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I recently found this while modding my XP to a full Mac

This is a high resolution set of icons from Mac OS X Leopard, it is an enormous set containing 650+ icons extracted from OS X Leopard by “ipapun”

Here are some ENORMOUS preview of these icons

I hope you enjoy this amazing find, I know I will!

Download Link

You may want to try this one, sorry

To start off, you will need to download the Disco Deck Font (for this tutorial)

And extract it to C:\[All] Users\\.gimp-{version}\fonts
Then restart GIMP, if you’ve opened it already.

Now create a blank image, with 600x200px for the canvas size.

Then run a Background to Foreground gradient over the entire image, from the top-right to the bottom-left, make sure the BG and FG colors are Black and White

For this tutorial, we’re going to type out the word CRAFT using the font that we installed earlier. Each of the letters should be in their own layer, and the font size should be about 160px.

Now change the color of each letter to white and position them in the correct place.

CREATING THE FOLDS

Now create a new layer above the layer for the “C” and fill it with a radial gradient by dragging it from right to left horizontally perfectly.

Now flip the gradient layer horizontally using Layer -> Transform -> Flip Horizontally, and position it over the “C” layer and change the layer style to Hard Light

Right-click on the “C” layer and choose Alpha to Selection and then go to Select -> Invert and make sure the radial gradient layer is selected and hit Delete

Then re-invert the selection so that the “C” is selected, then use Filters -> Light and Shadow -> Drop Shadow to add with an X and Y offset of “0″ and use the default blur amount. (15%)

Repeat the same process for each letter.

When doing the “R” and the “A”, make sure you drag the gradient from top to bottom and not right to left

Clean Up and Color

Now drag the shadow layers above each letter they go with.

Then make a new layer above all the other layers and fill it with a color (orange for example #ffa200) and set the layer mode to Soft Light

The internet is streaming with many, many sites. Many of which, have to do with or provide with Photoshop and/or Photoshop tutorials. So, here are some useful sites where you can find some Photoshop tutorials.

jQuery is a very handy and powerful technique that programmers and designers can use to make their sites interactive and compatible with a wide range of browsers. Here are some useful jQuery plugin resources based on navigation and browsing that I obtained from Smashing Magazine. Enjoy!

Leopard Desktop with jQuery using jqDock

This jQuery using jqDock can help you create a completely coded Dashboard like Leopard.

jQuery (mb) Menu 2.6

This is a powerful jQuery component to build a multilevel tree menu or a contextual menu with a right click in an intuitive yet easy way.

Advanced jQuery Keypress Navigation

Based off “A fancy Apple.com-style search suggestion,” but new and improved with keypress accessibility, this handy keypress navigation in included with this useful jQuery resource.

jQuery.popeye 1.0

This is major release, completely rewritten and overhauled, of jQuery.popeye. It is an image gallery plugin that started as an alternative to the famous JavaScript lightbox.

Pikachoose jQuery Image Gallery (demo)

Pikachoose is a lightweight jQuery plugin that allows easy presentation of photos with options for slideshows, navigation buttons, and auto play. Pikachoose is designed to be easy from installation to setup.

Supersized – Full Screen Background/Slideshow jQuery Plugin

The Supersized jQuery plugin can resizes images to fill the browser while maintaining image dimension ratio. Additionally, it can cycle images/backgrounds via slideshow with transitions and preloading. The navigation controls allow for pause/play and forward/back.

Space Gallery – jQuery Plugin

Spacegallery is a Javascript image gallery with a jQuery plugin. After setting parameters, images are animated with perspective style. When you click the front image, it fades in a smooth animation and is replaced with the next image. Although designed with one way navigation, it is a cool gallery when only a limited number of images need showcased.

tabSwitch

tabSwitch is a tab/slider plugin for jQuery. With this plugin, you can make a tab box system with the least of code and still fully customizable. Currently, you can choose from 7 different effects with 2 view styles, as well as hot swap the effects around in runtime.

I’m sure you use the Auto Hide feature on the taskbar.
Well, I’ve seen some cases where the auto hide sticks, meaning after enabling it, it autohides, but when you bring it back up it won’t auto hide anymore.

Well, I just recently realized that this problem is mainly caused by a “clogging” in your prefetch folder.

If you don’t know what a prefetch folder is, it’s the folder in your main system folder that holds the “loadup” data for programs.
Files are created in the prefetch folder when a program is opened, after it’s opened it saves the data and settings for the program to make your computer open it easier.
In Windows XP, the default location for this folder is “C:\Windows\prefetch

The layout.ini file CAN be deleted when cleaning out the prefetch folder.
Many websites say it isn’t a good idea to delete it, but this file holds very old program information. But it’s expendable, meaning, Windows will just recreate the file whenever it is needed.
DELETING THE LAYOUT.INI FILE WILL NOT AFFECT YOUR COMPUTER.

After cleaning out the prefetch folder, restart your system, and your taskbar should auto hide properly again.
!!!-You should clean out the prefetch folder every 1 or 2 weeks-!!!
If you have any questions regarding this post, just leave a comment.
Thank you.

Changing My Computer, My Documents, and Recycle Bin Icons Manually

Right-click on the desktop and choose Properties, then on the Desktop tab you should choose the Customize Desktop button.

In the Desktop Items dialog you can select one of the icons and click the Change Icon button.

