24-03-2005 22:54									#1
	Windows customisation Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

I think I'm completely in love with St Leo's screenshots on the various desktop threads over the years and I was wondering how it's done! I'll post a screenshot of my current desktop... I'm using a silver Luna theme which is pretty boring atm. Background gleaned from deviantart.

Attachment: desktop.jpg
This has been downloaded 103 time(s).

	24-03-2005 23:19									#2
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

Well, I am at work right now, but I'll do my best.

Patch your uxtheme.dll somehow. Neowin uxTheme Multipatcher should work.

Get a good theme and unzip it to a location loosely resembling /windows/resources/themes or something of that kind. There should be a readme.
Velvet Waves
Codename Opus

You should switch the theme by right-click on the desktop and going to the Appearance tab. Ignore the front tab. That changes too much and then you have to clean up the settings elsewhere.

CursorXP makes my cursors look nifty. IIRC, I use the Professional set bundled with it by default with one cursor changed.

	24-03-2005 23:29									#3
	Re: Windows customisation Remove this text

quote: Originally posted by Whaleboy I'll post a screenshot of my current desktop... I'm using a silver Luna theme ...

There I was thinking it was flaming Uranus....

	24-03-2005 23:36									#4
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

Using 128x128 icons in WinXP. It's an easy registry hack, but a utility isn't hard to find either. In fact, I think you can get it to 72x72 by tweaking Display > Appearance > Advanced.

Actually, you don't want to use 128x128 icons. I've tried it for a while and Windows behaved badly. 64x64 is the best bet, but 72x72 is a fair compromise too.

Get a good icon changer. IconPhile is getting old and it can't change the XP start menu, but I still like it best. You should install it in the topmost folder of your icons collection.

Now, it's time to get some icons. Try:
http://weboso.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://www.miloszwl.com/porticons.html
http://mattahan.deviantart.com/gallery/
http://www.deviantart.com/view/9342636/ (png2ico utility)
http://www.deviantart.com/view/3959016/

	24-03-2005 23:50									#5
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

I also use the free version of ObjectDock as a Quicklaunch replacement. You have to disable a few things to strip it down to just that.

It supports icons in ICO and PNG formats. They should be located in subfolders in its directory. I tend to categorize by author name myself.

If you need a filler mediocre icon, it can be found:
http://www.wincustomize.com/Skins.aspx?LibID=29
http://www.google.com/search?q=PNG+icons
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...G+icons+128x128

Oh, and there's also http://www.foood.net/. I hate his stuff, but de gustibus non est disputandum.

	25-03-2005 00:44									#6
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

Thankyou so much!

I'm going to have a play and take a screenshot or two when I'm done

	25-03-2005 02:35									#7
	Suffering from ads?

I hate icons so I use Stardock's DesktopX (to get rid of the icons) and a theme found at www.wincustomize.com (you could also easily make one yourself). This way it's possible to have more functionality in less space looking much more organized...
And it doesn't take up any* CPU power

*Depending on the theme, but most don't

You can get a free trial of DesktopX that never stops working (only pops up with a msg to buy it every time you start the computer)

	25-03-2005 02:41									#8
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Ah I hate that (the pop ups I mean). I've patched the uxtheme dll that St Leo indicated, and now I'm just experimenting with the "Longhorn Transformation Pack" (a pack of a couple dozen themes lifted from builds of Longhorn) http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=75768

As for the icons, I've got rid of all of them on my desktop using Tweak UI and now just finding a theme I like. Objectdock is good, but was a pain to find new Firefox and Thunderbird themes.

	25-03-2005 02:44									#9
	Got spare money?

There are ways around it...




Of course by this I mean to buy the software, then the popup goes away

	25-03-2005 02:45									#10
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

And I don't see what's good about objectdock... it's basicly just putting icons at the bottom or top of the screen, right?

	25-03-2005 03:18									#11
	ObjectDock Full PM-box? Change here!

