TUTORIAL: Transform Windows XP into Windows Vista Without Using Customization Pack

[Vishal Gupta]

Since we all know that Windows Vista has been released but its too costly to purchase. The most interesting thing in Vista is its look, new icons, cursors, theme, sounds, login screen, boot screen, etc. So I'm posting this tutorial to make our existing Windows XP to look-a-like Windows Vista.

Yes! There are lots of Vista Transformation packs available on net but I never use them because they slow down the windows and also install a few 3rd party utilities. So its better to do all the things manually.

In this tutorial, I'll tell you about how to make following things to look-a-like Vista:

Visual style (or theme)
Boot screen
Login screen
Sounds
Mouse Cursors
Windows Icons
Windows Explorer
Progress dialog box
Shutdown/log off dialog box
About Windows box
System Properties dialog box
Windows Classic Startmenu Left-side Image and Start button Logo
and a few other things

So here we go:

Transform Windows XP in Windows Vista without Customization pack

 

[Dark Atheist]

Re: TUTORIAL: Transform Windows XP into Windows Vista Without Using Customization Pac

i must be doing something wrong as resource hacker/tuner just doesnt want to open any dll or any other file for that matter - nice guide though, could do with tarting up xp/vista

 

[Vishal Gupta]

Re: TUTORIAL: Transform Windows XP into Windows Vista Without Using Customization Pac

^^ Thanks for your comment buddy.
Are you getting any error message while opening the file? Are you logged in as Administrator? May be you don't have permissions on the system files.

 

[Dark Atheist]

Re: TUTORIAL: Transform Windows XP into Windows Vista Without Using Customization Pac

tried all that - i run the prog as admin - i own the file - it opens i just dont get any info from it.

edit: just had an error - resource info not found - or something like that - thats a first

edit2: this is on vista btw - xp works fine, yes i know i can download all i need from above - im just messing about with it as im bored and its something new to learn

 

[Perris Calderon]

Re: TUTORIAL: Transform Windows XP into Windows Vista Without Using Customization Pac

visual gupta, this looks like great stuff, if carpo can get it to work I'm gonna stick the thread

nice work

 

[Dark Atheist]

Re: TUTORIAL: Transform Windows XP into Windows Vista Without Using Customization Pac

going to try later - just re-installing the laptop atm - was doing an experiment on it earlier, and you sure about sticking the thread last time you did that no one posted to it

edit: could it be because im using sp1? im getting no resources in either program ?
edit2: am going to mess about with a few bits before i go to bed, and if VG doesnt mind i may update a few links to his guide

Bootskin 1.05a - http://www.download.com/BootSkin/3000-2105_4-10257781.html

edit3: im up to step 10 - few icons missing in ico file - easy to fix just needs theme updating, bootskin is messed up but that is a known bug, and i didnt like the vista sounds too much so i borrowed the real ones from my vista pc

 

[j79zlr]

Re: TUTORIAL: Transform Windows XP into Windows Vista Without Using Customization Pac

Personally I think the easiest way to transform XP into Vista is to just take out half of your RAM.

 

[Sazar]

Re: TUTORIAL: Transform Windows XP into Windows Vista Without Using Customization Pac

Nice guide.

Some items are obviously not going to be the same due to inherent differences in the shell but overall a nice/detailed guide

Carpo, stop being a narb and get it working already.

j79zlr... constructive comments please

 

[Dark Atheist]

Re: TUTORIAL: Transform Windows XP into Windows Vista Without Using Customization Pac

i will finish it in the morn - its getting late here, also i have a few tweaks i can add to the guide myself - mainly to get around copy protection on the files (no external tools required ) and a few other things that were missed

 

[madmatt]

Re: TUTORIAL: Transform Windows XP into Windows Vista Without Using Customization Pac

Nice guide.

Indeed. Nice work.

 

[LordOfLA]

Re: TUTORIAL: Transform Windows XP into Windows Vista Without Using Customization Pac

Thread stuck. Carpo can't follow instructions.

PM me when you want the additions adding to the main post and give details of what to add and where.

 

[Grandmaster]

Re: TUTORIAL: Transform Windows XP into Windows Vista Without Using Customization Pac

i will finish it in the morn - its getting late here, also i have a few tweaks i can add to the guide myself - mainly to get around copy protection on the files (no external tools required ) and a few other things that were missed

Yeah, go for it.

 

[Dark Atheist]

Re: TUTORIAL: Transform Windows XP into Windows Vista Without Using Customization Pac

Thread stuck. Carpo can't follow instructions.

PM me when you want the additions adding to the main post and give details of what to add and where.

bend lord over
use right eye to aim for arse
swing right leg back and a far rate of knots
at optimum angle force right leg in a forward motion
adjust motion of leg to miss the area of the buttocks you were aiming for
and hit the bean sacks

see i can follow instructions

 

[Vishal Gupta]

Re: TUTORIAL: Transform Windows XP into Windows Vista Without Using Customization Pac

Thank you so much for making the thread sticky. Really appreciate it.

@Carpo
I'm also using Vista SP1 and both Resource Hacker and Tuner work properly here. There must be some other problem.

Thanks again guys for your nice comments.

 

[Dark Atheist]

Re: TUTORIAL: Transform Windows XP into Windows Vista Without Using Customization Pac

i know what it is - im using 64bit sp1

 

[Vishal Gupta]

Re: TUTORIAL: Transform Windows XP into Windows Vista Without Using Customization Pac

^^ Sorry. I think you misunderstood my comment. I meant I can use both software without any problem. May be some other problem in your system?

 

[Dark Atheist]

Re: TUTORIAL: Transform Windows XP into Windows Vista Without Using Customization Pac

who knows - anyway if some one can get me a 32bit version of the dll i will grab a few of the icons that are missing - IE is one, network folders is another

So far i have done up to the changing the system properties box, havent dont that yet, as i want to use a few different pictures, and they need to be resized.

Things missing from guide -

Icons
-------
Some missing

some information
-----------------
explaining things clearer

make back ups
---------------
res hack does do this although i find it also a good idearto copy all dll's and exe's to a separate place

File protection
--------------
seeing as this was a fresh install that was on wih a vengence, best to copy the dll's to a non system folder and work on them there, then when complete copy them to c:\windows\system32\dllcache and also c:\windows\syste32, by copying them to the dllcache first when you over write them in system32 the file protection will kick in and copy the "good" files from dllcache - and then ask you if you want to keep the unrecognised versions, this also helps to avoid the problem of "cant copy the file as its in use "error".

Replacing AVI's
---------------
Information was missing here about having to put the resource type, name and language, if you didnt put this in it seemed not to like it too much


other than that, the guide has been easy to follow and has changed my xp quite nicely - my only pet peve is where the files are hosted, i hate mediafire with a passion due to all the cookies it wants to put on your pc, and if you refuse one it wont let you download the files - i have 50meg of free isp webspace i may offer that up

 

[Electronic Punk]

Re: TUTORIAL: Transform Windows XP into Windows Vista Without Using Customization Pac

Personally I think the easiest way to transform XP into Vista is to just take out half of your RAM.

Oh no, I have less idle ram?

 

[Dark Atheist]

Re: TUTORIAL: Transform Windows XP into Windows Vista Without Using Customization Pac

have also gone and hunted down a few different logos and such, and will try to sort them out today - but am busy today

 

[LordOfLA]

Re: TUTORIAL: Transform Windows XP into Windows Vista Without Using Customization Pac

Personally I think the easiest way to transform XP into Vista is to just take out half of your RAM.

And why would I do that? Vista uses ram properly in the sameway that linux, BSD and Unix do. XP is the one that can't use memory properly.