But wait... XP is still there!! GRR...

Here I state my little tiny opinion on the world wide web about Vista quite briefly. Know this, I'm very aesthetic. I look at every fine tuned detail of things in life and when it especially comes to computers and technology, I like to have the finest. In appearance, function and reliability. So here's by blurb:

I finally did it. I upgraded my OS to Vista Home Premium just this weekend. For years I have used Windows XP Media Center Edition and pretty much thought myself the hardcore savvy-est guy out there having fully customized the entire look and feel of it, next to always keeping things in order, clean and running smooth. Not without many, many re-installs mind you. That said I have learned thousands of things and have become quite the expert when it comes to changing the appearance, look and feel of an application as I see fit.

And now, there's Vista. I love it. I really have to say I love it. From the smooth animations to almost every single piece of detail inside and out I love it. In terms of detail however, I have to say, visually speaking, I am distraught with a few minor items regarding basic Icons and their existence withstanding.

Due to all my past experience modifying so many things in the past I've learned to do what I can on my own when I want to alter certain objects, say an Icon or even a theme, solely using a cute little program called Resource Hacker. With Vista, I have no desire to change anything in terms of the theme, nor do I plan to. But there are a couple issues with some Icons I changed.

The occache.dll, webcheck.dll, ieframe.dll files I altered simply for my own desire. Replacing them was a chore figuring out how to do, but nonetheless, once I found out how, it was very easy and, I still have the instructions saved so if anyone is actually interested in doing the same, I'm happy to share and assist.

However, what I have found interesting and could never change in XP either, are two specifics that I was more than astonished to find are still there in Vista! How bizarre is that!!?! So here we have it, XP will still haunt us for who knows how long to come.

So, that's that. Do you think we'll ever get updates to these? Or will it take an even better pro than myself to figure it out? No one knows. But I do know, I still do like Vista overall. I just wish I could change the latter two items, but I just can't. I wonder if I can spark anyone else's desire for the challenge?

Below I have provided examples of all that I have mentioned. Feel free to comment or reply even. There are still other things I have found, but these are just a few examples:


Here I have replaced the occache.dll and webcheck.dll files to update the two folders here. I know we never look at them really and it's funny that I'm the way I am but I just have to KNOW they're changed.




Here I have replaced the ieframe.dll file to update the download animation. I like this one a lot better than the standard one. Oh this is if you use Internet Explorer. Please note also, if you update Internet Explorer at any time, these three files (occache.dll, webcheck.dll, ieframe.dll) will have to be replaced once more. As well as in IE 8 (which I've tested and don't like right yet).




Here is the ugly icon that, even in XP, never looked good STILL being used for the Remote Assistance Panel in Vista. Golly - you think they'd have changed that one.




And my favorite most of all that I could never figure out, even in XP, that we owe credit to the comctl32.dll file(s) in all Windows OS's, the ugly little XP toolbar buttons that appear when you use the Open File option from any 3rd party application. (In this screen shot I'm using IrfanView). Once, I tried changing them by replacing the bmp's in the file back when I was using XP and after I rebooted it wouldn't log on. It remained in a perpetual state of Starting Windows. So I had to endure these forever practically. In all the excitement of upgrading to Vista, I thought: "I wonder if those will change?" Alas... they didn't. I was quite sad.

Nice little writeup. Now if you can figure out how to get rid of those stupid arrows for shortcuts that would be great. I was able to get rid of those in XP but not in Vista

Hi atl,

This should do it for you

Frameworkx.com - Downloads

Hope it helps

SIW2

atl530i said:

Nice little writeup. Now if you can figure out how to get rid of those stupid arrows for shortcuts that would be great. I was able to get rid of those in XP but not in Vista

Click to expand...

That is so funny you say that!!

I just found the simplest little app to do it!

Here:

How to remove shortcut arrows from Vista desktop icons

SIW2 said:

Hi atl,

This should do it for you

Frameworkx.com - Downloads

Hope it helps

SIW2

Click to expand...

I found that after browsing thru the site. Of course that was after I posted here

Tweak VI is for Vista, its free.

Pharaoh
You may find odd XP bits in Vista, as XP was the start point for Vista and M/S in their wisdom(?) carried them over.

wysiwyg said:

Tweak VI is for Vista, its free.

Pharaoh
You may find odd XP bits in Vista, as XP was the start point for Vista and M/S in their wisdom(?) carried them over.

Click to expand...

Yeah I tried Tweak VI but I don't like it. I don't like to mess with all kinds of settings outside of what's default. I think there has to be some logic behind the reasons they have things set to the way they are, even if it uses a little more system resources than preferred, or the speed of applications doesn't close fast enough, I like to leave that alone. I think the Frameworks app for removing the shortcut arrows is better.

Alas... Vista should just have it's own option in Folder Options to remove shortcut arrows and we shouldn't have to use some 3rd party application to do it. Oh that's a good suggestion I could put in Aero Taskforce.

Lastly, you're right... XP is the legacy to Vista. But I how annoying to be reminded of it with such minute details like this. A sure sign of lack of detail, too much excitement and poor testing.

Kind of highlights MS's struggle to stay on top in the dawn of multiple newer competition out there.

I almost feel they shouldn't have upgraded anything but the Visual aspect only. Instead of restricting people from being stuck with the ugly "theme" of XP compared to Vista, just upgrade the theme to what Vista is but use it on XP and still called it XP or rename the newer style XP/X or something. Ha.

I think that 95% percent of everyone that upgrades to Vista does it solely for the purpose of the new look. Yes there are new security feautres. But just implement those into XP already.

Oh the joy of super nerdy techy people in the world, all excited for something new all the time and just the same they all find reasons to demote it all.

Well then at least everyone would feel like they have something new without having to purchase anything at such a costly attribute and lack of threat that it's not going to be around much longer. It's kind of funny Vista is so short lived with Windows 7 around the corner.

Pharaoh said:

Well then at least everyone would feel like they have something new without having to purchase anything at such a costly attribute and lack of threat that it's not going to be around much longer. It's kind of funny Vista is so short lived with Windows 7 around the corner.

Click to expand...

You don't imagine they'd go to all the trouble of rewriting the code without cost, do you.:D.

The thing was they took so long to create Vista that many things they wished to include, would have taken too long, so those things will be in 7, as its being based on Vista,

You might even find those little bits of XP will disappear.

wysiwyg said:

Pharaoh said:

Well then at least everyone would feel like they have something new without having to purchase anything at such a costly attribute and lack of threat that it's not going to be around much longer. It's kind of funny Vista is so short lived with Windows 7 around the corner.

Click to expand...

You don't imagine they'd go to all the trouble of rewriting the code without cost, do you.:D.

The thing was they took so long to create Vista that many things they wished to include, would have taken too long, so those things will be in 7, as its being based on Vista,

You might even find those little bits of XP will disappear.

Click to expand...

I look forward to it... but the question I'm wondering, after watching various previews of Windows 7 on youtube and such... will it even be compatible with most of our current hardware? Or will we all have to buy a new computer totally?