NEW Official Windows theme!! "Energy Blue" c/o MCE - Usable on normal XP!!

[Matt Blair]

Note:
This was originally for XP Tablet Edition. . .but, the Bink news site discovered you can just extract the files and insert them into ANY version of XP (Home, Pro, etc -- remember, it's the stock Media Center theme, so if you have Media Center, don't bother!!). It makes XP seem brand new again! It makes the start button and taskbar more "shiny", adding more depth--along with everything else in XP.

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Bink.nu News Article(just for reference)

Download from Microsoft

Use winrar or any other archiving program to extract the .exe.

Then, pull the files out of the "update" folder, and place them into the base folder. Therefore, ALL of the files are in the SAME folder (and not in a subdirectory).

Then, copy and paste that group of files (from inside that folder) to WINDOWS/Resources/Themes.

Then, right click the desktop. . ."properties". . ."Themes", and click your BRAND NEW "Energy Blue" theme!!!

Hint: Looks GREAT with "cleartype" on. Go to desktop properties, "Appearance" and click the "Effects" button. "cleartype" is one of the options on the drop-down menus.



::EDIT::
Yeesh. . .internet kept dropping connection for some reason and I kept having to press "post this message". Made about 6 topics with the same name and had to go delete all the extras. . .hahaha.

[Shinji_U]

Nice.... but it doesn't skin legacy programs... are there any program out there that will extend the Windows XP skinning engine to skin legacy programs too?

[Q4Legend]

Any chance we could see what it actually looks like?

I get my XPS 2 on 26 April and will download in advance if it looks as good as you say....

TIA

[Speedde423]

Originally Posted by Q4Legend

Any chance we could see what it actually looks like?

I get my XPS 2 on 26 April and will download in advance if it looks as good as you say....

TIA

Here is a screenshot from a MCE machine. It's an interesting theme.

[Michelangelo]

StarDock makes an application that will skin legacy applications. It looks very cool and consumes almost no memory at all.

[jk_baller23]

cool, i always wondered why peoples start button was shiny when they posted pics. I'll give this a try, hopefully, no problems .

[Spazilton]

Great Theme I just installed it. Love it.

+1 Rep Point for Matt Blair

[kyrrer]

erm...I just installed it, and I cant see any difference...
And, yes, it does say that Energy Blue is the current theme.

[suddste223]

Originally Posted by jk_baller23

cool, i always wondered why peoples start button was shiny when they posted pics. I'll give this a try, hopefully, no problems .

That's what I tought too!

[Matt Blair]

Originally Posted by jk_baller23

cool, i always wondered why peoples start button was shiny when they posted pics. I'll give this a try, hopefully, no problems .

Yea!! I was at Best Buy yesterday looking at laptops; and I noticed the shiny theme (didn't realize it was only with MCE), then sent myself on a mission to find it!!

I searched for "shiny theme" or something until I found it was with Media Center Edition, then I just kept on searching for "media center theme" until I found the theme name - then I searched for the theme name, and found that news thing on how to extract it!

I was like. . . YESSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!

[suddste223]

Wow! this is nice! here's mine:

[5150 Joker]

The instructions posted above didn't work for me but this did in case someone else has problems:

Once you've unzipped the files here is how the folder structure should look,


Under C:/WINDOWS/Resources/Themes

1)Copy the royale.theme file to that folder above

2)Create a new folder named "Royale" inside the "Themes" folder, without quotes.

3)Copy royale.msstyles to the new folder "Royale" you've just created.

4) (optional) Then create a folder named Wallpaper under the Royale folder and copy over the energybliss.jpg into there.

That should be it. Everything nice and tidy. Once you're done just double click the royale.theme file.

[Matt Blair]

Originally Posted by 5150 Joker

The instructions posted above didn't work for me but this did in case someone else has problems:

Yea, when I did it, I didn't have to put it in it's own folder. I just stuck it in the same folder as the "Luna" theme, and it came up just fine!!

And, for the "windows classic on the side of explorer windows". . .It looks like that even if I use the normal "blue" XP theme.

[jk_baller23]

Originally Posted by Matt Blair

Yea, when I did it, I didn't have to put it in it's own folder. I just stuck it in the same folder as the "Luna" theme, and it came up just fine!!

And, for the "windows classic on the side of explorer windows". . .It looks like that even if I use the normal "blue" XP theme.

Not windows explorer, it looks the same. I am talking about things such as the my computer window opens up, then "system tasks", "other places", and "details", look a lot like windows classic.

[S.A.T.A.]

{yawn}
Star Dock anybody?