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Description
TUTORIAL SUPER OUTDATED, DON'T EVEN TRY READING

Tutorial on how to make firefox look like Internet Explorer in Vista

Now downloadable with MS Word tutorial (doc) , and titleBar icon changing kit!

OK, I think we all use firefox, and never IE7, because firefox is faster,safer, more reliable and more expendable then any browser present these days. But we are customizing everything right? This is a tutorial on how to make firefox look perfectly like vista. Why? Because we want a vista look in our XP, and because the skin used here is one of the most popular and most efficient of all. Also i wanted to share the best addons and settings I use with you guys!

You can see in the preview typical screenshot of Internet Explorer in Vista, and pimped firefox! Some similarities there huh?

Step 1:

Download Firefox! (5.7 MB) Every computer must have firefox installed - is it a mac, or linux or windows!

Step 2:

Once you installed firefox, you will see the default theme, but no tabs - go to Tools>Options>Tabs and check the "Always show the tab bar"
Step 3:

The most important thing - download and install Vista Aero skin , once you installed it - go to Tools>Add-ons>Themes and select to use Vista-Aero - restart firefox.

Download Vista-Aero for firefox 3 Drag the jar files to opened addons window
Note: it's a little older version, so the vista aero modifier won't work.

Download a patch to make ALL skin fonts look like vista: [link]

Step 4:

You will see the new look, once you restarted firefox, but this is not enough for a vista feeling, follow next steps to make firefox even more closer to IE7

Step 5:

Right-click menubar and select "customize" - then just drag and drop the elements that you don't need from firefox to the window, or those that you need - from the window to firefox. I recommend just leaving navigation bar, search bar, and bookmarks.

Step 6:

Download and install Personal Menu and myFireFox & Vista-aero Modifier. With personal menu - you can right-click the menubar and select to hide it! You can always unhide the menubar by right-clicking areas near navigation panel and deselecting hide menubar.
myFireFox & Vista-aero Modifier is the perfect addon for this theme - You can simply click on tools on the right top side, and select theme settings - from there you can customize the theme.

Step 7:

Optional addons:

Fission - a addon that ads you a progress bar to the address bar background - just like in IE7+ vista, (also much earlier in safari) here is a preview: [link] You can chose a color or a image for it. Press the tools button, select addons, and Fission, click options. Download this Progressbar image (animated and looks almost exactly like vista) 900px, for a larger version (bigger monitors, use the 1280 px version: [link] )
Extra progressbars:
IE7 non-animated
Vista Animated
Vista Animated Blue from the fission options browse to the image (make sure the image is always in the specified location). Now you will see a animated progress bar behind the adress every time you load a page!

Firefox Showcase - allows you to see all open pages thumbnails when pressing the showcase (4 squares) button integrated in Vista-Aero theme.

Firesomething
- a great addon for firefox - it allows to change the window title - for eg Windows Internet Explorer instead of Mozilla firefox, there are other funny integrated names - like "Mozilla Firebadger" and "Mozilla Poweroyster"

And that's it! With the add-ons mentioned above you'll have perfect IE7 Firefox!

You can download alot more useful addons - here are few that I recommend:
Dictionaries
These addons allow to have a spell-checking sequences in firefox when typing - very useful, and supports almost every language!

FasterFox - just amazing addon - it speeds up firefox very much - pages load in seconds:
Internet Explorer loading it's own home page: ~6 secs
Firefox with FasterFox addon loading Internet Explorer homepage: ~2 secs

I chose IE7 homepage - because I think it's very overcrowded with useless eyecandy (m$ fails again) - and perfect for testing (other pages like DA load instantly on firefox)

AdBlock plus - this adblocker can block any annoying add (especially flash ads, that are heavy to load for some connections)! And it saves settings for websites - when you come back - the ads are gone.

FoxyTunes - very nice music player - the controls are integrated in the statusbar - so no extra space is needed.

The addons do not slow down firefox, I personally have about 12 add-ons - and no affect on the browsing experience! But if you install too much add-ons - firefox may slow down...

More firefox related tutorials and news:
Pimp Firefox for the best DeviantArt experience!

=mozilla on DeviantArt

If you like this tutorial, please comment or give it a !

Comments and suggestions are welcome!

Note: real Internet Explorer from Vista Ultimate was used during the development of this tutorial, but i assure you that I used it for no more then 4 minutes (security and reasons) I always use firefox!

