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Your Favorite Themes for Windows 8


DosProbie

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My version of the CP theme, it's a bit of a mix with most things squared off to match the frame style and also has a few bits from the RTM theme as well to give it a better flow.

Download the theme from Mediafire, there is also a reg file to change the system metrics.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/dwp56ef7837mpz5/Aero_CP.zip

hmm, you were faster. Looks good :sneaky:

Nevertheless my CP theme. I've replaced nearly everything with the corresponding consumer preview files. Beside the navigation bar everything looks just like the Consumer Preview. It even includes Control Panel panes. Thanks to MrGRIM.

http://eggi36.deviantart.com/art/Windows-8-Consumer-Preview-Theme-410868376?ga_submit_new=10%253A1383330987

windows_8_consumer_preview_theme_by_eggi

Edited by eggi36
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++ Pirate Scapes Aero Themepack For Windows 8 ++

Hello all, this will be my first post here... Nice to be a part of this community.

@DosProbie. Had tons of fun installing this Pirate Scapes Theme :thumbup, very well done! But also I noticed several small anomalies as a result of my installation. First off: only the Recycle Bin received its default desktop icon changed, but that did not happen for User, Computer, Network. So I did that afterwards, manually (registry tweaks). Perhaps this has been an oversight in the installation procedure? Because I noticed the same miss in the Nature Scapes Theme. BTW: the only thing I pre-installed was UXStyle. So no Ribbon Disabler, not Big Muscle's Aero Glass, not ORelio's AGTweaker. Second, and hence my question: after all was completed I did a reboot and when coming back suddenly there was no Startup Lockscreen any more. :huh: This is something I do not wish to be, unless it'd be a change I knew of beforehand and had approved. Alas, that hasn't been the case. Perhaps anyone knows what might have happened? And how to get it back?

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@Tenochtithlan

Have not used this theme in sometime, but just installed (see link below) it on my Win8.1 lap (right-clicked file as admin) and it installed
just fine, You said you were using UXStyle but I have had issues with that loading up which was hit or miss, so I have swtiched over
to UltraUXThemePatcher http://www.syssel.net/hoefs/software_uxtheme.php?lang=en with no more issues with any custom theme patching, I would say do a system restore and backdate it, uninstall the UXStyle and give the UltraUX a try..DP

http://postimg.org/image/7qxhiput1/

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@DosProbie

Tx for reply. In the end, after some more reboots, the Startup Lockscreen came back and stayed. So no more problems in that area. I specifically chose UXStyle over UltraUXThemePatcher because, allegedly, the latter interferes in system files (patches them) that may or may not at some point in the future prove to be problematic after a Windows Update, while the former apparently is only a memory hook and doesn't interfere in system files. Works like a charm! :thumbup

@DosProbie, xXiNightXx

Subsequently I installed Aero 8 Theme by xXiNightXx and to top it all off Big Muscle's Aero Glass for Win8 v1.2. Have a really nice desktop now. But then... another curious thing came to my notice. And has been there all the time, now that I remember. It's in the glow of the caption buttons. In the image (see below) I have compared the close caption buttons: top is part of an image I found in the Pirate Scapes Theme; bottom is from the desktop presentation of my own desktop Calculator. One can now clearly see that the bottom close caption button has an extra non-glow area between the button circumference and the actual red glow area around it, while the top one does not have that effect. What causes this? The same is true for the other two caption buttons (blue glow). My screen resolution is 1920x1080. Is the glow area not dynamic then?

Red_caption_buttons_compared_enlarged.jp

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@DosProbie

Tx for reply. In the end, after some more reboots, the Startup Lockscreen came back and stayed. So no more problems in that area. I specifically chose UXStyle over UltraUXThemePatcher because, allegedly, the latter interferes in system files (patches them) that may or may not at some point in the future prove to be problematic after a Windows Update, while the former apparently is only a memory hook and doesn't interfere in system files. Works like a charm! :thumbup

@DosProbie, xXiNightXx

Subsequently I installed Aero 8 Theme by xXiNightXx and to top it all off Big Muscle's Aero Glass for Win8 v1.2. Have a really nice desktop now. But then... another curious thing came to my notice. And has been there all the time, now that I remember. It's in the glow of the caption buttons. In the image (see below) I have compared the close caption buttons: top is part of an image I found in the Pirate Scapes Theme; bottom is from the desktop presentation of my own desktop Calculator. One can now clearly see that the bottom close caption button has an extra non-glow area between the button circumference and the actual red glow area around it, while the top one does not have that effect. What causes this? The same is true for the other two caption buttons (blue glow). My screen resolution is 1920x1080. Is the glow area not dynamic then?

