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It seems that this article completely skips over the possibility of replacing Explorer with something less crap. I don't just mean the file browser, I mean the desktop, start menu, etc.

You can replace the Windows shell with LiteStep very easily.

That'll teach me to not follow links before I post them. Its not actually at that host.

However, http://wiki.litestep.com/Modules:LSLua will explain how its used, which is probably all you want anyway.

Rather than using explorer, replace it with LiteStep or another of the F/OSS shells avialable for Windows. Litestep has come has come a long way as have some of the themes, I can recommend Non|Step.
Some LiteStep related links:
LiteStep 0.24.7 RC installer
Plenty more, just use google. :) LiteStep 0.24.6 RC3 core (You'd need this update after installing as the installer hasn't been updated in awhile.)
Forums & Modules

LiteStep
Geoshell

Or you could run Task Manager, Internet Explorer, even Mozilla. Any program that is capable of starting an app. Open regedit, go to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon and create a new string value of Shell with the name of the executable. Logout, then log back in and explorer is out of the stack.

its already been done...

Litestep.com

Agreed, IE (and therefore Windows Explorer) sucks in too many ways to count.

If you want focus follows mouse, install TweakUI. It has lots of other nifty settings, too.

And you can have virtual desktops in Windows if you install a third party shell (that replaces explorer.exe) such as LiteStep or any of the other shell replacements for Windows, most of which are open source.

You are full of crap. I was able to run Win98 for 2 years without a reformat,

I thought you were talking about running Win-98 for weeks without a reboot.

I've done that - no troll. The trick is to replace Explorer as your shell with something stable, like litestep. My personal setup is on my website.

Take the winxp kernel, ditch the explorer/GUI and re-write it from scratch.

You mean litestep?

There are still more features.

CD-ROM drives
webcams
printers
digital video cameras
external DVD burners
wireless mice
fax/scanner/copier

You want to compare KDE and Gnome to Windows or MacOS? Then try actually looking at the software element instead of the physical box. Because comparing phsyical adjustable glass shelves to the core software operating element of a computer isn't the right comparison.

If I want to change the GUI of Windows and keep the kernel, (like keeping the Linux Kernel and choosing a different Window Manager) I can simply go out on the web and pick a new shell. Such as LiteStep or AstonShell or any of the dozens of others that tickle my fancy. Or if I just want to change the Desktop look, I can download any one of the many thousands of themes that exist for Windows. Here's an example link (Many of which will extend the capability of the Window frame to add features such as window shading, pinned windows, translucent/transparent windows, etc..)

Are you Linux Zealots really that blinded by your own childish desire to be "l33t", "unique", and "nonconforming"? News flash: There are millions of other childish, nonconforming rebels out there ... just like you.

Go take a bath. You'll feel better.

You can get the Microsoft Virtual Desktops for Windows XP right here:

... http://www.litestep.com/ ...

If you want to see what a customizable desktop SHOULD be, you need to try Litestep, which unfortunately only runs under Windows. It's definitely geared towards people who want more eyecandy than this guy, but you really can make your desktop look and act pretty much however you want. Check out the vast variety of screenshots on Litestep.com and the list of modules at Shellfront's module archive. It may be possible to do the same under X using a variety of different applications scripted to all start on login, but personally I have no idea where to find what I'm looking for. For instance, I click on the left edge of the screen (even with a window maximized) and I get a popup menu containing a list of programs and places to navigate to. I press (windows button + spacebar) and a single-line command prompt appears ready for a variety of input, including regular command line stuff, Litestep-specific commands, web address or search to open in the default browser, etc... All this together with a taskbar/clock/system tray/media controls/virtual desktops/whatever, in any graphical/spatial configuration you define. Granted the command prompt in Unices is an effective replacement for some of the functionality, but it doesn't take care of all of it and certainly doesn't provide for the flexible eye-candy.

If someone wants to rebut me by telling me how to configure all of this in Linux, I'll definitely boot up my Linux partition and try it out.

nobody has mentioned LiteStep!
LiteStep is a replacement desktop environment released under the GPL.

I have nine desktops, can drag windows between them, I have cpu and ram meters, quick-launch buttons and shortcuts, and can even drag windows from other destkops anywhere (don't think you can do that in most desktop envs).

with litestep and mozilla, unless I have a windows [file] explorer open, there's no MS except the system (kernel, services) running - which means with the multiple-instances-of-explorer option, I need not worry about [i]explore[r].exe crashing.

and (obviously) there is theming

other GPL windows projects of interest:
FreeCiv Civilization (one and/or two+) clone
Gaim AIM/yahooim/msnim/icq/jabber/... client
and the already mentioned cygwin, vim, gimp, mozilla.

if you hunt for it, there's a cygwin version of gvim that allows unix paths, etc. but uses X.

Xfree86 for cygwin is now prime-time (in installer) and works really well with windowmaker and openbox, but lacks integration with ms windows as the wm (the way eXceed, winaXe, XwinPro, and Xthin do). please, please contribute to that somebody!

nobody has mentioned LiteStep!
LiteStep is a replacement desktop environment released under the GPL.

