Replace Windows XP's Icons

[tinjaw]

I have been screwing around much of today instead of getting work done.  This is doubly bad, as I took a vacation day from my real job to get this work done. 

So, I will make this post and then get back to some real work.

I downloaded StyleXP and found a few themes I like. Now I would like to do a complete replacement of the all of the standard system icons in WinXP. I assume there is a program to do that which is STABLE and has good support of the artists within the customization community. Can you folks help me out with some links?

thanx

[Grorgy]

I've never had any trouble with Stardocks Icon packager, It seems to work OK with stylexp, when I tried stylexp, icons were about the only thing i seemed to get right    anyway if you head to www.wincustomize.com you will find a lot of icon packages and so on there.  Also a browse through deviant Art could be wotyhwhile, they have a lot, and with other programs to apply them.  have fun

[Darwin]

+1 for Icon Packager. I've used it in the past without any trouble whatsoever. You can change your icons from default to whatever you want and back again without worrying about corrupting your default settings. Of course, YMMV!

[app103]

I have always used Microangelo to change mine. It comes with a nice set of icon libraries and you can use just about any icon library or .ico file with it. (or make your own with it)

Microangelo Toolset 6 comes with Microangelo On Display, for free.

[Ralf Maximus]

2nd that: Microangelo rocks.  It's a nice combination of integration without taking over the system.  I have about 2/3 of my icons replaced with nary a glitch.

Also, the icon editor is quite nice for non-professionals like me.  (I've heard at least one UberArtist complain that it's a toy.)

[Darwin]

Interesting, I was unaware that Microangelo handled icon replacement (thought it was simply an editor). It fared well in Carrol's (Hamradio) Icon Tool Shootout and would definitely be worth a look. The attraction of Stardock's Object Desktop is that it really is ridiculously cheap (though be warned that you're on a yearly subscription treadmill - $34.95 a year, though I renewed recently for $20 or something - they had a special on) and handles everything you can imagine in terms of modding Windows.

[J-Mac]

I've been using Stardock's Icon Packager for a few years now. It is very simple and yet works very well.

Darwin, even if your subscription expires you can continue to use IconPackager, but just the last version you installed. You can no longer get updates/upgrades without either purchasing the program outright ($14.95) or re-subscribing. But you can continue to use the version that was current at the time your Object Desktop expired. Hopefully you archived them via Stardock Central. However if you did not, just contact Stardock directly and they will provide you with an archive package of all the applications to which you were entitled at the time of the subscription expiration.

My subscription expired just this month after about 5 or 6 years. I just had too many issues, mostly with WindowBlinds v.5 either significantly slowing down my PC or having conflicts with other applications. (Stardock claimed it was not WindowBlinds causing conflict issues but every time I removed it all problems disappeared). I tested it throughout its beta period and as far as I am concerned they never did get all the kinks out of it. And once they started preparing for Microsoft Vista they seemed to abandon all other issues that needed work. (I've noticed that many developers did the same!)

Plus there was no special offer to resubscribe this time. $34.95 was what they offered, which I felt was a bit high for a fairly longtime user. So I dumped it. But I still use IconPackager and a few others.

Jim

[Darwin]

Hi Jim - yes, I was aware that you can keep the last version that was released within your subscription beyond the end of your subscription (I should have mentioned that!). My main beef with Stardock is that there is no mechanism to simply download the installers and archive them; you have to use Stardock Central, which is actually fairly convenient but represents a software installation that to my mind is unnecessary. Anyway, I'm not planning on renewing, either. Like you, I don't think that $34.95 is very attractive AND I simply don't use enough of the suite to warrant it anymore... FWIW WB 6 seems to be a big improvement over WB 5. Like you, I found that 5 didn't play nice with my system and I could never get the developers to acknowledge that there was a problem with WB - they always insisted that it was my system. However, like you, removing it always made any problems I had disappear. WB 6 doesn't have those problems, for me, under WinXP Pro. Just a head's up... YMMV!

[Nighted]

Or you could just create a patcher and replace every icon.

XPize Installer System

Here's an example using Tango.

[tomos]

Or you could just create a patcher and replace every icon.

XPize Installer System

Here's an example using Tango.

sounds & looks interesting Nighted 
would I have to use the two of those together, or is the Tango .exe independent so-to-speak??
(looks like it is but he dont say much about install)

[Nighted]

tomos, no....the Tango patcher is made using the XPize installer.

You don't need the XPize software unless you plan on creating your own package.

[Darwin]

Crap. I should have read Chaim's original post more closely. Chaim! Don't buy StyleXP! There are free alternatives that accomplish the same thing. StyleXP just replaces your Uxtheme.dll and provides you with an alternative front end to the default Windows Themes interface and charges you $19.95 for it. You can patch Uxtheme.dll yourself for free and use non-MS Windows themes.

Alternatively, Stardock's Windowblinds (or the Object Desktop suite which includes Windowblinds but adds a lot of additional functionality, including icon editing and replacement) accomplishes the same thing without touching the uxtheme.dll and is much more configureable...Of course, like StyleXp these are shareware alternatives.

[tinjaw]

Crap. I should have read Chaim's original post more closely. Chaim! Don't buy StyleXP! There are free alternatives that accomplish the same thing. StyleXP just replaces your Uxtheme.dll and provides you with an alternative front end to the default Windows Themes interface and charges you $19.95 for it. You can patch Uxtheme.dll yourself for free and use non-MS Windows themes.

Thanks for piping up Darwin. I haven't registered the program yet. I had a feeling that might be the case, because that is pretty much why I wanted to try it. It sounded like all it did was "hack" the existing resources in the binaries and I thought that would be more stable than running fresh code, like Stardock's stuff.

Alternatively, Stardock's Windowblinds (or the Object Desktop suite which includes Windowblinds but adds a lot of additional functionality, including icon editing and replacement) accomplishes the same thing without touching the uxtheme.dll and is much more configureable...Of course, like StyleXp these are shareware alternatives.

I am not sure that I want to do anything more than just change the appearance of my desktop at this point. I want to be able to keep the pretty desktop while doing development work, so I want something that won't slow things down and I need to keep the system stable. In fact, on my game rig I have a AutoIt app that I wrote that shuts things down for me before I play games. I plan on writing a similar app to "auto-configure" my laptop for various tasks, like development.

[Dirhael]

If you want the functionality of StyleXP or the UXTheme patch for free without having to change/hack any system files, just download and install the now freeware utility "Styler". Of course, it does a whole lot of other things as well, but it's a very lightweight and well worth checking out