Preamble
Litestep currently has couple options for installation, depending on what version of Windows you have and you want from it:
- If you have Windows XP or earlier, installation is easy as pie: [Option 1]
- If you have Vista or newer and you want all the newest updates and modules, go for [Option 2]
- You can also have a 64bit version of it: [Option 3]
- Last option for Vista and above uses older files but has more ready support for older themes: [Option 4]
If you need help or have any questions, feel free to drop by in the #litestep IRC channel on freenode.net.
Required VC redistributables: 2005 SP1, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2013
Option 1: Windows XP & earlier
This is the only option for earlier Windowses, should support almost all available themes and modules right out of the box.
How to install:- Download LOSI and install Litestep.
- Download the Litestep experimental build 2009-04-04 (local mirror) and extract it into the Litestep folder, overwriting all files.
- If your Windows is 64bit, download SetShell64 (local mirror), launch it and browse to Litestep.exe.
Option 2: Vista and above - Up to date 32bit edition
Pros:- All the newest updates
- nModules
- Designed with Vista+ in mind
- Problems with xModules
- Older themes using xModules (aka the majority of available ones) are likely not to work without extra work put in
- Download LOSI and install Litestep. Do note that LS might not have write access to some necessary folders if you install it under Program Files (x86) or other protected folder.
- Download the newest (local mirror) experimental build and extract it into the Litestep folder, overwriting all files.
- If your Windows is 64bit, download SetShell64 (local mirror), launch it and browse to Litestep.exe.
Option 3: Vista and above - Up to date 64bit edition
This is the same as above but uses 64bit executables and modules. Pros/cons are as above, plus:
Pros:- Is able to show all 64bit Control Panel entries in the Popup menu
- Can utilise above 4GB of RAM (although something's gone horribly wrong if this actually happens)
- Very limited module selection
- Because of above, very limited theme availability
- Download LOSI and install Litestep. Do note that LS might not have write access to some necessary folders if you install it under Program Files or other protected folder.
- Download the newest 64bit (local mirror) experimental build and extract it into the Litestep folder, overwriting all files
- Download 64bit NetLoadModule (local mirror) and extract all files to Litestep\NLM folder, overwriting all files
- To set Litestep as shell, download SetShell64 (local mirror), launch it and browse to Litestep.exe.
Option 4: Vista and above - Max compatibility
Pros:- More old themes should work right out of the box
- xModule support
- No support for nModules
- Stability issues(..?)
- Quite out of date
- Download LOSI and install Litestep. Do note that LS might not have write access to some necessary folders if you install it under Program Files (x86) or other protected folder.
- Download the Litestep experimental build 2009-04-04 (local mirror) and extract it into the Litestep folder, overwriting all files.
- Download the xTray fix for Vista+ and extract litestep.exe to Litestep folder and xTray-2.2.2.dll to Litestep\modules folder.
- If your Windows is 64bit, download SetShell64, (local mirror) launch it and browse to Litestep.exe.