Sting
11-11-2005, 05:57 AM
I see lots of questions about desktops and stuff on the boards, some get answered, some don't, but none of them are organized and some things you can do to your desktop that people dont even know about to ask. BEHOLD.
(I)----Basic Stuff to Know----(I)
A. Desktops obviously always look better when they have a theme/color scheme to them. The easiest way to do a theme is to base all the customization you do around your wallpaper. It should usually be the main focus of your desktop. You can make exceptions, say you have some icons you really want to use, then you could theme around them or even theme around your visual style, but i would recommend starting with the wallpaper.
B. A clean desktop is a happy desktop (that was so douchey). But forildo, the less stuff on your desktop the nicer it will normally look, and the faster your computer will go. Many people like to have 20+ icons on their desktop. This actually slows down booting up your system if it isn't high end and it looks straight up ugly. Its good to have 3 or less icons, i usually have my computer, my documents, and recycle bin if any icons at all, but now i'm using yz dock(more on that later) for my icons.
C. Organize yo shit. If you don't know how to get those 20+ icons off your desktop, try organizing and making special folders for each thing. For example, when i click my documents (one of my 3 icons) it opens the window and shows 6 folders, thats it (Games, Apps, Pictures, Video, Music, Downloads). I then organize all my things into those folders. Now my desktop is supa clean and i have an easy navigation of all my files.
(II)----Wallpapers----(II)
A. When choosing your wallpaper you should consider a few things, if you want it to match a certain visual style you need to pick one with similar colors, if you plan on having lots of icons even after what i said above, you should go for a more minimal looking wallpaper so its less cluttered. I even go so far as to matching the themes of my vs and wallpaper. If the visual style is high tech, i'll go with a hightech/futuristic wallpaper and so on.
B. Wallpaper sizes make a decent impact on computer speed as well. The most common resolution is 1024x768 on computers right now, but the most common wallpaper size is much larger. Windows comes with a function to stretch wallpapers to fit your screen. This is bad for two reasons: 1) It messes up the picture quality and makes it jagged looking, and 2)It still uses the same amount of memory as if it were a large picture. If you go into an image editing program and make all your wallpapers resize to the exact resolution that view on, it will save a bit of memory and look nicer.
C. Getting Wallpapers:
Macintosh Wallpapers - OSXP (http://www.osxp.net/wallpaper.asp)
Other General Wallpaper Sites - Customize.org (http://www.customize.org/list/wallpaper) - Deskmod.com (http://www.deskmod.com)
(III)----Visual Styles----(III)
A. Visual Styles are what windows/start menu/buttons look like on your XP computer. The most common one is Luna Blue, which comes with XP (you know, the one with the green start button and usually goes with that lovely hill wallpaper). Unfortunately, Luna Blue is as ugly as the crusted giz residue on your lips. Some people hate Luna so bad, that they get programs like Windowblinds in order to get a prettier desktop. That's probably because they havent tried StyleXP or the uxtheme.dll hack. These two things give you the ability to install other visual styles using the same format as Luna Blue on your computer. The upside: they use no sources, compared to windowblinds, which means its a lot faster. The downside: less theme options. However, the downside is shrinking fast. It used to be that there were tons more themes for windowblinds than StyleXP, but StyleXP is catching up fast with tons of quality themes (links below).
B. How do I use a visual style?
OK, lets say you just downloaded a visual style, its most likely in a zip or rar file so you should get winrar (http://www.rarlab.com/) to unzip it. Depending on the theme, it may come with just one file (Windows Visual Style File) or it may include a Readme, Wallpaper, or Winamp skin to correspond with the theme. If you have already installed StyleXP and set it up or have done the uxtheme.dll hack, then all you have to do is double click the visual style file to bring up the window showing you the options of using it. Easy like your mom, right?
C. Help i'm a doucher and i can't find stylexp anywhere!
You can search the forums for exact links to the cracks(i'll probably add links in here later), but here are the official sites.
StyleXP - TGTSoft.com (http://www.tgtsoft.com/)
UxTheme - Good article on it here (http://www.belchfire.net/article205.html)
Windowblinds - Windowblinds.net (http://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/)
(IV)----Icons----(IV)
A. One of the most important and usually hardest to theme things of the desktop, icons. Lots of people settle with just using shortcuts and selecting icons for those from windows premade shell32.dll file, but wouldn't it be great if you could change icons without shortcuts(IconPackager!)? Or, better yet, what if you could download a full set of icons and with a few clicks, completely change every icon on your whole computer to that theme(Shell32.dll modding, yay!).
