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Getting tired of the
boring Windows shell? (Translation: Do you hate the way your Windows
desktop
has the little
"start" button at the bottom left, the little clock on the bottom
right, a bunch of icons
scattered across the
screen......?)
Let us drop some
knowledge on ya: the GUI (graphical user interface) or "shell"
used by Windows
is called
"Explorer." You know how
sometimes, when you get the blue screen of death, it says
something about an
error with explorer.exe? Well,
that's your GUI!
Explorer is not your
only option! (Of course, you may think MSIE is your only option!)
Anyway, we use a
pretty cool shell replacement called LiteStep. There are countless websites
that
get into all the
details. I suggest you do some
reading: www.litestep.net is a
good starting point.
But, suffice it to say
that, with LiteStep, you can download or create themes for your desktop
that
have the clock, the
system tray, and icons that look a number of different ways. You can use a
theme
that uses all or none
of these items. You can use "modules" which integrate programs
into your shell
like the Winamp audio
player and other nifty stuff. In short, LiteStep is totally customizable!
(But, don't waste your
time reinventing the wheel. Techie types have already designed some awesome
themes,
a lot of which are
downloadable from the aforementioned website!)
Here is a SCREENSHOT of our desktop. We prefer minimalism, don't you?
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