[help] Customisation - Anyone Care To Explain?

Right, I've been following the whole topic for a while now, and I've managed to get myself totally confused, so could anyone explain the following to me;

Starting from a fresh Windows XP installation, to customise Windows and get to the state that most people advertise in their posts (e.g. see the new Brushed Panther by Xero post) what is it necessary to do?

1) Presumably I need WindowsBlinds. Apply the correspoding theme, buttons go to the left-hand side, etc.

Now, does this also skin the buttons and everything else as well?

2) OR do I also need to install the so-called Mac customisation pack? What extras does it offer? (I had installed the SP1 files by Iceman for my original customisation, but I wasn't using WB).

3) Install Objectbar, and apply the necessary theme. I assume this will give me the Menus on the 'taskbar' and the correct system tray icons.

4) What is a 'Shellstyle'? Do I then have to download separate components for the logon screen, the finder and so on?

Anything else I need to do?

Oh and another question. If I install the customisation pack, then wouldn't any future Windows Updates mess up my system? By this I mean some components having an XP look and some others (including icons) having another.

Thanks in advance,

LordB

#48631

I don't use WB, so I can't answer most of your questions.

But I can tell you that you would definitely need to install a dock program. You can use either Mobydock, Objectdock or Y'z Dock. The latter you'll need to google in order to find a proper download link.

Also, the shellstyle.dll basically skins the left-side of your explorer window (where the System Tasks, Other Places, Details, etc options reside).

And yes, if future windows updates replaces certain system files included in the present transformation pack, it will mess up the look of your system.

#48639

Windowblinds skins every app on your system and the shellstyles for you. You only need the skin and the Windowblinds app itself.

Objectbar replaces the start menu, again you just need the theme downloaded to your pc to use it with the program.

Icons are replaced in various ways (shell32.dll replacement etc.). Another way is to use IconPackager and download IPThemes, which replace the icons a little more easily for beginners, but does the same job almost as well.

YzToolbar replaces your Explorer/Iexplorer buttons (ie back, forward, refresh).

The dock as mentioned is just another program, for ease of use, use ObjectDock to get you started.

A brief explanation. Post some more queries if ya stuck.

#48641

here's some more information: http://www.aqua-soft.org/board/index.php?s...?showtopic=1587

i personally use the uxtheme.dll patch. patching it allows you to use non-microsoft themes, like the mac ones you see here. it's free, simple, and doesn't use any resources.

wb and msstyles skin everything from buttons to titlebars.

there are 2 customization packs around. there's the one by windows x, but some members had problems with that one, and there's one by pack, which is a set of modified system files. you can wait for the installer for pack's mods, or you can manually replace system files.

the updates write over the system files, so you'll need to rehack or replace those again. this is a good tool for replacing system files manually: replacer

good luck!

#48649