The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
The Desktop/Customisation Thread - Nerds With Aesthetic Values? The Rapture Is Nigh
Centipeed
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
The Desktop/Customisation Thread
According to a recent Fox News poll, 73% of Americans believe that nerds don't care about appearance. Well, that's where you're a jerk, Fox News. Nerds care about appearance as much as normal people, just not where you can see it.
How Do I Make People Fawn Over My Sense Of Style?!
Of course, most of you already know the ins-and-outs (Haha, like sex! Maybe one of these day I'll have some!).
Just in case you're new, here are some handy guidelines:
1. Save your image as a JPEG, to keep the file size manageable.
2. If the image is larger than 600kb, link to it instead of using image tags, and people won't be forced to download huge files.
3. Unless your desktop is small (Less than 1024 pixels wide), spoiler the image.
4. Post the source of your desktop background, unless it's a picture of your shitty car or something. Also, try to give information on anything interesting happening on your desktop.
How Do I Hop On This Bandwagon Of Internet Stardom?!
1. Patch Windows to allow custom themes!
2. Download an awesome custom theme!
3. Stop using that stupid Start button!
4. Get a kickin' rad wallpaper!
According to a recent Fox News poll, 73% of Americans believe that nerds don't care about appearance. Well, that's where you're a jerk, Fox News. Nerds care about appearance as much as normal people, just not where you can see it.
How Do I Make People Fawn Over My Sense Of Style?!
Of course, most of you already know the ins-and-outs (Haha, like sex! Maybe one of these day I'll have some!).
Just in case you're new, here are some handy guidelines:
1. Save your image as a JPEG, to keep the file size manageable.
2. If the image is larger than 600kb, link to it instead of using image tags, and people won't be forced to download huge files.
3. Unless your desktop is small (Less than 1024 pixels wide), spoiler the image.
4. Post the source of your desktop background, unless it's a picture of your shitty car or something. Also, try to give information on anything interesting happening on your desktop.
How Do I Hop On This Bandwagon Of Internet Stardom?!
1. Patch Windows to allow custom themes!
Windows XP SP2: Go here, then download the patch and follow the instructions on the page.
Windows XP SP3: Go here, then download and run the patcher.
Windows Vista: Download this.
2. Download an awesome custom theme!
3. Stop using that stupid Start button!
If you want a dock, ObjectDock and RocketDock will satisfy your needs.
If you want something a little more streamlined, Launchy will be the best program you ever install.
4. Get a kickin' rad wallpaper!
The wallpaper section at Deviantart is a good source of wallpapers, if you don't mind sifting through the crap. You can type a resolution (For example "1280x1024" without the quotes) into the Search box, and it'll only show you images of that resolution.
There are also wallpaper dumps, such as Fuguri, Imagescraper, and 4Walled. Note that there's a good chance you'll see wallpapers at these sites which aren't suitable for work.
Centipeed on
0
Posts
Although tbh I've stopped using pretty much everything once I got Windows 7. The start menu has replaced launchy, and the taskbar has replaced rocketdock. I stopped using rainmeter once I realized that although it *does* look pretty cool, my taskbar has a perfectly serviceable clock, and I really don't need to know how much RAM or CPU i'm using.
And none of the Win7 themes really appeal to me at the moment, but if they make a Transblack for 7 I will be totally over that.
GT: Tanky the Tank
Black: 1377 6749 7425
I see where you're coming from. Apparently they hired someone at Microsoft who understood the value of good design.
But I just find myself going back to the default. It's just that good. The start menu/taskbar combo is pretty much perfect, with text launching and whatnot.
That said, what I'd actually like is something Rainmeter-esque, but that goes on the taskbar, as I find myself very rarely looking at an empty desktop.
I guess there's probably some weather/system stats/etc systray apps around, but they'd get all messed up into a different order every time I booted.
Maybe I'll just run Rainmeter and Win+Space when I need to see it. Although that was bugged the last time I tried it, which was back when Win7 launched. Has it been updated since then?
Edit: Whoops, forgot, my desktop is just stock Win7, but here's my wallpaper which might be of interest to some;
You can find my (and a bunch of other awesome) wallpapers here, I'm using this one.
