I kinda made a thread like this a while ago, but it's long gone. A lot of people have been asking me to help make their computer pretty and I figgered it'd just be easier to compile it just into one big thread.
If you guys need an idea of what I'm talking about, here --
Current theme:
woodandsnow
Wall - Hara-Kiri
VS - Aethetic Groove
Litestep - Tokidoki [edit by me]
Additional components:
Yz Dock, AIMutation
Part One - Theming Windows Explorer
This is probably the easiest part, but doesn't do much. What you're doing here is changing the appearance of your Windows to better fit what you want to do, exactly. There are a ton of programs that help you do this, but I've found that
StyleXP is the most reliable. Go ahead and pick up the trial now, full registration can be worked around pretty easily. Just go ahead and pick it up for now and test out some of the given skins. They really don't do too much or are too impressive.
These themes are commonly referred to as "visual styles" and you can find them from a variety of places including
DeviantArt,
WinCustomize and my personal favorite,
Customize.org.
The great thing about StyleXP is that it's a beautiful beginners program. You can change so many things within it, including your icons, bootscreens, etc. I personally don't mess around with anything except visual styles and shell replacements, which we'll get into next.
WARNING - SHELL REPLACEMENTS CAN AND WILL ALTER YOUR COMPUTER'S APPEARANCE AND FUNCTIONALITY. BE SURE THAT YOU'RE WILLING TO COMPLETELY CHANGE YOUR SYSTEM'S APPEARANCE IF YOU WANT TO CONTINUE. IF NOT, GO TO PART FOUR
Part Two - Beyond Windows Explorer
For some people, Windows just ain't good enough. This is where shell replacements come in. Instead of Explorer, with the taskbar at the bottom of the screen and the system tray and the start bar and all that good stuff, you're given more options and more customizeable environments that can make your computer faster, slower, prettier, uglier, whatever your bag is.
There are a ton of shell replacements out there, but we'll get started with my personal favorite--
Litestep.. Go to that site and look around at the screenshots. When you're ready to take the plunge, download the latest working version of Litestep. It'll come with a default theme to sort of ease you into things.
Be warned that the controls for Litestep are different. Instead of a start bar, you right-click to get to your programs. There are a ton of aesthetic changes, so go ahead and get used to them. You can still use the file browser the same way.
After you're done with familiarizing yourself with the basics, head on over to
Nonstep and pick it up. This is, bar-none, the most functional Litestep skin ever created. It was made to be a digital workspace, and it does that very nicely. Check it out.
One thing to note, however, is that if you use Litestep, you won't be able to change your icons without reshacking the Shell32.dll . It's a sacrifice, but icons aren't that important to me.
Part Three - Mixing And Matching
This is the fun part. Now that you've got access to Litestep AND great Visual Styles, it's time to match them together. Go around, pick up all the VS' you find interesting and save them to a dedicated folder somewhere. I put all mine in My Documents, in a folder called Themes. If you have StyleXP running, all you have to do is double-click a theme in that folder and it'll boot it right up. Do the same for Litestep themes, download all the ones you think you might like. Go through, see what matches and what doesn't.
Something to note is that you can change many Litestep themes with the ThemeVar.rc file. It'll open up in Wordpad or Notepad and you can alter it within that. Also, by changing the images in the theme folder, you can completely alter the colors of almost any Litestep theme to match your Visual Style or Wallpaper.
Part Four - Additional Stuff
I have a few other things on my desktop that don't change my system, but rather add stuff to it. Things that include Dockbars like in my woodandsnow screenshot. It functions like a Mac dock bar and basically acts as a shortcut to all my emulators and other commonly used programs. Go around and try to find new programs to add style and functionality to your computer. You can find stuff that'll do anything from telling you the current weather to showing how much disk space you have left on any given drive.
Hope this has helped, y'all. Feel free to IM me at fuzz bombshell if you need any additional help.
I don't get it. I mean, why did they fuck with the formula? Where are the car songs? There's only one song about surfing and it's a downer!
Linear Mode
