I wanna know if there's a way that I can use litestep for my shell, yet still have a useable desktop. What I mean by useable, is, still be able to put icons on the desktop, extract archives into folders on the desktop, etc. I LOVE the way Litestep works and all the nifty stuff we can do with it, but I want my desktop to be useable as well.

Any help?

There are modules that do that.

try icondesk, it should do that

Sweet. I tried, "deskfolder", I think it was. And it didn't quite do what I wanted it to. I'll try icondesk. Will I be able to download files directy to my "desktop" as I was before? Or are these going to be hard coded icons that will only function as objects and not moveable, deleteable, etc.
Maybe I'm asking too much? :)

Is there a way to run Litestep along with explorer... and if so is it good or bad to do so?

You want to run the Litestep shell at the same time as the explorer shell? I'm not sure why you would want to but the answer is "no". One or the other buddy.

Perhaps you mean to ask if you can switch between them as you please? I'm pretty sure there is a utility that allows this but I don't kow where you can find it.

You can run litestep ontop of Explorer but not both as a shell

This great articles I was just reading might explain things better for you, JPShep - http://www.shell-shocked.org/article.php?id=133

Ho-kei. Some people need straightening out.

You can NOT run BOTH explorer and litestep as your shell. Windows allows only one shell to be run at a time.

HOWEVER since LS is basically only an executable program with a modular interface, you CAN run LiteStep while running Explorer as your shell. It's rather easy to do. Simply keep Explorer as your shell and put the ls executable in your startup folder. There are several things you'll need to make sure you do in the theme you're running with ls, one of the most important being, generally, to not run a desktop module.

it would be very nice if a desktop module would accurately mimic the windows desktop window, displaying the Documents and Settings\User\Desktop folder correctly, but so far it hasn't been done (to my knowledge). Try making the suggestion in the modules forum, perhaps someone will take up the project.

oh, and on a slightly separate note, i'm rather upset by all the explorer bashing i tend to see. Explorer is a fabulously designed shell when you understand what it was designed FOR.

yeah pika...it was designed for the normal computer user (i.e. secertaries...soccer moms...etc). meaning that it is bound to become inconvenient for little nerds like us who can code out our own shit.
it's just important to keep that in mind.