Windows 7 Visual Styles

By svnO.o
in Tips, Tweaks & Customization

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svnO.o

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what do we do with the explorer.exe files that are included in most of these themes?

Your supposed to replace the default explorer.exe in your C:\Windows folder. Some of them come with instructions. You'll have to take ownership of explorer, close explorer.exe through task manager, and rename it to something like explorer_bak.exe and copy the explorer.exe included with the theme to the old explorer.exe location using Command Prompt or something similar. Also you have to make sure it is for your architecture. If your using 32 bit you have to make sure its a 32 bit EXE file (most of those pages will say if it supports 64 bit or not, if it doesn't state it then 99% of the time its for 32 bit). Same thing for 64 bit. I specified in the list whether they are 32 or 64 bit compatible for reference as well (though I haven't tested each and every one of them so if any of them are inaccurate let me know).

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svnO.o

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I wish there were a decent skin with a different start menu/orb. sorta like the one rakishere posted.

Well you can choose whatever VS you want and either manually modify your own explorer.exe or even mix another visual style's explorer.exe file into it. It really isn't that difficult.

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DragonMaster Jay

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Ribbon VS is my favorite by far. It's what Windows 7 should look like by default.

The author is very talented, and I recommend everyone go and look at their DeviantART gallery. Many other extremely great themes, icons, and designs can be viewed there.

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svnO.o

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Only problem with Slan is that it isn't transparent.. doesn't have Aero does it?

It still has all the Aero effects. I was using it temporarily but wished it had at least a little bit of transparency to it. Also some of the fonts chosen aren't as good as the default Windows 7 fonts and some areas of the superbar need to be improved on. I've decided to stick with Ribbon VS until some of these themes become more polished.

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bigmehdi

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The Ribbon VS theme from jordanfc has been reworked by alkhan.

The version done by alkhan, introduce more changes (especially the task bar, I guess),

and hnce I prefer his version.

Currently it is officially for "win 7 rc", but it works fine for me on "win 7 rtm"

http://alkhan.deviantart.com/art/Ribbon-fo...-7-RC-126477514

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svnO.o

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The Ribbon VS theme from jordanfc has been reworked by alkhan.

The version done by alkhan, introduce more changes (especially the task bar, I guess),

and hnce I prefer his version.

Currently it is officially for "win 7 rc", but it works fine for me on "win 7 rtm"

http://alkhan.deviantart.com/art/Ribbon-fo...-7-RC-126477514

Thanks for sharing. I personally don't like that version (not a fan of the task bar in it) but more options is always nice :)

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e2zippo

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Currently using Ribbon VS. Was using Slan before that. But the odd fonts made me change it after a couple of weeks.

I'm trying to get Ribbon to work on my Win 7 Pro 64bit RTM, I've ran the uxtheme patch and double clicked on the .theme file but all i end up with is the originl aero theme, any ideas?

EDIT: I managed to get SlanXP working, just put it in the wrong folder, however, my start menu button won't change, what's up with that?

Edited by e2zippo
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svnO.o

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I'm trying to get Ribbon to work on my Win 7 Pro 64bit RTM, I've ran the uxtheme patch and double clicked on the .theme file but all i end up with is the originl aero theme, any ideas?

EDIT: I managed to get SlanXP working, just put it in the wrong folder, however, my start menu button won't change, what's up with that?

Did you make sure to copy the "Ribbon" folder to "C:\Windows\Resources\Themes"? The Ribbon folder path should then be "C:\Windows\Resources\Themes\Ribbon" with the "Ribbon.theme" file in "C:\Windows\Resources\Themes". The reason the start menu button didn't change is because for that you actually have to replace your explorer.exe -- the procedure is usually described on the Visual Style download page or within a readme.txt file included with the downloaded VS (takes some work with command prompt or a 3rd party app to replace the file due to permissions).

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