From time to time it is convenient to be able to capture and record screen activities. I have searched through Google many times and tried many different tools and applications, but none of them has met my requirements; user friendly light open source application for fast high quality and resolution capturing and able to achieve high compression to ease distribution. So far the best screencasting application is CamStudio – an easy to use light weight capturing application. CamStudio is able to capture full screen resolution screencasts and encode directly into Xvid and DivX.
Screencast showing CamStudio in action. The screencast covers the basic features in CamStudio.
Install instructions Extract files to "C:\Windows\Resources\Themes\royale noir" and double click on "luna.msstyles". Select "Noir" or "Black Noir" from color scheme.
Updated: Simplify the install by using this package, which also includes the most popular mac-like desktop wallpapers and backgrounds.
More on the Royale Noir and a Microsoft Zune related theme here (danish) and here.
This post reviews the most popular free for download skins for Windows.
skins for Windows XP often requires different types of heavy and resource demanding 3rd party software, e.g. like skinXP and others. In this post I have collected the most popular skins that do not require additional 3rd party software.
The Luna skin
The Luna Windows XP skin is the traditional Windows XP skin. The Luna skin aka the official Windows XP Style is available in three different color schemes; Blue (the default), Olive Green, and Silver.
The Energy Blue skin
The Energy Blue skin is a skin concept produced by Microsoft and introduced in 2004 for the Windows Media Center and Windows XP Tablet editions. It is composed of a new redesigned wallpaper (inspired by Windows XP Bliss) and a new desktop skin and skin. The concept presents aesthetic brilliant and relucent blue and green colors. The Energy Blue skin is not only available for Windows Media Center and Windows XP Tablet editions, but also regular Windows XP editions.
The Royale skins
The Royale skin is a new skin for Windows XP that has leaked out of Microsoft and onto the web. The skin appears to have come out of a beta version of Windows Media Center 2005 that was in testing. The Royale skin is an aesthetic skin and comes with two color schemes Royale (a blue skin) and Royale Noir (a black skin). The Royale skin is refreshingly different to the traditional Windows XP Luna skin.
The Zune skin
After the Royale and the Royale Noir skins were leaked onto the web Microsoft decided to release a modified version of the Royale skin called Zune – perhaps to promote the release of their new invention – the Zune. The Zune skin is different to the Royale and the Royale Noir skins by having orange controls and a orange start-button.
From time to time it is convenient to be able to 
