Custom Vista

I also looked at the themes on Demonoid, but most just looked like slightly altered versions of Aero Glass.

as far as i know, windowblinds is the best/only way to change styles in vista. In xp, you can unlock the taskbar and drag it to the top of the screen... Can you not do that in vista? To get a custom popup menu you would need to do some hacking, or use an alternate shell program, such as litestep or blackbox. Be wary of using litestep on vista though, as the netload module doesnt work, so you'll have to download modules manually before loading the theme. I can't really tell you anything about the compatability of blackbox though cause ive never used it. Hope I was of some help.

What you'll need for a good vista look

Vista Transformation Pack 7.0 (free)
WindowsBlind 6.0 for the blur effect (not free)


There's ways to have sidebar to xp, the real thing not copied or fake. Search google for it.

I'm not entirely a fan of the sidebar. If minimalism is a goal, then the sidebar is a step backwards.

So I just went ahead and got Windowblinds and RightClick. RightClick is (sort of) functional on Vista. The Taskbar function is a little buggy and I can't get the Systray to work at all. I wanted to put them both in their own pop ups, but they just stop working or crash RightClick, So all I have on my desktop menue is the desktop contents in a pop up and my program files in a pop up and then a clock. I've also noticed that RightClick won't automatically open on startup.

As for winblinds, I got this very nice skin from custo called Malice V2. You were right, the taskbar is movable, but what I wanted was to hide the taskbar part of it.... if that makes sense. I wanted the taskbar to have nothing but shortcuts and a clock, like the whole thing was a quicklaunch bar.

Aside from that, I've just been having some minor issues with Winblinds... or malice, I'm not sure which is erring. For instance, sometimes the window header is misplaced. Like, it looks like it's a few pixels off or something. Then, a lot of times the window title is displayed a little off as well, like somewhere in the actual window over menu items. Lastly, and I don't know how to describe this one really, windows explorer is a little buggy. Sometimes it looks like it's supposed to, and other times parts of it looks like Aero Glass with an inverted color scheme. I don't know. I'm going to take a screen shot and put it up on my custo profile, and I'll try and put some pictures up of the errs.

Thanks for any and all help.

Blackbox works fine on Vista, for the most part.

I'll look into blackbox, thanks.

I uploaded a couple of screenshots if anyone would care to see what I mean.

You ever figure out a way to use XP themes for it?

I don't think there's any sort of specification. Stardock must interpret the theme and output it to Vista.

Go for the bbClean version of Blackbox. Litestep is a giant pain to get working in Vista.

"You ever figure out a way to use XP themes for it?"

Importing XP .msstyles into WindowBlinds is the only way you are going to use them on Vista.

SimonSelki : I downloaded that skin, and reproduced your problems. I think the skin is the problem here, not WB.

NetLoadModule seems to work for some and not for others on Vista, it's mean ;)

This is true, I always got the raw end of the deal with things not working on Vista.

Also: you said you just wanted a giant quicklaunch bar? You can unlock taskbar, and drag the quicklaunch up or down, even make the icons 32x32.

Then autohide the taskbar, and get Rainmeter for a click. If you want a easy way to get what you want without having to use an alternate shell.

Pyro_ : Thanks, that's sort of what I did, but I wanted to sort of do away with the taskbar and navigate through windows with Win+Tab or Alt+Tab, so that it's just a clock and some shortcuts. But stylish... not just row of icons or a mac look alike.

Honestly, WB was taxing the shit out of my system. There was a noticeable performance difference when I had it running. So I uninstalled. I shouldn't need to sacrifice functionality for aesthesia. I will miss my completely transparent taskbar and start menu though.

I'm really more upset at rightClick not being fully supported.

Honestly, WB was taxing the shit out of my system. There was a noticeable performance difference when I had it running.

What are your system specs, WB should barely use any resources.

RightClick is going to be continually updated, so the compatibility issues with Vista should be resolved with further updates.

I'm running a 1.5 Ghz Core 2 duo with 2gb of ram. It's also running onboard video, I think the max is like 340mb.

It was the little things, like windows taking a little long to respond, or firefox not launching immediately after I tapped my shortcut. There was a small latency when I wasn't doing anything. Like, after a clean boot, running almost no other apps. I tried burning a DVD and there were a few errors and almost a system crash. Remember that this is almost a brand new laptop. It was enough to make me revert to the classic windows theme, with a clever color scheme. It's quick as shit and hideous as ever now.

Windows Vista does support themes. Deviantart has a bunch of them. The good part, no need to BloatBlinds, er, I mean Windowblinds.

http://browse.deviantart.com/customization/skins/vistautil/v
isstyles/

Some are fairly decent. Plus you can probably do a quick search on google on how to install said themes.

You can also go the old fashioned route and use 3DCC + ShellWM, or if you go with BBLean you can use BBLeanSkin. That way you have full control over the taskbar it comes with, or use none.

But from the sound of it all you need to do is get yourself a right click app, autohide the taskbar, and use Rainmeter for a clock. That way you can still access the startmenu if you so choose. Especially because the Win+Tab feature doesn't work if you don't use Explorer. All though you can also use TopDesk.

Maybe, but I found this, what do you all think?

What do I even do with it?

http://www.codegazer.com/vistaglazz.htm

From the sounds of it, it just makes it so you have the glass effect on maximized windows.

Bummer. It says it's a patcher like UXthemer.

In anycase, I tried Shellwm but with little success. Programs became unresponsive, and it wasn't very functional.

...vista vista vista....

On XP slanxp was always one of my favourite functional/minimal themes, slanxp3 has been ported to a vista style by psycoB available on deviantart, he's also ported slantrast if you want something colorful

so I recommend patching you uxtheme.dll and getting those visual styles, its pretty much the same as running themes on XP.

You can always use this: http://www.winmatrix.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=14347

for a vs editor on a basic theme, preferably psycho b's

@SimonSelki: Malice (great theme!) was made for XP, most themes for XP are not really compatible with WB on Vista (there are many new items and features). For the issues: did you use the trial or the full version of WB? The trial version has some limitations to imported themes, so some really look ugly and you get a wrong inpression. I´m happy with WB on Vista (and I guess there will be some more minimal themes soon), but you are right, using WB means some slight latency (which on the other hand increases by time on vista-with and without WB).