Desktop thread!

[Decavolt]

Ok Deca...where'd you get it...and how can I get me some of that rockin' PC desktop?!

I HATE how windows looks. Every last pixel of it is just... fugly. So, I skin the hell out of Zul and hack the shit out of the registry and GUI to turn him into... something else.

If it's just the skins you're looking for, I use WindowBlinds to skin the GUI, and Object Dock for the Mac-like dock bar at the bottom (since the Start and task bar irritate me too). I use the built-in Mac OSX theme in Windowblinds to get that menubar at the top, then I put the Milk theme for Windowblinds on top of it to skin the windows because it's small, super clean, and let's me windowshade my open windows. "Camp's Korilla" is a nice theme as well that does the same.

The calendar and weather widgets are from Konfabulator - wich Yahoo just bought and is giving away for free. Let's hope the yahoo's and Yahoo don't totally fuck up a great product.

For the dock, make sure all icons you use are PNG's, since they're lossless (meaning they don't distort when they scale). If you want the AO icon or any others you saw on mine, let me know and I'll post them. Same for the wallpapers.

Also check www.wincustomize.com and www.themes.org for more goodies.

Or... you can run Mac OSX like my 2nd image and have all this stuff built in

[Coruptd]

I would so love the get my hands on a Mac lappy but seeing as how Alaska is bass ackwards, looks like I'll just have to skin XP.. Thnx for the info on how to do it Deca.

[Innari]

Thanks Deca!

*Dani runs off to further blow up her machine*

[Decavolt]

Something I forgot to mention... if you notice that Windowblinds acts screwy with any specific apps, you can turn off the skinning for just that application in the Windowblinds preferences - Windowblinds calls it a "per application setting". For instance, I have Photoshop skinning turned off so that WB doesn't try to skin all of my pallette windows. You should be able to leave AO skinned though, which makes it nice and easy to windowshade it instead of minimizing it when you need to see something else.

[Mivat]

Decavolt, how is Windowblinds in terms of hogging RAM and CPU-cycles? Been looking at it for a while, but don't want to sacrifice system performance for looks. Have deactivated the hell out of the normal XP GUI (iiiick bubblegum-gui = teh suq).

[Decavolt]

Mivat, WB system resource usage is pretty low so long as you're not using a monster of a theme with loads of alpha transparencies and effects - which is why I like the Milk theme so much.

When I'm dj'ing, I leave Windowblinds loaded and running. So, Windowblinds, the top mac menu bar, AO game client, Winamp 5 Pro, the Shoutcast DSP, a browser and even at times Skype all run at the same time. The only thing I turn off is the dock. WB obviously uses some RAM, but it's not excessive. I don't notice much of a performance hit at all with the minimalist themes. That is, AO's video lags like a drunken gutter slut for me with WB off, but it's no worse when WB is on and every other application runs as fast as usual.

That's on a 2.8ghz AMD Athlon XP (overclocked to around 3+ghz) with 1.5gb of RAM on a SOYO motherboard using *gasp* only a 32mb on-board video (which I've been meaning to upgrade forever). If I can run WB on 32mb of on-board vid ram with little to no performance lags, it's safe to say it'll run for most anyone.

[Tarryk]

I'll be giving it a try at home this week. Just installed it and threw a theme on here at work. No performance hit at all that I can tell, and if anything it gives the illusion of actually running smoother.

[Mivat]

Damn nice background, Tarryk.

[Demongirl]

well i'll probably be using object dock very soon and will probably redo the whole desktop. thanks deca!

[Boinky]

My work blah

[Mynka]

My Desktop w00t!

[Demongirl]

after objectdock and remembering i had windowblinds on this thing...

[Merkaba]

Can someone sticky this thread? It's gotten popular and I'm sure people will want to continue posting their desktops in the future.

[Tarryk]

Went nuts on theme-ifying at home yesterday.

Of course, I still have yet to find a winamp skin other than the default classic that doesn't make my retinas whimper in agony.

[Merkaba]

Dude, Tarryk that is so pimp. What OS do you run? XP?

[Tarryk]

Thanks, yeah it's XP Pro. Almost every piece of the theme you can see here (except for my new pointers I think) is constructed from the various K-tek Metallic themes at www.wincustomize.com (thanks Decavolt hehe)

[Vallikat]

Ok, after years of having the most cluttered desktop you've ever seen, I've gone very minimal, at least for me. Still too many icons, but I lose things far too easily. So I present you the new and clean version of my desktop:

[Tarryk]

VERY nice, I like the colors.

[Vallikat]

Thanks.

Its certainly less industrial/futuristic than most that have been posted, but I like it.

[Aakasha]

Still working on making my desktop look spiffy with those kewl programs but I am in love with my new desktop pic and thought I'd share. Its a tough choice between her, Lulu, and Bloodrayne....