How I Made Windows Usable

Microsoft Windows increasingly annoys its users with pop-up notices, childish treatment, intrusive “features”, and a difficult GUI. In keeping with other such resources online as Mark Pilgrim’s How to install Windows XP in 5 hours or less and Michael Heilemann’s It’s all about the Bling Bling, and in case I ever need to install Windows on my machine again, here’s a running list of the things I turn on, turn off, install and remove from Windows to make it worth using.

1. Turn on text smoothing – Microsoft’s tool, something OS X has on by default.
2. Replace the GUI windows and toolbars with Freestyle – Instructions for enabling visual themes, a better way (software needed), Osiris Media XP Freestyle Theme (zip file)…for Windows XP SP2, use this tutorial if you’re having problems
3. Install Approcket, the LaunchBar clone for Windows. Even more necessary on Windows than OS X, because of Microsoft’s crazy file structure.
4. Install Avant Browser, which uses IE’s rendering but adds tabs and autosave layout abilities.
5. Install Mozilla Firefox, and set it as the default browser.
6. Visit Windows Update and update with all their patches.
7. Install Ad-Aware and Spybot, use their “update” functions to get the latest detections, and run a scan to find and protect against spyware and tracking cookies hidden on the machine.
8. Download TweakUI and follow most of Mark’s tips #67-102. This is how you stop Windows from constantly bothering you with those little pop-up windows (“It looks like you plugged in a camera. Can I help you delete all the files on it?”)
9. Get nicer OpenGL screensavers, like Flurry.
10. Since most Windows OpenGL drivers are terrible, install something like SciTech’s GLDirect, which uses the better DirectX drivers to do the rendering.

More to come as I remember and discover them…