This installer represents an incredible advance over its predecessors, and provides the most polished, functional, and professional LiteStep experience to date, befitting a shell of LiteStep's stature. And all this is delivered with unprecedented ease of use. :)

The screenshot below shows what you can expect your desktop to look like following a fresh install of LiteStep. Also visible below are two of the utilities included with the installer in action: UpdateBuild and the LiteStep Theme Installer.

And here's a fairly comprehensive list of the installer's features:

• aesthetically pleasing and professional installer interface
• carefully developed over a period of years to offer the safest installation and removal procedures
• support for all 32-bit Windows platforms: 95, 98, ME, NT4, 2k, XP, and up
• support for multimonitor systems, provided the main monitor is on the left
• support for multi-user LiteStep installations (on NT-based platforms)
• default theme designed to provide an appealing yet functional desktop that eases the transition from the explorer shell to LiteStep
• full support for OTS2-compliant LiteStep themes, and optional support for OTS1-compliant ones
• shell extensions to simplify the handling of LiteStep themes and config. files
• custom icons for LiteStep themes and config. files
• desktop shortcuts for conveniently switching between explorer and LiteStep at any time
• LiteStep Theme Installer: a full featured theme installer/switcher with support for; automatically installing themes (even from a web browser), installation of wallpaper, font, windowblinds, winamp2 and winamp3 skins, popup-based theme switching
• UpdateBuild: a utility to download and install the latest build of LiteStep from the internet, or install a user-specified remote/local build
• AddUser: a utility to setup LiteStep for additional users on multi-user platforms
• EvarConfig: a convenient front-end for the configuration of standard application evars
• SetShell: a utility that allows one to quickly and easily set explorer, LiteStep, or any third party alternative as shell
• support for virtually any language

I have personally tested the installer as much as I can on XP Pro (with and without SP1) and have not been able to find any bugs. As with any piece of software though, this doesn't necessarily mean that there aren't any. (It means there aren't any that I'm aware of. ;) Should you encounter a problem related to the installer, the included utilities or theme, head over to the LiteStep Installer forum at loose-screws.com.

The installer has been verified by users to work on any 32-bit version of windows; 95, 98, ME, NT4, 2k, XP and above, etc. I've also been informed (by RabidCow of course ;) that the default theme (austerity) works on multimon systems. (Apparently the main monitor needs to be on the left for best results though.)

In the past I used to recommend that LiteStep be installed in a separate account on NT-based platforms. The main reason for this was that there was no easy way to switch back and forth between the LiteStep and explorer shells. Now that I'm bundling SetShell with the installer though, this is no longer an issue and you can go ahead and install LiteStep in your primary account.

If you wish to switch to explorer at any time, you can do so via the appropriate desktop shortcut, or by running SetShell directly, and after a reboot you'll be back in explorer. Switching back to LiteStep or any other shells you're playing with is simply a matter of running SetShell again and specifying your custom shell.

Oh - I guess this is pretty important - the installer supports the latest specification of the Open Theme Standard for LiteStep. Older themes will definitely have to be updated for OTS2 compliance, but in the meantime, old OTS1 compliant themes can be used. For information on using OTS1 compliant LiteStep themes, please consult the documentation included with the LiteStep Theme Installer.

The installer includes the latest build of LiteStep 0.24.7 publicly available. I'm not aware of any serious issues with this build, but you should keep in mind that LiteStep is in active development.

That's all I can think of at the moment... It really can't get any easier than this. Just fire up the installer, go through the setup wizard, and you'll be running LiteStep in no time. :)

I recommend the default installation options (i.e. a full install) for new users, knowledgeable users don't need me to tell them what to do ;).