How to install a Windows XP theme. Computer Repair: How to Install a Theme on Windows XP

How to install themes for Windows XP?

The most common operating system today is Windows XP. There are several methods to update its default theme.

It happens that new themes are not compatible with the operating system. In such a situation, you need to patch a number of system files using the UXTheme Multi-Patcher 6.0 or UXTender programs, which modify system files. Thanks to them, support for third-party Windows XP themes is provided.

How to install themes for Windows Vista?

Installing workspace themes in the Windows Vista operating system is done in a more complex way than in the “competing” Windows XP system. The reason for this is that Vista has a ban on modifying system files. Therefore, to correctly install themes for Windows Vista, you should use the Vista Visual Master program.

Another option is to change it manually using the Vista Glazz software. In this case, all work is carried out step by step:

• Install the program, reboot.


• Copy the contents of the theme folder and the file with the .msstyles extension to the “C:WindowsResourcesThemes” directory.


• On the Desktop, in the “Personalization” section, open the “Color” and “Window Appearance” options. Select the action “Open classic view properties to select other options.” Here we install the desired theme.


• Disable UAC parental controls in the “Turn User Account Control on or off” option in the “User Accounts” section of the Control Panel. Reboot the computer.


• Select the “InstallTakeOwnership” file from the unpacked “TakeOwnership” archive and run it.


• In “C:WindowsSystem32” we copy the files “browseui.dll” and “shell32.dll” and save them in another location.


• On the “browseui.dll” file, open the context menu with the right mouse button and select “Take Ownership”. Then we repeat the action, but select sequentially the items “Properties”, “Security”, “Change”, “Administrator”, installing everywhere. Thus, we gain the ability to control.


• We carry out all similar actions with the “shell32.dll” file.


• On the Desktop, in the “Personalization” section, open the “Color” and “Window Appearance” options again. Setting up a new theme.

Video on the topic

Sources:

• how to set a theme in personalization in 2019

Each user customizes the Windows interface for themselves. Fortunately, setting up Windows graphics is a fairly easy procedure. You can customize and change absolutely everything: icons, font icons, screensaver and desktop wallpaper. You can also always find and install additional topics for Windows. Or create your own theme. There are many possibilities for this.

You will need

• Personal computer running Windows operating system, themes, XPize application, Internet access

Instructions

Install topics There are two ways to do this. The first one is ready-made topics from . After downloading, you need to install them. Just install the downloaded application as a regular program. During installation topics must be unpacked either into the system folder or into a separate folder specified by the system.

Now topics added. You can select them by going to the “Control Panel”, then to the “Screen” tab. In the window that opens, click on the “Themes” item.

The Windows 7 operating system has a lot of system themes. To create a new theme, click on an empty area of ​​the desktop with the mouse and select the “Personalization” line. A window will open in which topics will be available in various categories. To see how the theme will look, right-click on it. In this way you can view all the interesting topics. When you select the desired topic, click on the “Save topic” line.

Also, using the window called earlier in Windows 7, you can create your own topics from various components. At the bottom of the window there is a panel where you can change the desktop background, color scheme, and system sounds. Thus, by selecting each component individually, you will create your own theme.

If you want to radically change the appearance of the operating system interface topics, download and install the XPize application. Along with the installation, additional topics. But that's not the main thing. Using the menu, you can completely customize Windows. You can change desktop icons, add desktop gadgets, change the appearance of the clock, and much more. Any theme created using this application can be saved and installed at any time.

In the standard operating system package topics Windows XP has only one theme with several color schemes. Despite the fact that the constantly running automatic update service offers to install various types of system program updates, the design does not update, but this can be easily fixed using special programs.

You will need

• Uxtheme Multi-Patcher Software.

Instructions

In addition to the "windows" of the operating system topics The loading screen and system sounds can be used to change the appearance. By default, in Windows XP the option to support third-party themes is disabled, however, a directory for storing themes exists. Consequently, the possibility of changing the external design exists, but it was closed, apparently so as not to waste personal computer resources.

To activate themes for changing designs, you can use the special utility Uxtheme Multi-Patcher. This program is completely free and is freely available on the Internet. You can download this program from the official website windowsxlive.net. After loading this web page, click the Products menu button.

