Like the looks of Leopard? using XP? Viola!

hey all,

I was really loving the looks of Leopard at WWDC and wanted to see what I could do with good ole XP. and the results are pretty darn good.

I will be able to happily use my PC along side my Mac in October and it won't feel so damn outdated









this can be done quite easily actually. Rocket Dock, wallpaper image, some icons, transparent taskbar, a little bit of custom work, and custom icon making, and viola!!

of course there is no good way to replicate things like the reflections and all that, as well as stacks etc. but this is definitely close enough for me

 

Brazillian Girls aye?

Nice job.

 

Wow nice facelift to your XP...wonder if it will work with Vista.

Care to share the programs you used?

 

for some reason the default leopard wallpaper looks like one of vista's wallpaper...

 

Everyone, go to [ drive]:\Windows\Web\img6. Apple, start your photocopiers.

 

haha brazilian girls is a band from NYC, check them out on iTunes, very good band, especially live.

The programs i used are:

Vista Inspirit - it is available on crystalxp.net
- with specific things installed, like y's shadow

Rocket Dock - with a Leopard theme, quite easy to find just by googling, or maybe i can post it up.

OS X icons in the dock, with rocket dock, they are extremely easy to change, just need png files.

and made the Wacom 6x11 icon myself.

the little blue indicators below the open programs on the dock, i had to make myself, as the ones included in the theme were crap. but that is simple

a really small "program" doesn't really use any resources that makes the task bar actually transparent, available for free

and obviously, the WWDC wallpaper. oh and the icons, and whatnot are done using icon packager from windows blinds, although I think i might change that.

and, that's it, the only thing that uses any significant amount of resources is rocketdock, and it is a tiny tiny amount, rocketdock is very good. so easy to use, and it actually increases my productivity.

I created a .rar file including the info needed. as well as the dock skin and icons.

email me at [email protected] if you would like it.

 

WOW! That's great work, nice!

 

yeah i thought it was pretty funny that they used an image that is directly ripping off the Vista builds.

 

this looks great. props to you!

 

That looks really cool! Nice job!

 

Looks nice ^^
If ya want to replicate the taskbar a bit more try flyakite too
http://www.flyakiteosx.com/

 

That's pretty cool, but in the end, it's STILL windows.

 

nah i don't want to look exactly like OS X, i just want a few of the things i really like and that help make me more productive, not to mention puts me in a better mood while working on my computer.

there are a lot of things about this setup, looks wise, that I like a lot better than OS X, at least until leopard comes out.

 

windows is fine, so is OS X

i use both, i like both, no worries.

 

ok now I am just having fun!

here is my new Control Panel icon, i don't need to have the apple system preferences when I can make a windows one! combination of system preferences and bootcamp icon.



and here is the new active program indicator, only slightly different, but it is identical to the one in leopard, as i used a leopard screenshot for exact reference.



it is good to be a complete nerd sometimes, i might actually have to put this up somewhere,

circa86's make XP look like leopard pack, haha.

 

Cool! Where can I find a shiny Leopard dock theme for RocketDock? I use it on my XP Desktop and I downloaded a Leopard theme, but it has a grey like bottom. Anyone know?

 

if you search google for leopard dock skin, you should find one, i tried that one and didn't like it quite as much, the one i have, if you adjust to about 75-80% it is really close to leopard, without the reflectiveness of course.

I wish someone would make one that is a little bit more accurate, the Leopard dock is a little bit taller than the ones that are out there, there is more space between the bottom of the icons and the screen. but this is pretty great i think.

 

quite a few people have shown interest haha.

i've got a few little updates to the little program indicator, finally got it perfect i think.

anyway, .rar file is ready to go and be sent out, i could make a .zip as well, or even a .torrent i guess. so let me know if you would like it.

 

send ittt : )

 

well you are going to have to email me first sir

[email protected]

or just post your email in this thread.

actually anyone that would like it, just post your email in here and I will get it send out.

it is just about 5mb .rar file or .zip file, which ever one you would like.

 

it is kind of funny that Rocket Dock is in a few ways much better than the OS X dock itself.

it is really useful to be able to adjust the speed of everything, and it is so simple to adjust icons and things like that.

 

hey i was wondering how you add the OS X icons to my list of usable icons i can use for my desktop icons etc...

 

umm, I am not exactly sure about that, but I am sure that it is possible, I use Icon Packager from Stardock, but it isn't free, a friend got it for me.

but I am sure there are great free ways to do it too.

check out this site,

http://www.osx-e.com/

and here is another link to a guide someone made, should cover everything you need.

http://www.osx-e.com/articles/windows_to_mac_guide.html

post up your desktop in this thread!!! good luck.

 

So if I got the .rar file from you, what would I do with it? Is there a "Read Me"?..lol.

 

yep, i actually made a readme too, haha

you just need something to open up the .rar with, and it should be pretty easy to understand from there.

to open the .rar file you will need something like WinRar, or similar. I could also send a .zip file as well.

 

That's great! I want to try this out.

 

I think there has been well over 25 people asking for this, so post up your desktops when you get finished ok!!!!

 

Heheh...I just found the Vista Inspirat bricopak and rocket dock yesterday too while surfing the web. Rocket dock is really cool...very similar to the OSX dock (it's made by mac peeps for windows ).

Good idea moving the taskbar to the top of the screen...didn't think of that. I just have rocket dock set to act with the minimize to taskbar option so that apps minimize into rocket dock rather than the taskbar and set the windows taskbar to autohide at the bottom.

edit: desktop attached, scaled down a bit to save attachment size

 

cool.

also forgot to mention. if you want to get rid of all the icons on your desktop, such as my computer and the recycle bin. you can download the Tweak UI powertoy from microsoft.

just google Tweak UI. it also allows you to easily adjust many different things that would normally require registry tweaks.

