Windows Desktop Enhancements

I've played with Google Desktop, ObjectDock, and Windowblinds and ended up getting rid of them because they were either resource hogs or I didn't like them in general.

Anyone have any cool programs, tweaks, or other desktop enhancements they use?

ObjectDock was actually decent, but there wasn't much support for a start menu (I wanted to hide the Windows taskbar), and I had a hard time finding icons for it that I liked.

WindowBlinds is a hog -- I stopped using it years ago.

If you're just looking for themes support, IMO the best tool is StyleXP[=http//www.tgtsoft.com/prod_sxp_features.php]StyleXP. Rather than replacing XP's skinning engine with it's own bloated engine (like WB does), it "unlocks" XP's theme engine to allow 3rd party themes, and there are tons of themes available on the net (themexp.org for instance). There are also some freeware hacks available that require you to replace a system DLL to use 3rd party themes, but StyleXP uses an official, Microsoft-blessed signing mechanism that avoids the hack (which can sometimes cause problems with Windows Updates, Service Packs, System Restore, etc.). StyleXP isn't free, unfortunately, but it's not expensive either.

Others I've used include the CrystalXP[=http//www.crystalxp.net]CrystalXP themes and brico-packs. The packs bundle themes and add-ons like RocketDock and others that add translucency and shadows to windows and dialogs. I ran the Crystal Clear[=http//www.crystalxp.net/bricopack/en-crystal-clear.htm]Crystal Clear pack for awhile until I got bored with it and reverted to a standard MS Royal theme. The Crystal.net stuff is totally free, BTW.

[quote980e16b090="dmorris68"]WindowBlinds is a hog -- I stopped using it years ago.

If you're just looking for themes support, IMO the best tool is StyleXP[=http//www.tgtsoft.com/prod_sxp_features.php]StyleXP. Rather than replacing XP's skinning engine with it's own bloated engine (like WB does), it "unlocks" XP's theme engine to allow 3rd party themes, and there are tons of themes available on the net (themexp.org for instance). There are also some freeware hacks available that require you to replace a system DLL to use 3rd party themes, but StyleXP uses an official, Microsoft-blessed signing mechanism that avoids the hack (which can sometimes cause problems with Windows Updates, Service Packs, System Restore, etc.). StyleXP isn't free, unfortunately, but it's not expensive either.

Others I've used include the CrystalXP[=http//www.crystalxp.net]CrystalXP themes and brico-packs. The packs bundle themes and add-ons like RocketDock and others that add translucency and shadows to windows and dialogs. I ran the Crystal Clear[=http//www.crystalxp.net/bricopack/en-crystal-clear.htm]Crystal Clear pack for awhile until I got bored with it and reverted to a standard MS Royal theme. The Crystal.net stuff is totally free, BTW.[/quote980e16b090]

Nice post David, thanks for the info. The Crystal.net stuff is exactly what I was looking for. How does it do on resources? Have you noticed it being much of a resource hog?

Depending on your system, if you turn everything on you might notice a performance hit. The themes themselves are very lightweight, it uses the XP engine so there's no extra overhead. The RocketDock seemed pretty snappy too. Actually it all seemed pretty snappy to me, but then again I was running it on a dual-core Opteron 175 with 2GB RAM and dual 7800GT vidcards. YMMV, obviously.

I tried windowblinds a while back too but I thought it used up too many resources too.

I use the freeware hack that David mentioned (I'm cheap). I've used it for a while in various versions of XP and service packs but haven't had a problem with it. You just patch the file uxtheme.dll so that you can use other windows themes which are available at places like deviantart or customize.org, etc... Since all it does is change the one dll file, it doesn't seem to take up any additional resources. There should be a patcher out there called uxtheme multipatcher 5 that will patch the file for you if you want to give it a try.

I have thought about using stylexp, it's under $20 but like I said I've never run into any problems with the patched uxtheme.dll yet.

Oh, and I use yzdock as a mac os like dock. I just checked and it's only taking up about 750kB of RAM.