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[atomicwinter]

Are there any programs that can change the Gui of Windows XP? I have been seeing all these amazing pics of how cool looking windows 7 is, and I wish XP look that good 

[Starver]

Are there any programs that can change the Gui of Windows XP? I have been seeing all these amazing pics of how cool looking windows 7 is, and I wish XP look that good 

I could say "No accounting for taste" and mumble about rounded corners/transparent title bars being a waste of CPU (and/or GPU) cycles, but I'm probably in the minority here.

(Yeah, I use XP, but I have a cherished 2K machine working away quite nicely[1].  My 98 machine blew up the other year.  And, besides, I do an awful lot of things in DOS or at the prompt of my Linux boxes.

Seriously, though, I've seen a number of XP-era applications using similar effects to the Win7 ones[2].  Might be app-specific, and not  applicable across the whole 'window manager', though.  Still, if there's good reason for it (and you have the resources to space) feel free to slow yourself downfancy things up a bit!

[1] Ok, so the DABBAR software on it uses rounded corners on its main window and an invisible title bar, but apart from that it's fairly pure and functional.

[2] So much so, that I still have doubts that anything 'new' Windows 7 is actually new at all.  Maybe just better integrated or finessed.

[Blacken]

What's funny (but not surprising) about Starver's post is that he doesn't realize that Vista/7's GUI is faster to render than that of older versions of Windows. Aero and the new DWM are considerably faster due to 3D acceleration.

And no, there's no way to get Aero effects in XP. You can screw around with the decorations in WindowBlinds or whatever, but that's not the same thing. Your only alternative is to upgrade.

[atomicwinter]

What's funny (but not surprising) about Starver's post is that he doesn't realize that Vista/7's GUI is faster to render than that of older versions of Windows. Aero and the new DWM are considerably faster due to 3D acceleration.

And no, there's no way to get Aero effects in XP. You can screw around with the decorations in WindowBlinds or whatever, but that's not the same thing. Your only alternative is to upgrade.

2gb ram
P4 at 3.4ghz
Nvida 7800 at 215mb

You think my comp can handle it fine? I mean is the ram and power it takes just as much as XP? If so I might upgrade

[redacted123]

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[atomicwinter]

What's funny (but not surprising) about Starver's post is that he doesn't realize that Vista/7's GUI is faster to render than that of older versions of Windows. Aero and the new DWM are considerably faster due to 3D acceleration.

And no, there's no way to get Aero effects in XP. You can screw around with the decorations in WindowBlinds or whatever, but that's not the same thing. Your only alternative is to upgrade.

2gb ram
P4 at 3.4ghz
Nvida 7800 at 215mb

You think my comp can handle it fine? I mean is the ram and power it takes just as much as XP? If so I might upgrade

I'm 99.99% certain that it would work fine on your computer. The graphics card is 512mb though, right?

Idk a few sources say its 215 and some say 512 but it seems to be 215.

[redacted123]

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[Blacken]

What's funny (but not surprising) about Starver's post is that he doesn't realize that Vista/7's GUI is faster to render than that of older versions of Windows. Aero and the new DWM are considerably faster due to 3D acceleration.

And no, there's no way to get Aero effects in XP. You can screw around with the decorations in WindowBlinds or whatever, but that's not the same thing. Your only alternative is to upgrade.

2gb ram
P4 at 3.4ghz
Nvida 7800 at 215mb

You think my comp can handle it fine? I mean is the ram and power it takes just as much as XP? If so I might upgrade

You wouldn't notice a significant difference with either Vista SP1 or Windows 7. I have Windows 7 running (sans Aero) on a Pentium III at 1GHz; it's faster than XP was on the same hardware.

[atomicwinter]

It is saying that my Pentium 4 is 2 CPUs? Could it be that my grandfather used a motherboard allowing for 2 chips? Why have I not noticed this before O_O does this work like a dual core then?

[Starver]

What's funny (but not surprising) about Starver's post is that he doesn't realize that Vista/7's GUI is faster to render than that of older versions of Windows. Aero and the new DWM are considerably faster due to 3D acceleration.

Sorry, obviously misread.  I thought the question was about "Getting XP to do W7 effects", not "Installing W7".

edit to correct tagging mistake and to append: Actually, it still looks like it is.  Unless "program to change the look of XP" is Win7's setup.exe.

[redacted123]

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[Jay]

Simple way to understand Intel's core counts:
If it's Pentium 4, it has one core.
If it's Core 2 Duo or i3, it has two cores.
If it's i5, Intel is screwy and has both two core models and four core models.
If it's Core 2 Quad or i7, it has four cores.
I do believe they are developing i9, codename Gulfport, that is 6 cores.

If your processor breaks that rule, it's probably because of Hyperthreading.
Hyperthreading is a marketing gimmick that claims to speed things up by creating a virtual second thread on the same core.
Windows reports Hyperthreaded virtual cores as another core, when in reality, they're not.
Hyperthreading will only help on threaded applications, obviously.
Dwarf Fortress, the key program of these forums, will actually run slower if you're using Hyperthreading.

Hope that helps somewhat.

[Tauron]

And Intel just announced dual core i5s.