Red_caption_buttons_compared_enlarged.jp

The problem is Windows 8, when you apply a new theme with different system metrics they don't get applied, in Windows 7 these were all changed with the theme so you could have different size borders and caption buttons, the only solution is manually edit the system metrics in the registry.

Here you go, save this as a .reg file and apply, you will need to log off to take effect.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]"DragHeight"="4""CoolSwitchColumns"="7""ActiveWndTrackTimeout"=dword:00000000"MouseCornerClipLength"="6""DragWidth"="4""WallpaperStyle"="10""ScreenSaveActive"="1""TileWallpaper"="0""WheelScrollLines"="3""FontSmoothingType"=dword:00000002"WindowArrangementActive"="1""BlockSendInputResets"="0""MenuShowDelay"="400""ClickLockTime"=dword:000004b0"CaretWidth"=dword:00000001"FocusBorderWidth"=dword:00000001"WallpaperOriginX"=dword:00000000"WallpaperOriginY"=dword:00000000"DragFullWindows"="1""CoolSwitchRows"="3""ForegroundFlashCount"=dword:00000007"LeftOverlapChars"="3""ForegroundLockTimeout"=dword:00030d40"FontSmoothingGamma"=dword:00000000"DragFromMaximize"="1""FontSmoothing"="2""FocusBorderHeight"=dword:00000001"WheelScrollChars"="3""DockMoving"="1""SnapSizing"="1""CursorBlinkRate"="530""RightOverlapChars"="3""FontSmoothingOrientation"=dword:00000001"PaintDesktopVersion"=dword:00000000"UserPreferencesMask"=hex:9e,1e,07,80,12,00,00,00"AutoColorization"=dword:00000001"Wallpaper"="C:\\Windows\\resources\\Themes\\Aero8\\Wallpaper\\Windows\\img0.jpg""MaxVirtualDesktopDimension"=dword:00000780"MaxMonitorDimension"=dword:00000400"TranscodedImageCount"=dword:00000001"LastUpdated"=dword:ffffffff"TranscodedImageCache"=hex:7a,c3,01,00,ab,cf,09,00,80,07,00,00,b0,04,00,00,00,\  01,74,50,b2,e9,c9,01,43,00,3a,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,6f,00,77,00,\  73,00,5c,00,72,00,65,00,73,00,6f,00,75,00,72,00,63,00,65,00,73,00,5c,00,54,\  00,68,00,65,00,6d,00,65,00,73,00,5c,00,41,00,65,00,72,00,6f,00,38,00,5c,00,\  57,00,61,00,6c,00,6c,00,70,00,61,00,70,00,65,00,72,00,5c,00,57,00,69,00,6e,\  00,64,00,6f,00,77,00,73,00,5c,00,69,00,6d,00,67,00,30,00,2e,00,6a,00,70,00,\  67,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00"ImageColor"=dword:af149ced"Pattern Upgrade"="TRUE""PreferredUILanguages"=hex(7):65,00,6e,00,2d,00,55,00,53,00,00,00[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\Colors]"Window"="255 255 255""GradientInactiveTitle"="192 192 192""TitleText"="255 255 255""InactiveTitleText"="212 208 200""HotTrackingColor"="0 0 128""ButtonAlternateFace"="181 181 181""ButtonShadow"="128 128 128""GrayText"="128 128 128""Menu"="212 208 200""ButtonText"="0 0 0""InfoText"="0 0 0""Hilight"="10 36 106""InactiveTitle"="128 128 128""ActiveBorder"="212 208 200""ActiveTitle"="10 36 106""MenuText"="0 0 0""HilightText"="255 255 255""ButtonDkShadow"="64 64 64""AppWorkSpace"="128 128 128""GradientActiveTitle"="166 202 240""ButtonLight"="212 208 200""WindowFrame"="0 0 0""InfoWindow"="255 255 255""ButtonFace"="212 208 200""Scrollbar"="212 208 200""WindowText"="0 0 0""ButtonHiLight"="255 255 255""InactiveBorder"="212 208 200"[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\LanguageConfiguration][HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics]"SmCaptionWidth"="-255""BorderWidth"="-15""SmCaptionHeight"="-255""CaptionWidth"="-315""IconTitleWrap"="1""ScrollHeight"="-255""CaptionHeight"="-330""CaptionFont"=hex:f1,ff,ff,ff,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,90,01,00,00,\  00,00,00,01,00,00,05,00,53,00,65,00,67,00,6f,00,65,00,20,00,55,00,49,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00"ScrollWidth"="-255""MenuWidth"="-285""SmCaptionFont"=hex:f1,ff,ff,ff,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,90,01,00,\  00,00,00,00,01,00,00,05,00,53,00,65,00,67,00,6f,00,65,00,20,00,55,00,49,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00"MenuFont"=hex:f4,ff,ff,ff,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,90,01,00,00,00,\  00,00,01,00,00,05,00,53,00,65,00,67,00,6f,00,65,00,20,00,55,00,49,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00"StatusFont"=hex:f4,ff,ff,ff,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,90,01,00,00,\  00,00,00,01,00,00,05,00,53,00,65,00,67,00,6f,00,65,00,20,00,55,00,49,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00"MenuHeight"="-285""MessageFont"=hex:f4,ff,ff,ff,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,90,01,00,00,\  00,00,00,01,00,00,05,00,53,00,65,00,67,00,6f,00,65,00,20,00,55,00,49,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00"IconFont"=hex:f4,ff,ff,ff,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,90,01,00,00,00,\  00,00,01,00,00,05,00,53,00,65,00,67,00,6f,00,65,00,20,00,55,00,49,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00"Shell Icon Size"="32""PaddedBorderWidth"="-60""AppliedDPI"=dword:00000060"IconSpacing"="-1125""IconVerticalSpacing"="-1125""MinAnimate"="1"[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\MuiCached]"MachinePreferredUILanguages"=hex(7):65,00,6e,00,2d,00,55,00,53,00,00,00

