HOWTO Make Ubuntu Look Like Windows Vista
Posted by admin on May 6th, 2008 
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Download Microsoft Segoe UI Font from here
Unzip the downloaded archive and place the two .ttf files in your .fonts directory.
You can find it in your user folder. /home/$USERNAME/.fonts/
For example: /home/ruchi/.fonts
If the directory .fonts does not exist, create it.
Download Aero-clone theme
Download the Aero-clone theme from Gnome-look.org or here
Install the Beryl and GTK theme as usual
Icons
Download the nuoveXT-aero iconset
Download the nuoveXT-aero iconset from here
Panel
Change the gnome-panel size to 32px height.For this you need to Right-click on the gnome panel (the taskbar at the top of the screen) select properties
Change the size to 32 and click on close
Vista start-button screenlet
Download and install “Desktop Screenlets” and you can download from here
Install the “orb” screenlet (The orb screenlet is included in the .tar.gz from gnome-look.org) or from here .Place the orb screenlet above the main-menu button and lock the position.
Vista Wallpapers
If you want to make the experience complete download some Vista wallpapers for your desktop.
Download vista wallpapers from here or here or here
Install cursor to aero-drop
Download aero-drop (Aero Mouse Cursor with Drop Shadow) from here
Extract the archive and move the folder to ~/.icons/ .
Go to System—> Preferences—> Appearance—> Theme—> Customize—> Pointer—> aero-drop—> Close—> Close.
Then, go to ccsm (if you don’t have it install it with “sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager”).
General Options—> Cursor theme—> aero-drop
Close ccsm.
That’s it you are ready for vista look for your ubuntu desktop
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April 5th, 2008 at 2:51 am
I found one person who prefer the Vista appearance… Free tip: art.gnome.org or gnome-look.org You can change every little thing in Ubuntu, enjoy it! Hugs
May 6th, 2008 at 10:39 am
Hi,
thank u for this tutorial but I can’t see why I should make my lovely Ubuntu like a garbage (windows vista).
May 6th, 2008 at 10:45 am
who to hell would like to change the look of linux to that shitty “mawworm”
May 6th, 2008 at 11:34 am
this will show how flexible ubuntu can be and this is entirely users choice
May 6th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
How about a tutorial to make Windows Vista look like Ubuntu. Then all my friends won’t think I’m so lame.
May 6th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
here you go http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-make-windows-look-like-ubuntu.html
May 6th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
i dont get peoples who wants make linux look like something else… windows or macos… why u need this! linux is beautiful!
May 6th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
What everyone seems to forget is the poor slob (like me!) who is working in a “Windows only” work environment, but needs or wants to use Linux. Being able to camouflage your operating system so that it looks like a Microsoft product when it is in fact Linux is tremendously useful in such a case! I know that it’s a compromise, but better that compromise than living in the hell that is Windows!
May 7th, 2008 at 7:19 am
Thanks this is what my wife was looking for. She loves the look of Vista but has come to love her new Ubuntu OS. Thank you for this. Also any printable instructions that include the address for the sites you link to so I can print it for later? Thanks again.
May 7th, 2008 at 10:43 am
No screenshots of the result ?
May 13th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Hey If I change ubuntu to look like vista would it give me same problem as vista. kidding………
May 14th, 2008 at 1:38 am
It would be nice if language like,”Install in the usual way” was abolished for people who might not know what “the usual way” is.
May 16th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Can you please amplify what you mean by “Install the Beryl and GTK theme as usual”, don’t assume your readers have the necessary knowledge please, I in particular need all teh help I can get !!
May 16th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
@pompeyrodney
For the Beryl theme
You don’t need Beryl. Install Emerald (The Beryl themes are Emerald themes )
sudo apt-get install emerald
Open Emerald by typing in a terminal “emerald-theme-manager”, click on Import and find the theme.
2) For the GTK theme
Go to “System > Preferences > Appearance > Install” and install the theme.
To apply the Emerald theme, after you imported it, you must type in a terminal
emerald
--replaceSometimes emerald might crash and you don’t have frames on your windows, press Alt + F2 and type “emerald
--replace” again.May 18th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Can i change Ubuntu Back to what it looked like originally?
June 4th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
@ Nissan:
For Gnome, go to system->preferences->appearance
Then click on the human theme, select the Heron for the desktop and whatever else you would want to change back.
June 13th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Reading articles like makes me wanna customize my desktop again.
Customizing Ubuntu is really addictive.
I spend days customizing/tweaking/fine-tweaking my desktop/splash screen/gdm.
Don’t go to gnome-look.org, It is highly addictive!!!