I have nine desktops, can drag windows between them, I have cpu and ram meters, quick-launch buttons and shortcuts, and can even drag windows from other destkops anywhere (don't think you can do that in most desktop envs).

with litestep and mozilla, unless I have a windows [file] explorer open, there's no MS except the system (kernel, services) running - which means with the multiple-instances-of-explorer option, I need not worry about [i]explore[r].exe crashing.

and (obviously) there is theming

other GPL windows projects of interest:
FreeCiv Civilization (one and/or two+) clone
Gaim AIM/yahooim/msnim/icq/jabber/... client
and the already mentioned cygwin, vim, gimp, mozilla.

if you hunt for it, there's a cygwin version of gvim that allows unix paths, etc. but uses X.

Xfree86 for cygwin is now prime-time (in installer) and works really well with windowmaker and openbox, but lacks integration with ms windows as the wm (the way eXceed, winaXe, XwinPro, and Xthin do). please, please contribute to that somebody!

Have you looked at Shellcity? There's lots of great UI tweaks and utilities for making Windows look a lot better, including replacements for the Explorer shell like Litestep (the Litestep site seems to be down right now, however). With a shell replacement, you can regain that control of having the desktop you want.

Y'know, there ARE alternative shells.

For those of you using Windows, you can set up LiteStep to replace explorer and have it use Virtual Desktops. If you hate stacking windows, just spread 'em out. See LSD4P for the easiest install of LiteStep.

This is a duh story. It's more of a processor and ram hog because of all the new services, as well as the different kernel and the upgraded version of explorer.exe as the shell. Being that as it may, you can change it to look just like windows 2000, and it runs just as smooth. But out of the box, or new users alike, it's a hog.

802.11 support is turned on automatically, as well as the remote processes. RPC cannot be turned off, only blocked, so this would be another thing.

The shell is one of the major hogs. If you change a registry entry, the exact is at regedit.com it splits the backround from the taskbar, and increases perfomance, as well as when you turn off all the appearance features and go for the performance.

Luckily the .NET servers come with the performance as standard, ALTHOUGH, it does come with the gui for the nice blue taskbar, etc. On a server? Nuts. .NET also comes with share point portal server, a sort of internal web server for corporate networks. Not sure on what else it does.

Back to XP. With windows there is a program that works like fvwm in linux, it's called litestep and gives you 3 to up to umpteen virtual desktops. I've seen 64 used, although I don't see why after 4 or 9. The windows XP power tools, located on the microsoft website, give you something called msvdm, and it has 4 virtual desktops, with which you can put a different backround on each virtual desktop. Power tools also has a graphics calculator, and some other neat things. Power tools is made, but not supported by, Microsoft developers.

But with that said, XP is more stable than windows 2000, a little better driver support, not much though. It only makes sense though that an upgrade from Microsoft would take up more resources. The new pentium 4 2 gighz is out, and the 64 bit intel comes out next year sometime.....

As a long time computer user, starting from a C64/Floppy/300 baud modems to DualP3s/Terrabyte storage/DSL I have migrated and changed the way I interact with GUI's and store my files many times over the years.

Mark Hursts ideas are almost like mine. I will break it down a little as to HD layout then OS.
I have normally have 2 HDs in my system, HDA for my OS's and HDB for my Games and Work. HDA I break down into 4 Paritions.
HDA1 for Win98,
HDA2 for Win2K,
HDA3 for either a Linux dristro or WinXP beta
HDA4 for the swap if im using linux.
HDB1 is 1 parition, normally 3 folders, Games, Work and Emulators. (Im a UAE and Mame freak.)

I dont normally use boot loaders other than Win2k's, If i boot linux i use loadlin, it seems easier for me to maintain. (C:\linux)

Im a big fan of Norton Ghost, using ghost on the paritions, I can restore quickly. As I like to play around with drivers and migrate my HD's to more space. I also burn the .gho files on CDs. If the files are larger than 700 megs, I rar the ghost images and make it self extractable. So I can boot a fresh HD from floppy. I also copy the CD images to the HD, unrar, and ghost from the whole image.

I'm a little more in depth on my HDA1 drive, I use directory names, Apps, GFX, Net, Sound, Utils, Work. I also have the normal windows directories, My Documents, Windows and Temp. Under My Documents I put My Pictures, My Music and Favorites. I then use M$ Tweak UI to point all windows versions on my HD to c:\My documents, C:\My Documents\favorites, etc.. This keeps all my files at hand if im either Win98, Win2K or linux. It makes it easier to keep every file in the same place under ever os. (Example, IE for Win2K and Win98 point to the same favorites, so my bookmarks are the same.)

After I get the basic windows installed (doesnt matter what version). I upgrade the entire installation with the newest patches and drivers. Then register file types for my apps, not windows defaults. Apps include textpad, winzip,winrar,cdrwin,nero,acdsee,winamp,proxomitro n. Windows modifications as x-teq and m$ powertoys.

