How To Apply Windows 7 Visual Style To XP Desktop

Windows 7 is a real eye candy. It looks awesome. I know many Windows XP users would like to make XP look like Windows 7 (that’s why you’re here, right?), because, either they don’t want to upgrade yet, or they can’t.

If you have some crap PC (don’t worry, I know it’s only temporarily) or maybe some other obstacles that don’t let you install Windows 7, then this will definitely help you…

I know that you would, at least like to feel that Win 7 design if you can’t use the Windows 7 itself. All those newly designed features like big and iconized taskbar buttons, Windows 7 Superbar, or even full Start ORB. Now you can have all that in Windows XP too.

Here’s how your desktop will look like after you complete the steps below:

And here’s how to make it possible: (UPDATED with taskbar hack included into theme package)

1. Download Windows 7 Theme “SevenVG RTM” for Windows XP theme here and extract its contents. You should see a folder named: “SevenVG RTM Theme for Windows XP by Vishal Gupta”.

2. In this folder, you’ll get 5 more folders:

a) Fonts – This folder contains Segoe UI fonts required for the theme. Run “Fonts.exe” file to install them.

b) Styler Toolbar – This folder contains Styler setup and SevenVG styler toolbar skin. It will provide toolbar and commandbar in Explorer that looks like Windows 7.

c) Theme – This folder contains the main theme. LATER, you will run “Theme.exe”file to install it.

d) Iconized Taskbar Hack – This folder contains registry script to enable Iconized taskbar in Windows XP

e) Extra Common Tasks – This folder contains 2 extra shell styles: Bottom and Left dark blue.

3. Make sure you have patched the “uxtheme.dll” file (needs to be patched to allow 3rd party visual styles).
Download and run the UXtheme Patcher from here:

For XP SP3 Users – Download UXTheme Patcher here
For XP SP2 Users – Download UXTheme Patcher here

4. Now, run the Theme.exe (from the folder described above) to install the windows 7 theme. Apply the theme using Desktop Properties.

Ok, you have applied the new theme and should now see the difference. If, for some reason, your taskbar is not iconized as on screenshot below, you will need to do one additional step, to make iconized taskbar buttons on your XP to look just like on Windows 7.

How to make iconized taskbar buttons on your XP:

Windows 7 taskbar doesn’t show text in application buttons, it only show their icons. Here’s how it will look like after you follow these steps:

And as you already know, previous Windows versions used to show icon as well as text in all application’s taskbar buttons. That takes too much space when you open lot of applications. And here is how it looks (although you know how it looks because you are using it now, but just for the record…)

As you can see, Windows 7 new iconized taskbar feature looks cool and it also saves a lot of space in the taskbar area.

There are 2 ways to do this.

Download a registry file which will automatically make necessary changes in your registry base and make your toolbar look like in the image above (the easy way – recommended)

Manually make the changes in your Windows registry base to apply the above effect. (for advanced users).

I hope you have chosen the easy way, but if you really insist that you want to do it yourself, manually, then here’s how to do it:

1. Type regedit in RUN dialog box and press Enter. It’ll open Registry Editor. Now go to following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics

2. In right-side panel, create a new String value “MinWidth” and set its value to “-255″

3. That’s it. Log off or restart your system and get ready to have iconized taskbar on your system.

That’s all you need to do to make that XP desktop look as shiny and cool looking as Windows 7.

If for some reason, you want to restore the default taskbar behavior, just delete the “MinWidth” String value and log off or restart your system.

Enjoy! 

3 Hacks for Firefox That Will Double Your Internet Browsing Speed

There are many people out there complaining about the Firefox RAM Memory Bug. Lets get it straight. It’s not a bug. It’s part of the cache feature. This ‘feature’ is how the pages are cached in a tabbed environment.

To improve performance when navigating (studies show that 39% of all page navigations are renavigations to pages visited less than 10 pages ago, usually using the back button), Firefox implements a Back-Forward cache that retains the rendered document for the last five session history entries for each tab.

This is a lot of data. If you have a lot of tabs, Firefox’s RAM memory usage can climb dramatically. It’s a trade-off. What you get out of it is faster performance as you navigate the web.

