How to Turn XP into a Mac

1. Remove all unused shortcuts and icons. Right click the desktop and go to “Arrange desktop icons by” and uncheck “Show desktop icons”. You should now have a completely clean desktop. Don’t be afraid. You can still access the My Computer, My Documents, and Recycle Bin standbys from Windows Explorer.
2. Install RKLauncher. RKLauncher (also called RKDock) is a free Windows version of the animated Mac taskbar, or “dock.” You can download it here. RKLauncher comes with a pretty cool theme. If you want to make your dock look exactly like a Mac though, try RealDock for RKLaucher, a great clone of the Mac Dock appearance. RKLauncher’s official build hasn’t been updated lately, so if you would like something more up-to-date, grab a nightly build from Aqua-Soft. The farther down you go, the newer the build. Another good dock program is ObjectDock by Stardock, you can skin it to be anything you want and it does the animations and everything.
3. Hide the taskbar. It doesn’t make sense to have both ObjectDock/RKDock and the Windows taskbar. Right click a blank space in ObjectDock, go to the settings tab, select behavior then on the box with check marks select “Hide the Windows Taskbar”, and hit OK. RKLauncher should work similarly. This makes the taskbar disappear. You can also just move the taskbar to the front of the screen.
4. Add Widgets. Widgets are desktop toys to entertain and to inform. Think of them like things you’d put on a real desk: a picture frame, a newspaper to a dancing hula girl! But they’re on your PC desktop, not your real desk. You’ll get it once you see it. They could be a fun addition to your boring computer. Download free widgets from the Yahoo Widgets page. You’ll download a widget machine called Yahoo! Widget Engine, which comes with widgets like a picture frame, analog clock, calendar, and weather display. You can get more widgets like RSS news feeds and a dancing hula girl from the widgets gallery. Yahoo! has also released an engine that can help you make your own widgets and is available here
5. Get Safari for Windows Just Get the new Safari 3 Beta, for Windows here, or get Firefox here. You can skin Firefox to look like Safari.
6. Change your wallpaper to look like Mac OS X Tiger. Or you can get a high resolution wallpaper here which won’t make your computer mimic a mac desktop but will add a sense of style and a unique touch.
7. Install your Expose from docs.kr. With this program (screen shot shows the ‘Windows Vista Flip’ move) you can set your Windows to spread out at the stroke of a key! A free download!
8. Move your buttons. ShellWM is a “titlebar-only” shell replacer. It lets you have the maximize, minimize and close buttons on the left for free. You’ll want to download this theme.
9. Change your mouse pointers. For the full effect, download a new set of mouse pointers. Save these to your computer (preferably in C:\WINDOWS\Cursors). It may be a good idea to make a folder within this for easier setup.) To setup these cursors, choose Mouse from the Control Panel, click the Pointers tab, and set your new pointers appropriately. For a the best OS pointer, use FLyakiteOS. If you don’t feel like changing cursors manually, you can install them all with a simple Mac OS X Mouse Cursors Installer
10. Keep tweaking and playing. Try customizing all of the applications you downloaded. Whatever suits you!

Tips

• If RKLauncher doesn’t work well, an alternative to try are RocketDock. Rocketdock is updated more often, and has more themes to choose from.
• You can also use the Mac OS X Install DVD
  • If you have a recent Mac OS X Install DVD (2005 and newer) that uses an x86 architecture, you can install OS X directly on your computer using InsanelyMac, which will circumvent the hardware detection used by the OS X install disc.
  • If you have an older Mac OS X Install DVD (2004 and older) that uses a PowerPC architecture, you can emulate PowerPC’s architecture using PearPC. PearPC is a tool which will allow you to run Mac OS X in an x86 environment, without putting in any effort. The emulation method is much slower than the method using InsanelyMac above.
  • Do not resort to using OS X unless you are aware of the legal action Apple can take if they know you are using that software.
• Since installing Mac OS X on a PC is illegal you could also try installing Linux (Ubuntu Linux is the most popular linux out there) on your PC. Since Linux is fully constumizable you can use this guide to make it look like OS X.
• For the simplest way, install this patch. It lets you access Windows XPs built in skinner. Then go to customize.org and download all the window’s themes you want. This is a great Mac OS X style theme.
• If you have enough money, an easier way would always be just to buy your own Mac, of course.

Warnings

• Widgets could make your computer run slowly.
• Be warned this method may cause you to never have your windows desktop taskbar again.
• Beware of legal issues with installing Mac OS X onto a computer that it is not licensed for.
• The Shock 4Way 3D program makes your mouse disappear in the other 3 screens.
• Used with permission from Wikihow.

http://hacknmod.com/hack/hack-windows-xp-to-look-like-a-mac-desktop/

This month’s Microsoft patches could lead to a hectic week for IT managers

This week could be ‘hectic’ with Microsoft offering a critical patch for Internet Explorer.
Alan Bentley, regional VP EMEA of Lumension, said even though there are only two critical patches being issued tomorrow, it could still be a hectic week as the most critical patch this month is the IE bulletin requiring a reboot of all XP and Vista machines in the organisation running IE 7.
Bentley said: “Large-scale reboots of all desktops can lead to disruption and productivity hits if not planned and coordinated appropriately. As organisations are looking at the IE 7 update, they should also look at the recently released critical update for the Firefox browser, more stealthy malware is being introduced to endpoints via browser exploits; therefore, critical browser updates need to be made a higher priority than ever before.”
Regarding the critical patch that will cover the vulnerability in the Exchange mail server software, he claimed that this has proven to be the easiest target for hackers to infiltrate, as if they are able to compromise an organisation’s Exchange Server, then they will be able to intercept every email coming and going, essentially making it open to every corporation across the globe.
Bentley said: “Given the proximity of the Exchange Server to external data entering the network, organisations will want to deploy this update immediately. However, critical email services are often subject to change control processes that could make an urgent deployment a complex matter.
“If this ends up being a web-facing vulnerability, then it will be highly critical to patch as IT professionals constantly have to make sure these types of systems are patched and secure while running efficiently at the same time. Although the Exchange vulnerability is critical, organisations will want to read the details carefully when the full patch comes out to see if there are any mitigating controls.”
He also claimed that organisations should consider the update for the SQL Server as critical, despite it only being named as ‘important’.