Make windows XP look like leopard!

[noopypoop]

Envy you friends who have the clean look of Leopard, but dont want to spend 2k for a crappy Macbook, but STILL want that cool look? I will teach you how step by step. For the purpose of this tut i will set my desktop back to default to show the process:).

http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/3117/91513854uf9.th.jpg (http://img261.imageshack.us/my.php?image=91513854uf9.jpg)

This is the old boring piece of...... yea...



First, download:FlyaKiteOSX. This will give you the OS X theme. Then uninstall it. This will give you the cursor and stock icons such as folder icons. Make sure to uninstal object dock..



From now on there will be visuals.


Next step, you need to get the cool Starry wallpaper that really makes leopard cool. http://wallpaperstock.net/leopard-aurora-wallpapers_w7212.html

If you cant find your resolution there then you will have to )(sds
=)

http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/2492/http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/2492/66125104rd3.th.jpg (http://img237.imageshack.us/my.php?image=66125104rd3.jpg)

Ok now you will need to get windowsblinds. If you are a fast googler and have already found out windowsblinds isnt free, dont worry i found an old trial version thats free for every and works just as well.

http://sharewareconnection.com/download-windowblinds-from-sharecon.html

Now install it.

Download this skin for it.

http://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?skinid=4881&libid=1

This is how it should look right now.

http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/6421/59339535dx7.th.jpg (http://img179.imageshack.us/my.php?image=59339535dx7.jpg)

BUT WAIT! The Taskbar should be on the top for mac. To do this right click the toolbar, and click on "lock the toolbar". This will unlock it. Drag and drop it to the top and relock it.

http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/2997/59090761lm7.th.jpg (http://img245.imageshack.us/my.php?image=59090761lm7.jpg)

BUT WAIT! THERES MORE! The leopard dock has a subtransparent look. Now how will we do that:think:

Oh yea thats right,Transbar! Google for transbar, its a nice little program to make the taskbar to transparent. Install it. I like to put the tranparency to 70, but thats your preferance.

This is what it should look like:
http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/8375/61696040gy6.th.jpg (http://img413.imageshack.us/my.php?image=61696040gy6.jpg)


Now the most important step of all. Mac is known for having a cool interactive dock on the bottom. Download a tool called "rocketdock" Onece installed and running, download this skin

http://rocketdock.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=4&func=fileinfo&id=196

Transfer the folder in the zip file into the rocketdock program file folder "skins". Then go to dock preferences and select the skin. After that mess around with some icons, make your firefox(or IE) icon into the safari icon, change your firefox theme to safari theme and other things ontop of that.
:UPDATE: To get the mac taskbar, get a program called "finderbar". Be warned, it completely changes the way the startupbar is. If you have any programs you use that you usually acces using the startbar, you will have to search for it. Also to make the reflective icons .use this template i found:http://www.psdnow.com/download/file/Mx5WlyFJPh/

If you know how to use photoshop, you shoukd be able to figure it out.
*updated*FINISHED PRODUCT


http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/9035/emulationfinishedvn3.jpg

EDIT: And just in case you do this, i want to see some screenshots to see how yours came out.

[tinker]

pretty nice looking...
You can also get rid of your recycle bin by changing a line or two in your registry.
I did because I don't like icons on my desktop and I never use my recycle bin anyways.

Good tut though.

[noopypoop]

pretty nice looking...
You can also get rid of your recycle bin by changing a line or two in your registry.
I did because I don't like icons on my desktop and I never use my recycle bin anyways.

Good tut though.

Yea but the problem is you have to keep one icon on or else you get a blank desktop. Ill have to find a ifferent icon to keep on, maybe my computer.

[chaksq]

I did it! I'm sitting here kinda bored hanging with some friends with my IBM ThinkPad I use for internet browsing so I decided I'd try this. I followed your guide but didn't use everything. I don't want it to look completely like a mac and didn't feel like messing with the icons for rocket dock although I kinda want them now. I also used another wallpaper I found.

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p67/chaksq/Laptop2Screenshot.jpg

[Bopher]

Here's 3xNES with the changes:

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/3350/3xnesdesktopbs7.th.gif (http://img136.imageshack.us/my.php?image=3xnesdesktopbs7.gif)

[J-Roc]

There is another way to do this while using less system resources on extra programs. Some of you may have heard or Aston Shell, some might not have. While the above tut will show you how to customize your desktop for free, you still loose some functionallity with the free version of WindowsBlinds and you dont have the advancments of the current version. If you plan to purchace WindowBlinds, dont. Not untill you check out the other options out there.

