[Rictor]

OK, so starting from the assumption that I know nothing, what's the easiest and best way to get rid of the standard Windows "look" in favour of something cooler.

There's uhm, WindowsBlind and...LiteStep. And that's about the extent of my knowledge.

Gracias.

[knn]

If you want to use the WinXP built in theme-system:

The problem is that you can only install themes approved and digitally signed by M$. Because of this, they are not free (M$ doesn`t do that kinda stuff for free). But if you want to install the freeware themes found on the internet (which don`t have a digital sig), you`ll need StyleXP, which can disable uxtheme.dll, the dll that checks for digital sigs and disables themes without one. This is shareware, and I don`t pay money for stg I can do in 5 minutes. There`s a way to patch Uxtheme.dll and disable this protection, so the downloaded themes will work just fine (previously they would revert to classic windows after clicking apply). Actually, i`ve found many patchers on the internet too. just do a search for uxtheme.dll.

As for WindowsBlinds, it`s not free, and the shareware version doesn`t change scrollbars, which looks stupid. I would reccomend the first method. LiteStep is a more radical change, as it`s an entire shell replacement. Explorer.exe is not only the Windows explorer/My computer program, but it`s the shell of Windows, and get`s loaded every time you start Windows. If you press Ctrl-Alt-Del and stop explorer.exe, the taskbar, the icons, everything will be gone (Windows will start the program again soon). Litestep replaces Explorer.exe as the shell, thus you can change much more things. I`ve tried it, but the loading time was awful. You can give it a try if you want, but it`s not that easy to configure and customize. It does offer some powerful features however.

Another shell replacement program is Aston, not bad, but it`s shareware too.

And finally, go to wincustomize.com for lots of themes, bootskins, logon skins, and much more

[WMCoolmon]

F*ck themes, use Geoshell.

There's a somewhat small selection to choose from, but it's easy to make your own themes. It's also pretty fast.

[Kamikaze]

If you like minimalism, try Blackbox.

[mikhael]

I like Litestep. Used to use it exclusively. These days though, I just stick with XP with all theming disabled.

[MicroPsycho]

I've used Aston in the past, it's flexible but takes some getting used to, right now I use StyleXP, i prefer Style XP

[knn]

Originally posted by mikhael
I like Litestep. Used to use it exclusively. These days though, I just stick with XP with all theming disabled.

Yup, themes can really slow down your computer.

[Admiral LSD]

I'd rather have my computer slower (which, on a 3000+, isn't noticable) than put up with the steaming pile of **** that is the XP 'Window Classic' theme.

[Bobboau]

out of all of these how many are free?

[WMCoolmon]

At least 1 (Geoshell)

[Admiral LSD]

I believe Litestep is free too, released as open source under the GPL.

And they ported Blackbox to Win32? It was bad enough under Linux...

[Martinus]

Originally posted by Admiral LSD
I believe Litestep is free too, released as open source under the GPL.

And they ported Blackbox to Win32? It was bad enough under Linux...

[color=66ff00]Yeah, I'd no idea that Blackbox was ported to windows.

Speaking of Linux, I find xfce4 to be a rather fantastic setup. I use Konqueror and Konsole (KDE) as I like the immediately accessible buffer in Konsole. Konqueror is pretty powerful and flexible too.

I guess xfce4's WM leaves a lot to be desired though.
[/color]

[Admiral LSD]

I can't stand KDE. It has the distinction of being the only environment ever to make my eyes hurt from continued use. Not even the default XP setup does that. I can normally adapt pretty well to these things but KDE... ugh. xfce is pretty dire too but nowhere near as bad as KDE.

[knn]

Originally posted by Admiral LSD
I'd rather have my computer slower (which, on a 3000+, isn't noticable) than put up with the steaming pile of **** that is the XP 'Window Classic' theme.

It will be noticable with future games (depending on your memory size). Themes take up more memory, because the bitmaps have to be stored. And you can`t see the XP GUI while playing

[Admiral LSD]

Assuming the downward slide continues, I don't see myself playing too many of the 'future games' you speak of. By the time the slowdown becomes noticable I'll probably need a new computer anyway.

[Fenrir]

Originally posted by Admiral LSD
I'd rather have my computer slower (which, on a 3000+, isn't noticable) than put up with the steaming pile of **** that is the XP 'Window Classic' theme.

Do the default Windows XP themes really take up that much more memory than the Classic view? As in, enough to effect games?

[CP5670]

I hate the default XP theme, but a variation of the classic 98/2000 theme with high contrast colors works well for me. The themes service isn't quite as much of a hog as some of the other junk that is enabled by default.

Also, a big effective improvement in speed in Windows itself can be gained by getting rid of all those stupid animations on menus, windows, dropdowns and other things. Windows becomes so much more responsive with those turned off.

Windows uses about 72.6MB total for me with only drivers and no programs loaded up, which isn't too bad.