Best app for WinXP desktop shell replacement & enhancement?

[Imyourzero]

After seeing some of the neat configurations in the "Post your wallpaper" thread, I'm a bit intrigued with some of those shell replacements and would like some advice on seperating the best from the rest. I already know about Litestep, DesktopX, and WindowBlinds (and I know WB isn't really a replacement, it just provides some visual enhancements for the existing Windows desktop layout). I haven't kept up with this stuff lately, so is one of those the best or are there other apps that I should be looking at?

BTW, I should mention that the most important features to me are stability, functionality, and speed. I don't care how good it looks if it is very resource-hungry and slows my system to a crawl.

Suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

[en480c4]

I ran LiteStep at work and home for a while... I definitely liked it.
I went with one of the simplistic themes titled "Dragable" which was very easy to use and didn't seem to hog resources at all. I liked "Dragable" a lot, but it doesn't scale well to anything beyond 1024x768 becasue of the font choice. It has I only kept the tray, winamp interface and virtual desktop manager open and everything else was accessed via right-clicking.
I also have Windowblinds which I have shut off because that is a resource hog.
I've gone back to the XP shell because I don't know enough about configuring the shells, and changes I made had mixed results.
HTH,
Ian

 

[grandenigma1]

StyleXP is a good one

 

[Imyourzero]

en480c4, you brought up an issue I hadn't really thought of. I need something that will work best (or nicely) at 1600x1200 since that's the native res of my 2001FP.

ge1, I'm checking out some of the themes available for StyleXP right now. Some of them look cool, but this program only appears to give your existing windows/taskbar/etc. a different look. I wanted something more along the lines of Litestep or DesktopX, where it doesn't even look like you're running Windows at first glance. Those programs can completely alter your desktop to the point of looking like a different OS, but I didn't know if the performance trade-offs were worth it. If it matters, I'm running an A64 3400+ w/1GB DDR and an ATi X800 XT. I'm sure that's more than enough to run anything that's currently available, but I don't want a program sucking up all of my resources either.

 

[Elephas]

I use FlyakiteOSX, an interface modification package for WinXP that makes it look like OS X.

http://osx.portraitofakite.com/

 

[iq160plus]

I am looking for one for Win 2000, since I am stuck with it for the time being, and to stubborn to fork over bucks for XP when I don't need to.

 

[en480c4]

www.wincustomize.com & www.deviantart.com both have tons of LiteStep shells that you can preview and download.

The nice thing with LiteStep is if you take the time to learn the language, you can create your own themes from scratch. Not only that, but you can also modify the existing themes to your liking. I did NO reading whatsoever and was able to go in and modify the theme I was using, changing font size and type and window sizes.

edit: Litestep works fine with Win2k...

 

[Alu]

Memory hoggers I say! Free your pc! Make it as light and fast as possible! And stop throwing stones!

 

[Imyourzero]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alu Memory hoggers I say! Free your pc! Make it as light and fast as possible! And stop throwing stones!

Hmm, I could always go back to a barebones install of Win `98 SE...

Who's throwing stones?

 

[grandenigma1]

ooops double post

 

[grandenigma1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by iq160plus I am looking for one for Win 2000, since I am stuck with it for the time being, and to stubborn to fork over bucks for XP when I don't need to.

I would stay far far away from XP for 4 years or so.... Win 2000 is the safest and most stable version of windows out there... stay away from evil XP, consider yourself lucky you dont have it.

 

[Alu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Imyourzero Who's throwing stones?

The people that respond to my post of course.

EDIT:

Quote:

Originally Posted by grandenigma1 I would stay far far away from XP for 4 years or so.... Win 2000 is the safest and most stable version of windows out there... stay away from evil XP, consider yourself lucky you dont have it.

I didn't have any problem with XP, and I've been using it ever since it came out. Never even had a virus. My XP is old windows looking of course for performance over looks!

 

[Imyourzero]

I've never had any trouble with WinXP either. I've used just about every version of Windows since 3.11 and haven't looked back after getting XP. It runs practically every app I throw at it, aside from some old DOS games (and that can usually be remedied with DOSBox). I also had a lot less trouble out of WinME when seemingly everyone else swore that OS was horrible and crafted by Satan himself. I think a lot of how your OS performs has to do with your particular machine/hardware as well as the user and how they use their machine (as well as how they maintain the OS). However, I don't want to turn this thread into a debate about the best OS, so let's try to stay on topic.

 

[rickcr42]

Quote:

Memory hoggers I say! Free your pc! Make it as light and fast as possible!

gotta go with that staement !

Use your pc for music or as a DAW and your resources become very important.Adding these enhancements are the biggest resource killers out there and are bloat more than anything else adding little (nothing mostly) to the actual performance of your PC while doing serious damge to other processor intensive or critical.Data loss and dropout can be fatal when doing audio/video apps.

XP-just bit the bullet two weeks ago and stepped up from 2000.I thought it just more bloatware and something i did not need but I was wrong.I find XP to be the most stable platform yet for my uses and while only two weeks in have not yet found a downside that could not be corrected by simply using the settings.

No looking back now plus I am free to convert my old P3/W200 into a linux box and use it as aserver for music

 

[Shizelbs]

XP has been great for me as well. I remember the day I went from 98SE to XP, I knew I was a total geek then because I found my new OS fun and exciting. I am lame. Seriously though, its been very stable for me.