What are you talking about?

There's a little known edition of Vista, known a 'Vista Lite'. While this is not true, you can effectively refresh your already installed (and paid for) copy of Windows XP with the Vista UI. The suggestions offered below go further than mere skins, so if you decide to give it a go, back up your current Windows install completely in case something goes wrong.

Poor man's Vista

While I truly do enjoy Vista, I have to admit that my games ran faster on XP. Actually everything ran a bit faster on XP. However after using Vista, going back to the dated Windows XP UI is not easy. I like the new look Vista offers.

By following the guide below, you will get a very decent Vista-like UI from your Windows XP installation. If there was any performance hit after installing these programs, it was quite negligible, if not less than the hit you get naturally from Vista.

Upgrade your Windows XP to 'Vista Lite'

Left, 'Vista Lite' with 'Aero' running in Parallels Desktop for Mac. Right, Flip 3D in Windows XP.

Full screen, high-res photo of 'Vista Lite', here.

Installation

Gather your tools

This is what you'll need to transform Windows XP into a Vista look-alike:

• Vista Transformation Pack 6.0 Final, download here
• Top Desk for Flip 3-D, get here
• Optional: Boot Skin to change Windows boot screen, get here

Note: I've done this on both a parallels XP installation and a native XP installation. All of the instructions given below apply to both instances. Parallels runs of all the suggested tweaks below quite well, EXCEPT for Top Desk. Thus, Flip 3D will not be an option if you're running Parallels (at the time of this writing).

Install VTP

First, install all of the options offered in the Vista Transformation Pack (VTP). This will accomplish almost all of the work. Please note, the boot screen that VTP installs is not the actual Vista boot screen, and looks quite amateur in my opinion. You may wish to skip that option. Alternatively, use the Boot Skin program linked to above, and apply your own custom boot screen. A lot of high quality, almost legit looking Vista screens are found here.

Get the Vista Explorer Bar

Now that VTP is installed, you'll need to enable a few things to get the Vista explorer bar (as shown above). First, open up my computer, and click on the 'view' menu. Under View > Toolbars uncheck all the view options, but enable 'styler toolbar'.

This will give you the Vista explorer menu toolbar. Now to get rid of the file menu bar, go to your the task tray and right click on the icon for "styler". Choose the toolbar tab, and check 'hide menubar explorer'.

Misc

Also while in the options for 'styler' choose the desktop tab. Here you'll want to enable drop shadow (use default). This gives the windows a nice shadow as found in Vista. Feel free to enable other options which pertain to your particular taste.

Now, right-click on your desktop and choose properties and select the 'appearance' tab and then select 'effects'. Make sure that 'cleartype' is enabled, as well as the 'use large icons' box. This will give you the large icon set now used in Vista.

Firefox 2.0

While IE 7 is great, but you may be a Firefox fan. Complete your new makeover with a complimenting Vista Firefox theme. Look around and find your favorite, or a very good one can be found here.

Flip 3D

If you've seen all the Vista advertisements, then you've seen Flip 3D in action. Useful? Slightly. Pretty? You bet!

If you want it, simply download Top Desk (linked above).

What's missing?

Well of course Microsoft had to justify the price of Vista with features that Windows XP doesn't have. Yes, you can replicate Aero, but there are a few things that can never be truly duplicated, but can be replaced with programs of similar functionality. Below is a list of what Vista has over XP, and what you can do to supplement them. Note this list is not comprehensive whatsoever.

Can be fully or partially replaced:

• Media Player 11 (just download it from MS)
• IE 7 (download from MS)
• Calendar
  • Use Google calendar, or any other calendar program
• Mail
  • Outlook Express, Thunderbird, etc.
• Windows Search built-in to start menu and now explorer menu's.
  • Can't be fully implemented, but google desktop search or Windows Search 3.0 will work
• Parental controls
  • Use any program for this task
• Performance assessment
  • Use your favorite benchmarking tool
• Photo Gallery
  • Use Picaso 2, and others
• Sidebar (included with VTP)
• Aero (supplemented by VTP and Top Desk)

Can't be replaced:

• Better speech recognition
• Direct X 10
• DVD maker