h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

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Ran across this, what seems like freeware, programme which allows you to completely customise your desktop with dynamic features.

Anyone used it? Is it any good? Does it put too much of a strain on system resources and is it stuffed full of spyware?

never heard of it (if I want a GUI that looks like kde/gnome/MacOS then I'll install the real thing) but a quick google finds references all over the place, lots of resource files for it, and it is carried by PCWorld so I guess it must be straight up. Didn;t see any reviews other than the PCWorld one, and they are not always that direct when they think they can make a sale out of something.
Looks interesting tho'. Shame I run Win2k

Have had a quick play with it now and have managed to produce a little box sat in the corner of my screen with a graphical disply telling me how much disk space I've got on both my disks and the server and a 'real' clock with moving hands! ...

Quite cute so far - but most of the 'themes' you can download seem to be written by people who are much more interested in what their desktop looks like rather than what they can do with it (500 designer shortcuts/links/mediaplayer controls/calendars/etc...) leaving a space about two inches across in the middle of the screen to run programmes in (either that or all these people have monitors the size of a football pitch!)

I use Litestep as an alternative XP shell. Very customisable (all text files) and very free. Also lots of setups - from ultra minimal to ultra maximal. The best thing is that when explorer.exe goes tits up and you have to stop it, the whole shell doesn't reboot Until later....
BCNU - Crescent

heh, damn you giving me a new toy to play with when i should really be preping to go away or revising.

looks interesting, now i jsut need to learn to customise it

*has installed litestep*

I spent several weeks messing around with litestep Lots of fun, lots of wondering wtf with some of the desktops. Settled down now - though I suppose I should see what else is out there for it now. All the relevant files are text files and fairly obvious once you see some examples I found the best way was to look at my various favorite desktops and then cull the bits I wanted for mine Enjoy and until later...
BCNU - Crescent

something i like already, dispite not having cahgned anthing but read a bigginers guide on a random site. is that no one can mess with the layout when they use your PC unless they know how to adjust the config files.


I really need to do some work and not play with this, but its so damned taempting and more intersting ...

hmm, trying to edit the files ... trying to open a .rc file ...
it says denied so i can't edit the settings that way.

I am having to resort to renaming and changing the extension.

is it ment to do this, or is that becasue of the people who wrote the install file?

I draw and design my own piccy's so I use them on my desktop.Using Bryce 5 at the moment and I have a 50's style flying saucer 3D piccy as my desktop at the moment.

I did try DreamRender for a bit but found it rather limiting after a while.

I have never had this problem Just tried it there - right click on file and choose edit - and it seemed to fire up nae probs. I do not remember setting anything special up when when I first set this up, but it was a whiley ago. It might be the particular theme you are using? I am using a mixture of Orb and Jive and it seems all fine. Any other info you can give? Until later....
BCNU - Crescent

I do the right click edit, and it comes up denied. Im not that bothered really, cos i jsut rename .rc to .rac edit it then cahgne it back to .rc and the cahnges take effect, its kinda useful that way cos then noonw whoe dosn't realise that can change it.


Erm, i used an installer, and it came with a theme called austerity.
which is ok for now, i made a few tweaks to it and i like it .

now i have jsut got to figure out what i actully want to make my workspace look like. then i can play with it to that effect.

There was quite a lot of research that went into that. For research read - I downloaded a load of themes and then went through them, nicking the bits I liked from 'em The choices ended up with Orb (ultra minamilist - just a small round clock on the desktop ) but with the tool bar and rightclick start menu from Jive - so I can actually see what I have running Until later....
BCNU - Crescent