15 ways to fake Windows XP for free

Reinvent your PC

Whether you want to rip away Windows 98's interface or sharpen your OS text, we have you covered. These five tips will help you transform the look of Windows 98 or Millennium so that it resembles Windows XP. Best of all, you won't have to spend a red cent.

XP icons without XP
There's no denying that Windows XP's icons look snappier than past versions'. Want a new look? Start with your icons. While making your own suave icons can be a worthwhile hobby for some (if you decide to dabble in the icon fashion industry, we recommend that you try the shareware program Microangelo), it isn't a vocation everyone has time for. Fortunately, there's a great shortcut you can use to transform Windows 98 or Me into XP-like beauties.

First, download and install IconPackager on your 98 or Me machine, then head to WinCustomize, a site teeming with downloadable skins, or interface designs. Click the IconPackager link under Library (at the left of the screen), then, in the search field at the top of the window, type XP and click Go. We found 10 different XP-style icon packages to download. Our faves? XP Set v2 and the follow-up, XP Set v3.

More fake XP faces
WindowBlinds, a nifty desktop mutation app, came out with version 3.0 in late November. We're keen on WindowBlinds now more than ever, thanks to several improvements. Most important, WindowBlinds now takes a smaller toll on the performance of older 98 and Me systems. If you want to make Windows 98 or Windows Me look like XP, WindowBlinds XPLuna is a good skin to try. The newer XP-ish skin, XP Professional v2, won't make your PC a clone of XP, but it comes mighty close. Scads more XP-ish skins have cropped up at sites such as WinCustomize.

There are also some non-XP skins that beat XP hands down in the usability department. Just because a skin has the letters X and P in the title doesn't mean you can't use it if you run Windows 98 or Me. You can--as long as you have WindowBlinds 3.0 on board. Our favorite XP replacement so far is OSXP (available from WinCustomize), which includes controls for Winamp in the title bar of every window.

See more clearly
Although there's no way to duplicate ClearType--the XP technology that dramatically improves readability, especially on LCD screens, you should use the font-smoothing feature available for your version of Windows. Font smoothing is built into Windows 98 and Me, but you may not have it enabled. To check, head to the Display Properties settings, which you can pull up by right-clicking any empty spot on the desktop and choosing Properties from the pop-up menu. Click the Effects tab, then look to see if the "Smooth edges of screen fonts" box is checked. If it's not, check it and click OK. Your eyes will thank you.

Unfortunately, Microsoft didn't include font smoothing in Windows 95 (it came with the aftermarket collection of add-ons known as Plus), but you can now download it free from the Microsoft Web site. Do so ASAP.

Show me the picture
Both Windows Me and XP include a built-in image viewer that lets you quickly browse images in your folders, zoom in and out on the images, and rotate and print them--all without opening a large graphics editor such as Photoshop.

Windows 98 folks, however, are left out in the cold. Thankfully, it doesn't take much to reap a similar benefit. Download and install the free IrfanView, a popular image previewer and viewer for all editions of Windows.

Look at my dog, Skip
Windows XP comes with a basic slide-show screensaver (select Display Properties > Screensavers > My Pictures Slideshow) that's perfect for showing off the most recent photos of your trip to Paris, your new kitten, or your kids.

This trick isn't just for those of you with Windows XP, however. Windows Me offers something just like it, also available in the Screensavers tab of Display Properties, called "My pictures screen saver." To get this effect on your Windows 98 machine, download gPhotoShow, a free slide-show screensaver that randomly shuffles JPEG, BMP, and GIF images on the screen.