I tried Windows Vista for a while, and ultimately found nothing really wrong with it.  The only problems I really had with it was that it hadn’t been on the market long enough for anyone to write any real tweaking tools for it yet, and the hardware I was running it on didn’t have enough horsepower to enable things like Aero Glass.  The non-Aero Windows Vista theme is terrible looking.

So ultimately I dropped Vista and went back to XP.  And as it’s been widely reported, I’m not the only one.  Some people are actually buying older laptops that have the original Microsoft XP license key stickered on the bottom just to save money from buying Vista and downgrading to XP.

But the original Windows XP look is, well, boring and old looking.

Here are ten of my favorite tricks for making XP look better:

1.) CrystalXP Windows Vista Inspirat Bricopack – this is a cool pack for Windows XP, even SP3, that installs a patched uxtheme.dll so that you can use unsigned Windows XP themes, and includes a very nice looking Windows Vista inspired theme itself, including all the icons and sounds.  Very easy to install, and also includes two of the other items on this list – Yz Shadow and UberIcon.

2.) Yz Shadow – A nifty little utility to add a dropped shadow to all the windows in XP.  This gives XP a look similar to the Mac OS.

3.) UberIcon – A pointless but fun utility to add animation to icons after you click on them.  UberIcon has different modes, including bounce and spring.

4.) VirtuaWin – A very good window manager for XP that allows you to have more than one window (similar to Spaces in Mac OS).  Switching between windows is as easy as using the Windows key and an arrow, you can move windows across different virtual desktops, and you can have some windows persist in multiple virtual desktops.

5.) VistaVG Blue Refresh – The default theme from Windows Vista Inspirat is nice, but if you want something a little fresher looking, VistaVG Blue Refresh gives you a nice gradient blue look.

6.) The Matrix Code Emulator ScreenSaver – Every geek should have this as their screensaver at one point or another, plain and simple.  This screensaver gives you that scrolling list of Japanese characters seen on the computer monitors in The Matrix movie.

7.) Google Sidebar – Similar to the sidebar in Windows Vista, the Google Sidebar (which is a part of Google Desktop) has a lot of very useful widgets, and is a useful add-on especially for newer 16:9 widescreen LCD panels.  Who needs all that horizontal space anyways, right?

8.) Taskbar Shuffle – Not so much a visual tool, but a very handy one nonetheless.  Taskbar Shuffle allows you to re-arrange taskbar items.  I tend to be a creature of habit – I always like having my email client as the first item on the taskbar.  But sometimes I have to close the email client and re-open it, and Taskbar Shuffle allows me to drag the window title back to the first position on the taskbar.

9.) Visual Task Tips – A handy visual preview of open windows.  Just highlight the item on the taskbar, and a small window will pop up showing you a preview of what that item is.  This is very handy for people that tend to open dozens of windows, but forget which one is which.

10.) TransBar – A utility to make your task bar transparent, allowing you to see your wallpaper behind it.

Got a tweaking tool that should be on the list?  Let me know!

Filed under: General, Microsoft, Windows