home, thoughts
last major update(s) @ 14/August/2008
site relaunched with new design and content @ 14/June/2008
th first version of my page: the iconless XPeriment @ 2005
first of all,
in my opinion, the default windows xp look ( the luna skin ) is awful and huge, wasting desktop space, etc. the default startmenu makes me LOL when i see it. ( it looks so big to me, almost fills the half of the screen ) the classic looks ' fine ', but could be better. here is a comparison between the default and my startmenu. mine is smaller and better, because there are no unnecessary items and spaces in the menu.
so, the first step is to change the default blue skin. ( just google for uxtheme patcher and visualstyle. or make your own visualstyle as i did. ) second step is customizing the icons, fonts, desktop, and all others you see.
either you use external resources ( icons, cursors, alternate shells, docks, widgets, gadgets, etc ) or you can reshack the whole system. changing icons, bitmaps, dialogs, and other resources within the dll or exe is an alternate way to customize your windows look. and it costs nothing, but only time. and it has the advantage of there is no necessary need having running programs in the 'background' all the time to achieve a customized look of your operating system. just reshack everything you see. :) i mean you can resize the dialogs, delete unnecessarry items, change icons and avi animations for your own taste.
maybe this way has a limited capability of changing things compared to windows blinds, but if you like do something creative, the challange and the simple and clear UI, that limitation is acceptable. so, you can't change the windows ' code ', ( except if you are a real c/c++ and assembly guru ) only the resources, and the script based UI elements. in example; you can't add items to common taskpanel's other places group, or change the order of the taskpanel groups, but you can recolor, change the layout, remove some elements, and skin it with images.
and there is a thing called active desktop. the most people have never used it although it's a great feature embedded in windows since windows '98. basically it's a 'layer' on the desktop which can be placed anywhere ( fullscreen or window ) and allows the user to add any HTML content to the desktop. you can use the normal way to get active desktop ( desktop properties > desktop tab > ' customize desktop... ' button > web tab > ' new... ' button ) or if you put a html file direct to your desktop. ( as a simple background item, i prefer this way ) a html with tons of your scripts ( javascript vbscript, css ) and with your own design with images, icons, flash anims, etc.
if you are familiar with html and javascript, ( and more into scripting languages ) you can do navigation script like the object dock or you can do something like rainlendar or rainmeter. Displaying hdd informations, system informations, todo infos, editable quick messages on desktop, scheduler, clock, timer, rss info, calendar and so on
that is sad, windows vista doesn't have this feature. ( it's one of my main reason for me not to update to vista )
it is also important to know; if you decide to reshack your system, never download windows updates ( i mean, it's highly not recommended )! because if you do that, all of your works will be gone*, and you have to do it from the beginning. and ofcourse turn off the automatic windows update and/or disable the windows update service. * it depends on how deep your system is reshacked.
when i started reshacking, my goal was to alter the windows to the possible maximum i can. ( from the inside ). and btw, reshacking is fun.
contact: use the message board if you want to ask something.
site relaunched with new design and content @ 14/June/2008
th first version of my page: the iconless XPeriment @ 2005
first of all,
in my opinion, the default windows xp look ( the luna skin ) is awful and huge, wasting desktop space, etc. the default startmenu makes me LOL when i see it. ( it looks so big to me, almost fills the half of the screen ) the classic looks ' fine ', but could be better. here is a comparison between the default and my startmenu. mine is smaller and better, because there are no unnecessary items and spaces in the menu.
so, the first step is to change the default blue skin. ( just google for uxtheme patcher and visualstyle. or make your own visualstyle as i did. ) second step is customizing the icons, fonts, desktop, and all others you see.
either you use external resources ( icons, cursors, alternate shells, docks, widgets, gadgets, etc ) or you can reshack the whole system. changing icons, bitmaps, dialogs, and other resources within the dll or exe is an alternate way to customize your windows look. and it costs nothing, but only time. and it has the advantage of there is no necessary need having running programs in the 'background' all the time to achieve a customized look of your operating system. just reshack everything you see. :) i mean you can resize the dialogs, delete unnecessarry items, change icons and avi animations for your own taste.
maybe this way has a limited capability of changing things compared to windows blinds, but if you like do something creative, the challange and the simple and clear UI, that limitation is acceptable. so, you can't change the windows ' code ', ( except if you are a real c/c++ and assembly guru ) only the resources, and the script based UI elements. in example; you can't add items to common taskpanel's other places group, or change the order of the taskpanel groups, but you can recolor, change the layout, remove some elements, and skin it with images.
and there is a thing called active desktop. the most people have never used it although it's a great feature embedded in windows since windows '98. basically it's a 'layer' on the desktop which can be placed anywhere ( fullscreen or window ) and allows the user to add any HTML content to the desktop. you can use the normal way to get active desktop ( desktop properties > desktop tab > ' customize desktop... ' button > web tab > ' new... ' button ) or if you put a html file direct to your desktop. ( as a simple background item, i prefer this way ) a html with tons of your scripts ( javascript vbscript, css ) and with your own design with images, icons, flash anims, etc.
if you are familiar with html and javascript, ( and more into scripting languages ) you can do navigation script like the object dock or you can do something like rainlendar or rainmeter. Displaying hdd informations, system informations, todo infos, editable quick messages on desktop, scheduler, clock, timer, rss info, calendar and so on
that is sad, windows vista doesn't have this feature. ( it's one of my main reason for me not to update to vista )
it is also important to know; if you decide to reshack your system, never download windows updates ( i mean, it's highly not recommended )! because if you do that, all of your works will be gone*, and you have to do it from the beginning. and ofcourse turn off the automatic windows update and/or disable the windows update service. * it depends on how deep your system is reshacked.
when i started reshacking, my goal was to alter the windows to the possible maximum i can. ( from the inside ). and btw, reshacking is fun.
contact: use the message board if you want to ask something.
disclaimer
i am not responsible for any side effects due to reshacking system files or if anything goes wrong. reshacking system files can cause serious damages, crashes, malfunctions, so be very careful what you edit or change. and don't forget to make backup of your system files before you do this.
do your reshacks at your own risk!
do your reshacks at your own risk!