<center><img src='http://img66.imageshack.us/img66/8159/xposxhead7oy.jpg'></center>
So you want to have the Mac OSX look on your XP box, here is a small guide to make your XP destop look similar.
1. First of all I knew I would need a special Visual Style to do so and that meant patching my uxtheme.dll file. You can easily find a way to patch this file for free with a simple Google search. You want to make sure that the patch will be compatible with your version of Windows XP because not all patches may patch all versions of XP. For instance if you have SP2 you want to make sure that the patch you get will work with SP2, it's straight forward really just pay attention. Also there is a uxtheme.dll patcher at the Fly a Kite OS site mentioned near the end of this post.
The other way to be able to use a custom Visual Style is with XP is to get <a href='http://www.tgtsoft.com/index.php' target='_blank'>StyleXP</a> it does cost money but it is the more recommended way to go for people who maybe aren't as well versed with computers and is probably the safest way for some, although I've never had a problem with patching my uxtheme.dll.
Remember patching your uxtheme.dll file is done so at your own risk and will probably require a restart.
2. Now you need a Visual Style to make XP look like and I suggest you should get Kol's Tiger theme from <a href='http://studiotwentyeight.com/' target='_blank'>StudioTwentyEight.com</a>. Ok when you get there you have a choice to go with one of two different Tiger theme's he has. He has his first version which is down lower on the Visual Styles page and his newer Tiger 2 up higher on the Visual Styles page. Now I have version one because of a few reasons, one because I like it better for some reason, it has a little bit different look, and the last reason is because it includes more Wallpapers than version 2.
To install the theme you have to copy the Tiger folder you see in the zip to the WINDOWS\Resources\Themes directory. Then open up the Tiger folder and double click any of the msstyles files in that folder, you will get the Display Properties Appearance tab and you will see the Tiger Style. Note: If you have the first Version of the Tiger Style you have to double click the Tiger.msstyles file for the Apple start button and the Tiger WinFlag.msstyles for the Windows flag start button. Now select which one you want of the Tiger Style in the Color Scheme drop-down list and click Apply or OK
3. Ok now you got it looking for the most part like OSX but you're missing some smaller things. Let's start with the shadows that OSX has. I used YzShadow to get the OSX shadow look. You can get it here at <a href='http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Yz-Shadow-Download-1330.html' target='_blank'>Softpedia</a> and <a href='http://www.winmatrix.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1161' target='_blank'>HERE</a>. Just follow the read me included to use it, it's not a difficult program to understand.
4. Now we need to have an accurate toolbar for the Windows Explorer Windows and IE. For this I suggest YzToolbar which you can get <a href='http://www.winmatrix.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1161' target='_blank'>HERE</a> or by looking on Google. If you want you can use Google to find it, the version I have is 1.3 but the name of the downloaded file says 1.03 so keep that in mind when searching for it. Again follow the readme for usage, it'll tell you every thing you need to know if you can't figure out it out by yourself. I am using the Aqua icon theme in YzToolbar.
5. Ok now the functionality of the Dock. There are many Dock programs out there that you can get but the one I chose is the YzDock because it fits my needs. You can get it at <a href='http://www.majorgeeks.com/download2790.html' target='_blank'>MajorGeeks</a>. When you want to add new dock items/docklets all you need to do is drag and drop on to the Dock to make a new shortcut dock item, you can then customize the dock item by right clicking and selecting "Dock Item Properties."
Now you will need good icons to go on your Dock, I found a lot of the ones I am using on Deviantart. I also used Google to find the one's I couldn't find at Devianart and two of them I had to make myself, the Opera one and the Xfire one which I have for download in a zip <a href='http://bajr88site.googlepages.com/xfireandoperadockicons' target='_blank'>HERE</a>. For the OSX like icons I am using the Aqua Candy Icons found here at <a href='http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/16489081/' target='_blank'>Deviantart</a>. Also there is the Aqueous Icons here at <a href='http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/15914883/' target='_blank'>Deviantart</a> and the iVista preview icons of which I use the trashcan can be found here at <a href='http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/30901868/' target='_blank'>Deviantart</a>.
