Allow Custom 3rd party Themes in Windows

[edrik]

Allow Custom 3rd party Themes in Windows 7, Vista & XP

We always like to customize our Windows to make it pretty. There are hundreds of themes available to spice up Windows.

"UxStyle" is a very small utility created by well-known "Rafael" @ Withinwindows.

As you all know, Windows doesn’t all you install third-party themes by default. To install a third-party theme in Windows, you need to patch Windows system files. Of course, there are many patches available, but many novice users find this as a tedious task.
Here is a great application for Windows, named UxStyle Core that lets you patch Windows in a few seconds easily without playing with system files. It works fine for XP, Vista and Windows 7. So, just download and install the UxStyle Core to start playing with new themes.

   Note

UxStyle is a light-weight system service named Unsigned Themes, complimentary to the Themes service, and a kernel driver, sizing in at ~500k and ~17kb respectfully (beta builds). The service handles the enabling/disabling of custom theme support and the kernel driver handles patching. For 64-bit platforms, the kernel driver is signed with a digital certificate, as required by Microsoft.

Simply download and install the tool and get ready to enjoy 3rd party themes. It works in Windows XP, Vista and 7.
Note that it doesn't have any UI. It'll run as a service in background and will allow you to use 3rd party themes.

View attachment UxStyle - Enjoy 3rd party Themes.zip

In builds 72xx you may need to run an elevated command prompt and copy paste exactly what the code shows below to make it work.

sc config uxpatch group= "File System"
sc config UnsignedThemes group= UIGroup

 

[ikilledkenny]

I had UxPatcher on XP and Vista, and it was great! Thanks for posting!

 

[Legacy Code]

A lot is owed to Rafael and his work , If it wasn't for him we would all still be using the default themes Microsoft supply.

Thanks for the Links

 

[ikilledkenny]

Does anyone know where I can get new themes? Struggling to find some...

 

[YupYup]

Does anyone know where I can get new themes? Struggling to find some...

At the moment things keep changing from build to build, here are some i was checking out for build 7100. I am sure you could find some more there

 

[garbanzo]

hmm this is interesting, i wasn't expecting it out so soon. i just bought (€3) AveStyler which is similar. but AveStyler has a GUI with a theme picker, and builds live previews of the styles that are in your themes folder so you know what you're getting. it's a nice little app!

AveStyler

 

[grouchpunk08]

Anyone know where to put the theme files and whatnot to get themes working?

 

[garbanzo]

Anyone know where to put the theme files and whatnot to get themes working?

the theme file needs to be in /windows/resources/themes

look in that folder at Aero.theme (you can view it in notepad) and inside the Aero folder where the Aero.msstyles file and other files are located to see how things are set up.

 

[sagarajin]

Thanks for this one.

 

[maccik]

We always like to customize our Windows to make it pretty. There are hundreds of themes available to spice up Windows.

"UxStyle" is a very small utility created by well-known "Rafael" @ Withinwindows.

As you all know, Windows doesn’t all you install third-party themes by default. To install a third-party theme in Windows, you need to patch Windows system files. Of course, there are many patches available, but many novice users find this as a tedious task.
Here is a great application for Windows, named UxStyle Core that lets you patch Windows in a few seconds easily without playing with system files. It works fine for XP, Vista and Windows 7. So, just download and install the UxStyle Core to start playing with new themes.

   Note

UxStyle is a light-weight system service named Unsigned Themes, complimentary to the Themes service, and a kernel driver, sizing in at ~500k and ~17kb respectfully (beta builds). The service handles the enabling/disabling of custom theme support and the kernel driver handles patching. For 64-bit platforms, the kernel driver is signed with a digital certificate, as required by Microsoft.

​

Simply download and install the tool and get ready to enjoy 3rd party themes. It works in Windows XP, Vista and 7.
Note that it doesn't have any UI. It'll run as a service in background and will allow you to use 3rd party themes.

View attachment 15106

Thank s for this ..but how can i use ??

 

[Generator]

Thank s for this ..but how can i use ??

There's a slight problem with the current release, the creator's say it will be fixed in the next version but for now you need to run a couple of commands at an elevated command prompt for it to kick in.

It's working fine for me. I installed it and then did this fix.

"We believe there's an issue with load order, as we didn't specify the load groups explicitly. Try issuing the following commands in an elevated command prompt:

sc config uxpatch group= "File System"
sc config UnsignedThemes group= UIGroup

NOTE: The spaces are intended, do not modify the commands."
it will be fixed in the next build..

It wouldn't work for me on my Win7 (bld 7264) until I did the above commands.

EDIT: Maybe Edrik could edit his post to include this info..

 

[maccik]

There's a slight problem with the current release, the creator's say it will be fixed in the next version but for now you need to run a couple of commands at an elevated command prompt for it to kick in.



It wouldn't work for me on my Win7 (bld 7264) until I did the above commands.

EDIT: Maybe Edrik could edit his post to include this info..

Thanks Generator for the infos

 

[edrik]

There's a slight problem with the current release, the creator's say it will be fixed in the next version but for now you need to run a couple of commands at an elevated command prompt for it to kick in.



It wouldn't work for me on my Win7 (bld 7264) until I did the above commands.

EDIT: Maybe Edrik could edit his post to include this info..

First post updated.

Thanks for this Generator


-EdRiK.

 

[Generator]

No worries guys..

I noticed the service had to be manually started on every boot so I went looking for the reason, With all the leaks lately this uxstyle is alot better than patching 3 seperate files each time IMO.

That Rafael knows his stuff and it will probably be flawless with the next version without a doubt.

 

[ikilledkenny]

Can I see a picture of a custom theme? I can't get it to work on build 7260. Maybe it's just me, though.

 

[edrik]

Hello ikilledkenny, I'm also experiencing your problem with build 7260. After I upgraded to build 7260 I wasn't able to install custom themes too.

-EdRiK.

 

[ikilledkenny]

Hopefully, it will work on the RTM. At least my "Glassed FireFox" works

 

[edrik]

Hopefully, it will work on the RTM. At least my "Glassed FireFox" works

Yeah, I bet more themes would also be available on the RTM I really can't wait for it

-EdRiK.

 

[ikilledkenny]

If only we could make it look like project Copenhagen. Have you seen that?

 

[edrik]

Unfortunately I haven't, could you please post the link ?