I don't know for you but for me Windows Vista as an operating system is useless... But... It does look very good...
Now Windows XP is a very good operating system... But... It does look crap...
So, for a while, I was looking for a way to have the look and feel of Vista on XP...
You can use a few applications for that, like ThemeXP for example. The problem of these applications is that they work on the background so your PC performances are lowered.
Yesterday I managed it.
Yep...
Full Vista feel on XP...
For free...
And...
Without Lowering Your PC Performance!!
Here are the steps to follow...
They are pretty easy even if you aren't a computer geek...
Just follow the steps as I describe them and you could get your PC looking like this (Click on the picture for the full size picture):
First of all you will need Winrar. This a compression utility like Winzip. If you don't have it installed on your PC you can download it here.
Once you have that installed, let's get to the theme pack I used to achieve the look. Windows XP allow you to use Theme files to change some aspect of the look of it.
I don't know if you have already used Rapidshare.com but this is pretty easy...
Click here, then click on the Free User button, wait for the countdown to finish and click on the Download button.
Once the download has finished, double click on the RAR file you downloaded and extract the files anywhere on your PC. I would suggest you create a folder called Vista Skins on the C drive and extract the files in that folder.
Now let's take a look at the files that were extracted...
There is 30 folders in it...
Each folder contains a Vista them for XP.
Also it contains a small application called UX-Theme Multi Patcher, looking like this:
Windows XP comes with a bit of limitations when it comes to themes... This little fellow will actually remove these limitations. No harm will be done to the PC I can assure you...
So double click on the UXTheme icon. At some stage, you will be asked to insert your Windows XP CD. DO NOT INSERT YOUR XP CD!! Just wait at least one minute before clicking on Cancel on the message that asked for the CD, then another message will ask you to confirm, click Yes and the patch will then be applied.
Once done, you will need to restart the PC in order for the patch to work.
Once the PC is restarted, go back to the folder where you saved all the Vista themes and chose which one you want to use. The best way to do that is to get into the folder and you will see a theme file, it looks like this:
Just double click on the icon and the display properties window will open giving you a glimpse of what the theme look like. The one I used is the one called Aero Style (Glass Beta2) and the color scheme is dark.
Apply the theme and that is it...
We got the Vista look...
Well...
Not yet kids...
We need a background picture...
Here are two that I consider pretty good...
Just click on the one you want it will open in full size then right click on the pic and click Set As Background.
First one:
Second one:
Okay... We have the look and the background...
Not bad...
But still...
What about the logon screen??
Hmm...
Let see here...
Oh yeah kids!!!
I have that covered as well...
There is a very cool little application created by Stardock. These guys have been developing tweak applications for quite a while and they cam up with a free application called Logon Studio. The good thing about that application is that it is a run once application. No memory taken!!
Click here to download it...
Install the application, once done do not run it yet....
We need to get a Vista logon screen for it...
I found one here, just click the download link and save the file in the same directory that you saved all the themes (makes it easier to have all the files for this transformation in the same place).
Now run the logon studio program, click on Open and select the file you just downloaded. It will show you a preview of the logon screen...
Believe me...
It looks great.
So just click okay and...
We have a Vista logon screen!!!
YAY!!!
But wait...
Just opened Windows Explorer...
YUK!!!
Still the same ugly icons...
Can't have that do we???
Let see...
How to change them...
Oh!! I know...
You guessed it!!!
I found another free application that doesn't eat memory!!
It is called Icon Tweaker... Please grab it there, run the install but don't run it straight away as it doesn't come with a good Vista icon set.
So let's get the icon set...
Yes I know...
And you know...
I found a good one...
It will make the folders and shit look like this:
You can download the set here, save it the same folder as the themes.
Unzip the file and then run Icon Tweaker.
Click File then Open and select the file you just unzipped.
The name of the pack is Aero Ultimate Icon Pack. Once done it will show in the available pack window, click on it and click on Install Theme and, kids...
That is it...
Memory free...
Money free...
Vista look!!!
Hope you will enjoy!!
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