Zxian's guide to Desktop Enchancements!

**Zxian** · November 21, 2005

Ever wondered how to get your desktop looking like this?

It's fairly simple actually. It just takes the right software and a bit of time. Some of the software that members here often use are listed in this guide.

XPize - XPize Link

XPize is a program that will replace the original images and icons in XP with nicer looking ones. There are a couple of extra features bundled with it as well (TaskSwitchXP, new screensaver) that make it even more appealing. Best of all, it's made by XPero here at MSFN!

AveDesk & SysStats - AveDesk Link - SysStats Link

This is one of my personal favorites. It's a program that creates "desklets" on your desktop. These desklets can have any functionality, ranging from a simple shortcut, to displaying the weather forecast, to RSS feeds.

Samurize - Samurize Link

Samurize is another desktop enhancement program that makes it very easy to display your system information on the desktop (see right image above). There are many many premade configurations available at the Samurize website and elsewhere on the internet, so you can simply download the configuration file and run it.

Konfabulator - Konfabulator Link

I haven't played much with Konfabulator, but it offers a similar feature set to AveDesk. The advantage to Konfabulator is that there are hundreds upon hundreds of pre-made widgets available to download. The popularity of Konfabulator has increased recently since it used to be a paid-for software and is now freeware.

Docks

I'm going to make this section general, since there are several options to choose from.

Docks are meant to emulate the OSX dock. They provide a neat place to store your shortcuts, as well as possibly displaying system information (with SysStats for example). Each has their benefits, and as for which is the best - that's up to you.

Longhorn Sidebar - Sidebar Link

Some people have managed to make the Sidebar from Windows Vista run on Windows XP. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post a direct link (for legal reasons), but Google should be able to point you in the right direction.

WindowBlinds - WindowBlinds Link

WindowBlinds is a skinning engine for Windows. It runs on Windows 98, Me, 2000, and XP, allowing you to have the same look on your Windows 2000 computer as your Windows XP computer. There are some features that WindowBlinds provides over the standard Windows skinning engine (animated caption buttons, extra sounds, etc), but it does use a bit more resources than the default skinning engine. It's lots of fun, but I'd only recommend this if you have a more powerful computer (i.e. less than 3 years old). If you want to find lots of good skins for WindowBlinds, check out WinCustomize

UXTheme.dll Hack - UXTheme Patcher Link

This patcher will patch the uxtheme.dll file (the file responsible for your Windows theming engine) to allow you to use non-Microsoft signed themes. The best part of this is that it doesn't use any extra resources unlike StyleXP, and it's completely free! The patcher works on Windows XP, Windows 2003, and has partial support for Windows XP x64.

CursorXP - CursorXP Link

CursorXP is a program that will skin your mouse cursor and provide a little bit of a flashy appearance. A screenshot doesn't really do it justice, since most of the cool parts are in the animations.

IconPackager - IconPackager Link

IconPackager is a program that allows you to easily change the default icons on your system. You can find pre-made icon packages at WinCustomize, or build your own from icons that you find on your system or on the internet.

LClock - LClock Link

LClock is a very simple program that makes the Windows' clock look like a Windows Longhorn Clock. LClock also comes with a simple but configurable popup calendar that opens when the systray clock is clicked.

Y'z Shadow - Y'z Shadow Link

Add a shadow to all your windows and menus!!! You can also make your menus transparent. Simple, lightweight, and easy to configure.

Y'z Toolbar - Y'z Toolbar

Customise your toolbar exactly to your liking! Hundreds of themes are available to download, and make your Windows look that much nicer! For more toolbar skins, check out DeviantArt.

DeviantArt - DeviantArt Link

This site is pure gold. If you want to find wallpapers, icons, themes - just about anything - this is the place to look. 'Nuff said.

That's about it for the "mild" customizations. By mild I mean that the above programs won't change the functionality of your system. You can go one step further and use alternate shells to take your desktop to a completely different level. Some of the favorites include:

- BB4Win - (BlackBox for Windows)

Don't use these unless you know what you're doing. My personal favorite is BB4Win, but that's just because I use BlackBox in Linux.

If anyone has any suggestions or additions, let me know and I'll add them to the guide.

Final notes

- @DarkWader, I used your desktop as an example. I hope you don't mind. If you do, let me know and I'll remove the image.

- If there are any concerns about the legality of some of the material here, I am more than willing to discuss the matter, or remove links/content as necessary.

- @Mods/Admins - Sorry about the source of the UXTheme patcher. It's the best one I've found on the net, so I figured that I'd share it.

- Don't complain to me if this becomes an obsessive hobby like it has for some of us (*poke* 'Dagonet *poke*)

EDITS

1) 2005-11-20 - *slaps self for initially forgetting XPize*

2) 2005-11-24 - Added LClock, Y'z Shadow, and Y'z Toolbar

Edited May 20, 2007 by Zxian

**Dagonet'** · November 23, 2005

- Don't complain to me if this becomes an obsessive hobby like it has for some of us (*poke* 'Dagonet *poke*)
EDITS
1) 2005-11-20 - *slaps self for initially forgetting XPize*

Guilty...

Edited November 23, 2005 by Dagonet'

**Aaron_** · November 23, 2005

Begginers will thank this post.

Nicely done Zxian!

**SiMoNsAyS** · November 24, 2005

wonderful post, this kind of work is strongly appreciated

[Pinned.]

**Zxian** · November 24, 2005

Shweet....

Thanks SiMoNsAyS.

**EchoNoise** · November 24, 2005

Thats pretty neat... Thanks man

**tap52384** · November 24, 2005

Could there be program suggestions for making the taskbar transparent like the example shown?

