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windows xp themes (without additional softwares!)Hi, I realise there's a lot of softwares out there that allow you to do some crazy stuff but I'm just looking for a way to change the colors and style of windows.
I'm using the grey windows XP style but I would like a black/dark blue theme. Is there any way to do this without a software? I just had very bad experiences with these things, spyware, slow, free trials and all that... And truth is, I don't like the way these mods usually change everything about the windows interface (I like to minimise the amount of things on my screen) |
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CudniLa Merma - Vigilado MVM join:2003-12-20 Someshire |
Cudni
MVM
2006-Apr-12 12:52 pm
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I did. From what I saw it's more to change your cursors/wallpaper/sounds in one click but I have yet to find how to change the color of my taskbar/application titles, etc (unless using the classic stile but that's really ugly) |
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AMDUSER Premium Member join:2003-05-28 Earth, ARRIS CM8200 ARRIS SB6183
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AMDUSER
Premium Member
2006-Apr-12 1:14 pm
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This may be what you are looking for.. it will allow you to change the color for toolbars etc. Right click on the Desktop - select Properties. The display properties will appear, then select the 'Appearance' tab. Then click on the Advanced button; the Advanced Appearance setting will appear. From the Item drop down menu - select what you want to change. Then select the color you want to change it to. |
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howie1 Premium Member join:2003-04-08 Antarctica 2 edits |
to kwijibo55
He thinks the classic is "ugly". You cannot change the colors of the built in XP "luna" except the 3 choices they give you (blue, silver, green). [EDIT] Royale is an official Windows theme... Not dark but I think it's a lot better than Luna. Give it a try! » www.softpedia.com/get/De ··· XP.shtml |
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antiseriousThe Future ain't what it used to be Premium Member join:2001-12-12 Scranton, PA |
to kwijibo55
... I use a theme called 'Nightshades' from the Belchfire site > » themes.belchfire.net/the ··· 124.html ... that author, LightStar, does great work, and there are a lot of other themes there you might want to look at ... to use these themes you don't need any software, but you do have to patch the UXTheme.dll that was changed by one of the XP service packs - you can do that using this tool from Neowin > » www.neowin.net/forum/ind ··· c=140707 ... ... I should note here that the Belchfire site was always safe and clean, but the site itself has changed and now it runs on different software ... I have no idea if that's a problem, I just saw some disclaimers there for pop-ups (which I never see, and so they aren't a problem for me) ... SiteAdvisor shows the new site as safe ( » www.siteadvisor.com/site ··· net?safe ), but since I haven't needed to d/l any themes in a while I thought I'd include this heads-up (although I did see some nice new themes there, might have to check some out when I have more time) ... ... hope this helps ... f w i w ... |
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Airwolf Premium Member join:2001-10-30 Windsor, ON 4 edits |
to kwijibo55
Two places I check up on new themes. » www.neowin.net/forum/ind ··· forum=36» browse.deviantart.com/sk ··· alstyle/I'm currently using Luna Element 5 with the black visual style. I hope this b0se guy completes Gui.Air, because I like it a lot. However it has some bugs in it which have me deter away from it for the time being. It's still good nevertheless. » www.neowin.net/forum/ind ··· c=433372 |
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to antiserious
Funny, I found that Nightshades theme a few minutes before you post this. Exactly what I was looking for, looks good and it's still windows (nothing weird). I thought I need StyleXp to use it, I'll try that DLL thing. Thanks a lot everyone! |
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Cheese Premium Member join:2003-10-26 Naples, FL |
to howie1
said by howie1:He thinks the classic is "ugly". You cannot change the colors of the built in XP "luna" except the 3 choices they give you (blue, silver, green). [EDIT] Royale is an official Windows theme... Not dark but I think it's a lot better than Luna. Give it a try! » www.softpedia.com/get/De ··· XP.shtml Second for Royale! It's a nice theme! |
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Anonymous_Anonymous Premium Member join:2004-06-21 127.0.0.1 |
Royale looks the best on LCD screens not too bright or too Dim
"windows xp Theme Sucks" it's tooo bright on LCD screens |
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Stray BulletDangerous? Premium Member join:2004-04-03 Rochester, NY |
to kwijibo55
If you are interested... said by TechConnect : This program will patch your uxtheme.dll file so you can use any 3rd party visual style on Windows XP/SP1/SP2 and Windows Server 2003/SP1. File protection dialogs should be cancelled and a reboot is required after using this patch.
Look here... » www.tcmagazine.info/foru ··· opic=187 |
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La LunaFly With The Angels My Beloved Son Chris Premium Member join:2001-07-12 New Port Richey, FL |
La Luna
Premium Member
2006-Apr-12 9:54 pm
said by Stray Bullet:If you are interested... said by TechConnect : This program will patch your uxtheme.dll file so you can use any 3rd party visual style on Windows XP/SP1/SP2 and Windows Server 2003/SP1. File protection dialogs should be cancelled and a reboot is required after using this patch.