I'm thinking about installing a calendar, but I don't like the way they look unless they're on a flat color background.
Did you recently install that theme? I found it today on Deviantart, and I really like it, but I can't give up my current theme.
I really like the way the right click menus look for some reason (please excuse the small size/horrific artifacting)
I'm not sure what I'm going to do for a desktop image when I get my other monitor back and go back to dual. If I had a triple monitor setup though, I would use this as my background, even though the very top looks a little weird because it's a composite:
(linked for 1.2MB 4000x1290)
http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/4070/deathvalleyskynpsbig.jpg
StartKiller is a tiny little app (like 100 kb in RAM) that removes the start button from the taskbar, leaving it otherwise untouched. Runs on startup in the background, etc. Helpful if you just want to use Launchy or something. Note that if you still need to access the start menu at some point, you can just tap the windows key.
Cool, I might try that out in a few days. For now I've gotten a tidy little replacement icon. I use small taskbar icons, and I just couldn't stand the start button overhanging the taskbar.
Spoilder'd for massive H-Scroll rape
Clean
That game dock is everything the Games Explorer should be but isn't.
You can get a copy of the wallpaper, in various resolutions, here. As for the game icons/boxshots, those can be...
...located here. A template PSD can be found here, so it's easy enough to create new ones if needed. Now the drawback with having games listed like this is that you will probably, at some point, accidentally launch a game when you didn't intend to. To prevent this, I made a little launcher utility for the games...
Other than that, it's just plain old ObjectDock with one of the default Aero themes.
Spoilered for we are many.
Looking back, some of those things were actually pretty awesome. Scripts that checks if there's a new Penny Arcade strip? Check. Script that checks whether or not my laptop is currently set up to patch my Xbox through to Live? Check.
Man, I used to be cool. What happened?
You discovered that all of those extra bits were useless, in the long run?
In fact, just seeing that has given me new inspiration to try some customisation. Thanks :P.
God damn this is an awesome IM client. Everything can be customised.
Edit: By the way, is there any way to make the Windows taskbar invisible, but keep program/system tray text visible? Like the effect seen in many of Visti's screenshots, but for Windows.
And thanks for the kind words. Looking through my old screenshots really did make me want to do something again, but the setup I have now basically makes having a desktop a luxury.
All transparency tools I've found just set the global alpha value on the taskbar, meaning that text and icons are transparent as well. Pretty useless.
Nice Faux-S X you've got going there. Did you use one of the predone themes floating around or make it yourself?
ubuntu, mac4lin, and awn
added back the top panel for some better stats area and clock now but i'm pretty pleased.
If you didn't want the top panel, you could use Conky instead for that stuff.
Also I hear that Docky is the dock to use for Linux these days, supposedly a bit more lightweight and more easily extensible than AWN.
What I ended up doing is using high def screen caps (they had to be cropped for the 16:10 monitors, sadly) of Fantastic Mr. Fox. The result is actually quite striking. The screenshot doesn't really do them justice though, since they're placed right together.
Spoilered for complete h-scroll obliteration.
edit: I appreciate that having stuff actually on the desktop is a sin. It's just that time of the year when I need school stuff easily available
Oh my god, bear is driving!
Having stuff on your desktop is not a sin. Big empty screens always looked kind of dumb to me. It's not a framed painting, it's a desktop, there's supposed to be stuff there (I do not subscribe to form over function).
So long as you're not one of the "new folder (5)" kind of people.
I also decided to iconise my task bar, rather than have the window title showing.
Dirty:
Ugh.
I cannot play Mirror's Edge because I have a borderline crippling fear of heights. I can play games like Half Life and Lost Coast with their cliffside sections without issue, but when I played Mirror's Edge it was at a friends house on their fifty-some inch HDTV and that shit was not happening.
The first time I saw a scene like the one on your monitor 2 desktop I almost fell over.
This is hilarious. Does the fact that you're on solid ground, in real life, and only playing a video game, not affect your fear at all?
It works really well, and looks fantastic. Since I'm on my laptop, it put more strain on my graphics card than I'd like, so I'm not keeping it. Still, I just thought I'd mention it in case any of you like the transparent borders but have XP.
You don't like the Aero theme?
Holy crap, I'm not the only one