Hi guys, I would like everyones opinions on how to make XP look the best. What are some good shells or programs you people have used and what are some bad ones. This could save some people time from trying bad shells or programs. And also what are some good links and stuff for XP. Thanks
windowblinds worx good under winXP (it skins explorer), but the style XP and stylebuilder do the same thing without using any extra mem or anything. windowFX will make stuff transparant, wich is nice but i didn't expect it would slow stuff down that much, so don't make everything transparant because you will die if you do...or something...
i don't like litestep because it looks like a bunch of bmp's put together to form a "theme". too much jaggies for me.
i also just got hoverdesk, wich seems to do the EXACT same thing as litestep, only looks & feels better to me. Also because it has a few XP only options or something....
by the way: i'm just a n00b in the whole skin world, so i'm talking bout shite i really don't know anything about...but still it should be usefull
litestep. that's all i can say. get it. use it. learn it. love it.
it's kinda frustrating when you first install it and have no idea why your screen is blank, but once you figure it out, you'l like it. www.litestep.net
is that all? anyone else want to voice there opinion on different shells, skins, themes, anything like that? and any bad experiences would be really good to know, I don't wanna use something that messes up a lot :o)
hey techneeqs...easy there....i use object desktop by stardock....it uses a lot of memory, but then i have a lot of memory to use! i've tried litestep, but wasn't impressed. some say hoverdesk is better, it all depends on how much you want to customize...why don't you check out www.wincustomize.com and browse through the different shell packages to see what people have done...pretty soon you'll choose one and start making your own creations. good luck!
Posted by: GLink2001 (*.hwrd1.md.home.com) 1-4-2002, 21:31 no, it did'nt let me logon, it said it could not find the shell
That means you didn't follow the instructions. The instructions don't exist for the purpose of making you look smart by ignoring them and having everything work - they exist so you can make it work, and not screw yourself over.
IE, you should RTFM.
And for the record, litestep is the best shell currently out there, overall - lowest on resource use (yes, you can make it a hog if you try), clean (yes, you can make it unstable if you try).
I'd give reveal a 2nd best rating, due only to its complex themeing.
geOshell is painfully easy to install & use, but not anywhere near as themeable as LS or reveal.
If speed, size, & resource use are paramount & you could care less about themes, liteshell's the one.
Haven't tried bb4win yet. Might be good, might be bad - azatoth's a good coder, so I'm guess it should be good.
Graphite had potential, but was a tad complex for a non-coder.
Most of the rest can be grouped together as litestep wannabe's. And then there's the few that aren't free, like desktopX & talisman. Can't say anything about 'em, haven't used 'em.
If you liked the old platinum mac interface, there was/is a shell to make your pc more mac-like; it skinned windows, ditched the task bar, created a (real, functioned w/ most apps) mac-style menubar...
There was/is also a shell based entirely on flash, can't recall the name (flashdesk, maybe? or is that the viewer app), but it was fairly innovative... not quite ready for primetime last I saw.
That's all I have to say about shells for the moment =)
I'd love to use Litestep but its to complicated to setup. yes I tried it once, yes I read the instructions but It's just waaaay to much for me. I wish it were simpler to install and configure. There are so many awesome litestep themes and If i could fuly understand how to use it, Litestep would be my shell choice.
Ok i just attempted to put litestep using the installer above and it completely killed my comp. Once i had it installed it said "REINSTALL WINDOWS" wow thats alwayz a good thing huh well it didnt do ne harm i guess just spent an hour installing windows over the pre-existing one so i didn't lose ne thing... phew lucky i guess haha
what do u think the problem was? I would really like to know because im really tired of hoverdesk because of the whole paying registering thing.
if it say you need to reinstall windows, that means it can't tell what the shell is supposed to be.
If you have win9x, this is specced in the sytem.ini, which you can edit under dos; going into safe mode command prompt only will let you edit it back to explorer.exe.
If it's ME, no ida, dunno if it still uses sytem.ini.
in NT or 2k or XP, it's a registry value, under local machine/software/microsoft/windows/current version, IIRC; the shell value. There was away to edit this in NT command prompt (IE, not booting into the gui), dunno if it still exists in 2k or xp.
Dunno if LS still shipos w/ documentation - but this used to be covered on page 2 of the html format documentation. First item covered, really.
My 82 year old father uses LS, btw. I set it up for him initially 2 years ago - he's switched themes h imself a few times since then.