B. IconPackager. The best program for changing icons, hands down. It lets you easily use downloaded icons or its premade themes to change any icon on your computer. It comes with themes but they only cover about 20 of the the 100+ main computer file types. This program is mainly used for getting individual icons that you want to have their own special thing for besides the one it gets from shell32.dll(read below).
Iconpackager - Stardock.com (http://www.stardock.com/products/iconpackager/)
C. Shell32.dll . This is definitely the best and easiest way to change icons and practically nobody knows about, or wants to try it. Lemme break it down for yas, see, all the icons on your computer that windows uses have to come from somewhere right? Right, and they're stored in just a few files. The majority are found in system32.dll which is in your windows folder. So if you think about it, why not just get a modified system32.dll that has had a whole new theme injected into it over the normal windows icons. You thought right, and the super upside to this is the fact that since its a direct replacement of the icons instead of just pasting a picture over them like IconPackager does, this method uses NO EXTRA MEMORY WHATSOEVER! Alright! Shell32 replacing can be hard the first time you do it and my fingers are getting tired so here's a link to a tutorial on replacing shell32.dll (http://www.jonmega.com/~iceman/stuff/tutorials/replacing_sysfiles/01.php).
As for finding a shell32.dll that has a theme in it you want to use, you can google it or try these links:
Macintosh Apple style icons (http://www.jonmega.com/~iceman/sysfiles/index_nosp1.php) - HardwareGeeks.com (http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/modules.php?modid=4&action=cat&id=10)
My personal favorite shell is the Snow-E one which you can find at the hardwaregeeks site.
(VI)----Boot Screens----(VI)
A. So you've got you're funky new visual style and icons and you think you've finally gotten rid of every last one of those ugly windows xp themed things on your computer for good. But wait, whats this big multicolored window picture everytime you turn on your computer? Lets get rid of this too. (Warning: This is considered a more advanced technique, if you screw it up too bad it could do some serious damage. Follow the directions exactly and you'll be fine)
1. Backup (copy it to a different folder dumbass) the file *your windows directory*\system32\ntoskrnl.exe (you can probably find it in C:\windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe)
2. Download the new boot screen to your computer (make sure to get the right version, XP or XP SP1)
3. Extract ntoskrnl.exe to a directory other than \system32
4. Reboot your computer into Safe Mode by hitting F8 before the boot screen.
5. Overwrite the file \system32\ntoskrnl.exe (which should have been backed up) with the new boot screen.
6. Reboot
Can't find boot screens? Try themexp.com (www.themexp.com)
(VI)----Other Programs----(VI)
A. Yz Dock and ObjectBar
These two great programs create a bar on the side of your screen which you can use to place icons on. They have lots of nice extra features and some smooth animations to pimp it out even more. See my screenshot in the desktop thread to see what it looks like in action using the SnowE icons.
B. Samurize
Samurize is a highly editable program that lets you add configuration files to it and run them on your desktop. Examples include a calender, clock, winamp displayer, cpu/memory displayer, weather, and news updates. It can be changed around and you can make your own graphic files to go with it to make it match perfectly. Samurize.com (http://www.samurize.com/modules/news/)
C. Konfabulator
Something i use that enhances the desktop, i recommend this too! really good!
www.widgetgallery.com/
(VII)----Small Random Tweaks----(VII)
-Changing the logo at the top right of explorer
1. Click Start > Run > Type gpedit.msc
2. Click User Configuration > Windows Setting > Internet Explorer Maintenance > Browser User erface
3. Double click on Custom Logo
4. Click on Customize The Static Logo Bitmaps
5. Click on Browse...
6. Find and select your new picture
7. Hit Ok
8. An error will popup, but click yes anyways.
-Hiding Desktop Icons
Super easy but not many people know about it. Just right click anywhere on your desktop > Arrange Icons By > uncheck "Show Desktop Icons". Note that this hides them but if you have a ton of icons it wont delete them so it still won't save you memory by doing this.
Note: Make sure your replacement picture is (22X22) Small and (38X38) Large and is a a 256 or 16bit color bitmap(.bmp).
-Changing the name of the Recycle Bin
You may have noticed unlike most folders, you can't change the Recycle Bin's name. If you want to, make a new text document in notepad and paste this into it :
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\ShellFolder]
"Attributes"=hex:50,01,00,20
"CallForAttributes"=dword:00000000
Now save it as a .reg file, such as "Rename Recycle Bin.reg" and put it somewhere. Double click on the file, and when it asks you if you want to import it into the registry, choose Yes. If you want to undo this, make another .reg file with the same content as above, but change the first number in the "Attributes"=hex: line from 50 to 40 and import that file into the registry.