My theming experiments aren't complete yet so bear with it. The winner thus far is what you see, one St Leo linked to called "Velvet Waves" (desktop was again nicked from DeviantArt). It shows the cool mouseover effect on ObjectDock which I'm using like a Quicklaunch bar (saves lots of unnecessary clicking on the start menu). Means I can have the taskbar on the top which Macifies everything .

Attachment: desktop.jpg
This has been downloaded 58 time(s).

Last edited by Whaleboy on 25-03-2005 at 03:27

	25-03-2005 03:32									#12
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

quote: And I don't see what's good about objectdock... it's basicly just putting icons at the bottom or top of the screen, right?

It looks purty

	25-03-2005 04:09									#13
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

quote: It shows the cool mouseover effect on ObjectDock which I'm using like a Quicklaunch bar (saves lots of unnecessary clicking on the start menu).

Some people still don't believe this.

quote: Means I can have the taskbar on the top which Macifies everything

Why not go the whole hog?

	25-03-2005 05:51									#14
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

quote: Why not go the whole hog?

Buy me a G5 and we'll talk

	25-03-2005 05:59									#15
	Increase Your PM Length

quote: Originally posted by Whaleboy Buy me a G5 and we'll talk

I don't know if I will make it before Apple goes out of business. You do know they are doomed, right?

Does Object Dock allow the dock icons to show status? Like so..

	25-03-2005 06:06									#16
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

It shows Running/Not Running.

	25-03-2005 06:10									#17
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

In the same way I think (in which case it's probably ripped off Apple) with the black arrow under the icons.

	25-03-2005 06:17									#18
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

Mine's customized to be a shiny blue triangle.

	25-03-2005 06:34									#19
	Put an end to popups!

Do you know of any decent, but usable themes? The one you linked to was excellent, but I had a look on DeviantArt and a few other places, most were really OTT?

	25-03-2005 06:41									#20
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

Customization for me means a bird with huge hooters on the desktop.


Mmmm.... hooters...

	25-03-2005 06:50									#22
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

I used b0sumi before I found Velvet Waves. I switched to Codename Opus later.

Yeah, there are a lot of really bad themes out there.

	25-03-2005 07:01									#23
	Tired of ads?

Some of the new Longhorn ones are pretty good

Some of your pics on your deviantart page are really impressive, do you mind if I use one for my desktop?

	25-03-2005 07:42									#24
	Full PM-box? Change here!

quote: Originally posted by Agathon Some people still don't believe this.

I don't recall MacOS having that feature (QuickLaunch/Dock) before Windows had it. Curious.

	25-03-2005 08:03									#25
	Increase Your PM Length

Since OS X is just NeXTSTEP I think it had it a long long time before Bill copied it.

@ worthless Windows lamers trying to copy the Mac UI.

	25-03-2005 08:07									#26
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

You're so obviously competing with yourself to see how much you can bait Asher before he finally realises what you're doing.

	25-03-2005 08:11									#27
	Suffering from ads?

He's just a wannabe.

	25-03-2005 08:17									#28
	Increase Your PM Length

Big sigs

	25-03-2005 12:28									#29
	Support Apolyton

quote: Originally posted by Agathon Since OS X is just NeXTSTEP I think it had it a long long time before Bill copied it. @ worthless Windows lamers trying to copy the Mac UI.

There's nothing like the dock or quicklaunch in OpenStep or NeXTSTEP. Only if you really try hard and will a reality distortion field around yourself could you see one.

	25-03-2005 12:39									#30
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

What do you mean there's nothing like the Dock? That's where the OS X dock comes from. It is identical to the OS X dock except that IIRC you can't place individual files in it, only apps.

It was in NeXTSTEP from 1.0. Gates was still busy ripping off Apple to rip off NeXT im 1989 when it was released.

http://www.mactech.com/articles/mac...GettingStarted/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dock_%28computing%29