You know you ain’t gettin’ any of da ladies any more… You just ain’t got da bling bling anymore. What you need is a fresh GUI.
By popular request (well one anyway…) – Here it finally is, the complete guide to why my GUI looks the way it does and links to the files you need to make yours look the same.
Here running Firebird 0.7 (With it’s brand spanking new Milk skin which was rather hard to come by. Currently browsing WordPress administration), showing some album covers from my soundtrack selection (recently finished collection covers for all of the 195 folders… phew!), Trillian 2.0 Pro with its Milk skin (which I quite frankly don’t like at all, too restrictive) and an explorer window currently parked in my D:/Files folder, which is basically my master archive.
Here’s the contents of My Computer (notice the CD and DVD drive icons, they’re a bitch to change!). The music player is Foobar with a component (foo_remote, get it here) that allows it to dock the start bar as a toolbar. I use it because it’s about the most non-intrusive music player ever (and it plays .mod, .xm, .s3m and so on as well!). In a twist of irony I chose to call my C drive ‘Brain’ as my computer’s name is Zombie. My computer has a tendency to eat my main drive and leave little for me… :|
Ah, tranquility. I hid the desktop icons even though I only have 3 of them; but really it’s just as easy for me to go to the dock to pull up those folders, so… The calendar on the desktop is Rainlendar skinned with Moderna Blend. It’s really nice, looks stylish and integrates with Outlook.
Though I agree that it has a sembleance with OS X that wasn’t actually what I was styling for (Or I could’ve come as close as these guys). But of all the thousands (not kidding) themes and icons that I have browsed through these are by far the best I’ve come across. The theme is Milk Redux for StyleXP (also available for WindowBlinds) and the icons are SnowE. I do apologize for the Apple on the start button, but seeing as this is a port of a custom skin for OS X I just sort of have to accept that until I bother with starting up Photoshop…
In answer to Morten’s query the other day, yes it is just as fast as a normal desktop. The skin itself doesn’t take up any processing power at all as it uses XP’s internal skinning engine. The icons were replaced with IconPackager which is probably the best such tool out there today. That said however there are a lot of minor touches that can’t just be replaced quite that easily, and so I had to replace various DLL’s and EXE’s (get the shell style here, appreciate it as it took me a long time to dig it up!) with hacked equivalents with the appropriate icons in them (which you have to do from safe mode). Also the toolbar buttons in explorer and Internet Explorer (figure) are from the Milk skin (stored locally as it’s only available from one site which you have to register to download from, problem is they don’t accept new registrations at the moment, so I had to get to know someone on the inside to get this sucker!) for Y’z Toolbar (Also stored locally for the same reason. I bundled Milk with this package).
Incidently the dock at the bottom of the screen is run by Y’z Dock and is my primary means of navigation. I’ve got a few docklets at the right end of it that allow me do a various things. One allows me to change the wallpaper at a whim which suits me just fine as I have trouble staying with just one (the ones currently in line). Another takes screenshots with various options. There are lots of other docklets available as well.
Finally, but as the all-important finishing touch; WindowFX. It adds shadows of varying sizes and what not to your windows as well as little nifty things like fading your windows in and out. It’s very flexible and can accommodate to the kind of CPU power you have available rather easily. I would use this even if I hadn’t skinned the shit out of the rest of the UI. You can however also use Y’z Shadow for this, though I personally don’t like it due to it’s lack of flexibility. Again, stored locally because it’s so damn hard to find on the net.
I hope I linked to all the things, if not just throw a comment and I’ll get on it. Here are come further links to investigate:
- DeviantArt – It looks a bit intimidating at first, but it’s by far the best online art resource. I also have a (neglected) profile on there.
- Customize.org – Oh momma come help me babysit these mutherfuckers!
- AquaXP – Though it centers a lot around skinning Windows like OS X, it does have more than that. I recommend checking out the forums and their monthly desktop threads.
- Iceman’s Emulation Page – Lots of good stuff, mostly OS X but it transfers great across other skins since it looks so stylish.
- Florian Freundt – Cool wallpapers, some of which I use in the screenshots.
That’s a little to get you started. Feel free to call on me if you need any help. And let me answer the first one for you:
Q: Isn’t it unstable as hell?! I mean messing with core files, exchanging system files with hacks and what have you?!
A: No… I haven’t crashed a single time yet, no problems at all.
And there you have it.
PS: Does anyone know if it’s possible to remove the menubar from Firebird?
Very cool. I’ll be experimenting with these tools when I get my new Windows machine for work.
Yes! This is exactly what I’ve been looking for.
Extremely cool, Michael! Kudos to you! You should consider doing it [customizing desktops] professionally, I would guess that there was a market in the enterprise for customizing a specific companys desktop in ways that was consistent with their overall scheme and add further to their uniqueness!
