New Zune Desktop Theme

  • Thread starter Thread starter Carey Frisch [MVP]
  • Start date Start date
Hi,

There's a rather glaring error in the installation of the Zune theme that
causes such things as Windows Explorer's Places Bar (i.e., the left side of
the window with common tasks, when the Explorer Bar is closed), as well as
Control Panel's Places Bar and Category View (i.e., the left and right sides
of the window), to have only white backgrounds, rather than correctly
displaying the theme's dark gray, light gray, and orange colors. These are
among other anomalies found elsewhere.

Unless the sub-directories are correctly placed, which the installer doesn't
do, you will only get part of the theme. (As in the Aero theme in Vista,
even though only one color scheme is defined, the Theme Management Service
still needs its sub-directories, and its resources, in the right places).

To correct this, on your desktop, create a new folder called Shell, and,
within this new Shell folder, create another new folder called NormalColor.
Go to C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes\Zune and drag the new Shell folder into
the Zune folder. Then Cut shellstyle.dll in the Zune folder, and Paste it
into
the NormalColor folder, so that you end up with
C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes\Zune\Shell\NormalColor\shellstyle.dll, and NOT
C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes\Zune\shellstyle.dll. To re-apply the theme, you
can double click on C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes\Zune\zune.msstyles.

Making the corrections as shown above does make a world of
difference! Oh, and gas the Zune wallpaper. Try something from

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=772872

if you'd like some sort of wallpaper to go with the Zune theme.

Hope this helps,
Dean

Postscript: The only oddity that I see in the Zune theme is that the
separators in the toolbars of Internet Explorer (6 SP2), Outlook Express, and
Windows Explorer are missing, unless this is "by design"...
 
Thanks.

This post has persuaded me NOT to install the Zune Desktop Theme.

DSH
 
overall it does look better except the wallpaper, the orange colour.
Thanks for letting me know the way to solve the colouring problem. This also
solve my previous problem between royale and royale noir. I got them all
(luna, royale, royale noir, zune, and classic style) working without problems.
 
Where are all these available for download from Microsoft, with screen
shots?

DSH
 
The zune theme, you can download it from the link of the first post. it is
directly from microsoft.
Luna is the default windows xp theme. every xp user have it, along with
classic.
royale and royale noir, just try to google "royale noir download", and
you'll find a file with format .rar. extract it, and follow the instruction.
You'll get both royale and royale noir

mais pourquoi microsoft utilise un nom francais?
(but why microsoft use french name?) Royale Noir?
 
Thanks.

DSH

WTan said:
The zune theme, you can download it from the link of the first post. it is
directly from microsoft.
Luna is the default windows xp theme. every xp user have it, along with
classic.
royale and royale noir, just try to google "royale noir download", and
you'll find a file with format .rar. extract it, and follow the
instruction.
You'll get both royale and royale noir

mais pourquoi microsoft utilise un nom francais?
(but why microsoft use french name?) Royale Noir?
Click to expand...
 
Replied to [Dean-Dean]'s message {REPLY BELOW} :
-----------------------------------------------------------
Hi,

There's a rather glaring error in the installation of the Zune theme
that causes such things as Windows Explorer's Places Bar (i.e., the
left side of the window with common tasks, when the Explorer Bar is
closed), as well as Control Panel's Places Bar and Category View
(i.e., the left and right sides of the window), to have only white
backgrounds, rather than correctly displaying the theme's dark gray,
light gray, and orange colors. These are among other anomalies found
elsewhere.

Unless the sub-directories are correctly placed, which the installer
doesn't do, you will only get part of the theme. (As in the Aero
theme in Vista, even though only one color scheme is defined, the
Theme Management Service still needs its sub-directories, and its
resources, in the right places).

To correct this, on your desktop, create a new folder called Shell,
and, within this new Shell folder, create another new folder called
NormalColor. Go to C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes\Zune and drag the new
Shell folder into the Zune folder. Then Cut shellstyle.dll in the
Zune folder, and Paste it into
the NormalColor folder, so that you end up with
C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes\Zune\Shell\NormalColor\shellstyle.dll,
and NOT C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes\Zune\shellstyle.dll. To re-apply
the theme, you can double click on
C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes\Zune\zune.msstyles.

Making the corrections as shown above does make a world of
difference! Oh, and gas the Zune wallpaper. Try something from

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=772872

if you'd like some sort of wallpaper to go with the Zune theme.

Hope this helps,
Dean

Postscript: The only oddity that I see in the Zune theme is that the
separators in the toolbars of Internet Explorer (6 SP2), Outlook
Express, and Windows Explorer are missing, unless this is "by
design"...
Click to expand...

And i was thinking that bad look is part of theme. Thanks a LOT. When i moved
sheelstyle.dll in the newly created NormalColor folder and clicked back
button, the look immediately changed. WOW...

--
Ayush [ Be ''?'' Happy ]

For any query, search - www.Google.com
Want to know about a term - http://en.wikipedia.org
Snip your long urls - http://snipurl.com/
Must have tool for OE - http://snipurl.com/quotefix
 
Thanks. Big improvement!


--
Good Luck,

Keith
Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
 
Hi,

You're welcome. But it really wasn't my intent to discourage anyone from
using this theme, although setting up themes in XP doesn't seem to be for the
faint of heart, and Microsoft isn't much help when their installers aren't
configured correctly. Given all that, I like Zune's autumnal theme (maybe
its the the season), having grown pretty tired of the Fisher Price Blue, the
Silver, and the Olive Green choices of Luna. I'm not too fond of the rather
over-the-top MCE Royale/Energy Blue theme, either. Also, I tried the Royale
Noir theme, but it has too many blue underpinnings for my taste (like the
selected items/hover color, among other things; it's not unlike the Aero
theme in Vista RC2, sans glass, of course). I know, to each his own...

Anyway, Zune actually seems pretty solid, for the most part; especially if
you apply the simple directory fix in my previous post (I've yet to see a
Windows Visual Style without a few inconsistencies). I'd give it a whirl.
It just adds another choice to your Themes menu, and does not remove any
previous theme choices, so you can always go back to, say, Windows XP Style
with the Silver color scheme, or even a customized/modified theme that you
saved before switching themes).

Dean
 
Thanks.

But I'm very happy with my Windows Classic Style Theme -- with slight color
modifications done by me and I plan to stick with it.

I don't want my monitor to look like a jukebox in a honky-tonk or Halloween
decorations.

DSH
 
I ran with the Win 2000 look from day one.. easy to navigate and no resource
hog.. but I have to say that I do like Royale Noir..
 
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