Tips & Tricks

Pimp the Vista Desktop with Sick Visuals!

In three easy steps

By Marius Oiaga, Technology News Editor

16th of May 2007, 14:56 GMT

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Nothing spells advanced user like a dope desktop. Some people choose to pimp their rides, and then some geeks choose to pimp their desktop... Need I say more? You know I'm right! You know that you want your friends to look on your desktop and go "I have Windows Vista too, but not like this..." Right, let's get down to business. Your customized Windows Vista desktop with sick visuals will be the envy of anybody who sits in front of it.

And that is exactly what you want, your own personalized Windows Vista desktop. First of you need to customize the shortcuts on your desktop. Let's think about if for a second. You don't want those nasty arrows hanging around, now do you? What purpose do they serve but to annoy the eye and get in the way of some great visuals.

Well, we have the answer for this problem right here on Softpedia. It's called Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover 1.3. Just download and install the application.

When you will run it, it will offer you the possibility to completely remove the shortcut arrows, or to swap them for something a tad more aesthetic. I say off with them. Trust me on this one. All the shortcuts on the Vista desktop will look way better without it.

But getting rid of the arrows is not sufficient. What are you going to do about the text? It would have been simple common sense from Microsoft to enable the users to simply click Rename and delete all the text. Since common sense is a little too much to expect from Microsoft, this is not the case. But fear not, because where there's a will there's a way. Simply select an icon, right-click it to bring up the contextual menu and then press down and hold the Alt key and type 2, 5 and 5 in this specific order, but using the number pad on the right hand side of your keyboard. The text will be gone.

But what you have to keep in mind is that you are still renaming the icons. Even without the text, the shortcut/icon is called "Alt 255." As Windows Vista will not permit users to give the same name to two different items in the same location, this time the desktop, the second icon will have to receive the name "Alt 255 Alt 255", the third "Alt 255 Alt 255 Alt 255" and so on and so forth.

Next you will need some sick visuals. Now Microsoft has the mother of all vistas collection for Windows Vista. Wallpapers and backgrounds that will blow your mind, and all in the same line as the visuals that ship by default with the operating system. You will be able to find the top five download links for Windows Vista wallpapers here.

But what if static wallpapers are not sufficient for you? Then you surely want Windows Vista Ultimate DreamScene. Don't have Vista Ultimate? Not a problem, there are alternative solutions but also the DreamScene technology has been cracked and stripped from the Ultimate edition and made available for all Vistas. And with the Windows Vista DreamScene Content Pack the desktop will be at a different level. Are you not happy with the content provided by Microsoft? Then build your own animated backgrounds, here are the guidelines.

TAGS:

Windows Vista | tweak | wallpaper | DreamScene

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