XP Users! Spice up your desktop!

[Swiss]

I came across this little program while searching for some freeware... :cool:

You can get it here: http://home.cogeco.ca/~rklauncher/
I like it quite a bit!

[Kernel Sanders]

Yahoo Widgets?

[Swiss]

No, stand alone.

[XQC]

Too sad that there's, after years, still no aquivalent for Linux.
All attempts to make this as nice as OSX' Dock or even the various windows apps have failed so far...

And yes, I know of engage. But the config is hell.

[ssam]

isnt there a gdesktlet to do this on linux

[mstlyevil]

Gdesklets for Gnome and Superkaramba for KDE does this and more for Linux. Linux has had it longer than XP and without the malware some of the Windows versions include.

[MetalMusicAddict]

Yea. For me this is old news. This was a project to come out of Aqua-Soft.org an Apple EMU fourm. This is one of the nice little things Ive given up going to Linux. http://ubuntuforums.org/images/lite/icons/icon13.gif Oh well.

[Kernel Sanders]

*shrugs*

[XQC]

Gdesklets for Gnome and Superkaramba for KDE does this and more for Linux. Linux has had it longer than XP and without the malware some of the Windows versions include.
If you're refering to starterbar: No.
It is nowhere near the level of the windows apps. Both in eyecandy and configuration. And the last update was on April 2005.

If you mean another gdesklet... then which one?

And, if I may add, most gdesklets are looking very outdated... like back in 2001 or something. But that's just personal preference.
The only widget which is an except is the Clock from MacSlow.

[mstlyevil]

If you're refering to starterbar: No.
It is nowhere near the level of the windows apps. Both in eyecandy and configuration. And the last update was on April 2005.

If you mean another gdesklet... then which one?

And, if I may add, most gdesklets are looking very outdated... like back in 2001 or something. But that's just personal preference.
The only widget which is an except is the Clock from MacSlow.

I was refering more to superkaramba more than gdesklets when I said they can do that and more. Gdesklets does need some more work but superkaramba is very polished.

[XQC]

I was refering more to superkaramba more than gdesklets when I said they can do that and more. Gdesklets does need some more work but superkaramba is very polished.
Hmm, ok, I need to look into that one.
I just avoid KDE apps as much as possible.

[mstlyevil]

Hmm, ok, I need to look into that one.
I just avoid KDE apps as much as possible.

Don't blame you. :mrgreen:

[Lord Illidan]

Gdesklets use python, don't they? They really slow my desktop down when I have a few of them on the screen. I have a Celeron 2GHZ with a 686 kernel, and it shouldn't slow down that much.

[NatvAmer]

I am new to Linux and I am excited about learning. I am just amazed at how many people want Ubuntu to be Windows. I have read so many Linux bashing and Windows bashing threads and the only conclusion I can draw is, "It is what it is."

[XQC]

I am just amazed at how many people want Ubuntu to be Windows. Exactly how is the statement "I want a docklauncher that is just as good as the windows apps" related to "Ubuntu should be like windows"

With the same reasoning you could dogde Firefox for Linux or Evolution because "it shouldn't be like windows".

[Bandit]

Gdesklets use python, don't they? They really slow my desktop down when I have a few of them on the screen. I have a Celeron 2GHZ with a 686 kernel, and it shouldn't slow down that much.
gDesklets seem to be a resource hog no matter what system or kernel I have tried them on. From what I have seen, they start eating up memory like fry's t a fast food joint.
I hope it was just a memory hole that they have got fixed.

[angkor]

"I want a docklauncher that is just as good as the windows apps"

Don't know about a launcher just as good as the windows one, but I do know (and use) a way better (looking) one.

E17's engage:

http://www.enlightenment.org/Applications/Engage/

I'm using the standalone version for a couple of months now after installing e17 from an old howto somewhere on this forum. I ended up only using this app in gnome since e17 is a bit too experimental for my taste.

[mstlyevil]

gDesklets seem to be a resource hog no matter what system or kernel I have tried them on. From what I have seen, they start eating up memory like fry's t a fast food joint.
I hope it was just a memory hole that they have got fixed.

They don't seem to use all that much memory on my system. Out of a gig of memory I still have over 800 megs left over. A base XP install with just a firewall and Antivirus uses around 350 megs of memory alone. Then you add docks to that and the memory just gets eaten alive. (Object docks uses a lot of resources on XP. I am not too sure about the other dock utilities.)

[mrgnash]

Too sad that there's, after years, still no aquivalent for Linux.
All attempts to make this as nice as OSX' Dock or even the various windows apps have failed so far...

And yes, I know of engage. But the config is hell.

It's called ksmoothdock.

Anyways, back to the topic -- if you really want to 'spice up' your Windows desktop, rip out the whole shell and replace it with BBLean or something (BB4Win). Faster, prettier and more efficient.

[Swiss]

Anyways, back to the topic -- if you really want to 'spice up' your Windows desktop, rip out the whole shell and replace it with BBLean or something (BB4Win). Faster, prettier and more efficient.

*Shudder* Uck! I tried it out on my XP, it is very ugly! I wish was there were a Gnome or KDE shell for Windows...

[jason.b.c]

I came across this little program while searching for some freeware... :cool:

You can get it here: http://home.cogeco.ca/~rklauncher/
I like it quite a bit!


Hey Swiss nice find! This stuff is freakin' awesome. Its got a few glitches in it though.

#1 it has a hard time finding custom icons that are in your system, it has no problem with the one's it comes with.:)

#2 the start with windows option don't work. OH well !;)

#3 it comes with icons by default that i don't even have programs for in my computer, of course xp probably has them though.

Other than that it's cool, real neat!:p

I know ubuntu user's probably don't really care. ( ha ha ):)

Like i said, good catch .

[mrgnash]

*Shudder* Uck! I tried it out on my XP, it is very ugly! I wish was there were a Gnome or KDE shell for Windows...

Ugly?

http://img415.imageshack.us/img415/25/scoobyblueth2xt.jpg
(from my old XP box, running BBLean)

I don't think so :D

Oh and there is a way to get KDE running under XP, with Cygwin. But good luck squeezing decent performance out of that arrangement.

[jason.b.c]

I wish was there were a Gnome or KDE shell for Windows...


I think there is, its called clear looks. I downloaded it but don't know how to install all of it.:confused:

[mrgnash]

I think there is, its called clear looks. I downloaded it but don't know how to install all of it.:confused:

It's probably a Windowblinds theme. Not great software imo.

[TeeAhr1]

Just to hijack the thread a little more ;)

gdesklets is the second-biggest resource eater on my system, after Firefox. It's eating 65mb right now (but that's with a lot of desklets running).

[ice60]

I think there is, its called clear looks. I downloaded it but don't know how to install all of it.:confused:
what is the file called? is it *.msstyles? that can be installed by hacking a dll.

here's a dock for windows
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download2790.html

here's a skin for winamp
http://axialix.home.insightbb.com/Winamp/

[mstlyevil]

Just to hijack the thread a little more ;)

gdesklets is the second-biggest resource eater on my system, after Firefox. It's eating 65mb right now (but that's with a lot of desklets running).

Get more RAM. It is a cheap way to fix that problem.

[ice60]

tango icons for windows
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=411059

and clearlooks for windows
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/26779874/

go through this thread and there might be something more
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=410502

[ice60]

if people want it i'll do a howto about making windows like Ubuntu if it hasn't been done.

[briancurtin]

if i wanted OSX, id buy it.

[jason.b.c]

if people want it i'll do a howto about making windows like Ubuntu if it hasn't been done.


Go for it. :p I just wanna do something with this ugly taskbar.:) uuuukkkky

[ice60]

Go for it. :p I just wanna do something with this ugly taskbar.:) uuuukkkky
i'll try and do it tomorrow, but i'm going away for 2 weeks tomorrow. i will have access to a computer, but it will be a work computer. so, i'll have to see how it goes.

there's alot to the howto because i want to do all the GUI - windows manager, icons, cursor etc plus CLI too, things like ls, wget, pwd etc maybe even use a linux shell.

anyway, for now i can show you how to make the GUI look like Ubuntu
MAKE SURE YOU SCAN ANYTHING YOU DOWNLOAD BEFORE YOU RUN IT. you can use one of these online scanners
http://virusscan.jotti.org/
http://www.virustotal.com/flash/index_en.html

and/or download either Antivir or Avast for a free AV - these two free AVs are recommended by Happy Bytes. (AV expert at nod32) of cause Nod32 is better, there's even a linux version.