Aston Shell is a direct replacment for Explorer. Since Aston incorperates themes and a boat load of other usefull stuff into the shell, it is less resource intencive and is 100% customizeable. When i say less resource intencive, i mean it! It will run smooth on Win98. You can make your computer look like a mac, a linux box, or something pretty crazy looking that will baffle almost everyone who see's it. Everything can be configured. Dont want a recycle bin? Gone! no worries.

There is a trial so you can see if you really want that kind of customization or not. There are hundreds of free premade themes or you can make your own if your so inclined.

http://www.astonshell.com/

Here's a link to a premade leopard theme:
http://themes.astonshell.com/559/

[chaksq]

I've actually used replacement shells before. I mostly use litestep, it's free although you you sometimes need to know your way around a text editor to make it work properly. I started making my own skin once but got sidetracked.

BTW on the computer I posted the screenshot of before I messed around with the dock icons and it now looks more like a real mac. I may end up throwing litestep on their now that I think of it because the machine is a tad slow.

[noopypoop]

Im officially done trying to emulate leopard(perfectly that is) But would anyone be interested im a tutorial on making xp look like vista? I know theres vista transformation pack, but that uses a crap load of recources and is very buggy. Anyone interested?

[slytherock]

I dont emulate anymore, now I think I'm turning into a mac lover...:redface:
I now run with parallels desktop (http://www.parallels.com/en/) at work, and I'm loving it. Oh!, and working with both stations is in real time I'll post pics of my desktop tomorrow morning when I'll get back to work.
Now: have to find a way to customize a 8 core intel...:smoker:

[Elenril]

The simplest way to change your theme (IMO and apart from icons) is using the UXTheme Multipatcher (http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=140707). Once you've run the patcher, you can download visualstyles and install them without having to do anything with the registry yourself. It's also better than windowblinds because it doesn't have a trial period and it uses the native windows .msstyles file type so all visualstyles can easily be loaded through desktop properties, and it only patches your registry instead of installing a full bloated program onto your system.

If you want to customize more aspects of your theme easily, download StyleXP. It's shareware but also uses .msstyles and easily lets you customize individual settings like transparency.

P.S. The easiest way to have NO icons on your desktop is Right click > Arrange Icons By > Uncheck 'Show Desktop Icons'

[noopypoop]

http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/3112/vistaemulationmb0.th.jpg
(http://img524.imageshack.us/my.php?image=vistaemulationmb0.jpg)http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/7365/vistaemulationgv9.th.jpg
(http://img232.imageshack.us/my.php?image=vistaemulationgv9.jpg)http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/7770/vistaemulationzm8.th.jpg (http://img149.imageshack.us/my.php?image=vistaemulationzm8.jpg)
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/1236/vistaemulationcopykd2.th.jpg (http://img150.imageshack.us/my.php?image=vistaemulationcopykd2.jpg)


So who wants the Vista emulation tut?

[Drew]

P.S. The easiest way to have NO icons on your desktop is Right click > Arrange Icons By > Uncheck 'Show Desktop Icons'

w00t I think I love you.

I've been trying to get rid of the damn recycle bin without screwing with the registry (I've modded the crap out of XP before, and it's been nothing but problems, I must be getting old, I just want XP to run well without reinstalls every month :( ).

I've been using XP for years, and never actually thought of using that.... in fact, I hadn't even noticed it. Well, I knew it was there, but never paid it any mind.

What a n00b.

:edit:

Is that Vista emulation the Vista Transformation Pack?

If it is, it's what I'm running and I love it to bits. I tried Vista and loved the prettiness, but hated it because it was slower than XP. That gives me most of the prettiness, and isn't as resource intensive as I thought it would be.

Now what I want is a tut on how to get the icons I want... the Mac drive icons (they look like real HDDs, how cool is that?!?!) and the Microsoft Office icons that are made from the single letters colour coded from FlyAKite (which I also used, but found that it slowed my PC up too much).

Step by step tutorials FTMFW!

[noopypoop]

.
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:edit:

Is that Vista emulation the Vista Transformation Pack?

If it is, it's what I'm running and I love it to bits. I tried Vista and loved the prettiness, but hated it because it was slower than XP. That gives me most of the prettiness, and isn't as resource intensive as I thought it would be.

Now what I want is a tut on how to get the icons I want... the Mac drive icons (they look like real HDDs, how cool is that?!?!) and the Microsoft Office icons that are made from the single letters colour coded from FlyAKite (which I also used, but found that it slowed my PC up too much).

Step by step tutorials FTMFW!


Nope its not vtp. That uses a crapload of recources and can really lagg you up if you have a slow computer. My way of doing this on the other hand only uses ~100 mb more sys memory, and the cpu is at a normal load % all the time (like 20 %, although it jumps alot) If you have a pc that can run vtp smoothly, god bless you:). And in the tut, i would mention how to change the icons(but you would have to change the whole entire icon set)