200th Post! Just in time for something special!

This is my 200th post!!! I was going to just post something saying “happy 200th post,” or something, but I thought that I should wait a couple days to see if anything big happens that would be worthy of such a celebration. I did not have to wait long.

Yesterday night, I was just browsing the Internet, looking for interesting articles on news sites, and occasionally stopping to look for a cool desktop wallpaper, all the time admiring my new Zune theme for Windows (post below this one). Then, I got to thinking: “Even though they did a real nice job blending orange and black, it would be nice to try to change the colors. So, I started browsing my WINDOWS folder, looking for a way to change the appearance. I soon learned that it was beyond my capacity, and decided to google a solution. I came upon a few good options, all of which required the installation of an outside program, which is simply not an option for me, because I use an older computer, and cannot afford any performance loss. So, I started looking at various sites dedicated to generating ideas on how to tweak XP. I ran across PowerToys, which is actually developed by Microsoft employees, and acts as an update, rather than an entire new program. These just add little bits of added functionality to your system. Then, I ran across this, and this. In case you want to hold off clicking the link, and want to finish reading this post, allow me to explain what “this” it. It is called Vista Inspirat Ultimate. It is a clone of Windows Vista Ultimate’s eye candy, designed to run on XP. And, no, no software is needed. It is an installer, that goes into your system, and modifies the DLLs (what control your computer) that are for the visual styles (start bar, title bar, icons, etc.), and modifies each and every one of them. The install took probably a full 30 minutes, but, when it was done, I was simply stunned! We just got a Dell Vista machine, and it looks EXACTLY the same! It even has the uber-cool dock that is a clone of Mac’s(but that is a separate program, running in the background, although it does not take up much RAM, CPU, or slow it down any[ I have a700MHz procc]). It changed my cursor, font, everything! And, even better, is that, during the installation, you can choose which features you want installed (theme, cursor, dock, wallpaper, screensaver, etc). It also has sever other programs that can be installed with it, that I did not choose, because I do not want any more programs. This is virus-free (as far as I can tell), and the best… thing of this type that I have ever seen. Even the login screen looks different! Also, you can always switch back using the normal utilities.

Without the System Info in the screen shots, no one can tell that it is not XP. Plus, my computer runs really fast! Apparently, in modifying the DLLs, the person that created it got a little carried away, and did some performance tweaks, too. I have run into no glitches, no performance issues, it does not show up as a separate process on the Task Manager, and the graphics are amazing! With an anti-virus program, and an IM program, and Google Web Accl. running, I was only taking up 202 MB of RAM! and that is including the Dock (15MB of RAM). On the other hand, Windows Vista, running only an anti-virus program in the background, and an internet-filtering program, took up over 730MB of RAM. Wow. I am impressed. Definitely check this out! Oh, and another thing I thought was cool about it: It creates a system backup of the DLLs it changes, so, if anything goes wrong, you can just use that. Plus, it does have an uninstall feature.

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Screenshots:
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(Top to Bottom)
Screensaver.
Logon screen.
Screenshot showing the Start Menu.
Screenshot showing the animated high-quality Dock.
Screenshot.
The only piece of software it installs.

Click on pictures for full-screen version.