In the list of programs, find the Uxtheme Multi-Patcher utility and left-click on the link. In the window that opens, go to the Download section and click on the utility link. In the new window, make sure that your operating system is in the list of listed systems (not every version of this program will work with Windows XP), click the link with the name of the application.

After downloading the utility to your computer, which is located in the archive, run it. Use the WinRar archiver or the Total Commander file manager if you have an archive and the system asks you to specify the program with which to do this.

After starting the program, a standard window will appear, which will provide information about the program and its functions. To avoid visiting the developer's website again, uncheck Set Windows X's Live as default home page and click the Patch button.

A small window will appear on the screen with the message “A system reboot is required to complete the installation.” topics..." Click OK if you want to restart your computer now, otherwise click Cancel.

After the reboot, all that remains is to download new ones topics design and copy them to the “C:WINDOWSResourcesThemes” folder so that they become available in the “Appearance” tab of the “Display Properties” applet.

To go to the Display Properties applet, right-click on the desktop and select Properties. In the window that opens, go to the “Design” tab. In the “Windows and Buttons” block, select a suitable design theme. In the “Color” block, select the color scheme that you like best.

How to install a theme on Windows XP?

Master's answer:

How to install a theme on XP

To install a theme on Windows XP, you should right-click on the desktop of your computer and select “Properties” from the menu. Next, you need to go to the “Themes” tab, and in the “Theme” menu that opens, select the very last item “Browse”.

Then you need to indicate where the topic you want to add to the list of topics is located. This file must have a .Theme extension.

ATTENTION! Some themes designed for Windows XP that you want to download from this site do not have the required extension. They are given simply as an installation. Their installation is an easy process and does not take much time. You just need to install the theme like all regular programs on your computer.

How to install a theme on Windows 7

All themes for the seventh version on this site have the .themepack extension. For these topics everything is very easy and simple. You just need to double-click on the theme file and the installation will occur automatically. Then you just need to select it and apply it.

How to install a theme for Windows XP, to do this you need to patch the system file uxtheme.dll in order to be able to install themes not signed by Microsoft. To do this, use one of the following programs:

- (does not change the original files, runs its service as an addition to the Themes service from Microsoft)
- (modifies original files, makes a copy so that it can be restored later)

After your Windows XP is patched, we proceed to installing the theme you like. You can always download themes for Windows XP in our section. We will look at installing a theme using the Islander theme as an example.

Download the archive with the theme and unpack it to any place convenient for us, go to the folder

In the folder we see four others, these are: FindeXer Config (settings for FindeXer), Fonts (necessary fonts), Styler Toolbar (skins for an interesting program that will help make Windows Explorer more beautiful), Visual Style (the design theme itself).

Please note that this is the content of an archive with the Islander theme, i.e. in other cases, the content of the archive will vary, because each topic has its own creator.
If the extracted archive contains a Fonts folder (in our case this is exactly the case), then the first thing we do is install the fonts from it, i.e. copy them to the C:Windows/Fonts folder.
Let's start with the basics, i.e. design themes. Go to the Visual Style folder.

There are two more folders in the folder, both folders are different versions of the Islander theme. Islander VS Aquatic is an original Islander theme. Islander VS Tango is a specially modified Islander theme for perfect harmony with the icons from the Tango - Tangerine set. We will choose Islander VS Tango. You need to copy this folder to C:Windows/Resources/Themes (the folder where all Windows themes are stored)

Copied, something is wrong, all the folders there have an additional file with the name of the theme and the extension .theme, but Islander does not. What does it mean? This means that it will not be visible in the standard window for changing themes in Windows XP, because only themes that have a *.theme file are shown there
It’s worth noting that you can easily change theme settings on the “Appearance” tab.

Here you can choose the font you like for the theme; try all available ones before making a choice, because... everyone has their own taste.
Then go back to C:Windows/Resources/Themes, go to the folder with the Islander theme (Islander VS Tango) and double-click on the Islander VS Tango.msstyles file to apply the theme

Please note that this method will have to be used more often than using themes using standard Windows tools, because... Few authors include a *.theme file in their theme.
You can always create the .theme file yourself. Apply the theme you like as described above and open the screen properties. On the very first tab (Themes), select the “Save” button next to the Windows XP (changed) column and save the theme in C:Windows/Resources/Themes under a file name similar to the theme. For example, Islander VS Tango.theme..

