Windows customize

[evolyn]

Hey guys i saw many of u have nice desktop's and awesome designs and i still use always stock design :/
maybe u have some ideas what i can change or what programm i could use any  help or ideas are welcome ^^
ty
regards

[vun]

Download an UXTheme patcher and then go find a visual style you like.
DeviantART is a good place to start, since that was originally started as a PC customization website. Customize.org is pretty dead now, but there are still a few visual styles and rainmeters worth checking out, although most likely not worth it.

Basically, stick to the stuff they have on DA, some of the most talented people post their stuff there. If you want inspiration, and maybe a few download links, check out pixel****ers. Not much you can download there, but plenty of screenshots for inspiration.

You'll also want to get the registry edit that adds a take ownership option to the right click context menu.


If you don't want to bother with all of that, buy WindowBlinds, does all that stuff for you.

[damorgue]

Rainmeter is popular to make dynamic things on the wallpaper.

[microsoft windows]

You can give a few Geekhack wallpapers in this thread a try:
http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=46074.0

[IvanIvanovich]

I've been customizing windows for quite a long time. How deep do you want to go and with what version of Windows? There are a lot of different visual alterations, style hacks with element hiding/replacing, styles, icon replacements and so on. There is also a few alternate shells that might interest you if you really want something drastically different than explorer. Take ownership is a good point if you are altering and replacing system files. But, I ultimately find it a lot easier and less frustrating to replace them outside of windows so I don't have to fight it's file protection schemes. Besides you always need to reboot to see the change anyway.

Also a long time rainmeter user. You really can do a whole lot with it if you take the time, way beyond having a big clock and cpu usage. I think Microsoft missed with Win8 livetiles start when they could have taken rainmeter approach and had it all on the desktop so you don't have to 'go' anywhere.

[Stevenator21]

You might want to look up Rainmeter, awesome program

[Morwrath]

Rainmeter and Rocketdock are two nice programs to get started with. You can also find custom icon-packs that looks a lot better than the default program icons.
Currently using the Lucid White icons.
I'm currently using a Rainmeter-pack that is called Enigma, it is one of the recommended packs for new users of Rainmeter. Quite new myself so haven't really made any real changes to it, still looks heck of a lot better than normal windows though

[vun]

Besides you always need to reboot to see the change anyway.

No you don't, for most of the file replacements you'll be doing; explorerframe, shellstyles and stuff, you just need to restart explorer or reapply the visual style.
Take ownership works like a charm for that, yes it's easy to just replace system files outside of Windows, but with take ownership I haven't had any problem when replacing the majority of the basic system files that comes with most visual styles. If you're making your own and wanting to go fairly deep then yes, doing it through ubuntu on a USB stick/dualboot might be easier, but then we're talking some serious ****.

As for alternate shells; they can be awesome, but isn't something I'd recommend starting off with.

To OP; if you want a full suite, take a look at something like the GAIA suites.

[IvanIvanovich]

I've often had a lot of trouble with things if I don't do it outside, seems Windows don't want to release the original copy of the file if you try and do it in place while running with many things. It's also 2x the work on x64 since you usually have 2 version of file to modify. But always the most annoying thing is when updates come and you have to redo it.
I do go pretty far sometimes. I've made before mods to pretty much every visual element starting at boot, themes that only have the file window and a border around it. No address, buttons, etc... and removed all icons from everywhere. Very minimal and kind of retro like, almost like a very slick looking terminal or something. People would come over and be totally perplexed and not able to tell what os it is. Was also a handy way to keep others off my computers since they couldn't navigate them LOL.

[vun]

I've often had a lot of trouble with things if I don't do it outside, seems Windows don't want to release the original copy of the file if you try and do it in place while running with many things. It's also 2x the work on x64 since you usually have 2 version of file to modify. But always the most annoying thing is when updates come and you have to redo it.
I do go pretty far sometimes. I've made before mods to pretty much every visual element starting at boot, themes that only have the file window and a border around it. No address, buttons, etc... and removed all icons from everywhere. Very minimal and kind of retro like, almost like a very slick looking terminal or something. People would come over and be totally perplexed and not able to tell what os it is. Was also a handy way to keep others off my computers since they couldn't navigate them LOL.

Do you still have the files for the stuff you've made? I'd be interested in trying it out.

Also, while there are 2 of each file on x64, you don't actually need to replace both. The current setup I have only replaces one of the explorerframe dlls, and it works just fine.
If you're just downloading a VS off the net then chances are that all of the files that need replacing will only need "take ownership" and then restart explorer, nothing more. I can easily just rename explorerframe.dll to something like explorerframe.dll.old while everything is running, then paste the new .dll in and restart explorer, works like a charm.

[IvanIvanovich]

True it's not 100% necessary, but say you are using some 32bits program that calls one of the files in syswow64, shell32.dll is a pretty frequent one for arguments sake, and you are slapped in the face with the ugly default stuff... it just bothers me. No I don't have old files. I didn't keep them when I switched up from 7 and haven't gone into modding on 8.1 yet since it's not rtm and there is not working uxtheme patcher for it yet. I only have done some small things that are irritations to me like rid of that ugly 'film' icon that goes around movie file thumbnails and changed all the live folder icons to white version with some color ones for special folders like music and downloads. Otherwise for now I only other thing I did the trick to use the hidden lite theme. Really though the default 8 style theme is not too bad. Probably the only one that I have been able to stand out of the box.

[vun]

I've seen a fair bit of win8 customization going on, although idk how they go about doing it since I'm still on win7 and not planning on upgrading any time soon.

And yeah, you can argue that there are cases where replacing both version of a file on x64 is necessary, but so far I can't really think of a single time that has actually been needed. 90% of the themes I've been using only replace the system32 ones, and I can't remember there ever being a time where that hasn't been enough.

[tp4tissue]

In my experience, complicated visual mods significantly hamper the responsiveness of the system.

This is especially true for animations and transparency effects, that the GPU has to render several times to achieve.

It doesn't matter how many jigahertz you got,  latency is latency..


That's why I stay firmly in the realm of "color replace" and "disable background image"

[vun]

Latency is latency but I don't give a **** if I don't notice it.

[evolyn]

Download an UXTheme patcher and then go find a visual style you like.
DeviantART is a good place to start, since that was originally started as a PC customization website. Customize.org is pretty dead now, but there are still a few visual styles and rainmeters worth checking out, although most likely not worth it.

Basically, stick to the stuff they have on DA, some of the most talented people post their stuff there. If you want inspiration, and maybe a few download links, check out pixel****ers. Not much you can download there, but plenty of screenshots for inspiration.

You'll also want to get the registry edit that adds a take ownership option to the right click context menu.


If you don't want to bother with all of that, buy WindowBlinds, does all that stuff for you.

great info thx men i did it all i will post some pictures when i changed it thx alot that was helpful

[tp4tissue]

Latency is latency but I don't give a **** if I don't notice it.

mmmm.... you do notice it...

it's whether or not you care...

If your life doesn't revolve around a PC, it'd make little difference.