Windows XP to Windows 2000: Retro is Cool

Don't like those cute XP graphics? Here's how to make Windows XP look more like Windows 2000.

Sometimes, no matter how much you tweak, you still don't like what you see. After sampling the hacks in this chapter, I decided that I didn't care for the cartoon-like graphical look of Windows XP (see Figure 2-25).

Figure 2-25. Windows XP desktop

Since XP is so customizable, it only took a few seconds to make my start menu and desktop look like the old standby Windows 2000.

First, let's change that cluttered XP start menu (see Figure 2-26) to a classic Start menu.

Figure 2-26. Windows XP Start menu

Right click anywhere on the taskbar at the bottom of the screen and select Properties from the popup menu. Go to the top of the window and select the Start Menu tab. Click the button for Classic Start menu. While you're in this tab you also have the option of customizing the Classic Start menu. Choose Customize to add or remove programs from your start menu, enable options such as drag and drop, or display Favorites. Hit OK and your start menu will now look like the one shown in Figure 2-27, just like Windows 2000.

Figure 2-27. The lean and mean Classic Start menu running on Windows XP

Now that you've cleaned up the Start menu, it's time to change the look of your desktop. Though it's not a necessary step to making your desktop look like Windows 2000, your notification area (the lower right-hand corner near the clock) will be a lot neater if you go back to the Taskbar tab, and uncheck Hide inactive icons. Windows 2000 doesn't have the graphical features of XP, so hiding the icons before switching over is a good idea.

Right click anywhere on the desktop and choose Properties from the popup menu. Select the Themes tab and under Themes, scroll down to Windows Classic. Hit OK and your desktop will now look like the one shown in Figure 2-28.

Figure 2-28. Back to the past: Windows Classic theme running on Windows XP

Your desktop now has the icons, the window setup, the Start menu, and the general look and feel of Windows 2000.

—Lorrie LeJeune

Create Transparent Windows

Make any XP window transparent and control the amount of transparency for each.

One of the cooler new interface features of XP is the ability to use transparent or semitransparent windows, in which the background can show through the current window. But there's a problem with that feature: very few programs take advantage of transparency, and there is no way built into XP for you to make windows transparent. So, to a great extent, the feature is worthless.

However, a number of downloadable programs tap into that XP capability and let you make any window transparent. My favorite is Glass2K (http://www.chime.tv/products/glass2k.shtml), because it's small, it's simple, and above all, it's free. It doesn't muck around with your system by making Registry changes or installing .dlls. It's just run an executable file, and with it you can make any window transparent. When it's running, go to the window you want to make transparent, and press Ctrl-Shift and a number from 0 to 9. 9 makes the window the least transparent, 1 makes it the most transparent, and 0 sets it so that it's solid, with no transparency. You can also right-click on a window, and select the degree of transparency from the program's pop-up menu. The window will keep that degree of transparency as long as you run the program and keep the transparency setting. Figure 2-19 shows the results of making windows transparent with the program.

Figure 2-19. Making any windows transparent with Glass2K

Trans-XP is another downloadable that lets you make windows transparent. It's shareware, and is free to try, but costs $14.95 if you decide to keep it. It's available from http://www.totalidea.com.

The downloadable version limits you to having only three transparent windows.




Another similar program is Actual Transparent Windows. It's also shareware and is free to try, but it costs $19.95 if you decide to keep it. It's available from http://www.actualtools.com.

If you're looking for an all-in-one tool that lets you make countless interface tweaks, including making any window transparent, try Tweak-XP, from http://www.totalidea.com. In addition to giving you transparency, it lets you hide programs on the Start Menu, and create your own folder icons. It also offers a variety of optimization tools, as well as utilities such as a pop-up ad blocker, a Registry cleaner, Zip file repairer and much more. It's shareware and free to try, but you're expected to pay $29.95 if you keep using it.




There's one drawback to using transparent windows: it takes up processing power and RAM, so it may slow down your system. The fewer transparent windows you create, the less processing and RAM are used, so handle transparent windows with care.

Remove "Uninstallable" XP Utilities

Think you can't uninstall Windows Messenger, WordPad and similar components? Think again. This hack shows you how.

Windows has always had a problem with uninstalling software, and it's particularly poor at uninstalling its own utilities, such as WordPad or Windows Messenger. Uninstalling these utilities can free up hard disk space if your hard disk is starting to fill up. And if you never use Windows Messenger, you most likely will want to uninstall it, because the program frequently launches itself automatically even after you've shut it down repeatedly, kind of like Dracula returning from the dead. It won't bother you any longer if you uninstall it.

