We all love having our own personal stamp on everything we touch. Since the desktop is one area that is constantly in front of us, we can feel right at home by customizing it. You've probably wondered how to customize a Linux desktop. Customizing simply involves changing the default settings to your own preferences. This could include changing the icons, fonts, background image and other details. Fortunately, you do not need any extra tools and modules to change these Linux settings to fit your own preferences.

Customizing these settings can be helpful for people with disabilities and it can also make it easy to locate certain objects and programs on the desktop. Shortcuts, for example, can be customized or added for commonly used programs. The behavior of window properties, for example, when minimizing and closing, can also give the desktop a look and feel customized to your own preferences. Themes are one common way that Linux desktops can be customized. A theme injects a certain feel and look into your whole desktop giving you the feel of a new environment and displays your own creativity. There are plenty of themes that come with the Linux versions as well as wallpapers and colors and fonts. More can be found on the internet.

If you are changing the feel and look of your desktop, start with the background. Window controls can be styled to your own tastes by use of a window theme. In addition, a window theme can also be used to decorate the window frames and top buttons. The changing of the screen saver is also part of the desktop customization process. It is even possible to change the system notification sounds in the process.

The desktop and panel icons are also customizable and will probably be one of the areas you want to have your own personal touch. You can go further, under the hood, by changing the main menu icon and other system icons. Nothing is immune to the power of customizing, as long as you know what you want to change and where to look. Changing the screen resolution and the refresh rate of the monitor is also an important consideration. Check the documentation of your monitor before changing the refresh rate though.

Before changing your wallpaper, you need to check the current screen resolution. You do this by going to the Control Center and selecting “Peripherals” > “Display”. Once you have the resolution, you can begin searching for the wallpapers that fit this resolution rather than downloading wallpapers of varying dimensions only to be disappointed when it comes to the actual installation. Usually, it is best to create a folder in your system, say something like “/Home/ [username]/ Desktop/”. Place all your pictures and wallpapers that fit your resolution into that folder.

If you are using the KDE Control Center, then go to the “LookNFeel” section and choose “Background”. Select the picture under the “Background” section by navigating to the folder we just created above. Click “Apply” and you are done. For other options, you can choose “Scaled”, “Centered” or “Centered Auto Fit” then click apply to see the pattern that you like best.

Under the same section of “LookNFeel” in the Control Center, select “Style”. There are 3 tabs in this section and you are going to customize each of these tabs. Under the “Widget Style” section, you select the theme that you like. There is a preview at the bottom for each style giving you a glimpse of the look and feel of the style. Once you select, click on “Apply.”

The “Effects” tab is used to change the visual effects of the desktop. These effects include the transparency and animation effects of menus. The “Miscellaneous” tab likewise offers customization features similar to the “Effects” tab. Since some of these effects may affect the performance of your computer, use them sparingly and do not enable too many at the same time. Test a combination of them to see the effect they have on the system perfomance.http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Tools/Control_Center

You can also customize the colors by going to the Control Center and selecting “Colors” under the “LookNFeel” section. Choose a color scheme or create your own using the Widget Color drop down list. Save any custom color scheme you create and then click on “Apply”. Close the Control Center and enjoy your customized Linux desktop.