Giving Vista a new look?

[Hydria]

Hey I was just wondering if there was any decent tools I could use to switch the look and feel of vista. Much like styleXP did with XP. I did a bit of searching, nothing too extensive, but I thought I'd come here and see if by chance anyone had a program they could recommend.



Thanks,
Hydria

 

[Brink]

Hi Hydria,

Stardock makes some great programs to customize Vista with. Most of them have a trial period to try them out to see how you like them.


Stardock.com - Your Edge In Software

Shawn

 

[Hydria]

Thanks Still looking for others if any one has any suggestions let me know trying windowsblinds right now.

 

[BladedThesis]

A patched uxtheme.dll gave you the freedom to use un-signed custom visual style in Windows XP but in Windows Vista you have to replace three dll files to use third party visual styles.
Those three files are uxtheme.dll, shsvcs.dll and themeui.dll

Download The Corresponding Patched Files:
Within Windows


How To Install
1. Login as a user with Administrative privileges -or- have Administrative credentials ready (check under the keyboard for a slip of paper).
2. Navigate to %systemroot%\System32
3. Right-click uxtheme.dll and click properties.
4. Take ownership of the file and close dialogs.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for themeui.dll and shsvcs.dll
6. Right-click uxtheme.dll and click properties.
7. Give yourself (or group) Full Control permissions and close dialogs.
8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 for themeui.dll and shsvcs.dll.
9. Rename uxtheme.dll to uxtheme.old.
10. Rename themeui.dll to themeui.old.
11. Rename shsvcs.dll to shsvcs.old.
12. Copy patched files into %systemroot%\System32
13. Reboot (yes, this is really required)
14. Enjoy!

Now click HERE and download any custom visual styles you care to use!


Attached is my desktop after patching the mentioned system files and downloading a custom visual style.