goodywitch
Default
I tried using vista glazz, but I still couldn't get the themes to work (ETA: I think it's because the ones I really wanted involved aero, and I have basic). I also considered using an alt shell, but I actually use all the features of explorer.exe, so I didn't see the point of tweaking/modding when everything I like is in one thin strip. I used high contrast (appearances and colors) instead. It had some ugly colors, so I changed a few of them, to make it a little less glaring, and got rid of the green and purple from the titlebar. Not only does everything appear black, but it adds a black background to everything (swrite, calc, explorer). This is much easier on the eyes. The only thing that it doesn't make black are webpages, for obvious reasons. I prefer to use opera over firefox, so I don't use the stylish extension to fix that, but I'm OK with that. Some websites let me take over, some don't. If I hit F11, I won't really notice the difference.
System Tray:
Dexpot: For virtual desktops. It's more responsive than yod'm. I like that it can also minimize pretty much everything to the system tray as well (*cough* defrag*cough*). I also use it to switch between windows with the default win + space, so a bit more powerful that alt+tab. I keep one for internet (which has its uses, but I get distracted easily) and one for typing.
Sysstats to monitor memory and cpu. I had issues with samurize, it would conk out on me for some reason. I have rainmeter pictured, but I got rid of it, and I'm too lazy to take another screenshot. I just don't feel like win+D to check if it's too much for my poor laptop has to add another task to complete.
Task Manager starts minimized. It's a visual cue in case I'm too tired to see numbers, and it allows me easy access if somethings goes bonkers.
CoreTemp to monitor the CPU temp. However, I don't use it so much now, since my system doesn't like that it wants to run at startup, and it has to bypass UAC. Besides, when it hits 50C, I can feel it. I also used HWMonitor (free) for a while to see how the HDD temp is, but it's typically less than the CPU temp, so I ignore it now.
AHK for shortcuts and to toggle the taskbar on/off, in case some program doesn't realize that I moved the taskbar to the top of the screen and blocks me from moving the window. I also have it toggle hidden/visible files (via one of the LH commenters).
Avast is set to run when idle (whoo hoo screen saver mode).
PStart to access some portable programs that aren't installed, however, my main launcher is launchy/windows search.
Rainlender is automatically synced with windows calendar (I have them reading from the same ical calendar), which I use to sync with gmail via GCalDaemon.
I use the quick launch to access my most used programs/files via mouse, when I'm too lazy to use both of my hands to access something/eating.
Other items of note:
Use of Desktop Media and large icons on the screen.
Use of Text Files:
I found via google search/launchy forums a way to create/append via launchy text files, so I hit addin TAB "words here" "multiple words".txt to either create new text files or append to the text. So, I can add to a plain text todo list if something occurs to me (and add it a bit later to rainlender/windows cal), or when I make a change to my computer simply hit alt + space, addin TAB "change here" ML.txt (maintenance log) and the change is added to my plain text file.
Not Seen: My wallpaper :-) It's such a girly one too. I took one of the girly pictures I found, went into paint, ctrl + I, adjust the hue a bit, and I'm happy. It's my first stint with actually majorly changing a picture (other than red-eye removal and darkening/lightening a picture), so I'm really proud of the major/simple changes I made to the picture.
Other than the desktop media, rainlender, and current temp/download files soon to be deleted/moved, my desktop is clean (hence the reason I <3 quicklaunch).
It still isn't perfect, but it does most of what I like. My wish list is to get rid of the box around the start button and some type of stylish option for opera, as well as tweaking the programs that black on white instead of vice versa (CCleaner). Overall I like my setup, especially since it's pretty global, easy on the eyes, and involves very minimal tweaking.
Comments/suggestions welcome :-)
Default
I tried using vista glazz, but I still couldn't get the themes to work (ETA: I think it's because the ones I really wanted involved aero, and I have basic). I also considered using an alt shell, but I actually use all the features of explorer.exe, so I didn't see the point of tweaking/modding when everything I like is in one thin strip. I used high contrast (appearances and colors) instead. It had some ugly colors, so I changed a few of them, to make it a little less glaring, and got rid of the green and purple from the titlebar. Not only does everything appear black, but it adds a black background to everything (swrite, calc, explorer). This is much easier on the eyes. The only thing that it doesn't make black are webpages, for obvious reasons. I prefer to use opera over firefox, so I don't use the stylish extension to fix that, but I'm OK with that. Some websites let me take over, some don't. If I hit F11, I won't really notice the difference.
System Tray:
Dexpot: For virtual desktops. It's more responsive than yod'm. I like that it can also minimize pretty much everything to the system tray as well (*cough* defrag*cough*). I also use it to switch between windows with the default win + space, so a bit more powerful that alt+tab. I keep one for internet (which has its uses, but I get distracted easily) and one for typing.
Sysstats to monitor memory and cpu. I had issues with samurize, it would conk out on me for some reason. I have rainmeter pictured, but I got rid of it, and I'm too lazy to take another screenshot. I just don't feel like win+D to check if it's too much for my poor laptop has to add another task to complete.
Task Manager starts minimized. It's a visual cue in case I'm too tired to see numbers, and it allows me easy access if somethings goes bonkers.
CoreTemp to monitor the CPU temp. However, I don't use it so much now, since my system doesn't like that it wants to run at startup, and it has to bypass UAC. Besides, when it hits 50C, I can feel it. I also used HWMonitor (free) for a while to see how the HDD temp is, but it's typically less than the CPU temp, so I ignore it now.
AHK for shortcuts and to toggle the taskbar on/off, in case some program doesn't realize that I moved the taskbar to the top of the screen and blocks me from moving the window. I also have it toggle hidden/visible files (via one of the LH commenters).
Avast is set to run when idle (whoo hoo screen saver mode).
PStart to access some portable programs that aren't installed, however, my main launcher is launchy/windows search.
Rainlender is automatically synced with windows calendar (I have them reading from the same ical calendar), which I use to sync with gmail via GCalDaemon.
I use the quick launch to access my most used programs/files via mouse, when I'm too lazy to use both of my hands to access something/eating.
Other items of note:
Use of Desktop Media and large icons on the screen.
Use of Text Files:
I found via google search/launchy forums a way to create/append via launchy text files, so I hit addin TAB "words here" "multiple words".txt to either create new text files or append to the text. So, I can add to a plain text todo list if something occurs to me (and add it a bit later to rainlender/windows cal), or when I make a change to my computer simply hit alt + space, addin TAB "change here" ML.txt (maintenance log) and the change is added to my plain text file.
Not Seen: My wallpaper :-) It's such a girly one too. I took one of the girly pictures I found, went into paint, ctrl + I, adjust the hue a bit, and I'm happy. It's my first stint with actually majorly changing a picture (other than red-eye removal and darkening/lightening a picture), so I'm really proud of the major/simple changes I made to the picture.
Other than the desktop media, rainlender, and current temp/download files soon to be deleted/moved, my desktop is clean (hence the reason I <3 quicklaunch).
It still isn't perfect, but it does most of what I like. My wish list is to get rid of the box around the start button and some type of stylish option for opera, as well as tweaking the programs that black on white instead of vice versa (CCleaner). Overall I like my setup, especially since it's pretty global, easy on the eyes, and involves very minimal tweaking.
Comments/suggestions welcome :-)