[prashant]

Customizing your computer is a great way to be more productive and simply makes your computer look great. The next few sections will show you how you can customize the toolbars of Internet Explorer, as well as some cool address bar tricks that you can use to change the way you browse the Web. Then, you will discover some different ways that you can expand functionality, as well as add some fascinating special effects, to the windows. This section will finish up by going over customizing the last bits and pieces of the user interface, such as branding your computer and adjusting the clear type effect. When you are finished with this section, you will have completed one of the most thorough customizations of Windows XP possible.

Modding Internet Explorer

Most of us spend a lot of time with Internet Explorer (IE) as an Internet browser. IE can be customized a few ways. The most popular tweak to Internet Explorer is to change the Windows logo animation. It’s time to get started with customizing Internet Explorer by changing the animated logo.

Changing the logo animation

Every time you submit data on a Web page or visit a new page, your browser will start the animation of the Windows flag (also known as a throbber) in the upper-right corner of your screen. The Windows flag is a nice animation, but why not replace that animation with one you made yourself? Many very cool animated GIFs are available on the Web that you can download for free. This section will show you how to use those animated GIF image files that you can download as a replacement for the Windows flag.

To do this, you will need to have two applications downloaded and installed. The first application is Microsoft’s Tweak UI PowerToy. This can be downloaded at the PowerToy’s Web site, located at Windows XP: Home Page. The other application that you will use is a free app called BitStrip, which is developed by Darrell L. A copy of this free application can be downloaded from his site at www.virtualplastic.net/redllar/bitstrip.html. Once you have installed Tweak UI and extracted BitStrip, you are ready to get started. To change the throbber, perform the following steps:

1. Find the image that you want to use as your new animation. Many animation sites can be found on the Internet. My favorite site is called the Animation Factory. Located at Royalty Free Animations, PowerPoint Templates, Videos, and Animated Clipart, you will find thousands of high-quality animated graphics. The default size of the small animation is 26X26 pixels (this is the default animation that is shown on most computers). The large animation is 38X 38. You will want to find an image that is smaller than or the same size as those dimensions. If you can only find a large image, try resizing the image with an animated GIF editor. If you cannot properly resize the image, you will not have any problems other than it just might look a little strange. Once you have found an image that you want to use, you are ready to prep the image file.

2. Internet Explorer only accepts replacement animations in a specific format. All replacement animations must be saved as a bitmap. However, bitmaps cannot be used to store animations like GIFs can. To solve that problem, Internet Explorer reads the bitmap like it is a film projector. Therefore, we need to convert the animated GIF file into one tall bitmap image that has all of the frames arranged vertically. To do this, use the BitStrip program. Start up BitStrip and open up your source animated GIF that you want to convert by clicking the Browse to GIF File button.

3. Once you have the image file selected, click the Vertical button and you should see a preview similar to Figure 6-1 on your screen.



FIGURE 6-1: A compatible bitmap file.


4. If it looks good, then save the file as a bitmap by clicking the Save Output As button.

5. You now have converted your animated GIF into a format that the browser can read. The next step is to tell the browser to use the new file. To do this, you will want to start up Tweak UI, which is listed in the Start Menu under Windows XP PowerToys.

6. When Tweak UI has started up, expand Internet Explorer and select either small or large animation depending on which one your computer is currently displaying. By default, Windows XP shows the small animation unless you have changed it.

7. You will now see all of the throbber (It is the animation on the toolbar that cycles when the browser is actively retrieving data) settings for Internet Explorer. Click the Custom radio button, as shown in Figure 6-2, so that you can specify your own file to use for the animation.

8. Next, click the Change Busy Image button and select the bitmap file that you just converted in step 4.

9. After you have selected your image, it should show up in the Preview box. If the image looks good, click the OK button to save your changes.



FIGURE 6-2: Using Tweak UI to change Internet Explorer’s animation/throbber.

You are not done with changing the browser animated logo. To see the new animation in action, you will have to restart all instances of Internet Explorer that were open while you were changing the animation. The next time you start up IE, the new animation should be displayed. If that is not the case, then try using BitStrip again on the source animated graphic file to create a new bitmap and then repeat step 8.