Thanks for the kind words, I’d love to see screenshots of the results :)
Check out also ThemeXP which carries about a 1000 styles and lots of other stuff.
RSK: While that’s an interesting thought and it would be an interesting thing to try, I’m happy with my IO job :)
Where do I get the dock application?
Hey Matt, you’ll find Y’z Dock here.
This is freaking awesome. I run a dual platform setup at home and this makes it even more seamless, as both desktops (mac and PC) and look and function in a similar fashion.
A couple small things… how do I install the milk theme for firebird? I tossed the milk directory into my chrome directory but it doesn’t show up in firebird as an optional theme. The other thing is where you say “trouble staying with just one (lots of other docklets available…” the sentence gets cut off from the link in the title tag (don’t know if that’s a typo).
thanks for the amazing tips, the milk themes throughout look really, really clean.
Hey Matt (love your blog btw), I fixed the entry-text, thanks for the heads up.
For Firebird I find it easiest to simply go to their theme page and use their installer script (It is obviously offline as I write this, doh! Should be back up soon though). (You can also get an extension that can install new themes for you).
Yeah, I love the milk theme. It has enough of the simplistic not-in-your-face OS X Panther smoothness while not being a total sell-out poorman’s Mac solution _ — It’s just refreshing to have an interface that doesn’t demand quite as much attention as XP’s default skins have a tendency to do.
Let me know if you have any problems.
Oh, how do you get the live calendar on your desktop, as shown in the first screenshot?
It’s an app called Rainlendar with a skin called Moderna. I noticed that I had left out links so I’ve now gone in and added them.
The link to foo_remote is for a previous version – the version that works with the current 0.7 release of Foobar is here.
Nice links, much inspiration here!
there’s a typo in your write-up. i think you forgot to put the “http://” part in the link to Style XP.
great tips, thanks a lot!
Regarding your P.S.: you can always hit F11 to toggle the menu bar on/off…
awesome write-up, michael – and thanks for pointing that out the link to the updated foo_remote, michael m, i’d noticed the linked version doesn’t work with the current foobar as well.
Ah, sorry about that with the foo_remote. I had downloaded it a few days ago and had to find the link again, so I didn’t check if it actually worked :)
I fixed the StyleXP link, thanks for the heads up.
Remember to post some screenshots when you get some of this stuff up and running! :)
Hey Michael, here’s what I’ve got so far: Desktop.
I’m shamelessly using a Florian wallpaper as well until I find something I like better. I’m a big fan of his style. Also, though this may be a problem unique to my experience, I found that clicking the Show Desktop link would hide the calendar and YZDock. Using (Windows Key + M) will keep them open while minimizing all windows, but becomes cumbersome to type constantly.
Con permissimo, I’ve coded a small app[16KB and tested in XP Home only] to replace Show Desktop which seemlessly minimizes all windows on a click and then shuts itself down immediately afterward. This is for those who, like me, can’t be bothered to press (Windows Key + M) constantly. Download and place where desired, then shortcut it on your taskbar. To use the original Show Desktop icon: Right Click on the shortcut > Change Icon, then choose Explorer.exe from your Windows folder and select it from the list. Or simply choose another icon you like more.
Again, great stuff Michael!
Lookin’ good. Yeah, his wallpaper style is really cool!
I got a mail from him btw, apparently my link send a good deal of hits his way. I hope he reads this.
As for the Show Desktop, I usually use WIN + D. I don’t mind it removing the calendar, and my dock is autohide and always on top.
I’ve just hacked an “eject button” of sorts for the taskbar, adding it directly next to the foo_remote because I couldn’t find that kind of one-click functionality anywhere. Clicking it opens my music folder.
I’ll be at this all day it seems!
Trying to get foo_remote to work but I don’t get it. I’ve run the installer but there’s no app to run and nothing to select in foobar2k. Am I doing it all wrong here?
It’s a toolbar on the startbar, right-click on the startbar and you’ll find it under toolbars. That should work.
If you want to use Foobar2000 to ping your blog with now playing data, I figured out how. Click on my name in the “Comment by” for more info.
“The GUI may be XP crack to OS X cocaine, but it still gets this nigga high.”
LMAO
Hello Michael,
Great Stuff.
I am not able to download shell style from http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/modules.php?mod4&action=show&45
If it is possible then can you please store it locally and provide a link. Sorry for the trouble.
Thanks.
Rajeev
Have you created an account? You need to be logged in to download stuff from their server. If that doesn’t work just ping me again and I’ll put it up.
Great work all around, and thanks for letting us in on it. But I think the real question is: how did you get rid of the desktop XP trashcan?