Ewido is a very good antitrojan scanner, it's free too.

update the scanners before you run them.

sorry about that, i like win32 security. :shock:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
OK this is how to make windows look like Ubuntu Clearlooks
here's a picture. we going to add the tango icons too so image the tango icons too.
http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/2761/clearlooks2rc1byksaad3ag.th.png (http://img83.imageshack.us/my.php?image=clearlooks2rc1byksaad3ag.png)

make a backup of your uxtheme.dll (right-click and copy) put it somewhere safe i.e. My Documents (there should be a shortcut for My Documents in the start menu)

WINDOWS\system32\uxtheme.dll

download the UXTheme Multi-Patcher. it will patch your uxtheme.dll so you can use themes which aren't signed by MS. make sure before you run it you are ready to reboot. if possible make a system backup, or do a system restore. you can run it now, then carry on when you come back.
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=308905

download ClearLooks 2 RC1 by ksaad
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/27877459/

scan with antivirus and/or antitrojan

if you need something to extract the RAR you can use TugZip (http://www.tugzip.com/) right-click the rar and extract.

put the folder in C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes

while you are there go into the folder, it should be called Cairo, and double-click Cairo.msstyles that should launch the display properties Click on the Appearance, then select your ClearLooks theme :)

that should be the theme done
----------------------------------------------------------

this should change the icons to Tango

download the icons from
http://rapidshare.de/files/9617634/Tango.rar.html

go to the bottom of the page and click on FREE in the free column

on the next page scroll down and wait for the seconds to tick down to 0. a 3 charactor code should pop up. type it into the box. NOTE the letters need to be CAPITOLS. hit enter and download

scan with your (new?) scanners :cool:

then extract the rar

put the folder with the icons in C:\

download ActivIcons from
http://www.cursorarts.com/ca_aifw.html
http://www.cursorarts.com/ca_ai_d.html

scan with malware scanner

extract the zip - right-click extract

run the installer, then run the program

i'm in Ubuntu atm so i can't go through the process of changing the icons. the basic idea though is you go through the file system tree, within the program, double-clicking on the icons you want to change then browsing and selecting the icon you want from the icon folder we put in C:\

when i have selected the icons i want, and i'm ready to finish, i normally just close the program and it then asks if i want to make the changes before it closes, i say yes, it then saves the changes and closes.

maybe you could practise changing and saving one icon to see if you get it right, rather then spending 10/5 minutes changing all the icons and not being able to make the change or losing the changes. :mad: lol

if the program has trouble changing a certain icon (it's happened to me once or twice) you can just go directly to the actual icon, (not inside the icon program), and right-click the icon, select custom icon, or change icon, whatever it's called then browse to the icon folder in C:\ and do it that way.

i hope it all makes sense and it works, any problems and i'll try and help. this will be the bases for the howto. i'll add a dock too if anyone wants it. and if anyone reads this and uses XP and wants a function, i'll wipe up some code for you (J/K) i'll try my best though. :)

and as always you are responsible for your system not me.

[mrgnash]

I still like the look and functionality that BBLean adds to XP, but I have to admit - that looks pretty darned sexy. Any XP user should be happy with that over the ugly XP default.

[benplaut]

Don't know about a launcher just as good as the windows one, but I do know (and use) a way better (looking) one.

E17's engage:

http://www.enlightenment.org/Applications/Engage/

I'm using the standalone version for a couple of months now after installing e17 from an old howto somewhere on this forum. I ended up only using this app in gnome since e17 is a bit too experimental for my taste.

aye aye, sir!

there's something about the E17 module version that isn't in the standalone, though -

scroll your mouse wheel over an icon to flip between the various open windows of that app. It's so efficient it's not even funny :eek:

[Swiss]

#1 it has a hard time finding custom icons that are in your system, it has no problem with the one's it comes with.

#2 the start with windows option don't work. OH well !

#3 it comes with icons by default that i don't even have programs for in my computer, of course xp probably has them though.





#1: Solved. http://www.iconaholic.com/downloads.html Try the iCandy Junior.

#2: Solved. The version you downloaded was a nightly build, on their website they said a few features had been disabled because of that.

#3: Solved. You can both add and remove programs from the bar, as well as changing its Icon.


:p

[angkor]

aye aye, sir!

there's something about the E17 module version that isn't in the standalone, though -

scroll your mouse wheel over an icon to flip between the various open windows of that app. It's so efficient it's not even funny :eek:

*nods* it's too bad the standalone version isn't developed any further. I can do some things like mini- and maximize windows. I don't use the system tray so I just have me a very nice looking launcher bar. :)

[jason.b.c]

#1: Solved. http://www.iconaholic.com/downloads.html Try the iCandy Junior.

That is awesome, Too bad the downloads are so huge! 15.? mb's for the one:o

I'll get 'em though!:D

[Swiss]

Be glad its big, if it weren't you would be getter poor quality Icons! :D ;)

[jason.b.c]

Hey ice60 I think that this link below is broken.

Error message=( Server not found , connection reset ):(


http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=308905