In this hour, you learned how to improve your computer's idle time by setting up a screen saver. By password-protecting that screen saver, you can add security to your system so you can safely leave for a few minutes without exiting the program you're working in.

There are many timesaving features inside Windows 95. You now know how to change the computer's time, date, screen colors, and even how to add programs to the Start menu with just the mouse. These timesaving features help both the novice and the advanced user utilize Windows 95 more fully.

Workshop

Term Review

burn-in Characters left on older computer monitors begin to burn into the monitor, leaving their outlines even after the monitor's power is turned off.

Energy Star A name applied to monitors that comply with environmental guidelines that limit the use of continuous power applied to your monitor.

screen saver A program that waits in the background and executes only if you stop using your computer for a while. The screen saver either blanks your screen or displays moving text and graphics. Screen savers have, in the past, helped eliminate burn-in problems.

Q&A

Q In the second hour I learned how to change the wallpaper. How does the wallpaper pattern differ from the screen saver pattern? Are they the same thing?
A The wallpaper is your desktop's background. You always see the wallpaper when you first start Windows 95 and when you minimize or close programs you are using within Windows 95. You will never see the screen saver unless you quit working on your computer for a few minutes and the screen saver begins running.
The screen saver must be a moving pattern (or be completely blank) to accomplish the goal of a screen saver. A screen saver is primarily a running program that keeps the screen's characters from getting burned into the screen's phosphorus. The burn-in problem is not too common today, so a secondary goal of a screen saver is to display an animated and often fun screen during your computer's idle times.

Q I do serious work. Why would I want a screen saver?
A The screen saver probably will not help your monitor if you have a modern monitor because modern monitors don't have burn-in problems. If you don't like the fancy animated screen saver screens that come with Windows 95 or that are for sale in software stores, you shouldn't activate the screen saver for entertainment purposes.
Depending on the nature of your computing, however, as well as the level of security at which you operate, you may want to activate a password-protected screen saver for precautionary reasons. When you leave your computer, you can activate the screen saver so that, upon returning, you must enter a predetermined password to work with the computer once again. The password-protected screen saver keeps others from snooping into your computer's files.

Q How do I adjust my computer's clock when daylight saving time occurs?
A You don't have to do anything when daylight saving time occurs, as long as you've checked the daylight saving time option in the Date/Time Properties dialog box. When you check this option, Windows 95 monitors the calendar and adjusts your computer's time appropriately. If you live in an area that does not follow daylight saving time, be sure to leave the option unchecked so your computer won't change the clock every six months.

Q Why would I want to group my desktop icons into several areas of the screen?
A Suppose you copy icons that represent documents you often use to the desktop. In addition, you also copy several games that you like to play to the desktop. You can't play games all the time, so you decide to place your word processor's icon as well as your spreadsheet's icon to the desktop, too.
These three groups of icons logically fall into these categories:
Documents
Games
Programs
In addition to the three categories you've created, Windows 95 always likes to display some of its own program icons on the desktop, such as the My Computer icon and possibly The Microsoft Network icon if you're set up to use the online network service. If you use Auto Arrange, Windows 95 puts all these icons together at the left of your screen. If, instead, you put all your games in one corner, all your programs in another corner, and all your documents in yet another corner, you could select the Line up Icons command to put these groups of icons into rows and columns but still keep their approximate placement on the screen. The rows and columns ensure that the icons look neat (it's almost impossible to drag icons into rows and columns), but you maintain your icon groups as well.