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

[xplatinum]

[binaryzero]

We're not talking about corporate environments or support cases. Some custom visual styles were by far better than anything Microsoft has produced for some of their OS.

 

90% of the themes had horrible font rendering.

[Setnom]

I too miss the old visual styles days. Lots of options to choose, and some were really well-made, better than anything Microsoft could come up with.

[xplatinum]

90% of the themes had horrible font rendering.

Exactly. I'm talking about the 10%. They came with fonts, matching wallpapers and a full color palette for the theme. I preferred the minimalist ones (like what I posted in OP). I hated the ones that were overdone with too many colors and shapes.

[binaryzero]

Winamp skins were cool, really kicked the llama's ass. 

[DeusProto]

I too miss the old visual styles days. Lots of options to choose, and some were really well-made, better than anything Microsoft could come up with.

 

 

Thankfully the capability still exists in Windows including Windows 10 build 9926. 

Thanks to the recently updated UxStyle program I am able to use a skin to hide the ugliness of Windows 10.

 

I suspect that interest in visual styles will skyrocket after Windows 10 becomes generally available (several months after RTM) as I doubt the new GUI - at least the one we see in 9926 - will go over well for desktop users who like pretty GUIs. Much like a lot of people hated Luna in XP and went off to develop and use their own visual styles the same will happen here I am guessing -- and hoping. It would be great to see a bunch of people making msstyles skins again with entire communities bustling with activity like the XP days. 

 

Currently, the only source I've found for Windows 10 compatible third party skins is DeviantArt. 

 

If it were not for third party skins, I'd never be able to use 8.1 or 10 because of how ugly they are (10 MUCH uglier than 8.1). 

I stopped using third party skins for Vista and 7 because it was beautiful out of box with Aero Glass. But starting with Windows 8, Microsoft made a GUI that was even uglier than the old Windows 2000 and older GDI look IMO. Just BARELY not as ugly as Luna, however. So I've returned to customizing my OS look. 

 

UxStyle works for 8.1 too, it does not modify any files, instead it patches them in memory to allow third party skins to be used. 

 

I myself am trying to slowly learn how to make my own visual styles [msstyles] for Windows 10 using Vista Style Builder. It is VERY cumbersome. So many values that have to be changed to make a skin. 

 

(Screenshot is not my skin - its one I'm using called Silk for Windows 10 - notice how the text is centered and its white on black... default skin the text becomes invisible if you set the bar to black).

[thechronic]

Visual Styles and customisation only took off with Windows XP 1) We Could and 2) Because many felt that the Luna Visual Style wasn't that great.

Personally for me i only started to express an interest in customising my Windows XP install around 2004, when Longhorn inspired Visual Styles became popular (Plex, Slate, Jade, Aero etc) along with Sidebars and various modifications that could be made such as new Splash Screens, Logon Screens and so on.

During the whole development process of Vista we had been given us a tantalizing glimpse of what was possible.

Also WindowBlinds became popular with some at the time as finally users were able to get an Aero Glass like theme on XP with real transparent borders.

Around that time Visual Styles and Docks that mimicked OSX caught my eye too, as did Linux inspired themes. Of course there were also entirely (or mostly) original Visual Styles but frankly these either looked horrific or blew us away. It was an exciting time for me.

 

[margrave]

I miss that customization level sometimes . . .

 

WindowsBlinds is at least still available.

[Dot Matrix]

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:

 

THE only XP theme as far as I was concerned.

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

There used to be some pretty nice themes I forget which one I used to use but nice soft blue colours, square edged windows, etc.. it looked really nice and uplifted the Windows XP UI really nicely. 

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

THE only XP theme as far as I was concerned.

So true

 

There used to be some pretty nice themes I forget which one I used to use but nice soft blue colours, square edged windows, etc.. it looked really nice and uplifted the Windows XP UI really nicely.

 

I think that was Watercolor Emico: Blue?

 

[Dot Matrix]

Torando5's themes really uplifted the otherwise *ugly* Windows XP desktop. He made Luna look good. I really enjoyed his Zune inspired, black Luna Element theme.

 

[+E.Worm Jimmy Subscriber¹]

i also remember the icon packs

 

 

 

 

[Ironman273]

i also remember the icon packs

And how frustrating was it when you had a total reskin but the icon pack was missing one type of icon and it would stick out in all it's yellow manila folder goodness?

[guitmz]

The Zune theme made luna ok for me but i liked the 9x themes... like the win 95/98 plus package, that was the sh*t

[Shadrack]

What originally attracted me to Neowin was the Windows XP theme forum.

 

My favorite was Watercolor.

 

[firey]

Man, these things themes bring back a lot of memories.  I'm sure I used pretty much all of the good looking ones on here.

[xplatinum]

What originally attracted me to Neowin was the Windows XP theme forum.

 

My favorite was Watercolor.

 

 

From your screenshot... is Chris BangBang023? Memories...

[remixedcat]

My XP looks thru the years:

 

[Ian W]

I miss the Windows Vista default theme.

 

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

Have you seen this? It's about as close to Windows Vista that I could find.

[n_K]

The first screenshot with the blue is really nice.

The theme that sticks out most for me was whistler's (beta version of XP).

[NightScreams]

Waste of resources imo. I just like an efficient UI to get work done, not sit and stare at it. I just run full screen apps and swap between them so no need for wallpaper or shiny icon's.

[Romero]

oh good old days.

i remember trying to make a michael jackson theme TEEHEEE

 

My eyes! May I know how old you were when you made this, err, abomination theme? (No offence. )

[Denis W. Veteran]

Memories of Luna Element 3 to 5.1, a bit of Royale (not a huge fan though), various Vista/Aero-ish variations, Tango themes, Watercolor variations, stuff from KoL/b0se/etc, and some WindowBlinds themes - good days they were and I loved how active Neowin's VS section was. The days of using an XP theme are not that distant for me as from 2012-2013 I was still on XP on my work laptop until they forced the company to migrate to Windows 7 shortly before I left (and this is one of the world's largest and most iconic tech firms).

 

The Windows look and feel since 7 is not bad. 8.x might have lost the glass but at least they ditched the horrible blue for app toolbars.

[Osiris]

It was a fun time particularly as you had the past, whistler and those leaked screenshots of "blackcomb" and longhorn floating around as the future, lots of customisation happening based off those. There was a period there where a lot was being customised, Active Desktop (who remembers those!!), windows theme, logon theme.

 

Was a fun time with lots of members and good guys contributing, really cemented neowin as the community I stayed apart of.  Good memories   Like some of the others guys have mentioned these days I don't see much point in themeing and customising everything.