Gaming Customization Thread

[flai]

I decided to start a thread to teach all the users her that are new to desktop customization on Windows and OS X and for veterans who want some constructive criticism.

Windows Users Basics -​

Objectbar- A shareware program for making your Windows taskbar look like an OS X one.

ObjectBar Skins -

http://browse.deviantart.com/customization...r=9&alltime=yes

Windowblinds - A shareware program which provides more options that simple visual styles. More buggy IMO, but great for OS X emulation.

Windowblinds Skins -

http://browse.deviantart.com/customization...r=9&alltime=yes

RKLauncher - A dock for Windows. Pretty self-explanatory. Free too.

AveDesk/AveTunes - Yahoo! Widget engine alternative. Popular among the customization community, essential in desktop customization of any kind. AveTunes is simply a skinnable iTunes widget for AveDesk.

AveTunes Skins -

http://browse.deviantart.com/customization...r=9&alltime=yes

Miranda IM - I personally cannot stand Miranda IM but everyone else seems to love it so there you go. Have fun spending a million hours trying to get it working

Miranda IM Skins - http://browse.deviantart.com/customization...r=9&alltime=yes

Styler Toolbar - Essential also, makes your toolbar look ALOT nicer and there are plenty of OS X skins out there. Incredibly easy to use. Loads of other options included besides toolbar skinning.

Styler Toolbar skins -

http://browse.deviantart.com/customization...r=9&alltime=yes

iTunes Multi Plugin - Plugin which makes iTunes 7 skinnable. Only iTunes 7, not 7.1 upwards. Most likely that the developer quit, only bother with it if you don't have a new iPod or Apple TV, iPhone etc.

iTunes Multi Plugin skins -

http://browse.deviantart.com/customization...r=9&alltime=yes

Mac OS X Users Basics -​

Shapeshifter -

A haxie by Unsanity to change the look and feel of Mac OS X Tiger, like Windowblinds for OS X.

Download -

http://unsanity.com/haxies/shapeshifter

Skins -

http://www.macthemes2.net

Candybar-

An application by Panic which changes system icons and dock themes in Leopard easily.

Download -

http://www.panic.com/candybar/

Iconsets -

http://www.iconfactory.com

http://susumu.seph.ws

http://jonas.seph.ws

Coversutra -

iTunes widget which displays album art on the desktop and callable controls.

Download -

http://www.coversutra.com/

If you feel any more should be added for any category please say so

Veteran customizers such as Urza and myself are here to help, Urza specializing in Windows customization, and me for OS X users.

 

[Urza]

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[kikuchiyo]

A note on haxies like Shapeshifter (and the reason I don't use them):

From wikipedia

"Haxies are a source of controversy among Macintosh software developers. Because haxies make changes to Mac OS X that Apple did not intend, they complicate the environment that other developers' applications run within. Many developers warn users to remove Application Enhancer modules before contacting customer support for help with their applications.

According to a post by an Apple employee on an Apple mailing list, Apple ignores all crash reports submitted by users if they show that APE is installed."

For Tiger users I feel like this is a great alternative (though not "sexy," maybe)
Uno

 

[flai]

Thanks for the info Kikuchiyo, most people are on Leopard anyway so there are no skinning options at the moment.

And for Tiger users wanting to have a nice system replacement without Shapeshifter Mac OS X Cats is the Creme-de-la-creme of complete resource replacements.

http://susumu.seph.ws/?page_id=25

 

[kikuchiyo]

Oh, and one more thing from back in my Windows days; Aqua-soft was the place to get stuff - wallpaper, icons, etc. I learned about a lot of programs, like AveDesk, Rainlender, and others (plus they tend to have OS X icon rips and stuff) from their forums.

 

[flai]

Oh, and one more thing from back in my Windows days; Aqua-soft was the place to get stuff - wallpaper, icons, etc. I learned about a lot of programs, like AveDesk, Rainlender, and others (plus they tend to have OS X icon rips and stuff) from their forums.

Yeah I was going to add in Aqua-Soft when Urza has done his area in Windows, I'm leaving it as is for him to use for the time being, sites etc, will be added in later. I have ALOT of sites to put up, Aqua-Soft being the best one.

