VeeshanVault

Whats the best program currently out to customize Windows XP? Needing a little flair but havent kept up with the software so no idea whats good.

While this stuff may make your desktop prettier, it will make your computer slower. That's a trade-off I'm not willing to make.

http://www.stardock.com/

Since Xou linked this I haven't used anything else. It's great knowing there isn't some extra process running in the background slowing my system down just to make everything look cool. Arch also talks about it here.

I'd also skip the windowblinds route and use the little patcher thingy even though it's a bit scary with the system alerts that op up when installing it.

Windowblinds has come a long ways but having used Windowblinds back in the day when it hogged resorces and made things crash has kept me wary of it.

I changed my mind and am using Windowblinds 5 as my preferred method of managing themes. (leeched)

I recommend the iFlex style. It's simple yet the menus, animations, color schemes, etc are all very well done. It's a great long term use theme.

Downloadable here (need Window Blinds 5 found on the newsgroups and other typical places)

http://danillooc.wincustomize.com/ViewS ... 46&LibID=1

Changed my mind again. Windowblinds 5 makes my system crawl every once in awhile. It's not ready for primetime. Unloading Windowblinds fixes the problem but it's not something you can rely on.

It's happened twice in the past five days but both times were when I was remote connecting. Unloaded it then reloaded and all is good.

Funny that this comes back now. MS is cracking down on skinners that emulate the Windows Vista theme with Cease and Desist orders.

http://www.neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=31747

As a side note, check out what MS has done to the Start button with the latest beta build of Vista. that'll it be now? Click on the Windows Orb?

I use an option that does not require any executables running in the background to support it. All this requires is a minor patch to one dll and you can add themes to XP without them being MS licensed ones.

Try having a look round at neowin.net, I haven't visited in quite a while, but they have maintained good lists for customization resources.

http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showforum=34

i'm using windowblinds now, and i cant tell if there is any drag on system performance, but i'm using a new machine.

i think i'll try what arch is doing though

I changed my mind again and am sticking with Windowblinds for now. I've used Arch's suggestion in the past and it works well. The problem I was having seems to be associated with when Windows XP alerts me that there's an update to download. I have my CPU and RAM performance monitor screen up on my keyboard all the time and don't see any issues while running Windowblinds with CPU (0-2%) or RAM.

I'm kind of hooked on the iFlex theme. It's subtle but enough of an enhancement that I don't want to get rid of it.

So, you realise, you put more thought into how/if you should skin your OS, (and changed your mind several times) than you probably put into your choice of president

~Blows his whistle~ We have a penalty on Zaelath for trying to hijack a technology thread with Bush banter. Thats going to be a 5 post back up and still 2nd down.

At least I didn't call him a dithering idiot with more money than brains or something else as pointless and inflammatory

WindowBlinds blinds was/is/will always be a hunk of junk. This is the shitiest piece of software I have ever run into. I tried to give it a shot, figuring hell it's version 5, it can't STILL suck. But it does. I installed it with that iFlex and it was running fine for about a week. Then I noticed I didn't quite have all the icons that were displayed in the screenshots. So I went looking around in the config and fould the toolbars and animations sections. It was configured to only use the MS Windows theme. I tried changing it, not it just craps out. Nothing draws correctly. I can't even get it back to how it was working before. Stay away from this software is all I can say...

And it's not my system. I have the latest video drivers, running on a Athlon dual core, with 2 gigs of ram. I think I got all my shit covered, so the problem isn't on my end.

Hmmm...I was kind of the same way...figuring they would have learned something by version 5. Although I didn't have the problems you ran into, I did have those hangups that required me to reload windowblinds.

I've changed my mind again! Windowblinds stays off my fresh WinXp install.

Bush/Kerry was an easy decision Zaelath. As for the appearance of windows, I don't care what the inside of my computer looks like but I do care about what the UI I use for hours each day looks like.

Equal rights for Aboriginals!

I wish! If only I had their benefits =(