Windows XP has been Microsoft's most successful operating system to date and a lot of people are still using it – on their home and work PCs
and on netbooks – so here are a few tips to help you make your Windows
XP desktop a little bit better – all for free and very easy for
beginners
On older and slower systems you will notice a
decrease in performance if you install all of these programs – rather
select the ones you like & use and run those – don't try installing
everything! Note – these programs are all completely free and have not
got any spyware or malware associated with them.
- Want the Windows 7/Vista start button instead of the normal Windows start button? ViOrb will give you just that (note don't try it if you use auto-hide) – ViOrb is here
- Want a Windows 7 taskbar in XP? ViGlance is here
- Want to add some transparency to your taskbar? – Transbar is here
- Want to be able to reorder your taskbar tabs in the order you want? – Taskix is here
- Want to minimize programs to the system tray instead of the normal taskbar? TrayIt is here
- Want a 3D program switcher like Windows 7 &Vista? WinFlip is here
- Want a better looking system clock? LClock is here
- Want transparent window borders like in Vista and Windows 7? True Transparency is here
- Want a bunch of great new wallpapers for your desktop? Wallbase is here
- Want some decent screensavers? Really Slick is here (you must have a graphics card) otherwise if you don't get some free Looney Tunes screensavers here
- Want a dock similar to Mac OSX? Rocketdock is here. If you don't like Rocketdock check out this post here and also Radian here
- Want to create a 'stack' of programs in your taskbar? Standalone Stack is here
- Want to integrate system features into your desktop & more? Rainmeter is here
Okay, so those are just about all the programs I can
think of (if you know more, leave a comment). Now, you need a nice
theme. The official themes from Microsoft are listed below but there are
a lot more themes out there. These are the offiicial ones:
- Royale Theme – Blue theme – Get it HERE
- Royale Noir Theme – Dark theme – Get it HERE
- Zune Theme – Another dark theme with a bit of orange – Get it HERE
- Embedded Theme – Another nice blue theme – Get it HERE
Those are the only official themes Microsoft released
that I know about – however if you install a patching program you can
install a lot of other themes that are not official. If you are running
Windows XP Service Pack 2 – get this patch here. If you are running Service Pack 3 – get this patch here.
Once you have installed the patch you can get a whole lot of great themes @ deviantART here
but there are a lot of other places on the internet with unofficial
themes available. Otherwise, if you are a little bit more knowledgeable
you can install Rainmeter and get some great skins also @ deviantART here.
Finally if you are not keen on fiddling that much a
transformation pack is probably the best idea. This is a program
designed to automatically apply some of the above programs to your XP
installation with the minimum of effort. Please note – as with
all the software above you may notice a performance decrease depending
on your system – so disable, or uninstall what does not work and keep
what you like. Here are some transformation packs to check out:
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