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Microsoft had a secret Windows XP theme that made it look like a Mac

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Re: Microsoft had a secret Windows XP theme that made it look like a Mac

#31

Post by nix23 »

Jaruzel wrote: post #25
101008 wrote: post #3

Windows XP original theme was the best. Not at a nostalgic level only (which of course affects me and my memory), but I felt it was so easy to use and so easy to find everything. Today, Windows 10 control panel is a mess.

The Control Panel in Windows 10 is now legacy, with most things now under Settings. Eventually it'll go away I guess, but some apps still install their own little control panel applets. Either way, the best way to access everything you can do in Windows 10 is do it via the 'god mode' folder: 1. Create a new folder 2. Rename it to: GodMode.{ed7ba470-8e54-465e-825c-99712043e01c} 3. Open it The 'GodMode' part of the nam…

>with most things now under Settings

Yeah that's the problem, it's not. Microsoft should really be more focused on usability, the whole "i wanna be touch-panel" is just stupid, MS you are a PC! Even Apple said that.

Re: Microsoft had a secret Windows XP theme that made it look like a Mac

#32

Post by mrlambchop »

bdcravens wrote: post #19

Around that time I was running Stardock WindowBlinds, which had quite a few OSX widgets and whatnot available.

1996 - Neil Banfield was working on windows blinds whilst on the same set of courses at the university we both went to. Sold to stardock soon after. Just looked it up and things are still going strong!

A lot to be said for the OG windows hook APIs and whatever modern magic they are grabbing into these days.

Re: Microsoft had a secret Windows XP theme that made it look like a Mac

#33

Post by solarkraft »

Mac OS wasn't this ugly.

Seriously: You can't just incorporate some design element and go "see, it looks like X". It won't. What most people making software seem to miss is that software look & feel isn't the design of widgets, but also click behavior, layouts, click paths, description texts, animations, delay after a click ...

/tangentially related rant

Re: Microsoft had a secret Windows XP theme that made it look like a Mac

#34

Post by solarkraft »

slipheen wrote: post #15
sudosysgen wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even with that scale, the capabilities and ahievements are nowehere near what can be done with a proper *nix DE.

I'm not sure if you're familiar with the extent to which people altered things, such as https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiteStep

Speaking off shell replacements: Are there any worthwhile ones today? I know Cairo, but it's "meh". The windows default shell is just buggy and glitchy as hell (even though I generally mostly like it - a version with fewer glitches would be enough for me, really).

Re: Microsoft had a secret Windows XP theme that made it look like a Mac

#35

Post by based2 »

Ayesh wrote: post #6

XP was the peak of desktop customizations. There were "theme packs", one of the most popular being a Vista Theme Pack. The teen in me, with a Nokia 6600 besides the computer, was in awe when a single installation of Vista Theme Pack and rebooting a couple times meant that everything on my 40GB HDD Pentium computer was changed from the login screen to icons, wallpaper, fonts, shell, file copy boxes, disk space meter,…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlightenment_(software)

Re: Microsoft had a secret Windows XP theme that made it look like a Mac

#36

Post by pcdoodle »

dehrmann wrote: post #24
101008 wrote: post #3

Windows XP original theme was the best. Not at a nostalgic level only (which of course affects me and my memory), but I felt it was so easy to use and so easy to find everything. Today, Windows 10 control panel is a mess.

> Today, Windows 10 control panel is a mess. Which one?

Haha! Reminds me of this:

https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/954/660/350...

Re: Microsoft had a secret Windows XP theme that made it look like a Mac

#37

Post by anthk »

xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #11
nip180 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you aware of the very large number of desktop environments and window managers available on *nix systems? “Skins” were popular in the windows ecosystem around XP, but it was far from the peak of customization.

It was definitely the peak. I was heavily involved in several communities, and also ran plenty of other desktops environments, but XP had the largest following by far. The sheer number of websites devoted to skinning XP was astounding. Popular websites had thousands and thousands of themes. Winamp 3 was thriving too. It was most definitely peak customization.

Ha.

Fluxbox itself. Fvwm. Enlightenment. Sawfish.

With fluxbox you had over 1000 themes. And winamp skins worked on xmms.

Also, fvwm was so distinct that you could have tablet like setups before even tablets existed, even with those infamous thumbnail minimizations, but in 2004.

Re: Microsoft had a secret Windows XP theme that made it look like a Mac

#38

Post by anthk »

zokula wrote: post #28
Ayesh wrote: post #6

XP was the peak of desktop customizations. There were "theme packs", one of the most popular being a Vista Theme Pack. The teen in me, with a Nokia 6600 besides the computer, was in awe when a single installation of Vista Theme Pack and rebooting a couple times meant that everything on my 40GB HDD Pentium computer was changed from the login screen to icons, wallpaper, fonts, shell, file copy boxes, disk space meter,…

> XP was the peak of desktop customizations. XP theme customizations wasn't even close to what you could do on Unix at the time.

Compared to fvwm or KDE3 xp was a damn joke.

Re: Microsoft had a secret Windows XP theme that made it look like a Mac

#39

Post by anthk »

sudosysgen wrote: post #12
xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was definitely the peak. I was heavily involved in several communities, and also ran plenty of other desktops environments, but XP had the largest following by far. The sheer number of websites devoted to skinning XP was astounding. Popular websites had thousands and thousands of themes. Winamp 3 was thriving too. It was most definitely peak customization.

Even with that scale, the capabilities and ahievements are nowehere near what can be done with a proper *nix DE.

Not even DE. Fluxbox had literally thousands of styles. And fvwm powned ANY DE and Windows OS.

Re: Microsoft had a secret Windows XP theme that made it look like a Mac

#40

Post by anthk »

Ayesh wrote: post #6

XP was the peak of desktop customizations. There were "theme packs", one of the most popular being a Vista Theme Pack. The teen in me, with a Nokia 6600 besides the computer, was in awe when a single installation of Vista Theme Pack and rebooting a couple times meant that everything on my 40GB HDD Pentium computer was changed from the login screen to icons, wallpaper, fonts, shell, file copy boxes, disk space meter,…

Bitch, please :). https://fvwm.org
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