Changing the toolbar background

Changing the background of the toolbar is one of the oldest tweaks for Windows. It has been around ever since Windows 95 and still works on the latest version of Windows. Because I am writing a book on customizing Windows XP, I just had to include this classic. Back in Windows 95, the only way to display an image as the background for the menu bar and toolbar of Internet Explorer was to hack the registry. Now, using Tweak UI, changing the toolbar background is very easy. If you do not already have Tweak UI, download a copy now. If you already have it or have just finished installing it, you are ready to get started:

1. Start up Tweak UI from the PowerToys for Windows XP entry in the All Programs menu of the Start Menu.

2. Next, expand the Internet Explorer item from the list and select Toolbar Background.

3. You will be shown two different options. You can specify a bitmap to be shown just on the Internet Explorer toolbar or you can specify a bitmap to be shown on the Explorer windows (My Computer, My Documents, and so on.). For the purpose of this section, you will just be using the first option. The next step is to check the Use Custom Background for Internet Explorer Toolbar.

4. Once you have put a check in the box, the Change button will become active. Click the button and select the image bitmap that you want to use. You can use any bitmap image on your computer. However, certain files, such as photos, don’t always look the best. I like to create my own bitmap using Adobe Photoshop and making a simple image that is just a gradation. This gives a nice appearance as the back of the toolbar, as shown in Figure 6-3. You don’t have to use Adobe Photoshop to create an image that is a simple gradation of two shades of a color; you can use any image editing program that has the gradient feature. Just about all popular Paint programs have that feature.

Once you have picked out or created your image file and have selected it with the Change button, you are finished and will be able to see your new toolbar background by opening up a new instance of Internet Explorer.

Making your own quick search address command

You can do a lot of interesting tricks with the Address bar. One of my favorite hacks is to add a special command to the address bar interpreter that will allow you to visit a Web site just by typing in a keyword. This alone is a nice feature, but to make it even better, you can set it up so that you can even pass other words to that Web page. For example, it is possible to set up your browser so that when you type Google TweakXP, it will automatically go to google.com and do a search for TweakXP. This can be a very convenient feature if you do a lot of searches on the Web. It basically eliminates the first step of going to the Web site.



FIGURE 6-3: Internet Explorer with an image used at the background of the toolbar


To add this cool feature to the address bar, you will need to use our favorite utility, Tweak UI. By now, you should have Tweak UI installed, but if you don’t, go to Windows XP: Home Page and download a copy. Once you have Tweak UI installed, follow these steps:

1. Start up Tweak UI by expanding the PowerToys for Windows XP entry in the All Programs menu and selecting Tweak UI.

2. Expand the Internet Explorer entry and select Search.

3. Click the Create button on the bottom right of the Search Prefixes box.

4. Now you will want to enter the name of the command that you want to type in the prefix box. This is where you should type in Google, Search, or whatever you want your command to be called.

5. Next, in the URL box, you will want to add Google so that your command points to Google’s site, as shown in Figure 6-4. Notice the %s in the URL? That is a system variable that catches all of the text to the right of your command (where the search words are).

6. When you are finished filling in both boxes, click OK and your new command will be created.



FIGURE 6-4: Creating an address bar command.

You are now finished and can close Tweak UI. To test your new command, just open up a new instance of IE and type in Google search terms. You should be taken to Google with your search terms displayed as the results. If you like the new command, you can always make more for other search engines or for quick links to Web sites. I also like to create a command called weather. I just type in weather followed by a ZIP code and then am taken to the weather channel’s site. To make this work, I have my URL set to Bangalore Weather Forecast and Conditions null.

Other Visual Enhancements

A few more hacks and utilities can enhance and customize the different visual elements even further. These next few sections will show you some great apps that will add interesting special effects to your user interface as well as a few hacks that will help you fine-tune other elements of your computer.

