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- Oct 15, 2003
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- Missouri
Very Informational vote for STICKY!!
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How to: Customize XP's Desktop+bootscreens+more. Use 0 Resources, FREE
- Thread starter MadSkillzMan
- Start date
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2002
- Location
- Frankfurt/London
How can you say that it takes no resources!?!?
any theme in xp uses resources! why do you think some themes are 3MB in size and some are 6MB in size? windows classic style doesnt use a theme so you save resources. yes you save about 4MB or ram and <<1% cpu time but hey you are using Resources.
also to note is that you didnt touch up on the topic of dll replacement to replace all the icosn in windows.
those icon replacement programd do not replace all icons and do not work 100%. the only way to get cool icons is to replace about 15 dll files in windows. (NOT EASY SAFE MODE REPLACE DLL FILES IN SYSTEM HIDDEN FILES ECT).
http://www.jonmega.com/iceman/sysfiles/
yes thats winxp. he is using a 3d part app which creates a finder taskbar and he is hiding his windows taskbar. and yes you can emulate the osx dock on windows xp too. I have all done it.
there are quiete a few packs like this available. I had one which uses all the linux icons! it was very nice.however when you run windows update half the files get replaced again by windows. so you have some icons which are the dll files you downloaded and some which are back to windows normal.
Guys trust me all the theme's, cursors, 3dpart appz, dll replacement, extra fonts etc just hog up your system.
disable the theme service in winxp services save some resources and make sure you select windows classic style.
Every time I use a theme I go back to windows classic after a few weeks cause it is the best!
PS: yes I know it looks nicer but it isnt nicer to use!!! and when you hit windows update.... uhhh
any theme in xp uses resources! why do you think some themes are 3MB in size and some are 6MB in size? windows classic style doesnt use a theme so you save resources. yes you save about 4MB or ram and <<1% cpu time but hey you are using Resources.
also to note is that you didnt touch up on the topic of dll replacement to replace all the icosn in windows.
those icon replacement programd do not replace all icons and do not work 100%. the only way to get cool icons is to replace about 15 dll files in windows. (NOT EASY SAFE MODE REPLACE DLL FILES IN SYSTEM HIDDEN FILES ECT).
http://www.jonmega.com/iceman/sysfiles/
yes thats winxp. he is using a 3d part app which creates a finder taskbar and he is hiding his windows taskbar. and yes you can emulate the osx dock on windows xp too. I have all done it.
there are quiete a few packs like this available. I had one which uses all the linux icons! it was very nice.however when you run windows update half the files get replaced again by windows. so you have some icons which are the dll files you downloaded and some which are back to windows normal.
Guys trust me all the theme's, cursors, 3dpart appz, dll replacement, extra fonts etc just hog up your system.
disable the theme service in winxp services save some resources and make sure you select windows classic style.
Every time I use a theme I go back to windows classic after a few weeks cause it is the best!
PS: yes I know it looks nicer but it isnt nicer to use!!! and when you hit windows update.... uhhh
Last edited:
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- Jun 20, 2001
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- Vancouver, WA
Wow, Litestep sure has evolved in the prettieness scale since I last saw it (was using Win98 at the time)!!MadSkillzMan said:
Litestep is a great shell replacement, but from my experience it is murder to tweak. The last time I had it, it seemed like every configuration file for it (to set up shortcuts, wallpapers, etc) was a plain old text file with no GUI options.
I'll be checking out the others you listed since they look nice as well, and are hopefully more friendly to tweak
JigPu
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2004
- Location
- Morris, IL
germanjulian said:
haha, that's exactly what I do.
Actually fubared myself with the icon packer because it erased my stock windows Icons with I installed it, so when I un-installed it, it gave me the unknown filetype pic
MadSkillzMan - great stuff!!! However I was wondering if you could tell me how, once I have a theme for windows installed I can edit it if theres stuff i dont like? iv got a really nice one but the start menu highlighting sucks - so i wana change it if thats possible?
Also, i downloaded bootxp and a nice new boot screen, but wwhen i installed it and restarted my pc it wouldnt come up properly - the new screen came up - but in completely the wrong colors?? I read in bootxp that it isnt compatible with HT p4s....
Thanks
Also, i downloaded bootxp and a nice new boot screen, but wwhen i installed it and restarted my pc it wouldnt come up properly - the new screen came up - but in completely the wrong colors?? I read in bootxp that it isnt compatible with HT p4s....
Thanks
OP
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2003
- Location
- Cleveland OHIO
- Thread Starter
- #26
well it showing up in the wrong colors could be taht the person used possibly a full color pallete, when the xp boot screen only supports 256colors. With it not being compatable with HT CPU's, id say it working for you. If it wasnt, you would either A. Get the BSOD upon startup, or B. Just revert back to default XP boot theme. BootXp spits out a modified ntoskrnl.exe file (or something similar to taht name i cant think right now) and that is based on your CPU types. I beleive bootxp would insert a ntoskrnl.exe file for dual cpus for you HT people.
