edit: i fixed the previous problems but i still have this one problem.

I installed via omar, did the update through the .bat and manually just to be sure, 100% ive done everything up to here correctly.

my problem is that when i log onto my account with litestep installed, the desktop never loads, i get an hourglass for about 10 minutes, with nothing loading.

so the way i get around it is ctrl alt deleting, and end process litestep.exe. then i run the new task explorer. from the explorer window i open up the default theme in the litestep folder.

so i can get it to work, but its really round-a-bout. I know this isnt the way it was meant to be, so im just wondering how do i get it to run from here.

Sounds like you didn't update your build before you rebooted. If you sit and wait does your desktop finally appear? There was a known bug with XP back then that caused the login delay bug but it was fixed, unfortunatly for you not in the installer. Bricopack and LS should be compatible with one another. If anything, LS disabled Bricopack when it installed. Go into Task Manager and see if LS is running while it just hangs there...if not start it or explorer.exe by hand. Then download the update in the Downloads section and reboot. You should be fine.

I had the same symptoms and it turned out an app that I had run at windows startup conflicted with LiteStep startup for some reason. I just disabled the automatic startup of the app and it fixed the problem.