Replacing the task switcher

The task switcher is the little application that pops up when you press Alt and Tab to switch between active applications. To use it, just hold down the Alt key and press Tab. Then keep the Alt key held down and tap the Tab key to select a different app to switch to. The task switcher is a no-thrills app that just shows you the icon and the name of the application when it is displayed. Most people rarely use the task switcher to switch between programs because the taskbar is usually much easier. However, Microsoft has released a new PowerToy that is a replacement for the task switcher that might make you think twice about using the taskbar to switch between apps because of its cool new appearance and features.

The new replacement task switcher, shown in Figure 6-5, is updated to reflect the new XP look and includes a new image preview of the application that you can switch to. Operating the replacement task switcher is exactly the same, just use Alt and Tab. Now that you know a little about the new task switcher, it’s time to get it installed on your computer. Installing it on your computer is very easy. Just download a copy of the app from the PowerToys Web site, located at Windows XP: Home Page.



FIGURE 6-5: Microsoft’s new Alt & Tab replacement.

It is located on the top of the list on the right side of the page. When you have finished downloading it, open up the file and keep clicking Next to install it. When the installation exits, the new task switcher is ready to be used without a system reboot. Just click the Alt and Tab keys to see the new task switcher on your computer. Remember, the task switcher will not function if you have just one app open. It requires a minimum of two applications to be open in order for it to work.

Adding Special Effects to your Windows

Thousands of tiny apps are available on the Web that will add both visual effects and features to your windows. Three nifty apps are a must for any user who is interested in customizing her or his computer and making it unique. I have selected a few of my favorite apps that represent several different special effects, such as animation, fades, shadows, and more.

Using WindowsFX

WindowsFX is a program developed by Stardock that offers a suite of special effects that will help you to make your computer look great. It gives users the ability to add drop shadows on all active windows, window transitions, and transparency. But the most impressive feature, and the reason why I am including this app, is the animations that appear when you drag a window around on the screen. As shown in Figure 6-6, when you drag a window across the screen, the window has an effect as if it is some sort of gelatin. This is an effect that you will really have to experience first hand to understand. Therefore, follow these steps to get WindowsFX installed on your computer and the dragging effect up and running:

1. Visit Stardock’s Web site at Stardock.com - Your Edge In Software and download a copy of WindowsFX.

2. Once you have WindowsFX installed, start it up by expanding the Object Desktop entry in the All Programs menu and select WindowsFX.

3. Under the side menu for 2000 / XP Only, select Window Dragging to bring up the settings.

4. On the Window Dragging screen, select Basic Swaying Windows, as shown in
Figure 6-7.

5. Once you have selected Basic Swaying Windows, click Apply Changes, located in the lower-left portion of the window just under WindowFX.

Once you have applied your changes, you will notice the new effect when you drag windows around on the screen. A lot of different dragging effects are available that you can use, but unless you purchase the full version of the app, those will not be available to you.



FIGURE 6-6: WindowsFX’s animated drag.


Adding shadows to your windows

Drop shadows are a cool feature to add to your windows. They make your applications stand out a lot more when you have a lot of windows open and make Windows XP look like OSX or as they are expected to look in Longhorn, the next Windows operating system due out within a few years. Drop shadows are possible through a variety of applications on the Web. My favorite application to use for this is called Lokai Shadows XP. One of the reasons why I like this application so much is because it works (a lot of them I could not get to work) and because it also can run as a service in the background. The quality of the drop shadows on the windows is also of high quality, as shown in Figure 6-8. Visit the author’s Web site and download a copy of Lokai Shadows XP and follow these steps to install the app and get it up and running:

1. Once you have downloaded Lokai Shadows XP, extract the ZIP file to a permanent home on your hard drive. Make sure that you do not put it in a directory that has a space in the name or else you will have a problem with step 2.

2. Now that you have extracted the files for the app, you have to register it on your computer as a service. Let’s assume that you extracted the shadow app to c:\ShadowXP. Click the Start button and select Run. Then type c:\ShadowXP\lokaishadow_svc.exe/install in the box and click OK. If everything went OK, then you should get a pop-up confirmation box telling you it was installed successfully.



FIGURE 6-7: Selecting Basic Swaying Windows to enable the dragging animation.


