Rajat Jaswal

Eh! This just slipped out of my mind. How will XP feel more like Vista if the sounds remain the same? SO, thats why, someone extracted all the sounds from Vista so that the transformation could be truly completed. BTW , m not that someone. The following page contains the information on how to install the sounds. Easy to apply so have fun listening to the sounds of Vista.

Vista Soundpack

Well, till now, i have told you almost everything that’s required to turn your XP into Vista. The only thing that remains is ‘The Theme’. Now if you aren’t really interested in the transparency thing, then a theme file that works with StyleXP would work just fine. But, if you actually want your system to have a transparent kinda interface, the go for Stardock’s WindowBlinds. This software allows you to transform almost everything that can be transformed . Plus, you can apply other themes like that of Mac,Tiger,Leopard,etc. Just to show you how the user interface would look like using this software,here’s a cropped snapshot of my desktop

WindowBlinds

PS: It doesn’t alter any system files,which makes it perfectly safe to use.

Ok ! Here’s another customization that you can do to your windows XP. The name of the software is Visual Task Tips and this is what it’s exactly going to do to your taskbar

So grab your softcopies now, this is one essential utility.

Visual Task Tips

 PS: The installer is on the top right of the page that you going to open. (Just incase you can’t find it)

To add the sidebar to your XP, download and run this software provided by thoosje. It’s more of a clone of vistas sidebar and looks somewhat like this.

It sure looks good, and if you want to try it, then visit Thoosje Vista Sidebar

Now personally, I wasn’t really satisfied with it so I tried the google gadgets. The best thing about it is that it can also be set as the sidebar and applications can be added to it too. Though it may not be as stylish as Thoosje’s sidebar, but it does the job for me and without any bugs.

Google Gadgets

The choice is yours…

As I mentioned in my previous post, there are alternatives to everything. So starting off with these alternatives, here is an alternative to xp’s start menu.
All you need to do is download a file from the link given below and follow the given instructions. This thing should work just fine on your pc, but since its still in beta stage, there might be some bugs to go with it. Anyways……

Happy Transforming to Vista Start Menu

PS: Do read the ‘readme’ file before you install it.

Hey..!! I know its been a long time since i introduced the ‘XP to Vista’ Category. And i guess its about time that i start posting the real thing. So, lets get started !!

The Vista Transformation pack !

What all is it going to provide you with :

• Vista style boot screen, logon screen
• Vista-like theme (with all the icons, transparent task bar, wallpapers, Progress Dialogs and media player skin,etc)
• Vista’s sound scheme
• 3rd party softwares( the sidebars, the vista style start menu, window transparency, 3d flip etc)

Going by my personal experience, i wouldn’t recommend this for users with RAM 1GB or less. Because this is one resource hungry pack and trust me, it will eat up your memory, your PCs memory that is .

Now the good thing about this is that it allows us to specify what all we want to install. And the bad thing about it is that uninstalling the pack can be real troublesome for users who don’t have much knowledge about this. When i uninstalled it, it took with it the icons of ‘my computer’, ‘my document’ etc !! But i did manage to get them back somehow.

You can find the screen shots of it here

And this is the link from where you can get the download link of the latest transformation pack(at the time of writing this post )

Vista Transformation Pack

PS: If you have an anti virus which keeps check of your system files, then DON’T forget to turn it off before you install the pack. Because the pack makes changes in your system files folder only.

PS2: If you are a gamer(like me), then don’t install the 3dflip application because it WILL make your game lag.

PS3: There are alternatives to everything in this world . And I will come up with them in the following posts.

Microsoft, the company which has always kind of (according to me) lagged behind other Computer based companies like Apple, has finally set the true standards for themselves by the introduction of Vista. Personally, Ive always felt that XP was and is better then all other Operating Systems(OS) ever introduced simply because of its compatibility with other softwares and limited requirement of hardware resources like RAM and processor etc. But what it lacks in is its Graphic User Interface(GUI or in simple words ” STYLE “). So, i decided to transform my XP into Vista, just the appearance part but! I searched Google for it and came across lots of stuff which would help me achieve my goal ! The ‘XP to Vista’ category is going to be all about that and more so that you too can transform your XP.