Threepwood Posted June 30, 2007 Share Posted June 30, 2007 XP has always worked great for me. It's fast and the GUI is snappy (unlike OS X, even though I love its smoothness and lack of flickering). If you look after it and have some common sense/knowledge it doesn't slow down over time and you don't have to reinstall it. However...it looks like cr*p. Everyone, except maybe my grandmother, knows that. The classic gray look is dated and boring, but it's definitely better than the horrendous green/blue Fisher-Price theme (what on Earth were they thinking?!). Styling your OS can be quite time consuming, if you're puzzling together different themes, cursors and icon sets, and it often ends up looking like a patch work, so I was happy to find out about FlyakiteOSX. It's a transformation pack that simply gives Windows the good looks of OS X. Down to the smallest icon. You can even get the bootup and login screens if you want. And if you don't want a fake Mac OS you can choose a Windows logo for the start button instead of the apple. I highly recommend it. Give it a try: http://www.flyakiteosx.com/ Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/55720-flyakiteosx/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
EFI Posted June 30, 2007 Share Posted June 30, 2007 I used FlyakiteOSX on my Windows box before I switched to a Mac. Its good...and definately the best transformation pack out there...but still not even close to the real OS X look and feel. If you are on a static window and not doing anything....yes, it will look like you are on OS X....but as soon as you start doing something...you can tell that its Windows you are running. There is a website called pimpmydek.org...which offer actual shell styles for XP, which transforms the window toolbar alligning to mimic that of OS X, and this is much more realistic...however is not included with flyakiteOSX. The window dropshadow look exaggerated...and the icons size limit under XP (48 x 48) make it look very limiting compared to the real OS X which has a max limit of 128 x 128 pixel limit. That and the color profile of XP is well....is not really up to OS X's color profile to give it an exact OS X look, which IMO look more accurate and vibrant. However, this transformation pack is good enough to act as a first step....and its fully automated, so you dont have to go searching for different components seperately...its all in one package, which is newbie friendly, so to speak, lol. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/55720-flyakiteosx/#findComment-398455 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Threepwood Posted June 30, 2007 Author Share Posted June 30, 2007 I just wanted XP to look better, and so it does, by far. The goal isn't to fool anyone into thinking it's OS X (at least not mine). I used OS X for the whole day and when I switched back to XP I noticed that everything is much faster here (I do have full acceleration including Quartz 2D Extreme in OS X). Sure, when you drag a window it flickers and you see a trail, but it's faster. Everything is faster. It feels like a different computer. Not that I don't enjoy OS X, but...I'm not at all impressed with the speed of it. I agree about Yz's Shadow, it could be better. But that's nothing I think about unless I look for it. Overall this is quite a facelift for good ole' XP. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/55720-flyakiteosx/#findComment-398570 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lkr Posted June 30, 2007 Share Posted June 30, 2007 flyakite is terrible imo. i'd rather just use the windows gui on a windows machine Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/55720-flyakiteosx/#findComment-398576 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Threepwood Posted June 30, 2007 Author Share Posted June 30, 2007 How is it terrible? You don't have to use the apple logo if you don't want to. It's still the Windows GUI but with the graphical style of OS X. I have to take back what I wrote about OS X being slow...interesting how much the mouse action can fool you. It's dreadful, makes the whole OS seem sluggish. I'll try the MS Intellipoint driver. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/55720-flyakiteosx/#findComment-398613 Share on other sites More sharing options...
xplizid Posted June 30, 2007 Share Posted June 30, 2007 flyakite nothin worx as it should and looks like {censored} :\. on my xp disk i have objectdock very good piece of work - (can hide taskbar) and colibri like quicksilver for windows and these 2 things make xp much more functional and enjoyable. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/55720-flyakiteosx/#findComment-398682 Share on other sites More sharing options...
apowerr Posted July 2, 2007 Share Posted July 2, 2007 flyakite nothin worx as it should and looks like {censored} :\. on my xp disk i have objectdock very good piece of work - (can hide taskbar) and colibri like quicksilver for windows and these 2 things make xp much more functional and enjoyable. ObjectDock ftw! I use it in Vista lol! In XP I used to use WindowBlinds, Object Dock and IconPackenger. But tbh, for me the standard Media Center "Royale" theme is fine. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/55720-flyakiteosx/#findComment-399403 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onetrack Posted July 2, 2007 Share Posted July 2, 2007 ObjectDock ftw! I use it in Vista lol! In XP I used to use WindowBlinds, Object Dock and IconPackenger. But tbh, for me the standard Media Center "Royale" theme is fine. You guys should check out Rocketdock by punk software - so much better than objectdock.. imho, you know Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/55720-flyakiteosx/#findComment-399414 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alessandro17 Posted July 2, 2007 Share Posted July 2, 2007 I run all 3 main OSes: XP x64, Linux (various distros) and OS X. I am of the opinion that the best look for every OS is its native one. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/55720-flyakiteosx/#findComment-399594 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Threepwood Posted July 2, 2007 Author Share Posted July 2, 2007 What do you consider to be XP's native look? Classic grey or Fisher-Price green/blue? I prefer the grey one. It's ugly but at least it doesn't try to look sexy. Flyakite has worked perfectly for me on several systems. Of course OS X looks better, but this is surely a big step up from default XP. It's like OS X's not-quite-as-hot sister. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/55720-flyakiteosx/#findComment-399748 Share on other sites More sharing options...
