How to have an awesome Windows Desktop.

[Sophist]

Step One: Replacing Windows Theme -

XP Users:
[spoiler]
Download the UXTheme Patcher found HERE.

After patching uxtheme.dll, you can now change your desktop accordingly. I suggest HERE but obviously the more diverse section is HERE. Search through them and pick whichever one you please. Doubleclicking on a theme file applies it to your desktop, no need to move them into a certain folder.

Now there are multiple different things you can do with your desktop from this point onward. There are many things like a vista styled sidebar HERE, and a whole transformation pack to Vista, HERE. There are things such as skinable calendars such as Rainlender, with the skins HERE.

There is alot more things you can add, such as docks like Rocketdock, which I will continue on later. There is also Objectdock, which is a stronger yet less customizable dock, but it is commercial software compared to the free Rocketdock. Other than that, those are the two major options for a dock.

WindowBlinds also gives a theme in an easier program, but takes up more RAM. It is also commercial software.

If you know of anything else to add to this list, tell me. ;~;
[/spoiler]

Vista Users:
[spoiler]
Download the StyleSelector application [urlhttp://psycob.deviantart.com/art/StyleSelector-for-Vista-2-88151469]HERE.[/url] Set it to autostart up and go search for a theme HERE.

There are things such as skinable calendars such as Rainlender, with the skins HERE.

There is alot more things you can add, such as docks like Rocketdock, which I will continue on later. There is also Objectdock, which is a stronger yet less customizable dock, but it is commercial software compared to the free Rocketdock. Other than that, those are the two major options for a dock.

WindowBlinds also gives a theme in an easier program, but takes up more RAM. It is also commercial software.

If you know of anything else to add to this list, tell me. ;~;
[/spoiler]

If there is any program you have seen in a screenshot or something that you want to get/know what it is show me and I can probably label it.

Rocketdocking:

Now, Rocketdock is awesome and all, but alot of people have been trying to get the effect as this:
[spoiler][/spoiler]

With a closer look:
[spoiler]
Oblivion:

Steam:

Crysis:

[/spoiler]

I have managed to get my hands on that font, and how to design the text with the reflections. I'm not perfect with aligning them, but i'm getting better with everyone one I complete. They take about 5 minutes to do one, and they aren't very tasking to do once you have the hang of them.

Now, what you do to set it up is set your Rocketdock theme to Clear, and add the folder containing the icons. Then you right click on what icon you want to change and select icon settings.

I am taking requests to create packs of these, up to 15 of them per pack per person. I can create them in white and black, or whatever color you want I suppose. Black and White seem to look the best, but red is kind of cool too.

To request icons for these:
1. List what programs the icons are for, such as "Steam, World of Warcraft, Firefox" ect.
2. List whether you want them black and white or both. Don't expect both if you said one color.
3. If you prefer, give me the abbreviation of the name into 4 letters in caps such as CRYS for Crysis, ect.

I'll pack them up into a .rar, or .zip if you don't have Winrar. Specify if you want a .zip or else they are defaultly zipped into a .rar

I want to do more of these but I don't have any more programs to put on my rocketdock. :\


IF ANY OF THESE PROGRAMS OR INSTRUCTIONS FUCK UP YOUR COMPUTER, IT IS NOT MY FAULT. YOU BROUGHT IT UPON YOURSELF, AND I MIGHT NOT BE ABLE TO HELP.

YOU

HAVE

BEEN

WARNED!

[Dwarra?]

Requesting:

Zune
Firefox
XChat
Audacity
TabIt
Paint
Steam
GunZ

[Sophist]

Requesting:

Zune
Firefox
XChat
Audacity
TabIt
Paint
Steam
GunZ

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZY48ZLPZ

[Dwarra?]

Lookin good captain

[Moss.]

Or just get a Mac. :3

[Dwarra?]

Id rather not give up all of my freedom just to look pretty

[Moss.]

Freedom? What the hell are you talking about?


edit: I'll probably still give this a try on my Mac, though, because I want all the OSs I can run on it to look pretty. :3

[Sophist]

I will also take requests for icons such as these:



But I won't do more than 10 of these a time.

[Leventhan]

Seems really interesting!

[SirJackRex]

Very nice tutorial, going to have to do this something soon.  :hurr:

[Roph]

Windowblinds is better than uxtheme. UXtheme just patches the built in theming engine in windows so that you can run unsigned themes on it. Windowblinds doesn't run over the top of it, it completely replaces it.

This lets you do things that are simply impossible on XP's default, like subpixel rendering, alpha blending, more than microsoft's original limits on how big or small, what position or order certain things can be etc. Unlike XP's default engine, WB is also hardware accelerated, so if you have a DX8+ card (anything made in the last 5 years) then it'll make things much smoother =)

Docks are nice I guess but you lose screen estate and they waste CPU at the expense of being pretty =x

[Irock]

*late*

Reflected black and white. =o

mIRC
Notepad
Photoshop
Winamp
Computer
Documents
Music
Pictures
Videos

[SirJackRex]

Docks are nice I guess but you lose screen estate and they waste CPU at the expense of being pretty =x

Ooooo, I think I'm gonna just stick with Windowblinds...

[.:Pyroken Serafoculus:.]

Is any of this likely to mess up my computer? Are the themes you referred to in Deviantart trustworthy?

[/inexperience]

[Sophist]

Is any of this likely to mess up my computer? Are the themes you referred to in Deviantart trustworthy?

[/inexperience]

I don't see how it would; but it is more likely to fuck over on Vista than XP. But saying more likely is wrong because there shouldn't be any reason how it would fuck up your computer.

[Dwarra?]

Docks are nice I guess but you lose screen estate and they waste CPU at the expense of being pretty =x

Ooooo, I think I'm gonna just stick with Windowblinds...

What do Docks have to do with windowblinds ?_?

[Doctor Professor Nikolai]

Nice

Hey, does WindowBlinds use code?

[haloOfTheSun]

...No... You just run it and load the theme you want to use.

[Doctor Professor Nikolai]

Ah...

[xeilo]

I have had problems before where customizing windows changed some needed ddls and screwed up XP.

[klondike]

Astonshell fyi it is a shell replacement for windows xp and under i think it does vista now also.
There is some really nice themes and plug ins for it and uses less memory then str8 windows.
www.astonshell.com

Although your probably better off just running the torrent for with the crack/serial included.
I couldn\\\'t find one myself but they are around or you can download the crack or serial
after the install from the site. I prefer it more then this method as it has more features and runs better.

[Irock]

*late*

Reflected black and white. =o

mIRC
Notepad
Photoshop
Winamp
iTunes
Computer
Documents
Music
Pictures
Videos

[Sophist]

Astonshell fyi it is a shell replacement for windows xp and under i think it does vista now also.
There is some really nice themes and plug ins for it and uses less memory then str8 windows.
www.astonshell.com

Although your probably better off just running the torrent for with the crack/serial included.
I couldn\\\'t find one myself but they are around or you can download the crack or serial
after the install from the site. I prefer it more then this method as it has more features and runs better.

Why would I want something so unbearably ugly?