Windows XP visual theming

(tags Windows XP, freeware, customize)

Mr. Alvin showed me his new laptop and customization session. I was intrigrued by the Windows XP visual theme and did some searching. Turns out Microsoft released some free updates to the XP "Luna" theme back in 2005 and again in 2006 for the Zune launch. The Wikipedia page for a limited release theme, Energy Blue, has definative entries about the Royale, Royale Noir, and Zune (black with orange Start) themes. Now we have 3 more official Luna styles other than the default 3.

Of course you can hack your own styles but I rather not replace any DLLs right now.

I've been using the official Luna "Silver" color for my Project Sugar for a long time, so I went to the other extreme to try Zune "Black". So far, I'm not rejecting it outright, but there are some thing I don't like about it:

• - Inactive window title bars have different, inconsistent color schemes. (Notice cmd.exe and the Windows Explorer inactive windows.)
• - Which window is active? Oh its the one with the gradient title bar and red Close Window button. Hard to see.
• - Japanese font on title bar is not ClearType'd like the roman letter parts.
• - The contents are now really bright against the dark frames. Bright!
• - Emacs/Meadow has some internal window framing with white that I never notice before until now. Ick.

The tray notification areas and pop ups around that area needed a little bit of changing, but it's not bad at all. Here we have TClock Light with the two line time and mouse-over display, and iTunesControl with a 5 second "now playing" display.

For now, it's a keeper.