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Desktop Transformation

Thu, Nov 22 2006

It's amazing how in 20 minutes you can transform your desktop, make your computer more friendly and inspirative. In this "tutorial" we'll see how in just a few steps we are going to make our windows environment more efficient and friendly. Before we start I just want to mention that this may harm your computer, or you may witness some unexpected behavior. For me it worked great and that's why I share it with you but think twice before doing it. This tutorial is only for Windows XP version. So let's start folks:

First see Figure1 how my desktop looked before I started transforming it.

Step1: Well I always want my office to be clean while I'm working. That's why I want my desktop to be clean and I'm going to hide all desktop icons. Right Click on your desktop, then chouse Arrange Icons By and uncheck Show Desktop icons like shown in Figure2. This won't delete your icons it will only hide them so you can access them trough My Computer and click UP button from the toolbar menu.

Step2: Usually I don't want to see the standard Windows Taskbar that's why I am going to Right Click on the Start Button on the taskbar and chouse Properties. Under the Taskbar tab Uncheck Lock the taskbar and then check Auto-hide the taskbar and click ok. So now you don't see your task bar anymore.

Step3: Background. Background is something that we usually see more then any other thing on our pc. That's why I am going to surf the net a little bit and find some great Backgrounds. Here is the winner: It's one of the GUI Championship 2006 winners you can see it at: http://www.guichamps.com/skins2006.asp?skinid=492 it's a background called Azenis 2 by: JJ Ying. You can find more backgrounds at:

http://www.guichamps.com/

http://www.wincustomize.com/

http://www.themexp.org/

http://www.customize.org/

To set the new background: Save or download desired background in some of your local folders then Right click on your desktop and under the Desktop tab click Browse, chouse your background and then click open, Click Apply on the Display Properties Window and then click ok. Tada job is done.

Step4: I changed my visual style to a famous visual style called "Royale" it was made for Windows XP Media Center Edition but after that it was released for XP too. You can find it at: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Desktop-Enhancements/Themes/Royale-Theme-for-WinXP.shtml

After downloading install the package and Right Click on your desktop under the Themes tab from the Theme drop down menu chouse: Royale. Click apply button to the window, wait a little bit and then click OK. You can find some other visual styles at the sites mentioned above. Figure3 See the difference between standard XP visual style and Royale.

Step5: Installing dock. Well dock is a replacement for Windows Taskbar on Macintosh computers. Because it looks better than the windows taskbar I am going to install it on my computer. You can find a lot of docks right now but I'm going to use Y'z Dock just because it's free I am going to download it from: http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/Yz-Dock.shtml . After downloading unpack the software in some local directory and run it by double-clicking on YzDock.exe. You will notice it on the bottom of the screen. You can put icons in the dock by dragging and dropping. You can also right click on your dock and click settings to setup the dock just for your needs. Figure4 how did I configure my dock.

Step6: well it all looks great but I just discover a great new feature which is called Y'z ToolBar, The installation is same as for Y'z dock but has another purpose: It changes the Windows Explorer Toolbar Buttons. You can find Y'z toolbar at: http://www.winmatrix.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1161 . And now see Figure5 how I changed my toolbar buttons.

Finally Figure6 shows how my desktop looks now.

Other interesting things:

• You can find some interesting icons for spicing your docks at sites listed above
• If you like something more of your dock, you can buy ObjectDock with some great features and plug-ins (docklets)
• You can also buy WindowBlinds or StyleXP for some other windows styles and other cool features for tweaking your xp.

That's all folks!!!

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