You frequently change your Windows desktop wallpaper. Adventurous ones probably apply a custom theme and even a new icon set every once in a while. MDGx AXCEL216 MAX Speed Performance Windows 10 2012 8. 1 8 7 2008 Vista 2003 XP SP1 SP2 SP3 ME 2000 98 SE OSR2 OSR1 95 NT4 NT 3. 11 3. 1 3. 10 DOS 6 Tricks Secrets Tips. If you have been using Windows 7 for a long time, you probably are bored with the default Aero visual style theme and might want to replace the same with. Features new to Windows XPWindows XP introduced many features not found in previous versions of Windows. User interface and appearanceeditGraphicseditWith the introduction of Windows XP, the C based software only GDI subsystem was introduced to replace certain GDI functions. GDI adds anti aliased 2. D graphics, textures, floating point coordinates, gradient shading, more complex path management, bicubic filtering, intrinsic support for modern graphics file formats like JPEG and PNG, and support for composition of affine transformations in the 2. D view pipeline. GDI uses ARGB values to represent color. Use of these features is apparent in Windows XPs user interface transparent desktop icon labels, drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop, shadows under menus, translucent blue selection rectangle in Windows Explorer, sliding task panes and taskbar buttons, and several of its applications such as Microsoft Paint, Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, Photo Printing Wizard, My Pictures Slideshow screensaver, and their presence in the basic graphics layer greatly simplifies implementations of vector graphics systems such as Flash or SVG. The GDI dynamic library can be shipped with an application and used under older versions of Windows. The total number of GDI handles per session is also raised in Windows XP from 1. Windows XP shipped with Direct. X 8. 1 which brings major new features to Direct. X Graphics besides Direct. X Audio both Direct. Sound and Direct. Music, Direct. Play, Direct. Input and Direct. Show. Direct. 3D introduced programmability in the form of vertex and pixel shaders, enabling developers to write code without worrying about superfluous hardware state, and fog, bump mapping and texture mapping. Direct. X 9 was released in 2. Check out these tips and tricks for Linux Mint 13 to 15 Cinnamon Edition, step by step, easy to understand and follow. Direct. 3D, Direct. Sound, Direct. Music and Direct. Show. 1 Direct. 3D 9 added a new version of the High Level Shader Language,2 support for floating point texture formats, Multiple Render Targets, and texture lookups in the vertex shader. Windows XP can be upgraded to Direct. X 9. 0c Shader Model 3. Windows XP SP2. Windows XP SP3 added the Windows Imaging Component. 3Clear. TypeeditAnimation showing the difference in font rendering with normal antialiasing vs. Clear. Type The frame showing the latter is marked with an orange circleWindows XP includes Clear. Typesubpixel rendering, which makes onscreen fonts smoother and more readable on liquid crystal display LCD screens. 45 Although Clear. Type has an effect on CRT monitors, its primary use is for LCDTFT based laptop, notebook and modern flatscreen displays. Clear. Type in Windows XP currently supports the RGB and BGR sub pixel structures. There are other parameters such as contrast that can be set via a Clear. Type Tuner powertoy that Microsoft makes available as a free download from its Typography website. 6With Windows XP, the Start button has been updated to support Fittss law. To help the user access a wider range of common destinations more easily from a single location, the Start menu was expanded to two columns the left column focuses on the users installed applications, while the right column provides access to the users documents, and system links which were previously located on the desktop. Links to the My Documents, My Pictures and other special folders are brought to the fore. The My Computer and My Network Places Network Neighborhood in Windows 9. Desktop and into the Start menu, making it easier to access these icons while a number of applications are open and so that the desktop remains clean. Moreover, these links can be configured to expand as a cascading menu. Frequently used programs are automatically displayed in the left column, newly installed programs are highlighted, and the user may opt to pin programs to the start menu so that they are always accessible without having to navigate through the Programs folders. The default internet browser and default email program are pinned to the Start menu. The Start menu is fully customizable, links can be added or removed the number of frequently used programs to display can be set. The All Programs menu expands like the classic Start menu to utilize the entire screen but can be set to scroll programs. The users name and users account picture are also shown on the Start menu. TaskbareditThe taskbar buttons for running applications and Quick Launch have also been updated for Fitts law. Locking the taskbar not only prevents it from being accidentally resized or moved but elements such as Quick launch and other Desk. Bands are also locked from being accidentally moved. The Taskbar grouping feature combines multiple buttons of the same application into a single button, which when clicked, pops up a menu listing all the grouped windows and their number. Advanced taskbar grouping options can be configured from the registry. 7 The user can choose to always show, always hide or hide some or all notification area icons if inactive for some time. A button allows the user to reveal all the icons. The Taskbar, if set to a thicker height also displays the day and date in the notification area. Windows ExplorereditThere are significant changes made to Windows Explorer in Windows XP, both visually and functionally. Microsoft focused especially on making Windows Explorer more discoverable and task based, as well as adding a number of features to reflect the growing use of a computer as a digital hub. Task paneeditThe task pane is displayed on the left side of the window instead of the traditional folder tree view when the navigation pane is turned off. It presents the user with a list of common actions and destinations that are relevant to the current directory or files selected. For instance, when in a directory containing mostly pictures, a set of Picture tasks is shown, offering the options to display these pictures as a slide show, to print them, or to go online to order prints. Conversely, a folder containing music files would offer options to play those files in a media player, or to go online to purchase music. Every folder also has File and Folder Tasks, offering options to create new folders, share a folder on the local network, publish files or folders to a web site using the Web Publishing Wizard, and other common tasks like copying, renaming, moving, and deleting files or folders. File types that have identified themselves as being printable also have an option listed to print the file. Underneath File and Folder Tasks is Other Places, which always lists the parent folder of the folder being viewed and includes additional links to other common locations such as My Computer, Control Panel, and My Documents or previously navigated locations. These change depending on what folder the user was in. Underneath Other Places is a Details area which gives additional information when a file or folder is selected typically the file type, file size and date modified, but depending on the file type, author, image dimensions, attributes, or other details. If the file type has a Thumbnail image handler installed, its preview also appears in the Details task pane. For music files, it might show the artist, album title, and the length of the song. The same information is also shown horizontally on the status bar. Navigation paneeditThe Folders button on the Windows Explorer toolbar toggles between the traditional navigation pane containing the tree view of folders, and the task pane.