Welcome to The Drive, a weekly column that covers some of the crazy, interesting, cool, and crucial things in tech! Curated by PC Hardware Editor-in-Chief Richard Edmonds, who has covered the sector for nearly two decades. Do you think anything should be covered? Contact me at rich.e@valnetinc.net!
Windows XP wasn't a bad looking operating system. It's one of my favorites from Microsoft with a clean interface and fast performance on the first boot of a new install and was just wonderful to use when times were much less stressful. In the later years, customization kicked into high gear with battles between operating system groups, and although Microsoft released a few themes for XP to change colors, it was BricoPacks from some very talented people within the Windows community that took things to a higher level brought. I used Crystal Clear Bricopack from CrystalXP for years before finally upgrading to a newer operating system.
What is a Windows XP BricoPack?
Completely change XP in just a few clicks
The wait to download Crystal Clear Bricopack from CrystalXP in the mid-2000s was intense. At that time we switched to ADSL, but even then our ISP could only handle less than 50KB/s during off-peak times. The package weighed a whopping 16MB, which took longer than I could imagine to download. Once on my relatively low-performance system, I backed everything up and double-clicked the installer. It was the first time I handed my PC into the hands of France, and after a quick reboot I was greeted by a clean, modern-looking interface running Linux Tux Penguin everywhere.
The Bricopack was a collection of software and tweaks that changed many parts of Windows XP. Depending on the package you installed (there were and still are a few packages available), you may be greeted by a dock, a different window style, new cursors, a wallpaper, a new taskbar and start menu, a widget panel, etc. welcomes more. My friends were all amazed at how my installation looked when we switched homes to play RuneScape or Unreal Tournament 2004. I didn't know back then what UI development would look like if all the gradients, 3D effects and more disappeared.
That's a shame because I look at customizing your operating system in the same way I look at internet forums. They went hand in hand and 2006 was still a great year for communities. A forum allows you to learn more about a specific topic and browse hundreds of threads. This made “skinning” Windows XP relatively painless with the right know-how and some free time. After much trial and error, I ended up reinstalling without much effort and still had enough RAM left to run some games or iTunes since there was no way they could run at the same time.
Customizing your operating system was a serious matter
It took dedication to make Windows your own
Fortunately, even today it is still possible to personalize the operating system you choose. Various software is still available for Windows that can change the appearance of parts, and Linux is as customizable as ever. It's even possible to download the Bricopacks if a Windows XP VM is running somewhere. And if you're into classic YouTube videos (circa 2008), check out this absolute gem comparing Linux to Windows Vista with some incredible customizations. I'm talking about burning context menus, full 3D cube multi-desktop configurations and more. It's wild (and in glorious 240p)!