Cant Afford Vista, Still Feel The WoW!!!

Well I’ve been wanting to write this for a long time but never actually got the time, honestly it took me a lot of time to find all these applications which would make my XP look almost like Vista!

Screenshots check out the Aero effect:

Do you want to make your XP look like Vista and believe me it has stark resemblance, I am using this on my XP and honestly I sometimes forget which OS I’ve booted into, however here is how you can do it …

To achieve this we will make use of many 3rd party softwares:

1. Vista Bricopacks … I will tell what it is and how to get it
2. Windows Blinds 5.5 (If you want the aero effect, else a lower version of Windows Blinds will do but you wont be able to use the aero effect)
3. Vista Theme
4. Stardock Logon Studio
5. Vista Drive Status Icons
6. Stardock Bootskin
7. A patch
8. Vista Sidebar
9. Flip 3D

Now who will do what …

1. Vista Bricopacks:

Download from Here – (size 38.39 MB)

What will this do … this is a shell pack so basically it will change the icons, and default window images to resemble the ones by vista … note as this is a shell style it is not a resource hogger and you will get:

2. Windows Blinds:

I don’t think application needs any introduction it is the best theme manager for XP and is a beauty ….

Unfortunately this not being free you will have find your own way of obtaining it.

Please note only versions 5.5 above support aero-like interface .
For more info … Go Here

3. Vista Theme:

Now this theme has not been made by me but I have edited it so I am giving links to both … you can use which ever you feel is better major difference between both is that vista has a search bar in the start menu and in the windows … so the original creator of the theme included that but unfortunately you cannot search it is just an image which I did not like so I edited and removed it and some more minor tweaks to give it the exclusive Vista feel….

Edited Theme – Download
Original Theme

All credit to him for creating such a meticulous replica of vista!!!

4. Stardock Logon Studio:

As the name says it will change the default logon of windows XP to look like vista.
Price: Free
Size: 1.82 MB

Download
Download Page
Info

Now once downloaded and installed use this logon screen as it is almost similar to the one with vista:

Download This logon
Info …. Thank You to Vishal Gupta for this.

You can also try This logon.

5. Vista Drive Status Icons:

Now 1 feature that I like about vista is that when you open my computer you get your hard drives with a status bar below the drive which tells you how much of the drive is filled … now this package does the almost the same … the results are pretty close…

Download

6. Bootskin:

Now to get the boot screen that vista has … download this software:
Price: Free

BootSkin
Download This Boot screen

7. A patch:

Now in vista when you click on the start bar you get log off and shut down as text next to the buttons but vista doesn’t have this text and that is what this patch does … it removes the text it even allows you to restore it if you wish to.

Download

8. Vista Sidebar:

There are 2 ways of getting this

Method 1:

Download this zip file and extract under your program files in sidebar named folder
In the folder mentioned above, run the file named Patch (and do as it says).

Screenshot of my desktop:

Method 2: (I’m using this) ’cause like the vista sidebar this also blends itself to the desktop.

Obtain DesktopX: unfortunately this also not being free you will have to find your own way of obtaining it.

Download this widget here (screen shot on the page).

Screenshot of my desktop:

9. Flip 3D:

Well 1 of the most time pass feature of vista that I enjoy is the flip 3D … its brother for XP –

Download
Info

(I’m not using this so cant give you screenshots of my desktop however images are there on the info link)

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A long tut that is 1 reason why I had not written it earlier …wanna share it do so but just give me some credit.

Also this is not resource hog like the vista transformation pack … that being a resource hog I took all this trouble to make my XP look like vista

Please note that if you put your PC under a lot of pressure then you will have to be patient.