Windows XP has become the de facto standard operating system on those cute little netbooks.  Some run Linux and for those who like the OS happily so but we’re starting to see more netbooks ship with Windows XP these days.  It probably has to do with folks wanting to use what they’re familiar with and using what works with the software they already have.  This is not the debate here, both OSes have their place and both work well on the lower-spec hardware found in most netbooks.

If you picked up one of those nice netbooks running XP and you long for things Vista there are quite a few utilities and changes you can make to bring that experience home.  Maybe you wish your XP netbook worked like your Vista machine at work or maybe you just like to push the envelope.  Whatever the reason we’ve rounded up the best features that can bring Vista to XP without all that negative stuff you read about.  Our favorites are after the jump.

Make XP look like Vista

The first thing you can do to approximate Vista on your netbook is to put a Vista theme that makes XP look a lot like the GUI of Vista.  There are no shortage of these on the interwebs if you look but here’s a collection of some recommended ones:

Vista Transformation Pack- provides a very complete GUI change to XP SP3.  Read all directions very carefully prior to installing, these utilities change system resources. (screen image above)

VistaMizer- simple to install pack that transforms pretty much everything in the GUI to be like Vista.

Vista-like utilities for XP

There are quite a few utilities that bring a single function of Vista to your XP desktop and here are the ones we’ve been told are the best:

Vista Start Menu- brings the Vista Start Menu to XP

Desktop Sidebar- for those who just gotta have widgets

Visual Task Tips- bring those thumbnail previews to your XP task bar

These are just the tip of the iceberg as far as utilities and themes to make XP look like Vista.  Use these at your own risk as they often change system files and resources.  If you have your own XP favorites to bring Vista to your XP desktop let us know in the comments.