To remove XP utilities and components, you normally choose Control Panel Add or Remove Programs Add/Remove Windows Components to get to the Windows Component Wizard, shown in Figure 2-18. To uninstall a utility or component, just follow the wizard's instructions.

Figure 2-18. The Windows Component Wizard

Ah, but there's a catch. A number of Windows utilities and components—notably Windows Messenger and WordPad—don't show in the Windows Component Wizard, so there's no apparent way to uninstall them. But you can, in fact, remove these components. XP has a Setup Information file that controls what appears in the Windows Component Wizard. If you edit this file, you can force these components to appear in the Wizard, and you can then remove them as you would any others.

To start, use Notepad or another text editor to open the Setup Information file, sysoc.inf, which is generally found in the C:\WINDOWS\INF folder. For safety's sake, make a backup of the file before editing it, so you can revert to it if you need to. You should also set up a System Restore point before making the changes. To set up a System Restore point, choose Control Panel Performance and Maintenance System Restore and then follow the instructions.

C:\WINDOWS\INF is a hidden folder, so if you want to view its contents, you will have to enable hidden folders by going into Windows Explorer and choosing Tools Folder Options View and choosing Show Hidden Files and Folders.




When you open the file, look for the line describing the program you want to uninstall. Lines in the file have the format:

program=program.dll,OcEntry,program.inf,,numeral
Programs that are uninstallable all have the word hide (or HIDE) embedded in the string. When this word is included in the string, the program won't show up in the Windows Component Wizard. The Pinball game entry, which doesn't show up in the wizard, looks like this:

Pinball=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,pinball.inf,HIDE,7
To force it to show up in the wizard, remove the word hide from the entry that refers to the component that you want to remove. For example, if you want to remove Pinball, edit its entry to this:

Pinball=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,pinball.inf,,7
Save the sysoc.inf file, then run the Windows Component Wizard. The component will now show up in the wizard. Remove it as you would any other component.

Keep in mind that not all of the entries in sysoc.inf are as easy to understand as Pinball and WordPad. For example, if you want to remove Windows Messenger, look for the entry that starts with the text msmsgs. If you want to remove the Accessibility Wizard, look for the entry for AccessOpt. Table 2-4 lists the "uninstallable" programs their entries in the sysoc.inf file.

Table 2-4. "Uninstallable" programs and their sysoc.inf entries Entry
What entry refers to

AccessOpt
Accessibility Wizard

MultiM
Multimedia components, including Media Player, Volume Control, and Sound Recorder

CommApps
Communications components, including Chat, Hyperterminal, and Phone Dialer

AutoUpdate
Windows Automatic Update

TerminalServer
Terminal Server

dtc
Distributed Transaction Coordinator

dom
COM+

WBEM
Windows Management Instrumentation

Pinball
Pinball game

MSWordPad
WordPad

msmsgs
Windows Messenger



You may run into a few gotchas when trying to remove "uninstallable" components. On some systems, you simply won't be able to remove Windows Messenger, because Windows Messenger won't show up on the Windows Component Wizard even after you edit the sysoc.inf file. And some components, such as Terminal Server, will show up in the wizard if you edit the sysoc.inf file, but the wizard still won't let you uninstall them.

2.11.1 Hide Components You Don't Want to Be Uninstalled
You can use this same technique in reverse to hide components you don't want to be uninstalled accidentally. Simply put the word HIDE in the proper place in the entry that you don't want to show up in the Windows Component Wizard. For example, if you want to hide the uninstall entry for the fax utility, edit its entry by changing:

Fax=fxsocm.dll,FaxOcmSetupProc,fxsocm.inf,,7
to:

Fax=fxsocm.dll,FaxOcmSetupProc,fxsocm.inf,HIDE,7

Hacking Your Way Through the Interface

Use Registry hacks to make a grab-bag of great interface changes.

Hidden in the mazes of the Registry are countless ways to hack XP's interface. Here are some of my favorites.

2.10.1 Hide All Icons in the Notification Area
The System Tray, also called the Notification Area, is the small area on the far-right side of the Taskbar, in which utilities and programs that run in the background, such as antivirus software, show their icons.

