We optimize the Windows XP interface on netbooks

Now the fashion has gone on the so-called netbooks - laptops, small in size and with a rather weak hardware stuffing, but cheap. So I succumbed to the temptation and bought a couple of months ago ¹ such a machine: ASUS eee PC. One of the disadvantages of compactness in this machine - a small screen. Moreover, both the screen diagonal and the physical resolution are small: only 800 x 480 pixels. Because of this, many windows of the programs simply do not fit into the screen and in order to somehow optimize the work, I began to customize the graphic design of the system. Firstly, why do we need such bulky window titles, and secondly, why leave so much free space in the toolbars? There is no need, I considered, and began to look for a replacement for the standard blue design of Windows XP ² .

1. Preparing to replace the theme
Just because Windows will not allow to put the "left" theme - for this you need to persuade the OS, so that it ceases to pick and choose. In total, you need to patch one small system library uxtheme.dll .

For Windows XP SP3, you can download the program patcher, for example, on these links: 1 , 2 . Or use Google . For Windows XP SP2: 1 , Google . Or, for some special version you can see here .
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2. Replacing themes
Now you can set arbitrary themes. To install a new theme, you need to copy the folder and file named * .msstyles to C: \ WINDOWS \ Resources \ Themes from the archive containing the desired design theme. Then in the properties of the screen in the tab "Design" select this topic from the list.

To improve the interface of my Windows XP, I chose the subtle theme NiteLite XP , the black version of it. Optimization result:



For a screen with a resolution of only 800x480 pixels, each pixel is expensive :) And here we saved 8 pixels in height for application windows and 56 pixels in width for various elements of the taskbar. Already not bad. Now let's compare the difference in the size of the window frame elements:



Now the savings were 10 pixels in height and 23 pixels in width .

To reduce the size of the panels in my favorite Mozilla Firefox browser, I installed the Classic Compact theme. Optimization result:


Of course, there are applications, the windows of which, for any optimization, still do not fit into this screen resolution. For such cases, I installed the MoveInactiveWin program, a small utility that allows you to grab and move the window in any place, not just when you click on the header, while the Alt key is held down, similar to Linux systems.


Notes:

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1 . Since I started writing this note more than six months ago, the expression “a couple of months” is already outdated :)
2 For lovers to talk a little about operating systems: on my eee PC, there was nothing: various Windows, Linux, Mac OS X. Please do not advise to optimize the interface "change Windows XP to% Your_Favorite_OS%" :) Thanks!

Thanks for attention! Share your tips on optimizing programs and operating systems for the small screens of our favorite netbooks.