If you have SP2 installed that could be the issue. I hear people having problems with it. I have not gotten it on my main rig myself, since its fairly new and id like to let the others deal with it as well as see how my test rigs deal with it.
As for your highlighting, im digging around in appearance properties. I KNOW for a fact that the past windows versions would allow you to alter the color of pretty much anything, including the highlight of the start menu. For some reason i dont see it in winxp.
You can alter the colors of selected items, fonts and such if you right click your desktop, and go Properties/Appearance/Advanced
and you can play with that stuff.
Ive never run into that problem, i guess ill have to investigate it. There is a way to modify your themes, however its only a trial program from TGT soft called StyleBuilder
http://www.tgtsoft.com/download.php
Ive used it and its quite time consuming. I am hoping, and i will try to find out tmr if the selection color can be fixed with reshack. I wouldnt doubt it.
OK i guess i stand corrected. Yes, if you disable the visual themes you will probably notice a small difference. With most of us running CPUs <1ghz and a ton of ram, it shouldnt bother us. But hes right. Actually the WinMac and DockBar will take a few megs but its small. So i guess that part doesnt agree with the title 100% but u guys using them, have you noticed any lag from these applications? probably not.
Care to elaborate alittle more? i was unaware of this method of replacing the .dlls. Ill gladly look into it. But if its unsafe and complicated and gets reset, why not just manually install the icons?
Also i notice u have a drive in there titled mac os9. Do you have some sort of emulator or just messing around with the name? Im interested in mulitplatform and wanting to learn mac.
As for litestep, yes its very complicated! And it would have to be set custom by each user most probably. Im a dual monitor person and its aggervating!
If you have SP2 installed that could be the issue. I hear people having problems with it. I have not gotten it on my main rig myself, since its fairly new and id like to let the others deal with it as well as see how my test rigs deal with it.
As for your highlighting, im digging around in appearance properties. I KNOW for a fact that the past windows versions would allow you to alter the color of pretty much anything, including the highlight of the start menu. For some reason i dont see it in winxp.
You can alter the colors of selected items, fonts and such if you right click your desktop, and go Properties/Appearance/Advanced
and you can play with that stuff.
Ive never run into that problem, i guess ill have to investigate it. There is a way to modify your themes, however its only a trial program from TGT soft called StyleBuilder
http://www.tgtsoft.com/download.php
Ive used it and its quite time consuming. I am hoping, and i will try to find out tmr if the selection color can be fixed with reshack. I wouldnt doubt it.
OK i guess i stand corrected. Yes, if you disable the visual themes you will probably notice a small difference. With most of us running CPUs <1ghz and a ton of ram, it shouldnt bother us. But hes right. Actually the WinMac and DockBar will take a few megs but its small. So i guess that part doesnt agree with the title 100% but u guys using them, have you noticed any lag from these applications? probably not.
Care to elaborate alittle more? i was unaware of this method of replacing the .dlls. Ill gladly look into it. But if its unsafe and complicated and gets reset, why not just manually install the icons?
Also i notice u have a drive in there titled mac os9. Do you have some sort of emulator or just messing around with the name? Im interested in mulitplatform and wanting to learn mac.
As for litestep, yes its very complicated! And it would have to be set custom by each user most probably. Im a dual monitor person and its aggervating!
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2001
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- Denver, CO
I've tried this out, but unfortunately it only seems to work with a handful of themes available at that site. Most of them I've downloaded and copied over to the themes folder, only to find they don't show up in the list of available themes. Most of those do say that they require one of those programs you mentioned in your first post. Is there some way around that? I've also noticed some of the themes show new toolbars in their screenshots, but I can't figure out how to activate them. Most of them look like Longhorn toolbars, so maybe the screen shots are actually of the real beta, not a custom theme in xp.
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2003
TC said:
yea same here man, what u have to do is follow all his steps and then go to Appearance and find the theme in there and hit apply, thats how it works for me it doesnt show up in Themes for me either.
TC - the progam in question that emualtes the new sidebars in longhorn but for winxp is called - SmartBarXP BETA4.4
download it here - http://www.smartbarxp.com/cgi-bin/main.cgi?parent=main&display=news
There are quite a few skins there for it and its fully customisable - you can even move all the taskbar items and the start menu into it and then hide the taskbar
Stiffler69 - that happened to me too - did you patch the dll in safe mode - and did you get the right one for your service pack? also, if you install a lot of themes they dont all show up in the settings -> appearance list....go to the folder the themes are in and double click the theme file and press ok! see if that helps
download it here - http://www.smartbarxp.com/cgi-bin/main.cgi?parent=main&display=news
There are quite a few skins there for it and its fully customisable - you can even move all the taskbar items and the start menu into it and then hide the taskbar
Stiffler69 - that happened to me too - did you patch the dll in safe mode - and did you get the right one for your service pack? also, if you install a lot of themes they dont all show up in the settings -> appearance list....go to the folder the themes are in and double click the theme file and press ok! see if that helps
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2001
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- Denver, CO
The problem I've had is the themes that don't show up don't have a name.theme file in the themes directory like the others do.