Now just click the Browse button, and pick whichever icon file you would prefer.

Change Icons for Specific Folders Manually

You can change the icon for many folders by right-clicking the folder and choosing Properties, and then clicking Change Icon on the Customize tab.

This method works by writing a hidden desktop.ini file into the folder that will contain text like this:

[.ShellClassInfo]
IconFile=%SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll
IconIndex=20

You could manually create or edit the file if you choose, instead of using the dialogs. The IconFile line can be adjusted to point to a custom icon file. If you are pointing to a .ico file you should change the IconIndex line to 0 instead.

Note that this isn’t available for all folders, for instance you can’t use this to change the icon for the Windows folder.

Using iColorFolder Skins to Customize Specific Folders Easily

You can use the previously reviewed iColorFolder application to load colored folders that can be applied to specific folders. You can also set the default folder icon using this tool.

Not only that, but this tool can be used to set the default icon for any file type, or easily change the icon for a specific folder to a different color, or a different icon altogether.

Customize Your Folder Icons in WIndows XP

Manually Setting Specific Icons for Removable Drives

You can create a new file named autorun.inf in the root of any flash or USB drive, and then add the following section to it:

[autorun]
icon=autorun.ico

You’ll notice that the icon file is set to autorun.ico, which means for this file to work you would have to rename the icon file and add it to the root of the drive as well:

Your best bet is to make both of these files hidden so you don’t have to see them. Right-click on the files, choose Properties, and then check the box for “Hidden” as shown:

This does not work for regular hard drives, just for removable ones. Also note that the custom icon will show up on any Windows computer that you plug the removable drive into.

Change Icons for Regular File Types

If you want to change the icon for all those .txt files you have laying around, you can do so by going into yet another dialog (seems like they could have organized them into a single place)

Open up a copy of Windows Explorer and then choose Folder Options from the Tools menu.

Select the File Types tab, and then choose the file type you want to change and click the Advanced button.

In the “Edit File Type” dialog you can click the Change Icon button, and then select an icon just like you did above.

There are a few of the file types that won’t let you change the icon using this method… for instance you should not use this to change the icon for folders or drives or else things will go haywire. (or they did for me)

Change Icons for Application Shortcuts

You can customize the icon for any application icons, whether on the start menu, quick launch or desktop, by right-clicking on the shortcut and choosing Properties, then use “Change Icon” from the shortcut tab.

Use Windows Vista Style Drive Icons

You can also customize the drive icons in Windows XP to give them the same Vista bar graph underneath that shows the disk space.

Get Vista Style Drive Icons in Windows XP

Changing Special Icons like Control Panel, Drives, Folders, Printers, Etc

If you’d rather change all the different icons in one place, you can use the freeware IconTweaker application that gives you access to change pretty much any icon in Windows XP.

Click on the round “icons” icon on the left-hand panel, and then you can customize any of the built-in icons… just click the Change button.

And then click the Open button and pick the icon file you want to use.

There’s a lot more to this application, for instance you can use it to create a theme that you could re-apply later… or you could download icon themes and apply them.

Download IconTweaker

Safety & Security

Bitlocker Drive Encryption

How can you help protect your data from loss, theft, or hackers? The answer: BitLocker.

Improved for Windows 7 and available in the Ultimate edition, BitLocker helps keep everything from documents to passwords safer by encrypting the entire drive that Windows and your data reside on. Once BitLocker is turned on, any file you save on that drive is encrypted automatically.

BitLocker To Go—a new feature of Windows 7—gives the lockdown treatment to easily-misplaced portable storage devices like USB flash drives and external hard drives.

BitLocker locks down all your drives, so your data is safe from prying eyes.

Backup & Restore

Backup and Restore—improved for Windows 7—creates safety copies of your most important personal files, so you’re always prepared for the worst.

Let Windows choose what to back up, or pick individual folders, libraries, and drives yourself. Windows can back up files on whatever schedule you choose—just set it and forget it.

You can back up to another drive or a DVD. And if you’re using the Professional or Ultimate editions of Windows 7, you’ll also have the option of backing up your files to a network.

Parental Control

Even when you’re not looking over their shoulders, you can set limits on your kids’ computer use—and help them be safer online, too.

In Windows 7, Parental Controls helps you limit how much computer time children have, as well as which programs and games they can use (and perhaps more importantly, when). With the Parental Controls in Windows Media Center, you can also block access to objectionable TV shows and movies.

Windows Defender

Windows Defender is your first line of defense against spyware and other unwanted software.

And in Windows 7, it has simpler notifications, more scanning options, and less impact on your computer’s performance, too. A new feature called “Clean System” provides one-click purging of all suspicious software. Windows Defender is now part of Action Center, the new, streamlined place for keeping your PC running smoothly.

Windows Firewall

Windows Firewall can help protect your PC from hackers and malicious software. In Windows 7, it’s still powerful—but we’ve made it more flexible and easier to use.

For example, now you can fine-tune the protection and notifications you want for each of your network profiles—Home, Work, and Public. When you’re connected to a public network like a library or a coffee shop, you may want to block all incoming connections. At home or work, this might be overkill. Whatever level of protection you choose for your profiles, you’ll be able to switch between them with ease.

Jon Pigg

These stocks are courtesy of jonpigg, one of many featured photographers at the Garage.