Now it's a straight forward process to install and use the icons in your dock. First of all you need to copy the icons you want to use on your dock to the yz_dck0083\icons directory and then go to the dock and right click on the shortcut you want to change the icon of and click Property of Dock Icon, then click to Use icon in icons sub folder, click Change icon, and then choose your icon.
Another Dock program you can use is <a href='http://home.cogeco.ca/~rklauncher/' target='_blank'>RK Launcher</a>, you can use many of Yz's features in RK and RK is very similar to Yz except with some more newer features.
Yet another Dock program is <a href='http://www.punksoftware.com/rocketdock' target='_blank'>RocketDock</a>, it is another formidable Dock program although it's not as OSX in the way it looks. It can how ever use Yz Skins just as RK Launcher can, so this means it can be customized to look like an OSX Dock.
Now if you want to change only the most basic of icons on your desktop this is how you would do it. Right click on your desktop, Properties(on the bottom), click the Desktop Tab, click the Customize Desktop button at the bottom of the tab window, now in the window that comes up you can change what the icons on the desktop are shown as, make sure the icons you intend to use a .ico files. If you need to convert a png or any other image to an ico file you can use Junior Icon Editor which you can find here, <a href='http://www.sibcode.com/junior-icon-editor/' target='_blank'>Junior Icon Editor</a>, and registration is free for a continued working version and you get 15-days to register.
Now that is as far as I went with changing icons but if you want more icons in more places look at StyleXP because you can easily change icons all across the OS much easier and better than changing them manually. Again StyleXP does cost money but there is a free trial.
6. Ok now here is not some thing is all that necessary to the look but it is a nice little feature to have, it's Winroll. What Winroll does is rolls up the window into the title-bar when you right click on the title-bar. You can get Winroll <a href='http://www.palma.com.au/winroll/' target='_blank'>HERE</a>.
7. Ok that is where I stopped and it's pretty good but if you want some more OSX look you can get cursors. First of all you can you this set of icons that you can find <a href='http://www.winmatrix.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=3390' target='_blank'>HERE</a>. This is the easiest way to do so.
8. There is also Widget/docklet programs you can get to add some more functionality to your desktop. Some may just find them as in the way or an un-necessary resource user but others find them extremely functional and pretty to look at. Two of them are the well known <a href='http://www.pronetworks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=67254' target='_blank'>Yahoo! Widget Engine</a> and the lesser known but equally good <a href='http://avedesk.aqua-soft.org/' target='_blank'>AveDesk</a>.
9. Also another feature that OSX has is the ability to change the color of any folder and there is a program that lets you do this in Windows as well, it's called <a href='http://www.majorgeeks.com/iColorFolder_d5031.html' target='_blank'>iColorFolder</a>.
10. Extra Features.
For one there is <a href='http://www.punksoftware.com/ubericon' target='_blank'>UberIcon</a>, which adds a zoom effect when you double click an icon.
<a href='http://www.osx-e.com/downloads/applications/tiger_system_preferences.html' target='_blank'>Tiger System Preferences</a>(Note: Download about half way down the page on the right side bar), is a program that allows you to access a bunch of options and preferences in a OSX kind of way.
Now that's basically it, this is what I have done to make my XP install look similar to OSX. I hope this has given you some sort of a basic idea of how this is done. There are other ways like Windows Blinds and all the programs they have from <a href='http://www.stardock.com/' target='_blank'>Stardock</a>. There is also <a href='http://osx.portraitofakite.com/' target='_blank'>Fly a Kite OS</a> which is a complete transformation pack to make XP look like OSX. Of course some may have some problems with this but most have none, some programs may not want to behave correctly with it but usually that can be fixed. You can also find an uxtheme.dll patcher there as well.
Now here is the result of all the things I did to make my desktop look like OSX.
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