I’ve used Win XP since about 2002 and it looks like I’ll be stuck with it for at least another year or two. In many ways, I actually like Win XP, but after using it for so long, I can’t stand the looks of it. I’ve searched around and found several shell replacements, but none of them have impressed me. I’ve even purchased Stardock’s Object Desktop (includes supposedly popular WindowsBlinds), but uninstalled it after a couple of days of usage. So my search continued, and I was rather surprised when found that there are plenty of native Win XP themes available for download. There are 2 types of themes available: official and community.
Official themes
There are only two official themes available at the moment. Considering that Win XP is not sold anymore, those two are likely to be the last. These themes can be downloaded for free: Royal theme, Zune theme.
After downloading and installing (those are typical packages, with standard installation wizards), simply go to display properties and pick the desired theme.
Community themes
To be honest this was a quite a discovery for me, but there are a lot (hundreds perhaps) of free high quality themes available for download, from various sites. The cool thing is that these themes do not require any additional software to be installed. In fact, the themes themselves (also known as visual styles) do not need to be installed - you can use them by simply double clicking on a theme file (files with .msstyles extension).
There is, however, one little problem - Win XP, in its original state, allows one to use only digitally signed themes (official themes). In order to fix that problem, you’ll need to patch uxtheme.dll file. To do so, download Uxtheme patcher 6, then run the patcher and follow the instructions (it’s a simple wizard, really).
Once the OS is patched, you can download some visual styles. Here is a list of my favorite theme galleries on Deviant Art:
- Lassekongo83 - the best VS gallery on DA IMO
- Wingnome-XP - great Gnome like styles
- Zoon62 - great Tango like styles
- Gelosea - excellent Watercolor and Luna styles
- Tornado5 - some more Luna styles
- Kowoolo - minimalistic styles
Other stuff
Also, there are two other utilities I’d like to suggest: Styler and Tango Patcher 2600. With Styler you’ll be able to customize the looks of Windows Explorer toolbar. Tango Patcher 2600 can replace all of the system icons, as well as icons for some popular applications, with Tango style icons.
That’s all. Have fun :)
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