3. Now that you have registered the service, turn it on. Click the Start Menu again and select Run. Type services.msc in the box and click OK.

4. The Services dialog box should load. Look through the list of services and right-click Lokai Shadows XP and select Start.

5. Close the Services dialog box and you are finished.

After the service is started, any new windows that you open up will automatically have drop shadows displayed. Also, do not worry about having to manually start the service each time you turn on your computer. By default, the service is set to Automatic. That tells the computer to start it up every time the computer boots.



FIGURE 6-8: Lokai Shadows XP in action.


Using Glass2k to make your windows transparent

Would you like to see through your windows? Do you often have to rearrange windows on the screen to get to information that is hidden below another window? I always run into that problem when I am doing a lot of tasks on my computer at once. Being able to make a window or application transparent, as shown in Figure 6-9, by just clicking a few hotkeys on your keyboard is an easy and cool-looking solution to that problem.

Windows XP has transparency, also known as alpha settings, built into the operating system but it does not use any of these features on windows or the taskbar. Programs that add the transparency capability is just turning this feature on for use on other parts of the user interface, such as the windows and the taskbar. My favorite app for making windows transparent is called Glass2k, developed by Chimes Software. This is a great little app that is free and is also very simple to use and install. The whole program consists of just one file that you don’t even have to worry about extracting from a ZIP file. Follow these steps to get Glass2k installed and running on your computer:

1. Visit the Glass2k Web site at Glass2k : Chime Softwares and download a copy.

2. Once you have a copy on your computer, just double-click the app to start it up.

3. You will see the Glass2k setting screen, as shown in Figure 6-10, when it has started up. Here you will see several options. If you want the app to start up every time the computer starts up, check the Auto-Load box.

4. One of the most valuable features of the Glass2k is the ability to remember the application’s transparency settings. Check this feature box to make sure that this feature is turned on for you.



FIGURE 6-9: Using Glass2k to make windows transparent.



FIGURE 6-10: Glass2k settings screen.


5. The transparency pop-up menu allows you to right-click any open application or window and a menu for Glass2k will be shown, along with any normal right-click menu. I recommend that you disable that option because I find it to be more of an inconvenience than a convenience. To disable it, just select Disabled from the top of the dropdown list.

6. Taskbar transparency is another feature of Glass2k that looks great but has little purpose. To enable this feature, just click along the horizontal bar to the right of the taskbar transparency label. The further you click to the right of the bar, the less transparent it is.

7. Once you have your settings all figured out and set up the way you want, you are ready to start using the app to make windows and apps transparent. Before you can do that, you should click the Save button to save all of your changes.

8. Making an app or window transparent is very easy. When Glass2k is running, just hold down the Ctrl and Shift buttons and press a number (0—9: 0-solid, 1-lightest, 9-darkest) when any window or app is displayed.

Now that you know how to change the transparency of a window, have fun changing all of your applications. If you ever want to make adjustments to the settings of Glass2k, just right click its icon (the three stacked cubes) in the system tray and select Settings. Glass2k is a great app that will change the way you use your computer. It may take a little time to get used to the new Ctrl and Shift shortcuts, but once you get that down, you will be flying through your windows.

Making your windows roll up

How would you like to make your windows roll up as if they were shades? If you own an Apple computer, you will know that this is one feature that Apple has had for a long time. Unfortunately, for legal or other reasons, Microsoft has decided not to implement a rollup feature in Windows XP. However, with the help of an interesting utility called FreeShade, developed by hmmnsoft, it is now possible to make your windows roll up into the top bar of the window. This is a great feature because it allows you to easily hide apps temporarily so that you can see what is behind them or organize them on the screen. FreeShade by hmmnsoft works just like other rollup apps on different operating systems. Just double-click a window and it will roll up into the title bar, as shown in Figure 6-11. Then to pull the shade back down, just double-click the title bar again and the window will be restored. When you are ready, follow these steps to get FreeShade up and running on your computer:

1. Visit FreeShade’s Web site at hmmnsoft's F r e e S h a d e and download a copy of the latest version. Once you have downloaded the file, double-click it and follow the onscreen directions to install it.