Now a lot of us have found the ’secrets’ on how to manipulate settings in “about:config” to drop the memory usage as long as possible and to increase the speed at which Firefox loads sites. Read on to find out how to do this.

Remember: Firefox (download it here) is the best internet browser available (in my opinion), and these tweaks below will make it even greater and faster. So enjoy!

Reduce the amount of RAM Firefox uses for it’s cache feature

Here’s how to do it:
1. Type “about:config” (no quotes) in the adress bar in the browser.
2. Find “browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewer”
3. Set it’s value to “0“;(Zero)

Increase the Speed in Which Firefox loads pages

1. Type “about:config” into the address bar and hit Enter.
(Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds up page loading.)

2. Alter the entries as follows:
Set “network.http.pipelining” to “true”
Set “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to “true”
Set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to some number like 10.

This means it will make 10 requests at once.

3. Lastly, right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and set its value to “0“;.(Zero)

This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives. If you’re using a broadband connection you’ll load pages faster now.
Optionally (for even faster web browsing) here are some more options for your about:config (you might have to create some of these entries by Right Click –> New– > Interger or String

network.dns.disableIPv6: set “false” 
“content.notify.backoffcount”: set “5“; (Five)
“plugin.expose_full_path”: set “true”.
“ui.submenuDelay”: set “0; (zero)

Reduce RAM usage to 10mb when Firefox is minimized:

This little hack will drop Firefox’s RAM usage down to 10 Mb when minimized:

1. Open Firefox and go to the Address Bar. Type in about:config and then press Enter.
2. Right Click in the page and select New -> Boolean.
3. In the box that pops up enter “config.trim_on_minimize”. Press Enter.
4. Now select True and then press Enter.
5. Restart Firefox.

These simple tweaks will make your web browsing with Mozilla Firefox 2-3 times faster and easier. And I think they are fairly easy to apply. Enjoy!

15 Great Gmail Sidebar Gadgets You Won’t Find in Labs

One of the great things in Gmail is of course Google’s Gmail Labs where many developers showcase and test their creative and useful gadgets.

Amongst those you can find pretty great features that can really make your inbox more functional, and sometimes more fun. Like the one that enables you to add Twitter to your Gmail inbox in 3 steps or even these 5 Cool Gmail Apps.

But here’s something you need to know. Gadgets you can find in Gmail Labs are not the only ones available on the web. There are far more of them out of Labs, and to find those, you will need to put some effort and search for a while. There are some real gems out there, believe me.

To save your time, I made a search and compiled a list of 15 great Gmail gadgets that will add some social media juice to your inbox and make it easier for you to stay tuned on all your online profiles, directly from Gmail. You can stay in your inbox 24 hours a day now! Everything you need will be there! :)

But first you need to enable “Add any gadget by URL” functionality on Gmail Labs.

To do so you need to go to Settings > Labs and switch to ‘Enable’ button next to “Add any gadget by URL” gadget. After that you will be able to add gadgets by submitting the URL in the Settings > Gadgets page.

Below every gadget, I will post an URL to it, so you get that URL and paste it in Gadgets page, as explained above. Nice and easy.

So here they are, the great 15!

Twitter Gmail Gadget

There are several Twitter gadgets you can use but I found that this one works best for me. You can post instant tweets straight form the Gmail and browse your friend tweets. I would say that this gadget turns Gmail into pretty decent Twitter client.

URL: http://twittergadget.appspot.com/gadget-gmail.xml

gBook Facebook Gadget

gBook offers all the basic functions so you will never loose contact with your Facebook friends. You can update your status and see email and notifications straight from your mailbox. Feel free to search for other Facebook gadgets as I found this my favorite but there are few more if you prefer.

URL: http://www.francesco-castaldo.com/fb-gadget/gBook.xml

FriendFeed

Keep track on your friend activities on the web using FriendFeed gadget. Everything is simple, nothing fancy – just the way you like it. On the other hand it would be great to see better Gmail implementation as in general it is an iGoogle gadget.

URL: http://friendfeed.com/embed/googlegadget/spec

Zoho Gadgets

Zoho have built several gadgets for different tasks. You can find Zoho Docs gadget for creating, editing, sharing, viewing all your documents. There are also mail, calendar, tasks, planer and notes gadgets. You can find more information on Zoho gadgets page or just try them out.

