Complete Guide for Windows Customization – WindowBlinds, Style XP & msstyles

1. What is a Theme/Visual Style? Are both same or is there any difference between them?

=> 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 Themes are shown in Themes tab:

Visual Style is the main file, which skins all parts of windows, like border, titlebar, buttons, etc. 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?

=> You can download themes for Windows XP and Vista from following sections:

Windows XP Themes

Windows Vista Themes

3. I downloaded some Visual Styles, but none of them are working on my computer. Am I missing something?

=> By default, Windows doesn't allow 3rd party themes. So you'll need to patch a file uxtheme.dll to allow 3rd party themes. You can use following patcher which does the job easily and quickly:

Download UXTheme Multi-patcher 5.5

Just run the tool and then copy/paste your theme into "%windir%\Resources\Themes" folder (here %windir% means "Windows" folder in the system drive where Windows is installed). Now you can enjoy 3rd party themes in your system.

4. I have also heard about WindowBlinds and Style XP software. Why these software are used, Can you explain something about them?

=> These 2 software are also used to customize the windows look. Style XP patches the uxtheme.dll file and loads the visual style. Its good software for non-techie persons because you don't need to worry about patching the uxtheme.dll file. 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.

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

5. From where can I download WindowBlinds themes?

=> Following are a few sites, which provide WindowBlinds themes:

DeviantART

WinCustomize

Customize.org

6. Can I edit my downloaded .msstyles file?

=> Yes, You can use Resource Hacker to edit themes, but it requires some expertise.

7. Can I use .msstyles files in WindowBlinds?

=> Yes, You can convert them into WindowBlinds format using SkinStudio software.

This article was posted in Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP.

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3 Comments

Nizar

in my pc, texts segoe ui and calibri doesnt work properly,i.e when applied in visual styles,these 2 fonts looks ugly
Tyler

The links in point 2 don't work anymore. Can you update them?
VG

^^ Thanks for the heads up. Fixed.