I miss the themes from the good old msstyles (uxtheme.dll) days


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I realized this while browsing this month's desktops thread. There isn't anything particularly different anymore. Just different backgrounds, different colors and sometime with a 3rd party dock.

 

Back in the day, on Windows XP, the whole taskbar was different. It's very vague to me but I remember there was so many beautiful creations from our own neowinians.

 

If anyone has a link to some old good themes (screenshots) on here I would really appreciate it :)

 

edit

 

Might not seem like much today, but back in the day it made a HUGE difference compared to the stock visual style.

 

b0se :D

 

XPMC_RC3_by_b0se.png

 

SlanXP_2_0_by_lassekongo83.png

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I think my first post on Neowin was about themes and Windows XP.  I had fun with it back in the day but I think I "outgrew" it.

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I think my first post on Neowin was about themes and Windows XP.  I had fun with it back in the day but I think I "outgrew" it.

I don't think I would get back into it either. But theme'ing actually meant something back in the day.

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Theming was a necessity because XP was horrid, Vista was also pretty bad, 7 was OK, with 8 as long as I have a dark taskbar I'm happy 

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I use windowblinds to give a sorta windows 7 look, as I got bored with the flat look.

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oldxpdeskt.jpg

 

One of my old XP desktops right before I dropped it for 7.. forget the name of it.. Royale Anthracite maybe? Anything was better than that horrid Luna.. I can live with 8's style but Luna.. just no.  I certainly don't miss it though.  That said, there's nothing stopping you from doing the same level of customization as you did in XP, you can still change up the visual style, taskbar, etc etc just like XP, some are significantly different visually.

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It's funny because just last week I was cleaning up my Bookmarks folder for the first time in forever and deleted a "Themes related" folder that had links to CrystalXP.net, StudioTwentyEight, Essorant, and Wincustomize.  I remember going through phases but most of the time I would try to change my computer to look like another OS such as Mac, Amiga or BeOS.

 

And I just found my first post from October 29, 2001:

 

Posted 29 October 2001 - 16:47

Great theme!

Just one request. Could you make the text of the unfocused taskbar buttons another color besides white? Something like blue would be nice.

Hope you come out with more themes!

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ahh I remember SlanXP used to use that one.  Also had one that was like an inverse of it that was all white.

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If you miss it, just apply it for Windows 8! There are plenty of themes at deviantart for W8.1

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I think you mean "Visual Styles", and yeah, I miss them too.

Themes are completely different, and yes there are themes for Windows 8, but they are not visual styles.

But I have never looked in to any info on whether visual styles would work or not on Windows 8.

I've tried hundreds and hundreds of visual styles back in the day, and never found any I liked,

so I made my own, and I miss them a lot cuz they were so awesome.

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I think you mean "Visual Styles", and yeah, I miss them too.

Themes are completely different, and yes there are themes for Windows 8, but they are not visual styles.

But I have never looked in to any info on whether visual styles would work or not on Windows 8.

I've tried hundreds and hundreds of visual styles back in the day, and never found any I liked,

so I made my own, and I miss them a lot cuz they were so awesome.

 

There are Visual Styles for Windows 8: http://www.deviantart.com/browse/all/customization/skins/windows8/visualstyles8/?order=9

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Dont miss this at all - first thing I did when I had to support a machine was put it back to default theme. 

 

The only half decent theme from that time was the Royal one - the blue was cool. 

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Dont miss this at all - first thing I did when I had to support a machine was put it back to default theme. 

 

The only half decent theme from that time was the Royal one - the blue was cool. 

This.

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i wish i had my screenshots now.

 

 

we here at neowin had the best themes.        some theme sites had horrible themes (styles)

but here the community supported the best ones!

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I'd hate to see what the themes look like on modern monitors. The CRT burn I'd get from the red ^, people would think I've been sitting in the sun all day.

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It was all about Luna Element 5.1 Blue in the XP days.

 

In all honesty i think that looks nicer than Windows 8.1:

 

b4bz87.jpg

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I miss the Windows Vista default theme.

 

I could never find it for Windows 7 (or, of course, 8/8.1/10).

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Tour XP.... gold.

 

I remember the cool music from the Windows 98 splash screen straight after you install it. Heard it so many times, since like you know, the cool thing in the 90s was to format your computer every weekend.

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This is an example of how you get a minimalist flat look without being ugly: 

 

gxIqu9Q.png

 

http://link6155.deviantart.com/art/Silk-for-Windows-10-Technical-Preview-487071428

Windows 8.1 version: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Silk-462329766

 

Hopefully that theme will be updated to work with Windows 10 RTM when it comes out. 

 

 

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This is the msstyles skin I used in 2007 on XP: I forgot its name

 

Taskbar: http://i.imgur.com/8K6IU6y.png

(Too wide to embed it in the post)

 

Window chrome: exrly2z.png

 

Note: The taskbar screenshot was taken in 2007 but the Window Chrome one taken in 2005. 

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