FIGURE 6-11: A window that has been rolled up.


2. After you have installed FreeShade, you will have two icons on your desktop, one that will start the app, and one that will stop it. Click the FreeShade icon to start up FreeShade. Nothing visually will happen, but when you double-click a window you will notice that it now rolls up.

3. If you ever want to close FreeShade, just click the Stop icon that is located on your desktop or in the Start Menu.

FreeShade also offers a few other enhancements that affect how the window is sized. In order to use the other enhancements, you will have to use special keyboard shortcuts. Refer to Table 6-1 for a list of the keyboard shortcuts and what they will do.



FreeShade Keyboard Shortcuts

Keys Results

ALT+5 on num pad Rollsup/unrolls window
ALT+“+” on num pad Displays FreeShade properties
CTRL+ALT+“-” on num pad Closes FreeShade
ALT+1 on num pad Moves window to lower-left of screen
ALT+2 on num pad Moves window to bottom of screen
ALT+3 on num pad Moves window to lower-right of screen
ALT+4 on num pad Moves window to left of screen
ALT+6 on num pad Moves window to right of screen
ALT+7 on num pad Moves window to top-left of screen
ALT+8 on num pad Moves window to top of screen
ALT+9 on num pad Moves window to top-right of screen


Fine-Tuning ClearType

One of the best features of Windows XP is the new ClearType font smoothing engine. This new font smoothing feature uses a graphic technique known as anti-aliasing, which smoothes all of the rough edges of the fonts on the screen and greatly improves the look of Windows XP for users of LCD flat panel monitors. If you are an owner of a LCD monitor, you should definitely turn on this feature, as it will make your screen look amazing. Figure 6-12 shows a comparison between when the feature is turned on and when it is turned off. The image on the bottom, which has ClearType enabled, may look a little blurry on the page, but on a LCD the image looks very sharp. If you do not have ClearType enabled, follow these steps to get it turned on:



FIGURE 6-12: Normal font smoothing versus ClearType.

1. Right-click the desktop and select Properties.

2. Click the Effects button on the Appearance tab.

3. In the second drop-down box, select ClearType under Use the Following Method To Smooth The Edges Of The Screen Fonts.

4. Click OK to save your changes.

5. Select OK once more to close Display Properties and to apply the new settings.

Now that you have ClearType turned on, it’s time to fine-tune its settings. Some users complain that the new ClearType feature causes the text on their screen to look a little blurry compared to standard font smoothing. ClearType was designed to smooth the fonts on the screen replacing jagged edges. If you are one of the users that do not like how ClearType looks, with the help of a very cool online tool, you can customize how ClearType looks. Using the online tool that is developed by Microsoft, it is possible to change the darkness and thickness of the text. This will allow you to make the text that appears on your monitor look crisper. Follow these steps to fine-tune your ClearType settings:

1. Open up Internet Explorer and browse to Microsoft Typography cleartype/.

2. Navigate to the ClearType Web interface to fine-tune the settings located on the right side of the Web page.

3. As the ClearType Web interface is loading, you will be prompted to install the ClearType Tuning Control. Click Yes on your screen so that this component will be installed.

With the release of Windows XP Service Pack 2, Internet Explorer was locked down to provide better security. If the ClearType Tuning Control does not automatically download and install, then you may need to adjust your ActiveX security settings in Internet Options.

4. On the step 1 screen, click Next to move to the next step, because you already have ClearType started.

5. On step 2 of the ClearType Tuning Control, you have to select if your monitor uses a red-green-blue (RGB) color scheme or a blue-green-red (BGR) scheme. All LCD computer monitors are made up of very tiny vertical lines of alternating colors. There are two different ways that monitors lay out the lines on the screen. Some monitors alternate red, green, and blue lines (RGB) on the screen, whereas other monitors alternate blue, green, and red lines (BGR). ClearType has recently been updated to also support the BGR format, and now users that have BGR monitors can select this feature. Don’t know which one to select? It’s easy; just select the option that looks sharper on your screen and then click Next.

