Guide to changing your Vista theme and more...

[CeeNote]

Guide to Changing your Vista Theme and more...

This guide should come in handy for anyone who wants to change their standard Vista theme to something different.

Here are a couple examples of my previously used themes so you know what you can use this guide for:

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Step 1: First you have to patch some files so that Vista will let you change the theme.

For Vista with no service pack installed use THIS guide.

For Vista with service pack 1 installed use THIS guide.

In order to take ownership of the files mentioned in the above guides, you can easily use THIS tool.

NOTE: There is a way to work around this step which should make it A LOT easier. From what I understand you can use Vista Glazz which will automatically patch these files. However if you have Vista SP1 installed, Vista Glazz 1.0 WILL NOT work. In this case you will need to download Vista Glazz 1.1 which is still in Beta phase so it might not be 100% stable. Currently the latest Beta Version for Vista Glazz 1.1 is 3.

Keep in mind though that I don't have much experience with this program so I don't know how effective it is.

Download Vista Glazz here.

I've used both guides and both work fine if you follow the instructions carefully.

Step 2: You can find and download Vista themes from the following websites:

http://browse.deviantart.com/customi...dts=1212998400
http://vistastyles.org/category/vista-styles/
http://interfacelift.com/themes-win/index.php?sort=date
http://www.myvistathemes.com/
http://themes.belchfire.net/vista-themes.html

Step 3: Once you've downloaded a theme, put it in the folder "C:\Windows\Resources\Themes"

Step 4: Now you can easily change your theme by...

double-clicking the newly-copied *.msstyles file in the "C:\Windows\Resources\Themes" folder
> then Apply > OK

You can use this method for any theme you have copied into this folder.

If for some reason your visual styles aren't Aero-enabled, do the following:

Check to see if transparency is enabled. You can do this by right-clicking the desktop > Personalization > Window Color and Appearance > then check "enable transparency". Aero should work now.

Also... changing your Vista theme DOES NOT use any more resources than the standard Aero theme so it will not slow down the computer.

Important!

Keep in mind that not all visual styles will work with both Vista and Vista SP1 so make sure to only look for themes for your particular version of Vista.

Also, I DO NOT take any responsibility if things go wrong especially in step 1 so be really careful when you patch those files. I also suggest you make a backup of your system. From my own experience, the worst thing that can happen is that Vista will only let you use the Windows Classic style in which case, your desktop will look like Win 98.

You can find good wallpapers on the following sites:

http://browse.deviantart.com/customization/wallpaper/
http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper_b...oads/date/any/
http://customize.org/wallpapers

Always make sure when you download a wallpaper to only download one that's available in your screen's native resolution, 1280x800, 1440x900 etc.

To apply a new wallpaper, right-click on your desktop, select "Personalize" > "Desktop Background". Then browse to the location of your wallpaper and apply it.

If you want to mod your desktop even more, there are some other tools you can use:

AveDesk
Rainlendar Lite
Rainmeter | skins for Rainmeter here
Yahoo! Widgets
Vista Start Menu
RocketDock
MyDock
ObjectDock Free
Google Sidebar

and of course the standard Vista Sidebar...

Since these programs run quietly in the background, they will use some resources (usually around 10MB of ram per program) which theoretically will slow down your computer but you'll be fine as long as you have 2GB of ram.

Hope this helps!

[Arki]

Hopefully, this should help with the questions.

Thanks CeeNote!

[CeeNote]

Originally Posted by Arkit3kt

Hopefully, this should help with the questions.

Thanks CeeNote!

Yea I figure a lot of people want to change their themes but don't know how to do it so this guide should help.

You're welcome!

[chesieofdarock]

does changing the theme slow down your computer at all?

[CeeNote]

Originally Posted by chesieofdarock

does changing the theme slow down your computer at all?

Not at all since you can change the theme from within Vista and it doesn't need any other programs to run in the background which would otherwise slow down the computer.

[Arki]

3rd party programs, like WindowsBlinds will slow down your system a bit but visual styles will not. They're just like the themes you use now.

[dtd00d]

Nice guide!

Quick q: Is there any theme that keeps Aero intact but changes the taskbar to white? I've always thought vista would look better like that but haven't found anything closer than the Longhorn theme.

[CeeNote]

Originally Posted by dtd00d

Nice guide!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by dtd00d

Quick q: Is there any theme that keeps Aero intact but changes the taskbar to white? I've always thought vista would look better like that but haven't found anything closer than the Longhorn theme.

I'm not sure, you might be able to find a modded aero theme on one of the websites I linked to but I don't know of any specific aero-based theme that has a white taskbar.

[Arki]

CeeNote,

Some people may not know how to take ownership of the file in order to apply visual themes.

This tool should help with that,

http://www.winmatrix.com/forums/inde...howtopic=13145

[CeeNote]

Originally Posted by Arkit3kt

CeeNote,

Some people may not know how to take ownership of the file in order to apply visual themes.

This tool should help with that,

http://www.winmatrix.com/forums/inde...howtopic=13145

Okay, thanks a lot! I'll put the link in the guide