I came across this forum post on the PAF forums today...


Alright, I was reading the Steam forums and someone posted about this so I downloaded it and tried it out.

It is called Aston Shell. Here's a description of what it is.

Aston is a new Desktop and Shell replacement for Windows 9X/ME/NT/2K/XP.
It replaces the standard Windows Desktop and provides you with a host of new features, such as Sidebars, clock, weather monitor, animated buttons, transparency effects and much more.
Aston also supports Themes, which allow you to change its appearance and functionality according to your mood and needs. No matter what visual style you like: XP, Aqua or something else; you can always download hundreds of Themes, created by professional designers or amateurs from Aston's homepage or one of numerous other skin sites.
Aston features a powerful and user friendly interface, which lets you change your new desktop's appearance and behavior in few seconds. No need to learn complicated configuration files, everything can be configured in a simple graphical interface.
A great balance between performance and appearance allows you to launch Aston even on out of the date PCs or its enjoy many advanced features on more modern computers. Aston is very stable and has a small memory footprint and low CPU usage, so you can free your processor time for other tasks.

Now, what does this have to do with gaming?? Well, thats what the guy in the STEAM forums was talking about. He said that since Windows Explorer is such a system hog and that this totally replaces it and takes up way less space that it frees up resources for games.

I decided to test this theory and installed it and then fired up Source.

I also changed my video settings in CSS put most settings on high (something I don't normally do.)

I then joined de_aztec wjich I normally get crap FPS on due to the rain etc. To my surprise, my FPS was higher than I normally get with my settings on HIGH!!

I finished out aztec and joined cbble. Same thing, played great, and the stutter and looping bug issues i've had since the last update were GONE.

The other thing about using this is that it looks cooler than f00k. Themes are built in and you can easliy download and install TONS more from their web site.

I am highly recommending this program. Damn it's cool.

Soopa

I've check it out and gained about 10 FPS and CSS loaded form desktop in 35 seconds instead of 68 - I'm pretty impressed. Tried on Wife's machine too and she got about an extra 5 FPS, but the start up was still halved from 75 to 38.

I can now switch from full screen CSS to desktop in about 2 seconds, instead of the 15 - 20 I used to have to suffer.

I've noticed much smoother browsing on the web, and all apps are opening faster.

The supplied desktop themes could take a little getting used to, but there are loads of free ones to download and tweak. Worth "teaching an old dog new tricks" for the performance gain I think.

It's 30 trial of the Shareware version - the £13 to download the legit version - maybe be worth the investment.

Aston Shell

Hubby