My customization tutorial!!!

September 7th, 2004, 9:15 am

all tested on XP SP1 and SP2

Tired off the default boring XP desktop?

Visual Styles

First thing we want to change is the visual style, a visual is what you see, the default Blue colors for example, a visual style basicly overlays everything with nicer buttons, colors and borders
A visual style is basicly a file with visual aspects that windows needs
Its located at C:\\Windows\Rescources\Themes\Name of theme

In That folder is a file located with the extension .msstyles, it has all the images from the borders colors etc inside,
In most cases there is also a Folder called Shell inside
This folder contains the shellstyle

The common tasks sidebar in Windows explorer

Now, how can we skin all this?
Well, The XP skinning engine has a sort of protection inside off it, XP styles have a digital signature inside Which a file called Uxtheme.dll checks, without this digital Signature, windows wont accept the visual style,

There are differend ways around it

StyleXP
--> This program loads up with windows and replaces The uxtheme.dll in the memory so styles without signature will work.

XP autopatcher
--> this little program basicly replaces the uxtheme.dll with a patched one, this is best way in my opinion as there is no ram or disk space wasted
Its recommend using this program in safe mode though
--> that one isnt updated to XP SP2 yet so get a new sp2 version Here

Windowblinds
--> This program basicly adds a new skinning engine with more options to customize XP,
i recommend using one of the above programs first though.

Heres how you get themes to work:
Put the folder with the name of the visual style in windows/rescources/themes folder and click on the msstyle file, the windows theme manager will load up, just click apply or ok and the style will load!

Where to get visual styles!

ThemeXP
This site has a lot of visual styles, but they have spyware inside them!
there is a way around it though, extract the installers with winzip!

DeviantART
--> No spyware on this one, has awesome visual styles!

Wincustomize
--> has excellent skins for WindowBlinds

Making Visual Styles yourself!
Why not, once you start using visual styles, why not making visual styles yourself?
a few programs to do this:

Stylebuilder
--> the best program to make visual styles in my opinion!

In case you are using WindowBlinds, use:
Skinstudio
--> it is able to convert msstyle themes to windowblinds format.

Last thing about this: some older programs dont have skinning support and they have the old style buttons, you can patch that programs though!
xp skins

Icons

What about changing the default XP icons, there are lots better ones on the net

There are 2 differend ways changing the icons!

1. changing them in the XP system files with reshacker, more on this later...
2. Using a program to change them, a few programs are listed below

Iconpackager
--> nice program, loads of icons out for this one
Icon packages are availible at http://www.wincustomize.org

BeeIcons
--> i use this one myself, pretty good

DcolorXP
--> this ap doesnt really change icons, but allows you to you tiled icons on the desktop!

Iconphile
--> very light and fast program!

Bootscreen

Another good idea to customize xp is changing the bootscreen, the defeauld look is pretty boring, so we gonna do something about it!
How you can make it look like:
...


--> Instructions, copied this from themexp.org, why write it all down if someone else allready did it?

Quote:

1. In Explorer, browse to C:\Windows\System32 and find the file named "ntoskrnl.exe".
2. Copy "ntoskrnl.exe" to "ntoskrnl.exe.bak", (COPY not RENAME). This way if anything goes wrong...you will have a backup.
3. Extract the files inside the .zip file you downloaded to a temporary location of your hard drive, but NOT to C:\Windows\System32.
4. Reboot your computer into Safe Mode (hit F8 before the boot screen appears) or into true DOS mode (from a boot disk)
5. Browse to where you extracted the files for your new boot screen in Explorer and select the correct file to copy to C:\Windows\System32. If you have SP1 for Windows XP installed use ntoskrnlsp.exe, otherwise use ntoskrnl.exe. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO USE THE CORRECT FILE, OR YOUR SYSTEM WILL LOCK UP ON BOOT.
6. If using ntoskrnl.exe, copy the file to C:\Windows\System32 overwriting the existing ntoskrnl.exe, (which should have been backed up).
7. If you are going to use ntoskrnlsp.exe, delete ntoskrnl.exe in the temporary folder and rename ntoskrnlsp.exe to ntoskrnl.exe. Then copy the file to C:\Windows\System32 overwriting the existing ntoskrnl.exe, (which should have been backed up).
8. All done! Reboot your computer as you normally would and enjoy your new boot screen.

