Is windows XP easy to customize?

[mike998]

I found this (http://www.freepctech.com/pc/xp/xp00005.shtml) - now, which is easier to customize - XP or Linux?

[TravisNewman]

Linux. It's easy to customize CERTAIN parts of Windows, but they don't exactly tell you how to do it. You CAN change almost every package you have installed to an alternative in Linux.

[DJ_Max]

Clearly something thats open source, you can customize EVERY aspect of it. There's really no comparison.

[Sam]

20. The next release of Windows XP, codenamed Longhorn, is due out late next year or early 2003 and won't be much to write home about. The next big release is codenamed Blackcomb and will be out in 2003/2004.
This is not up to date....

[TravisNewman]

wow. Yeah, quite outdated.

[DJ_Max]

wow. Yeah, quite outdated.
Yeah, I noticed that too.

[Xian]

The things that an average desktop user can customize in Windows can be done very easily. But when you step very far off the front porch you find there are a few hurdles that exist, and the process IMO is not as intuitive as in Linux.

[TravisNewman]

This kinda makes me laugh:
" XP comes with a free Network Activity Light,"

like it's something spectacular...

[Xian]

This kinda makes me laugh:
" XP comes with a free Network Activity Light,"

like it's something spectacular...
That it is free is somewhat spectacular.
However, it's probably been patented. :-\"

[byen]

This kinda makes me laugh:
" XP comes with a free Network Activity Light,"

like it's something spectacular...
oh come on bro....dont be so hard on em....whatelse can they boast of? except for things like these.... a light here, a patch there ....thats all they have dont they?have a heart~

[Kvark]

That list is far from impressive and some of the things there you can do without special tricks. But what cought my attention is a small detail. One little charater that is mentioned by the side of another aspect.


1. It boasts how long it can stay up. Whereas previous versions of Windows were coy about how long they went between boots, XP is positively proud of its stamina. Go to the Command Prompt in the Accessories menu from the All Programs start button option, and then type 'systeminfo'. The computer will produce a lot of useful info, including the uptime. If you want to keep these, type 'systeminfo > info.txt'. This creates a file called info.txt you can look at later with Notepad. (Professional Edition only).

Did you all see that '>'? Does that mean you can redirect and pipe stdin and stdout in windows?? Wow, thats something sweet I never knew about!


Still, I will never forgive XP for the lack of themes. It is ok to have only 2 themes. The old win 95/98/2k/2k3 theme and the new XP theme. But to have only 3 color variants of the new XP theme was... It broke my heart. (I was a windows user at that time.)

[Sam]

That list is far from impressive and some of the things there you can do without special tricks. But what cought my attention is a small detail. One little charater that is mentioned by the side of another aspect.

Did you all see that '>'? Does that mean you can redirect and pipe stdin and stdout in windows?? Wow, thats something sweet I never knew about!
Yes, and as well as 1>, 2> and |

[TravisNewman]

That list is far from impressive and some of the things there you can do without special tricks. But what cought my attention is a small detail. One little charater that is mentioned by the side of another aspect.



Did you all see that '>'? Does that mean you can redirect and pipe stdin and stdout in windows?? Wow, thats something sweet I never knew about!


Still, I will never forgive XP for the lack of themes. It is ok to have only 2 themes. The old win 95/98/2k/2k3 theme and the new XP theme. But to have only 3 color variants of the new XP theme was... It broke my heart. (I was a windows user at that time.)
They DO still have all the old color variants dating back to Windows 98, but it was quite limited. And to require you to purchase software, or hack a system file to enable new themes is just bad news.

[poofyhairguy]

They DO still have all the old color variants dating back to Windows 98, but it was quite limited. And to require you to purchase software, or hack a system file to enable new themes is just bad news.

No. Whats bad news is after you pirate/////buy Windblinds (or whatever the third party theming software is) it slows down your computer a lot.

That is what pushed me over the edge.

[bored2k]

No. Whats bad news is after you pirate/////buy Windblinds (or whatever the third party theming software is) it slows down your computer a lot.

That is what pushed me over the edge.
Funny how most of those packages by default simply leave you with a Mac OS interface wannabe. Don't believe me? Download StyleXP(male), the first thing they ask after installing is "Would you like to test it?" -Yes "There! Nice Mac OS Theme, hooray for Windows.".

But hey, is it easy to customize ? Well let's see:


StyleXP: 20 dollars (1 user only)
WindowBlinds: 20 U.S. dollars
Themexp.org: 0 bucks. You get themes in .EXE format. Why? Because even if you PAY for the software, you still need to SIGN and AGREE to spyware, adware, crapware et al.
DesktopX: 15 to 70 dollars (WTH needs a "PRO" theme!?)
Windows XP Plus: Only 29.99 dollars!
Ubuntu: priceless

For everything else, there's Linux.

[somuchfortheafter]

you forgot the actual windows install "tax" if you will. Of course we must all remember our own shortcommings that existed whenever hoary first debuted and broke gdesklets for all of us.....

[mike998]

Linux. It's easy to customize CERTAIN parts of Windows, but they don't exactly tell you how to do it. You CAN change almost every package you have installed to an alternative in Linux.

It was a rhetorical question - I just thought I would share how rediculous this is!

[da_unruled]

Funny how most of those packages by default simply leave you with a Mac OS interface wannabe. Don't believe me? Download StyleXP(male), the first thing they ask after installing is "Would you like to test it?" -Yes "There! Nice Mac OS Theme, hooray for Windows.".

But hey, is it easy to customize ? Well let's see:
there is the so called uxtheme patcher (hacks a file) so you can enable themes without external programs you ahve to pay for.
Im having trouble with it though, but yeah.. :-#