Free Visual XP Themes for your WinXP, Awesome!

[TheCableGuy]

Am I missing something? How do you change the logon? It only shows on the sites how to change the boot screen.

 

[nero2]

I used UxThemePatcher ever since it first came out, but it doesn't work with SP1 No themes for me... (I guess you could run the exe b4 you install SP1 and save the generated .dll, but I'm not sure if the pre-sp1 .dll would play nice with the rest of the system. Just my .02

 

[ckportland]

LOGONSCREEN
- Backup (copy) the file %windir%\system32\logonui.exe (most likely C:\windows\system32\logonui.exe - the logon)
- Download one of the .zip files 2 your computer. (c further down)
- Extract logonui.exe to a directory other than %windir%\system32 (most likely C:\windows\system32)
- Reboot your computer into Safe Mode (hit F8 before the boot screen) or into true DOS (from a boot disk)
- Overwrite the file %windir%\system32\logonui.exe (which should have been backed up) with the extracted .exe
- Reboot your computer as you normally would

Originally posted by: TheCableGuy
Am I missing something? How do you change the logon? It only shows on the sites how to change the boot screen.

 

[Doh!]

Originally posted by: nero2
I used UxThemePatcher ever since it first came out, but it doesn't work with SP1 No themes for me... (I guess you could run the exe b4 you install SP1 and save the generated .dll, but I'm not sure if the pre-sp1 .dll would play nice with the rest of the system. Just my .02

There's a version that works with XP SP1.

Also, to change the logonui, you don't need to do all that safe mode stuff. Just open regedit, find logonui.exe and change the directory pointing it to your customized logonui.exe.

 

[OulOat]

Originally posted by: TheCableGuy
Am I missing something? How do you change the logon? It only shows on the sites how to change the boot screen.

login loader

 

[0roo0roo]

hm all u need to enable themes is download uxtheme.dll the hacked version, and put it in windows\system32 and the windows\servicepack\i386 dir for sp1. must be done in dos.

 

[Ogewo]

UXThemePatcher works fine in WinXP SP1.

 

[samgau]

It doesn't seem to work with my XP pro, sp1 build 2600...
I replaced both files..still nothng... gives me a not valid theme crap...

sucks

 

[alm99]

gonna have to remember this later since my themexp utility changer expired

 

[huesmann]

Man, Claudia Schiffer is literally busting out of her dress!

 

[Optical]

Any theme support for Win 2K?

 

[SFang]

Originally posted by: alm99
gonna have to remember this later since my themexp utility changer expired

If you hit Kazza, you may find some surprises.

 

[Packy]

Thanks, I'm always looking for more theme sites. I'm surprised there aren't more GOOD stylexp themes available.

 

[nuonce]

Originally posted by: MHz
Oh, I meant to post this instead.. has the explanation, yadda
http://www.lightstar1.com/install.htm

good find

i've been using an old stylexp version (no version number but it's dated 11-6-2001) ever since I found that the newer versions expired and were too bloated, and it works the same way as it is just a patch.

a few skins links:
deskmod.com
skinz.org
customize.org
wincustomize.com
skinbase.org
artuproar.com
pixtudio.com

 

[SFang]

Sig of nuonce:
I want to die calm and peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather. Not kicking and screaming like the passengers of his car.

I like your signature. That is the funniest thing I ever read in a long time. LOL.

 

[allenlh]

Originally posted by: SFang
To change bootscreen:[/b] You do NOT need to download "BootXP" software linked on the website. Here is a bootscreen guide to change the boot screen manually. Works for me.

SFang,

I don't get the windows key + r thing. It just opens up mycomputer window. Are we supposed to essentially just copy over the ntoskrnl.exe in the windows/system32 directory with the one we want? If so, they make it sound a lot more complicated than that...

 

[FOBioPatel]

hotness, i tried this once before but completely bungled it... gonna give it a whirl before i format my comp

 

[rpc64]

Funny, thetopthemes.com looks a lot like themexp.com used to look.

 

[SFang]

Originally posted by: allenlh

Originally posted by: SFang
To change bootscreen:[/b] You do NOT need to download "BootXP" software linked on the website. Here is a bootscreen guide to change the boot screen manually. Works for me.

SFang,

I don't get the windows key + r thing. It just opens up mycomputer window. Are we supposed to essentially just copy over the ntoskrnl.exe in the windows/system32 directory with the one we want? If so, they make it sound a lot more complicated than that...

Yes, "copy over the ntoskrnl.exe" is all you need to do. Sometimes, people tend to say things in a complicated way to show you they are professionals.

 

[ivan2]

thetopthemes.com looks REALLY like themexp.org before they shut down....

 

[coolVariable]

cool

 

[Devistater]

Originally posted by: SFang
Yes, "copy over the ntoskrnl.exe" is all you need to do. Sometimes, people tend to say things in a complicated way to show you they are professionals.

I advise against doing this unless you know what you are doing. winXP SP1 has a differant version of the file than the original winXP from what I understand. Mess this up and you render your computer unbootable unless you have a floppy boot disk.

A FAR FAR better solution:
http://www.bootxp.net/

This is a SERIOUSLY cool program. It actually doesn't mess with the original at all. It just changes the boot.ini file to tell it to run a differant logo file.

Lots of mega cool features:
Drag and drop ANY graphics file (gif jpg bmp etc) OR any ntoskrnl.exe file OR any zip file with any of those in it. It will automatically extract the proper files AND/OR convert any graphics file to the proper type (16 colors bmp I think). Has a preview option to preview the boot screen. This makes it a piece of cake. Takes less than 5 mins to change a boot screen, and most of that is finding one to d/l and installing the program the first time

Plus the site has about 250 or so boot screens, a number which are pretty cool.

BTW, in case anyone is wondering, that .exe logo file is actually a file that can be edited with a program called resource hacker (edits dlls too, I used it a while back to help remove the ads from an ICQ dll file in an older ICQ) and the bmp files extracted and changed without changing any of the other code in the file. Thats all this xp logo program does.

 

[DealMonkey]

What I want to know is - why the hell did MS make using and switching themes in XP so freakin' difficult?! Why is it such an issue? You should be able to just download themes and install them willy-nilly without all this reg hackin' and so forth. Sheesh

DM

 

[Devistater]

Originally posted by: DealMonkey
What I want to know is - why the hell did MS make using and switching themes in XP so freakin' difficult?! Why is it such an issue? You should be able to just download themes and install them willy-nilly without all this reg hackin' and so forth. Sheesh

DM

Its based on 2000 and NT, what do you expect? I mean chkdsk? Come on! That dates from dos days.
MS just doesn't like people changing stuff around in thier software. They figure users shouldn't be able to change anything important.

If you use that program I linked, no hassle no editing of registry or any other files

 

[KeninMI]

Excellant post I love the choices for boot screens !

Thanks