Newbie Question: Regarding windows shell in XP Thread last updated on 2003-02-11 13:43:59

Posted by member 5268 on 2003-02-08 14:43:18

Hello, I have Windows XP Pro. I just downloaded LiteStep, and am completely new to all of this. I am fairly good with computers, but I cannot figure out how to get this LiteStep to work! How do I disable my Windows XP shell and reload booting into LiteStep? What steps do I have to take to do this safely and correctly? Also, if I download someones theme for LiteStep, how much tweaking will I need to do to make it work correctly. Thanks in advance for help!

Posted by member 1413 on 2003-02-08 14:58:46 link

Your best bet is to use the Litestep installer found here. http://www.beyondconvention.net/ohussain/installer.htm

Read the docs before installing, and afterwards copy the lastest LS build into your Litestep dirrectory and overwrite all the files. That way you won't have to hop around the registry and posibly kill system.

I also suggest createing a admin level user in XP and useing that for your LS install, that way if something goes wrong with Litestep, you can fall back to a user with the explorer shell and no shell tweeking will be needed.

Posted by member 591 on 2003-02-08 15:30:33 link

My 2 cents:
- Use a shell switcher like ShellOn or Carapace
- Use OTS complaint themes

If you do this everything does work right out of the box (most of the times, lol)

Posted by member 1 on 2003-02-08 20:14:44 link

My 5 dollars:
- Read the Manual before you start
- Read the FAQ before you start
- Get friendly with people on IRC running LS and have them near by when you start.

=)

Posted by member 5575 on 2003-02-09 01:04:53 link

OTS complaint themes? Omar must love those.
Fastswap.exe is a plain vanilla shell swapper with a "reset to explorer" feature. I know it works with XP. Omar's Litestep Installer will also set things up properly for you, and give you an OTS-"compliant" theme to get you going. I haven't tried the newest Carapace yet, and I think the latest ShellOn has problems resetting you to explorer with certain user configs. I used ShellOn v2 with success earlier. I've DL'ed Carapace, as it's certainly worth a look.

Posted by member 591 on 2003-02-11 13:43:59 link

"OTS complaint themes? Omar must love those." LOL, I'm just a Dutch guy trying to do his best ;). And I would never complain about Omars good work!
Carapace is really nice (flash animated) as long as you do not switch back to explorer.exe (at least at my box) because after that explorer is the default shell again. But then again, for a beta it is doing just fine.