Themes for Windows XP

[usy]

ohh cool, I did'nt know it slows your PC down, looks like I'm becoming a 'classic' style fan too. theme changed !

 

[blackleopard92]

Nope seen them, I prefer the old style mainly because you computer really flies with everything turned off. How often do you actually look at the desktop anyway? I always have something open to full screen so why bother? your just slowing your pc down for no real reason.

Same here too if u look at my screenies

Wrong Siddhart!
Info says that windox XP theme on systems with greater than 512 MB dosen't slow it at all.
MY experience is that u get a stray increase in FPS in UT2004.(maybe 1 FPS)
In these latest games, there is hardly an increase.

And In fact u don't have to enable all the options, just one to get XP effect:

 

[siddharth2002]

Wrong Siddhart!
Info says that windox XP theme on systems with greater than 512 MB dosen't slow it at all.
MY experience is that u get a stray increase in FPS in UT2004.(maybe 1 FPS)
In these latest games, there is hardly an increase.

And In fact u don't have to enable all the options, just one to get XP effect:

It effects when I have 10 IE or Firefox windows open with media player and word programs. With all the effects turned off, the switching between apps really is quite smooth.

Besides I have only got 512MB RAM which is quite low by todays' standards.

 

[blackleopard92]

It effects when I have 10 IE or Firefox windows open with media player and word programs. With all the effects turned off, the switching between apps really is quite smooth.

U are joking!
I hardly find problems when I switch between UT2004 and Mozilla!

But I have 1gb Ram.:

And the option I highlighted is the only one that needs to be turned on.
The effect of other options is hardly worth to processing/Memory power

 

[siddharth2002]

U are joking!
I hardly find problems when I switch between UT2004 and Mozilla!

But I have 1gb Ram.:

And the option I highlighted is the only one that needs to be turned on.
The effect of other options is hardly worth to processing/Memory power

You won't feel anything but my PC is a 4 year old P4 1.6 GHz and a 3 year old AGP 4x MMX 440 with only 64 MB.
Its probably a good thing that it can even manage the load I m putting on it often.

But the Laptop we bought has everything turned on with Style xp and Sidebar and yeah it flies no matter what. Can even switch between DOOM 3 and WM player in less than a second.

 

[blackleopard92]

You won't feel anything but my PC is a 4 year old P4 1.6 GHz and a 3 year old AGP 4x MMX 440 with only 64 MB.
Its probably a good thing that it can even manage the load I m putting on it often.

But the Laptop we bought has everything turned on with Style xp and Sidebar and yeah it flies no matter what. Can even switch between DOOM 3 and WM player in less than a second.

So the graphics card is the culprit

I personally never tried switching DOOM 3!Too afraid I guess

 

[aussie1st]

I love the themes, I will never go back to the Classic windows style. It's just cool seeing the start menu and Pop ups different. Also helps when you have heaps of themes to rotate with.

 

[hassan]

ya themes add a bit of fresh look to the pc... with glow and stuff

 

[aussie1st]

Anyone know where I can get a good green start menu from?

Something like the first image of this picture would be good.

I've found a good theme site which gives you the themes directly so as long as you have the trick you can use these.

http://themes.belchfire.net/xpthemes.html

 

[blackleopard92]

does anybody know how to change taskbar colour?

 

[Prakash]

Do you want to change windows xp theme or classic theme?

If its for classical theme then you have to open advanced window and change the colour. If you want I can also post how to change it for xp theme, since you will have to actually edit the "theme file" so some photoshop knowledge is required too.

 

[aussie1st]

Was that directed at Leo or me? Anyway a tutorial on how to edit the XP theme would be good. I was going to make one myself but looked too complicated.

 

[blackleopard92]

I want to change Win XP colours.I konw about how to do it in Win ME,98

I am quite experienced in Photoshop.

 

[Prakash]

Here you go, first you will need

• Windows xp uxtheme.dll patch (google it and find) This is needed because xp doesn't allow you to use edited themes.
• A resource file editor, for editing .msstlyes file. I use XN Resource Editor free and good (http://www.wilsonc.demon.co.uk/d10resourceeditor.htm)
• A Image file editor, for editing the bitmap images.
• A .msstyles file, so that you can edit it.

First open your .msstyles file in your resource editor, it will be something like this.

View Full Size at Glowfoto

Now goto the bitmap section and look for xxxxx_TASKBARBACKGROUND_BMP where xxxxx depends on your theme file. Finally export it as a bitmap file(resource - export resource)

View Full Size at Glowfoto

Edit the bitmap image to your needs and import it back (resource - import resource) and save it. Finally reload the theme to see your changes. This is how I managed to edit a theme, there might be other ways too.

 

[blackleopard92]

I will give it a shot.It seems feasible.