Resourcefulness

Improve Your Mood — Vamp Your Windows Desktop

By Greg ⋅ December 19, 2007 ⋅ Email this post Email this post ⋅ Print this post Print this post ⋅ Subscribe By Email ⋅ Post a comment
Resourcefulness




I don’t know about you, but the sad blue green tones of Windows XP just did not cut it for me anymore, so I decided to use a couple of programs to make my Window’s interface look completely different.

This is what my desktop looks like today, if you like what you see, keep reading!

Custom Windows

Here is how you can do it too:

  • First and foremost you need to get a program called WindowsBlinds, a free trial may be downloaded here.
  • Once you’ve got that downloaded and installed, you can go here to download a theme that you like.
    • Some of the themes come in different forms, but usually they are already in the .wba (windowsblinds format) or zipped. If they are zipped then unzipping them with winRAR should do the trick. If you have WindowsBlinds open and running in the background, it usually recognizes when you download new themes.
  • If you want to make your desktop resemble mine even closer (Mac style) then you need another little program called ObjectDock, which may be downloaded here.
  • ObjectDock comes with a few themes, but if those do not suite your needs then more themes may be downloaded here.
    • ObjectDock has some neat options that you can tweak, such as appearance, positioning, and effects.image002.jpg
  • To get rid of your potentially unattractive desktop items, you can simply right click anywhere on your desktop, then highlight “Arrange Icons By” and then click “Show Desktop Icons”.

Custom Windows

  • If you noticed, my cursor is different from the usual Windows XP one, and that is thanks to yet another little program called CursorXP which may be obtained here.

You can be as creative as you wish!

My desktop is only an example, and there are many more programs than the three that I use.

www.wincustomize.com provides you with more than twenty five other programs (as well as hundreds of themes for those programs) that can enhance your computing experience. How much you wish to customize is up to you.

My experience with these three programs has been strictly with Windows XP, though they are available for Windows Vista as well.

The only free trial that runs out is the WindowsBlinds one. ObjectDock and CursorXP are free. I am not in any way promoting the sale of this program, but merely sharing how I made my computing experience much more pleasant.

Discussion

16 comments for “Improve Your Mood — Vamp Your Windows Desktop”

  1. Cool :-)

    Posted by Wypoczynek | December 19, 2007, 1:50 pm

  2. This is interesting. But do these programs slow down your computer. I would love to create my own desktop as long as my computer doesn’t slow at all.

    Posted by Ellen | December 19, 2007, 4:59 pm

  3. My computer has not been slowed down by these programs. I have 512 megabytes of RAM and a 2.4 gigahertz CPU. Most new computers now a days are much better than what I have. The worst case scenario is that if it does for any reason slow you down, just uninstall the programs.

    Posted by Greg | December 19, 2007, 9:33 pm

  4. The sample images you posted look very colorful, but I wouldn’t want something like that on my computer screen. It would give me nightmares! I just use a nice wallpaper for now, but it would be fun to try some new things for folders and cursors.

    Posted by Sue | December 20, 2007, 3:15 pm

  5. Yeah, the sample wallpaper is just what I chose. The website has TONS of wallpapers for all kinds of moods.

    Posted by Greg | December 20, 2007, 9:34 pm

  6. This is interesting. But do these programs slow down your computer. I would love to create my own desktop as long as my computer doesn’t slow at all.

    Posted by smith | December 21, 2007, 4:18 am

  7. This seems to be a good idea.The design is good and looks attractive. Will this work for only windows XP? (coz my PC runs on 98).

    Posted by AKH | December 22, 2007, 9:00 am

  8. The two things that it is known to work for is Windows XP and Vista. I am not sure if it would work for Windows 98, my guess is that it most likely will not since the interface schemes of 98 and XP are rather different. If your computer has specifications that would allow an upgrade to XP then I suggest you seriously consider doing so, since now-a-days most programs are geared towards XP and Vista.

    Posted by Greg | December 22, 2007, 1:03 pm

  9. I really like the idea of changing of the computer screen it really does make a difference for someone that spends a lot of time on the computer. A funny picture or cool 3D image gives your mood a boost.www.wincustomize.com had so much to look through i’ll have to go back again!

    Posted by ajbaker | December 23, 2007, 6:38 pm

  10. Very cool! Love the wallpaper.

    Posted by Digi | December 23, 2007, 10:58 pm

  11. I like the wallpaper. I like to change my desktop pretty frequently and this would be a neat way to do it.

    Posted by Anna | January 4, 2008, 5:01 pm

  12. I know all this stuff looks nice, new and shiny, but please bear in mind it slows down your computer teribly. I’ve been using many of the eye candy programs I’ve found on the market and all I can say is that - don’t use them.

    Find yourself a decent skin for Windows, install patched version of mstheme.dll (e.g. with XPize) and just switch the skins. Anything more will bog down your system.

    Posted by Jakub Anderwald | January 15, 2008, 9:02 am

  13. Very good article. Thanks for the good information!.

    Posted by Michael | June 3, 2008, 7:23 pm

  14. And, to clean the icons off of your artwork, get ROCKETDOCK. Your icons only jump out when you mouseover whichever edge of the screen you choose.

    Posted by jack | August 24, 2008, 11:18 pm

  15. It would be nice to get rid of that dumbass Green XP Start button…

    (still stuck with Windows for work and certain apps)

    Posted by Charley S | August 24, 2008, 11:43 pm

  16. If you want to be to customize your desktop, try linux and the KDE windows manager. It is a lot more customizable than windows with blinds or otherwise. You can have a desktop like the one you picture rotating in 3D space. Google the term “compiz” and have a look.

    Posted by mark | August 25, 2008, 7:52 pm

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