There are a variety of ways you can customize your Windows desktop. Back in the "olden days" customizing your desktop consisted of picking your wallpaper and screensaver. But today's computers can do much more than just use a screen saver (incidentally screensavers are not really necessary anymore due to the properties of the new LCDs). Now you can change the use of your desktop with several toys and gadgets. Through trial and error, when it comes to selection and usability, I have found that both Google and Yahoo gadgets to be the best choice both in price (free) and variety of choices. Creating an useful desktop that you can interact with, rather than just looking at, is both easy and cheap.
One of my favorite utilities, in terms of usefulness, is Rainlender. It is a desktop calendar that you can add notes and reminders to. The developers provide a Free Version and a Pro Version. The Free Version is excellent enough as a standalone free program, but the Pro Version can link with both Outlook and Google calendars, and permits for the transfer of calendar information between different computers (use the same calendar information from your work at your home for example). And on top of all this, the interface is easy and the available skins look great. There is a whole community of users that provide a wide variety of skins to apply, the only problem you will have in finding a visual style you like is choosing from all the possibilities.
And just lately I found a program I wish I had been told earlier about, Stardock's ObjectDock. This utility is one of the neatest things I have found for Windows. As an alternative to your desktop shortcuts stacked in rows on the desktop taking up real estate, you can place them in a row on the ObjectDock, add a variety of mouseover animations and most importantly reduce their size. I now have twice as many shortcuts in the same amount of space if I was using Windows default icons.
As mentioned before, there are a wide variety of skins that can be apply to change the appearance, it was actually time consuming trying out all the different styles that I liked. And that was just the Free version. The Plus version is starting to tempt me to add more variety to my desktop (more docks and options).
Now for the finale in desktop theme styling, changing the look and feel of Windows itself. There are two ways to do this; purchase a program to do all the work for you, or do it yourself. But if the thought of altering a Windows .dll files makes you a little bit aprehensive (or you do not know what a .dll file is) buying the retailed software that does the work for you might be the easiest way for you.
The most popular software that comes to mind are Starskin, StyleXP and WindowsBlinds. But continue on down if you would like to try it yourself (its not that difficult). I would like to give a thank you to the posters at these forums for providing the information for other people like me to use.
Read this forum thread at Neowin: http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=140707 and this one for more information at Belchfire, http://themes.belchfire.net/index.php?showtopic=8767 , to find out where to get the uxtheme.dll and Multipatcher program.
That's all there is to it (almost)! Surf around and find your new theme (there are lots of websites dedicated to Windows theme), scan and download your choices, and apply by following the instructions below. Be aware that occasionally the theme won't work, and I would recommend that you create a Restore Point before you.
There are some particulars to follow when you apply your new theme style. Number one; change your File Settings in Windows to show all hidden files. Open the folder where you downloaded the theme file, then unzip it (using either Windows utility or the free utility WinRAR). Unzip them to the same folder and then copy them, or simply unzip to "c:/windows/resources/themes".
Here's the important part to making the new themes apply. /theme files must be in the top level of the /resources/themes folder. .Msstyles file types must be inside a named folder in /resources/theme, and the folder has to be given the exact name as the downloaded .Msstyles file. For example, the downloaded .Msstyles file is called "Dark.Msstyles" then the folder in /resources/themes has to be named "Dark". The Windows file tree arrangement will look like this.
Resources>themes>Dark
When the theme file has a "shellstyle.dll", then this file will go into a folder called "shell" placed inside the /Msstyles folder. Like this:
Resources>themes>Dark>shell>shellstyle.dll
This will have to be done for every Theme file that you apply. Now for the moment of truth! Right click on your desktop and choose Properties.
Themes that use a .theme file will be listed under the Theme tab, and the Appearance settings set by the .Msstyles files can be found under the Appearance Tab.
That's it! I hope you enjoy using your new customized desktop
About the Author
http://starwarsdesktop.blogspot.com/2008/06/customize-star-wars-desktop.html
I work primarily in AutoCad and Engineering, with a Bachelor Degree in something completely unrelated. I'm self taught in 3D modeling but have already had my work used professionally by a large company.
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