Alternative Desktops for Win32?

BRock97 asks: "After having made Linux the default desktop on my laptop, I have gotten into the mode of wanting to make all my desktops pretty, including my Win32 gaming machine. There are commercial programs out there (such as Object Desktop), but at a price tag of $50, I want to do a little more research before I toss down that chunk of change for eye candy, which leads to my question. Anyone use such freely available shell replacements such as geoshell or LiteStep? Comments on stability, speed, and such? The themes look impressive and the available modules (especially for LiteStep) looks extensive. For that matter, anyone use Object Desktop" Microsoft offers some UI tweaking tools, but I'm not aware of that many all-desktop replacements out there. Are any other projects in the works aside from the ones listed? How difficult are such projects to work on given Microsoft's attitude on control of the Win32 desktop?

obligitary response:

[b_pretender]

Use Cygwin and Xfree86 within Windows.

Run KDE or Gnome or any of the other desktop environments.

My friend does this on his laptop. It is a very effective solution.

Litestep

[silicon_synapse]

I've used Litestep on Windows 2000. I loved it with the exception of two things. 1) a bad theme rendered it nearly unusable. I logged in as another user and reinstalled to fix it, but I later learned of a way I could have fixed it without reinstalling. Partially my fault. 2) The Start menu never seemed to update as I installed new software. It was as if it generated a static menu from the start menu during install.

There were many things I really liked about it: multiple desktops, transparent menus, smaller interface features waste less screen space, right-click access to the start menu, etc. I eventually ditched it though mostly because of the start menu issue.

Talisman

[jwbozzy]

Talisman [lighttek.com] seems to be pretty cool, my girlfriend likes it alot, and it appears to be fairly customizable. I haven't used it all that much(GNOME user :P), but it seems pretty easy to play with and they offer a 30 day trial download. Of course, if you don't want to pay...geoshell works nicely.

LiteStep

[Keebler64]

I've been using LiteStep for 4 years now...(or since b23 was the first time I tried it.)
Anyways...I have used it NON-Stop everyday that I've had access to a computer (Even at school)
I find that, while setting up LiteStep can be abit hard or overwhelming at first. Great people have been able to help greatly by making distributions. such as Omar's LiteStep Installer [cjb.net] and other great works such as that.
And as far as support... the community is great, IRC and the mailing list are awsome. And almost everyone is friendly and willing to help. Give it a try..

WTH Are Shells?

[rootrider]

Explorer is a shell... but so many people can't stand it that we created our own :)

Regarding the question about how MS deals with these shells: Well, the simple answer is that they don't. It keeps us off their back :). In fact, many of the well known win32 shell developers work or have worked at Microsoft. Alternative shells work just fine under Windows.

Now, there are actually a ton of shells (see the list [shellfront.org]) out there for Windows, and most are open source in some way or other. The most popular (and one of the oldest) win32 shells is Litestep, which is GPL'd.

For a somewhat decent overview of shells from a windows user's point of view, check out forum topic on deviantART [deviantart.com]. Alternative Windows Shells basically just replace the Explorer.exe file as the Windows shell... usually also resulting in the replacement of the well known taskbar, start menu, and desktop. Instead, you can use the tools provided by the shell to build your own interface. Shells are very similar to X desktop environments. They do not replace the Windows like a WM does. For general news and info regarding Windows shells, check out the following sites:

• ShellFront [shellfront.org]
• shellscape [shellscape.org]

Desktopian.org [desktopian.org] also covers Windows and shells news in-depth, along with some *nix related news.

Litestep [graphic-language.net] is the oldest shell still in active development. It is by far the most popular shell (with an estimated 10,000+ users) and the most customizable shell (outside of Graphite). You can create almost whatever interface you want, thanks to the 300+ 3rd party modules for the shell. Litestep also has great support through the LS Mailing List and the IRC channels (#fpn, #ls2k, and #ls_help on irc.openprojects.net). Make sure to check out the following sites for Litestep:

• Graphic Language [graphic-language.net]
• JoeBlade [joeblade.com]
• Litestep.net [litestep.net]
• ShellFront [shellfront.org]
• LS Documentation [shellfront.org]
• LS FAQ [shellfront.org]
• The Module List [shellfront.org] - Module List with descriptions [shellfront.org] (a little out of date and incomplete, but better for most people)
• the Litestep Installer [beyondconvention.net] - a must to get Litestep installed and configured. Make sure to download 'OTS compatible' themes.

Litestep started in 1997 as a port of AfterSTEP to Windows. Since then, it's taken on a serious life of its own. It can do almost anything. Whether you're a minimalist, you love bar themes, you just want to get rid of the desktop icons and add to the popup, or you want your desktop to do everything under the sun, Litestep can do it. And if LS can't do something you want it to, then its active development core will probably create a module to do it soon :). Litestep is configured through .rc text files and often requires a good read of the documentation to figure it out. Litestep can look like anything, and do almost anything.