NEVER EVER EVER reinstall windows because of litestep. there is no way in hell that litestep will make you have to reformat. win9x/ME will tell you that... but its not true, restart, goto command prompt. then edit the shell back to "explorer.exe". in win2k/XP just hit ctrl alt del and open explorer.exe.
i have 9x, i got the new dll files for it on http://www.beyondconvention.net/ohussain/installer.htm and i can't put the one in my system folder because the one is in use. I guess i need to tinker around some more Btw i couldn't even get to the command prompt for some fu
I HAVE LITESTEP O YA I HAVE LITE STEP O YA WOOOOOO HOOOOOO NEVER FEAR DUCK IS HERE. It was that good for nothing dll file that i just had to update muahaha i have a working version of litestep he he he ho ho ho ha ha ha ÐûçK
y did that one cut off before the end of what i was talking about? Its supposed to b more than just btw i couldn't even get to the command prompt for some fu. its supposed to talk to more about how screwd up it wuz o well doesn't matter ne more huh
the very first rule to LS is: always install it directly to the C: drive. do not attemp to move it into program files, or anywhere else. leave it in c:\litestep (or whatever it's called, i can't recall)
and there is a readme in it, ppl. READ IT. you should never have to reinstall windows. crickey.
IMHO, LS is the best shell. if you're not a noob. buti also think it's overrated.
doesn't HAVE to be installed in your C: dir. You can install it into any drive that you want. If you wanted you could have it on your cd Drive....you would just have to set the correct path in the registery (win2k/XP) or system.ini (win9x/ME)
I didn't get a readme i got a different then normal install and when i booted windows, I would recieve about 4 pop up errors and they said to reinstall windows. so i just tried to delete to get to the ini file and change it back but it said i couldn't do it in dos, so i tried to just run the uninstall in dos and it didn't work so then i deleted the lite step folder in dos but i still had to reinstall. But its not like i reformatted i just replaced windows so i just refreshed the old settings and then i deleted litestep. So its not like i couldn't get it to work and was to much of a moron to figure it out so i just reformatted so give me a little slack, not like i have the best machine in the world to work with here
Im no llama, im a system hacker, my own system. i find new shit and try it out. not the first time i had to reinstall windows over preexisting os. I have tinked with registry so much i don't know if have the stuff is original or not.
OK, Duck and his friends.... Can you spell 'RTFM'?
Try this on for size.....preferably without the attention span of a gnat...;)
************************************************************ *********** * USE the "RTFM" method of installation..... * ************************************************************ *********** (this is a blatant copy of the "Installing LiteStep" chapter of the LSDocs helpfile in html format by the LiteStep Documentation Effort Team. this wonderful manual comes with each new dev build and is constantly updated to the newest state -- kudos to the authors of LDE Team....)
Installing LiteStep =====-------======= There are basically two methods to installing LiteStep. With the first method you need to download the official distribution. This distribution contains an installer that will automatically setup LiteStep as your shell for you. You will have the option to change this later, so don't be worried about being stuck with LiteStep if it just isn't your thing.
The second method to installing LiteStep is to download a theme containing all the files you need to run the theme. This can be a bit more complicated so if you are new to LiteStep or text based configuration please install the distribution. Note: Themes do not necessarily come with the LiteStep release that you may need, however if they do not look in the Readme.txt for which release or Dev Build you may need.
Configuring Windows 95/98/ME for LiteStep ----------------------------------------- Installing LiteStep on a machine built on the standards of Windows 95 is by far the simplest system to install LiteStep on. In a few easy steps any user can take their boring Explorer interface and turn it into a lean mean fighting machine.
In the instructions below you will notice that we mention LiteStep as being in the C:\LiteStep directory and Windows being in the C:\Windows directory. Your machine may differ from these directories so make sure you use the correct information instead.
First you want to start up your text editor (ie notepad, editpad, ultraedit) and open your c:\windows\system.ini file. If you set your windows directory to something other than c:\windows\, look for it in that directory and you'll find the system.ini. Next you will want to find the line shell=explorer.exe in your system.ini file: shell=explorer.exe this line is found near the top. You then comment out your shell=explorer.exe line by placing a semi-colon ";" in front of it (;shell=explorer.exe) Then on the NEXT line enter a line as follows; shell=c:\litestep\litestep.exe Save your system.ini - reboot and find yourself in the wonderful world of LiteStep.
Note: Many users, both during installation and un-installation process receive a message stating "Cannot find (insert executable), You must Re-install windows." By no means is this necessary. Reboot your computer and check your shell= line. You didn't spell something right or missed a character. This by far is one of the most common complaints brought up in the IRC Channels, don't be fooled. If for some reason you do not find yourself in LiteStep when you reboot, you are going to want to look in your system.ini file for another shell= line. Windows does allow for multiple configurations for the shell, however, it will only load one of them.
Configuring Windows NT for LiteStep ----------------------------------- The most common problem that happens during a LiteStep install on a Windows NT machine is that most of the time users don't have administrative privileges on their machine and can't use a shell swapper. There is, however, a way to get around this.
