LiteStep

LiteStep is one of the oldest Windows shell replacments. Over time, and due to the rise of popularity in freeform skinning, LiteStep desktop designs have tended to drift away from the Afterstep layouts seen under pre-24 versions.

Like most of the commonly known Windows shell replacements, LiteStep is based on the idea of a small core that loads configurable modules (DLLs). LiteStep has the biggest number of modules and this allows all Windows users to configure their enviroment to be rich and full-featured or minimalistic. When needed, additional modules are now downloaded and installed automatically from the internet.

A theme for LiteStep is a collection of configurations, scripts and images stored in a .zip or .lsz file that, when installed, change the visual style of the desktop. When using recent themes with a recent version of LiteStep, installation is automatic.

LiteStep has been known to please to people that like their desktop to be visually appealing, to people that like to configure their environment, to Unix/Linux users and to everyone that is tired of the Start button interface that comes with Windows.

In 1999, Phil Stopford started LDE(X) which is now a complete and production-stable LiteStep-based Windows interface replacement.

Modules

The interface of Litestep is composed of modules, most having the extension .dll. They are loaded through a text configuration file called step.rc. The syntax of step.rc is very simple. To load different modules you would write a line like

LoadModule $ThemeDir$Modules\\alitestepmod.dll

LoadModule tells litestep.exe to load a module where "$ThemeDir$" is the variable of the theme being used. "Modules\\" is the directory under the theme directory that holds the theme specific modules, and "alitestepmod.dll" is the filename of the Module being loaded.

Variables are just as easy to set, with many already hardcoded in. $LiteStepDir$ is one such variable being the directory that litestep.exe resides in.

Other variables can be set by writing a line in step.rc like

Firefox "C:\\progra~1\\Mozill~1\\firefox.exe"

You could then use the variable $Firefox$ where you needed the full path. Of course this would be rather pointless unless you could include other rc files from within the step.rc. You can include other files with a line like

include "$dirTheme$$rcStep$"

The variable $dirTheme$ is the directory of the theme being currently used, and $rcStep$ is a variable that call's the themes specific configuration file.

Modules are what make Litestep look and behave the way you want it to. There are Graphical Modules that are used to build GUI elements. There are also Non Graphical modules used to create hotkeys, watch window classes, and create Litestep specific commands called !bangs.

!bangs can do whatever you want, the only limit is your imagination. There are bang modules to control media players, Move windows around, and many many other things. Bangs are also the primary way you control the modules themselves. Bangs can be executed through a hotkey, a popup menu, shortcuts, or through one of the Litestep commandline modules.

Some popular modules include

lsxcommand.dll One of the oldest continually maintained non-core modules. This is a commandline where you can enter bang commands, filepath commands i.e. notepad.exe or C:\\, and urls.

geekamp.dll A module that creates bangs to control winamp. The bangs can then be used in User Interface elements such as shortcuts, or hotkeys, etc.

hotkey.dll This type of module lets you create custom hotkeys such as CTRL+R, which can be used to execute the bang command !recycle which reloads all of litesteps configurations from the step.rc.

External links