How To: Get the Most Out of Your Desktop with Shell Replacements

Posted 10/29/2008 at 2:30pm | by Alex Castle

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LiteStep

Like bbLean, LiteStep is an open source app originally designed to emulate a window manager for the X Window system. In this case the window manager in question was AfterStep, although LiteStep bears less of a resemblance to its progenitor than bbLean. LiteStep has been in development for more than 10 years, and is the most popular replacement shell available. That, of course, means the most available themes and plugins and therefore the most options for customization.

LiteStep’s installation process is pretty smooth, with the latest installers available for download at litestep.net, although you’ll have to sign up for a free account to get them. They recommend running the Omar installer executable, then updating it with the Litestep-Updater pack, either by overwriting a bunch of files or running a .bat. During installation, you’ll have the opportunity to designate which apps you want to be your default for purposes like web browsing, image editing and instant messaging. This is done to allow LiteStep’s themes to know which programs to integrate into the desktop.

Once you’ve installed LiteStep, it automatically makes itself your default shell. Unlike Talisman and bbLean, there’s no application mode, so you’ll have to jump right in. Fortunately, LiteStep’s default theme, “Austerity” doesn’t deviate too far from the standard Windows experience, so you should be able to get your bearings before trying out some of the more extreme themes. Also, LiteStep puts an icon on the desktop which allows you to automatically reconfigure your system to use explorer as the default shell.

LiteStep themes are collected and made available for download at a number of websites. Themes are transferred as .lsz packages, which contain data about both the visual style of the desktop and the configuration of various modules. Modules are LiteStep’s version of plugins, and can add all sorts of functionality to your desktop, from the useful—like one that monitors CPU and RAM usage—to the frivolous, like one that adds a little piano keyboard to your taskbar, allowing you to rock out with your mouse whenever you feel like it.

To install a new theme, you simply download the .lsz file and run LiteStep’s theme installation utility on it. If you’re missing any of the modules that the theme uses, you’ll be prompted to download them. Though this system doesn’t preserve the distinction between style and functionality like the BlackBox shell replacements, it does make it much easier to see a screenshot, think “Ooh, I want my desktop to look like that,” and make it happen.

Customizing LiteStep is pretty similar to bbLean. It’s just a matter of downloading (or programming, for the truly hardcore) the modules that you want to use in your setup, and editing configuration files to define settings, hotkeys and scripts. It’s not something you can learn in an hour, but at least there are plenty of user-made themes available for you to download and learn from.

All in all, with its long development history and active userbase, LiteStep is still pretty much the app to beat for shell replacements. However, both of the other two programs we’ve covered certainly have their strong points as well. Talisman’s user-friendly design and graphical customization engine are great, and BbLean’s minimalist approach to shell replacement is very cool. All three we’ve talked about in this article are free or have a free trial, so give them a whirl and see which one appeals to you the most.