It seems that Microsoft’s allowing users to create custom theme packs has made a lot of enthusiasts come out with their own combination. Add to that the highly useful Federated Search using which can be used search to website databases, there a lot of connectors & themes already doing rounds. The are 14 connectors in the pack, wherein I created 1 for searching the Microsoft Support & the MSDN database, amongst others:

Federated Search Sources:

Federated Search allows you to search for content on websites from right within Explorer itself. Creating a Federated Search add-on for a particular website is also a piece of cake.

The pack below contains Search Connectors for:

  • Microsoft Support
  • MSDN Database
  • Twitter
  • Youtube
  • Wikipedia
  • Flickr
  • isohunt.com
  • Deviantart
  • Google Blog Search
  • Google
  • Yahoo
  • Live.com

I created 2 connectors for my friends as well:

  • WinVistaClub
  • AskVG.com

NOTE: All connectors aren’t created by me.

To Create Search Connectors:

You can create your own Search Connectors by following these steps:

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?><OpenSearchDescription xmlns=”http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/” xmlns:ms-ose=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/opensearchext/2009/”> <ShortName>Name of your choice</ShortName> <Description>Create your own connectors</Description> <Url type=”application/rss+xml” template=”http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q={searchTerms}+site%3asitename.com&amp;num=10&amp;format=rss”/> <Url type=”text/html” template=”http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q={searchTerms}+site%3asitename.com&format=rss”/> </OpenSearchDescription>

  1. Copy & paste the text in a text file.
  2. Replace the text in blue with the desired.
  3. Change the number of results by changing the value 10.
  4. Save the file & change the extension to .osdx
  5. You’re done.

Themes:

One feature that makes a come-back post Vista is themes.

Here are some themes I’ve created for Windows 7:

To Create Theme Packs:

Customize the highlighted areas in the image below as to what you want then right click on the Unsaved Theme and select Save theme for sharing. Screen shot:

~Enjoy