A Conflagration of Randomness

Today I am going to show four ways to make Windows XP do just that little more that you wish it could, while still using less memory and CPU than Windows Vista, while acheiving a much more user friendly system.  We will start off with my favourite, the famous UXTheme Patch.

UXTheme Patch

The object of this patch is to patch your uxtheme.dll file that resides in this directory: “C:\WINDOWS\system32″

Uxtheme.dll is a file that controls the visual styles that are enabled in Windows XP. From microsoft.com:

New run-time libraries—ComCtl32.dll version 6 and UxTheme.dll—are provided in Windows XP and later operating systems to enable visual styles. UxTheme.dll is used by the common controls to take advantage of system visual styles. ComCtl32.dll queries UxTheme.dll for appropriate dimensions and other pertinent information for a control, and calls UxTheme.dll to render the parts of a control or surface.

Taken from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb773187(VS.85).aspx

There are multiple ways to patch this file including UXTheme Multi-patcher and manually patching it, but there are also programs that will manage skins for you such as Windowblinds.  However, my favourite is the UXTheme Manager because it automatically patches the dll file and it is completely free.  There are two versions, 4 and 6 and sometimes one works and the other does not depending on the system and if you have 32 or 64 bits. Below are both versions for download, however you may need to try both to see which works.  I currently am using version 6.

Version 4

Version 6

To install simply extract the zip file and click the exe.  Follow the directions at this url: http://customize.org/xpthemes/help/How_To_Install_UX_Theme_Multi_Patcher

Once you have finished installing, you can scour the internet for .msstyle based themes.  A site to avoid is http://www.themexp.org/.  They used to have good themes, but now their themes tend to be bloated with spyware, adware etc.  I personally recommend Sentinel as it looks very nice.

An example of my Desktop theme (even though I am currently using a patched uxtheme, but am using a windowblinds theme):

(click to enlarge)

Docking

I have found one of my greatest computer friends in the last few weeks, the dock. Although originally designed for the Mac, the dock has become a great tool across all three major operating systems: MacOS, Windows, and Linux.  For Windows and Linux you must download separate programs in order to take advantage of the great offerings the Dock has to offer.  For the Windows there are multiple programs, but two famous ones are Rocketdock and Objectdock. Between the two there is a lot of competition though many people have found that the Rocketdock tends to run faster with the animations.  I prefer Rocketdock personally, but both have much to offer and are free.  To get Rocketdock go to http://rocketdock.com/ and to get Objectdock go to http://www.stardock.com/products/objectdock/.  For Linux there are Kiba Dock, Cairo Dock, and Avant Window Navigator.  I use Kiba Dock since it is the only one I have got to work in Ubuntu Intrepid 8.10.

Change Recycling Bin Name

Alright, time for a fun tweak I know it has always been your dream to change the name of your Recycling Bin and as you can see in my desktop picture above, mine is called “Trash Compactor.”   Unlike a folder where you could just right click and hit rename, the Recycling Bin does not have this feature.  Instead if you wish to perform this neat trick follow the instructions below.

1. Open Start Menu and click Run…
2. Type regedit into the input prompt and click OK
3. Now you are presented with the Registry Editor, the database of most settings on the Windows machine. NOTE: Do not stray from my explicit instructions.  The registry is a powerful tool and if you mess up a setting you may damage your computer permanently.  I do not take responsibility for you actions in any way when you mess with the Registry.
4. Navigate through the folder icons in this order: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
5. Once in this folder you should see the key named “LocalizedString” with a really strange data.  Double click on this key and clear the data in the “Value data” field and type whatever you want your Recycling Bin to be called.
6. Click OK when you are done and go to the Desktop then press F5 to refresh the Desktop and you should now have your new Recycling Bin name showing.

Showing Date in Taskbar

As you can also see from my Desktop picture, I have made my taskbar show the Date and Day of week in my Taskbar because I was getting tired of having to constantly put my mouse over the taskbar to see the date when typing letters or whenever.  I also did not feel like making my computer look completely awful by expanding the taskbar vertically.  So instead I turned to Google and discovered the program called TClock.  It can be downloaded from http://homepage1.nifty.com/kazubon/tclocklight/tclocklight-040702-3.zip.  This frees up my time by allowing me to see the date always just like I can do by default in Ubuntu Linux (which is what inspired to find this solution).

Well, that is all for today and good luck with tweaking your system

~roboguyspacedude