If you dont like doing this all manually, feel free to use one of the programs listed below!

Loginuibootoptimizer

**ALLWAYS MAKE A BACKUP OF NTOSKRNL.EXE

Or this program that actually doesnt alter any files! it just changes the patch to it
Bootskin
--> Themes availible at http://www.wincustomize.org

Login Screens

Changing the login screen is also a nice trick!
...

Steps:

Quote:

1. In Explorer, browse to C:\Windows\System32 and find the file named "logonui.exe".
2. Rename "logonui.exe" to "logonui.exe.bak". This way if anything messes up...you have a backup.
3. Place your new login in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 and rename it to logonui.exe.
4. That's it! Now when you log off your new login screen will be there.

Also a few programs can change the login screen for you!

Logon Loader
--> nice program if you done like changing everything manually!

LogonStudio

AGAIN, ALLWAYS MAKE A BACKUP OF LOGONUI.EXE, if anything goes rwong you can replace the file again in safe mode!

Add Objects to your desktop

Objects are basicly things you put on the desktop, with the weather on it, ur system speed etc,
Here is a example:
...

What aps do we need?

Samurize
--> This one has the most docklets availible and works very smooth!

Avedesk
--> This one adds widgets to your desktop

Kapsules
--> This one is what i use, i find it better then Samurize, there only arent much Whigets out there for it....
Here are some screenshots

DesktopX
--> This one also adds widgets and is able to enhanced your icons icons
Themes are availible at http://www.wincustomize.org

...

Docks

Whats a dock?
Its a dock like the one availible in Mac osX, its basicly a taslbar replacement:
...

There are differend docks out there for windows, here are a few free ones

Y'z dock
--> This one has very low memory usuage and is very fast, But they have been sued by apple and the project is stopped so we wont see any new versions anymore...

Objectdock
--> one of the best docks availible, its still in developement and runs pretty good,
new docklets can be found at http://www.wincustomize.org

Mobydock
--> Tried this one once, but it looks much differend then the mac dock...

Sidebar

Another nice thing to enhance your desktop is a sidebar!
There are several sidebars out there, here are a few:

SmartbarXP
--> this one basicly looks the most like the longhorn one! its only still in beta stage, so you can experience some problems!

Codename dashboard
--> Another great sidebar is codename dashboard! i didnt find it look so good, but tastes are differend!

Desktop Sidebar
--> This one is very flexible! i use it myself, but offcourse i dont know what sidebar you like so its up to you which on to pick!

...

Resourcehacker

What about changing like every icon thats in windows?
Its possible
rograms we need for this:
Resource Hacker

ResEdit

tip: Most windows icons are located in Shell32.dll!!

There are also a lot off Packages availible with files that are hacked allready, install them at your own risk.

Longhorn Transformation pack
Screenshot

Mac Trasnformation pack
--> this one is just excellent!
Screenshots are on that site

Shell

A differend shell is basicly a replacement for the explorer Desktop and Startmenu
it does not replace the filemanager on XP!

There are many shell's out there, and what you want to use is really your own choise!

Litestep
--> This one is very easy to use, i recommend this one if its the first time you try a differend shell!

Aston shell

Geoshell

Here's a example of a litestep theme
...

Other stuff

We shoudl have a better looking windows now!, still there are a lot of progs out there that improves visual stuff on windows

Cursor XP
--> Very good program, improves the look of the XP cursor

...

WindowFX
--> replaces the animation of windows
allows to fading in and out of windows, morphing into the taskbar, like everything you want, this is one of my favourite progs!

Y'z toolbar
--> this prog allows you to easily change the Windows toolbar icons!
...

TClock Light
--> allows you to change the start button, and changes the clock, great little tool
...

Rainlender
--> this one adds a nice calender to the desktop!
...