 

Actually...there's 2 easy ways to clear all your icons from the desktop.

1) if you have no "user" icons, you can go into your display properties, goto the desktop tab and choose "customize desktop" at the bottom...from here you can uncheck my computer, my network places, recycle bin and internet explorer

2) simply right click the desktop and in the context menu that appears choose "arrange icons by" and uncheck the "show desktop icons" at the bottom. This will clear all desktop icons without actually removing them from the desktop, if you need them again, just recheck the option.

 

I'll take a one. [email protected].

Looks awesome!!

 

actually you can't remove the recycle bin that way, hence why microsoft released Tweak UI, amongst other reasons.

and "hiding" the desktop icons is not useful to me, as I still like to have icons on my desktop, such as the projects I am currently working on and what I have recently downloaded, but it doesn't make any sense to have the recycle bin and my computer and all that when I can just have in in the dock.

 

made some new icons and actually reworked the dock a little bit, I didn't like how it didn't have the little line of white on the very front like the actual Leopard dock does.

Also, I figured out a way to make the icons appear in the same location as they do on the Leopard dock, and give them the reflection, but it involved taking each icon into photoshop and working it over and I don't really want to be doing that each time i want something in the dock.

here is the updated version



making icons is pretty fun, i combined the Aperture and Picasa icons for Picasa 2, and made a new one for my Kanji training program, used one of Apple's icons again, and added my own touch, and also added a Downloads folder, which is very useful, and updated the Airport Extreme N icon as well. also, the default CS2 icons are very low res, so I found some higher res ones and made them a little transparent.

 

its easy to have the recycle bin removed from the desktop and you dont need any tweak program at all. One manual registry change and its gone.
It can also be moved to the task bar as i have here



This is the only place the OEM recycle bin appears other than the one i use on my StarDock dock

 

^the Tweak UI program does just that, just makes it much much simpler, and it is a microsoft program.

OEM recycle bin? i think you are getting somethings confused there

i find it much nicer to just use the dock similar to how OSX uses it, makes things more efficient for me, and looks much much better.

i know all of these things that are being mentioned, and it is much easier to use Tweak UI than go into the registry yourself.

 

Wow, incredible work. Interesting how Windows users trash the Mac OS but will go to all lengths to make their PC's look and act like a Mac.

 

I happily use both, I have nothing against either of them.

really isn't that interesting at all actually, people are stupid. plain and simple

 

i have nothing confused. I refer to everything thats original or default on the OS as OEM.
And its easier to tweak the registry than to have to down load a program to do it. At least on the registry i know the keys and how and where it is.
Dont need a lazy program just to remove a recycle bin

I wouldnt give Mac that much credit.
You ever wonder that Stardock had its Stardock name way before Apple even knew what a 'dock' was???
Its too bad Apple couldnt come up with it themselves and 'bought' their OSX which had copied shells from Stardock.

 

Hi mate,

Would like to give this a try also. Email:

afk_matrix at hotmail dot com.

Hope that makes sense don't like putting the mail properly cos of spam.

 

Looks great! Nice work, mate. : )

 

Downloading a program is MUUUUUCH easier for most people than dealing with the registry.
speaking of i don't care at all about that.

remember how I said i didn't want to do reflective dock icons? well . . . haha, boredom is a ***** isn't it I wasted way to much time on this, but it is simple for me now, if i have the icon, I can have it reflective in just a few minutes, a lot of trial and error at first though.

and i got the icons back farther on the dock like a wanted! woo!!





i will have to update my .rar file with the slightly update dock, as far as the icons go, well they all need to be done individually so piss off

 

resent an updated version to everyone that has been sent one, I believe, let me know if you didn't get it, as well as the new version to those who asked.

well, actually, had an issue attaching the file, included in the email is a rapidshare link.

enjoy.

and post some screen shots dammit!

 

This is very awesome, circa86. I downloaded the wallpaper, messed around with rocketdock, and am having a grand old time!

I never knew you could use RD to minimize open windows to the dock, a la OSX. That alone makes this whole deal worth it.

 

^^good to hear it! a lot of people don't realize how much free stuff is available out there to customize your UI, and since it is the most important part of the computer experience, I am all for it.

I am not doing this to try and Mimic OS X, I am doing it because I think this is a more efficient way to get work done, simple to understand, quick and easy to use, and doesn't get in the way of my projects at all, make me more efficient.

 

well to simplify this even more, made a deviant art post, haha i have had an account for awhile, just haven't uploaded anything,

here is the link

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/59399705/

leave me some comments!

(oh ^ shut up!)

 

Circa, nice work! One suggestion for everyone, keep the exchange of email addresses to PMs only. Don't put your email in public view for your own sake.

Also, keep on on the topic of tweaking the Windows UI and away from flaming.

 

good point sir, the email I posted for myself I am ok with being shown public, so just email me if you are interested instead of posting your own email.

or just go to the deviant art page

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/59399705/

 

well to each its own i guess. For me I like knowing the mapping of where things are in the registry.

To each its own with ur rocketdock icons too i guess. For me i d wouldnt want my desktop to totally mimic Macs. The best thing about Stardock and Rocketdock is the complete customization of everything.
The SysStat docklets are the best!

 

yeah I can understand that as well. I looked into making everything Mimic a Mac but decided that windows and mac at the same time was even better. take the things i like, and keep what I like from windows on the windows machine.

it would be great to see people at some more docklets and things, i will have to look into the SysStat docklets, that sounds interesting.

 

circa86, do you know of a way to change the default folder icon for Windows? I'd like to try something other than the manilla folder, but I'm having trouble finding out how to install an alternative.