Downloaded OK.
Installing: Had a small clash with my antivirus ("Please deactivate your antivirus to continue". Not my favorite way of installing things)
I had the Aston start menu from previous giveaway. This had to be stopped in order for the installation to go through.

"Do you want to keep the settings from the previous version?" Yes please, there is a REASON I had those settings...

"You need to log off to complete the installation". OK, I am always eager to please.

After log off/log on, I suddenly had all my OLD windows-settings back. Sidebars (that I have not used since I got Vista, and that is a long time ago), gadgets/widgets (whatever the name is) that Windows think is cool, and I never use...
It seem sthe "keep the old settings" relate to ASTON-settings, and NOT Windows-settings. Too bad, it should have been easy for them to import those settings when installing.

Looks cool enough, but not too happy with the installation and the changes they made of my setup.

spredo  –  14 years ago  –  Βρήκατε αυτό το σχόλιο χρήσιμο? ναι | όχι (+58)

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After installation my computer automatically restarted and I had a desktop without any icons. Restarted 3 times and still nothing, my computer was virtually useless, any key I pressed had no effect. There I was with just the walllpaper staring me in the face and nothing I could do about it. Finally after trying everything I could think of I went into safe mode and uninstalled Aston. Now everythings back to normal.

neiimii  –  14 years ago  –  Βρήκατε αυτό το σχόλιο χρήσιμο? ναι | όχι (+44)

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Excellent application, It's not "Flawless" but is a great breath of fresh air from the standard blue drabness of XP.
I'd been expecting this to come up after seeing some other Aston offerings over the past couple of weeks. I'm grinning from ear to ear.

What is offers:

Very highly customizable Start-menu, desktop, shortcut panels and widgets and so much more I couldn't possibly cover here.

It comes with 3 built-in themes with the ability do download heaps more from the astonshell.com website. The themes range from "simple and elegant" to "is that a control interface from the USS-enterprise"

Start menu....
Retains the bulk of your already customized settings and adds a few
handy shortcuts....
Clicking your name brings up user control.
Find is just a type n click away.
Log-off, shut down. suspend are one-click buttons integrated.

Widgets....
Similar to Vista, Mac and Windows 7, you can add widgets to your desktop.

Panels.....
You can add panels of your choice and there are a couple of "drawers" hiding to the left and right of the desktop which can be customized.

Desktop....
The desktop can be animated now, I particularly liked the Earth orbiting the Sun that came with one of the themes.


Issues noted:

It doesn't skin everything, most programs and windows stayed as drab n boring windows defaults. I can understand why it's difficult to do but it would make it more complete.

It turns sounds on even if you had them off by default, I jumped when I hit the start button and it made an insanely loud noise (I have a powerful sound system on my PC and all sounds off by default) Also that particular sound is what Avast normally makes at when it updates itself, confusing for sure.

It changes some program icons to some of the cursor pack files such as: "Dinosaur" (Dinosaurs) and "Old-fashioned" (the running horse)

My licensed DU meter suddenly went into "trial mode", easily rectified but re-inserting my existing serial number, but I still thought it was odd.


OVERALL:

Some things are a bit unpolished but I think it's rather intuitive and well setup. It breathes some eye-candy into an old machine whilst not killing off the usability factor, in fact it actually adds a lot of useful links and shortcuts.

anton  –  14 years ago  –  Βρήκατε αυτό το σχόλιο χρήσιμο? ναι | όχι (+41)

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instaled fast and ok on xp pro sp3, intel p4ht 3.8gz processor with 1 gig ram, running smooth with no problems, good amount of free themes to download from website too.

garymooreuk  –  14 years ago  –  Βρήκατε αυτό το σχόλιο χρήσιμο? ναι | όχι (+33)

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and...this program is for people that like,some to a lot, of "eye candy".The program installs easily and is clean and very versatile.There are many options available like Themes,Panels and Widgets.And as far as desktop themes go,it,to my knowledge,has the biggest selection available.It uses open source so there are many to be offered by Aston enthusiast.And of course,you can create your own and offer it to others!I use Aston along with Rainlender....

Greg  –  14 years ago  –  Βρήκατε αυτό το σχόλιο χρήσιμο? ναι | όχι (+33)

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