What's the best Shell replacement for Windows?

[imported_Rapt]

whether it is XP, 2000, or 98, what is the best Shell replacement?

I've tried Litestep a couple years back, am finding Aston pretty nice at the moment, and am just curious what some Anandtechers are using or think about some of what's out there...

(btw, this is about explorer replacements for Windows OS'. I also have/use linux and work occasionaly on Mac's, this is about WINDOWS not your preference in OS. )

like I said, so far I like Aston but've only been setting it up/using it for couple days on a multi-user Windows 2000 Pro machine so that's a pretty limited experience with it.

 

[AtTheGates]

I only wanted a few changes so I just hacked uxtheme.dll in a hex editor. Change a few bytes and you can then make your own themes. I took out the ugly green Start button and changed a few fonts and colors. Small changes, but it look great now.

 

[CTho9305]

I played with geoshell for a while. It's nice, but I've spent so many years with the standard shell that I'm much faster with it.

 

[civad]

I used litestpe also in the past. Seemed pretty good. Stuck ewith it till I moved over to Linux.

 

[Protoss]

GeoShell all the way...most of the time it takes up 2,000KB of RAM and it is so customizable!

 

[Insomnium]

Originally posted by: AtTheGates
I only wanted a few changes so I just hacked uxtheme.dll in a hex editor. Change a few bytes and you can then make your own themes. I took out the ugly green Start button and changed a few fonts and colors. Small changes, but it look great now.

You wouldn't happen to have any links to a tutorial or modding guide would you? I Googled for a guide once but only found a bunch of pre-made patches, which isn't what i'm looking for.

 

[n0cmonkey]

bb4win

 

[AtTheGates]

Originally posted by: Insomnium

Originally posted by: AtTheGates
I only wanted a few changes so I just hacked uxtheme.dll in a hex editor. Change a few bytes and you can then make your own themes. I took out the ugly green Start button and changed a few fonts and colors. Small changes, but it look great now.

You wouldn't happen to have any links to a tutorial or modding guide would you? I Googled for a guide once but only found a bunch of pre-made patches, which isn't what i'm looking for.

Not 100% sure, but here is what I remember doing.
1) Open C:\windows\system32\uxtheme.dll and change 81 EC 80 00 00 00 56 57 to 33 F6 8B C6 C9 C2 08 00. Save this to some where other than system32. This assumes you have SP1.
2) Change the name of the uxtheme in system32 to uxtheme.dll.old.
3) Copy uxtheme.dll into system32. This file is protected by Windows file protection. If the file reverts back to the orginal then research for how to change protected files. I don't remember.
4) Copy the file c:\windows\resources\themes\luna.theme and the folder luna. Rename these to the name of your theme.
5) Download Resource Hacker
6) Use ResHacker to open .msstyles file in the copied folder. Most of the stuff you would want to change is in the bitmap section. Copy the bitmap, paste it into your favorite editor, save, and then use replace bitmap in ResHacker.

Probably missing several steps but might point you in the right direction.

 

[Insomnium]

Originally posted by: AtTheGates

Originally posted by: Insomnium

Originally posted by: AtTheGates
I only wanted a few changes so I just hacked uxtheme.dll in a hex editor. Change a few bytes and you can then make your own themes. I took out the ugly green Start button and changed a few fonts and colors. Small changes, but it look great now.

You wouldn't happen to have any links to a tutorial or modding guide would you? I Googled for a guide once but only found a bunch of pre-made patches, which isn't what i'm looking for.

Not 100% sure, but here is what I remember doing.
1) Open C:\windows\system32\uxtheme.dll and change 81 EC 80 00 00 00 56 57 to 33 F6 8B C6 C9 C2 08 00. Save this to some where other than system32. This assumes you have SP1.
2) Change the name of the uxtheme in system32 to uxtheme.dll.old.
3) Copy uxtheme.dll into system32. This file is protected by Windows file protection. If the file reverts back to the orginal then research for how to change protected files. I don't remember.
4) Copy the file c:\windows\resources\themes\luna.theme and the folder luna. Rename these to the name of your theme.
5) Download Resource Hacker
6) Use ResHacker to open .msstyles file in the copied folder. Most of the stuff you would want to change is in the bitmap section. Copy the bitmap, paste it into your favorite editor, save, and then use replace bitmap in ResHacker.

Probably missing several steps but might point you in the right direction.

Cool, thanks a lot I think I'll give MultiPatcher 1.5.1 a go before trying your method. Thanks again.