The second most popular replacement shell is geOShell, which is largely a minimalist's shell. It has a GUI configuration for most things. geOShell's main site is geoshellx.com [geoshellx.com]. All information can be found there. They are also supported through the geoshellx.com forums and their IRC channel (#geoshell on irc.openprojects.net).

Most win32 shells out there today are either derived from Litestep or geOShell in some way or other. However, there have been two blackbox 'ports' recently to Windows:

• bluebox [lokai.net]
• bb4win [desktopian.org]

Both of these shells natively support blackbox themes are very fast and light to run.

It's impossible for me to explain everything here. However, for any *nix users who need to run Windows as well, these shells offer a great alternative to that drab and boring Explorer desktop. Win32 alternative shells even let you have your X desktop on Windows.

Now, the advantage to Object Desktop (namely DesktopX and objectbar is that it doesn't require that you replace your shell (which is a registry key change in NT and a system.ini file edit in 9x). Configuration is accomplished by a GUI. DesktopX is extremely configurable. Keep in mind that running Object Desktop will use up excessive cpu and/or memory. They can do almost anything, but will also use up resources... unlike most shells.

Hope this helps. Many *nix users are completely unaware of the Windows open-source community and of shells in general. We hope this will eventually change.

Re:Litestep

[rootrider]

I'm not sure what the problem was... however, the popup can be fully dynamic now. Most themes (especially OTS themes) keep the start menu and other items (like the desktop) dynamic. Otherwise, you would have to recycle to update the popup.

Re:WTH Are Shells?

[rootrider]

As was so quickly pointed out to me, I forgot to mention SharpE [lowdimension.net]. SharpE is probably the closest to an Explorer clone, but with a ton of added features and easy configuration. SharpE community sites are starting to pop up and development is going well.

Re:Litestep

[rootrider]

there's been a bit of work recently to recreate the Explorer desktop as a module. Nothing's been released yet though. Until then, you can use a module such as icon or folderview (check the module list [shellfront.org]

Windows PowerPro

[LarryRiedel]

Windows PowerPro [windowspowerpro.com], is a pretty good no cost Windows shell replacement. It has a lot of features, but it seems to be more oriented towards productivity than aesthetics. I found it easy to install and configure. It has been around for years, and used to be called "Stiletto". There is a somewhat active mailing list [yahoo.com].

Re:Windows XP

[nuggetman]

No you don't. Just download the hacked UxTheme.dll from www.tgtsoft.com and extract themes to c:\windows\resources\themes.

LiteStep - generally for tweakers

[scowby]

I've been using LiteStep for a few years and now use it exclusively at work. Even got a few of my colleagues to use it. But don't ask for tech support, go to the community to get your answers.

The problem with LiteStep is that it has a fairly steep learning curve. This has improved with standards for themes (OTS) [cjb.net] appearing and a good installer. There are heaps of distros out there but LSDistro and OTS are two of the best. OTS has generally replaced LSDistro these days and most new themes come out as OTS compatible.

Although these installers are in place and themes are more compatible, you still have to be willing to roll up your sleeves and dive into the configuration files to make a theme work the way you want it to. I've found that I generally download a theme and tweak it until I'm happy and then use that theme for ages.

Anyway litestep is one of the best shell replacements out there because:

• you can get the sourcecode and build it yourself
• you can code up new modules to do anything you imagine
• there is a well developed community
• there are many themes available, try deviantArt [deviantart.com].
• it's fully customizable
• and you can almost forget you're using windows

Re:Litestep

[Shaheen]

This is no longer a problem - the popup is dynamically generated from directories on the drive. Also, Litestep popups now use the shell namespace, which means so-called Special Folders (Start Menu, My Documents, etc.) are also accessible.

Serenade and others

[Courtah]

There's a surprising number of other shells out there besides just GeoShell and Litestep. Not just because I write it, but from what others tell me, Serenade is one of the most stable and user-friendly. As with anything under development, it's a work in progress, but it's very usable. You might consider checking it out at Courtah.net [courtah.net]. There are some nice themes at Skinbase [skinbase.org]. SharpE is also a nice shell, but lacks some customization abilities. I don't prefer Litestep because I think it's too disorganized (but it's the foundation of the community), and Geoshell is a nice shell despite forcing you to configure everything through the registry. In short, try many of them out, just make sure you read the directions on how to get your old shell back _carefully_. Look on ShellFront [shellfront.org] or Desktopian [desktopian.org] for more info/links.

Object Desktop

[jenniferj]

I've used Object Desktop for the past year, and I really like it... They continually update their product: that $50 is a year's subscription to every update for every product, including anything new that they might release during the year. Future subscriptions are cheaper, too! Most of the programs are very careful of the system resources they use, and offer seemingly endless customization. There's also a well-established skinning community creating variations on everything to make OD that much more useful. I'd say try it out... there are shareware versions of all the popular programs, including Windowblinds and DesktopX.