Adjusting Aston Config for Eye On Spring

As far as I'm concerned, Aston is THE perfect shell replacement app and the possibilities for using all different kinds of skins only adds to it's success. However..... switching from one theme to another can be an frustrating experience if you're using other plugins than the author of the theme was at the time he created it.

So, I'll try to explain how to set Aston up for optimal enjoyment of Eye Of Spring :D.

•  Aston version
  
  Eye on Spring has been created for Aston 1.9.1. Earlier versions probably won't support the new toppanel.

  • If you're running this version: just go ahead and launch Eye On Spring by opening the Theme Wizard (probably in the Start Menu, depending on the theme you've loaded currently) and choosing Eye On Spring in the screen resolution of your choice.

  • Still using an older version? Isn't this a great tome for downloading 1.9.1 and check out those new features? ;)
     
•  Plugins
  
  To make every aspect of my theme work you might want to check if you loaded all plug-ins I used.
  To check which plug-ins you've got loaded:
   
  • Rightclick somewhere on the desktop wallpaper and choose "settings".
  • In the left column, hit "Plug-ins"
    
    
     
  • These are the ones I used for EOS:
    • DisksEx - Showing space on your harddisk(s)
    • Panel -the one on top, but it's not the older Toppanel!
    • RecycleBinEx - Showing how full your recycle bin is and by right clicking displaying the usual Windows recycle bin's context menu
    • MenuEx - Main menu / Start menu
    • QLaunch - Replacement for the Windows Quick Launhc Bar
    • AClock - The analog clock which should appear as a pupil in the "Eye" of the wallpaper
    • ZCommand - Great plugin for quick access to commands, websites and much more.
    • SkinClckEx - Digital taskbar clock (which I'm not using, but it'll give you a choice, won't it? ;))
    • AstAmp - Aston Launcher of WinAmp, but in the plugin's setup you can choose another player if you like.
    • Amonitor - Showing system resources.
       
  • If one or more of the above mentioned plugins are missing in the list, click "Add" as shown below:
    
    
    
    which will take you to the Aston\Plugins folder:
    
    
    
    Select the one you'd like to load and hit the "Open" button (ehm, obviously I'm having the Dutch Windows version and like you can see we are more longwinded than English speaking people ;)).
  • Are you missing a plugin in the list? That's very well possible, because not all plugins are included in the Aston 1.9.1 setup. You can find the other ones here: http://www.astonshell.com/skins/index.php?section=3
    Just download them, unzip them to the Aston\Plugins folder and load them as shown above.
     
•  Side panels
   
  • Left Sidebar:
    Because I have put most of the plugins on the left side of the wallpaper in my Aston setup I have disabled the left sidebar as shown below:
    
    
    
     
  • Right Sidebar:
    So I tried to put all shortcuts to folders and applications I often use in the right sidebar for easy access while being in another application. I don't think it's possible to save the right sidebar's config, but maybe you can still use some of the icons I made for this bar. You can find them in the "Extra's" folder in the Eye On Spring.zip.
    
    Below I'll just show you how I use the right bar, but only to give you an idea what you can do with it. You can just skip the rest if you already have the perfect setup of the sidebar or don't use it at all ;).

    In the Aston Help file you'll find an explanation on adding folders and shortcuts to the side bar (see toolbars).
    This is how I use the icons (the shortcut icon are png's which might show weird backgrounds in this how-to. In Aston they are transparent as they should be :D):
    
    "chapter" icons:

    Right bar folder containing the Aston shortcuts, which on screen looks like this:

    

    Right panel folder containing shortcuts to some folders on my HD I want to access easily:

    

    My documents
    My pictures
    My music
    Leading to the folder where I store my installable applications
    Shortcut to my Uploads folder
    Leading to my downloads folder

    After that on to the tools department:

    

    Folder containing everything I need for internet communication (messaging and such)
    Graphics apps
    Office apps, like calculator and charmap
    System system shortcuts:

    • My computer
    • Add/remove applications (part of the Control Panel)
    • Control panel
    • Shortcut to the "Run" dialog

    Next on the main column is the Internet section (browser, email and FTP):

    

    Followed by : shortcut to explorer or another file manager

    And last, but not least: Shutdown dialog state 1 and 2.

  Oh, you'll find a little orphan icon in the Extra's folder: I meant this one as an icon for the Aston notepad plugin, but couldn't change the icon :(

   

• The end (I think ;))
  
  Well, I guess that about covers it. If you're experiencing any trouble setting things up, don't hesitate to write to me. Any feedback is very welcome as well. You can contact me at: barbra@innersource.nl

 Enjoy!