Itsmeee
04-12-2004, 06:35 PM
I've had a few people asking me how to theme xp. Now let me start by saying my themeing is to my tastes. You do NOT have to have it the way I do. This is simply what I did, you can chose your own style. Make it your own! :)
First off we need to decide how were going to theme XP to get rid of your default desktop.
http://www.lamartin.org/images/xpdesktop.JPG
defualt xp desktop
We have a few options for us to explore. The main ones are StyleXP (http://www.tgtsoft.com/) and Windows Blinds (http://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/). Windows blinds themes do generally look a tad nicer, but I stick to stylexp for two reasons. First it uses windows built in skinning as apposed to windows blinds which uses its own skin util which uses more resources. Secondly stylexp has yet to crash for me, while windows blinds did a few times. Again its because of how they skin. So in this tidbit I'll be focusing on StyleXP.
http://mysite.verizon.net/res7sb2k/stylexp.jpg
your new desktop
Now that you have a skinning program you need skins for it. For this I hit one of two sites. The first is themexp.org (http://www.themexp.org), and the other is Deviantart (http://www.deviantart.com).
Themexp is a simple site, though its just been taken over by some company and they say they are adding some sort of ads (this just happened and I wasn't previously aware of it). Anyway here is a link to the skin I'm going to try (http://themexp.org/preview.php?mid=130&type=vs&view=downloads&page=6&cat=7&name=Blackcomb+Pro+11.zip). Blackcomb is a nice easy and fairly pleasing skin.
http://mysite.verizon.net/res7sb2k/blackcomb.jpg another fav is Milk (http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/4990239)
Now we move on to wallpapers. My favorite places for those are Deviantart (http://www.deviantart.com), RMS13 (http://images.rms13.com) and my favs are here :) (http://mysite.verizon.net/res7sb2k/imagesother.html).
So now your desktop is skinned and wallpapered, plus you can use stylexp to set your icons, and change bootscreens and some other things like that.
Now is time to organize your desktop in a way that will make it very usable for you. I organized mine so there are no icons on the desktop (to remove recycle bin download tweakui (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp)). This allows for the desktop to be exactly as the name suggests, a desktop! Its clutter free so when you have a project you can spread your files around. I've also set my startmenu up a little differently.
http://mysite.verizon.net/res7sb2k/startmenu.jpg
First off we need to decide how were going to theme XP to get rid of your default desktop.
http://www.lamartin.org/images/xpdesktop.JPG
defualt xp desktop
We have a few options for us to explore. The main ones are StyleXP (http://www.tgtsoft.com/) and Windows Blinds (http://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/). Windows blinds themes do generally look a tad nicer, but I stick to stylexp for two reasons. First it uses windows built in skinning as apposed to windows blinds which uses its own skin util which uses more resources. Secondly stylexp has yet to crash for me, while windows blinds did a few times. Again its because of how they skin. So in this tidbit I'll be focusing on StyleXP.
http://mysite.verizon.net/res7sb2k/stylexp.jpg
your new desktop
Now that you have a skinning program you need skins for it. For this I hit one of two sites. The first is themexp.org (http://www.themexp.org), and the other is Deviantart (http://www.deviantart.com).
Themexp is a simple site, though its just been taken over by some company and they say they are adding some sort of ads (this just happened and I wasn't previously aware of it). Anyway here is a link to the skin I'm going to try (http://themexp.org/preview.php?mid=130&type=vs&view=downloads&page=6&cat=7&name=Blackcomb+Pro+11.zip). Blackcomb is a nice easy and fairly pleasing skin.
http://mysite.verizon.net/res7sb2k/blackcomb.jpg another fav is Milk (http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/4990239)
Now we move on to wallpapers. My favorite places for those are Deviantart (http://www.deviantart.com), RMS13 (http://images.rms13.com) and my favs are here :) (http://mysite.verizon.net/res7sb2k/imagesother.html).
So now your desktop is skinned and wallpapered, plus you can use stylexp to set your icons, and change bootscreens and some other things like that.
Now is time to organize your desktop in a way that will make it very usable for you. I organized mine so there are no icons on the desktop (to remove recycle bin download tweakui (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp)). This allows for the desktop to be exactly as the name suggests, a desktop! Its clutter free so when you have a project you can spread your files around. I've also set my startmenu up a little differently.
http://mysite.verizon.net/res7sb2k/startmenu.jpg