Shell replacement

mr_angry

I'm an avid customiser of my computer. I like every detail to be skinned, altered, whatever. Recently, I've seen a couple of complete shell replacement programs such as LiteStep, but none of them seem to be ideal. Either they have too few skins, or they are propriatery. Can anyone recommend a good all-round shell-replacement app?

Mutant_Fruit

windows Blinds is pretty good. I use it. There are some pretty nice skins out there.

neokenzo

I use windowblinds too. Great piece of software. Talisman is good too but hate teh fact that you have to open the program each time you reboot instead of it loading automatically.

Giblet

aston shell, the best, loads on startup, and easy to customise, loads of plugins.
Comes with a shell swapper too.

Creamy Goodness

google talisman used it once and it was great now i just use style xp 2

Capt'n Midnight

[code]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
"Shell"="Progman.exe"
[code]

Spunog UIE

Originally posted by neokenzo
I use windowblinds too. Great piece of software. Talisman is good too but hate teh fact that you have to open the program each time you reboot instead of it loading automatically.

haven't used talisman in a while but there is a shell swap feature on it so your not just running it on top of windows. Some people jus like to use it for special menu bars on top of explorer.

At the moment I like aston shel, its very stable and doesn't suck up all your resourses. Some people say it uses less than windows but i'm sure thats theme dependant.

The only downside I've found with aston is the lack of a creating workspace areas, that you might want to run around the edge of the screens. Which you can do in Talisman.

JackKelly

does windowblinds work well with 2k?

ColmOT [MSFT]

Just an FYI, but changing your shell invalidates any issues that you may have with Windows, and makes it *extremely* difficult to troubleshoot any issues that may pop up in the future...

sceptre

"Invalidates"?

ColmOT [MSFT]

invalidates - meaning that if you have an issue with Windows, you will have to remove the customised shell, and return to Explorer.exe to verify if it's a real Windows problem, or a problem with the shell you have replaced Explorer.exe with.

SantaHoe

Originally posted by ColmOT [MSFT]
[...]and makes it *extremely* difficult to troubleshoot any issues that may pop up in the future...

Hah yeah I can imagine...

User: "Hi, my taskbar has become so transparent that I can hardly see it"
Tech: "(WHAT?!) Ok, just click start, se..."
User: "-er, I don't have any start button..."
Tech: "sigh, ok right-click my computer.."
User: "nope don't have that either"

What a nightmare. :eek:
Although I'd imagine anyone savvy enough to replace their shell would at least be able to change it back on request.

Spunog UIE

savvy eh, heh heh these days all you have to do is use the shell switcher program that comes with them, very handy.

JackKelly

ive been trying to get windowblinds to work on my 2000 machine. After i install is the first time, it works but once i restart my computer or turn it off etc, the next time i boot up an error comes up saying "Windowblinds 4.0 Cannot run" or something along those lines, although when i look in the taskbar, it right there. Very Strange. I might email stardock.com

ColmOT [MSFT]

AFAIK WindowsBlinds isn't a 'shell replacement' per se...they just play with the GUI of the shell, they don't replace explorer.exe as the shell. It's been a while since I tried WindowsBlinds.
There have been some issues with WindowsBlinds and the way that they acheive the affects, while cool and ingenius, isn't the best approach.

They work great when they work, but if things start to go wrong, they really go wrong.

sceptre

I've been using the hacked uxtheme DLL to pop a variety of themes on my windows XP setup. I've found a few I like and I'm sticking with the small number I have. No hassle at all since doing it.

(again, this isn't a shell replacement, though for me it's a GUI improvement)

Nick_oliveri

I Find That Customisation usually Takes Up Lots Of System Resources.
And I Need Those Resources For Condition Zero. But Me Ending Explorer
Every Time Is About To Stop.Im Using Style Xp v2.0.

Current
Image Name

explorer.exe 23.472 K (Is That Normal?)

ColmOT [MSFT]

Another thing - patching your ntoskrnl.exe to change your bootscreen bitmap is a bad idea as well.

It might appear to work fine for a few months, but when you try to installa service pack, you'll notice that it was a bad idea to change the file image. The service pack installer will not upgrade your ntoskrnl because it looks at the file and sees it isn't the standard uniprocessor ntoskrnl, it's not the standard multiprocessor ntoskrnl, it's not the standard advanced server ntoskrnl. The setup routine doesn't know which version of ntoskrnl to update it to so I'll just leave it alone. This

If you are lucky you will bluescreen at boot because the old ntoskrnl is incompatible with some other critical part of the service pack.

If you are unlucky, your machine will appear to run normally when in fact it is quietly corrupting itself, and then it will keel over or generate bogus data when you least expect it.

sceptre

Originally posted by ColmOT [MSFT]
Another thing - patching your ntoskrnl.exe to change your bootscreen bitmap is a bad idea as well.

I tend to agree - it's the one thing I've stayed away from doing. I suppose if you remember to backup the kernel file and change it back before installing a service pack you'll get away with it but it's asking for trouble in its own way. The side issue is when you don't manually patch the file yourself. Do you really want some unknown exe file running as your kernel file?

neokenzo

I found that out the hard way. I tired the boot screent with Style XP and whenever it boots not, its giving me an option either to boot with the new boot screen or XP's screen. Its like booting with 2 OS. I have then reverted it back to the original but the screen still pops up but now it goes automatically to XP boot screen. It is slowing down my boot.

Anyone knows how to fix this?

Nick_oliveri

Yeah I copped how To Get Rid Of That. But Be Really ****ing Careful.
Open Boot.ini With A Text Editor AFTER Turning Style Xp Bootscreen On.
Delete The line That Aint Style Xp. Dont Delete Any Other Operating System Boots If You Have Any. Thats What I Did, And It Worked Like A Charm.

P.s Make A Backup of Boot.ini First, If It Dont Work,Either Roll Back(not Recommended) Or Safe Boot The Bitch And Swap with The old Boot.ini.

SantaHoe

Well I've seen a safer way of replacing the boot screen, which involves leaving your default ntoskrnl as it is... and making a logo-hacked copy of it as something like mykrnl.exe.
Then you just duplicate your existing os line in your boot.ini with a switch at the end specifying that mykrnl.exe should be used. (can't remember this switch offhand)
Granted it gives you a multi-boot menu every time you boot up, but you could set a short time-out for it.
Or maybe just leave one OS entry and remove the switch from boot.ini if something goes wrong.