I don't find it a particularly intelligent use of screen real estate, so I'd prefer not to see the icons there. To hide them, run the Registry Editor [Hack #68] and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Policies/Explorer. Among other things, this key controls the display of objects throughout XP. Create a new DWORD called NoTrayItemsDisplay. Assign it a value of 1. (A value of 0 will keep the icons displayed.) Exit the Registry and reboot.

While you're at the HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Policies/Explorer key, you can also delete the My Recent Documents icon on the Start menu. Create a new DWORD called NoRecentDocsMenu. Assign it a value of 1. (A value of 0 will keep the icon displayed.) Exit the Registry and reboot.

2.10.2 Hide Only Certain Icons in the Notification Area
You might like to display some icons in the notification area but hide others. If so, you can hide icons on a case-by-case basis. You'll do it by delving through menus, though, not by hacking the Registry. Right-click on the Taskbar and choose Properties Taskbar. The Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box appears. This dialog box, as the name implies, lets you control how the Taskbar and Start Menu look and function.

In the Notification area of the dialog box, check the box next to "Hide inactive icons," then click Customize. The Customize Notifications dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 2-15.

Figure 2-15. Hiding inactive icons

Click on the program's listing in the Behavior column, and choose from the drop-down menu to hide the icon when the program is inactive, always hide it, or never hide it. Click OK twice. Your changes will take immediate effect.

2.10.3 Add Specific Folders to the Open Dialog Box
When you use certain Windows applications (such as Notepad) to open a file, on the left side of the Open dialog box are a group of icons and folders (such as My Documents, My Recent Documents, Desktop, My Computer, and My Network) to which you can navigate to open files.

Good idea, bad implementation. Do you really keep documents in My Computer? Unlikely, at best. It would be much more helpful if you could list only those folders that you use, and if you could choose to put any folder there, not just ones XP decides you need.

In fact, you can do it, with a Registry hack. It'll let you put just the folders of your choosing on the left side of the Open dialog box. Note that when you do this, it will affect XP applications such as Notepad and Paint that use the Open and Save common dialog boxes. However, it won't affect Microsoft Office applications and other applications that don't use the common dialog boxes.

If you want to change the dialog "frequently used" folders for Microsoft Word, try Woody Leonhard's Place Bar Customizer, one of many useful utilities from http://www.wopr.com.




Run the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\comdlg32. This is the key that determines how common dialog boxes are handled. You're going to create a subkey that will create a customized location for the folders, and then give that subkey a series of values, each of which will define a folder location.

To start, create a new subkey underneath HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\comdlg32 called Placesbar, and create a String value for it named Place0. Give Place0 a value of the topmost folder that you want to appear on the Open dialog box—e.g., C:\Projects.

Next, create another String value for Placesbar called Place1. Give it a value of the second folder that you want to appear on the Open dialog box. You can put up to five icons on the Open dialog box, so create new String values up to Place4 and give them values as outlined in the previous steps. When you're done, exit the Registry. You won't have to reboot for the changes to take effect. Figure 2-16 shows an example of an Open dialog box customized this way.

Figure 2-16. A customized Open dialog box

If you want no folders to appear in common open dialog boxes, you can do that as well. In HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\comdlg32 create a new DWORD value called NoPlacesBar and give it a value of 1. Exit the Registry. If you want the folders back, either delete NoPlacesBar or give it a value of 0.

2.10.4 Turn Off System Beeps
To me, system beeps that my PC makes when it encounters certain system errors are like balloon tips—gnat-like annoyances that I can do without. So I turn them off using a Registry hack. Run the Registry Editor, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Sound, and find the Beep and ExtendedSounds String values. Set each value to No. Exit the Registry and reboot. The beeps will no longer sound.

2.10.5 Use Your Own Graphic for Your User Account
This one isn't a Registry hack, but I couldn't resist putting it in here since it's one of the more useful ways to customize the interface. The Windows XP graphic for your user account on the Start Menu may not be to your taste, and your choice of other graphics to display there isn't particularly inspiring, either. After all, not everyone wants to be pictured as a rubber ducky, a snowflake, or a pair of horses.

But you're not limited to XP-supplied pictures for your user account: you can use any picture in .gif, .jpg, .png, or .bmp format. In this hack, I'll show you how to use your own picture.

To change your User Account picture to any one that you want, from Control Panel choose User Accounts, then pick the account you want to change and choose "Change my picture" "Browse for more pictures." Navigate to the picture you want to use and click on OK. Figure 2-17 shows the screen you'll use to change your picture; it also shows the customized User Account picture I use during the winter holiday season.

