How-To: Make XP look like a Mac
Now I am a fan of Windows XP I must admit, it’s easy to use – works most of the time, and is generally OK. The system I use the majority of the time is my IBM X31 Laptop, with a 1400mhz Pentium M processor, 768mb RAM, 40 GB harddrive and assorted external DVD / CD burners and hard drives. The laptop is excellent and I would recommend IBM x-serie’s to anyone! But the screen real estate is a bit small compared to the newer wide screen laptops, so I decided I would change my GUI to resemble that of the sleak Mac style more than the bulky green and blue XP style.
So how do you do this you ask? Well you need one program, one theme and two fonts, easy as pie and as long as you follow the instructions – you’ll be fine.
I have a created a Zip file for you to download that contains the following items;
- UXTheme Multi-Patcher
- Tiger theme by StudioTwentyEight
- Lucida Grande & Lucida Grande Bold font
First thing is to unpack the zip file to a temp location, then copy the Tiger directory (located inside the Themes dir) to C:\Windows\Resources\Themes – right that part is done!
Next run the UXTheme Multi-Patcher and please FOLLOW the instructions! Especially the bit about Windows XP file protection! Restart when it is finished.
Once you PC has restarted, just right click on your desktop – select “Properties” then click on the “Appearence” tab, then change “Windows and Buttons” to “Tiger” and “Color Scheme” to “Windows – Blue”. You could try the other colors but that is my personal favorite. The only thing you will want to do is change the desktop background color from the horrible light grey to a nice blue color. Click on the “Advanced” button. Then on the “Item” drop down list select “Background”. Click on the color and then click on the “Other” button, enter the following in the appropriate area:
Hue: 141
Sat: 115
Lum: 105
Jobs a good’en. Almost finished.
Copy the two fonts to C:\Windows\Fonts, thanks to some kind of magic the fonts are auto installed and after a quick reboot, everything should work and look fine.
Move the Task Bar to the top of the screen and everything should look like this!
Update: Here’s a link to a site that has a TON of downloads for OSX/XP cross over applications; http://www.osx-e.com/
I wish we could emulate the menu’s too. I remember Xandros having a theme like that, never found it :[
Are you talking about MCBar? Take a look:
http://rimmer.mail333.com/download.htm
What is that? I was talking about the top bar (start menu bar thing in windows) which has File, etc.
can the process be undone?
can the files be uninstalled?
thx
It can be undone, just delete the two font files you install, delete the theme out of the C:\Windows\Resources\Themes directory. And use window file protection “doo-hicky” to replace the updated themeux.dll.
Easy as pie
Just so you know this isn’t a program like window blinds or a desktop skinner, all this does is allow you to use different themes in XP.
If you have Windows XP, why do you use linux?
Basically I dont see any advantages to using linux over windows xp, Im dual booting windows
and ubuntu. Ubuntu is nice and all but I dont see anything that would make me prefer it
over windows.The only thing i have been using ubuntu for is web browsing playing
music/movies (cant play games) which I can do better/hassle free in windows.
So what are the advantages of l using linux over xp?
Hey Dorian, I don’t use Linux? I am sorta confused why you think I do from this post. But I agree that I have no need 95% of the time to use Linux. I run it on one of my servers, and thats it. I have VMWare images that I can load up when I want to play. But for my everyday computer usage I use Windows XP, just because it’s easier/faster/better. I don’t want to start a flame war, but thats my personal opinion.
Thanks for visiting
here’s something you may want have a try:
http://www.flyakiteosx.com/
I Love OS X
how do you download the zip file.
never mind done it.