ZMatrix
--> ZMatrix is an animated desktop background which displays streaming characters in a style similar to what was used in the movie 'The Matrix'. The program was based off of source code for a screen saver found at http://www.elouai.com, and is entirely free.

A example of what you can get!
...

For support visit http://www.tradingworld.net/forum

hope this helps

Moderator Remark: Dead images removed

September 7th, 2004, 1:16 pm

Nice tutorial, that took some time !

Very nice ,I like all that stuff and have tried it in one time or another !
at work I have all kinds of object dock ,and little visuals that you explain
here.(everyone loves the way I change my themes and wallpapers so much.lol ) plus I show alot of people how to do what you have shown here.(now I can just give them your link) lol

But at home I am a resource hound and have bare minimum going,
classic look,minimal tasks in the background.
And thats only because I do alot of Graphic intensive stuff.

this is were i get my basic stuff ;
http://www.themexp.org/
http://www.deviantart.com/
http://www2.wincustomize.com/

I've been a member of those 3 ever since there start ! so i can relate.

I like that TC Clock

September 7th, 2004, 10:09 pm

A very nice post indeed medievil!

I would like to add something about boot screens. Your method will work just fine if you are using the correct kernel. However, if you do end up with the wrong version, as you stated, the computer will not boot.

A good method for testing is to rename the custom kernel, say newkrnl.exe, and place that in your system32 directory.

Then edit the boot.ini file found in the root of your system partition, usually C:\.

Open a command prompt and enter these commands:

Code: [ Download ] [ Select ]

attrib -r c:\boot.ini
notepad c:\boot.ini

1. attrib -r c:\boot.ini
2. notepad c:\boot.ini

You will see something like this:

Code: [ Download ] [ Select ]

[boot loader]
timeout=15
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

1. [boot loader]
2. timeout=15
3. default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
4. [operating systems]
5. multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

What you want to is make a copy of the last line like this:

Code: [ Download ] [ Select ]

[boot loader]
timeout=15
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

1. [boot loader]
2. timeout=15
3. default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
4. [operating systems]
5. multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
6. multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

And then add /kernel=newkrnl.exe at the end and edit the name for this entry:

Code: [ Download ] [ Select ]

[boot loader]
timeout=15
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Boot Screen Test" /fastdetect /kernel=newkrnl.exe

1. [boot loader]
2. timeout=15
3. default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
4. [operating systems]
5. multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
6. multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Boot Screen Test" /fastdetect /kernel=newkrnl.exe

This will allow you to reboot with the original kernel in case the new one fails for whatever reason.

Also, if the timeout is set to 0, that needs to be set to 30 seconds or some amount of time that will allow you choose an option.

If the new kernel works, then you can go back and set that as the first entry. To keep the boot menu from appearing, set the timeout to 0.

September 16th, 2004, 2:17 am

hey there can i know where can i get the "robot catching the betterfly" visual style

November 24th, 2004, 2:30 am

Just wondering, am I allowed to translate this tutorial to another language
and post it on another forum.
Ofcourse i would mention that the tutorial is NOT made by me, and post a link to this thread.
is this ok whit you

[ATNO/TW]

November 24th, 2004, 7:08 am

Normally, I would suggest that you contact the author of the tutorial, but medievil has not posted here since September 11, so I don't know how successful you'll be on attempts to contact them.

Instead I would suggest to send a private message to Bigwebmaster since the tutorial is now part of OZZU and see what he suggests or would permit. He is the board owner.

November 24th, 2004, 9:36 am

Darn...
Well I'll PM Bigwebmaster.
Thanks for the info anyways.

April 21st, 2005, 12:53 pm

I got the robot picture from devianART at their 3d dimension wallpapers-section. On the "Today's favourits".

April 21st, 2005, 3:13 pm

Wow very nice tutorial! Glad this got woken up....

The amount of views for this thread is frightening

Definately going to change my boot and login

April 21st, 2005, 7:22 pm

http://www.flexbeta.net/forums/lofivers ... t4103.html

http://board.iexbeta.com/lofiversion/in ... 45394.html