Essential 3rd Party Modules
If you haven't installed Litestep yet, I suggest that you check out the HOW-TO Install Litestep Tutorial first.
One of the things you should do almost immediately after installing Litestep is to download and install some third party modules (that, and update your build :). What makes Litestep the powerful interface changer that it is, is the huge variety of modules that Litestep users create and distribute. A complete list is available via the Module List. I'm only going to list a few modules that I believe any Litestep user should consider having on their system. If you're worried about how much memory LS takes up, I suggest that you don't worry about it. I have 12 or so modules set up on my system, and Litestep consistently uses between 1 and 2mb of memory. Of course, if you install a module that exists specifically to provide eye-candy , then LS is bound to use a bit more memory/CPU than normal.
Anyway, here's the list:
- Here's a module that deserves to be at the top of the list now (yes, higher than lsxcommand (see next module)): It's called "LsCount". LsCount is a census taker for Litestep in order to determine how many people are using Litestep. So, if you plan on running LS for more longer than a day or two (which is what many people do) than you should install this module. It's a rather simple process to set it up, and it doesn't send any personal information about you or your computer at all. It's only purpose it to count any people are using Litestep. It will only connect one time, so you can uninstall the module after it connects if you like. Thank you for helping our cause.
- First and foremost, you should set up LSXCommand, Visigoth's rewrite of the older LSCommand module. LSXCommand is basically a command-line which accepts normal Windows commands (ie. you can run programs from lsx, open files, etc) as well as the standard Litestep !bang command. This provides a very simple way for you to run a !bang command that you don't have set up via popup, hotkey, shortcut, or the like. For instance, if for some reason you want to run !about, but you only use this !bang command every couple weeks then it might be a bit impracticle to set up popup to run this command. So instead, you would just type !about in lsxcommand. I urge you to install this module. You'll wonder how you ever lived without it once you get it set up.
- Secondly, I suggest that you take a look at systray.dll, a very popular system tray module. If you're using LS .24.5 or 11/23/99 (or any build from before 11/23) then you might be using desktop.dll's system tray. I myself was until October of 1999 or so. If you want added features such as transparency, a background that shrinks and grows according to the size of the systray, and a ton of other features that you just don't get with desktop.dll's system tray, then you should look into using systray.
- Another must-have module is tasks.dll which has a huge feature set. It's got nearly everything you could think of for a task manager module.
- Shortcut.dll is also usually an immediate upgrade for LS users. There are, as of the 5/26 build, two different modules that you can use instead of the core shortcut module. One of the most popular is easycuts, a shortcut module which supports a ton of cool additions to the standard shortcut module such as the ability to drag a file from an Explorer window onto you LS desktop in order to create a shorcut, a right-click menu, shortcut groups, plus more. Also, as of the 5/26 build of Litestep, you can now use shortcut2.dll which is a new core module for Litestep. It's main additions are speed/size (my shortcuts load in a split second now), full support for shortcut groups, and the ability to specify whether a shortcut group is on top or on the bottom via bang commands. You can also specify whether or not a shortcut uses transparency in order to optimize the speed of the shortcuts.
- If you want a better clock than the clock wharf module that's included with .24.5 then you should look into downloading Chronos. Chronos has an almost unlimited feature set. For instance, my current setup shows the current time and date (so it looks something like "5:20 AM (03)"). If I right click on Chronos it shows the day of the week as well as the month and date (looks like "Sat Jun-03"). If I right-click Chronos again, it shows the current Internet time (looks like "@556:95"). If I right-click again, it shows the current system uptime (currently is "9:05:01:02" (which is 9 days, 5 hours, 1 minute, and 2 seconds)). Right-clicking once more brings me back to my original display. Of course, if you wanted, you could show these formats whereever and however you want. There are plenty of other possibilities. If I double-click on Chronos, the time/date control panel pops up. All of this is configurable.
- For people who rely heavily on their VWM (Virtual Window Manager. Also known as a "pager"), you should look into getting SysVWM. Actually, all you really have to do is look in your Litestep directory. It's included with all of the builds. But many people don't even know it's there (FYI, vwm2.dll, which is included with the latest builds works just as well now).
- Another very common module is GeekAmp. Geekamp is a !bang module (ie. it adds !bang commands to Litestep which perform specific functions) which adds !bang commands that control Winamp. You can set up shortcut, popup, or hotkey to run these bang commands which range in functionality from the basic play, stop, pause, forward, and back functions, to the ability to change the volume or open the playlist window using !bang commands.
Continuing the Tutorials
If you're looking to upgrade your .24.5 base install to a dev build, then you should read HOW-TO Upgrade to a recent build.
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