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 Roffles Tuvalu. September 02 2009 12:39. Posts 4102 | Profile Blog | |
| | Never forget you, I remember you. |
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 Athos United States. September 02 2009 12:42. Posts 1530 | Profile Blog |
| I assume you are using Windows vista which I don't know too much about ( I still cling to XP) but one of the things I do is cleanup my desktop and remove all program shortcuts. It makes everything much nice to look at. Other than that, I would suggest getting kickass wallpaper (see September Desktop Thread). |
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 JeeJee Canada. September 02 2009 12:43. Posts 2528 | Profile Blog |
let's start off with asking what OS you got
also, what are you looking to get out of your desktop? i thought i needed all those cool gadgets and all, but after actually setting them up, i realized they kinda suck and took em down.. 
on my linux, i set up conky (sysinfo that's kind of embedded in your desktop) which was somewhat neat but also in the end pointless.. and plus linux blows anyway
in the end, the only customizations i'm left with (that stood the test of time and usefulness) that directly affect how my desktop (winXP) looks is 2 things:
-just a generic darker skin (slanxp2)
-putting all commonly used programs into c:\windows so that i can run them in 2-3 keystrokes, without any need for shortcuts cluttering up my desktopLast edit: 2009-09-02 12:44:55 |
| (\o/) Life is good ^^
/_\ aka feelShinbi (requesting a name change since 27/05/09 ☺) |
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| Roffles Tuvalu. September 02 2009 12:46. Posts 4102 | Profile Blog |
On September 02 2009 12:43 JeeJee wrote:let's start off with asking what OS you got also, what are you looking to get out of your desktop? i thought i needed all those cool gadgets and all, but after actually setting them up, i realized they kinda suck and took em down.. on my linux, i set up conky (sysinfo that's kind of embedded in your desktop) which was somewhat neat but also in the end pointless.. and plus linux blows anyway
Well, first of all I'm on Vista. Second of all, I'd like to get rid of all my icons on the desktop and hopefully throw my most used ones onto a dock up top or bottom. And secondly I'd like to have a sidebar that has the capability to keep me organized (Calendar, Weather, To Do List, Maybe CPU Performance, stuff of that sort). Not too fancy, but still aesthetically pleasing .Last edit: 2009-09-02 12:51:34 |
| | Never forget you, I remember you. |
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| Athos United States. September 02 2009 12:48. Posts 1530 | Profile Blog |
On September 02 2009 12:43 JeeJee wrote:let's start off with asking what OS you got also, what are you looking to get out of your desktop? i thought i needed all those cool gadgets and all, but after actually setting them up, i realized they kinda suck and took em down.. on my linux, i set up conky (sysinfo that's kind of embedded in your desktop) which was somewhat neat but also in the end pointless.. and plus linux blows anyway
I used to be a linux user. Having my own cube was nice for a while, but the inability to play most games combined with a shitty response from my wireless card ultimately made me switch back to windows exclusively. |
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| JeeJee Canada. September 02 2009 12:50. Posts 2528 | Profile Blog |
Vista is actually a good operating system, I don't know where all the hate comes from. Word of mouth is a powerful thing i guess.
In vista, what you're asking for is actually simple, there's a lot of widgets/gadgets/whatcha-ma-callits that can do the lists/clocks etc.
And to get rid of the icons on the desktop.. I must be missing something, since I'm sure simply deleting them has occurred to you. I believe the C:\Windows trick also works in Vista, you can take a look at that and see if it's something that works for you (so that you can run programs without needing shortcuts), but if not then you will have to find another way around it
edit:
@athos, haha that about sums up my nix experience as well
did you have to fuck around with ndiswrapper? that's some fun stuffLast edit: 2009-09-02 12:51:41 |
| (\o/) Life is good ^^
/_\ aka feelShinbi (requesting a name change since 27/05/09 ☺) |
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 Fr33t United States. September 02 2009 13:00. Posts 792 | Profile |
| Rocketdock is awesome along with a good icon set and the stack docklet if you want to get rid of icons. |
| | "Wow you could literally transport Lomo's face to a girl and the result would be pretty deceptive." |
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| OrderlyChaos United States. September 02 2009 13:05. Posts 870 | Profile Blog |
The main tool that people seem to use for the desktop widgets and such is rainmeter. http://www.rainmeter.net/ It's a fairly powerful program that's pretty customizable. It also comes with a set of themed features. I've tried it out a couple times, but have been too lazy really to play around with it and make things perfect. It has a lot of the features you seem to be looking for though. You could also just try to find random widgets for the standard vista sidebar.
As far as docks, there are a few programs for that. Objectdock http://www.stardock.com/products/objectdock/ and Rocketdock http://rocketdock.com/ pretty much do the same thing. I've used both, and I liked them pretty much equally. Objectdock is technically commercial, but the free version does the big things. I now use launchy as my application launcher though, but that's just preference (I like being able to alt-space, type a few letters, enter and have my program go).