6. On step 3, you will be shown six different settings that you can choose to fine-tune ClearType. Just select the item that looks best to you and click Finish.

Your new settings will instantly go into effect. If you do not like the changes, just follow the preceding instructions and start over. If you notice that the coloration of some of the characters on your screen is a little strange, specifically the I’s, then you might have the wrong screen mode selected. Follow the preceding instructions again and select the other color scheme. If you don’t own a LCD monitor, you can still try to use ClearType. It will not create any problems but also might not help out all that much either. I recommend that you still experiment with it. You might be surprised.

Branding Windows XP

Did you ever notice how when you buy a computer from one of the big computer manufacturers your computer has their name and logo in many different parts of the computer? How would you like to replace their branding information with your own? Or if you built your own computer, why not brand it? These next two sections will show you how you can brand the system information screen and Internet Explorer.

Branding system properties

Every time you right-click My Computer and select Properties or click the System applet item in the Control Panel, you will be shown branding information on the general information screen of System Properties. This screen is usually customized by computer manufacturers to display their logo, as well as general information such as the model number and support notes. If you would like to change this information or brand a PC that you made yourself, this section will show you how to accomplish this in just a few easy steps. To get started, assume that your computer is not branded and that you are going to be doing this for the first time. If your computer was already branded, then instead of creating the files that I will mention, just replace them with your versions. Follow these steps to do branding of your own:

1. There are two parts to branding your computer. The first part is creating an image to be displayed on the System Properties General tab. The image must be a bitmap and be no larger than 180X115 pixels. Once you have created your file, name it oemlogo.bmp and save it in C:\Windows\System32 folder.

2. Now that you have to get the logo out of the way, you will need to create a file with all of the text that you want to appear on the screen next to it. To do this, open up Notepad and key in the following code. Feel free to replace the text to the right of the with anything you want.
[General]
Manufacturer StevePC
Model HighwaySpecial 18G
[Support Information]
Line1 No support is provided in English
Line2 Guaranteed to work for at least 5 days
Line3 87% restocking fee for all returns
Line4 Returns only accepted at Kuznetsk warehouse in Russia

3. Once you have your text in the right format, click the File menu bar item and select Save As.

4. Save the file as oeminfo.ini in your C:\Windows\System32 folder. Make sure to change the Save As file type to All Files instead of .txt so that the file is saved with the correct file extension.

If everything went well, the next time you look at the System Properties screen, you should see your new branding information. Figure 6-13 is an example of what my branded screen looks like.

Branding IE

Internet Explorer is another part of the operating system that is often branded by computer manufacturers and Internet Service Providers. Not a lot can be done to brand Internet Explorer other than to add some text to the title bar of the browser. Back when dialup Internet was the only means of accessing the Net, I remember trying to figure out how to remove text that the dialup software distributed from providers such as CompuServe and Prodigy. Every time I would open up Internet Explorer, it would say Prodigy Online along with Microsoft Internet Explorer as the title of the window. Back then, the only solution for getting rid of the excess type was to manually hack the registry and fix the entry responsible for storing the name of the window. Now a really great utility is available, called Rebraind, by Advent Code, that greatly simplifies the editing of the Internet Explorer window title.



FIGURE 6-13: Creating your own branded system screen.

Follow these steps to edit your title bars:

1. Visit Advent Code’s Web site at Adventcode.net and download a copy of Rebrand. Then, run the file and extract the files to your computer.

2. Start up Rebrand by browsing to the directory from which you extracted it and clicking on rebrand.exe.

3. To change the title of Internet Explorer, just type new text in the top box, as shown in Figure 6-14, and then click the Apply button to save your changes. Once you are finished editing the title and have clicked the Apply button, you can close Rebrand. Your changes should take effect immediately.



FIGURE 6-14: Using Rebrand to change the title of the Internet Explorer window.


Rebrand also offers a few other features, such as the ability to change the title of Outlook Express and the ability to change toolbar backgrounds. The Outlook Express feature is cool, but I like using Tweak UI to change the backgrounds of toolbars.