StyleXP and SP3
StyleXP and SP3
I like unlicensed themes in XP, my fav being cocoa (http://stevenwhiting.com/files/[4455]cocoa.zip)I got it from a website long ago so not sure who created it.
Anyway. Having used StyleXP for ages to be able to use unlicensed themes, I came across an odd and annoying problem when I recently reinstalled XP and did all the updates. StyleXP no longer worked. Kept banging on about not working with my build of XP, even though it had SP3 installed so was the latest build.
Doing some searching it appears StyleXP doesn’t work with SP3 and it appears TGT Soft have never bothered to fix it according to reports from some users on the net.
Turns out all you have to do to use unlicenced themes is change a little known (well to me anyway) file in
windows\systems32
called uxtheme.dll
Meaning you can do away with StyleXP.
This forum can help out
http://www.belchfire.net/index.php?showtopic=9001
For my own notes uxtheme.dll seemingly can be changed without XP moaning. Might need admin rights. I just changed it to uxtheme.dll.old and used this one
For SP3 v6.0.2900.5512 English
http://stevenwhiting.com/files/6.0.2900.5512_EN.rar
Saved all the theme files I wanted to use in
WINDOWS\Resources\Themes
I can then choose themes in Windows normal Control Panel Display area. However cocoa wasn’t an option. But I just went into the directory were I stored cococa and double clicked the cocoa.msstyles. It then opened the Display Properties window allowing me to set the cocoa style.
This maybe because it’s not a complete theme I’m not sure.
Why all this trouble?
uxtheme.dll is a protected operating system file. As such, Windows keeps
several copies of uxtheme.dll, plus compressed uxtheme.dl_ files at various locations
on your system as backups. If it senses that uxtheme.dll has been replaced
with a different version, it will immediately overwrite the changed version with
one of it’s backup copies. This is why it is necessary to find and rename
all copies of uxtheme.dll and uxtheme.dl_ everywhere on your system. Generally
speaking, there are only a handfull of places these backup copes are stored:
• The Windows XP installation CD.
• The Windows XP Service Pack 2 CD.
• A Windows XP installation folder on your hard drive (HP, Compaq and Dell computers are bad for this – if your system came with a ‘Recovery CD’ and not an actual ‘Windows XP’ installation CD, the XP installation files are somewhere on your hard drive, on an additional hard drive or on a parition. Will be in a ~/i386 folder somewhere on your system).
• C:\Windows\System32
• C:\Windows\System32\dllcache
• C:\Windows\System32\LastGood (if exists)
• C:\Windows\ServicePackFiles\i386
If just one uxtheme.dll or uxtheme.dl_ exists in any of these locations, Windows
will find it. That is why it is necessary to find ALL copies and backups
of this file and rename them so Windows can’t find them to overwrite your patched
copy. The reason you want to rename them is so that you can move them back
if you ever have to re-install Windows or SP3 comes out. Windows should
still run without a uxtheme.dll file. You’ll just be limited to the Windows
Classic desktop.
You’ll know that you’ve cleared out all the uxtheme.dll and .dl_ because when you go to replace the file XP will do this:
You just say Cancel and then Yes to the next box:
You’ll probably need to do a reboot.