[d] enclosed in brackets

more hu-man than... uh...

Win XP: Desktop: Theme: Human

There is a way to change your Windows XP desktop without having to super-hack it up. I found out about this the other day, and I wish I'd had it a few years ago... it makes Windows more bearable, instead of a couple of defaults, we can actually customize it.

First, you can go to this link, which will show you how to get the first component to changing your theme. After you install that and restart your system, you can go out there and get a new theme (or two). The one I'm using (called Human) is from here.

Do the following to get them in place (thanks go to Sean, 'cause I ripped this from our chat about this):

• Save the theme(s) to C:\windows\Resources\Themes
• Make a folder in there with the same name as the msstyles file (like "Human")
• then unpack the style into that folder

also from Sean: It should then show up in the list on the Appearance tab on desktop properties. A lot of these custom styles have 'compact' schemes - that refers to the start menu, comapct means the stuff in the right column is icons-only.

After using it for about a week... I like it, and I feel like I have more space available. Combine that with something like TaskSwitchXP which lets you minimize any app to the tray (more on that later), and you've got a nice setup for your Windows system.