Re: XP's ugly Start button

From: Terry Pinnell (terrypinDELETE_at_THESEdial.pipex.com)
Date: 02/05/05 

Date: Sat, 05 Feb 2005 10:33:59 +0000

c_bielek@hotmail.com (classd101) wrote:

>Guy Macon <_see.web.page_@_www.guymacon.com_> wrote in message news:<11083am549002af@corp.supernews.com>...
>> ...is just one more reason to switch to Linux.
>>
>> Here is a much better reason to switch to Linux:
>>
>> http://www.google.com/search?q=gates+focus+interview
>
>An even better reason is because updates will only be available for
>those with legal versions :) I'm sure there'll be a work around
>though.. ahem.
>
>XP "style"... blech. Regardless of whether or not you like the XP
>style, the fact remains it is simply a theme, and themes are simply
>resource hogs, in fact it's enough of a hog that lesser computers
>can't be run with it enabled, yet work more than fine without it. Even
>if your computer can handle the load, you still have to wait around
>for it to finish animating every little menu and ...... no.
>
>Press windows logo key + pause (properties hotkeys), click advanced,
>click on settings under performance, scroll through the window just to
>see all the junk they've got enabled, then click on "adjust for best
>performance" and apply it.

Thanks. Can't say I've noticed a performance hit, but then it's ages
since I last tweaked those settings. (BTW, the System Properties
hotkey is {Windows + Break}; 'Pause' is the shifted key.)

Anyway, I see I had 4 of those 16 set. I've rest for 'Performance'
(all options off), and I'll see if I notice any performance change (or
miss whatever modest cosmetics I'd been getting!)

>Then you can go a step further and go into services to disable themes
>so that it doesn't even load at boot (start/run "services.msc" but
>that probably wont' work on home edition.

Yes, it does. In fact, when I first came to look for this XP theme
yesterday, it wasn't in the drop-down menus of Display Properties. I
eventually discovered that Services>Themes wasn't started, and on
correcting that I was able to use the XP (Luna) theme.

>You can still use the newer
>start menu like this, and it has a plain vanilla icon! Also right
>click on the start menu, properties, beside "start menu" (first one,
>not the classic) click on customize. You'll then see "select an icon
>size for programs" select small icon.

That's always one of the first steps I take. But, of course, it makes
no difference to the relative size of the Start icon, as shown in my
opening post:
http://www.terrypin.dial.pipex.com/Misc/XP-Start.gif

>Of course if you find the grey look depressing, you can still mess
>with colors through desktop properties just like before.

Not sure how much scope there is there. The objective that prompted
this was to get a more obvious distinction on the active (focused) tab
in Firefox. All tabs were grey, and all their text was black. With
15-20 tabs open, it was hard to spot the active one. The OS's XP style
reached into Firefox (as to all applications) and made the distinction
very obvious (including an orange streak across any 'focused' tabs). 

-- 
Terry Pinnell
Hobbyist, West Sussex, UK