Ok that's all for now, I'll add more to it in a few days, so give me ideas/feedback/questions that i can use for it.:)
(I)----Basic Stuff to Know----(I)
A. Desktops obviously always look better when they have a theme/color scheme to them. The easiest way to do a theme is to base all the customization you do around your wallpaper. It should usually be the main focus of your desktop. You can make exceptions, say you have some icons you really want to use, then you could theme around them or even theme around your visual style, but i would recommend starting with the wallpaper.
B. A clean desktop is a happy desktop (that was so douchey). But forildo, the less stuff on your desktop the nicer it will normally look, and the faster your computer will go. Many people like to have 20+ icons on their desktop. This actually slows down booting up your system if it isn't high end and it looks straight up ugly. Its good to have 3 or less icons, i usually have my computer, my documents, and recycle bin if any icons at all, but now i'm using yz dock(more on that later) for my icons.
C. Organize yo shit. If you don't know how to get those 20+ icons off your desktop, try organizing and making special folders for each thing. For example, when i click my documents (one of my 3 icons) it opens the window and shows 6 folders, thats it (Games, Apps, Pictures, Video, Music, Downloads). I then organize all my things into those folders. Now my desktop is supa clean and i have an easy navigation of all my files.
(II)----Wallpapers----(II)
A. When choosing your wallpaper you should consider a few things, if you want it to match a certain visual style you need to pick one with similar colors, if you plan on having lots of icons even after what i said above, you should go for a more minimal looking wallpaper so its less cluttered. I even go so far as to matching the themes of my vs and wallpaper. If the visual style is high tech, i'll go with a hightech/futuristic wallpaper and so on.
B. Wallpaper sizes make a decent impact on computer speed as well. The most common resolution is 1024x768 on computers right now, but the most common wallpaper size is much larger. Windows comes with a function to stretch wallpapers to fit your screen. This is bad for two reasons: 1) It messes up the picture quality and makes it jagged looking, and 2)It still uses the same amount of memory as if it were a large picture. If you go into an image editing program and make all your wallpapers resize to the exact resolution that view on, it will save a bit of memory and look nicer.
C. Getting Wallpapers:
Macintosh Wallpapers - OSXP (http://www.osxp.net/wallpaper.asp)
Other General Wallpaper Sites - Customize.org (http://www.customize.org/list/wallpaper) - Deskmod.com (http://www.deskmod.com)
(III)----Visual Styles----(III)
A. Visual Styles are what windows/start menu/buttons look like on your XP computer. The most common one is Luna Blue, which comes with XP (you know, the one with the green start button and usually goes with that lovely hill wallpaper). Unfortunately, Luna Blue is as ugly as the crusted giz residue on your lips. Some people hate Luna so bad, that they get programs like Windowblinds in order to get a prettier desktop. That's probably because they havent tried StyleXP or the uxtheme.dll hack. These two things give you the ability to install other visual styles using the same format as Luna Blue on your computer. The upside: they use no sources, compared to windowblinds, which means its a lot faster. The downside: less theme options. However, the downside is shrinking fast. It used to be that there were tons more themes for windowblinds than StyleXP, but StyleXP is catching up fast with tons of quality themes (links below).
B. How do I use a visual style?
OK, lets say you just downloaded a visual style, its most likely in a zip or rar file so you should get winrar (http://www.rarlab.com/) to unzip it. Depending on the theme, it may come with just one file (Windows Visual Style File) or it may include a Readme, Wallpaper, or Winamp skin to correspond with the theme. If you have already installed StyleXP and set it up or have done the uxtheme.dll hack, then all you have to do is double click the visual style file to bring up the window showing you the options of using it. Easy like your mom, right?
C. Help i'm a doucher and i can't find stylexp anywhere!
You can search the forums for exact links to the cracks(i'll probably add links in here later), but here are the official sites.
StyleXP - TGTSoft.com (http://www.tgtsoft.com/)
UxTheme - Good article on it here (http://www.belchfire.net/article205.html)
Windowblinds - Windowblinds.net (http://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/)
(IV)----Icons----(IV)
A. One of the most important and usually hardest to theme things of the desktop, icons. Lots of people settle with just using shortcuts and selecting icons for those from windows premade shell32.dll file, but wouldn't it be great if you could change icons without shortcuts(IconPackager!)? Or, better yet, what if you could download a full set of icons and with a few clicks, completely change every icon on your whole computer to that theme(Shell32.dll modding, yay!).
B. IconPackager. The best program for changing icons, hands down. It lets you easily use downloaded icons or its premade themes to change any icon on your computer. It comes with themes but they only cover about 20 of the the 100+ main computer file types. This program is mainly used for getting individual icons that you want to have their own special thing for besides the one it gets from shell32.dll(read below).