Figure 2-17. Changing your User Account picture

If you have a digital camera or scanner attached to your PC, a button will show up on the screen shown in Figure 2-17 that lets you take a picture with the camera, or scan a picture with the scanner, and then immediately use that picture for your user account.

For those interested in saving keystrokes, there's a quicker way to get to the screen letting you customize your picture. From the Windows XP-style Start menu, click on your picture, and the screen appears.

Give XP a Makeover with WindowBlinds

Control freaks, rejoice. With the powerful WindowBlinds utility, you no longer need to suffer with plain, common GUI elements such as the standard toolbars and scrollbars. You can modify and skin Windows to your heart's content.

In the years immediately following World War II, Bill Levitt realized that GIs needed homes. He planned and built a community outside New York City that he called Levittown. There were two models of home in Levittown and there was very little distinction between them. Levittown was the first "cookie cutter" community and remains the epitome of that term.

The Windows XP user interface is a "cookie cutter" experience. Frequently, users don't bother to replace the Bliss (green field and blue sky) background, and it's even more rare for someone to change the Windows XP standard menu or colors. Fortunately, you don't have to settle for the same desktop as the guy in the next office. One way you can customize your Windows XP experience is to use themes [Hack #14]. An even better way is to use a software package called WindowBlinds to "skin" (customize many aspects together) the user interface.

WindowBlinds is created by a company called Stardock and can be downloaded from their web site at http://www.stardock.com. It is sold by itself (for $19.95) or as part of a larger package called Object Desktop (for $49.95). There is also a free trial available from their web site.

If you use a P2P client to download software, be warned that there is a common virus that spreads itself by pretending to be an installer for WindowBlinds. Make sure you've got the real thing. The virus is passed around only through Kazaa and other P2P apps. The smartest thing to do and the best way to avoid the virus is to pay for this software!




After you install WindowBlinds, you will not notice any immediate changes. Activate the software via Control Panel Display Properties Appearance tab.

WindowBlinds makes several changes to the Appearance settings, as shown in Figure 2-11. The Add button allows you to search for and add skins to the "Windows and buttons" popup and the Delete button removes skins from the popup. The small icon button to the right of the "Windows and buttons" drop-down box leads you the Skin Studio web site (discussed a little later in this hack).

Figure 2-11. Display settings with WindowBlinds installed

Choose a skin from the "Windows and buttons" drop-down list. If a skin has more than one "subdesign," you can choose those from this dialog as well. A subdesign of a skin might be the same thing in different colors; a skin might look good in brown, green, and blue, so the author could include all three subdesigns in the package.

WindowBlinds includes a number of skins when the software is installed. One of the more interesting skins is called Colony. The Colony skin shows some of the abilities of WindowBlinds. Choose Colony from the popup and press the Apply button. Notice the textured areas around the window borders, the customized menu bars, and the smooth buttons on the taskbar. These are things that make WindowBlinds more useful than Windows XP themes and manually changing each aspect of the interface yourself.

Press the button labeled WindowBlinds when you have a skin selected for the WindowBlinds Advanced Configuration screen (shown in Figure 2-12). From this screen, you can modify almost any part of the user interface that WindowBlinds modifies.

Figure 2-12. WindowBlinds Advanced Configuration screen

By clicking on "Basic Settings," you can allow the skin to change the standard window buttons, the taskbar and toolbar buttons, as well as menu borders, progress bar controls, and the status bar—or any subset of these options (perhaps you want your own window buttons, for example). You can also allow the skin to change the background and have custom sounds. If, for some reason, you don't want to allow the skin to override any part of the user interface, you can change it from this screen. When you are satisfied with the changes you have made, click "Apply changes" on the left of the screen.

Some skins look nice on the desktop but might not look so hot when viewed in another program. For example, some skins do not handle fonts correctly, which might interfere with word processing. WindowBlinds includes the ability to change its behavior for individual programs by clicking on the "Per Application" item on the left side of the screen. From this screen, you can add programs to the list and modify their behavior individually.

2.9.1 Downloading Skins from the Internet
The most popular programs today allow users to customize Windows. Around this notion, users have created independent web sites to share their ideas and their creations. One such web site is WinCustomize, at http://www.wincustomize.com.

