The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Shell replacement + Desktop Sidebar= very fast FE!

    Discussion in 'VAIO / Sony' started by Lisat, Mar 28, 2006.

  1. Lisat

    Lisat Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    68
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    A while ago I played around with shell replacements, but gave up. This week I decided to test them again, mainly 'cos I was getting fed up with the slow boot up times on the FE. Downloaded and installed the Emerge shell replacement- removing all the extras except the tray during the installation procedure- and ditto with the Desktop Sidebar, which has been configured to give me access to Quick Launch, My Documents, Winamp, a Tasklist, and a performance graph. Despite the fact that my little benchmark prog- BenchMarX- reports that the computer is running significantly slower than under explorer.exe, in real life it flies along. Start up and shut down is *much* faster; Adobe Premiere Elements 2 loads much faster; so does Firefox, but in fairness I do have the Preloader installed, so FF was fast even under explorer. The Emerge desktop shell plus the sidebar runs at around 17,000k ram as opposed to the 28,000 k of explorer, so that is a difference.

    I have it configured without a start button or taskbar- but it's possible to set the Sidebar up to do that and i think emerge has plugins and so on too. It's still windows- but more personalised and considerably faster!! :)
     
    Lisat, Mar 28, 2006
    #1
  2. rhcpcrony

    rhcpcrony NBR President

    Reputations:
    44
    Messages:
    1,032
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    where did u download this stuff
     
    rhcpcrony, Mar 28, 2006
    #2
  3. JohnNL

    JohnNL Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    81
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    JohnNL, Mar 29, 2006
    #3
  4. rhcpcrony

    rhcpcrony NBR President

    Reputations:
    44
    Messages:
    1,032
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    I installed it, didnt see much of a performace boot. The boot up and shut down times are about the same
     
    rhcpcrony, Mar 29, 2006
    #4
  5. Insanity5902

    Insanity5902 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    23
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Any screenshots?
     
    Insanity5902, Mar 30, 2006
    #5
  6. rhcpcrony

    rhcpcrony NBR President

    Reputations:
    44
    Messages:
    1,032
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    rhcpcrony, Mar 30, 2006
    #6
  7. Lisat

    Lisat Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    68
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Remind me how to get screen shots and I'll do so. I know it's Prt Sc plus something... what's the something?
     
    Lisat, Mar 30, 2006
    #7
  8. rhcpcrony

    rhcpcrony NBR President

    Reputations:
    44
    Messages:
    1,032
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    just prt Sc, then open an image editor > file > new > paste
     
    rhcpcrony, Mar 30, 2006
    #8
  9. Lisat

    Lisat Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    68
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Ta- now how do I insert a pic? I've never done that on a forum.
     
    Lisat, Mar 30, 2006
    #9
  10. Lisat

    Lisat Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    68
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Nope. Tried URL'ing it to my hard drive and it didn't work.
     
    Lisat, Mar 30, 2006
    #10
  11. rhcpcrony

    rhcpcrony NBR President

    Reputations:
    44
    Messages:
    1,032
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    umn you need a host, something like photobucket
     
    rhcpcrony, Mar 30, 2006
    #11
  12. Elminst

    Elminst Some Network Guy

    Reputations:
    224
    Messages:
    827
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    31
    I've replaced the shell on my desktop with Talisman 2, from Lighttek software.
    So much cooler and uses 1/4 the resources of explorer.exe
     
    Elminst, Mar 30, 2006
    #12
  13. rhcpcrony

    rhcpcrony NBR President

    Reputations:
    44
    Messages:
    1,032
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    how bout posting screenis elminst
     
    rhcpcrony, Mar 30, 2006
    #13
  14. Elminst

    Elminst Some Network Guy

    Reputations:
    224
    Messages:
    827
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    31
    http://cs-onp.com/files/elminst/desktop/
    Take your pick... ;) I can switch between any of these themes (and more) with a couple mouse clicks. Menus are integrated into various parts of the themes; slide out of sidebars, up from frame features, or hidden in images. And it's all customizable.
    I'm currently setup like winmax2, which is a slightly modified from the winmax theme. I like my desktop space. :cool:
    Talisman 2 isn't free, but it was worth the $25 for me. talisman.exe usually uses 2-3 meg of ram, as opposed to explorer.exe's 10-12+ meg.
     
    Elminst, Mar 30, 2006
    #14