This simple tutorial will teach you how to make your Windows XP look like Vista, without making any irreversible changes to the computer.
Visual Style
1) Firstly, to replace the Windows XP look (buttons, windows, etc), you need to patch your PC to allow it to use third party visual styles that are not licensed by Microsoft. To do that, you need something called the uxtheme patcher. However, I am not sure if using such a patch is legal. You will have to google for “uxtheme patcher” and download it yourself. If you want to do this 100% legally, buy this program called StyleXP. It does the same thing for a fee.
2) Now that your PC can use third party visual styles (or MSStyles). You can search for the visual style yourself on the net. To make my PC look like Windows Vista, I am using this visual style called Vista Perfection. Download the entire package, and unzip the files from VPX4forNonLSPatched.zip into your C:\WINDOWS\Themes folder. Next, fire up your Control Panel, and click on Display if you are using Classic View, or click on Appearances and Themes, then Change The Computer’s Theme. The Display Properties dialog will appear. Click on Appearance, and then under Windows and Buttons, choose VistaPerfection X4. Apply. Your PC will now look like this:
If this is good enough for you, you are done. If you have at least 1GB of RAM, and want something more, read on.
Third Party Applications
The thing on the right of my screen is known as Sidebar. Google Desktop looks very similar to Vista’s sidebar, and is very powerful. Get it from here.
Notice that when I mouse over the button on my taskbar, a small thumbnail or preview of that window appears. To have this effect on your PC, download Visual Task Tips
Although this is not a feature in Windows Vista, I feel that this next application is a nice addition to your PC.
Yet anOther Desktop Manager 3D is a virtual desktop manager that allows the user to navigate 4 virtual desktops in a cube form. Rather cool and very user-friendly. Get it from here.
Your XP have been “upgraded” to Vista. Happy?
(Vista sound, icons and cursors can be downloaded to replace your current XP set. However, this is quite geeky and may result in irreversible problems if not done properly, so these are obmitted. If you want, you can always google and find out how to do it.)
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It’s a bit sad that in people’s minds, vista=fancy GUI. But I guess that’s what happen when M$ tries to charge so high for an OS that still can’t even support all the hardware on the market, especially older ones.
In fact, I moving to Linux. I mean, it’s has poor hardware support and everything, but when it does works, it works damn well. Some more, some Linux users manage to make their systems look like Vista too, and they don’t even need to bother with licensing.
Oh, and some people also copied that 3D spinning cube for virtual desktops on Linux too. But it’s damn hard to set up. Oh well, as the saying goes, “You get what you pay for.”
The 3D spinning thing for linux is part of Beryl. You can get distributions with Beryl already installed. It is hard only if you don’t know enough. I’ve got a Linux Live CD with Beryl. Thats why I love the cube thing after I’ve used it, and seek for something similar on Windows XP.
Why I am staying with XP? It allows me to do everything I want to do with relative ease. I has got tonnes of tools. I have a buffet of software to choose from if I use XP. Sure, Linux can do anything. But I want to do everything with huge ease.
I would have switched to Vista, but at its current state now, it plain sucks.
Why I change by GUI? To give myself a nicer and sleek environment to work in.
“But I guess that’s what happen when M$ tries to charge so high for an OS that still can’t even support all the hardware on the market, especially older ones.”
You are abit out of order in here. Damn. Why am I paying so much for a DVD player that can’t even play my VCR tapes?
Progress, my friend is the answer.
Damn, I just hate it when people come flying into my face (or blog) shouting “this and this” is the best, without giving me any reasons. What do you use Linux for? What do you mean by Linux “works damn well?” Do you mean that Linux has little viruses and spywares? Damn, why do you get those on your PC anyway? I don’t use any anti-virus or anti-spyware thingy, and I don’t get anything. It boils down to how the user uses the PC. Passive infection of viruses and what-nots are rare. It is because you download all the wrong things, and visit all the wrong sites, that causes problems on youe PC. So, before you start saying Windows XP sucks because it has tonnes of viruses, spywares, adwares, bear in mind that you are the one who suck in the first place.
I still have no idea how you, (inferring from your comment), a computer noob (relative to me), who says that Linux is hard to set up (Linux as it is now, is fucking easy to install and use, and support most, if not all common hardwares from major vendors), wishes to (or brags about) move on to Linux.
Hell, it is like someone showing off he know how to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars on the Violin (completely out of tune) to his girlfriend while someone with a Diploma in Volin sits just beside the couple. I feel like that Diploma guy right now. Should I laugh or should I offer guidance?
(Any average IT guy can tell you at least 10 mistakes in your above comment. I am too lazy to even list them one by one.)
Sorry for being rather vague in my last comment, cos I was just giving a passing comment. Nevertheless, let me advertise Linux for a while.
