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Pimp Your XP
An anonymous reader writes "Ezinearticles.com has up an interesting article on how you can improve Windows XP to mimic and even surpass Vista — at least some of its new features. Several of the suggestions cost money and others are free. From improving the user interface with Stardock to mimicking new security features with open source software such as Sudown, the article discusses many ways that die-hard XP users can enhance their environment without moving to Vista."
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.
Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
As the article admits, there is no current way to get DirectX 10 onto XP. Though the article makes a good point that there are very few DirectX 10 games on the market, they will eventually come and diehard gamers will face a difficult choice. This could be MS's only workable strategy for general Vista adoption because, fundamentally, there is no reason that anyone would want to use Windows anymore aside from games (or because of mandated OS at employer, though that situation raises the question of why the CIO hasn't be fired for gross negligence in funds appropriations, especially for Vista, which doesn't run Office 2000 any better than XP).
On the other hand, maybe game developers will shy away from DirectX 10 because of the risk of losing a sizable market share. Diehard gamers could also prove finicky. Could this artificial attempt to tie DirectX10 with Vista to force upgrades result in a resurgence of OpenGL adoption in the gaming industry? One can only hope.
I've been using Stardock's Windowblinds for 2 years now. Recently I started using some of their other interface changing tools as well.
Windowblinds makes Windows XP SOOOO much nicer in my opinion. I wouldn't run XP without it. I love being able to customize my interface, change whatever I want, when I want.
The community at www.wincustomize.com is fantastic, and people are always designing new skins, new backgrounds, etc.
Stardock is fantastic. I love their products a ton.
Yod'm 3D
Beryl-style cube desktop on Windows. Makes using the inferior OS a little better.
"You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."
Can't go wrong with Explorer Breadcrumbs -- I'm using it on XP right now, and I don't miss Vista one bit.
Indeed. I used to change my shell every other week or so for a few months, just to try something new and tinker.
I found that LiteStep was a PITA to use. Too much playing with config files.
SharpE was a decent and simple to use. Same with geOShell.
AstonShell is a nice shell with lots of features, but it costs money and it can't do anything that LiteStep can't.
I tired BlackBox for windows when it was first released and liked it quite a bit. Very minimalistic.
There is quite a lot of shells to choose from, though, sadly, not as many as there used to be. DarkStep was a stripped down LiteStep shell that I REALLY liked, but the maintainer abandoned the project many, many years ago. Seranade looked promising, but the site doesn't even exist anymore.
Love sees no species.
FUD.
.NET Framework 1.1.
You do not need drivers for your mouse or monitor to work in Vista or XP for that matter. Drivers may allow some additional functionality, but nothing that I've ever seen to be necessary in either OS.
I've installed vista on numerous PCs, at home, in the office and on an old Lenovo R50e. I've not had hardware conflicts, I've not experienced instability, and the only showstopping incompatibility I've experienced is ironically with MS' own
I've managed to find drivers for every card and peripheral except an older Soundblaster.
Is that both of those games are DX9! We still don't have any DX10 goodness (save for the Lost Planet DX 10 Demo and Company of Heroes if the patch came out)
I patented screwing your mom. But it got revoked for "prior art."
I don't think there has ever been a new MS OS release that has run faster on the same hardware than its predecessor.
I can think of two: (1) DOS 5 versus DOS 4 [5 could put part of itself in the UMB, while DOS 4 was the worst DOS for lower memory hogging], (2) Windows for Workgroups (i.e. v3.11) versus Windows 3.1 -- 3.11 came with VFAT and this vxd made it perform better.
I come here for the love
No offense to the author, but the linked article is barely informative. I don't even know how this made it to the front page. But
the subject is interesting, as there is a bunch of cool freeware software to make XP be like (or even better than) Vista. You
don't need to spend a single dollar. So this is my real list of programs to Pimp your XP:
1. Lauchy: www.launchy.com
Some may say that this is the poor man's QuickSilver. Maybe it is, but in the Windows world there are few programs as useful as
Launchy. Install it and you won't need to access your start menu anymore.
2. Quizo's Explorer toolbars: http://quizo.at.infoseek.co.jp/freeware/indexEn.ht ml
These are 2 free toolbars that make Windows Explorer as good as Directory Opus (IMHO) for free:
* QTTabBar: Adds firefox-style tabs to windows explorer. It also adds a cool incremental search feature, and a customizable
toolbar where you can add folder shortcuts, etc
* QTAddressBar: Explorer breadcrumbs!
3. FileBox eXtender: http://www.hyperionics.com/files/index.asp
This is one of the most useful little pieces of software that I've used. I adds 2 buttons to the title bar of every windows dialog
and of every windows explorer window. One button gives you access to your "favorite folders" (which you can easily change) and the
other one gives you access to your "folder history". With these, going back and forth between folders to open or save files
becomes a snap. The only problem is that the default button icons a kind of ugly, but they can be easily changed.
4. Findexer: http://tomseffect.com/
Substitutes the windows explorer sidebar for a place where you can put links to your preferred folders. If you use FileBox
eXtender (see above) this might not be as useful, but I still like to use it.
5. TaskBar Shuffle: http://www.freewebs.com/nerdcave/taskbarshuffle.ht m
Another really useful program. With it you can reorder the window buttons in the windows taskbar. It can even automatically group
windows from the same program without collapsing them. You can also reorder the tray icons in the system tray.
6. Free Launch Bar: http://www.freelaunchbar.com/
Make the windows Quick Launch bar much more useful with this free replacement. It adds the ability to have folders inside the
quick launch bar, and have shortcuts within those folders.
7. LClock: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Desktop-Enhancements/ Clocks-Time-Management/LClock.shtml
A nice replacement to the windows clock in the system tray. It looks much better and is more useful as it shows a calendar when
you click on it. But the reason I recommend it is that it can also hide or reduce the size of the start menu button! Once you
start using Launchy (see above) you will not use the start menu very often, so I like to recover the taskbar real state that it
uses unnecessarily. To do so, with LClock you can reduce it by substituting the start menu image with a much smaller one.
8. MenuApp: http://www.freewaregenius.com/2006/11/02/menuapp/
Customize the explorer context menu with this tool. It comes with a lot of built-in actions, such as Command Prompt here, Create a
Folder, copy filename to path, etc.
There are other tools that you can use, but which I personally don't (although I've tried or used them in the past):
1. RocketDock: http://www.punksoftware.com/rocketdoc
That OEM version of Vista is now tied to your motherboard. If you had a retail version it would not be tied. If your motherboard goes and you do not replace it with exactly the same motherboard you have to pay Microsoft again for another copy of Vista probably running you another $240.00
Yes, Microsoft changed their licensing on how many times that could be installed on a new motherboard and it relented, but they have never relented about OEM copies. You bought an OEM then you are stuck with it on that board. There are no options unless you lie...and who knows how much more effort MS put into ensuring you don't try to lie about moving that OEM license to another board.
You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
There is a work around for using the Upgrade Version on a blank disk. http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5932 The purpose of the upgrade version is that it is installed from within an existing XP installation so that it can revoke the old XP license. MS has closed the loop hole of people buying the upgrade version, keeping an old XP disk around, and using it as a new license.