You will need to modify a few registry entries, don't be afraid, so fire up regedit and lets get started :
- HKey_Local_Machine\Software\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\IniFileMapping\ system.ini\boot>SYS:Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon change this to USR:Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon - HKey_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ Winlogon>Shell change the value of Shell to c:\litestep\litestep.exe to add LiteStep. - HKey_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\ Advanced>SeperateProcess if this DWORD is set to "1" explorer won't load as the shell when triggered inside another shell, if this key is set to "0" it will. This key effects LiteStep if you are using Internet Explorer 4 and up, if you have an earlier version of Internet Explorer, use a STRING named DesktopProcess, with a value of "1" instead of the DWORD. Basically you need this set to yes if you don't want to have explorer setting itself as shell everytime you access it.
Note: You can make LiteStep restart automatically after a crash in Window NT. This was taken from the LiteStep b24 Manual written by TheMAN. "The command SetAsShell makes LiteStep behave as the Official shell and it notifies Windows of this fact. This does seem to create some problems with with Windows at times (especially with IE and quite often when running NT) and it has been found that if you do use StepAsShell in your Step.Rc, you might have to set the HKEY_LOCAL_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Explorer\DesktopProcess key's value in your registry to 1 to get IE (and Windows) to work properly. The only advantage to using SetAsShell is that LiteStep is automatically started when it crashes, like Explorer normally does. As setting LiteStep as the shell seems to create strange problems on different machines, it is suggested that you don't set this value in your Step.Rc. If you do use SetAsShell and decide to take it out after a while, remember that you will have to reboot (not Recycle as is the normal case with a Step.Rc change) and that you may have to set the HKEY_LOCAL_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Explorer\DesktopProcess registry value back to 0 to get everything working properly." So basically, if you want to try this - take a risk, worst thing that can happen is that you will have problems with explorer until you change the key back.
Configuring Windows 2K for LiteStep ----------------------------------- The most common problem that happens during a LiteStep install on a Windows NT machine is that most of the time users don't have administrative privileges on their machine and can't use a shell swapper. There is, however, a way to get around this.
You will need to modify a few registry entries, don't be afraid, so fire up regedit and lets get started.
- HKey_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\IniFileMapping\ system.ini\boot > Shell change this to USR:Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon - HKey_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon>Shell change the value of Shell to c:\litestep\litestep.exe - HKey_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer create a New value called DesktopProcess and set the Data Field to 1. - HKey_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\BrowseNewProcess > change this value to "yes", it seems to correct a few problems with explorer spawning itself as the shell.
Note: You can make LiteStep restart automatically after a crash in Window NT. This was taken from the LiteStep b24 Manual written by TheMAN. "The command SetAsShell makes LiteStep behave as the Official shell and it notifies Windows of this fact. This does seem to create some problems with Windows at times (especially with IE and quite often when running NT) and it has been found that if you do use StepAsShell in your Step.Rc,you might have to set the HKEY_LOCAL_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Explorer\DesktopProcess key's value in your registry to 1 to get IE (and Windows) to work properly. The only advantage to using SetAsShell is that LiteStep is automatically started when it crashes, like Explorer normally does. As setting LiteStep as the shell seems to create strange problems on different machines, it is suggested that you don't set this value in your Step.Rc. If you do use SetAsShell and decide to take it out after a while, remember that you will have to reboot (not Recycle as is the normal case with a Step.Rc change) and that you may have to set the HKEY_LOCAL_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Explorer\DesktopProcess registry value back to 0 to get everything working properly." So basically, if you want to try this - take a risk, worst thing that can happen is that you will have problems with explorer until you change the key back.
Un-installing LiteStep =====--------========= Uninstallation of LiteStep should be considered your last resort. However, we do realize that LiteStep is not for everybody, and were really nice people really, so we will tell you how to make it all go away. Before you decide to just uninstall it however, we do suggest either sending an e-mail or dropping by one of the many LiteStep IRC channels and asking questions about your problems. Many times users are overwhelemed by the necesary learning curve, and give up. LiteStep by no means is easy or perfect, but many people have come up with work arounds for many of the problems.
Uninstalling LiteStep from Windows 95/98/ME ------------------------------------------- So you have decided that LiteStep just is not your thing and want to get rid of it like a bad habbit. First thing you are going to want to do is open your favorite text editor. Fr
I am an advid Litestep user, and well after using Desktop x and just about all the other shells, i fel that litestep was the easiest to skin and use. I HATE WINDOWS with a passon but litestep takes the word hate out of there :). Also it if you have problems there are plenty of FAQ'S out there to help (trust me i ahve done all of the F#$k's up myself). www.litestep.net is the best site out there other than www.litestep.com. If you have issues, DO NOT REINSTALL windows, and well learn everthing you can, just like all the hacker turtorials say, READ and have fun doing it.