Look here... » www.tcmagazine.info/foru ··· opic=187 Does the patch referenced here actually work reliably? I've read over at Neowin and your link and it seems rather, errr, buggy..... |
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fegul Premium Member join:2004-08-23 united state |
to kwijibo55
I just used this one a half hour ago; » www.softpedia.com/get/Sy ··· er.shtmlWorks beautifully |
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La LunaFly With The Angels My Beloved Son Chris Premium Member join:2001-07-12 New Port Richey, FL |
La Luna
Premium Member
2006-Apr-12 9:59 pm
Ok, I'll give that a shot. It's probably the exact same thing, lol.... It just seemed that people were have some issues, especially over at Neowin. I know that thread was old, but I just wanted to check first. |
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Stray BulletDangerous? Premium Member join:2004-04-03 Rochester, NY |
to kwijibo55
I have used it since version 3 & never had a problem! Not for nothing fegul You just posted a link to the same exact thing! Go to the link I posted & look! Program name... Uxtheme Multi-patcher 5.0Author... WindowsxNow go to the link you posted & look! Program name... Uxtheme Multi-patcher 5.0Author... Windowsx |
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La LunaFly With The Angels My Beloved Son Chris Premium Member join:2001-07-12 New Port Richey, FL |
La Luna
Premium Member
2006-Apr-12 10:10 pm
hahahaha, I was wondering if it was the same! |
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Stray BulletDangerous? Premium Member join:2004-04-03 Rochester, NY |
to kwijibo55
Like he said though it works great! I have not one problem since version 3! If you want to restore the original dll just run the program again! |
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Anonymous_Anonymous Premium Member join:2004-06-21 127.0.0.1 |
to Stray Bullet
said by Stray Bullet:If you are interested... said by TechConnect : This program will patch your uxtheme.dll file so you can use any 3rd party visual style on Windows XP/SP1/SP2 and Windows Server 2003/SP1. File protection dialogs should be cancelled and a reboot is required after using this patch.
were can i find that theme |
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La LunaFly With The Angels My Beloved Son Chris Premium Member join:2001-07-12 New Port Richey, FL |
to Stray Bullet
said by Stray Bullet:Like he said though it works great! I have not one problem since version 3! If you want to restore the original dll just run the program again! Worked like a charm, thanks for your help. |
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to kwijibo55
That multipatcher is reportedly buggy... Just do a manual patch of your uxtheme.dll; it is very easy as long as you follow the instructions posted at Neowin.... |
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Stray BulletDangerous? Premium Member join:2004-04-03 Rochester, NY |
said by feverfive:That multipatcher is reportedly buggy... Just do a manual patch of your uxtheme.dll; it is very easy as long as you follow the instructions posted at Neowin.... Oh yeah? Have you used it & what problems have you had with it? There is three people that said it works fine in this topic... About the theme, I had it for years so I am not sure where to get it, but search for it! It is called Zion! |
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La LunaFly With The Angels My Beloved Son Chris Premium Member join:2001-07-12 New Port Richey, FL |
to feverfive
said by feverfive:That multipatcher is reportedly buggy... Just do a manual patch of your uxtheme.dll; it is very easy as long as you follow the instructions posted at Neowin.... Frankly, I found the "instructions" on Neowin to be confusing...not to mention reports of it not working right. The downloaded patch worked fine, why mess with doing it manually? |
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PortmonkeyMy watch stopped Premium Member join:2004-04-09 Southern IL |
to kwijibo55
I'm using UXTheme Multi-Patcher 4.0 and the Graphite Theme; both were found at Neowin. No noticeable problems. I'm about ready for a change, so I'll likely upgrade the patcher and try a new theme sometime soon. |
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Airwolf Premium Member join:2001-10-30 Windsor, ON |
to kwijibo55
No issues with 4.0 either. I'll upgrade it when a new theme I like comes out as well. |
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Fir_Na_TineTime to get riggity riggity wrecked son Premium Member join:2001-01-03 South Jersey |
to kwijibo55
I used 4.0 and it works fine so far . Great find been looking for something like this for a long time, thanks |
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Weirdal Premium Member join:2003-06-28 Grand Island, NE |
to Stray Bullet
said by Stray Bullet:said by feverfive:That multipatcher is reportedly buggy... Just do a manual patch of your uxtheme.dll; it is very easy as long as you follow the instructions posted at Neowin.... Oh yeah? Have you used it & what problems have you had with it? There is three people that said it works fine in this topic... it doesn't work for me either. I mean, sometimes it works, but sometimes (usually after a crash), my theme will just change back to the windows classic one and I won't be able to use custom ones. This requires me to first run the program to revert my uxtheme, restart, run it again to patch it, and restart again. This happens about once a month and is a pain in the neck. |
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OZO Premium Member join:2003-01-17 1 edit |
OZO
Premium Member
2006-Apr-14 7:37 pm
The difference between patched (woking well) and unpatched version of uxtheme.dll is only 8 bytes only. You may check it by running "comp uxtheme.dll uxtheme.dll.old". If it's not - it may be not the right patch.
Forgot to mention - do not forget to put copy of patched version in "C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache" folder. If it's not here - system may revert your changes back. |
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Frydays join:2005-10-21 South Padre Island, TX |
to kwijibo55
i dont know if any of you have heard bout this or may want to try it but i found this patcher here Universal UXTheme Patcher v1.3 look for it at » osx.portraitofakite.com/ |
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JTM1051 MVM join:2000-07-08 Terrell, TX |
to Airwolf
Would have been a great theme if the dev had made the Luna Element 5 Black theme to display Windows display items, (e.g. menu bar, dialog boxes, buttons, etc.) to use grey colors like the Windows XP Silver or Royale, instead of the light tan color as in Windows XP Blue and dev's Luna Element 5 Blue. You can use the "Display Properties ... Advanced" to change colors of "Items:" to greys which works with most programs, but some of the display items (menu bar, buttons, etc.) for apps/browsers, Windows apps (e.g., Notepad, Wordpad, etc.) and Windows dialog boxes retain the light tan color. |
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cocothebean8You Are My Nightmare Premium Member join:2002-11-16 Carson City, NV |
to kwijibo55
Just find a Theme you like and download it to C:\WINDOWS\RESOURSES\THEMES folder and XP will install it. Just right click windows screen, select Properties, click the dropdown screen and select your theme, click Apply. |
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