Installing a theme for Windows 7 is very simple and does not require any special computer skills from the user. The initial setup will take about 5-10 minutes, since you need to patch the system and learn how to install new designs. If for the first time you carry out the installation strictly according to the instructions, then subsequent installations will proceed quickly, smoothly and smoothly.

Preparing the system to support third-party themes

If this is your first time installing a theme on your computer, you will need to patch the system.

After installing patches, you must restart your computer to make changes. After this, the system will be ready to install third-party themes.

If you want to change the Start menu icon and navigation buttons in File Explorer, you'll need to gain System Files permissionsexplorer.exe(for the Start menu) andExplorerFrame.dll(for navigation buttons in Explorer).

The above steps only need to be done once. The following theme changes do not require re-installing patches or obtaining rights to system files.

Installing a theme

Step 1

In the downloaded archive we find the theme file in the format .theme(example: theme name.theme) and a folder with the same name. The file and folder must be copied to the system directory C:/Windows/Resources/Themes.

Step 2

Go to the personalization panel and in the “Installed themes” section we find our theme.

Step 3

Double-click on the theme name and observe changes in the interface design.

Demonstration of an unstable Start button and navigation buttons in File Explorer

As you can see in the screenshot, we still have the same Start menu button and navigation buttons in Explorer. To replace these system elements, move on to the next point.

Replacing the start menu button

Find in the archive with the topic an image with a button in the format *.BMP(in our case, the image is located in the folder " Orb") and set the button, .

Replacing navigation buttons in Explorer

If the theme archive contains the file ExplorerFrame.dll, copy it to the folder C:/Windows/System32.

1. Go to the directory C:/Windows/System32 and find the file ExplorerFrame.dll.
2. Rename the file ExplorerFrame.dll V ExplorerFrame.dll.old.
3. Transfer a new file from the theme archive ExplorerFrame.dll to a folder C:/Windows/System32.
4. Restart your computer or simply restart File Explorer for the changes to take effect.

If the archive does not contain the file ExplorerFrame.dll, then there are pictures in the format .BMP, which must be installed using the Windows 7 Navigation Buttons Customizer program.

You must have access rights to the ExplorerFrame.dll file. The first paragraph of the article describes how to obtain rights to this file.

1. Install the program

Initially, the Windows 7 operating system does not support the ability to install third-party themes from other developers. But this problem can be solved in a very quick and simple way, and today we will teach you how to install themes for Windows 7 with detailed instructions with screenshots. The entire process does not require users to have any special PC skills.

Preparing the system

Installation process (pictures are clickable):

In the archive there is a patch for x86 and x64 bit OS, select the one you need and run it in administrator mode

At the initial stage of the installation process, you will have the opportunity to change the path for installing the patch

Read the user agreement and agree to it, otherwise there is no other way =)

The installation process has started

Congratulations!

2. Universal Theme Patcher

Run the patch as administrator

In the next step, the installer displays information about how many files need “treatment”

The installer writes that all patches were installed successfully!

Installing a theme

4. After that, open the personalization panel and find our installed theme and click on it. After 1-2 seconds the desktop design will change

5. The installation process for most themes ends here, but some still have graphic elements that have not yet been changed, in our case these are the Explorer navigation buttons and the design of the start button.

6. In this case, it is necessary to replace system files

Replacing system files

Here are the main ones:
Explorer.exe(changes the design of the Start button) - location C:/Windows
ExplorerFrame.dll(changes the design of the explorer navigation button) - location C:/Windows/system32
Shell32.dll(changes the background on the left side in the control panel) - location C:/Windows/system32

1. First, in order to be able to change these system files, you need to gain access rights to them. Read about how to do this here
2. Now you need to rename the “Explorer.exe” file to any other one. (For example in Explorer2.exe, Explorerorigin.exe, etc.)

3. Open our folder with the theme that we downloaded, copy the file “Explorer.exe” from there and paste it into the C:/Windows directory

4. We do the same actions with the remaining two files

5. After all these steps, for the changes to take effect, we need to restart the explorer or system

Rebooting Explorer