Many are still hesitant to upgrade to the new Windows Vista, perhaps the negative buzz and the massive system requirements have made Vista less desirable than Microsoft had hoped. Vista promised to integrate not only a 3D-interface or other exciting technologies but also a new file system, called WinFS, as well as the communication subsystem Indigo. Unfortunately the release of the WinFS File system has been postponed and Indigo is now available for Windows XP, so some may be asking why they would want to upgrade to Vista at all? Well, Microsoft has promised that there will be huge steps toward a secure environment which is virtually impossible to integrate into today’s Windows XP.

For those who feel a full system upgrade may be a little drastic just to try out the newly revamped interface, we have 5 software upgrades that transform your existing Windows XP operating system to look and feel exactly the same as the new Windows Vista.

Note: Some of these software upgrades may require extra RAM.

Vista Start Menu

Vista Start Menu turns XP’s Start menu into one like on Vista. The start menu not looks better but there are also many new features that are normally not there. These include:

• Resizable start menu
• Zoom in/out
• Program launcher
• Desktop search
• Power buttons
• Tabs and much more

Another noteworthy aspect, Vista Start Menu does not change your system settings, so it’s easy to install and simple to remove. Just how we like it.

Vista Transformation Pack 7

The Vista Transformation Pack changes XP’s interface, including the Start menu, the Control Panel, system dialogs, icons, and more, to Vista style. Also includes a transparency function to mimic Vista’s Aero Glass functionality. It’s probably the most comprehensive package out of all, so needs to be handled with care. We haven’t had any problem using this upgrade however there have been some reports of difficulties when uninstalling the program. The VTP will make some notable changes to your system, these include:

• Boot screen / Welcome Screen / Logon Screen
• New desktop, file and toolbar icons
• Progress Dialogs
• New System Tray icons
• New Sounds scheme
• New interface visual styles
• Windows Media Player Skins

Version 8 was released last month and is reported to be more stable.

Rocket Dock

RocketDock is a portable, memory-friendly, smoothly animated, alpha blended application launcher that sits on your screen. It provides a nice clean interface to drop shortcuts on for easy access and organization. Some features that are worth looking at include:

• Minimize active windows to the dock
• Drag-n-drop interface
• Dual-monitor support
• Auto-hide and Popup on mouse over
• Running application indicators

Check it out in action in the video below

VistaMizer

VistaMizer modifies roughly 400 of your system files, and when you reboot your system after installation you won’t even remember what your old desktop looked like. It changes lots of stuff and is also highly customizable. One of the most useful features here is that VistaMizer will keep backup of all the changes (so that you can easily revert it) and won’t replace/overwrite anything that would risk destabilizing your system.

WindowsBlinds

WindowsBlinds is not a program specifically designed to Vistalize your system. It’s more a tool for applying different visual theme on your entire current Windows environment: changing overall look and feel, title bars, push buttons, start bar, start menu and more. Similar to RocketDock, WindowsBlinds is memory-friendly and shouldn’t slow down your system.

Once installed, you can either apply one of the default visual themes or download one from the WindowsBlinds gallery (over 1000 themes). WindowsBlinds comes both in a free and paid version. Although the free version lacks some of the additional features it still does the job.