Saturday, December 27, 2008

Desktop Customization Guide

I am a hardcore Windows XP user. While I have quite a bit of knowledge of Linux, compared to Linux, XP "just works". However, the OS's UI looks rather dated. While there is a Royale Noir theme you can download to make eveything look dark (and Office 2007 can also be made to use a dark theme), its still just some colors added on top of an otherwise bland OS.

For quite some time I have used WindowsBlinds along with Vista Transformation Pack to make my XP machine look like Vista. However, now there are quite a few new options.Also, thanks to the now dead Alky project, it is possible to install the Vista sidebar in Windows XP.

I have two monitors set up on my machine; well I have a LCD TV that acts like a monitor :) I actually don't generally use multi-monitor wallpaper. Instead, I grab images from APOD and set one as background and add the other one as a web item on the desktop - another thing removed from Vista... However, there are some good places on the web to find multi-monitor wallpaper (socwall's my favorite) BTW, any wallpaper or image you download is not going to look good unless your monitor is properly caliberated. I suggest Calibrize or Online Monitor Test. Also, I would recommend turning on Firefox's color management setting.

Lastly, some weird stuff - it seems cutting a white ping pong ball in half, covering your eyes with it and playing white noise on headphones will make you hallucinate :)

No comments: