Something like Bricopacks for 7 ?

As by title: one of the reason for I'm using XP again is that I don't like Seven's Gui. I look for some software - for 7 ! - like Bricopaks ( http://www.crystalxp.net/bricopack/en.htm ) is for XP. I know Theme Manager, but I'm looking for something more radical. Someone can help me ?

 

http://rainmeter.net/cms/

http://browse.deviantart.com/customization/skins/sysmonitor/rainmeter/?q=rainmeter

 

Thanks, is an option . May be there is something else ?

 

There's also Windowblinds, but i haven't used it and it's payware:

http://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/



I think if you really search Rainmeter in depth (and deviantart), there isn't anything more you could wish for.

Rainmeter is completely modular. In XP days, all these "visual styles" like Bricopacks, were based in patching via uxtheme patcher a windows file and applying a visual style.

In Rainmeter, you can pick say 6 different themes (or more) you like and install all of them. Then choose what you like from each one.

For example, you choose:
- A toolbar from 1 theme.
- A CPU widget from another theme.
- A network widget from another theme.
- A clock from another theme.
- A weather widget from another them.

As if it wasn't enough, each widget can be placed anywhere you like in your desktop (you drag and let) and you can determine its transparency or opacity.

 

Is rainmeter heavy on resources etc?

 

I suppose this will depend on how many and what kind of widgets you install...

When i was running it, i had a network gadget, a weather and a CPU gadget and it was using virtually no CPU.

But i suppose it depends on what you install. Deviantart is full of different themes, some are very fancy, so they may eat more, but in general, the program per se, is very light.

 

Here's a google image collection from Rainmeter desktops:

http://www.google.com/search?q=Rain...fUswbEjoGoAw&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAA&biw=1920&bih=961

Makes XP's Fischer Price and Metro look ancient.

 

Rainmeter is not heavy on resources. I have used it with combinations of skins installed as shown in the link below and my CPU usage is O% to 5% when only Rainmeter is running.

http://johnburns.deviantart.com/

 

Custopack maybe fit your need in term "FREE" but not work on XP 64bit

I am using for W7 and light

 

Thanks a lot for your explanation ! Now I want to try it. I purchased Windowsblind for XP some years ago, but I didn't like it.

 

Thanks to you too.

 

You 're welcome. A quick "guide" to Rainmeter is:

The official Rainmeter, comes with 3 "main" themes support (at least the previous version, i haven't used the last one). You can get them here:

http://rainmeter.net/cms/Discover

In addition to these, from Deviantart, you can get several other skins, widgets or toolbars. Those in "rmskin" format, you just double click and they get installed. From each theme/skin, you can eliminate what you don't like and keep what you like and position it wherever in your desktop you like and with transparency you like.

Once you think that you 've got the things the way you like it, you can now "save" your current theme as new theme. For example "Blacknight's Theme". So next time you install Windows or if you reinstall, you don't need to manually do all the work again. You just install again the various themes (from which your custom theme uses components from), put "Blacknight's theme" in the Themes folder (i think in program data), open the settings of Rainmeter, select "Load theme", choose "Blacknight Theme" and voilà, now you have your customized thing back, just the way you had set it the last time and running at startup.

That's the basic function.

 

Thanks again for your kind and depth help. I read in the Rainmeter site that is not a visual style program, but it seems very nice all the same: when I'll reinstall Seven I' ll try it .

 

well, yes, AFAIK, the one thing that Rainmeter won't do, is change the borders of the windows you open, like XP visual styles would do... The reasoning behind Rainmeter, is, that when you don't have a Window open at full screen, everything you see, is your desktop. And anything on your desktop, can be changed with Rainmeter, including the taskbar in the bottom of the screen (if you look at Deviantart, some have it replaced with an Mac-like launching bar for example or new icons).

For me, that's more than enough. If you want to change the colour or opacity of Windows borders, you can do that from within Windows with enough choices. Although i prefer to "go along" with the transparency mentality of Win7 and thus i do right click to dektop->personalize->window color->Frost. This is neutral transparent, so you can actually see your wallpaper's ogiginal colour.


If you want XP style changes, like you could do with visual styles, meaning change skin colours of taskbar, menu and window borders, WindowBlinds is more close to that.

 

If you have trouble passing from XP to 7, try also this confifuration in visual effects options:



Default 7 was way slower than XP for me to withstand. This made the experience much more "XP-like", doing things snappier and thus allowed me to move to 7.

 

Beginning this thread, I was looking for something just Vista Inspirat bricopacks by crystalxp.net, but for Seven. Basically, I don't like the appereance of Seven folders - I mean the folders, not their icons. Rainmeter is something different, but interesting, thanks for all your explanations !