The WinCustomize web site is free. If you find a skin that you like, you need only click on the Download link to download it to your computer. However, if you want to access some of the advanced features, you must register with the web site. There is no cost to register, but there are different levels of access, depending on your level of participation or willingness to pay. There is an advantage to registering with the web site; you are given better search tools, which is useful, considering that there are over 2,000 custom skins available for download!

WinCustomize is associated with Stardock, the makers of WindowBlinds and Object Desktop, and therefore it has the most skins for their software. If you aren't finding what you want, you might look at some of these other web sites:

http://www.lotsofskins.com
http://www.skinbase.org
http://www.velocityart.com
http://www.deskmod.com
http://www.deviantart.com
Each of these sites sports different features, but they all provide skins for various programs. The DeviantArt web site is unique in that it is more interested in digital art as an art form rather than simply pushing skins out the door. Some of the artwork on the site may not be suitable for everyone, but if you are interested in the digital medium, then this would be a good site to investigate.

2.9.2 Creating Your Own WindowBlinds Skins
If you can't find a skin that suits your tastes, you can create your own skin for WindowBlinds. Not only can you create a skin from scratch, you can also modify existing skins as you wish using SkinStudio. SkinStudio can be downloaded from the Stardock web site for free, but you are reminded that you should register the software.

Creating a skin from scratch is not a simple project. As with most facets of our life, practice in the art of making skins makes perfect. There are many elements of the Windows user interface that can be modified, and you will need good tools and advanced skills to make your own skin look correct. Instead of jumping into this at the deep end, let's learn from those who have perfected the art, by modifying an existing skin.

One of my favorite WindowBlinds skins is called Liquid2, which emulates the Macintosh OS X user interface (I'm a closet Mac user). One of the aspects of Liquid that I do not like is that the start button has the word "Liquid" on it. I would prefer something a little more familiar, like the word "Start."

I used Photoshop to create the image in Figure 2-13. The Start button template consists of five separate subimages in the same file, each subimage being 57x23 pixels. The first subimage is the normal image, the next is when the button is pressed, followed by the disabled image, the focused image, and the default image. Once I am happy with the button, I need to save it somewhere I can access it. Since it is going to be part of the Liquid skin, I save the file as C:\Program Files\Stardock\Object Desktop\WindowBlinds\Liquid2\StartButtonNew.bmp.

Figure 2-13. The replacement Start button with five subimages

Now that we have a suitable image, it's time to use SkinStudio to modify the skin. Bring up the skin browser (File Edit). The skin browser looks different than the standard file browser. Click on the box next to WindowBlinds Skins, locate the skin named Liquid2, and press the Edit button.

Figure 2-14 shows the edit window for the Liquid2 skin. The box in the top left is for exploring the many different elements in the user interface. The box in the top middle is for previewing the skin. The box in the top right is for modifying individual attributes of the user interface. The box in the lower left gives you help and allows you to zoom in on portions of the screen. In the lower right is another editor for individual attributes.

Figure 2-14. The SkinStudio editor

To replace the Start button, click on the box next to Desktop in the Explorer box, then click on Taskbar and finally Start Button, as shown in Figure 2-14. In the lower right, click on the popup next to the words Adjusted Image. Inside the list should be our new Start button named StartButtonNew.bmp. After you choose the new button, click the XP Taskbar button in the Preview area.

Once you are happy with the modified skin, press the Save button on the toolbar (the third button from the left). Saving a skin does not make it active. To make the skin active, press the Apply button on the toolbar (the seventh button from the left). The new Start button should now show up on the taskbar. If you press the button, the darker colored image should appear as long as the mouse button is pressed.

SkinStudio is a very complicated program with many settings that you can modify. The official documentation is rather limited, but there is an excellent tutorial that covers SkinStudio at http://www.aleksyandr.com/tutorial.htm.

—Eric Cloninger

Create Your Own XP Themes and Find Thousands Online

Create Your Own XP Themes and Find Thousands Online


Customize the way XP looks and sounds, and dress it up with themes from the best sites on the Internet.

Themes control just about every part of the way XP looks and sounds, including its background wallpaper, colors, icons, cursors, sounds, fonts, screen saver, and the visual style of its windows and buttons. By default, your computer uses the basic Windows XP theme, which some people refer to as Luna because it was called that during XP's development. You can apply countless themes to XP, though it only ships with two: the basic Windows XP theme and the Windows Classic theme—a more stolid-looking theme, based on older versions of Windows, that uses rectangular windows and solid colors.