CLiDE FTW!!1 Posted July 2, 2007 Share Posted July 2, 2007 flyakite is terrible imo. i'd rather just use the windows gui on a windows machine I agree. When I use Windows, it's usually for gaming. I don't need resources being hogged just to make my desktop *kind of* look like OS X. I just use Royale Noir, and it's really minimalistic. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/55720-flyakiteosx/#findComment-399929 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alessandro17 Posted July 2, 2007 Share Posted July 2, 2007 What do you consider to be XP's native look? Classic grey or Fisher-Price green/blue? I prefer the grey one. It's ugly but at least it doesn't try to look sexy. It is the default XP x64 look (green/blue?). It is OK for my needs. As the previous user wrote: "I don't need resources being hogged just to make my desktop *kind of* look like OS X." Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/55720-flyakiteosx/#findComment-400015 Share on other sites More sharing options...
xplizid Posted July 2, 2007 Share Posted July 2, 2007 object dock dont take much resources and rocket dock doesnt compare in my experiences - does it minimize apps to the dock the one i had was glitchy and didnt. i use the olive green or mc theme . Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/55720-flyakiteosx/#findComment-400027 Share on other sites More sharing options...
mac-mini Posted July 2, 2007 Share Posted July 2, 2007 i used MCE theme on XP now i have vista Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/55720-flyakiteosx/#findComment-400205 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazlo Falconi Posted July 3, 2007 Share Posted July 3, 2007 Problem is, I don't particularily want my Windows computer to look like OS X. I don't want it to look like Windows a whole lot, but I don't want it pretending to be something it's not. There are lots of other themes you can use, and all you need to do is download a single program that patches your UXTheme.DLL. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/55720-flyakiteosx/#findComment-400233 Share on other sites More sharing options...
xplizid Posted July 3, 2007 Share Posted July 3, 2007 well said. love tha avatar its from futurama i believe. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/55720-flyakiteosx/#findComment-400238 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ramm Posted July 3, 2007 Share Posted July 3, 2007 I don't like it. It barely looks like OS X... Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/55720-flyakiteosx/#findComment-400443 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiasco Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 object dock dont take much resources and rocket dock doesnt compare in my experiences - does it minimize apps to the dock the one i had was glitchy and didnt. i use the olive green or mc theme . Yes rocketdock does minimize apps to the dock. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/55720-flyakiteosx/#findComment-401108 Share on other sites More sharing options...
ekwipt Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 Thanks for the read installed rocketdock, google dektop and royale noir theme last night, looks veery noice Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/55720-flyakiteosx/#findComment-401111 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Threepwood Posted July 4, 2007 Author Share Posted July 4, 2007 It doesn't use more resources than any other Windows theme. It's not like Window Blinds. You don't have to go all the way and put the Apple logo everywhere, I think the window style and icons alone make XP so much nicer. But each to his own. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/55720-flyakiteosx/#findComment-401246 Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogabean Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 flyakite isn't too too bad. I wouldn't use it for Windows directly.. but I do have it installed partially on parallels windows install so that in coherence mode the apps don't feel totally out of place... it helps a little. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/55720-flyakiteosx/#findComment-401755 Share on other sites More sharing options...
asstastic Posted July 5, 2007 Share Posted July 5, 2007 I was using flyakite for a while untill i made my own windows skin, cursors and icon sets. I never bothered to uninstall flyakite so a lot of the windows animations and system icons are still there from it. I find it a bit confusing at times but i still think that as a whole it does look a lot nicer than the defatult windows presets. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/55720-flyakiteosx/#findComment-402121 Share on other sites More sharing options...
darksideofthemoon Posted July 10, 2007 Share Posted July 10, 2007 if i have vista i dont really see the point....id rather have it look like vista or not have windows and get a mac. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/55720-flyakiteosx/#findComment-405310 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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