I do not have any illusion about Linux or that it is really the best. It is NOT the best. Let me repeat, it is still not the best. I love to see a day when it does, but I’m not holding my breath. Like you say, it takes work to get it to work, especially at hardware support, and it’s security is NOT bulletproof.
What I like about Linux is its flexibility. It gives me more ‘freedom’. Even with my relatively feeble skill (I don’t know a thing about C++ programming), I am able to customize my Linux system to the way I want. I can choose between three different GUIs (my personal favorite is KDE), dozens of web browsers (Firefox is the hot favourite), and not to mention hundreds of other programs. And most of them are free to use.
I can also choose what I DON’T want. For example, I don’t want the spinning cube thing, because my laptop lacks the CPU power to do so. There are plenty of distribution that includes Beryl (or Compiz), which brought plenty of grief on my old laptop (cannot boot up, slow performance, detecting my laptops’ Intel integrated graphics wrongly, etc.). But there were like dozens of distributions out there, so I can try them out and pick what I want.
And speaking of old hardware, you may call abandoning old hardware ‘progress’. But what about my old laptop? It will choke on any version of Vista, even that ‘Home Basic’ version. Some more, Windows XP STILL runs slow on my laptop (never figured out exactly why, I only run AVG antivirus and Windows Firewall). But I don’t want to throw it out yet. I’m not that rich to buy a new one yet, and I still love my laptop. I always cringe when I see people throwing out perfectly good P4 computers with only a broken hard disk. What a waste! Unfortunately, that’s the kind of wastage Vista promotes. In my view, progress is about improving efficiency, not merely ditching out the ‘old’.
It’s the freedom I never experienced when I used Windows that made me want to switch. I started off playing around with Linux for fun and to learn, but now I have switched. I still keep Windows XP to run Windows program, but I only booted into it about once a month.
You said you like Windows XP. That’s okay. I’m sorry if I sounded too confrontational on my last comment. I have nothing against Windows-lovers. We each have our own preferences.
FYI, I use Arch Linux, which installs only the kernel and a command-prompt interface on default installation, but gives me much freedom to install what I want. It IS difficult to set up Beryl on it, and it doesn’t help that Linux hardware support for 3D graphics is generally poor. Also, I never got a virus before.
Oh, and how about pointing out my ‘ten mistakes’ so that I can learn? I do want to learn.
The thing about Vista, is that with all its feature, it isn’t developed to support older hardwares. Microsoft has never done such a thing before and it can be safe to take it for granted that such a thing will never happen. With progress, what I meant is newer OS will require newer hardwares. There is no point complaining that newer OS cannot support older hardwares. If a software developer were to give in to that demand, he cannot make use of any new developements in hardware, and I can imagine that we will all still be using (at the very most) DOS.
With older hardwares, I never mention to chuck them away. It is the mere suggestion from you that Vista lacks support for holder hardware as a form of weakness, that puts me off and discredit (in my opinion) your comments.
If you were to throw me an old P1 computer, I’ll just install some light linux distro on it, and use it as a web or file server.
I never mention about C++ programming. I talked about windows programming. Both aren’t the same thing.
I don’t really see a connection between people throwing away P4 comps with broken HDD, and an operation system called Vista.
With Windows, you can play around with your GUI too. Just look at what I did with mine. On Windows, you have slightly less choice of webbrowsers as compared to linux, but since the hot favourite is Firefox, and since Windows has it as well, I don’t really see where you are getting at.
There are tonnes of free apps on Windows too. In fact, most are generally user-friendlier and less geeky (or difficult to set up as you said) compared to its Linux counterpart.
Still, I don’t see the point of your comments. I am here, telling people how to transform their XP to look like Vista in a simple and free manner, and there you are, running after me like a mad dog telling me that linux is good, has freedom, allows you to change its GUI, has tonnes of browsers (esp firefox) and other free apps, all of which are also features of Windows XP.
Next time, when people ask you why you choose girl A over girl B, you will tell me that girl A has hair, noses, mouth and breasts. Very good reasons, don’t you think?
And really, you got to stop this. Right from your first comment, it is already out of point with regards to my entry. I am damn frightened now. If I am going to make a post about buying a digital still camera, I think (speculatively) that you are going to come at me with rage telling me how a normal LCD display sucks, and cannot display vivid colours, and hence I should not buy such an expensive digital still camera.
Don’t see the link? Good. That is a good example of how I don’t see the link between yr comments and my blog entries.
So now, be gone.
Hey WK,
The Vista Transformation Pack 6 Final does pretty much the same thing without much hassle.
Here’s the link: http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/Vista-Transformation-Pack.shtml
Hi,
Changes made using Vista Transformation Pack can be irreversible and some deep system changes are made. If done wrongly the entire OS may be messed up, which is why I suggested a more controllable and manual approach.