To change between themes, right-click on the desktop and choose Properties Themes. Choose the theme you want to use from the drop-down list, as shown in Figure 2-9. Click on OK, and the theme will be applied.

Figure 2-9. Applying a new theme

Note that if you choose "More themes online..." from the drop-down list, you won't actually be able to get more themes online, so choosing that option is a bit of a bait-and-switch. When you choose it, you'll be sent to a web page suggesting that you buy Microsoft Plus! for Windows XP. There's no need to buy it if you're looking to use more themes, though. Instead, you can make your own and get thousands more online from non-Microsoft sites.

2.8.1 Roll Your Own Themes
If you're like me (and most other people), you won't be happy with the basic themes that come with XP. What good is an operating system, after all, if you can't bend it, twist it, and make it your own?

There's no single, central place you can go to make themes in XP. Instead, you'll have to customize each part of XP individually and then roll it all up into a single theme. Once your system is using all the elements of your theme, save the theme with the following instructions.

Start off by right-clicking on the desktop, choosing Properties, and then customizing your desktop using the following tabs:

Desktop
Lets you customize the desktop background and color, as well as which system icons should appear on your desktop.

Screen Saver
Lets you choose a screen saver and control its functions and features. It also adjusts power controls for your monitor.

Appearance
Lets you customize the colors, style, and font size for windows, toolbars and buttons. It also controls effects, such as whether to use fade effects, whether to show shadows under menus, how to smooth the edges of screen fonts, and similar effects.

Settings
Lets you choose your screen resolution, color quality, and to choose advanced features such as the screen refresh rate.

Next, customize your mouse pointers by typing main.cpl in the Start Run box and pressing Enter. The Mouse Properties dialog box will appear, allowing you to choose a preset pointer scheme or select individual pointers you want as part of your theme.

To choose system sounds for your theme, type mmsys.cpl from the Run box and press Enter. The Sounds and Audio Devices properties dialog box will appear. Click on the Sounds tab and choose a preset sounds scheme or select individual sounds for different system and program events.

When you're finished customizing, go back to the Themes tab of the Display Properties dialog box, choose Save As, and save the theme to either My Documents or to C:\Windows\Resources\Themes. You can now use the theme as you can any other.

2.8.2 Get XP Themes Online
This has been a rather roundabout way of creating your own themes. And face it, few of us (including myself) are visual artists or sound artists. So, even better than rolling your own themes is going online and choosing from thousands you can download for free from many Internet sites. Some people make themes and post them as a hobby, many companies create themes as a way to market products, and movies and TV shows frequently create themes as a way to get free publicity.

Or course, there are many themes you can find online that may violate copyright laws; people create themes using characters, sounds, and people from popular entertainment and then post them online for others to use. The entertainment companies' lawyers will tell you the themes are illegal; on the other hand, others say that the themes fall under the fair use provisions of the copyright laws. Who's right? I don't know, and at this point, I'm not even sure that the courts do. As to which themes you can download and use, let your conscience be your guide.

A few popular theme sites are http://www.themeworld.com, http://www.topthemes.com, and http://www.themexp.org, and the themes section of the download site http://www.tucows.com. In addition, many general software download sites include theme sections. Movie studios are good places to find themes, as are web sites created for movies.

Depending on the theme that you download, you may have to install it differently, so check with the site from which you download, or check within the download itself. As a general rule, though, to use a theme that you download, install it into the C:\Windows\Resources\Themes folder. Typically, a file with the extension .theme will be installed into that directory, and all the associated art, sound, icon, wallpaper, and cursor files will be installed into a subfolder of C:\Windows\Resources\Themes. Once you've installed the new theme, choose it as outlined previously in this hack.

2.8.2.1 These are a few of my favorite themes
My hard disk is too full of themes to list them all, but I'll give you some of my current and all-time favorites that I found online. I favor several Wallace & Gromit themes from the http://www.topthemes.com site. (If you haven't come across them before, Wallace & Gromit are hilariously understated claymation animations from the Oscar-winning animator Nick Park.)

I must say, though, that, being an opera fan, my favorite theme of all time is the one I found on http://www.themeworld.com, based on Verdi's opera Don Carlo. There's nothing like starting up your computer in the morning and being greeted by the sweeping sounds of one of the most dramatic operas of all time. I can almost see the Grand Inquisitor making his way onstage, preparing to burn an idolater or two at the stake. Figure 2-10 shows the wallpaper from the theme, which was chosen to match the mood of the opera. Other elements include the Startup sound taken from the orchestral prelude of the opera's last act, the Shutdown sound from the last seconds of the opera, and many other sounds and icons.

