How To: Change Windows XP's Visual Style

Ok ladies and gentlemen – many of us wanted to try to customize our desktops but we’re trapped in using so called “skinning apps” for this purpose, i.e StarDocks’s WindowBlinds or TGTsoft’s StyleXP. Don’t get me wrong here, both softwares are excellent and have their own pros and cons. But the question arise when:

1) one is not willing to pay for this
2) one refused to go to the underground’s way (cracks and stuff)
3) one simply refuse to install another app on their comp just to make it looks cooler

There is a solution, ladies and gentlemen! Yes, I said there is a solution. It’s less-hassle, no cost with minimal risk. Read on and find out.

What’s the catch? Nothing, some of you paranoids might be scared off by some scary-looking messages that might pop up in the process of applying this technique, however, rest assured that it is certified to be totally safe.

What do you need?

1 – NeoWin’s UXTheme MultiPatcher (get it here)
2 – Knowledge on how to run a program (i mean, know how to at least double-click *sarcasm*)
3 – Knowledge on how to move/copy/rename files and folders
4 – Have some patience
5 – Ability to read english text carefully, properly and patiently
6 – Have at least one Visual Style in .msstyle format (not WindowBlinds themes! the ones for StyleXP will work by the way). Hint : Go To themexp.org and get one.

First Step

difficulty : easy
remark : potentially scary for some noobs. NOTE: READ THIS CAREFULLY, and don’t bitch if it didn’t work because you dont read it properly.

Simple, run the UXTheme patcher you downloaded earlier. You should see this screen :
UXTheme Patcher 4.0

Read it properly, and once youre ready, take a deep breath and click Patch.

You will then see the patching screen :
Patching...

After a while, you’ll get to this screen:
Read and WAIT
DO NOT I say, DO NOT click the OK button immediately. Wait, and read what it say there.

If you’re reading the dialogue above, suddenly a scary-looking message popped out telling you some “important” windows files have been modified and therefore must be restored from the WindowsXP isntallation CD (look below). DON’T PANIC – and the most important part – DO NOT EVER INSERT THE WINDOWSXP CD (or you’ll have to reboot your PC and start all over again).

Click CANCEL

So what do you do? Good guess, press Cancel. Yep I said it – CANCEL. Another dialogue will ask you if you’re sure about what you’re doing, just simply click YES to it.

Click YES

Usually 2 Windows File Protection dialogue will pop up one after another, but sometimes only one will pop up. So after you waited a while and nothing else pops up, click that dreaded OK button.

You will be asked to reboot your computer. Reboot and proceed to the second part of this tutorial.

The Second Part

(duh)

Earlier on, I told you that you will need at least one custom Visual Style, so make sure you get one. A good site to start is at ThemeXP.org. But if you’re just a lazy ass and wanted to get to this tutorial quickly for learning sake, you can grab one visual style here : ESD Beta 2.

Download the file (click on that ‘Download to Desktop’ button in case you’re lost). Unzip it (if you don’t know how to, google and find out, don’t be lazy! Hint : WinRAR).

Ok so after you unZip (or unRAR if you prefer it that way) the file just now (I’m using the ESD Beta 2 style above as an example), look into the content of the unzipped folder. You should see something like this (note that the content of the folder varies from author to author):

Contents of ESD.rar

What you need to do is, locate a folder with a .msstyles file in it. In this example, opening the folder ESD, you will see the following:

Contents of ESD

Once you have found out which folder contains this .msstyles file, keep it in mind (or make a note of it, to put it in another way).

Now, launch file browser (Explorer, or My Computer), and look into C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes. Copy the ESD (or whatever your Style name is) into this folder (see figure below):

Copy the Style into Themes folder

Ok now that you’ve done until this far, congratulate yourself and proceed to the last step!

The Last Step

This step is very simple, no-brainer. Open your display properties (use the Control Panel or just right-click on any empty space on your desktop and choose Properties), click the ‘Appearance‘ tab.

Display Properties - Appearance

Under the ‘Windows and Buttons’ drop down, you should now be able to see a new entry. In this case, ESD. Choose it and watch the preview changes. Click Apply (or OK), and voila! Your WindowsXP appearance changes!

Now go get yourself a pizza for completing such task!

Issues

(questions will be answered here as people ask about it)

OmfgWtfBBQ! I’ve did everything and the style I downloaded didnt appear in that list! What happened?
This is a common problem,

First, make sure you put the file correctly. The .msstyle file MUST be in its own folder under the C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes folder.

Next, the folder name that contains your .msstyle file must have an exact same name as the msstyle.
(For example, putting a file named chicken.msstyle into a folder named chicks will not work, but putting a fish.msstyle into a folder named fish will work just fine).