Posts Tagged ‘ deviantart ’

Make your windows desktop look like a Google OS (not the real one, though)

Another post on trying to make your desktop look different. Last time I tried putting up a tutorial on how to get your windows desktop to look like a Mac.
News of the google chrome OS sure has been a hot one on the internet and I thought it would be a great idea to dress up your desktop before Google launches their first screenshots and spoils the party. Google’s design is all about simplicity and that’s what should be the focus of their desktop as well. So I decided to give it a no wallpaper look. Right click on your desktop > properties > desktop and make sure the wallpaper is set to none. Change the color of the background to white (or maybe even blue..)
Now at the center of this desktop design is an application called the circle dock. The circle dock is just the usual mac dock with the icons setup in circle(s) (you decide on the number of circles. Make sure you familiarize yourself with the circle dock’s options/settings to ensure that you get the best of this tutorial.
There’s no installing Circle dock, so you just extract the zip file and run the circledock.exe file. Now for the Google Icons. For the most original looking Icons I recommend the Simply Google Icon Collection by tempest.
You still need to get the big chrome icon, one of which I found here. Right click on the dock and change the center icon to the chrome icon. To link up all the icons to the relevant web applications, you need to create shortcuts to google chrome applications. You create an application shortcut, by right clicking the dock icon and pointing it to google chrome’s location and make sure you put in the website address in the arguments section of the shortcut for the dock icon. For example, for gmail the argument would look like:
–app=https://mail.google.com/mail
If you need help, try creating an application shortcuts from within google chrome. Play around with the settings and you should be fine. Be advised that Circle dock is still an alpha version.
Now to extent the tabbed feature to all applications, not just google chrome, to do this download a program called WindowTabs. But windowtabs is not freeware, but the trial version allows you to group upto 3 tabs with no time restrictions or nag screens. Install Windowtabs and you’re good to go. The final version:

2009
07/11
CATEGORY
operating systems
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Make your windows look like an Apple Mac

Its been a long time since I made desktop customization except for the regular change of the wallpaper that I do…So, I decided it was time to spice up my desktop and decided to go for the MacOS look…I already had the best windows look, since I had Vista. So now how do I go about making my desktop looking like MacOS? First a little basics on the Mac world for all those MS Windows lovers out there…

Macs run the OS X which succeed the Mac OS operating system, and you might be interested to know that all of Mac OSX versions have been named after the big cats family like the OSX puma, panther, Jaguar, leopard and so on…The latest in the line of the cats is the snow leopard..and here we have a screenshot which should make things a bit more clear

Now that we know how the interface looks lets work on changing the interface..The first important part of the OSX interface is the “dock” which you will find at the bottom of the screen..
So, we download that one. I found two free alternatives to the “dock” for windows, one is Objectdock from Stardock and the other is Rocketdock from Punklabs. There are other alternatives too, but these are the two I decided to try out…Stardock has been a company synonymous with the best windows skinning programs like Windowblinds, DesktopX etc..and after trying out both of the products, I decided, much to my surprise that Rocketdock worked better for me, it was simple and easier to use..but I would say that making the choice is merely a matter of random selection.

Now we have Rocketdock installed, lets load it. Add icons, right click the dock to add new icons, separators and docklets (like clocks, weather icons etc..)
I write this post primarily for windows users and so I would know how much have come to love the convenience of minimizing to the taskbar. So, right click on the dock -> dock settings -> General tab and enable the “Minimize windows to the dock” checkbox.
The second app we need to download is, Objectbar. This is for the top bar and also to ensure that you continue to have access to your tray icons and to make the transformation complete.

lets get the last bit of the interface quick now, the wallpaper. You can get the original set here.
The dock icons are usually .png icons and you can download them as per your requirement from deviantART.

And this is how my desktop looks now…

The disclaimer part
I love windows and I love the mac as well. I do not have a Mac. All copyrights, trademarks, brandnames are all properties of their corresponding owners. This is not a post for Mac purists. It is for an ordinary windows user who wants to add some spice to his desktop. It wont change your windows to make it look and feel as good as Mac. you should get a Mac if you want the experience…

Update Aug.07, 2009: Get OSX font smoothing for windows as well!

2008
08/23
CATEGORY
computers
technology
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Deviantart V6 is out!

I have been on deviantART ever since 2002 and needless to say, I have seen it growing up across the ages. Deviantart is the biggest art community on web and it is the best. It covers a wide range of art, right from PC wallpapers and themes for applications to poetry and prose. Deviantart got me interested in art and over a span of 5 years, I have loved every change that they have made on their website.

The art on deviantart nevers ceases to amaze me and till date I have not come across a better website for an artist (whether he draws, photographs or writes) there are even sections for sculptors and wire metal artists. In short, its your one stop shop for art..I love the new version of the deviantart released recently. The new version is code named sleek and man “it is sleek”. The version brings in a new interface for browsing. The search works like magic and dA watch submissions appear on your page along with the screenshot…As with the previous versions, the user menu which lets you delve deeper and deeper into art categories remains, but the new menu has been radically improved. I would complain that the user page has not seen much improvements. But then, that is something minor which I should overlook.There are lots of minor and major tweaks everywhere and all of them improve the browsing experience drastically. The interface is surely a welcome change and makes dA all the more a powerful tool in the world of online art.

I planned to write a small tumblelog about dA. But then, I love writing about dA and so it is here on my main blog. Check out the new deviantart here. So what are you waiting for. Signup now!

And check out what the version has to offer in the video below. I loved the video, so I thought I’d share. If not anything…the video is as good as the new website.

2008
07/12
CATEGORY
technology
web2.0
websites
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Cool websites

Its been some days since I have last blogged. So here it goes; All of us have our favourite list of webpages which we have made up over the years. Here are my personal picks

Deviantart
I have been a lover of electronic art for some years now and being a avid worshipper of photoshop and 3DSmax, Its no surprise that this site gets the first mention on this post. I love the community effect which dA has to offer. Every artist gets his own page…The ever helpful forums and of course the fact that its free for use and of course if you wish to have a paid account, its available at a cost..I also love the way you can add art to your favourites. Even if you are not a digital artist, it’s a great place even for just wallpapers and skins…The artists at dA are really talented; some of them I guess are even better than professional artists. One of my fave artists who has his own website for wallpapers would vlad..check out his website at link..

Flowers2mail
Ever felt like sending flowers to someone? Look no further, a few mouse clicks allows you to send a lovely bunch of flowers arranged the way you wish to your loved ones.

Orisinal
The cutest website with the best and simplest of the flash games with the best music..Enough to keep anyone engrossed for hours together..

Musicovery
Music to suit your mood. The best online radio I have heard..I love the way music is organized using a lovely flash interface. Try it once…its really addictive

Goowy
Right now goowy doesn’t allow new accounts to be opened…I already guess I posted a whole blog on this topic..So just a link..

Technorati
The best blog search engine out there..Google blogsearch is good as well; but I love the way technorati presents the information. Google is a website search engine primarily and technorati is a blog search engine

imo
The best and the most versatile webbased chat client out there. Supports gmail, yahoo, msn and aim and doesn’t require a signup at all. You sign into one account and all other linked accounts are signed in automatically. Only gripe is (no support for yahoo chat rooms, which I guess only koolim offers)
Post to be updated soon..

2008
04/02
CATEGORY
web2.0
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