Ran across a Windows Vista theme for XP on a friend's PC recently and it was quite a nice change from the stable of themes that XP currently offers. Anyone know the best version or versions out there of a Vista Theme for XP?...The friend had that particular theme come included in a copy of XP he received from ebay or something....Wouldn't really know how to extract it, or can you?
Vista is available on Beta already, full version coming out this winter/January...My thread, though, is about a Vista Theme for XP and not the OS itself.
You could use windowblinds, or a similar program to get that vista theme without messing with XP itself. Go check the Desktop pics thread in the safety valve forum, you'll see tons of examples, and might get some pointers on this from people posting there.
I actually got a hold of the folder of the Vista XP theme from my friend but is there a way to install it?...Not sure how to employ that...I tried just putting the folder into my themes folder within windows but when I tried to select it from the display settings it wouldn't load.
You have to patch your uxtheme.dll file before you can use themes that are not signed by Microsoft. That's probably why the theme is not loading in the Display Properties window. First download Uxtheme Multi-patcher 5.0: http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/UXTheme-MultiPatcher.shtml Then apply the patch and restart your computer. Put your vista theme folder in C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes. Then open Display Properties and under the Appearance tab select the theme and click Apply and OK.
i personally am not a big fan of windows vista themes around on the net, but you can look on: http://www.deviantart.com browse through all the themes there in the customize-windows utilities-visual styles area of the site and pick one to download, then get a simple theme manager from the net and install your theme. i personally use other custom themes that you can pickup from DA cause they are much more visually stylish such as a version of media center edition theme i got from there with a thin taskbar and all lol but seriously, vista themes are overkill on the net but you will find PLENTY of them on that site if any.
Thanks a lot, I'll give that a try. I suppose the bigger issue with getting a slick Vista theme for XP is that I've been using essentially the same theme for 5 plus years and wanted something different...I'm not going to be switching to Vista for probably until a year after it's release (Expecting a buggy first year) and so this is a nice segue. Plus, the Vista Theme I have is the best one I've seen...It's a little like this one. http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/24271879/?qo=18&q=vista+theme But the icons etc are also set to Longhorn/Vista icons as well. Just a different interface, ya know?