Thanks Michael … downloaded the required file from hardwaregeeks.com … let me see how it works now.
Nathan: Well what I did to get rid of the icons was rightclick on desktop -> Arrange Icons By -> Show Icons on Desktop. More or less anyway. Problem is… Now the option isn’t there to retrieve the icons :) — And I have no idea where it went. On my girlfriends computer, where I also hid the icons, it’s still there so it must be something I did…
RS: Sounds good. You might want to look into the Milk skin for Y’z Toolbar instead of the default explorer and IE toolbars supplied with the shellstyles. At least I liked those better.
re: customizing the firebird menus;
take a look at this;
tool menu choice
options selection;
click on extensions button,
select link url for
“get extensions”
here’s one;
Compact Menu Version: 1.5.1 —by Chris Neale File Size: 17 KB Updated: 2003-08-06
Compatible with builds from 2003-08-05
Customiser for the menubar, which lets you cut the menubar down to the menus you use, and even reduce the space it takes up to a single menu button.
there are “install” & “visit homepage” links right there
there are lot’s of other extensions that do some sort of menu manipulation, but I think this is the one you want….…..
That’s very close to what I want actually. Though the version on the official extensions site is actually broken (for my FB version), so I had to look around before I found a working one. Problem is, even though it removes the menu, it leaves the blank menu bar behind, which defeats the purpose… It look a bit cleaner, but it’s not quite as smooth as I want it.
I’m going to see if I can find out whether a new version is én route.
Y?z Toolbar are cool but i have to run them again and again after every login … is there no way to make the change permanent?
Thanks for the trouble.
You can just put a shortcut in the Startup folder on the Start menu, that’s what I’m doing.
Thanks for a wonderful post – I am inspired to get some bling bling ;-)
Rainlendar is pretty good but has anyone tried Samurize and if so what are your thoughts? I’d like to get the Weather and News components to work but it seems a bit tricky. If anyone knows of a screensaver or a similar desktop component that can display multiple RSS feeds, I’d appreciate it. While I like the serenity of the Milk VS (and the fact that there are Milk skins for other apps, for a more uniform look), Aluminum Alloy (which I used previously) is also pretty good (search DeviantArt for “Aluminum Alloy”
Finally, is there a deskband for Winamp that works as well as this Foobar one? I’m sorry but I can’t give up on Winamp, especially as I have so many plugins for it and the fact that it has excellent support for my multimedia keyboard (foobar only supports it when it has focus). I’ve tried the one on winamp.com but it has a very tiny “Track Details” window and is missing the cool playlist and progress-bar features this one has — maybe I should switch to foobar, eh? (And try not to post long, rambling messages…oops)
Me again. I forgot to mention a couple of things. If anyone is looking for good, free on-screen fonts, here you go : Bitstream Vera. Also I meant to say that while I really like Milk (the VS!) it lacks well-defined borders and seems to cause a sort of snow-blindness due to a lack of sufficient contrast (esp. active programs on the taskbar and the progress bar). Hope there’ll be a better version of it soon.
Time for me to fish out Resource Hacker and go to work on that “Start” button…sorry, I’m done now.
Remember, everyone deserves a litte bling bling!
I’ve tried Samurize and found it too much of a hassle to get working properly. All the things I tried had problems one way or the other.
I’ve seen Alluminium Alloy, it’s quite nice, though I like my UI more ‘clean’ than that. As for the ‘snow blindness’, I counter it by using WindowsFX’s shadow.
I have no idea if there’s a cool Winamp util that does the same as the foobar one… :|
Just wanted to say thanks! Your article finally broke through my barrier to tweak beyond simple custom icons. I guess I’m just too lazy to hunt this stuff out.
Anyway, awesome work, and thanks for sharing!~
Yes you can remove the menu bar from firebird, its in the faq. Ive done it to my firebird as well. then you can use the extension to reduce menu bar to a single button.
You don’t need to remove the menu bar.
Right click on menu bar, ‘Customize’. Then drag all your location bar, back/forward buttons, etc, ONTO the menu bar. Use compact menu to get rid of all the text.. et voila, now you have one bar without padding. In effect, all your buttons are on the old menu bar.
I know this isn’t a support forum or anything, but I was just wondering if ANYBODY was able to get foo_remote working with foobar 0.8.3.
Oh, and one more thing: it seems that on my system (WinXP Pro, Firefox .9) none of the links WITHIN the comments are clickable. It’s quite strange.
That being said, thanks, Michael, for this very informative post. I chose to install Rainlender and foobar2000 (obvsiously). I needed a low-resource-gobbling music player, and was getting tired on double clicking the bottom right corner of my screen whenever I wanted to know what next Tuesday’s date is.