**Zxian** · November 24, 2005

Making the taskbar transparent can be done by either using WindowBlinds5 Beta (or final when it comes out), or by adding the section of your background that would normally sit behind the taskbar as a "mask" to the source files of the theme. The latter takes a bit of know-how, and should probably be described elsewhere by someone who's actually done it (DarkWader perhaps..?).

There are some other third party apps that will make the titlebar transparent as well. WindowFX from StarDock is an example of this. Google should help you find some of them.

**Martijn** · November 24, 2005

You forgot LClock and yZShadow. It's a good guide, great job

**Zxian** · November 24, 2005

Added LClock, Y'z Shadow, and Y'z Toolbar. Thanks Martijn.

**Martijn** · November 25, 2005

You're welcome, I'll see if I can find more programs

Edit: you could add FireFox and Opera as skinnable/themeable browsers

Edit2: you forgot to mention StyleXP

Edit3: I was looking in the GUI section of my sites files and I found BootSkin

Edit4: PodXP

I also found another big list of resources: here and here

Edit 5:

Found this in the Windows Tweaks forums in the thread "Tweak Sites":

Customization Programs (FreeWare)
=============================================
Transparent
01. Trans2k2: http://www.545studios.com/?p=apps&id=8 recommended
02. Glass2k: http://www.chime.tv/gui.shtml
03. PowerMenu: http://www.veridicus.com/tummy/programming/powermenu/
Computer Statistics/Information
01. StatBar: http://www.statbar.nl/ recommended
02. CoolMon: http://daisyman.arsware.org/coolinfo/download.shtml
03. CureInfo: http://www.hbg.lth.se/~pv98glu/
04. InfoTop: http://opus80.com/discnode/
05. WinPulse: http://www.aka.com.ua/home.htm
06. Samurize: http://www.samurize.com/
Taskbar Enhacements
01. hiddenMenu: http://home.i-cable.com/lokinwai/index.htm recommended
02. ShortPopUP: http://www.digitallis.co.uk/pc/ShortPopUp/index.html
03. BarLaunch and/or T-Launch: http://www.hi-ho.ne.jp/kyagi/enu/#barlaunch
04. [(Shareware) but truly an excellent program] TrueLaunchBar: http://www.truelaunchbar.com
05. ObjectDock: http://www.stardock.com/products/objectdock

Edited November 25, 2005 by Martijn

**Zxian** · November 25, 2005

Thanks again.

I'll have a look at some of the programs and update the guide over the weekend (hopefully).

I don't think I'll add StyleXP though, since it's essentially a pretty front-end for the uxtheme.dll patch and what Windows is already capable of. Not to mention that I've just had bad experiences with that program.

Oh... and several of those links are dead. Google will help though.

**Martijn** · November 25, 2005

Well, I got them from a list, so I didn't really check them all...

I guess you're right about the StyleXP btw

**gunsmokingman** · November 25, 2005

You forgot to mention that you can modify things like menus and dialogs by hacking

the Shell32.dll and explorer.exe files using things like resource hacker.

Shell32.dll Dialog 1003 the Run Box Dialog

What I change

1: Added a bitmap for the background

2: Added Icons over the top of the buttons.

1003 DIALOGEX 0, 0, 230, 126
STYLE DS_FIXEDSYS | DS_MODALFRAME | DS_NOIDLEMSG | DS_CONTEXTHELP | WS_MAXIMIZEBOX | WS_MINIMIZEBOX | WS_POPUP | WS_CAPTION | WS_SYSMENU
EXSTYLE WS_EX_STATICEDGE
CAPTION " RUN WHAT APP OR ITEM?"
LANGUAGE LANG_ENGLISH, SUBLANG_ENGLISH_US
FONT 8, "MS SHELL DLG", 1, FALSE, 0
{
CONTROL 27, -1, STATIC, SS_ICON | SS_CENTERIMAGE | WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | WS_GROUP, 183, 104, 18, 18
CONTROL 28, -1, STATIC, SS_ICON | SS_CENTERIMAGE | WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | WS_GROUP, 23, 104, 18, 18
CONTROL 31, -1, STATIC, SS_ICON | SS_CENTERIMAGE | WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | WS_GROUP, 100, 104, 18, 18
CONTROL "", 12298, COMBOBOX, CBS_SIMPLE | CBS_DISABLENOSCROLL | WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | WS_CLIPSIBLINGS | WS_VSCROLL | WS_TABSTOP, 7, 11, 214, 85
CONTROL 14350, -1, STATIC, SS_BITMAP | WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | WS_CLIPSIBLINGS | WS_GROUP, 0, 0, 200, 118 , 0x00000100
CONTROL "Run in separate &memory space", 12306, BUTTON, BS_AUTOCHECKBOX | WS_CHILD | WS_DISABLED | WS_TABSTOP, 36, 51, 183, 0
CONTROL "OK", 1, BUTTON, BS_DEFPUSHBUTTON | WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | WS_CLIPSIBLINGS | WS_TABSTOP, 183, 103, 19, 19
CONTROL "NO", 2, BUTTON, BS_PUSHBUTTON | WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | WS_CLIPSIBLINGS | WS_TABSTOP, 23, 103, 19, 19
CONTROL "&SEEK", 12288, BUTTON, BS_PUSHBUTTON | WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | WS_CLIPSIBLINGS | WS_TABSTOP, 100, 103, 19, 19
}

Here is a link with a bunch of tutorials on how to change more things

WinT`s Modify Windows Shell Files

My Run Box

Edited August 27, 2006 by gunsmokingman

**Martijn** · November 26, 2005

That's really cool, I've never seen a site like that! Thanks

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