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Possible to change the rounded edges window style of OSX?

W

wonderbread57

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 11, 2008
455
2
I really want to switch to a macbook and OS X but for the longest time I have been put off by the general look of the OS X interface. Mainly the the rounded edges of windows and the three tiny mimize, close and miximize circle buttons for each window. Those little circles are way too small and making them circular instead of square lowers their area even more. Is there a way to change these look and feel attributes of OS X? Is there any encouraging future plans for snow leopard in the way of a different look or allowing visual preferences like this?

thanks
 
I would not count on the visuals changing much in Snow Leopard. The main driver for that release will be under the hood performance enhancements. Your best bet would be getting a third party app to mod your system and use themes. Its an option I do not recommend. If things go wrong (during OS software updates), its likely caused by incompatible mods. The best GUI I have ever seen is the default OS X GUI.
 
Those circles aren't that small.. If rounded edges are putting you off OS X, what about the BSoDs in Vista? Or lagginess. Or nonexistent battery management? What you mention are tiny details; not important.
 
I think OS X is a much more elegant and professional looking user interface than Windows, Gnome, or KDE. Windows XP looks like it was designed by Fischer-Price.

However I can understand it's not for everyone. As much as I like OS X it does bug me that the UI can't be customized. But I come from a Linux background where everything can be customized.

I'm used to the interface now and do like it. But I do find it annoying that my Macs look like virtually every other Mac out there.
 
The absolute last thing I'm looking at when I'm working on the Mac is the corners of windows or its buttons, especially when I've greyed the buttons out and use keyboard shortcuts. Ever consider you might be overplaying this particularly trivial complaint over other considerable gains?

Try putting a Mac through its paces for an hour or so at an AppleStore or other retailer. I guarantee you that will not be focussing on the 1mm radius of the window corners.
 
It's rather easy in Tiger; you can either use ThemePark to edit the Extras2.rsrc file yourself, or use the ShapeShifter haxie from Unsanity to theme your machine with an interface.

In Leopard, it's a bit trickier.

You have to change the SArtfile.bin file. http://macthemes2.net/wiki/SArtFile.bin

096 → Left Titlebar Highlight
097 → Window Corner Mask, Top Left
098 → Right Titlebar Highlight
099 → Window Corner Mask, Top Right

are the images you want to change. I'm working on a theme myself.

Good luck!
 
Please keep in mind that Apple itself removed some classic rounded edges: the edges of the screen itself. Apple has also made some edges a bit less rounded than in Tiger.
 
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