I used to always tinker around with windows, slowly but surely molding it to my exact preferences. most of the tweaks i did were performance tweaks, though i did dable in some themes (like windowsblinds, uxthemepatcher and unsigned themes). now, though, my computer is as tweaked as its gonna get, as far as i know. there isnt a single thing i can think to do other than start replacing icons etc. i even tried switching to linux. it almost worked, but my sound card didnt work, plus when i went to college this year it was nearly impossible to work with the computer as a work in progress (graphics driver problems mostly).

so what im wondering is this. how will litestep affect my system performance? will it make it any faster? slower? im perfectly fine following guides and learning how it works, but im hesitant to try a shell that wont actually help the computer in any way other than make it look pretty.

if it will only hurt my system performance, is there any sort of OS project sort of thing you could recommend for me to do? i really want to have some sort of computer to tinker with again.

thanks for your help
-shrimants

some of us started using Litestep over 10 years ago, and we're still tinkering... welcome aboard.

but how is the performance? i know litestep is (arguably) one of the best shell replacements out there. the last time i tried it i was still a computer n00b so it completely and utterly failed, but im just wondering if my system will be any slower. does litestep need to run less processes? does it use less than 20 mb of memory(the amount explorer.exe uses)? im looking for technical specs. although your answer IS extremely encouraging.

i think it depends on the theme you're using.

usually i'm at 13-17mb but sometimes it'll jump up to 30+mb (not sure why), but when it does that i just end litestep's process (in the task manager) and start it up again and i'm back down to 13megs (i'm sure there's a better way to do that though).

excellent. i have like 2 gigs of ram so as long as its not like 35+ mb im fine. explorer takes like 50 at times, although i do have a lot of my themes stuff disabled (basically anything animated). How is the compatibility with other programs? i mean i know its just a shell and everyting but will it screw around with programs like pidgin or firefox or anything?

my theme is currently running 11mb, but I can get it as low as 4, and as high as 100+ (but I am a freak so yeah)

based on replies i'm thinking that the more stuff and effects etc that a theme has running, the more memory it uses. im not really too sure on what kinds of stuff there is for the different themes, but i doubt that i'll be pumping it up to 100mb lol. i think the most memory consuming thing i'd use is transparency. and possibly something to monitor system performance.

i think i have enough information now (except i dont know if it creates problems with programs that depend on windows themes like pidgin)

thank you for all of your help. i'll give litestep a shot (or 12, as my computer tinkering experiences go)