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[Vishal Gupta]

Hi guys!

I just started working on this tutorial, when joejoe asked in a thread for it.
Whenever I got time, I tried my BEST to complete this tutorial, and today FINALLY I completed it.

So here we go:

1.) What is a Theme/Visual Style? Are both same or is there any difference between them?
=> NO! Visual Style & Theme are not same. But many people use these words in same manner. Actually Visual Style has extension .msstyles, while a theme has extension .theme. You can find Visual Styles in Appearance tab of Display Properties:



While Theme are presented in Themes tab:



Visual Style is the main file, which skins all parts of windows, like border, titlebar, buttons, etc. And a theme file stores all settings, like icons, wallpaper, etc along with the visual style.

2.) When I opened Display Properties, I got only 3 Visual Styles, Blue, Olive Green and silver. How can I get more?
=> There are many sites, which provide many visual styles, from where you can download them. Here is a list of few of them:

http://customization.deviantart.com/skins/...ws/visualstyle/
http://www.xptheme.info
http://www.themexp.org

Our download section also contains many great themes. So you can also take a look here.

3.) I downloaded some Visual Styles, but none of them working on my computer. Am I missing something?
=> Windows doesnot allow custom 3rd party themes to be used. So you have to patch a file uxtheme.dll to allow 3rd party themes. You can do it manually as well as automatically.
You can use following utility, which does the job automatically:

Neowin UXTheme Multi-Patcher

Screenshot:



Just run the tool and then copy/paste your downloaded theme into "%windir%\Resources\Themes" folder, now you can enjoy 3rd party themes on your computer.

4.) I have also heard about WindowBlinds and Style XP softwares. Why these softwares are used, Can you explain something about them?
=> These 2 softwares are also used to customize the windows look.
Style XP patches the uxtheme.dll file and loads the visual style, you have selected. Its good software for non-techie persons because you donot have to worry about patching the uxtheme.dll file. This software doest it automatically. But the disadvantage is that its not free.



You can download it from here.

WindowBlinds uses its own format of visual styles, so you can get better themes, which can have customized borders, special affects, like transparency. But its also not free.

[img]http://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/wb5-1[1]_small.jpg[/img]

WindowBlinds is a program that that enables Windows users to completely change the look and feel of the Windows user interface. Users customize Windows by using visual styles (skins) created for WindowBlinds. With these skins, WindowBlinds can change the look of Title bars, borders, Task bar, Start button, Start menu, Progress animations, Toolbar icons, Explorer Views, and virtually every other part of Windows!

WindowBlinds is the only program that can customize the GUI of Windows XP without having to alter system DLLs. You can learn more about WindowBlinds here.

5.) From where can I download WindowBlinds themes?
=> Following is a list of sites, which provide WindowBlinds themes:

http://www.wincustomize.com/
http://www.lightstreamdesign.com/
http://skins.deviantart.com/windows/windowblindsxp/

You can also get many WindowBlinds themes in our Download section. Take a look here.

6.) Can I edit my downloaded .msstyles file?
=> YES! You can use StyleBuilder to edit the visual styles. Also you can use Resource Hacker for this purpose, but it requires some expertise.

7.) Can I use .msstyles files in WindowBlinds?
=> YES! You can convert them into WindowBlinds format using SkinStudio software.

[Cr1t1cal®]

excellent tutorial mate *pinned*

[Vishal Gupta]

thnx a lot

[j03x2]

Yes, exactly what I was looking for
That will save us from a lot of questions and answers.

[Vishal Gupta]

I'm feeling gr8 that u guys liked it!
thnx for ur comments

[KoRHaN]

Thx, very nice TUT

[Greyham]

Very well done Tutorial Thankyou Vishal!

[str8jktmn]

How would you convert a windowblinds theme to msstyles?

This post has been edited by str8jktmn: Mar 18 2007, 09:26 PM

[Vishal Gupta]

^^ You can't.

[dejco]

you can do
but its like you are doing new skin exept you are using wb images i recomend Style builder from tgt soft

[Ludacris]

You would have to extract all recources and import them again..

[Vishal Gupta]

^^ Yep and it wouldnt be a conversion it would be a re-make.