How to make Windows XP theme tools and modifications

Windows XP with a new theme management kernel is much more beautiful in appearance than before. Its function is very powerful, and the effect can be dazzling, but it does not support unofficial desktop themes. The theme doesn't take a few days to look tired, and it is in this situation that I have the following idea. That is to challenge the beautification limit through unofficial methods.

I. Essential Software

1. Style XP

Style XP is a third-party XP desktop theme support and management software, and is currently the best. It uses the Windows XP theme kernel and enhances many features to import, select, replace, and manage official and unofficial desktop themes, wallpapers, and even logins. After the software is installed, it will add a background running service StyleXP Service in XP, which takes up 1-2MB of memory. This service is also able to use the basics of third-party themes. In addition, its main program can choose two modes of operation, one is to keep running in the system tray, this mode has a StyleXP icon in the system tray, you can click to call out the main interface at any time; one is not consuming resources The way the main program does not normally run. It is recommended that you choose the second method, because this main program is not running well, taking up memory to 10-20MB. In fact, the second way can also run the main program to manage the theme at any time.

Style XP is a shareware with its own Chinese language. It officially supports Windows XP SP1 after the 1.01L version. The 1.01P version supports Windows 2003.

2. UxTheme.dll cracked version

UxTheme.dll is the core file supported by the XP system theme, which is to make XP unable to use third-party themes. If you don't want to install StyleXP, you can do this by cracking the UxTheme.dll file. In fact, the cracked version of UxTheme.dll is the launch of StyleXP's TGT Soft, which is released under the strong request of fans. Microsoft seems to have this behavior by default. Oh, it is rare. After using UxTheme.dll cracked version, you can manage and invoke third-party themes and styles in XP's display properties without any additional software.

After downloading the UxTheme.dll cracked version, first rename X:WindowsSystem32UxTheme.dll, for example, UxTheme.dll.bak, then copy the cracked version and restart it. Note that system file protection for Windows XP is also involved here, see below. As long as you can choose one of the above two solutions, each has its own advantages. The author personally uses the former, because when StyleXP runs with the service, the resources are very small, about 2MB, no need to modify the system files, and the management theme is much more convenient than the Windows display properties, and can be replaced at will and Manage the Logon interface without having to cumbersomely replace system files, and so on. Really say that if you like to use the desktop theme, it is unlikely to care about such a small amount of resources.

II. The composition of the desktop theme

An XP desktop theme can contain several parts, style, wallpaper, screensaver, mouse pointer, system sound events, icons, in addition to style is a must In addition, other parts are optional. The style can define everything that everyone can see in Windows, such as the appearance of the window, fonts, colors, the appearance of the buttons, etc. The style of a desktop theme determines what Windows looks like. .

You can open the X:WindowsResourcesThemes directory, which is the directory where XP stores desktop themes. You can see that there are a lot of xxx.theme files. You can see how many .theme files are in the theme"topic" list of the display properties. It is the Windows theme file, a general definition of the desktop theme. The file, its content is not much, is in text format, take XP's default official theme Luna as an example, you can use any text editor to open Luna.theme, you can see its content very intuitively.

The [Theme] section is an icon that defines the main components of My Computer, My Documents, Network Neighborhood, and Recycle Bin. The icon defined by My Computer in Luna.theme is X:Windowsexplorer.exe,0 That is, the first icon contained in explorer.exe. The subject that does not contain a specific icon is generally this value. Here

can point to a program file, or to a DLL file or an icon file.

The [Control PanelColors] section defines the colors of various Windows components such as title bar, window background, text, etc. The colors defined here are mostly irrelevant because the system will prioritize the color scheme. The color display is shown in the next section.

[Control PanelCursors] defines the mouse pointer. Each line defines a pointer file, such as Arrow defines the arrow cursor, and Wait defines the waiting cursor. Luna is empty here, which means that the Windows default mouse pointer is used. The definition here must be a specific .cur cursor file or an .ani animated cursor file.

[Control PanelDesktop] Defines the display of the desktop, including the location of the wallpaper image, how it is displayed, and whether the screen saver is activated. Wallpaper=%WinDir%webwallpaperBliss.jpg in Luna is the most popular " vegetable field blue sky".

The ScreenSaveActive=X here corresponds to the [boot] part of the following SCRNSAVE.EXE=XXX. The former controls whether the screen saver is allowed. The latter is the specific address of the screen saver.

[VisualStyles] is the most critical part, here is the core part of a desktop theme: .msstyles visual appearance style file, Luna refers to Path=%WinDir%resourcesThemeslunaluna.msstyles, will talk later To.

Going down is the definition of the sound event, and the items we set in the Control Panel → Sound and Audio Devices → Sound are the same.

Generally speaking, a complete theme basic file structure is a .theme file and a folder for other files such as style files. You can find the name of this folder in the [VisualStyles] section. After understanding the structure of the .theme file, you can edit it to your liking, just to confirm that all files must be valid, otherwise the theme cannot be used.

At this point, our ultimate solution has been completed. In today's very cheap memory, many of my friends' computers have already installed 1G memory, and by sacrificing this memory, the ultimate beautification effect is achieved. XP in the hands of believe that it has been successful & ldquo; squatting & rdquo; a bunch of friends.