New Themes - where can I download more ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Alessandro Fragnani de Morais
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A

Alessandro Fragnani de Morais

Hi,

I´m new to WinXP, and I´m using on my office.

I like the "Silver" XPStyle.. but I would like to have more...

Searching on googles I just see a reference to WindowBlinds, SkinStudio.. or
any other resource from StarDock... but I don´t know if is thrustable to use
their products. I would like to use something "original" from WinXP.

I remember that on Win9x we had the "Plus" pack.. but honestly.. it was a
really bad product. It was too slow.. and the worst.. too unstable. On WinXP
appears to have this pack too.. and again, I keep with my foots on back. Is
it again the "Plus" pack the only choice (MS original resources) to make
Windows Customization for XP Themes ??

Thanks

Alessandro
--
Alessandro Fragnani de Morais
Analista de Sistemas
Softplan/Poligraph
Sistema da Qualidade Certificado ISO9001-BVQI/INMETRO
Fone/Fax: 0xx(48) 3027-8000
http://www.softplan.com.br
 
What your are referring to as Themes are actually now known as Styles in XP.
A theme can hold information about the background picture, icon sets, mouse
pointer sets & audio sounds. A Style refers to the graphical style for your
Windows (such as the new Luna interface). These Visual Styles are digitally
signed and XP will only use files with a valid Microsoft digital signature,
and MS do not provide any more styles

There is no actual Microsoft product for using different Styles.
Windowsblinds add additional hooks into the Windows graphical subsystem so
that it can them apply it's own visual styles to the GUI, and this is the
only MS support method of doing so. Alternatively, there is a product
called StyleXP which effectives hacks the part of Windows theming engine
which checks for the digital signature, enabling you to use any of the
1000's of XP styles around.

Whether WindowsBlinds or StyleXPare better I don't know... WindowsBlinds add
additional functionality to the styles (in the registered version), but it
does have a processor overhead, and sometimes odd things can happen to your
GUI, and not all applications are compatible with it. StyleXPjust removes
the digital signature check and has no processor overhead or side effects,
but also has no additional features and does not carry the "Made for XP"
logo.
You must choose which method you prefer... Myself, I use StylesXP as
WindowsBlinds was just too unstable on my machine.

www.stardock.com for WindowsBlinds

www.tgtsoft.com for StyleXP

Both carry links for websites where you can get compatible Styles.... And
there are LOADS! :)

HTH

Lorne
 
... WindowsBlinds add
additional functionality to the styles (in the registered version), but it
does have a processor overhead ... StyleXPjust removes
the digital signature check and has no processor overhead or side
Click to expand...
effects...

This is not entirely accurate. StyleXP is basically just using the Visual
Style engine, so essentially you are comparing the Microsoft Visual Style
engine with the Stardock WindowsBlinds engine. Both of them take processor
cycles. (If you go into services in administrative tools and stop the themes
service, you will see what you get without this process consuming processor
overhead. The real issue is compatibility - WindowBlinds is more aggressive.
It will skin everything. Visual Styles are less aggressive - unless the
application has a manifest (an xml file) that specifies that it is
compatible with Visual Styles, it won't skin it.

The theme itself also determines how many cycles are used. It's all too easy
to create a visual style that has terrible performance characteristics,
which is the reason why Microsoft has the digital signature requirement in
the first place. Somebody's visual style could completely hose the
performance of the machine and generate a ton of support calls.

--
Chris Jackson
Software Engineer
Microsoft MVP - Windows XP
Windows XP Associate Expert
--
 
That also not entirely accurate. You don't need a manifest file for XP to
skin an application. As long as that app uses standard windows and doesn't
try to create owner drawn versions, they will be skinned automatically by
the skinning engine. AFAIK, manifests are only needed for apps which don't
use standard windows (such as VB5/6 apps, which use Thunderforms -
effectively an ownerdrawn window).

As for the CPU time needed, I meant StylesXP doesn't use any additional CPU
time over the normal XP skinning because it's just removing the digital
signature check... I made NO mention about how much time the actual skin
itself might take to draw (sometime I make assumptions that people have
enough intelligence to work that out for themselves). If compare the CPU
time needed for XP with StylesXP and XP with Windowsblinds, both using a
basic skin, you'll see WindowsBlinds uses more (not matter HOW much Stardock
try to refute that). I do agree with what you say about 3rd party skins
could bring the GUI to a halt, but I've yet to see one do so... The skin
designers are hardly going to create one that does this, as they won't be
able to use it themselves!!

As I said to the OP. I can't decide which method is best for his
requirements, I just told him what the options are, gave him MY opinion, and
provided links so he could look it up himself... Surely the best way to
answer his question?

FWIW, I actually quite like WindowsBlinds, it's just too unstable on my
PC... I know others that it works perfectly on... For me, it was more
stable on Windows 98 :)

Lorne
 
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