For wallpapers, there are a lot of sites out there. I like Interfacelift, which offers some good HD desktops. http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper_beta/downloads/date/any/
If you browse through lifehacker.com's featured desktops ( http://lifehacker.com/tag/featured-desktop/ ), you might find some others you might like. I keep telling myself I'm going to be beautifying my desktop, but I never actually do it... Hopefully this is helpful.
Last edit: 2009-09-02 13:10:17 |
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| El.Divino United States. September 02 2009 13:07. Posts 963 | Profile Blog | |
| | My wife for hire. (aka pLaTypu5) | NaDa fan. |
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| Athos United States. September 02 2009 13:14. Posts 1530 | Profile Blog |
On September 02 2009 12:50 JeeJee wrote:
edit:
@athos, haha that about sums up my nix experience as well
did you have to fuck around with ndiswrapper? that's some fun stuff
Yup 
It sucked because the wireless would always disconnect and once that happened I had to restart. Otherwise I could never I never figure out how to get back on the internet. Ndiswrapper was a nightmare to use and it sucks that there isn't a high end professional version that does all the work for you.
That was one of the benefits of using Linux, it makes you less lazy. Last edit: 2009-09-02 13:14:41 |
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 caldo149 United States. September 02 2009 13:39. Posts 340 | Profile Blog |
| A very simple thing that I do is use the Quick Launch Toolbar. I put my most used programs there and it's in a pretty convenient place right there next to Start, but you can move it if you so desire. |
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 jodogohoo Canada. September 02 2009 13:47. Posts 1270 | Profile Blog |
a good idea is to open task manager and shut down the process "explore.exe"
it makes i so you can't open folders and everything on your desktop is gone, but it looks real nice if you have a good wallpaper, btw don't get stupid shit the clouds up your desktop.
tldr if its clean it looks nice |
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 Lyriu Canada. September 02 2009 13:51. Posts 16 | Profile |
On September 02 2009 13:05 OrderlyChaos wrote:The main tool that people seem to use for the desktop widgets and such is rainmeter. http://www.rainmeter.net/ It's a fairly powerful program that's pretty customizable. It also comes with a set of themed features. I've tried it out a couple times, but have been too lazy really to play around with it and make things perfect. It has a lot of the features you seem to be looking for though. You could also just try to find random widgets for the standard vista sidebar. As far as docks, there are a few programs for that. Objectdock http://www.stardock.com/products/objectdock/ and Rocketdock http://rocketdock.com/ pretty much do the same thing. I've used both, and I liked them pretty much equally. Objectdock is technically commercial, but the free version does the big things. I now use launchy as my application launcher though, but that's just preference (I like being able to alt-space, type a few letters, enter and have my program go).
Yup, I'd advocate for both Rainmeter and Launchy as well (used to use rocketdock, hassle to make all the icons though =/). I believe the latest version of Rainmeter by default comes with the Enigma configs, you would have fun playing around with those I hope =).
Other than that, try going through the customization section at deviantart. If you want to change the look of your task bars and stuff without any 3rd party programs, check out the Visual Styles section under Windows Vista utilities.
Hope that helps =D. |
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 MrHoon  September 02 2009 14:06. Posts 4909 | Profile Blog |
wait I wanna join this thread too!!!!!!
I have an XP, how can one reskin my XP so it looks cool :O |
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 lac29 United States. September 02 2009 14:34. Posts 222 | Profile Blog | |
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| Thesecretaznman United States. September 02 2009 16:05. Posts 369 | Profile Blog |
On September 02 2009 14:06 MrHoon wrote:
wait I wanna join this thread too!!!!!!
I have an XP, how can one reskin my XP so it looks cool :O
Get the UXTheme.dll patch.
This will allow you to reskin the windows file explorer/taskbar/etc with visual styles. (.msstyle files.)
You can find it here. Be sure to read at least the first two posts, since the method in post 1 might not work. Manual might be better.
VSstyles har.
Old as hell style-manager, which I still use for some reason:
ofc, you can use WindowBlinds to manage the standard VS style files, but I haven't bothered with that. Styler, if used, will load all the default color/size settings every time, but will save font settings. If you use the display properties menu for font/size settings, you probably won't have this issue.
Other things you can do for aesthetics/functionality: install meters/widget apps like rainmeter/samurize or install a custom shell, like blackbox for windows, or litestep.
GL HF.
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| Roffles Tuvalu. September 03 2009 01:24. Posts 4102 | Profile Blog |
| I wanna thank all those who've helped in this thread. Greatly appreciated! Off to try out some things here and there now. |
| | Never forget you, I remember you. |
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| Sadistx Zimbabwe. September 03 2009 01:30. Posts 2153 | Profile Blog | |
| | PvT Abuse Checklist Name ___Horang2____ [ ] Manner gas [x] Proxy buildings [ ] DTs [ ] 14 nexus [x] Fast carriers |
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