Why not get the best of both worlds? If you’re tired of the “look and feel” of your Windows OS Desktop and you find Mac’s stylish Desktop attractive, then here’s a quick guide on how you can make it look like a Mac Desktop with a dock menu and everything. It’s an affordable and quite a creative way of getting that Mac feel you want within just a couple of minutes.

Apple’s OS desktop has always been widely considered to be cleaner, more intuitive, and more customizable than Microsoft’s. Although with the new Vista OS, windows now has a couple of nice features in regards to design. So why not have the best of both worlds by enhancing your Windows Desktop to look just like Mac’s, while still being able to work off Window’s OS.

The overall objective of this guide is to allow you to convert the actual look of your Windows Desktop into a Mac Desktop by tweaking things up and simply installing some neat applications, most of which are free to download and easy to use.

Below there are two sets of instructions, Part 1 and Part 2, both of which provide you with simple steps on how to achieve the Mac look on your Windows PC. The first part will allow you to obtain the most common traits of Mac’s Desktop style to a certain extent, while the second part allows the more advanced users an extended version by continuing the customization process. If you’re not a savvy PC user, then I recommend just sticking to the first part, you’ll still get the Mac feel you’re after.

Part 1 (Novice):
1. Desktop Wallpaper - First lets start with your desktop wallpaper, although this first step is relatively small, it really makes the difference. Click Here to browse through an almost endless selection of Mac Desktop Wallpapers on Deviantart.com. You can find all of the Panther, Tiger, and even Leopard OS Wallpapers plus more. Once you find one that you like best, just download it, save it to your computer, and change your desktop background through your Control Panel.

2. Clean-up Your Desktop - Keep a minimalistic mindset, and a clutter-free desktop by removing all your application shortcut icons that are currently on your desktop. Remember that just because you’re removing them, doesn’t mean their deleted. They are still accessible through your Start Menu, so don’t worry. Now when it comes to folders or external hard drive icons on your desktop, I suggest to read the following step before doing anything with them since you may want to keep them on there.

3. Setup & Install Your New Mac Icon Sets - Now that we have a clean desktop, go ahead and download the following icon sets and save them onto your computer. Mac Icon Set 1, Mac Icon Set 2, and Mac Icon Set SE. There’s a vast selection of Mac Icon Sets at DeviantArt, just browse and download the ones that you want on your computer. With these sets installed you can switch the appearance of your folder icons and external hard drive icons, along with any other icons you see fit to change. This will start to get your Windows Desktop to feel more like a Mac Desktop.

4. Hide the Windows Taskbar - Now we need to get rid of the Windows Taskbar at the bottom, this is done by right-clicking on the actual Taskbar and selecting “Properties”. Once the properties window pops-up, just mark the box that says “Auto-hide the Taskbar” and click “Apply” to save the changes. You’ll notice that your Taskbar simply slides down, hiding itself, but easily reappears by putting your mouse over the lower bottom of your screen. It’s completely reversible if needed, just follow the same steps I mentioned above again, but this time un-check the box on “Auto-hide the Taskbar”, that’s all.

5. Setup & Install Mac Cursor Set - It’s all about the details, so now we’re going to download and setup your new set of icon cursors for your mouse, which will give it that extra touch of the Mac’s OS. Click Here to download and save your icon cursor set onto your computer, once downloaded make sure to open the ‘Readme’ file for installation instructions.

6. Mac-like Dock Menu - Mac’s main menu system is a major component in making your Windows Desktop look and feel like an actual Mac Desktop, and it’s also the easiest step to take care of. Simply download either the RK Launcher or the Rocket Dock application. Both of these applications display a Mac-like Dock system which can be fully customized to fit your needs. Now you can add all your application shortcut icons straight into your very own dock, while also making good use of the Mac icon sets you downloaded earlier. You’ll really notice the transformation in this step.

7. Add Widgets to Desktop - If you’re not running Windows Vista OS on your PC to satisfy your widget cravings, then here are a couple of Widget apps. that’ll let you install Widgets right onto your desktop just like a Mac. The two most popular Desktop Widget apps. are currently provided by Google and by Yahoo, both with a massive library of Widgets. Look through them and select the one that best suits your needs, and install it along with any nice widgets you want.

8. Get Mac Applications - Alright, so now you’ve covered the most common traits of the Mac OS Desktop, but lets take it a bit further by installing some Windows-compatible Mac applications. From now on we’ll listen to music with the popular iTunes, we’ll browse the web 2x faster with Safari, watch our favorite videos using QuickTime, and connect to networks with Bonjour.

Part 2 Optional (Advanced):

Below I’ve listed three ways to get closer at achieving a Mac Desktop Interface, I don’t recommend you installing all of them, so simply choose the one that best suits your needs.

Stardock’s Object Desktop - An application which allows you to change the ‘theme’ (also know as the ’skin’) of your Windows OS, making it possible to have a Mac look-alike theme throughout all your screens, even converting the Taskbar to look like Mac’s. This app is best for completely emulating the look and feel of Mac’s Desktop interface, by allowing you full customization of your Windows OS. Check out Stardock’s website for more information.

FlyakiteOSX (Free) - This application is an all-in-one, conveniently enhancing your Windows into a full-on Mac experience. FlyakiteOSX is a transformation pack that transforms the look and feel of an ordinary Windows XP+ system to resemble the look and feel of a Mac OS X system. The installer simply automates the process of replacing critical system files, setting registry tweaks, and installing extras such as cursors, sounds, visual styles, etc. Click Here to check it out.

ShellWM (Free, but Not Tested) - This app. is basically a titlebar-only shell replacement, it allows you to have the 3 Mac bottons (i.e. Minimize, Enlarge, and Close) on the top left-side of your windows for free. This Windows skinning application is to be used with a Win32 Shell replacement (like Litestep, geOshell, sharpE, etc.) or just native Explorer. Click Here to check out and/or download ShellWM, then click here for the Mac skin for it.

That’s it, now you’ve converted your Windows PC Desktop into a stylish Mac-like Desktop, hope you enjoy it.