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brainchild2b · Sep 17, 2003, 12:49 PM

Okay I want to make my windows XP computer at work as much like my Mac as possible so I feel more at home. I changed all the icons, desktops and even some of the fonts.

I put my start menu at the top. What tweaks do you guys all use? I was going to use windowblinds to theme XP like Mac OS X, but all the themes are ugly versions of it. Is there something minimalistic for windows that you guys like? Or maybe OS X Smoothstripes for XP? Can't stand white stripes.

Any ideas?

digitaljames · Sep 17, 2003, 01:34 PM

Not too many people here have a windows box. You will get more response over at the links below.

http://www.aqua-soft.org/
http://www.neowin.net/

brainchild2b · Sep 17, 2003, 01:45 PM

thanks. I just like to here from mac people because windows people sometimes don't get what the mac os x experience is all about. Thanks for the great links!

cSurfr · Sep 17, 2003, 02:21 PM

of course, i could throw in the obligatory get a mac, however since your office is still on the wrong side of the fence, try out these links, one of which is a screenshot database and will tell you what themes everyone is using and the other which you may know about, has a ton of themes and such.

http://screenshots.haque.net/
http://www.wincustomize.com

have fun!

-cs

Mediaman_12 · Sep 17, 2003, 05:31 PM

I use a PC at work, and I went down that 'I know I can make it work like my OSX Mac' route once. Yes you can get it looking quite close, and yes force it to work sort of the same. But then all the different ways the OS works underneath just irritate you more, I kept attempting to do things the 'Mac way' where the OS was expecting the 'Windows way'. I found keeping a good separation between the 'looks' helped me keep different 'mindsets'.
You can get some really nice XP themes though (anything to get away from the 'just wrong' win 2000 theme, the ultra curvy metal and the 'total blue' luna theme), I just chose ones that don't attempt to look like any of the OSX theme's.

brainchild2b · Sep 17, 2003, 05:41 PM

yeah it doesn't look good with OS X themes. I'm use a different theme which is really nice. I'm trying out mobydock (although it feels too wierd) and moved my taskbar to the top. The best app was the freeware app that ads shadows to all the windows edges. It's so much easier to see like OS X.

It's called Y'z Shadow and you can download it for free.

I changed my icons and eveyrthing feels pretty good now. Just a few more tweaks and it will be more home like without trying to force it to be a mac.

mrtew · Sep 17, 2003, 07:39 PM

I want to fix my computer at work too, but they have administrative privliges locked down tight so it's practically impossible to even install anything on it. I don't know enough about Windows to even be able to tell what I can and can't do though. Are there themes that don't require anything to really be installed, kinda like setting a desktop picture or something, but for the theme?

Dace · Sep 17, 2003, 08:11 PM

Go to http://www.stardock.com/ where you'll find a ton of shareware apps to customize XP...like objectdock (which is free) to resemble the os X dock, objectbar (which isn't free) to simulate Apples OS X menubar etc... If you hate Windowblinds try Style XP at tgtsoft.com and then visit www.studiotwentyeight.com which has ports of Max's themes for use with Style XP. Hope that gives u astarting point. But Mediaman_12 is right, I'd rather make XP look like XP...it'll never work as great as OS X so might as well stop fooling yourself visually.