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Posted (edited)

Hello to everyone.

I'm starting this thread to find out how it's possible to make the Office 2003 programs show in the style of Office XP, as depicted here.

I heard about a registry trick, but I'm not sure if it exists. I did not find any relevant post here regarding my issue.

I know only 2 solutions:

  1. To set the program (Compatibility) or the display settings to 256‑color mode or less, but it affects my whole desktop (not only the low graphics, but also the ClearType absence).
  2. To disable Show icons using all possible colors, but this applies only to Windows 2000.

In conclusion, please let me know about an alternative solution which applies to XP and newer and doesn't involve the global graphics settings.

 

Regards,

xxz2007

Edited by xxz2007
revision

Posted

Thanks for the answer but switching the theme to Windows Classic isn't solving my quest.

If that solution was applicable, then Windows 2000 would have shown the old icons by default.

Posted

icons are held by dll(s)
you can replace them manually but this is nightmare job...
as for skin, it is baked in just like media players had it, msn messengers... etc...

you simply cant

Posted

The toolbar images are likely an atlas in the DLLs and hard to get at. The flat panels is probably not something than can be directly swapped in. Why can't you use Office 2000? It also has the XML compatibility pack. Or Office XP?

Posted (edited)

It won't change the icons, but there's Disable visual themes option on the .exe properties on Compatibility tab. Presumably icon fallback is programmed in somewhere, but that requires navigating the x86 disassembled mess.

Newer Windows since Vista have a compatibility shim called FakeLunaTheme that activates the blue theme in Office 2003. Even MenuStrip component in .NET Framework under more recent versions of Windows responds to that.

Edited by UCyborg
Posted

The XP-style unclear toolbar images is one of the reasons why I don't use Office 2003. And it is slightly bigger and doesn't bring any functionality that I need. Vector images are anti-aliased, I think, but I tend not to use clipart except charts in serious documents.

Isn't the OfficeXP theme private to the application (Office XP) and not actually the Luna theme? Around that time there were several 3rd party applications with flat toolbars made to resemble XP. In some Delphi software you could switch the skin in and out without reconfiguring the OS.

Office XP is inferior today because I doesn't have the XML compatibility pack.

Posted (edited)

Office XP uses old ComCtl32 version 5, at least this is my assumption from first screenshot I found, so GUI elements like buttons and checkboxes have Win9x style appearance, not using graphical resources in Visual Style theme in XP+. Icons are separate matter I think.

Office 2003 uses the mentioned resources, but additionally, there is a check somewhere if the used theme file is luna.msstyles specifically, then menus go blue.

Edited by UCyborg
Posted

as i remember Office XP doesn't use win9x style
but rather modern-ish version of it
the flat buttons and when you hover over them (or press) they become purpleish with dark purple frame

Posted (edited)
On 12/3/2024 at 11:23 AM, UCyborg said:

It won't change the icons, but there's Disable visual themes option on the .exe properties on Compatibility tab

This option actually changes the skin to Windows Classic when the program is running, I think, since disabling “Use visual styles for windows and buttons” in System Props does that.

As an addition, early development versions of Office 2k3 used the older icons, but with the new UI paired to the XP Luna visual style…

Edited by xxz2007
.
Posted
53 minutes ago, xxz2007 said:

This option actually changes the skin to Windows Classic when the program is running, I think, since disabling “Use visual styles for windows and buttons” in System Props does that.

True, one is application specific, other is global.

Posted (edited)

Whoops, I remember better now. That option makes the program’s visual style behave like Command Prompt in XP…

Anyway, thank y’all for the replies. In conclusion, this was something I presumed to have seen/heard of (although in another context), but it’s not actually what it seemed like.

Edited by xxz2007

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