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2002
STICKY and move th ICONS part up top!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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- Jan 15, 2001
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- Denver, CO
Yeah I *think* it's giving me more options under the appearance tab.
OP
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2003
- Location
- Cleveland OHIO
- Thread Starter
- #34
thank you for adding that. The ones i saw were all shell replacements which can get messy.
Your problem with them not showing up....let me think here....
Ok, the Name.Theme should refer to a folder. Im sure in the resource folder you see one that says "Luna.theme" and then there is a folder titled luna. Inside luna there is a Shell folder, and then a Luna.Msstyles.
You should have your .theme outside of any folders and in resources, and the rest of the files go in a folder within resources.
for example, my favorite theme is the Eshock. within C:\Windows\Resources there is a bare files called ESHOCK.Theme. An there is a folder in there simply called ESHOCK.
Anything that ends in .msstyles and has no .theme wont work unless u stick it in a sub folder. And sometimes then it doesnt work. Ive noticed some themes on that site do that alot.
I hope that helps or partially solves your problem.
Are you sure you didnt download a windows blinds theme?
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I'm not sure what a "blinds" theme is - I just bought XP on Saturday so this is the first time I've had a chance to play with the themes. The ones I had trouble with were packed as executables that created sub folders and placed the files automatically. I looked around for a file ending in .theme for those but couldn't locate any. Like you said the ones that work have a .theme file in the theme directory. The others just create some folders, which oddly don't have any files in theme - not even hidden files. I'm playing with the OS X icons now - boy that's a royal pain to replace all those dlls. I think I'm going to wipe xp and setup dual boot with 2k so I can copy all of them over at one time while booted into 2k.
OP
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2003
- Location
- Cleveland OHIO
- Thread Starter
- #36
u can replace the .dlls through the recovery console. Its similar to dos.
Basically you insert your xp CD before boot, and press R. It will thro u to a similar DOS prompt. I would suggest moving the .dlls to your windows/system32 directoy, but with a name of like name.dll1 and just rename them.
Ive yet to screw with these.
As for your .exe files, i know what your talking about. That also comes with spyware. I really dont know why theyre doing that i havent gotten them to work myself.
Basically you insert your xp CD before boot, and press R. It will thro u to a similar DOS prompt. I would suggest moving the .dlls to your windows/system32 directoy, but with a name of like name.dll1 and just rename them.
Ive yet to screw with these.
As for your .exe files, i know what your talking about. That also comes with spyware. I really dont know why theyre doing that i havent gotten them to work myself.
OP
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2003
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- Cleveland OHIO
- Thread Starter
- #37
M$ Included a way to change interfaces!
If you're running Windows NT 5.x (Windows 2000 or XP) , go to the RUN dialog box on the start menu and type GPEDIT.MSC
Find your way over to User Configuration\Administrative Templates\System
Check out the 'Custom User Interface.' This setting lets you change your Windows shell. Click Enable, and then in the box below, insert the COMPLETE patch of the file including file extension.
I got this from a website, so i must be kind and state that:
I will send u to this site. It has MANY shell replcements. Many are designed to be light on windows, so if you dont mind an ugly system check this out. There is far too many shells for me to test them all.
http://shellcity.net/content10.htm
I only quoted that above, since i know most of you wont read all the way down to catch that.
If you're running Windows NT 5.x (Windows 2000 or XP) , go to the RUN dialog box on the start menu and type GPEDIT.MSC
Find your way over to User Configuration\Administrative Templates\System
Check out the 'Custom User Interface.' This setting lets you change your Windows shell. Click Enable, and then in the box below, insert the COMPLETE patch of the file including file extension.
I got this from a website, so i must be kind and state that:
I will send u to this site. It has MANY shell replcements. Many are designed to be light on windows, so if you dont mind an ugly system check this out. There is far too many shells for me to test them all.
http://shellcity.net/content10.htm
I only quoted that above, since i know most of you wont read all the way down to catch that.
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- Jan 15, 2001
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- Denver, CO
Good point - totally forgot about the recovery console.
OP
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2003
- Location
- Cleveland OHIO
- Thread Starter
- #40
WINDOW TRANSPARENCY
You linux users (like me) probably like the fact you can have transparent windows. We can have them now in XP.
http://www.softpedia.com/public/cat/9/6/9-6-157.shtml
Ok, this does take resources, but hey, transparent windows.
Sidebar
This i really like, its basically to me the longhorn dock. It seems easier on the system than the longhorn conversion packs. It has support for MBM5, Winamp, some system monitors..i really like it.
http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/SmartBar_XP__BETA-Download-15077.html
You linux users (like me) probably like the fact you can have transparent windows. We can have them now in XP.
http://www.softpedia.com/public/cat/9/6/9-6-157.shtml
Ok, this does take resources, but hey, transparent windows.
Sidebar
This i really like, its basically to me the longhorn dock. It seems easier on the system than the longhorn conversion packs. It has support for MBM5, Winamp, some system monitors..i really like it.
http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/SmartBar_XP__BETA-Download-15077.html
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