How to make Windows XP look like Windows Vista

Posted on April 1, 2007 at 2:55 pm

I just found an interesting article over at WinCustomize how to customize your Windows XP machine to look and feel just like you’re running Windows Vista! I took a look at the tutorial and the final results are pretty impressive. So if you’re one of those people who’s waiting to switch to Vista because you’re worried it’s going to mess up your current system or because you just want to buy a new computer in a few months, but you really like the new interface and are sick of the XP lego colors, then try this out!

Here are the basic steps:

1. Fix the Windows GUI so that all of the buttons, Start button, borders, and menus look like Vista.

2. Replacing the Windows boot screen where the XP logo is showed.

3. Replacing the logon screen to look like the new Vista logon

4. Changing the icons to match the Vista set of freshly designed icons

5. Lastly, adding a sidebar with all those fancy widgets

So here’s what you need to do to make the switch. The nice thing about doing this is that it’s all done by installing a couple of small programs that take care of everything for you.

How to change the Windows GUI (Visual style)

The best program to do this is WindowsBlinds. Unfortunately, it’s not free and costs $19.99. Lots of people have this program and if you really want to have a cool looking desktop (you can check out the skins from the link), then the $20 might be worth it for you.

Off the WinCustomize site there are tons and tons of skins available and lots of Vista ones also. Here are the two recommended ones:

Arrow by MikeB314 Vista 2.4 by JemahoDownload these skins and use WindowsBlinds to apply your new skin to Windows XP. Here’s an article on how to use WindowsBlinds to change your visual style. Now you need to get a Vista wallpaper that gives that new “Vista” look to your background. Here are three that are the best:

Vista Ultimate Series by wstaylor Vista Suite Wallpaper pack by wstaylor Vista Media by DP Studios

Check out now the two desktops compare already! Pretty nice…

How to change the boot screen

This is also a very painless process. There is a program called Bootskin that will change out the default “Windows XP” boot image with a new skin. The program is free. Here are the Vista skins you can download and load into the program:

Real Vista - This one looks just like XP except it has the word Windows Vista.

Vista Ultimate Boot - I like this one a lot better because it actually uses the Vista theme and colors.

How to change the logon screen

Another program called LogonStudio will take care of this for you! It’s also free. Here are two of the logon screen skins you can download to replace the XP style:

Vista Reaction Simple Vista dx revisitedHere’s what the new logon screen would look like:

How to change the icons

And if you’ve done this much, now it’s time to change the icons also, so that everything has that cool Aero look. The only problem with this step is that the IconPackager software that changes out your icons is $14.95! So if you find your desktop is looking close enough to Vista and you’re happy, then you can skip this step! Here are the two icon sets for Windows Vista:

Aero IconPackage

Apogee Icon Suite

Lastly, How to get a Sidebar

The last new feature that Vista has is the Sidebar, which holds a bunch of gadgets that you can use for news, weather, etc. The Sidebar suggested by the WinCustomize guys requires you to purchase their software, but you really don’t need to do that. All of the new sidebar apps by Yahoo and Google have upgraded their looks to match that of Windows Vista, so you can download these for free!

Yahoo Widgets 4Google Desktop Sidebar