Now that windows is installed, and apps, I keep a shortcut to a folder NET in c:\net\net on my desktop. This folder c:\net\net keeps shortcuts for all my programs. Even if I reinstall windows, my c:\net\net folder stays. I put a shortcut of my NET folder in my tooltray. I can either alt-tab or click on the tooltray icon (in case my apps are maximized) to have access to my favorite apps. I really dont use the start menu, as it takes longer to get to my commonly used applications.

Microsoft has weened us off Dual pane file managers.(I miss fileman!) This was (IMHO) the hardest thing to get used to in win95 and new versions of windows. Trying to copy files from a file viewed pane, then select the destination folder is slower and has more steps involved. M$ introduced powertoys that included "Copy To and Move To" extensions to windows, that at least helped. I do keep a copy of 2xExplorer for when I need to handle large ammount of files.

The part that actually increased my productivity was the toolbar. Being able to have access to my running applications, instead of alt-tabbing was a nice changed. It also provides a quick visual que on what programs im running. The tooltray also speeds up access to my c:\net\net quick launch folder full of shortcuts.

Drag and Drop, right mouse menus have become standard. I have found that I now drag mp3's onto winamp, and right mouse clicking and enqueing them. My older habit was using playlists for everything. IE didnt have the best right mouse menus, but with IE6, they have the most common menus again. (Using proxomitron and enabling all right mouse clicks also helps)

Now as my Linux GUI, I really use Windows as workstation, and unix as a server and display X back to my windows box. (X-win32 is far the best for this.) But when Im using a unix workstation, I normally install IceWM. IceWM is small, fast and has a toolbar and tooltray. It is highly customizable and can add those extra buttons that come in handy. The windowshade mode which rolls up the window to a bar is very handy. Comes in handy when I need to view multiple load balanced servers at the same time. Also for quick eye-candy, I like the network and cpu meters on the toolbar, dont really need it, but nice to see.

Started to use WinXP beta, and I'm pretty impressed with its Font Smoothing features. Check out some screenshots I made for friends here and here.. The font smoothing works all throught the GUI, notice how the menus are changed.

I spend too much time playing around with new utilities and GUI's for windows. If your interested in modifing your windows GUI, check out Shell City, WindowBlinds, and Litestep.

Have fun!
-Brook

If you wanted to run a different Win32 GUI, but still run software written for Microsoft's GUI, you'd still have to have all the dlls installed for that one too. Of course, there isn't an alternative GUI/desktop shell and set of libraries, so that situation doesn't happen under Windows.

wrong. and yes, it's just as ugly to do this as it is to run KDE programs in GNOME or vice-versa.

Why, yes they can.
---
www.stallman.org is running Apache/1.3.6 (Unix) on FreeBSD

Sure you can still skin windows but with XP MS is apparently moving towards requiring the explorer.exe shell in order to do so.. thus leaving the user without a choice again. Well, a choice dependent on the terms and whims of MS. And explorer.exe is notoriously bloated and slow, especially in comparison to the Litestep shell (which is a shell based upon module loading in essence)

I don't see this as a good thing.

I would highly recommend to those who still use Windows at all to investigate some of the various shell replacements out there. I avoided Windows like the plague after becoming used to how *nix will allow me to setup a shell to work the way I want to work and not the other way around. Litestep in particular is the only reason I have MS on one of my boxes, it's that sweet.

Plus I still get a kick out of people asking me how I managed to get Office working in Linux. :)

There's plenty of theming software available for Windows. Check out Litestep (here as well) or Windowblinds.

I'm certain there are others, but I'm only familiar with those...

Actually, nivenh is working on a 3d shell for windows using OpenGL called Dimension (yeah I know it's windows, but I think litestep has gone a long way in GUI development, further than linux window managers). Here are a couple links to sites about it:

http://floach.pimpin.net/dimension.shtml
http://desktopian.org/dimension.html

Maybe it's just vaporware, but it looks cool.

1. Putty

3. LiteStep

Not that either of these makes Windows perfect, but definitely a lot more usable.

I'm a devteam member for the Litestep project. Litestep is a "shell" for Windows. This is basically like a window manager for X, but instead of its main focus being the drawing and interaction of windows on the screen, a shell's main purpose is to present the user with an interface to the programs on the computer (For instance, Windows Explorer is a shell that organizes programs through the Start Menu, desktop icons, and a taskbar).

Litestep offers a way to totally customize your desktop. The way Litestep works is everything is loaded as an external module (sort of like AfterStep) and given a configuration. Among the available modules is a Virtual Window Manager. It comes with the default Litestep configuration, and also comes with almost 100% of themes available for Litestep.

Also, Litestep is a GPLed program, and many modules for Litestep are available under the GPL as well. Many thememakers out there will also be honored if you use their theme, splicing it to your purposes.

For more information about Litestep, visit the following locations:

• Litestep.Com (the official homepage).
• Litestep.Org (partner of Litestep.Com - more help and news here)
• Customize.Org (a site devoted to skins and themes for themeable applications for Win32)
• Skintacular (a site akin to Customize.Org)