 

[Scorned]

Litestep?

bbLean?

And for sites, deviantart has ALOT of good downloads you can get.

4impressions has some nice bg's and themes.

 

[flai]

Litestep?

bbLean?

And for sites, deviantart has ALOT of good downloads you can get.

4impressions has some nice bg's and themes.

I will ask Urza about them, I have used Litestep once a long time ago but couldn't get my head round it. deviantArt will definitely be in our links for skins etc. I had forgotten about 4impressions, that will go on also now

 

[nando]

for mac os x, if you want to make your own skins loadable with shapeshifter try Themepark. i used to love doing my designing my UI on it. specially the loading splash screens.

 

[Ace Gunman]

Moved to computer systems forum.

 

[flai]

Moved to computer systems forum.

Thanks so much for the sticky Ace

 

[Urza]

Today I actually might get around to doing my section.

 

[flai]

Today I actually might get around to doing my section.

Do hope so, then I could get mine done properly

 

[Urza]

Today I actually might get around to doing my section.


Do hope so, then I could get mine done properly

Why are you waiting on me?

 

[flai]

Today I actually might get around to doing my section.


Do hope so, then I could get mine done properly

Why are you waiting on me?

I thought you were going to lift some stuff from my Windows section?

 

[Devante]

Add Litestep to your list!

I've used it since like 1996.

Your desktop could look like: http://devante992.deviantart.com/art/compl...licity-17682800

 

[FAST6191]

For me this pretty much falls under my "refit kit" thing.

I tried bblean and xoblite a few months back but could not get to grips with them. I reckon they would be great for a locked down system or one designed for certain tasks but for general use I had to say no.

For this sort of thing I read up on the tweaking forums and gather a bunch of tweaking tools before spending an hour or so sorting it out (less if I do something beforehand with nlite).

Normally I drop all the fancy animations (normally by putting it in "classic" mode), kill shortcut overlay as well as the "shortcut to" part.
Tweak context menus (normally this just means dropping all the "new" options and adding my own. Adding 7zip to it (set it to not cascade), adding quickpar (I use par2 for stuff other than usenet). Hex editors and notepad++ are added.
Useful things are added to the send to menu versus the briefcase and whatever else are there when it starts up.
I also do my best to make everything appear in detail view by default but windows fights me every step of the way.
I do not get along with the premade directories (my music, my pictures, my video.....) so I trash those at first chance and set them all to c:\ or something simple.

Next if I have not already nlited it out of existence I drop media player from existence, put IE to be the backseat (kill shortcuts and get everything else it is responsible for to open with something else: only way to open it is to dig it up or hit start: run: iexplore)

nvidia was kind enough to have a multiple desktop feature (nView) and it works great for me (it was pretty much the only thing I missed from nlite and co.)

Services than have not been nlited get dropped that are useless (it has been 10 years or more since I personally last used telnet: others do still use it though so I have to be careful). It is usually fairly obvious what ones want to go.
Best way to sort these I find is hit start, run and services.msc or if you want to go a bit more advanced compmgmt.msc .

I tend to do this for all sorts of people so I have to be careful about what I lose (autoupdates I do not like whatsoever but for others they are essential)

So basically
nlite: able to create a streamlined install of windows less all the junk that normally appears and with some choice apps, drivers etc.
Especially useful for laptops for me when I want to tweak the bundled discs. Suitable for just about everyone provided you do not mess with stuff you do not understand or take the time to learn what you want to mess with.

Registry/windows tweakers (most of the ones I use exist as reg files or I edit them manually).
xp-antispy
tweakXP

This is not a favourite apps thread so I will leave the rest out.

 

[Urza]

I thought you were going to lift some stuff from my Windows section?

Of course not. Half the stuff you listed I wouldn't even touch.

 

[flai]

I thought you were going to lift some stuff from my Windows section?

Of course not. Half the stuff you listed I wouldn't even touch.

Fair enough, just trying to appeal to the masses...

Not everyone out there is original in their desktops, as in the vast amount of Flyakite users.

 

[xcalibur]

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Wow, I'm amazed Urza.
Awesome.

I never knew there were so many ways to make windows look that awesome.