Skip to main content

How to Install Third Party Visual Styles/Themes on Windows 8

While there aren’t many third-party themes available for Windows 8 yet, they are coming – it’s a trickle right now but their numbers will continue to build as Windows 8 become more mainstream. So, you want to try them out, don’t you? Not so fast. As with previous editions of Windows, Microsoft doesn’t allow users to install third-party visual styles, or in other words, unsigned themes on Windows 8. And just like with previous editions of Windows, the restriction is easy to override. One simply needs to edit or patch a few files - in Windows 8’s case, those files are themeui.dll, Uxlnit.dll and uxtheme.dll.

Pre-patched files are already available on the Internet. They just need to be downloaded and swapped with the original. Don’t worry, you don’t have to do that manually. Theme files patching tools are available for that. Here are some that you can use.

win8-themes

Note: Create a system restore point before using any of these tools.

UltraUXThemePatcher is the best one available at this moment. This all in one theme patcher supports not only Windows 8 but Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Windows 7 as well. Both 32bit and 64bit version are supported.

If for reasons unknown, UltraUXThemePatcher doesn’t work, you can try UxStyle for Windows 8 but only and only if you are using the 64-bit edition. UxStyle was coded by Rafael Rivera of WithinWindows.com.

Another option is My WCP Theme Patch. This can patch both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 8. The author’s website seems to be down, so here is a Mirror download.

To use these tools you simply have to run it and click on the appropriate button on the program, and the rest is magic. Restart your computer to make sure everything is in the right place. Now you are free to install custom themes.

Copy the custom visual style files to C:\Windows\Resources\Themes. Then right click on the desktop, select Personalize and you should see your new theme listed there.

Happy customization.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Record CPU and Memory Usage Over Time in Windows?

Whenever the computer is lagging or some application is taking too long to respond, we usually fire up task manager and look under the Performance tab or under Processes to check on processor utilization or the amount of free memory available. The task manager is ideal for real-time analysis of CPU and memory utilization. It even displays a short history of CPU utilization in the form of a graph. You get a small time-window, about 30 seconds or so, depending on how large the viewing area is.

How to Schedule Changes to Your Facebook Page Cover Photo

Facebook’s current layout, the so called Timeline, features a prominent, large cover photo that some people are using in a lot of different creative ways. Timeline is also available for Facebook Pages that people can use to promote their website or business or event. Although you can change the cover photo as often as you like, it’s meant to be static – something which you design and leave it for at least a few weeks or months like a redesigned website. However, there are times when you may want to change the cover photo frequently and periodically to match event dates or some special promotion that you are running or plan to run. So, here is how you can do that.

Diagram 101: Different Types of Diagrams and When To Use Them

Diagrams are a great way to visualize information and convey meaning. The problem is that there’s too many different types of diagrams, so it can be hard to know which ones you should use in any given situation. To help you out, we’ve created this diagram that lays out the 7 most common types of diagrams and when they’re best used: