Men don't read manuals. Well actually I like to dive in and just try things. I'm a hands on learner. If I can't figure it out, then I refer to the manual and help sites. I usually just read enough from the manual to get me started before I dive in.

You understand that you are doing your best to damage the reputation of software that you have no clue how to use and that people work very hard to create? How sad that you have so little respect for the developers of LS and the people you are misleading.

Someone who doesn't recognize that you have no idea what you are talking about might think that LS *IS* as dangerous as a virus, and opt not to use it.

Very, very sad.

Anybody who wants a more powerful OS should get Linux instead of trying to add onto Windows with products like Crashstep (Litestep). I have been down the road of wanting something more powerful than Windows so I try adding onto it. Now I am diving into Linux, and I have to say so far nothing for Windows can compare to it.

I'm sorry, but at "Crashstep (Litestep)." I would have exiled him. Needless, ignorant, and damaging behavior. People shouldn't be allowed to use WCs servers to mislead people.

Mislead people? I am only expressing my opinions which I am entitled to hold and express. Why exile me when I don't post links to warez or ask for warez?

Because you make ignorant, misleading statements. This is primarily (not exclusively) a message board for skinning related questions and as such gets a lot of visits from inexperienced users that want to learn about skinning and the applications that make it possible. These users may not realize that you don't know what you're talking about (although bakerstreet has done a wonderful job of proving that) and assume that you do. The statements you make are sure to disuade these users from trying Litestep.

As for the opinion thing....

Opinions are like a**holes...everybody's got one....it is my opinion that yours stink!.

To have your opinion respected here you can't say anything bad about Windows or any other Microsoft product, you can't hold any negative opinions towards any shell replacement or skinning programs for Windows unless it's StyleXP or whatever it is called, and never say that Microsoft is evil.

No, you can say those things, but only orally. Anal babbling is better done in less public places.

Repeated mis-representation of LiteSTEP as 'Crashstep' is both childish and naive.

Learn about that which you speak and hold an opinion or go elsewhere to vent your spleen.

Litestep is one of the oldest and most used/respected alternative shells available, and, like Linux, is released under the GNU licence. The similarities don't stop there, but of course you know all that, as you are the expert.

I'm not quite vindictive enough to just kick you out, but I would rather you get an informed opinion rather than an emotive 'crashware' one.

Not true jj. To have your opinion respected here you need to have an informed, researched opinion. Microsoft is a corporate entity...their sole purpose is to make money. I don't necessarily love them, but I do appreciate what they have done to further the computing industry.

Further the industry? Microsoft makes crappy OSes with XP being both crap and spyware. Why use an alternate shell when an alternate OS (Linux) would work more nicely?

Why won't Microsoft produce an OS based on Unix when all the other major OS makers are going Unix?

Maybe the others are switching because theirs are inferior to Windows....just a thought...

Unix is a better built system that is more computer science oriented and has many years of development behind it that dates back before Winblows.

They've been developing linux since 1965 and have not been able to match the features or ease of use of windows which has been around since the mid 80's. MS's having a large majority of the OS market share should tell you that they're doing something right. I kind of doubt that linux would be as evoved as it is today without the presence of MS.

jj79_1999: Sure XP is crappy... even though it is used by millions of people, runs almost every peice of software known to man, is very stable, and has a plug-and-play relationship with tens of thousands of pieces of hardware. What is your definistion of 'crappy'? Stuff that works?

No one here has even attempted to prove that it is spyware, so I am not gonna address arguments that have yet to be made.

**

What exactly do you accomplish on your Linux box, other than keeping it around for the obvious name-dropping benefits?

None of the software I work with will run on Linux, nor are any of the linux 'equivalents' worth migrating to. I only reboot my win2000 box about once a week, sometimes less. I had a win98SE box that ran once for 26 days without rebooting.

Granted, using Linux would make me really l33t, but unfortunatly a lot of us need to get stuff done from time to time. You don't get that done by running around a tempermental community trying to find 'alternatives' that are almost as good as windows apps. I have been down that road 3 times, and each time was a continual effort to make things work that *HAD* worked, just before I installed Linux...

Amen bakerstreet. I've got a server running win2000 RC1 that I haven't had to reboot in over 4 months.

O.K., I have seen enough. jj79_1999, You have no idea what you are talking about!
I started using Litestep when I first got into computers about 4 or 5 years ago. I knew very little about shells, explorer.exe etc. I read everything about it before I installed it and never had a problem! My system was always really stable with LS running, and it was so simple to get back into explorer if I needed to. (although I never booted into Explorer for over 2 years at one time)
I still have Litestep on my system, I have it on it's own user account in XP so that I can boot into it at startup if I wish when I want to try some of the cool themes that come out.
I only stopped theming for Litestep when I got into DesktopX, but I have lost none of my respect for a fine piece of software.
As Jafo points out, it's usually the failing of the user rather than the software that causes most problems.
Now go and spout your crap elsewhere and don't come back until you have learned how to keep quiet about things you have no knowledge of.

I'm sorry I turned this thread into a flame war. For now on I will shut-up about things I have very little or no knowledge of. I am sorry.

i have noticed that LS threads have been attracting alot of my OS is greater than thou feeling. Im with jafo, i have been running LS for about a year anda half, and to tell u the truth it has never crashed or messed with my system, ive had themes that have caused some trouble but thats to be expected read up on it or live and learn, if something doesnt work for u try it at a different angle, instead of going on flaming it just because it doesnt work for u.

Go find a good mac site if u really want to get a flame war started, we are just defending ourselves, unlike some people

Hmm... Well, I certainly didn't mean to cause this unnecessary debate. In my case, I've never liked the cold appearance of Windows on my desktop (I prefer the clean new mac desktop appearance). So when I found the shell section of Wincustomize, I was ecstatic. I looked for a clean, white and glassy appearance for a windows shell, and found one. But when I applied the theme, the problem that created this topic occurred.

Well anyway, I will use the DOS process to try and fix my computer when I get home tomorrow. So thank you all that contributed to assisting me in this situation. It's really too bad though that I can't seem to have my clean desktop appearance. bah

MotoHota....you CAN have your 'clean appearance'...the benefit of alternate shells is that once 'mastered' you can do virtually anything you can dream of, or wish for...

I'm sure my lack of installation knowledge is a good reason for all this trouble. I'm the sort of person that needs every single aspect of something clearly explained before I can feel fully confident in pursuing it. I don't understand all the file transformations or whatever you call it that I have to do with loading a new theme. Perhaps I missed something important... I wish this was easier, and almost no one out there wants to explain it all to you clearly and step by step.

What you need is a shell switcher. You point your 'shell=' line at it, and when your alternative shell's theme farts out you can just reboot and select the other until you have your theme situated. I think you will see that fixing the .ini in DOS is no big deal either, you just didn't know to do it.