Pimp My Desktop!
Lesson Three: Visual Style/Theme
Still alive after customizing your logon screens? Good for you. If you’ve made it this far, you shouldn’t have many problems with the third lesson of this tutorial. Once again, I must warn you that this may not work for your system, so proceed with caution. Do not blame me if your system gets slightly messed up because you followed my instructions!
Windows Classic and XP style seem to be the only choices one has in changing their visual style unless you buy a program like WindowsBlind or StyleXP. Who wants to spend money though? This is where a patch that hacks Windows comes in. If the patch successfully installs on your system, you can now download and use visual styles for free!
If the patch I’ve linked to doesn’t work, I highly suggest checking out this forum and other versions of the patch. A special thanks goes to DiGiKerot for finding the links! Now you should have no problem getting the patch to work to have free visual styles up the whazoo!
The price, however, comes with some manual labor.
To start you off, go to deviantART’s Visual Style section to download tons of visual styles to your liking. Once you have enough themes to make you happy…
1. Go to C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes.
2. Extract the visual style(s) into their own subfolders.
3. Make sure the folder is the same name as the .msstyles file. This is to ensure windows reads that a new theme has been added.
4. Check the files you’ve just extracted, there might be fonts you’ll need to add. Just drag and drop the files into the “Fonts” directory found in the Control Panel.
5. Go to your system’s “Display Properties”.
6. If done correctly, under the Appearance tab there should be new listings of the themes you’ve installed.
7. If so then you’re set. Select and enjoy the new themes!
8. If not, then double check your visual style folder(s). Make sure the .msstyles file is in the general sub-directory of said theme. If it’s in like another directory (i.e. C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes\VS name\blah\), move the file into the general sub-directory (i.e. C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes\VS name\).
9. If you have your system set up not to see file extensions, open up Windows Explorer, go to Tools–>Folder Options…, View tab, and under “Advanced settings:” make sure “hide extensions for known file types” is unchecked. You can always re-check it again later.
The two above screenshots show an example of how the visual style folder structure should look like and it being successfully read by Windows. Hopefully you’ve installed an visual style without problem but if not, feel free to e-mail me or leave a comment. I’ll usually respond back within the same day if not sooner.
Great tutorial, Alex. Five Stars(or was it 2 thumbs xx;) Anyway, thankies for finally making the tutorial.
Wow this is wonderful, thanks for making this!
To answer this question, no the visual style/themes do not change your cursor. However, some VS do come with cursors to match the windows skin. Just double check the VS files to see if any cursors were included. Same can be said with icons for the theme too.
As for Aqua looking themes, I don’t use them. There are like a ton of OSX looking ones in deviantART so browse around and try them out.
I can recommend some VS that are my personal favs though. Anything by b0se is always good. Other than that, agroove, areao4, exeed, roguesi, and shaded are all great VS to check out.
Yeah, thanks a bunch for sharing this.
I have another suggestion for your desktop addons/widgets programs. I have in the past tried out a program called Konfabulator which used to be just for Mac. But a few months ago they released a Windows version.
I just looked at Konfabulator’s site and it appears that it is the same as the Yahoo! widgets that you linked to.
Nice bit of information you have. Just wanted to add a nice site for icons that I use.
oh, the HTML didn’t work. Sorry for the 2 posts. But the site is http://www.pixelgirlpresents.com
wow….I was trying to figure out how to do this myself after looking at your screens, but this helps alot. =) thanks for all your previous help and for this resource =)
I use WindowsBlinds because it has nicer skins, but its not free.
Also, i use “Wallpaper Changer” which is a free mircosoft powertool downloadable from here somewhere. You set a directory, and it changes your wallpaper every 15 or xx minutes to the next image in the folder. its wonderful
Hey moy, what theme is that you’re using in the screenshots for the Visual Styles section? I have area04 by =heylove over at DeviantArt, but it looks slightly different (and incomplete), I like your version much better. Where did you get it?
It’s actually Nano by the same people, I think.
Ah, thankies. Quick google search sent me to http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/8833258/
by ~whistl3r
For themeXP and getskinned, which one is the boot and which one is the login screens?
Shimi, boot screen is the initial screen you see (i.e. WinXP is loading). Login screen is the one you see aftewards, that might prompt you for a user password to get into Windows.
If you’re asking about which is which, I suggest you don’t fool around with them much. While not an advance customize, both are definitely not for novices; esp. if something goes wrong.
Moyism, thanks for this tutorial. Very very helpful! Very simple too, considering im a skinning newbie.
NB:Nano font is so tiny!! XD I like it.
Just wondering.. how u remove the recycle bin?
If you’re running WinXP, d/l the newest version of TweakUI. It’ll allow you to easily remove the Recycle Bin from the desktop.
mayu i know where i can d/L that?
This is the only blog I’ve added to my links after reading only two pages of it. You’re da man, but I just can’t find the Nano msstyles.
whoops, got it, nvm.
Thanks a lot for this tutorial.. it really helped me, who was always checkin’ your COOL desktops, and wonderin’ how’d i make them myself…
I think my desktop’s now a hella lot better…
Does this thing work with Windows Media Center, too?
I honestly would not know. I suggest googling to find out.
can u tell me where you got that wallpaper for your swordsman love post? or better yet, send it to me? i cant seem to find it on 4chan.org
oh, and nice tutorial btw. I read through it because i was bored, but i use an aternative desktop. so it was all pointless for me to read through it. strange? i thought so.
Fuck this, your tutorial says to do exactly what Ive tried and they just wont show up in my desktop preferences anywhere.
oh… i still not found where to download these wallpaper… -_-!