Any good free XP themes?

[mollipen]

The computers at work got upgraded to XP today, and I'd like to see if there are any good themes that I could put onto it. (I never liked the old Windows theme, and the XP theme feels too PlaySkool to me.)

Only thing is, I'm not sure that I can install any pieces of software that allow for running themes. I know that XP has built-in themes, but when I go to get more themes, it just takes me to MS's site to buy an upgrade pack.

Are there any good, free themes out there that you can get that work off of just the general, Windows-level theme functions?

[Shin Johnpv]

Unfortanetly I dont know of any free themes that work with the windows theme stuff.

the only thing I know of is Style XP which you can download themes for which is what i use and use one of the longhorn themes.

[Spike]

You'll need to find the hacked uxtheme.dll file. Once you replace the original file with the hacked version, you can go to themexp.org and use any theme you like.

[Calliander]

1) I think the uxtheme.dll hack only works with original release XP. If you're using FCKGW Windows XP, it'll work because you can never install Service Pack 1.

2) Most themes these days work with Style XP and Style XP supposedly works fine.

If you don't like either option, though, you'll have to stick with customizing the "Classic" look.

[Spike]

Nope, I'm using SP1 and the hacked file works fine.

[mollipen]

It isn't that I don't like the idea of installing a hack, it is that I'm not sure I actually CAN. Some of the things on our accounts are locked down, so I'm think that I won't be able to do that.

[Calliander]

Nope, I'm using SP1 and the hacked file works fine.

I am apparently a moron.

Thanks for the info, I'll have to try it again. It's a bitch to install that file, though. Hehe.

[Spike]

You have to get to DOS.

Restart the system, and press F8 before the WinXP bootup screen appears, then select the DOS safe-mode option.

Rename the C: \windows\system32\uxtheme.dll to uxtheme.dll.old

Copy the hacked uxtheme.dll to C: \windows\system32\ and reboot.