URL: http://gadgets.zoho.com/zc/index.do

Remember The Milk

Yes you can use Zoho tasks what I described before, but I think this one is pretty great. It truly is “The best way to manage your tasks”. With the gadget you can review your existing tasks, create new ones, overdue and postpone them. Check out all the other features in Gadgets page.

URL: http://www.rememberthemilk.com/services/gmail/gadget/

Digg

With this gadget you can quickly browse all the popular stories on Digg. You will always be well informed on latest events and friend activities.

URL: http://digg.com/goog/ig.xml

MySpace

Pretty similar gadget to the Facebook but will enable you to stay connected with your friends over at MySpace.

URL:http://hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/100080069921643878012/myspace.xml

Delicious

Simple gadget to display Delicious hotlist on your Gmail sidebar. Easy to browse bookmarks of different users. It’s great especially if you use Deliciouss often as I do.

URL: http://www.labpixies.com/campaigns/delicious/delicious.xml

World Clock

This gadget is designed especially for Gmail and offers possibility to add current time of different places of the world. Pretty neat.

URL: http://gad.getpla.net/poly/clock.xml

bit.ly URL Shortener

Small but useful gadget that will convert your URLs into short ones using Bit.ly service.

URL:http://hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/107368512201818821991/bitly-shortener.xml

Calculator

Very nice looking calculator for your Gmail if you quickly need to count some numbers or do more advanced calculations.

URL: http://www.poturi.net/gadgets/calc/calc.xml

Google Map Search

Great gadget to find your desired location fast. With combination of Google maps it works really well.

URL: http://www.google.com/ig/modules/mapsearch.xml

Toodledo To-Do

Very powerful and feature rich gadget for organizing to-do lists. Provides better organizations

URL: http://www.toodledo.com/widget/gmail.php

Ask A Word

Search Thesaurus, Dictionary and Encyclopedia without leaving Gmail. You can also use built in spellchecker so you won’t make a single spelling mistake next time.

URL: http://www.openinventions.com/spellcheck/openinventions_spellcheck.xml

That’s it! I hope you find some (or prefferably all) of these helpful and fun to use. Enjoy!

Emoticons - Fun Text-Based Expressions

A

(.V.)	Alien
O:-)	Angel
X-(	Angry

B

~:0	Baby
(*v*)	Bird
:-#	Braces
</3	Broken Heart

C

=^.^=	Cat
*<:o)	Clown
O.o	Confused
:-S	Confused
B-)	Cool
:_(	Crying
:'(	Crying
|_P	Cup of Coffee

D

*-*	Dazed
:o3	Dog
#-o	Doh!
:*)	Drunk

E

//_^

Emo

F

<><	Fish
()	Football
:-(	Frown
:(	Frown
:-(	Frowning
=P	Frustrated
:-P	Frustrated

G

8-)	Glasses
$_$	Greedy
:->	Grin

H

=)	Happy
:-)	Happy
<3	Heart
{ }	Hug

I

:-|	Indifferent

J

X-p

Joking

K

\VVV/	King
:-)*	Kiss
:-*	Kiss
(-}{-)	Kissing

L

=D	Laughing Out Loud
)-:	Left-handed Sad Face
(-:	Left-handed Smiley Face
<3	Love

M

=/	Mad
:-)(-:	Married
<:3 )~	Mouse
<:3)~	Mouse

N

~,~	Napping
:-B	Nerd

O

^_^

Overjoyed

P

<l:0	Partying
:-/	Perplexed
=8)	Pig
\&&&/	Princess

Q

\%%%/

Queen

R

@~)~~~~

Rose

S

=(	Sad
:-(	Sad
:(	Sad
:-7	Sarcastic
:-@	Screaming
=O	Shocked
:-o	Shocked
O[-<]:	Skateboarder
:-)	Smile
:-Q	Smoking
:>	Smug
:P	Sticking Tongue Out
:o	Surprised

T

(:|	Tired
:-J	Tongue in Cheek
:-&	Tongue Tied

U

=-O	Uh-oh
:-\	Undecided
**==	United States Flag

V

:-E	Vampire
=D	Very Happy

W

;-)	Winking
;)	Winking

X

Y

|-O

Yawn

Z

Z

Zorro