XP themes, without using windowblinds etc

james.miller · 23 Aug 2006 at 19:38

there are quite a few sites really. deviant art is one of the best - they have loads of great themes but browsing it is a bit of a 'mare. if you search around on here you'll find a lot of sites mentioned

G18241 · 23 Aug 2006 at 19:39

found a couple on deviant art, downloaded them, how do i install them????

james.miller · 23 Aug 2006 at 19:42

IF they are just zipped themes, you should only have to copy and paste them here: C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes then you should be able to select them in the windows theme manager

G18241 · 23 Aug 2006 at 19:43

ahhhhh ok

will have a look round for some more nice ones, know of any nice dark/black themes
?

im so VERY picky about them

lol

james.miller · 23 Aug 2006 at 19:46

i dont personally, no. i'm not a fan of black themes though. i'm sure somebody else can

G18241 · 23 Aug 2006 at 19:47

ok well cheers for all your help mate

will post up some pictures when i get things sorted

G18241 · 23 Aug 2006 at 20:01

just stuck a zip file into where you just said mate, right clicked desktop and gone to appearance but it doesnt show up???

Scottland · 23 Aug 2006 at 20:03

G18241 said:
just stuck a zip file into where you just said mate, right clicked desktop and gone to appearance but it doesnt show up???

You need to extract the zip file, into a folder. You can, once extracted just open the msstyle file and that will do the same effect.

G18241 · 23 Aug 2006 at 20:05

do i need to run UX theme multi patcher first? it was bundled with the theme i have just downloaded

james.miller · 23 Aug 2006 at 20:06

not if you have xpize installed - it does the same thing

edit: actually, try looking on deviant art for Prestine 1_1. thats not a bad black theme

G18241 · 23 Aug 2006 at 20:17

its ok it works now, i never restarted after installing it all

G18241 · 24 Aug 2006 at 19:13

right then icons, how can i get new ones of those without having to use any programs?

Borden · 25 Aug 2006 at 09:29

G18241 said:
right then icons, how can i get new ones of those without having to use any programs?

You can change the icons but you will need to use a program called 'reshacker' to open up the icon .dll's and change the individual icons. There are hundreds of icons so it will take you at least a day to do it

It's also very fiddley (sp?) to do, i tried it once and gave up straight away

james.miller: Just some info on Styler. Seeing as you've obviously spent some time on your theme, try out the Tango styler theme to match your icons

You can modify the configuration file for the theme to customize the layout of it and move the buttons around etc.

Also you don't need to have Styler running in the system tray for the styler themes to work. Once you've installed styler, right click on the toolbar in explorer and deselect all toolbars and then select the styler toolbar. You can also change the styler theme without having to have Styler open. The only reason Styler should be left running is if you have set it to remove the 'File, Edit...' toolbar from explorer. If you close styler with this option selected then this toolbar will just show up again. Hope that helps someone

james.miller · 25 Aug 2006 at 16:38

mark1 said:
james.miller: Just some info on Styler. Seeing as you've obviously spent some time on your theme, try out the Tango styler theme to match your icons You can modify the configuration file for the theme to customize the layout of it and move the buttons around etc.

now that i like. Thank you, i've been looked ofr a decent toolbar to match the theme, and that is perfect. cheers

Borden · 25 Aug 2006 at 16:41

james.miller said:
now that i like. Thank you, i've been looked ofr a decent toolbar to match the theme, and that is perfect. cheers

No problem

I've modified it slightly to get the 'Up' button moved to the normal position and changed a few other things. I'd upload the config file but my rig is down atm

G18241 · 26 Aug 2006 at 10:14

think im going to leave the icons then

tuned my lappy off and turned it back on this morning and my theme wasnt on? had to reset it, any ideas?

Messiah Khan · 26 Aug 2006 at 11:40

I use Iphile to change my icons. Its very easay to use and a great litlle program. My favourite themes are, in no order of preference;

Area04 (Very usable and subtle)
Black_White (A great minimalist black theme)
Exeed
Flatliner
Foton (Possibly my all time favourite)
Foton Antimatter
Glitch
Light
Nano
Rogue
Serenity
Spirit
Simple plan
Thinbar

Most of the above are found on Deviantart
For icons, you can download my favourite ones in a zip file from;

http://www.afowler.co.uk/Misc/Icons.zip (67mb)

G18241 · 26 Aug 2006 at 16:21

given up with the icons, decided i like the ones ive got

what about the theme not staying on when i restart the PC???

Borden · 26 Aug 2006 at 16:28

Are you using the Neowin Multi patcher as posted earlier in the thread? If so then i also had problems with this so i used replacer to change the uxtheme.dll

Download replacer and follow the instructions. The uxtheme.dll is located in 'C:\WINDOWS\system32'

EDIT: Screw that, just follow this guide here

That worked for me better than the neowin patcher.

G18241 · 26 Aug 2006 at 16:38

i am using that xpise thing, it works fine but doesnt seem to keep the theme after a restart