Making Ubuntu Look and Feel Like Windows XP

By Andrew Min

Windows XP is still the most popular operating system today, despite being ever so slightly outdated. The main reason is that people are comfortable with it. They’re comfortable with the way it looks, the way it works, and the way it acts. That’s a huge reason why many people refuse to switch to Linux, OS X, and even Vista. Luckily, there is hope for Linux evangelists. Just make Linux look like Windows!

Before you go down to the comment section to write an angry comment about why we shouldn’t make Linux look like Windows, stop and read this. My Kubuntu install looks very KDEish, and I have no intention of making it look like Windows. However, some people just can’t live without Windows’ look and feel. They are the people this article is targeting.

Before…

…and after

Skinning Ubuntu

The first thing to do is combine the top and bottom desktop panels. First, delete the bottom panel by right-clicking on it and hitting Delete. Then, drag the top panel to the bottom so that it resembles the Windows taskbar. Next, delete everything except the Notification Area, the time, and the sound. Add the Main Menu and Window List, and then move everything around until it looks right.

Now, it’s time to configure the desktop. Hit Alt-F2 and run gconf-editor. Go to apps/nautilus/desktop and check computer_icon_visible, home_icon_visible, network_icon_visible, and trash_icon_visible. Optionally, uncheck volumes_visible to prevent drives to show up on the desktop. You can also double click on the corresponding icon’s name to change it to a string like My Computer or My Network Places. Finally, add a Windows XP-like wallpaper to your desktop (like my Tux Family Portrait wallpaper).

The next thing to do is to install the GTK+ theme. My favorite XP-like themes are XPLuna and XPLuna Metallic, the blue and silver versions of the (in)famous official Windows XP theme. Just download them from their homepage, open the theme manager (System > Preferences > Appearance), and drag them into it. However, the transformation may not work right away, often resulting in a very ugly 1990s look. To fix this, hit the Customize button and change the Controls and Window Borders to XPLuna. You may also notice that the panel is a little small. Right-click on it, hit Properties, and change the size to a size you fell happier with. I personally like 30px.

The fonts are also a little off. The solution for this problem is to install the package msttcorefonts with apt, aptitude, or synaptic. You’ll also want the Tahoma font, with install instructions available here. Once everything is installed, go back to Appearance Preferences and then the Font tab. Change the Application font and Desktop font to Tahoma 8, the Window title to Trebuchet MS Bold 10, and the Document font to Times New Romans 12. Now, the fonts should be much closer to what they look like in Windows XP.

There’s still one thing that doesn’t look quite right: the icons. You may have noticed that the Tango icons don’t really make a nice contrast with the Luna theme. There’s a simply solution: the GnomeXP icon set. Just download it and drag it into the Appearance Manager like you did with XPLuna. Then, click the Customize button again, click the Icons tab, and select GnomeXP.

Now that the interface is all set up, there’s one more thing to make Ubuntu look completely like Windows XP. The login theme. Right now, Ubuntu still uses the Human GDM login theme, which looks great, but not very XP-ish. You can solve this problem by downloading Windoze Professional, a GDM theme from Gnome-Look. Then go to System > Administration > Login Window, click the Local tab, click Add, find Windoze Professional, and then select it in the list.

All that’s left is the optional job of skinning some of Ubuntu’s main programs to make them integrate even more into Luna. The first place to start is Firefox. In my opinion, the best theme for fitting into Windows is the Firefox 2 theme, available here. There are also the MozXP and IE6 themes, but at the time of this writing neither worked with Linux.

Another popular application that can fit very well into Luna is the VLC media player. To Lunatize it, download the MediaPlayer skin from the VLC Skins page. After you do so, run the command vlc -I skins2. When VLC launches, right click on it and hit Select Skin > Open Skin… Select the .vlt that you downloaded, and VLC should now resemble Windows Media Player.

Conclusion

Obviously, it’s impossible to make Ubuntu look completely like XP. However, I believe it’s very close. And if people see something similar to what they already know, they’ll be much more inclined to try it. This setup still won’t function completely like Windows, but new users will feel just a little more at home in their new Ubuntu setup.

Further Reading

• The Ubuntu Help Wiki’s Free Software Alternatives page
• The Ubuntu Help Wiki’s Windows Applications Equivalents page
• The Ubuntu Help Wiki’s Software Equivalents page
• The official Ubuntu Switching From Windows guide
• Wine, a compatibility layer for running Windows apps on Linux