Figure 2-10. The wallpaper from the Don Carlo theme, based on the Verdi opera

2.8.3 See Also
Style-XP, shareware from TFT Soft LLC at http://www.tgtsoft.com manages your themes, lets you automatically rotate them on a schedule, and lets you easily customize them, among other features.

Rename and Change "Unchangeable" Desktop Icons and System Objects

To create the perfect XP interface, you want to be able to give every desktop icon and system object the name and icon of your choice. Here's how to do it—even to objects that appear to be unchangeable.

Interface hackers (myself included) are a details-oriented bunch. We want to be able to control every part of the interface so that it reflects our personality. That means being able to choose our own icons for desktop items and system objects, give new names to system objects, and create our own balloon tips—for example, adding a balloon tip to the Recycle Bin saying "Take Out the Trash!"

But it's not as simple as you might think. Microsoft has a way of protecting its own. For example, it won't let you change the text and balloon tips associated with a variety of system objects, such as the Recycle Bin, Outlook, Internet Explorer, My Computer, and My Network Places.

You can normally change both the name and the balloon text (text that appears when you hover your mouse over the icon) of all the icons on your desktop, but you can't change these. Normally, to change the name and balloon text of an icon, you first right-click on the icon and choose Properties. To change the name of the icon, you choose the General tab and, in the box at the top, type in the name that you want to appear beneath the icon.

Then, to change the balloon text, you click on the Shortcut tab and in the Comment box type in the text that you want to appear. When you're ready to make the change, click OK. The icon name and balloon text should now be changed.

But when you try to do this for system objects such as Outlook, Internet Explorer, My Computer, and Network Neighborhood, it won't work. The proper options don't appear when you right-click on them and choose Properties.

There are ways, however, to change them in any way that you want, so that you can create your own personalized XP interface.

2.6.1 The Registry to the Rescue
The Registry is your best tool for personalizing XP. It will let you change both the text and balloon tip associated with system objects. First, you need to know the object's class ID (CLSID), which uniquely identifies each system object. Table 2-3 lists the CLSIDs for common desktop objects.

Table 2-3. CLSIDs for desktop objects Desktop object
CLSID

My Computer
{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

Recycle Bin
{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

Microsoft Outlook
{00020D75-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}

Internet Explorer
{FBF23B42-E3F0-101B-8488-00AA003E56F8}

The Internet
{3DC7A020-0ACD-11CF-A9BB-00AA004AE837}

My Network Places
{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}

Briefcase
{85BBD920-42A0-1069-A2E4-08002B30309D}

Dial-Up Networking
{992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD010CCC48}



Armed with the proper CLSID, it's easy to change the name and balloon text of system objects. First, use Table 2-3 to find the CLSID for the object whose name or balloon text you want to change. Then run the Registry Editor [Hack #68] and go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID, a key that lets you change characteristics of system objects, and highlight the CLSID whose name or balloon text you want to change. For example, for My Computer, highlight the subkey HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}. Keep in mind that HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID has many CLSIDs listed under it, so it might take you a while to find the proper subkey.

Once you find the right subkey, if you want to edit the name of the object, open the Default value and type in the text that you want to appear underneath the object. If you want to edit the balloon text for the object, open the InfoTip value and type in the text that you want to appear as balloon text. Once you're done, exit the Registry and reboot.

You may also be able to force the changes to take effect without rebooting. After you exit the Registry, go to your Desktop and press F5 to refresh the screen. The new names and balloon tips might now appear.

2.6.2 Change the Desktop Icons of System Objects
You can hack objects besides names and balloon with this method. You can also change the desktop icons of system objects that appear to have unchangeable icons.

First, using Table 2-3, find the CLSID for the object whose icon you want to change. Then run the Registry Editor, go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID, and look for the CLSID subkey from Table 2-3 for the object whose icon you want to change. Open the subkey and then the DefaultIcon subkey under that. For example, to change the icon for My Computer, open the subkey HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}\DefaultIcon. Change the Default value to the path of the icon that you want displayed. Exit the Registry. You may have to reboot in order for the new settings to take effect.

Some people aren't able to change their icons using this method. Instead of editing HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID, they have to edit HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CLSID\, and that does the trick.