or download the reg file

Aero8 System Metrics.reg

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MrGrim,

Is there any part of the above registry that I can change to remove the ugly box around the text on the title bar in case no aero glass was installed? This box doesn't exist in the default theme of Windows but in all other customized ones. It's dim in some themes, Aero RP for example, but very visible in the others like Snowy, Aero 8...


Can I get rid of this annoying box by changing a registry file? If yes, hope it's not too difficult or too complicated to do!
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MrGrim,
Is there any part of the above registry that I can change to remove the ugly box around the text on the title bar in case no aero glass was installed? This box doesn't exist in the default theme of Windows but in all other customized ones. It's dim in some themes, Aero RP for example, but very visible in the others like Snowy, Aero 8...
Can I get rid of this annoying box by changing a registry file? If yes, hope it's not too difficult or too complicated to do!

No this can not be done with the registry or the theme file, the only way is with Aero Glass

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or download the reg file

Many thanks for this brilliant reply! In the end I have changed only four values, directly copied from your example:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics]"SmCaptionWidth"="-255""SmCaptionHeight"="-255""CaptionWidth"="-315""CaptionHeight"="-330"

Previously they were, respectively: -330, -330, -270, -270. There were many more differences I found, but no need to also change.

This link explains more of the Window Metrics: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc951790.aspx .

A very handy tool for text/code comparison: WinMerge (open source: http://winmerge.org/).

After a reboot I was happy to find the following result: :thumbup

Red_caption_buttons_compared_after_regis

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No this can not be done with the registry or the theme file, the only way is with Aero Glass

Too bad, it can't be done with the registry! Aero glass makes it nearly impossible to read the text on the title bar if the wallpaper is something dark. And I hate that a lot!

Thank you for replying.

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My version of the CP theme, it's a bit of a mix with most things squared off to match the frame style and also has a few bits from the RTM theme as well to give it a better flow.

hvpi3g8ar6h063afg.jpg

Download the theme from Mediafire, there is also a reg file to change the system metrics.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/dwp56ef7837mpz5/Aero_CP.zip

Can you make this, but with the windows being the same colour with taskbar?If you remove all the colours from the colorization panel the window is kinda whiteish..Though the taskbar is clear glass!Can you make the same with windows?And maybe keep the colour in min,max,close buttons!Or remove that too, i am just sayin.. :P

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Can you make this, but with the windows being the same colour with taskbar?If you remove all the colours from the colorization panel the window is kinda whiteish..Though the taskbar is clear glass!Can you make the same with windows?And maybe keep the colour in min,max,close buttons!Or remove that too, i am just sayin.. :P

5ev1e.jpg

You mean like this? (I had this done for a while now. The white tints have been toned down to keep it towards the original Consumer Preview, but the Window frames are that of Windows 7.

(((Credit to eggi36 and MrGRiM01 for the original themes and patches)))

Edited by DoubleSAnimations
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