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A small guide on modifying Windows XP themes.
This is a re-write of an old (long lost) article, it is not my own work.
After a while, the Luna theme for XP is likely to get a little boring, no matter how exciting your Desktop background is, so you decide to make it more interesting, maybe tailor it to suit one of your more commonly used applications. Sure, you could go and get a trial of some software that will allow you to use pre-made skins, but that uses resources, thus slowing your system down. It also makes a good solid dent in your bank balance, should you decide to purchase the software once your X amount of days are up. Of course, you could go with some free software, such as Alienware's AlienGUIse Theme manager, but those themes are atrocious. In this article we shall cover an easy, but time consuming, method of spicing things up a little.
We stary by picking out a theme, which is much easier than starting from scratch, after all, there's no point doing something that has already been done. I've chosen the "Royal Noir"* theme, as I quite like the darkness, and it saves me desaturating and darkening the blue Luna theme. You will need a patched copy of the file "uxtheme.dll"* to enable you to modify the theme(s). You will also need a tool to edit the ".msstyles" file, something like Resource Hacker* will do, and a Graphical Manipulation tool, as a cheapskate, I shall be using GIMP.
The theme itself is actually pretty sexy, but I am a colourful soul, so I shall start by modifying the Start button colour from a dark black-blue to bright pink. Open ResHack (or similar), and open the ".msstyles" file located in the WINDOWSResourcesThemes<themename> directory, then expand the "Bitmap" folder. The names are pretty self explanatory, so finding the appropriate resource shouldn't trouble you, nor should copying the image into GIMP (or equivalent). If you're not sure how to change colours of an image, modifying the Hue and Saturation values is probably the method for the job. Make sure that you keep the transparency colour the same, in my case it is #FF00FF, a vivid pink, though yours may vary.
Make sure you save any images as bitmaps (.bmp), and replace the resource in ResHack (right click on it), save the ".msstyles" file, then open it with the Display Properties program, in other words double-click it, and apply. And there we have it. But wait, there is just a little more, but it isn't really necessary. Did you notice the other files lying around, the .dll and .theme files? The .theme file can be used to specify icons, background image, etc... The shellstyle.dll (it might be named differently) file can be used to modify fonts, panel images (eg. The colour/image of that panel on the left of the My Computer window) and various other things that I shall allow you to discover, and inevitably ruin.
Unfortunately, that's just about the limit with what you can do without adding various bits of software, but at least it doesn't affect the performance of your PC, or your wallet. If this isn't quite enoughto satisfy your lust for eye candy, then perhaps you need to focus a bit more on the work you should be doing right now, rather than staring at pretty colours, and fancy effects.
Just a few notes before I go: The .theme file must have the same name as the directory that it relates to, so the components for "royale.theme" must be in the folder "royale", and "Lunalol.theme" to the folder "Lunalol", you catch my drift, I'm sure. If you have SP2, and you then "upgrade" to SP3, you'll need a new uxtheme.dll.
And here are some images to accompany this article for your viewing pleasure:
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s138/moshbat/Girl-1.png
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s138/moshbat/scr2.png
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s138/moshbat/1.png
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s138/moshbat/2.png
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s138/moshbat/Start.jpg
After a while, the Luna theme for XP is likely to get a little boring, no matter how exciting your Desktop background is, so you decide to make it more interesting, maybe tailor it to suit one of your more commonly used applications. Sure, you could go and get a trial of some software that will allow you to use pre-made skins, but that uses resources, thus slowing your system down. It also makes a good solid dent in your bank balance, should you decide to purchase the software once your X amount of days are up. Of course, you could go with some free software, such as Alienware's AlienGUIse Theme manager, but those themes are atrocious. In this article we shall cover an easy, but time consuming, method of spicing things up a little.
We stary by picking out a theme, which is much easier than starting from scratch, after all, there's no point doing something that has already been done. I've chosen the "Royal Noir"* theme, as I quite like the darkness, and it saves me desaturating and darkening the blue Luna theme. You will need a patched copy of the file "uxtheme.dll"* to enable you to modify the theme(s). You will also need a tool to edit the ".msstyles" file, something like Resource Hacker* will do, and a Graphical Manipulation tool, as a cheapskate, I shall be using GIMP.
The theme itself is actually pretty sexy, but I am a colourful soul, so I shall start by modifying the Start button colour from a dark black-blue to bright pink. Open ResHack (or similar), and open the ".msstyles" file located in the WINDOWSResourcesThemes<themename> directory, then expand the "Bitmap" folder. The names are pretty self explanatory, so finding the appropriate resource shouldn't trouble you, nor should copying the image into GIMP (or equivalent). If you're not sure how to change colours of an image, modifying the Hue and Saturation values is probably the method for the job. Make sure that you keep the transparency colour the same, in my case it is #FF00FF, a vivid pink, though yours may vary.
Make sure you save any images as bitmaps (.bmp), and replace the resource in ResHack (right click on it), save the ".msstyles" file, then open it with the Display Properties program, in other words double-click it, and apply. And there we have it. But wait, there is just a little more, but it isn't really necessary. Did you notice the other files lying around, the .dll and .theme files? The .theme file can be used to specify icons, background image, etc... The shellstyle.dll (it might be named differently) file can be used to modify fonts, panel images (eg. The colour/image of that panel on the left of the My Computer window) and various other things that I shall allow you to discover, and inevitably ruin.
Unfortunately, that's just about the limit with what you can do without adding various bits of software, but at least it doesn't affect the performance of your PC, or your wallet. If this isn't quite enoughto satisfy your lust for eye candy, then perhaps you need to focus a bit more on the work you should be doing right now, rather than staring at pretty colours, and fancy effects.
Just a few notes before I go: The .theme file must have the same name as the directory that it relates to, so the components for "royale.theme" must be in the folder "royale", and "Lunalol.theme" to the folder "Lunalol", you catch my drift, I'm sure. If you have SP2, and you then "upgrade" to SP3, you'll need a new uxtheme.dll.
And here are some images to accompany this article for your viewing pleasure:
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s138/moshbat/Girl-1.png
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s138/moshbat/scr2.png
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s138/moshbat/1.png
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s138/moshbat/2.png
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s138/moshbat/Start.jpg
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