Iconpackager - Stardock.com (http://www.stardock.com/products/iconpackager/)
C. Shell32.dll . This is definitely the best and easiest way to change icons and practically nobody knows about, or wants to try it. Lemme break it down for yas, see, all the icons on your computer that windows uses have to come from somewhere right? Right, and they're stored in just a few files. The majority are found in system32.dll which is in your windows folder. So if you think about it, why not just get a modified system32.dll that has had a whole new theme injected into it over the normal windows icons. You thought right, and the super upside to this is the fact that since its a direct replacement of the icons instead of just pasting a picture over them like IconPackager does, this method uses NO EXTRA MEMORY WHATSOEVER! Alright! Shell32 replacing can be hard the first time you do it and my fingers are getting tired so here's a link to a tutorial on replacing shell32.dll (http://www.jonmega.com/~iceman/stuff/tutorials/replacing_sysfiles/01.php).
As for finding a shell32.dll that has a theme in it you want to use, you can google it or try these links:
Macintosh Apple style icons (http://www.jonmega.com/~iceman/sysfiles/index_nosp1.php) - HardwareGeeks.com (http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/modules.php?modid=4&action=cat&id=10)
My personal favorite shell is the Snow-E one which you can find at the hardwaregeeks site.
(VI)----Boot Screens----(VI)
A. So you've got you're funky new visual style and icons and you think you've finally gotten rid of every last one of those ugly windows xp themed things on your computer for good. But wait, whats this big multicolored window picture everytime you turn on your computer? Lets get rid of this too. (Warning: This is considered a more advanced technique, if you screw it up too bad it could do some serious damage. Follow the directions exactly and you'll be fine)
1. Backup (copy it to a different folder dumbass) the file *your windows directory*\system32\ntoskrnl.exe (you can probably find it in C:\windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe)
2. Download the new boot screen to your computer (make sure to get the right version, XP or XP SP1)
3. Extract ntoskrnl.exe to a directory other than \system32
4. Reboot your computer into Safe Mode by hitting F8 before the boot screen.
5. Overwrite the file \system32\ntoskrnl.exe (which should have been backed up) with the new boot screen.
6. Reboot
Can't find boot screens? Try themexp.com (www.themexp.com)
(VI)----Other Programs----(VI)
A. Yz Dock and ObjectBar
These two great programs create a bar on the side of your screen which you can use to place icons on. They have lots of nice extra features and some smooth animations to pimp it out even more. See my screenshot in the desktop thread to see what it looks like in action using the SnowE icons.
B. Samurize
Samurize is a highly editable program that lets you add configuration files to it and run them on your desktop. Examples include a calender, clock, winamp displayer, cpu/memory displayer, weather, and news updates. It can be changed around and you can make your own graphic files to go with it to make it match perfectly. Samurize.com (http://www.samurize.com/modules/news/)
C. Konfabulator
Something i use that enhances the desktop, i recommend this too! really good!
www.widgetgallery.com/
(VII)----Small Random Tweaks----(VII)
-Changing the logo at the top right of explorer
1. Click Start > Run > Type gpedit.msc
2. Click User Configuration > Windows Setting > Internet Explorer Maintenance > Browser User erface
3. Double click on Custom Logo
4. Click on Customize The Static Logo Bitmaps
5. Click on Browse...
6. Find and select your new picture
7. Hit Ok
8. An error will popup, but click yes anyways.
-Hiding Desktop Icons
Super easy but not many people know about it. Just right click anywhere on your desktop > Arrange Icons By > uncheck "Show Desktop Icons". Note that this hides them but if you have a ton of icons it wont delete them so it still won't save you memory by doing this.
Note: Make sure your replacement picture is (22X22) Small and (38X38) Large and is a a 256 or 16bit color bitmap(.bmp).
-Changing the name of the Recycle Bin
You may have noticed unlike most folders, you can't change the Recycle Bin's name. If you want to, make a new text document in notepad and paste this into it :
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\ShellFolder]
"Attributes"=hex:50,01,00,20
"CallForAttributes"=dword:00000000
Now save it as a .reg file, such as "Rename Recycle Bin.reg" and put it somewhere. Double click on the file, and when it asks you if you want to import it into the registry, choose Yes. If you want to undo this, make another .reg file with the same content as above, but change the first number in the "Attributes"=hex: line from 50 to 40 and import that file into the registry.
Ok that's all for now, I'll add more to it in a few days, so give me ideas/feedback/questions that i can use for it.:)