You can use this stamp in your journal:

Description
TUTORIAL SUPER OUTDATED, DON'T EVEN TRY READING

Tutorial on how to make firefox look like Internet Explorer in Vista

Now downloadable with MS Word tutorial (doc) , and titleBar icon changing kit!

OK, I think we all use firefox, and never IE7, because firefox is faster,safer, more reliable and more expendable then any browser present these days. But we are customizing everything right? This is a tutorial on how to make firefox look perfectly like vista. Why? Because we want a vista look in our XP, and because the skin used here is one of the most popular and most efficient of all. Also i wanted to share the best addons and settings I use with you guys!

You can see in the preview typical screenshot of Internet Explorer in Vista, and pimped firefox! Some similarities there huh?

Step 1:

Download Firefox! (5.7 MB) Every computer must have firefox installed - is it a mac, or linux or windows!

Step 2:

Once you installed firefox, you will see the default theme, but no tabs - go to Tools>Options>Tabs and check the "Always show the tab bar"
Step 3:

The most important thing - download and install Vista Aero skin , once you installed it - go to Tools>Add-ons>Themes and select to use Vista-Aero - restart firefox.

Download Vista-Aero for firefox 3 Drag the jar files to opened addons window
Note: it's a little older version, so the vista aero modifier won't work.

Download a patch to make ALL skin fonts look like vista: [link]

Step 4:

You will see the new look, once you restarted firefox, but this is not enough for a vista feeling, follow next steps to make firefox even more closer to IE7

Step 5:

Right-click menubar and select "customize" - then just drag and drop the elements that you don't need from firefox to the window, or those that you need - from the window to firefox. I recommend just leaving navigation bar, search bar, and bookmarks.

Step 6:

Download and install Personal Menu and myFireFox & Vista-aero Modifier. With personal menu - you can right-click the menubar and select to hide it! You can always unhide the menubar by right-clicking areas near navigation panel and deselecting hide menubar.
myFireFox & Vista-aero Modifier is the perfect addon for this theme - You can simply click on tools on the right top side, and select theme settings - from there you can customize the theme.

Step 7:

Optional addons:

Fission - a addon that ads you a progress bar to the address bar background - just like in IE7+ vista, (also much earlier in safari) here is a preview: [link] You can chose a color or a image for it. Press the tools button, select addons, and Fission, click options. Download this Progressbar image (animated and looks almost exactly like vista) 900px, for a larger version (bigger monitors, use the 1280 px version: [link] )
Extra progressbars:
IE7 non-animated
Vista Animated
Vista Animated Blue from the fission options browse to the image (make sure the image is always in the specified location). Now you will see a animated progress bar behind the adress every time you load a page!

Firefox Showcase - allows you to see all open pages thumbnails when pressing the showcase (4 squares) button integrated in Vista-Aero theme.

Firesomething
- a great addon for firefox - it allows to change the window title - for eg Windows Internet Explorer instead of Mozilla firefox, there are other funny integrated names - like "Mozilla Firebadger" and "Mozilla Poweroyster"

And that's it! With the add-ons mentioned above you'll have perfect IE7 Firefox!

You can download alot more useful addons - here are few that I recommend:
Dictionaries
These addons allow to have a spell-checking sequences in firefox when typing - very useful, and supports almost every language!

FasterFox - just amazing addon - it speeds up firefox very much - pages load in seconds:
Internet Explorer loading it's own home page: ~6 secs
Firefox with FasterFox addon loading Internet Explorer homepage: ~2 secs

I chose IE7 homepage - because I think it's very overcrowded with useless eyecandy (m$ fails again) - and perfect for testing (other pages like DA load instantly on firefox)

AdBlock plus - this adblocker can block any annoying add (especially flash ads, that are heavy to load for some connections)! And it saves settings for websites - when you come back - the ads are gone.

FoxyTunes - very nice music player - the controls are integrated in the statusbar - so no extra space is needed.

The addons do not slow down firefox, I personally have about 12 add-ons - and no affect on the browsing experience! But if you install too much add-ons - firefox may slow down...

More firefox related tutorials and news:
Pimp Firefox for the best DeviantArt experience!

=mozilla on DeviantArt

If you like this tutorial, please comment or give it a !

Comments and suggestions are welcome!

Note: real Internet Explorer from Vista Ultimate was used during the development of this tutorial, but i assure you that I used it for no more then 4 minutes (security and reasons) I always use firefox!

You can use this stamp in your journal: